Regents terminate cooperative agreement with UGA Foundation
As Columns was going to press, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents issued
a directive instructing UGA President Michael F. Adams to issue a letter to the executive committee of the University of Georgia Foundation terminating the university’s relationship with the foundation. Regents’ policy 1905 provides the authority for this action.

Regents Chair Joel Wooten issued the announcement of the board’s action April 20 at the conclusion of the regents’ two-day meeting, held at Armstrong Atlantic State University, in Savannah. 

“We were hopeful, particularly after the similar action we had to take 11 months ago, that such a step would not have been necessary,” Wooten said. “We had expected that a new relationship more positive and more cooperative, as promised by the foundation’s leadership at that time would have developed since we last took this step. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, and the regents felt that it would be in the best interest of both the institution and the University System to take this action.”

As this action removes the recognition of the UGA Foundation as a cooperative organization of the regents, the regents also directed UGA officials to seek a replacement cooperative organization as soon as possible.

Details of this matter will follow in a future issue of Columns.

Grady College receives $200,000 grant
UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication has been awarded a $200,000 grant to establish the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Visiting Professionals.

“Our directors are pleased to acknowledge Grady College’s impressive advances in media relationships,” says Thomas Eastham, vice president and western director of the Hearst Foundation. “This endowment will help further facilitate media relationships that enrich journalism education.”

Grady College is the newest of 34 schools of journalism where Hearst endowments for visiting professionals have been developed in the past 15 years.

Hearst Visiting Professionals will spend approximately one week on campus teaching classes, conducting workshops and serving as consultants to specific Grady College courses.

Georgians see good, bad in free trade
UGA’s Georgians are generally aware of the positive and the negative effects that free trade has on the state and national economies. More Georgians, however, say that free trade has been mostly good for the nation’s economy and American workers (50 percent) than say it has been mostly bad (39 percent).

Based on the findings of the most recent Peach State Poll, the best predictor of one’s attitudes about free trade is political party affiliation, followed by level of education.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans and 59 percent of those with a college degree agree that free trade creates a strong global economy benefiting everyone, whereas only 50 percent of Independents, 45 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of those without a college degree share that view.

Public opinion reflects the fact that trade policy is a complex issue. The public generally agrees (74 percent) that American jobs have been sent overseas as a result of free trade, but a majority (51 percent) also believes that free trade creates demands for U.S. products abroad, stimulating economic growth at home.

The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.