In 2005-06, the University of Georgia made continued progress on institutional initiatives involving interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary instructional and research programs. The College of Public Health, approved by the Board of Regents in October 2004 and operational in January 2005, moved into the new Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, along with several other related programs, including the newly established Southern Center for Communication, Health and Poverty. The new building, described elsewhere in this report, will facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations in tackling complex health issues.

The Coverdell Center also houses a neuroimaging facility that opened in the spring. To meet training and research needs in the expanding field of neuroscience, a new multidisciplinary doctoral degree program was approved by the Board of Regents. The Graduate School and UGA’s Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute began accepting applications for the neuroscience degree in fall 2006, but currently enrolled UGA students who wished to transfer into the program were allowed to do so starting in the spring term.

The College of Environment and Design, created by melding UGA’s School of Environmental Design and Institute of Ecology, continued developing the Academy of the Environment, a comprehensive resource for environmental studies, research and outreach at UGA, and worked to establish new master’s and doctoral degree programs in environmental planning. The college’s undergraduate landscape architecture program is currently ranked tops in the nation and the master’s program is third behind Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Faculty of Engineering, organized in 2001 to link faculty members from various disciplines who are involved in engineering-related activities, will administer five new engineering degree programs in three specialty areas approved by the Board of Regents in November. These include bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemical engineering, bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental engineering and a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering.

The degrees complement and build on areas of recognized expertise at the university, particularly in the biological sciences, computer science, chemistry, bioinformatics, ecology and environmental design. The synergy created by linking these disciplines to their application will enable UGA to produce graduates in emerging engineering fields, access niche areas of research funding and ensure UGA’s continued competitiveness among top research universities.

In other collaborations, the Terry College of Business joined with the School of Music to create an interdisciplinary certificate in music business, and faculty and students from the College of Veterinary Medicine began working with staff at the new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on marine veterinary health issues.

UGA’s offerings at the Gwinnett University Center are undergoing a change with the approval of the new four-year Georgia Gwinnett College that begins operation at that location in fall 2006. As requested by the Board of Regents, UGA closed admission to its seven bachelor’s degree-completion programs in Gwinnett in fall 2005, giving enrolled students an opportunity to complete their degrees by spring 2008. Students looking to earn a UGA degree before the programs ended swelled the undergraduate enrollment in Gwinnett from 318 in fall 2004 to 467 in fall 2005. The number of graduate students also increased—from 488 to 570—for a total enrollment of 1,037, a 28.7 percent increase over the previous year. As the bachelor’s degree programs are phased out, UGA’s graduate degree programs in Gwinnett are expected to expand, along with non-credit continuing education courses.

Meanwhile, UGA opened its first two degree programs at its Griffin campus and made plans to expand to four undergraduate majors in fall 2006. Programs in consumer economics and agribusiness will be added to the existing bachelor’s degree-completion programs aimed at transfer students from Gordon College and other area two-year schools. In addition, a graduate program in mathematics education will be offered for elementary school teachers. To accommodate the need for classroom space as the academic programs grow, a new Student Learning Center will be built, financed in large part by a $10 million SPLOST approved by Spalding County voters. Also, enrollment at UGA’s Tifton campus now exceeds 50 students.

UGA had some successes in external research funding, despite a tighter, more competitive funding environment. UGA continues to rank among the top 100 public and private research universities for federal research and development expenditures, placing 89th (though down from 84th the previous year) in the most recent NSF rankings, based on data from FY04. For total research expenditures, UGA ranked 29th among the nation’s public universities and 43rd among private and public universities. (For more on research funding, see the Overall Institutional Health section of this report.) Major FY06 research grants and contracts included:
• $3.5 million, three-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create the Southern Center for Communication, Health and Poverty, which aims to improve the health of the poor and near-poor living in the South through better health communication and marketing (Vicki Freimuth, principal investigator).
• A $5 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation for the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Project, a collaboration among UGA and six other Georgia colleges and universities that aims to boost the number of underrepresented minorities who receive bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines (Michael F. Adams, PI).
• A $3.2 million, three-year grant from the Georgia Department of Education to develop an evidence-based approach for teacher assessment that supports growth for all teachers (Art Recesso, PI).
• $1.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify biochemical mechanisms of the protozoan parasite that causes Chagas’ disease, leading to identification of therapeutics for this leading cause of death in Latin America (Roberto Docampo, PI).
• A $1.5 million, two-year grant from the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust for ongoing support of the Medication Access Program, which helps organ transplant patients who reside in Georgia save money by enrolling in pharmaceutical industry-sponsored medication assistance programs, private foundation programs, state programs and federal programs (Marie Chisholm, PI).

The university continued stepped-up efforts to recruit students from historically underrepresented populations. The freshman class that entered in fall 2005 broke records for diversity and academic quality (see Overall Institutional Health). Twenty percent of the new freshmen are minorities, compared to 15 percent in 2004. The strongest growth is in the number of African-American students— 359 (7.7 percent of the class), compared with 202 (4.5 percent) last year. The number of Hispanic students rose to 90 from last year’s 72.

Race and ethnicity are not considered in selection for admission or in awarding financial aid, but the admissions office and other units on campus host campus visitations and other efforts to recruit students from underrepresented populations. Of minority applicants offered admission, more than 55 percent enrolled. For African-American students, the yield rate reached a historic high of 59 percent.

The Office of Institutional Diversity provides leadership in supporting diversity and equity at UGA and is involved in several special initiatives, including the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, mentioned on the previous page, and an alliance with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund that will focus on best practices in recruiting, retaining and graduating Hispanic students and provide scholarships to students who want to attend UGA. The diversity office continued to publish a twice-yearly newsletter chronicling campus news and events related to diversity as well as achievements of minority students, faculty and staff.

The Graduate School continued its efforts aimed at recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations. Diverse Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education) ranked UGA 11th in its 2005 edition of the “Top 100 Graduate Degree Producers” for the number of doctoral degrees conferred on African Americans, up from 18th in last year’s rankings. The Graduate School uses a process known as seamless recruiting to introduce students to graduate study early in their college careers. Recruiting efforts include hosting visitation days and the Summer Undergraduate Research Program, and providing peer mentoring and assistantship opportunities. The latest initiative is Summer Bridge, which assists incoming students with their transition to graduate school by providing a start in summer, rather than fall.

Several students, faculty and staff earned major awards and honors during the course of this year. UGA Honors students Yunjiang Jiang, Phillip Ham, Teerawit Supakorndej and Douglas Jackson were awarded Goldwater Scholarships, the nation’s top science award for undergraduates. The university was among a handful of institutions with the maximum number of Goldwater Scholars allowed per school this year; 30 UGA students have received the award since 1995. After being named a Goldwater Scholar, Jackson was selected for the $25,000 Hoover Foundation Scientific Scholarship, which will support his graduate studies in analytical chemistry.

Three UGA students received National Security Educational Program Boren Scholarships to study foreign languages abroad: Julia Stevens and Timothy Casteel (Russian) and Jayanthi Narain (Arabic). Honors student Felix Akinbote, a native of Nigeria who has lived in the U.S. for 15 years, received the $20,000 Merage American Dream Scholarship, awarded to academically outstanding immigrant students.

Jennifer McCabe, a graduate student in the Institute of Ecology, was one of five doctoral students in the nation to receive a NOAA/NOS scholarship, which will support her studies of coral reefs. Another doctoral student, Jennifer Hartwig in the College of Education, was one of five scholars selected nationally to receive a $24,000 College Board research grant. She will study how the new SAT affects students with learning disabilities.

In addition, students in the Terry College of Business took first place at the National Black MBA Association DaimlerChrysler Case Competition, besting 28 other teams from around the country. Team members were invited to present their strategies to the company’s board of directors. A pair of students in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication won the Fox News Channel College Challenge for a broadcast news report on immigration issues, earning scholarships and a trip to New York.

On the faculty side, five UGA researchers, all in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They were among 376 AAAS members awarded the honor for their efforts to advance science or its applications. The five are Michael Arnold, Jeffrey Bennetzen, Robert Ivarie and Richard Meagher, all with the department of genetics, and Susan Wessler in the department of plant biology. Wessler also was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, one of 20 scientists selected nationally from research universities. She will receive $1 million over the next four years to develop teaching strategies to make her research more accessible to undergraduates in the classroom.

Doug Toma, an associate professor in UGA’s Institute of Higher Education, was recognized as one of 10 emerging “influential thinkers” in higher education by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Toma’s research focuses on how American colleges and universities pursue prestige through both academic and non-academic means. Kelly Dawe, professor of plant biology and genetics, was named the first Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator, while Kim Coder, professor of community forestry and arboriculture, received a lifetime achievement award from the Georgia Urban Forest Council. Regents Professor Jeremy Kilpatrick, an internationally recognized expert on mathematics education, was elected to the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America.

Critically acclaimed poet and author Judith Ortiz Cofer, who teaches English and creative writing, was named a Regents Professor, and John Inscoe, professor of Southern history and editor of the New Georgia Encyclopedia, was named University Professor in recognition of his service to the university.

President Michael F. Adams served as chair of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and received the top leadership award from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Hank Huckaby, senior vice president for finance and administration, received a career achievement award from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management.

This was another banner year for the UGA athletic program. The gymnastics team repeated its 2005 NCAA win, garnering its seventh national championship since 1987, while the men’s tennis team won the indoor national title. Six of UGA’s 15 teams won SEC titles, including football, men’s golf, gymnastics, women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, and women’s track and field. Seven athletes won a total of 14 individual NCAA titles: Courtney Kupets, gymnastics (3); Jennifer Dahlgren, track and field (2); Chris Colwill, diving (2); plus swimmers Sebastian Rouault, Mary DeScenza (2), Kara Lynn Joyce (3) and Laura Conway. DeScenza and Joyce also joined with other teammates to win two relay event titles, and Joyce and head swim coach Jack Bauerle were named national swimmer and coach of the year. For the third year in a row, UGA ranked among the top 10 athletic programs in the country, finishing 9th in the U.S. Sports Academy Director’s Cup competition.

Student-athlete Samantha Arsenault received the prestigious NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award, recognizing athletic success, academic achievement and community service. The seven-time All-American swimmer earned postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and SEC. She is the seventh UGA student-athlete to receive the Top VIII award since 1998.

UGA President Michael F. Adams concluded his term as SEC president during the year, while Provost Arnett C. Mace Jr. passed the gavel after serving as the first chair of the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium.

Distinguished visitors to campus included former President George H.W. Bush, Gov. Sonny Perdue and new University System Chancellor Erroll Davis, who came for the dedication of the Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences in April. John Huey, editor-in-chief of Time Inc., returned to his alma mater to deliver the Commencement address at the spring undergraduate ceremony. Among those delivering invited lectures during the year were ABC News correspondent and alumna Deborah Roberts; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch; Jerry Ceppos, former chief news executive of Knight Ridder; literary theorist and legal scholar Stanley Fish; and Maryann Feldman, a University of Toronto professor who specializes in studying how innovation and commercialization of academic research foster economic growth. The university also hosted the National Outreach Scholarship Conference at the Georgia Center in October.

The 65th annual Peabody Awards, administered by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, were presented in New York in June. Jon Stewart, anchor of Comedy Central’s two-time Peabody Award winner, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was master of ceremonies for the event honoring excellence in electronic media. UGA’s Center for Humanities and Arts and the Center for ­International Trade and Security presented this year’s Delta Prize for Global Understanding to Ted Turner, founder of Cable News Network, at a March ceremony in Atlanta. Turner was recognized for his creation of CNN and his philanthropic efforts to promote peace and environmental health. The Delta Prize was established with an endowment grant from the Delta Air Lines Foundation and is administered by UGA. In December, the Terry College of Business hosted the 23rd annual Georgia Economic Outlook luncheon at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. This is the state’s biggest economic forecasting event.

Several major construction projects were completed or started this year. As detailed elsewhere in this report, construction of the long-awaited Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences was completed. The facility houses some of UGA’s premier life sciences programs and was designed to maximize interactions between scientists from diverse disciplines.

In the spring, work began on the new $38 million Lamar Dodd School of Art, located on East Campus in close proximity to the Georgia Museum of Art and other buildings that make up the Performing and Visual Arts Complex. The current art facility on Jackson Street was originally designed for about 400 students, but the school currently serves more than 1,000 art majors. The new building will consolidate all art programs except for sculpture under one roof.

Also in progress was a new $30 million training facility for men’s and women’s basketball and women’s gymnastics, and a major facelift for UGA’s historic Old College, the oldest building on campus. Planning continued on the expansion of the Tate Student Center.

The university filled several key administrative positions during the academic year, and began or continued searches for others. As mentioned in last year’s report, Rodney Bennett was named vice president for student affairs; Maurice Daniels, dean of the School of Social Work; and Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. All began serving at the start of the 2005-06 academic year. Other searches concluded when David Lee, a cancer researcher from UNC-Chapel Hill, was named vice president for research, and Sheila Allen was named dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine after serving as interim dean. Another dean search concluded at the end of the year when Culpepper Clark came to UGA as dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication from a similar position at the University of Alabama.

Sharon Nickols, dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and John Crowley, dean of the College of Environment and Design, announced during the year that they would step down after 15 and 10 years of respective service as deans. Searches are currently being conducted for their positions, as well as for dean of the new College of Public Health. As the year ended, the search for a new associate provost for institutional diversity concluded with the appointment of Cheryl Dozier, a faculty member in the School of Social Work who also coordinated academic programs at UGA’s Gwinnett campus.

On other fronts, Steve Wrigley, senior vice president for external affairs, announced he would step down from that position to direct UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, and Hank Huckaby, senior vice president for finance and administration, decided to retire at the end of the fiscal year. Tim Burgess, who rejoined UGA during the year as associate vice president and budget director after serving in a state government post, succeeds Huckaby. A national search will be conducted to fill Wrigley’s position. Another search concluded with the hiring of Thomas Gausvik as associate vice president for human resources from a similar post at the University of Virginia.

UGA participated in efforts to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. In addition to setting up and staffing two shelters for 609 evacuees and pets and participating in fundraising activities, UGA faculty, staff and students utilized their discipline-specific skills. Faculty and students from the Department of Psychology, College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the School of Social Work collaborated with the Athens Area Crisis Response Team to provide psychological and social counseling to evacuees. Representatives from the School of Social Work also formed case management teams to assist evacuees. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences sent a team to Mississippi to make agricultural damage assessments, load and unload supply trucks, and oversee livestock carcass disposal and care of animals, while consultants from the UGA Small Business Development Center helped the Mississippi SBDC provide assistance with business disaster recovery and disaster loans. The Admissions office processed applications from more than 100 students displaced by Katrina and 69 enrolled.

Institutional Strategic Planning
The University of Georgia’s strategic plan sets out a vision for the institution in the year 2010, with emphasis on three strategic directions: 1) Building the new learning environment by enhancing the undergraduate experience, 2) Maximizing research opportunities, and 3) Increasing global awareness and expanding international opportunities. Continued progress was made in each of these areas.

Several initiatives were undertaken or continued to enhance the undergraduate experience. A 24-member internal task force that spent the past academic year conducting a comprehensive examination of undergraduate education at UGA submitted a report to Provost Arnett Mace at the start of the new school year. The Report of the Task Force on General Education and Student Learning contained more than
40 recommendations aimed at strengthening general education and creating a more rigorous learning environment. Recommendations that have been implemented to date include hiring more faculty, creating an Office of Service-Learning, reducing the period to drop/add courses at the start of each semester and instituting a policy to promptly notify parents of students who commit alcohol-related offenses. Another recommendation to institute a plus-minus grading system was implemented during summer semester 2006 and will be continued on a two-year trial basis.

Task force members agreed that UGA’s current general education curriculum achieves many desired learning outcomes, but concluded that “finding new ways to capture the imagination of both students and faculty can re-invigorate and enrich the undergraduate experience.” (See the Assessment section for more on the general education curriculum.)

The $43 million Student Learning Center, in its third year of operation, continues to be immensely popular and heavily used. One of the largest and most technologically advanced facilities of its kind on an American university campus, the more than 200,000-square-foot SLC is a testament to the university’s commitment to create the optimal student environment.

As mentioned above, the Office of the Vice President for Instruction collaborated with the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach on an initiative to promote service-learning, which incorporates experiential activities in the community into the learning process. The new Office of Service-Learning opened in the summer of 2005 and the first group of Service-Learning Fellows was named during the year.

To maximize research opportunities, the need for more lab space was identified and is being met. Recognizing that interdisciplinary interaction fosters the innovation critical to a productive research program, UGA has focused on expanding collaborative laboratory space for researchers. Faculty, staff and students began to occupy the $40 million, 135,000-square-foot Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences in December 2005. The centerpiece of UGA’s growing biomedical and health sciences initiative was dedicated in April 2006.

The Coverdell Center houses a critical mass of biomedical researchers committed to collaboration across disciplines in the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, the College of Public Health, the Center for Health and Risk Communication, the Bioimaging Research Center, the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the Developmental Biology Group. In addition, the center houses a $2.3 million bioimaging suite, a rodent barrier facility and a zebrafish facility for research requiring animal models.

UGA’s Animal Health Research Center (AHRC), a high-level biosafety facility dedicated to preventing infectious diseases in both animals and people, also opened in FY06. Located adjacent to the College of Veterinary Medicine, the 75,000-square-foot building is one of few such facilities in the U.S. and the only one on a university campus. When fully operational, the $63 million facility, specifically designed to meet federal standards and to protect researchers working within the building as well as the community at large, will bring together investigators from state, federal and private research institutions throughout the Southeast and beyond to conduct basic and applied research. The AHRC also will serve as an economic development stimulus to the state.

In January 2006, the Department of Homeland Security solicited proposals for the site of a new state-of-the-art national facility to safeguard health and agriculture against zoonotic diseases and emerging infectious diseases. Led by the Office of the Vice President for Research, a consortium comprising UGA, the State of Georgia, federal, academic and private partners submitted two proposals that were identical except for the sites – one on College Station Road and the other on South Milledge Avenue. UGA’s strengths in animal and human infectious disease, its unique facilities and partnerships with federal and private agencies make Athens a strong contender for selection as the site for the 500,000-square-foot facility. The NBAF would enhance UGA’s animal and human infectious disease programs, attract researchers to the university and serve as a magnet for the biomedical industry. Site selection is anticipated in 2008.

The FY05 move of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center to a new building in UGA’s Riverbend Research Village presented an opportunity to redeploy office space and labs at Riverbend South (RBS) as an interdisciplinary center that fosters interaction among emerging infectious disease researchers and nano-science collaborators working on novel pathogen detection technologies. The new center offers a continuum of basic research, new approaches to diagnostics for these diseases and commercialization of these efforts. The Georgia Research Alliance has committed $2.5 million for construction of a shared BSL-3 lab.

To prepare students to compete in the global marketplace, the university continues to promote study-abroad experiences as well as international activities on campus. UGA ranks 9th in the nation in the number of students participating in study abroad programs, according to the national “Open Doors” report covering 2003-04. UGA’s Office of International Education reports that nearly 29 percent of UGA students now graduate with a study-abroad experience, up from 11 percent in 2000 and exceeding the university’s strategic plan goal of 25 percent by the year 2010. More than 100 study-abroad and exchange programs are currently offered and the diversity of destinations has expanded to include more countries outside western Europe. Asia is the fastest-growing region of student participation. In summer 2006, new UGA programs were offered in China and Tunisia.

More than 2,000 international students and visiting scholars help to internationalize the campus. International Student Life sponsors more than 20 international student organizations, as well as various programs to bring international and American students together. An international street festival held downtown each spring is a popular event for the campus and community.

UGA’s commitment to internationalism is evident in its curriculum. In addition to offerings through the School of Public and International Affairs, students can earn certificates through the African Studies Institute, the Center for Asian Studies and other units. In fall 2006, a new major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies will be offered. Enrollment in foreign language courses is flourishing, with 60 percent of UGA students graduating with competency in a foreign language. The array of languages taught ranges from Arabic to Zulu, with a new major in Chinese language and literature approved for fall 2006. The number of students choosing to major or minor in a language has increased 45 percent over the past five years.

Assessing Institutional Effectiveness
The university is already planning for the next SACS accreditation cycle (2009-2010, with reaffirmation anticipated in 2011). The associate provost for institutional effectiveness has taken steps to inform and educate university leaders about the new SACS Principles of Accreditation and the new accreditation process. Leading up to that, the schools and colleges and designated centers and institutes have developed five-year program plans that are used in budget development, further strengthening the university’s efforts to integrate planning, assessment and resource allocation.

To further enhance the university’s long-standing commitment to assessment, the associate provost for institutional effectiveness now coordinates institutional-level assessment processes across campus. This includes program review of all academic programs on a seven-year cycle, review of all support units, assessment of undergraduate majors and general education and assessment of all graduate programs. This central coordination promotes attainment of long-term institutional goals including data integration and enhanced linkage of strategic planning with assessment.

Projects under way include linking undergraduate and graduate assessment reporting more closely to program review cycles, building institutional data reports that directly support assessment and evaluation, linking co-curricular assessments to general education outcomes and developing an institution-wide survey plan to coordinate assessments. During the academic year, comprehensive program reviews were conducted of 13 academic units offering 62 degree programs.

The assessment section of the Web site of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (www.uga.edu/effectiveness) is continually being revised and updated.

Continued improvements were made in the support unit review process, developed in response to a recommendation from SACS during the last reaccreditation cycle. Since the process was initiated in 2002, more than 20 units have been reviewed. Units reviewed in 2005-06 included the Registrar’s Office and three units under the Vice President for Research (the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts and the Sea Grant program). Units under review are asked to engage in a careful “self review” in terms of their own missions and strategic plans. Following the review, a set of priorities for the unit’s continued improvement is recommended.

Results from UGA’s recent participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement were received and analyzed in the fall. UGA participated in NSSE for the first time in 2003 when 1,500 first-year students and 1,500 seniors were randomly selected to complete the survey. In spring 2005, 2,000 first-year students and 2,000 seniors were randomly selected as part of the overall pool of more than a quarter million students at colleges and universities nationwide.

UGA seniors who participated in the survey indicated that they are generally more pleased with their overall educational experience than their counterparts at other major research universities and would be more likely than their peers to attend the same school if they started college over again. But in some areas relating to academic rigor, problem areas that surfaced in 2003 were still evident in 2005. UGA students continued to report a lower number of reading assignments, fewer writing assignments and studying or spending less time on academic work than their counterparts at peer and aspirational institutions. These findings were noted in the Report of the Task Force on General Education and Student Learning and are addressed in the task force recommendations.

In terms of the general education curriculum, the task force report recommended the development of new, innovative courses that will serve as a central core of a new general education requirement—courses that will emphasize depth rather than breadth and demonstrate how knowledge is constructed in various areas of inquiry. The University Curriculum Committee’s Subcommittee on General Education worked throughout the year to translate the task force recommendations into actual changes in the curriculum that are being submitted for approval by the full University Council in fall 2006.

In addition, the subcommittee initiated planning for the second administration of the nationally-normed, criterion-referenced CollegeBASE test of basic academic subjects, which maps closely to the UGA Core Curriculum areas. The test will be given to a sample of UGA juniors in AY2006-2007.

Improving Student Retention and Graduation
High levels of retention and graduation continue to be strengths of the University of Georgia. The university enrolls students with the academic potential to succeed and offers programs to help them make a successful transition to the college environment. The retention rate for new first-year students returning for their second year is 93 percent—which compares favorably with peer institutions.

The Admissions Office offers a strong orientation program for new students and their parents during the summer, which is modified year to year to keep pace with student and parental needs and improve advising and placement. A variety of other offerings, many initiated through cooperation between the vice presidents for Instruction and Student Affairs, also help students get acclimated to UGA. These include the Freshman College Summer Experience, which provides 275 regularly admitted first-year students with an intensive academic experience during the month of July. Participants in this residential program take six hours of coursework and are exposed to events and programs that introduce the variety of co-curricular options at UGA. Students live together in Russell Hall during the program and throughout the next academic year.

In addition to the Freshman College, students have other opportunities to participate in programs more commonly found at small liberal arts colleges than at major research universities. For example, the Freshman Seminar program offers more than 100 seminars on a variety of topics to first-year students taught by senior faculty members. Seminar enrollment is limited to 15 students to encourage close interactions.

With first-year students now required to live on campus, OVPI has collaborated with the Division of Student Affairs to offer a number of special residential experiences. These include the first-year learning communities program, started in fall 2004. Students this year had the opportunity to live and learn together in communities set up around five thematic areas, with about 20 students in each cohort. The program will continue to expand in FY07. Other opportunities include the Franklin Residential College and the Language Communities in French and Spanish. In addition, academic advising is offered in several residence halls, as well as some classes.

The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) provides special opportunities for students to connect with faculty and to become engaged in research projects. At the annual spring symposium, which showcases the work of exemplary student researchers, more than a hundred undergraduates from UGA and other University System institutions presented oral and poster sessions or offered creative statements in the visual and performing arts. A new program, Promising Scholars, brought selected high school students to campus for the spring symposium, giving them early exposure to undergraduate research possibilities. In addition to the symposium, CURO sponsors “Gateway” seminars, an apprentice program, a summer research fellowship program, the online Journal for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (JURO@GA) and an online listing of research opportunities available every semester. The purpose of these efforts is to help students take maximum advantage of being at a major public research university. Though CURO is administered by the Honors Program, programs are open to all students with a 3.4 GPA.

The Division of Academic Enhancement ensures that entering and continuing students have access to a wide range of services to support their academic endeavors. The division is responsible for the Freshman College Summer Experience and, among other services, offers an introductory curricula in English, mathematics, reading and study strategies, plus a series of academic success workshops and a peer tutorial program that served more than 1,300 students this year. Some tutoring sessions are now offered in the Student Learning Center and online math and writing tutoring program are available. A new initiative—the ­Collaborative Academic and Retention Effort (CARE)—assists first-year students on academic probation.

The six-year graduation rate for undergraduates who entered as first-year students in 1999 rose to 74.5 percent, continuing the upward trend of the past several years. According to a recent report from the Education Trust, UGA and Georgia Tech are the only public four-year institutions in Georgia with six-year graduations rates exceeding the national average of 63 percent.

Management of Campus Conflict and Change
During the 2005-2006 academic year, the University of Georgia’s Dispute Resolution Program continued to serve the university community and to work with the Board of Regents on system-wide dispute resolution efforts. This past year saw the increased use of “facilitated discussions,” as well as increasing acceptance of the university’s unique program for use of alternative dispute resolution processes for the handling of academic honesty matters.

In response to the 1995 Board of Regents’ Initiative and Policy Direction on Conflict Resolution Initiative, the president of the University of Georgia appointed a committee of 13 faculty and administrators to develop and oversee dispute resolution efforts on our campus. Initial efforts included setting up of the UGA Mediation Project and eventually the centralization of the university’s Dispute Resolution Program in the Office of Legal Affairs. The resources of the program are available to any faculty, administrator, staff member or student involved in a conflict of any kind. At the present time, Dispute Resolution Coordinators in the Office of Legal Affairs and the Office of Human Resources are available to assist parties in settling their conflicts and advise them of the various dispute resolution mechanisms on our campus, including facilitated discussions and mediation. (See the University of Georgia Dispute Resolution Policy Web site at http://www.uga.edu/legal/drp/htm.) The biggest change in the past year has involved the increased use of facilitated discussions primarily handled by staff in the Office of Human Resources.

Arthur Leed, associate director of the Office of Legal Affairs who chaired UGA’s initial Campus Conflict Resolution Committee, continues to serve as the university’s liaison to the Board of Regents for Dispute Resolution matters and as director of the University of Georgia Mediation Project. Additionally, Peter Shedd, director of the M.B.A. Program in the Terry College of Business, and Dexter Fisher, director of service support for UGA’s Physical Plant, currently serve on the Chancellor’s Steering Committee on Dispute Resolution. Shedd is also a member of the Executive Board of the Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Georgia State University. The consortium is an inter-institutional program that provides technical support and training to the University System’s ADR efforts and administers the Board of Regents’ system-wide mediation program.

During the 2005-2006 academic year, 10 facilitated discussions were conducted by Dispute Resolution Coordinators on our campus. These involved face-to-face meetings between parties to a conflict with the assistance of one of the university’s Dispute Resolution Coordinators. Also, three matters were taken to formal mediation and all three were settled by the parties. One of these cases involved a dispute between faculty colleagues, and the two other cases involved staff members with conflict issues. The university also provided mediators for three mediations at other units of the University System. Sige Burden, associate director of Human Resources, served as a mediator for a matter at the Board of Regents, and Peter Shedd mediated two matters at Clayton State College. At this point in time, there are three additional matters at UGA which are in the process of being scheduled for mediation.

In the area of training of UGA personnel, the Office of the Vice President for Instruction trained 11 facilitators for the Academic Honesty Facilitated Discussion Program, which will be discussed below. The trainees included faculty, administrators, professional staff and also a UGA graduate student. Since the adoption of the Initiative in 1995, more than 80 UGA faculty, staff, administrators and students have received training, primarily through the Consortium on various aspects of dispute resolution and mediation. During the past year, an additional staff member received training to become a mediator in the Mediation Project.

UGA’s Facilitated Discussion Model for addressing allegations of academic dishonesty continues to be a unique program that has achieved international recognition. Established in 2001 by the Office of the Vice President for Instruction, the program allows students and faculty to discuss and resolve allegations of academic dishonesty with the assistance of trained, impartial, third-party facilitators. This non-adversarial process allows all parties to focus on education rather than punishment, while maintaining the integrity of the university’s academic programs. In addition to saving time and effort to handle cases and enhancement of faculty-student relationships, UGA continues to see an increased willingness on the part of faculty and students to participate in a user-friendly system rather than resort to due process adversarial hearings.

During the 1999-2000 academic year, there were 84 reports of possible violations of the academic honesty code, 30 percent of which went to due process hearings. The average length of time to resolve each case was 95 days. Under the Facilitated Discussion Model, we have reached a point in the 2005-2006 academic year where 309 potential violations were reported, of which only 6 percent resulted in adversarial hearings. The average length of time to resolve each case has been reduced to 10 days.

The Facilitated Discussion Model is the first program of its kind in the United States and has received international recognition through the efforts of the staff of the Office of the Vice President for Instruction working in cooperation with the Consortium. Working together, those offices have also produced a DVD that demonstrates the Facilitated Discussion Model and discusses how academic honesty matters are handled through a non-adjudicated, informal process that is user-friendly for all parties. As reported last year, the DVD has been used in numerous presentations, including at United Nations headquarters in New York. The publicity on this groundbreaking approach has led to discussions with more than two dozen universities and colleges in the United States, Canada and Australia. During the past year, UGA faculty and staff presented a program on the Facilitated Discussion Model at the 2005 National Conference of the University and College Conflicts Association. Most recently, the Office of the Vice President for Instruction presented at the Center for Academic Integrity’s Annual Conference on “Resolving Academic Honesty Issues by Conversation, Not Confrontation.”

Overall Institutional Health
One important measure of institutional health is the quality of students applying and being admitted to the university. The fall 2005 entering class represented the most academically prepared class to enroll at UGA, with a 3.74 high school grade point average and an average SAT score of 1242. Four students achieved perfect scores of 1600 on the SAT or 36 on the ACT, and 79 scored a perfect 800 on either the verbal or math portion of the SAT.

Some 14 percent of new students were joint-enrolled in a college or university while in high school, and most incoming students completed the advanced or most difficult curriculum available at their high school. More than 1,000 first-year students had perfect 4.0 high school grade point averages. Of those attending schools that ranked students scholastically, more than 200 ranked first or second in their senior class. The Honors Program enrolled some 450 new freshman students who have an SAT average of 1440 and an average high school GPA of 4.04. Those selected for UGA’s prestigious Foundation Fellows program had an average GPA of 4.13 and average SAT of 1520.

The new class of 4,654 was selected from 12,326 applicants. Entering freshmen classes generally are targeted to between 4,500 to 5,000 students in an effort to keep total university enrollment at the Athens campus within campus capacity and limits agreed on with the Board of Regents. With a record number of students applying for admission to the freshman class that will enter in fall 2006–nearly 16,000–managing enrollment is a challenge.

Another important measure of institutional health is the ability to attract private support. In FY06, UGA achieved a long-sought goal by breaking the $100 million mark for private giving for the first time, receiving a total of $108.3 million in gifts and new commitments. The total is almost a 12 percent increase over the previous year’s $96.9 million and marks the sixth consecutive year UGA has set a record for private giving. The figure almost exactly doubles private contributions just five years ago when the university received $54.4 million in private support. Private giving to UGA has risen in all but two of the last 10 years and is now more than triple the $33.6 million received in FY96.

Gifts came from 49,713 contributors and 22 were for $1 million or more, the largest number of million-dollar-plus gifts ever. Giving through the annual fund program also set a new record of $8.6 million, up from $8.38 million the previous year. FY06 gift receipts helped boost total contributions to UGA’s Archway to Excellence campaign to $454 million and puts the goal of $500 million within clear reach by the time the campaign ends in 2008.

Of the $108.3 million annual total, $73.4 million will be used for instruction, service, research and outreach programs, up from $60.4 million the previous year. These gifts will help fund scholarships and fellowships for students; recruit and retain outstanding faculty; provide travel and research support for current faculty; and buy new classroom and lab equipment and books, periodicals and other materials for the libraries.

Gifts and pledges for athletic purposes in FY06 totalled $34.9 million, of which $25.1 million was for seating priority. The figure is down from the previous year when athletic donations totalled $36.5 million, of which $25.5 million was for seating priority. Athletic gifts are used to support athletic scholarships, the athletic general endowment and other needs.

UGA’s academic rankings continue to be high. U.S. News & World Report again ranked UGA 19th in the nation among public universities and 58th out of 124 public and private national universities in its 2006 guide to “America’s Best Colleges.” This is the sixth consecutive year that UGA ranked among the top 20 public universities. UGA moved up one position to rank 6th among public institutions and 41st overall on the U.S. News list of “Great Schools at Great Prices,” calculated by relating each school’s academic quality to the net cost of attending. UGA also was listed as one of the national universities where students graduate with the least debt.

Also in the annual guide, the Terry College of Business ranked 19th among publics and 30th overall on the list of best undergraduate business programs. Terry has been listed among the top 30 programs for the past seven years. The college’s real estate and insurance programs both ranked third in their specialty categories.

In U.S. News’ annual ranking of America’s best graduate schools, the Terry College tied at 46th. The School of Law tied for 34th overall, up two places, while the College of Education tied for 21st overall, up six positions from the previous year. Six of its specialty programs ranked among the top 10. The guide also noted that among the top 50 education schools, UGA had the second largest enrollment in its graduate teaching programs, second only to Columbia University Teachers College in New York.

The School of Public and International Affairs tied for third in the nation, while specialty programs in public management/administration and public finance and budgeting ranked second and third respectively. UGA’s master of fine arts program tied for 21st, while the printmaking program tied for third. The doctor of veterinary medicine program tied for 9th.

In U.S. News rankings of Ph.D. programs in the sciences, UGA tied for 40th, with two specialty programs–ecology and microbiology–both in the top 10 nationally.

In other rankings, UGA was 6th on Kiplinger’s list of the 100 best public colleges, chosen from more than 500 schools based on “their combination of top-flight ­academics and affordable costs.”

Annual statistics compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education show UGA among the top 50 institutions in the nation in several categories, although some ground was lost since last year’s rankings. The university remains one of the largest institutions in the country, ranking 37th in enrollment, and is 50th in the most Freshmen Merit Scholars. Other UGA listings in the 2006 Chronicle Almanac include the number of earned doctorates awarded (25th) and library holdings (36th).

A continuing challenge to research universities nationally is the decline in the budgets of federal agencies that supply a significant portion of external research funding. For FY06, UGA’s external research funding declined 12.1 percent from FY05, totaling $140.1 million compared with $159.4 million the previous year. This funding is comprised of contracts, grants and agreements from federal, state and corporate sources as well as from private funding agencies.

Total external funding—which includes research, instruction, public service and outreach—decreased by 5.4 percent from FY05, ending the year at $210.5 million. Total external funding grew 12.8 percent from FY02 to FY03, but has declined gradually since then, ending the five-year period up just 3 percent, without accounting for inflation.

According to the Office of the Vice President for Research, a significant portion of UGA’s downturn reflects the budgets of federal funding agencies that administer the competitive grants that comprise a substantial portion of UGA’s external funding. FY06 represents the second year of decline in real terms for federal research funding. For example, the FY06 budget for NSF, the leading source of funding for numerous academic program areas, saw its final budget returned to FY04 levels. At NIH, the largest sponsor of research at colleges and universities, funding has flattened since 2003, following a decade of budget doubling. The result is a greater pool of researchers now competing for fewer dollars. Other federal funding agencies representing significant grant dollars at UGA, including USDA and DOE, declined similarly over the five-year period.

Although funding from other sources remained strong, it was not enough to offset declines in funding from federal agencies. Foundation support increased 8 percent. State funding increased 20 percent from $27.7 million in FY05 to $33.3 million, or just slightly higher than the FY03 level. Industry and corporate support, however, declined 19 percent in FY06.

After consecutive years of state budget cuts, the university started FY06 in a stronger financial position thanks to support from the Georgia General Assembly. The FY06 operating budget included full formula funding and a much-needed 4 percent merit pay raise pool for faculty and staff, effective in January 2007. However, UGA continues to be challenged in its ability to maintain competitive strength in faculty salaries, which impacts the institution’s ability to recruit and retain top-flight faculty.

In addition, though more funding provided relief on several fronts, critical deficiencies remained. Deferred maintenance needs in the aging physical plant reached an all-time high, while rising health care premiums and energy costs created major challenges for financial management.