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Significant energy this year was devoted to planning and preparing for the next decade and beyond: a physical master plan for campus was adopted and strategic planning and re-accreditation studies began.
The year’s highlights appear in the pages which follow. Parentheses indicate the date the story appeared in Columns. Back issues are available on the Columns Web site (www.uga.edu/columns).
National Rankings
• U.S. News and World Report, for the second time in three years, featured UGA’s Honors Program in its annual guide to undergraduate colleges, calling the program “an Ivy League education at less than half the price.” The magazine listed UGA 26th among public national universities (Aug. 31, 1998). In the annual graduate program ratings in the magazine, published in March, the College of Education ranked 18th among 188 graduate education programs (March 29, 1999). The doctoral program in number theory in the mathematics department ranked 10th, and the School of Law ranked 36th.• Kiplinger’s magazine ranked UGA 20th in the nation for combining high quality with low cost (Aug. 31, 1998).
• Black Issues in Higher Education reported in the fall that UGA ranked 31st in the country in the number of doctoral degrees awarded to students identifying themselves as minorities in 1995–96 (Sept. 8, 1998).
Scientific Additions
Three scientists joined the faculty this year through UGA’s participation in the Georgia Research Alliance: James Prestegard, who studies the structure and dynamics of biological systems using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (Aug. 31, 1998); Steve Stice, an expert in cloning research, who joined the department of animal and dairy sciences (Oct. 26, 1998); and Andrew Paterson, an expert in plant genetics research with the Applied Genetics Technology Resource (March 22, 1999).
UGA People
Karen Holbrook is the new senior vice president for academic affairs and provost (Sept. 21, 1998).
Kathryn Costello is UGA’s new senior vice president for external affairs (Aug. 24, 1998; Nov. 2, 1998).
Zell Miller was named to a new professorship in the Institute of Higher Education and will be on campus in fall 1999 (Aug. 24, 1998).
Gary Moore was named registrar in September (Sept. 14, 1998).
Russell Yeany, dean of the College of Education, announced in September he would step down as dean (Sept. 21, 1998).
Dwight Douglas, vice president for student affairs, announced his resignation in January, effective June 30 (Jan. 11, 1999).
Sherwood Thompson became director of minority services and programs in February (Jan. 19, 1999).
Hilton Young was elected president of the UGA National Alumni Association at the group’s annual meeting in April (May 3, 1999).
Bigger & Better
Following 14 months of renovations costing $10.4 million, Reed Hall reopened as a state-of-the-art student residence hall in the fall (Aug. 31, 1998; Sept. 21, 1998) and was rededicated in the spring (May 3, 1999).
Funding for the $43 million student-learning center (March 1, 1999), a four-story high-tech classroom and library building to be built in the parking lot west of the bookstore, was included in the state’s supplemental budget this year. Construction will begin as soon as final plans are complete.
The new physical master plan, presented to the campus community Nov. 11 and 12 and approved by the regents in February, aims for a green and vehicle-free campus accommodating 35,000 students (Nov. 9 and Nov. 23, 1998). The first step in implementing the plan will be conversion of the Herty Drive parking lot to a green quadrangle, to be begun as soon as the North Campus parking deck opens later this month.
Several other buildings, facilities and offices were dedicated or opened in the course of the year, including:
• addition to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (Nov. 2, 1998).
• site for the new alumni center (Nov. 23, 1998).
• UGA soccer stadium (Oct. 26, 1998).
• Staff Council office (May 3, 1999).
• animal and dairy sciences complex (Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 1999).
• Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry (Oct. 26, 1998).
• Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden (Oct. 12, 1998).
• The regents have approved the addition of an undergraduate major in African-American studies at UGA (March 22, 1999) and University Council has approved a proposal for a major in women’s studies, which will now be submitted to the regents (May 17, 1999).
• As a result of a consent order reached in U.S. District Court at the end of 1998, the School of Law will receive $2.5 million from DuPont Co. to endow a chair in legal ethics and professionalism (Feb. 1, 1999).
• UGA and the Ukrainian government signed a formal agreement in January to develop a joint radioecology laboratory in Chernobyl to study the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear-reactor accident; Ron Chesser, who directs UGA’s Chernobyl program at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, will be one of the directors of the new lab (Feb. 1, 1999).
• The first statewide analysis of land-use trends ever conducted in the United States will be undertaken by James Kundell, of UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, and Elizabeth Kramer, of the Institute of Ecology, with a $1 million grant from the Turner Foundation (Feb. 8, 1999).
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