March 2001: Vol. 80, No. 2March 2001: Vol. 80, No. 2President Adams stresses importance of campus living, research, foreign study
State of the University
Excerpts from President Adams' Jan. 16 address:
Total University of Georgia experience
"I believe that our tradition as a place where students enjoy their college experience is one of our greatest assets. In the University System's annual student satisfaction survey, we rank first almost every year.
"One thing missing from the total University of Georgia experience for far too many of our students is a residential experience. Only one in five undergraduates live on campus; we have not built a single residence hall room for more than 30 years. I believe students should live on campus, at least for a couple of years. Their presence on campus beyond simply attending class and labs is what builds a learning environment. It builds a sense of identity and community among students. We border on being a commuter college today, with the attendant vacuum of common identity that comes with that designation.
We have already begun the construction of the Student Learning Center, which will be the centerpiece of the new learning environment here. We will double the number of residence hall beds to some 10,000 with the goal of offering at least every freshman and sophomore a room on campus."
Maximizing research opportunities
"I want to be clear about one thing today: This institution can do more to support research, it should do more to support research, and it will do more to support research. One of the realities of conducting and sponsoring research in an increasingly technological age is that it is virtually impossible to keep up with advances in equipment and space requirements. It's the rule of technological obsolescence on a grand scale. Just as I know that if I purchase a VCR or digital camera today there will be a better and cheaper model on sale tomorrow, we as an institution must ensure that research facility maintenance is an ongoing, not sporadic, process. Much of the dedicated research space at UGA was state of the art in its day, but the past tense is cruel to the process of pushing back the boundaries of knowledge."
Competing in a global economy
"I'm not advocating that the University of Georgia become a job mill, but I am enough of a realist to acknowledge that a majority of our students will begin work shortly after graduation. We would not be fulfilling our obligation to them—and to this state's economy—if we did not prepare them for the world of work they will enter.
"And how that world has changed. The state department of Industry, Trade and Tourism reports that there are 1,636 international facilities located in the state of Georgia. Those facilities have created 125,000 jobs while generating $15.7 billion in capital investments. In 1998 alone, international businesses and corporations announced industrial developments of $278 million and more than 3,200 new jobs. During the 1990s, Georgia saw a 357 percent increase in international investment.
"We cannot escape the fact that Georgia is a competitor in this global economy, nor should we. It's why study abroad is so important to me. I recently asked a vice president of a major international pharmaceutical company this question: Would you rather hire a student who had taken extra chemistry and physiology courses over the summer or a student who had spent a semester overseas? His answer was unhesitating: the student with the overseas experience.
"So I'm not talking about job training. I'm talking about life training. I'm talking about a true liberal education, which turns wide-eyed freshmen into capable writers, critical thinkers, competent communicators, and potential leaders, all while challenging them to excel in their chosen fields of study."
Promoting diversity
UGA's grad school plan is nation's best
Thirteen universities submitted proposals to attract, motivate, and retain minority graduate students, and UGA's plan was judged the best in competition sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and Peterson's, which publishes an annual college guide.
The award provides $10,000 to the UGA Graduate School to develop a faculty-oriented blueprint for creating a climate of inclusiveness in graduate education. A handbook, to be made available in print and on the UGA Web site, will offer practical advice on promoting diversity.
Minority students currently make up approximately 14 percent of UGA's graduate school enrollment, the result of slow but steady growth in minority enrollment over the past two decades.
The $40 million Paul D. Coverdell Building for Biomedical and Health Sciences will be located adjacent to McWhorter Hall, facing the College of Veterinary Medicine across D.W. Brooks Drive
Plans unveiled for Coverdell building
U.S. Senators Zell Miller (D-Ga.) and Phil Gramm (R-Texas) visited their alma mater on Jan. 12 to announce plans to memorialize the late Sen. Paul Coverdell with a $40 million center that will enable UGA scientists from different fields to collaborate on improving the world's food supply, cleaning up the environment, and finding cures for disease.
 (from left) U.S. Senators Zell Miller (AB '57, MA '58) and Phil Gramm (BBA '64, PhD '67) asked Congress for $10 million to help fund the biomedical and health science center. |
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"This is a fitting way to memorialize our friend Paul Coverdell," said Miller (AB '57, MA '58) in making the announcement. "It is my hope that the scientists who gather in this center under Paul's name will make great discoveries to improve the quality of life in Georgia and around the world."
"Paul's slogan wasn't lofty rhetoric, it was 'Coverdell works,'" said Gramm (BBA '64, PhD '67). "How appropriate, then, that we honor him with a building that is not a static monument, but a place that works for the people of Georgia and our great country."
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They said it |
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JOHN EGERTON On the Civil Rights Act of 1964: "Race is the most important domestic issue since colonial times. Today, we all share the blessings of the demise of segregation; it necessarily follows, then, that we also share the responsibility to complete the eradication of racism from American life."
On Ralph McGill's most significant contribution: "What he demonstrated, more than anything else, was the capacity of white Southerners to change, to repudiate racism, and rise up to the standard of justice and equality so courageously sought by their black fellow citizens."
On the presidential election of 2000: "Not since 'All Monica, all the time' have we had a more mind-boggling mishmash of lawsuits, rumors and innuendo, neologisms and parsed phrases, charges and denials and counter charges, sanctimonious pronouncements, calls and recalls, counts and recounts and no-counts. If all this is not enough to compel us to reform the system before we vote again, we don't deserve to be called a free and democratic nation." HOWARD BAKER On political divisions in the nation: "Whether it's division by the color of your skin, your religious philosophy, or sectionalism, our responsibility in this nuclear age is to live long enough to explain ourselves to each other."
On foreign policy: "There is abject poverty, there is enormous suffering, there is acute injustice in so many parts of the world, and we have some obligation as a great moral nation to try to help. We simply must do the best we can to bring the benefits of an advanced nation to underdeveloped parts of the world—but do so without destroying our own nation."
On the necessity of youth participation in government: "You may not like politics, but you can't afford to ignore it. You may not like anybody who's running, but somebody's going to get elected. You may not like the way things are going now, but it'll be worse if you don't get involved." |
Coverdell, who earned a reputation as a soft-spoken workhorse during three decades as a Georgia lawmaker, state GOP leader, Peace Corps director, and senator, died of a stroke in July. Barnes appointed Miller to fill Coverdell's seat. Miller then won a special election to serve the remaining four years of Coverdell's term.
Coverdell's widow, Nancy, met with Miller and Gramm for a briefing and site tour before the announcement.
"I want to thank Phil Gramm, Zell Miller, and others in the Senate and at the University of Georgia who have thought to recognize my husband's work in this way," she said. "Education was Paul's highest priority as a member of the Senate and I know he would be honored."
The announcement followed a two-year effort to encourage cooperative research programs among the 300 UGA faculty members who work in biomedical, agricultural, ecological and environmental sciences. The Coverdell Building will make possible the kind of day-to-day interactions that speed up scientific discoveries. UGA officials hope to break ground on the 200,000-square-foot center in the coming year, pending receipt of the funding.
"Sen. Coverdell's tremendous support advanced the University of Georgia toward its goal of becoming one of the nation's premier research institutions," says president Michael F. Adams. "It is fitting that one of our primary initiatives—research in the biomedical, agricultural, and life sciences—will be housed in this magnificent new facility bearing his name."
Former Soviet president honored for his efforts to end Cold War, aid environment
Gorbachev wins 2001 Delta Prize
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, is the 2001 recipient of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding. Gorbachev is being honored by the University of Georgia and Delta Air Lines for his efforts to end the arms race and Cold War, and for his humanitarian and environmental work in their aftermath.
 Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Prize in 1990, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at UGA in December 1999. |
Gorbachev is scheduled to accept the award at an April 16 ceremony in Atlanta. Presenting the award will be Frederick W. Reid, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Delta, and UGA president Michael F. Adams.
Established with an $890,000 grant from the Delta Air Lines Foundation, the Delta Prize is administered by UGA. Gorbachev is the third recipient of the prize, which carries with it a $10,000 cash award. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa received the Delta Prize last year. In 1999, the inaugural prize went to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, his wife Rosalynn, and the Atlanta-based Carter Center.
"The Delta Prize was established to honor individuals or groups that successfully promote peaceful solutions to intercultural conflicts," says Gary Bertsch, director of UGA's Center for International Trade and Security and co-director of the Delta Prize program. "President Gorbachev is a living symbol of peaceful change and understanding."
During his period of leadership in the former Soviet Union, Gorbachev initiated the policy of openness (glasnost) that allowed for a freer flow of information and greater truth in Soviet affairs. His policy of economic restructuring (perestroika) and new thinking led to the reform of Soviet socialism. He was rewarded for his efforts with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since his time in office, Gorbachev has authored several books, established the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow, and founded Green Cross International, a nonprofit organization led in the U.S. by the American affiliate, Global Green USA. The organization's mission is to help create a sustainable future by cultivating harmonious relationships between humans and the environment. The organization is active in preventing conflict over shared water basins, stemming climate change and air pollution, and reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
A symposium will be held prior to the 2001 Delta Prize ceremony, featuring Pat Mitchell (AB '65, MA '67), president of the Public Broadcasting Service and immediate past president of Global Green USA; Alexander Likhotal, vice president of Green Cross International; Irina Virganskaya, daughter of President Gorbachev and vice president of the Gorbachev Foundation, and Igor Khripunov, former aide to Gorbachev and now associate director of UGA's Center for International Trade and Security.
Betty Jean Craige, director of UGA's Center for Humanities and Arts and co-director of the Delta Prize program, says the symposium will focus on Gorbachev's efforts in the post-Cold-War period to help create a safer, healthier and more just global society.
Nominees for the Delta Prize for Global Understanding are solicited from around the world. UGA students from the Foundation Fellows Program research the nominees for an international selection board that meets annually to choose the recipient.
For more information, visit www.uga.edu/news/deltaprize.
Academic building renamed in honor of Holmes, Hunter
Excerpts from the Jan. 9 dedication of the newly renamed Holmes/Hunter Academic Building, where the University's first African-American students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, registered for classes back in 1961.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault: "I have always felt that the bond between Hamilton and me was at least as thick as blood. . . . And now, it's as thick as cement. . . . For those of you who have said that there is a lot more that has to be done, we are building on a magnificent foundation, the second floor of which was built today."
Marilyn Holmes: "I think [Hamilton] would have told you that he holds no grudges or hard feelings towards those who tried to deny him admission to this institution. I think he also would have said that he loves this University. . . . He would have chuckled—no, I think he would have laughed right out loud—at the irony of this building, that they tried to keep him out of, now bearing his name. . . . I think he would have told you that he feels, at once, great pride and humility."
$1 million gift will strengthen trade and security center, prepare students for international service
Helping UGA and the world
A South Georgia businesswoman is giving UGA's Center for International Trade and Security $1 million to help strengthen the center's ability to promote global understanding and to better prepare students for international service.
Jane S. Willson, president of Sunnyland Farms in Albany, made the gift because she believes the center can help facilitate peaceful ties among nations, says Gary Bertsch, director of the center.
The center will create the Willson Endowment for International Relations, which will bring visiting scholars and international leaders to the center and develop international internship opportunities for UGA students.
"This gift will help build beneficial relations between the University of Georgia and the world," says Bertsch, who also teaches political science.
Established in 1987, the Center for International Trade and Security has dispatched students and staff members to China, Cuba, Europe, India, Japan, and Russia to serve as consultants and advisers.
The center's Nuclear Export Controls Team has placed graduate students in former Soviet states in an effort to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction—whether they be nuclear, chemical, biological, or missiles.
Willson, a trustee of the UGA Foundation, has a long-standing interest in international affairs and has participated in a number of international programs at UGA.
Olympian Teresa Edwards gives winter Commencement address
World-wise words
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 Edwards (BSEd '89), who has more Olympic experience than any basketball player, told the grads to go for their dreams. |
All eyes in Stegeman Coliseum were upon her, but Teresa Edwards looked completely comfortable. She was, after all, in familiar surroundings, and she handled the situation well, even though she wasn't there to shoot hoops.
Donning baccalaureate cap and gown, Edwards (BSEd '89), a two-time All-American at Georgia, came to offer inspiration and advice to the last UGA class to graduate before the end of the millennium. Her winter Commencement address included thoughts about her own success, both on and off the basketball court, and she challenged UGA's newest alumni to set their goals high and bring honor to themselves and to the University.
"Every dream is a complete circle," she said. "It was only a few years ago when I sat where you are sitting."
In completing that circle, Edwards has participated in more Olympics than any basketball player in history, male or female, winning three gold medals and two bronze. In recognition of her extraordinary accomplishments, Edwards was selected to take the Olympic oath on behalf of all the other athletes at the Opening Ceremonies of the '96 Games in Atlanta.
Despite all her international experience, Edwards told the graduates that some of her favorite memories came as a student at UGA: "I remember the Friday and Saturday nights . . . but I also remember the expectations of academic excellence from our faculty members."
Edwards urged the graduates to focus on themselves, saying, "In the end, you will be your biggest challenge, and it will be up to you to decide how you will influence society."
She said her own humble beginnings are an example of how far a UGA graduate can go in the world:
"If a skinny little girl from the small town of Cairo, Ga., can travel the world bouncing a basketball in five Olympic Games, winning five Olympic medals, then so can you. As you go for your dreams, take the strength of your roots—which is your family—and use the foundation of this wonderful University to reach your goal."
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 RENOIR AT GMOA (April 1-June 3) Renoir's Countryside and Haystacks (above) is part of the Georgia Museum of Art's Modern Masters: From Corot to Kandinsky exhibit, which includes 56 paintings that showcase the work of such European masters as Picasso, Gauguin, Chagall, Pissarro, and Magritte. Modern Masters runs from April 1-June 3 on East Campus. For information: 706/542-0451 or www.uga.edu/gamuseum. |
For the first time in UGA history, external funding for research topped $100 million during one fiscal year. For 1999-2000, UGA received $101.9 million in research awards, grants, and contracts. External research funding has nearly doubled since 1989-90, when UGA's total was $57.3 million.
And the beat goes on, with research awards for the first quarter of 2000-01 up 66 percent to $39.6 million.
"This is a very positive trend," says provost Karen Holbrook, whose office is responsible for UGA's research mission, "and I look forward to many more milestones of this kind."
UGA received $67.7 million from 25 different federal agencies, a 13.4 percent increase over the previous year. Funding from the National Institutes of Health increased nearly 30 percent in one year, from $11.67 million to $15.08 million. Additional funding came from foundations and other private sources, industry, and the state.
NIH funding reflects UGA's strength in biomedical research, says president Michael F. Adams.
"Biomedical research is the next great frontier," says Adams. "Across this campus—from biochemistry and human health research to pharmacy to behavioral science—UGA is engaged in a variety of biomedical and human health research."
John Egerton, author of Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, delivered the Ralph McGill Lecture on Nov. 15 in the Chapel.
Howard Baker, who was both majority and minority leader during his three terms in the U.S. Senate, gave a Charter Lecture on Jan. 23 at the Chapel. The Republican from Tennessee was introduced by his former chief of staff, UGA president Michael F. Adams.