March 2003: Vol. 82, No. 2March 2003: Vol. 82, No. 2State funds reduced by 9.52 percent; operating capital is $40.3 million less
State of the University: strong despite budget cuts
(Excerpted from President Michael F. Adams' State of the University address, which was delivered on Jan. 9. For complete text, go to www.uga.edu/news.)
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 Michael F. Adams |
As we begin the year 2003 and mark the 218th anniversary of our charter, I can report to you that the state of the University is strong despite a number of external factors which give rise to a prudent sense of concern.
A colleague of mine, John A. White, chancellor of the University of Arkansas, began a similar address by quoting the opening line of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."
(I might add here that on the night of the SEC Championship game in Atlanta, it was the best of times for the Bulldogs and the worst of times for the Razorbacks!)
Over the past 15 months, we have faced a round of budget cuts that now threaten to impact our core missions of teaching, research and service:
External funding for research has increased by almost 54 percent over the past three fiscal years, with particularly significant increases in funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Perhaps most noteworthy is the fact that during the steepest downturn in the U.S. economy in decades, we recorded the best fund-raising year in our history. Gifts and pledges to the University of Georgia totaled $62.7 million. I am deeply humbled by the commitment to this institution shown by our alumni, friends and supporters, for during a time in which each dollar became a little more precious, they chose to demonstrate their support for the University with more than mere words. Such good news does not happen by accident, and I want to acknowledge the work of Dr. Steve Wrigley and the entire development staff.
We cannot, however, rest on these laurels. Just as we expect more of our students as their overall quality continues to rise, so must we also count on increased support from our alumni, supporters and friends. The need for external support at this institution has never been greater. One of the lessons we are learning during this budget challenge is that our endowment is not sufficient to cushion the sting of the cuts we have absorbed. An increase in the availability of unrestricted funds is also essential if we are to maintain our pursuit of excellence in difficult times. We are in need of annual gifts, major gifts for buildings and programs, and deferred gifts for endowment strength.
The sort of success we have enjoyed in research funding and private support is what I've come to expect from this team and what I count on for the future. The successes we've had over the past five years, as recorded in the President's Annual Report, are not my successes, but our successes. The complexity and magnitude and breadth and depth of this institution require that we have good people in place in every position and that those people work in harmony toward a common set of goals.
The recognition that the University of Georgia has received—most notably a third consecutive U.S. News & World Report top-20 ranking among public research universities—is the result of that campus-wide cooperative effort. Our efforts to sustain the momentum we have enjoyed in minority student recruitment have received national praise and have been cited as a model for other universities in such publications as The Oregonian, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Perception is catching up with the reality that we are aggressively and effectively identifying, recruiting and enrolling minority students at the University of Georgia.
Memorial to Gordon Jones
The atrium in UGA's historic administration building has been named in honor of the late Gordon Jones (BSC '41) of Atlanta, a long-time business and civic leader in the state. Portraits of several past UGA presidents hang in the atrium, and it has been named the Gordon Jones Gallery. The gallery is a memorial to Jones from his family, which recently donated $500,000 to the University. The gift is unrestricted and will be used to meet UGA's most pressing academic needs. Jones, who died in 1996, was for 25 years president and CEO of Bank South and its predecessors, Fulton National Bank of Atlanta and Fulton National Corp. He was a former member and vice chairman of the UGA Foundation and served on the Alumni Society Board of Managers. He received the Alumni Society's Alumni Merit Award in 1981.
Center for Biomedical/Health Sciences expected to be done by spring 2005
Coverdell building groundbreaking
Groundbreaking for the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences took place on Jan. 22 with a pair of distinguished speakers—Gov. Sonny Perdue (DVM '71) and former Sen. Phil Gramm (BBA '64, PhD '67) of Texas—praising their alma mater for its foresight in naming such an important scientific center after the late senator from Georgia.
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 Mrs. Nancy Coverdell assists President Adams, former Sen. Phil Gramm, Gov. Sonny Perdue, and a number of UGA administrators in breaking ground for the new Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. |
The U.S. Congress and the Georgia General Assembly are each providing $10 million for the center. UGA will raise another $20 million through gifts, grants, and contracts. Sen. Zell Miller (AB '57, MA '58) and Gramm were instrumental in securing the federal funds.
Coverdell served in the U.S. Senate from 1992 until his death in July 2000, and also served as director of the Peace Corps. He was a valued friend of UGA and a strong supporter of education in Georgia and the U.S. He was especially effective in shepherding UGA requests for federal support on appropriations matters and legislative initiatives. Several UGA research facilities—including the Animal Health Research Center and the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry—exist, in large part, because of his influence in working with the Senate Appropriations and Energy committees.
Coverdell also had a strong interest in agriculture, and as chair of the Senate Agriculture subcommittee on marketing, inspection and product promotion helped implement policies and programs that benefitted Georgia farmers. He also helped UGA scientists secure federal funds for agricultural research that helped increase the quality and yields of such vital crops as tomatoes, Vidalia onions and forest products.
Construction on the Coverdell Center is expected to begin this summer and be complete by spring of 2005.
"Academically superior" expected to fill 75-80% of fall '03 class
Early-action admissions plan
The University instituted a revised process for undergraduate admissions for fall 2003 that gathered more individual details about applicants and offered them the option of receiving an early decision as to whether their application had been accepted or rejected.
Some 5,000 first-year applications were submitted by the early-action deadline of Nov. 1, and those students began receiving decision letters in mid-December. About half of the group—those rated "academically superior" based on grades in core academic courses, rigor of curriculum, and performance on the SAT I or ACT—was offered admission, according to Nancy McDuff, director of undergraduate admissions.
This is the first time that the University has offered a non-binding, early-action process.
Decisions on students rated "academically competitive" under the early-action plan were deferred to the regular decision process, which is now under way following the Feb. 1 regular application deadline for summer and fall 2003. All prospective first-year students will receive final decisions by the beginning of April.
Both early-action and regular-decision applicants used a new application form, the result of recommendations to the admissions office from a faculty task force that sought to define desired characteristics of the University student body and to devise ways to identify individuals with those characteristics.
The new form included a short-answer section that asked students what they expect to contribute to the campus community and also asked them to describe an intercultural experience that had a personal impact on them. Applicants also were asked for a 300- to 500-word essay describing their leadership skills, personal integrity or initiative, or identifying a political, environmental, spiritual or social issue they would be willing to fight for.
The form also asked applicants for new demographic information, including if the applicant works to support their family or serves as a care-giver at home.
"The goal is to be able to make better admissions decisions," says Del Dunn, vice president for instruction and the person who chaired the faculty group that worked on the admissions revisions.
All applications receive an initial screening and classification as "academically superior" or "academically competitive" or "not competitive." The number of applicants rated "academically superior" is expected to fill approximately 75-80 percent of the fall '03 class.
Further evaluation of the "academically competitive" group is conducted with an eye toward students who exhibit characteristics such as intellectual curiosity, integrity, personal maturity, creativity, commitment to service and citizenship, ability to overcome hardship, and a respect for cultural differences.
Applicant files rated "not competitive" undergo a second review by faculty members to confirm that there is no exceptional circumstance that would qualify those persons for further consideration. Barring such a finding, they are denied admission.
Bringing additional degree programs to heavily populated metro area
UGA at Gwinnett
UGA will expand its offerings at the Gwinnett University Center with the addition of three new undergraduate programs for fall 2003. The programs include an interdisciplinary studies degree with an emphasis in social sciences offered through the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and teacher certification programs in science education and special education offered through UGA's College of Education.
"With the addition of these new programs, UGA continues to expand the range of higher education opportunities in this heavily populated area of metro Atlanta," says Bob Boehmer, UGA's senior administrator for the Gwinnett programs.
The University has been providing graduate degree programs and continuing education in Gwinnett since 1984, when the University System Board of Regents first established the Gwinnett University Center as a locus for such activity. Graduate degree programs have been offered through the College of Education in a variety of fields, including adult education, early childhood education, educational leadership, instructional technology, middle school education and occupational studies. Other graduate degree offerings include master's in social work, food technology, and public administration, plus an evening MBA program for working professionals.
Last fall, the University launched three undergraduate degree progams in business, science, and education at the Gwinnett University Center, which moved to a new location at Collins Hill Road and Highway 316 in January 2002. UGA's undergraduate programs in Gwinnett are open to transfer students, as well as students who already hold a bachelor's degree and are seeking a second degree. Transfer students must have completed at least 60 hours of transferable course work at other institutions and earned at least a 2.5 GPA.
The standards for admission to UGA's undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Gwinnett are on par with the standards at UGA's main campus in Athens. Those interested in pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree must meet the criteria for admission into the specific degree program they wish to pursue. The degree earned is a University of Georgia degree, though coursework is delivered in a setting other than Athens.
For more information, visit www.uga.edu/gwinnett.
Honoring Pierre Daura
 Martha at Table. 1933. Oil on canvas, Martha Daura collection |
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UGA's Georgia Museum of Art has received a gift estimated at $6.3 million from Martha Daura of Vero Beach, Fla. Established in honor of her father, artist Pierre Daura, the gift includes works of art and a cash gift of $2 million. The endowment will be used to create the Pierre Daura Center in the museum and for a Daura Curator of European Art.
Martha Daura announced the gift in November at the eighth biennial Elegant Salute, a fund-raising event sponsored by the Friends of the GMOA. "I am very pleased, indeed honored, that the Georgia Museum of Art, with an extensive and representative collection of art by my father, will become the center for the Daura scholarship."
Pierre Daura is an important figure in 20th-century art. He was one of the founders of the group Cercle et Carré, which believed the geometric purity of the circle and the square could be used to enrich the work of Modernist artists. Daura produced a body of work representative of early globalism with its references to North American and European culture.
Hollowell receives honorary degree; Ward, Hunter-Gault deliver lectures
Honoring our heritage
Donald Hollowell, the attorney who helped integrate the University in 1961, received an honorary degree from UGA at winter commencement ceremonies on Dec. 21. At a dinner held in his honor two nights earlier, Hollowell—who was celebrating his 85th birthday—said:
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 Hollowell (center), who received an honorary degree from the UGA on Dec. 21, said he would "recommend almost anyone who wanted a good education to come to the University of Georgia." |
Ward gives Holmes-Hunter Lecture
When Horace T. Ward, the first African American to apply for admission to UGA, was denied entry to law school in 1950, he spent the next seven years fighting the ruling in court. The case was eventually ruled moot because, by that time, he was a law student at Northwestern University. But it would not be long before Ward returned to Georgia to practice law.
In '61, he helped Hamilton Holmes (BS '63) and Charlayne Hunter (ABJ '63) become the first African-American students to gain admission to the university that had denied him entrance more than a decade earlier.
On Jan. 21 of this year, Ward, who went on to a distinguished career as a state senator and federal judge, delivered the 18th annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture, which was established in 1985 and focuses on race relations, black history, or aspects of higher education with implications for race relations. Past lecturers have included Andrew Young, Cynthia Tucker, Vernon Jordan, and Jesse Jackson.
Hunter-Gault is Snyder Lecturer
February was Black History Month, and UGA's celebration was scheduled to include the Daryl Snyder Lecture, delivered by Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief, who earned two Peabody Awards for her coverage of Africa. In 2001, Hunter-Gault delivered the Holmes-Hunter Lecture as part of UGA's commemoration of the 40th anniversary of desegregation (see www.uga.edu/news/desegregation). During the commemoration, the building where she and Holmes registered for classes was renamed the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building.
Holmes, who died in 1995, was the first African-American admitted to Emory University's School of Medicine. He became an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta and was associate dean of the Emory medical school and chairman of the orthopedic unit of Grady Memorial Hospital. In 1983, he became the first African-American trustee for the UGA Foundation.