Campus NewsSeptember 2003: Vol. 82, No. 4

UGA in the news

On May 28, The Washington Post reported on a trend of businesses from Latino countries breaking into the U.S. market. The article cited a recent study by UGA's Selig Center for Economic Growth, which estimated the disposable income of U.S. Hispanics at nearly $600 billion. The study was also cited in articles by the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe.


On July 23, USA Today reported on a marital happiness study co-authored by W. Keith Campbell of UGA's psychology department. The research indicated that wealthy couples who have children experience a much larger drop in satisfaction with their marriage than middle-class couples do—22 percent for wealthy couples versus 7 percent for middle-class couples. The study also shows a drop in parents' marital satisfaction over the last 40 years. "We suspect that there is some role conflict going on," says Campbell, noting that women today "are used to a professional life; a fun, active, entertaining life" and feel torn when children arrive.


A May 25 New York Times book review featured Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1860-1901, written by Michael E. Lomax of UGA's department of physical education and sports studies. The book is a history of African Americans in baseball before integration, when blacks were migrating to the North. The book shows how at first the game had to appeal to white audiences to succeed, given the relative poverty of black fans.


A July 9 story on Forbes.com discussed how businesses are moving away from stock options as employee compensation and towards granting actual shares in the company. Stock options, which the article calls "the rocket fuel of the late 1990s stock boom," represent only a possible sale. Besides simplifying accounting, stock grants retain some value for employees in a falling market, said UGA' accounting professor Dennis Beresford: "If the accounting choice is eliminated, then they are going to think a lot harder about which one gives better motivation."


A June 15 story in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Antebellum and up-to-date in Athens" chronicled the many charms of Athens. The writer was impressed with the Classic City's Greek architecture and "small-town ambience." Three days later, on June 18, the Times reported on a fledgling field of scholarship: analyzing television, from "gender roles as played out in soap operas to . . . how voters are influenced by late-night comedians." The increasing effects of television on culture and the relatively new ability to record and archive shows have helped to push television studies to a level once reserved only for films. Horace Newcomb, director of the UGA-sponsored Peabody Awards, was quoted as saying the timing is right: "There's nothing that says academia has got to wait. It was a long time before Faulkner got taught in universities and that was a mistake."

Second-floor blaze destroys government documents; special collections are safe
Library damaged by fire

Library faculty and staff worked hard to get operations back to normal before the start of classes in the wake of a July 23 arson fire. A 19-year-old Oglethorpe County resident is in custody, charged with setting the blaze; a motive is not known and no damage estimate has been finalized.

Firefighters contained the blaze to a relatively small area of the second floor of the annex, a nine-story addition built in the early 1970s. Heavy smoke blanketed the building with a sticky soot residue, requiring each of the 2.2 million volumes to be cleaned individually. Tens of thousands of feet of ductwork and a 135-foot elevator shaft have also been painstakingly cleaned. More than 67,000 ceiling tiles will be replaced, as well as more than 100 light fixtures.

Disaster Services Inc., a recovery firm already on campus in response to flooding at the vet school (see story below), was on site as soon as word of the fire spread through campus.

"It's sobering what has to be done to the collection," says William Potter, university librarian and associate provost. "We're shocked and depressed. It's good knowing we're working with people who have been through this before."

Lost in the fire were hundreds of boxes of United Nations documents recently returned from an off-site repository. There is also concern about damage to 10,000 volumes of the "Serial Set," which contain U.S. Senate and House reports and documents from 1789-present.

Fiftieth-anniversary celebrations will continue this fall for the original main library building, named for Ilah Dunlap Little. That building, which houses the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library and most of the office space, is on a separate heating/air system and sustained minimal smoke damage. The new Student Learning Center was pressed into early service as contractors were putting on the finishing touches to accommodate students needing study space and electronic resources. The second floor of the annex will remain unavailable for perhaps three months.

"There are a lot of things that have to work together for the cleanup to be completed on time," says Mark Komich, founder of Disaster Services. "Anything that is disturbing to library operations is being done at night. The equipment we use is designed to run 24 hours a day for many, many days."

To rid the building of contamination, material from the second floor—including 400,000 government document pieces and 85,000 volumes dealing with education, testing, and recreation disciplines—were moved to a remote location to be assessed and either cleaned or rebound.

Larry Ward, DSI vice president, praises Potter and the library's administrative staff:

"You've got one of the best leaders we've seen in a crisis situation. Usually these situations are just chaos and that is not the situation here. We'll get this job done. As a matter of fact, you're getting one heck of a spring cleaning."

—Jean Cleveland (ABJ '81)

Heavy rain floods basement offices and labs; damage: $2.2 million
Vet college under water

The skies opened over Athens at about 10 p.m. on July 1, eventually adding more than five inches of rain to already soaked ground. The downpour overwhelmed storm drains, and a torrent of water plunged into the basement level of the College of Veterinary Medicine, damaging the pathology department and radiology laboratories.

The result: about $2 million worth of damage, the relocation of faculty and staff, and the loss of priceless hours of research.

People on the scene reported refrigerators, computers, and other equipment floating in more than five feet of water. The most important piece of equipment in the clinical chemistry laboratory—worth $100,000—was destroyed by the flood. The Radiology Service's imaging area, including CT scanners and ultrasound equipment, was out of service for more than a week.

Barry Harmon, pathology department head, was on the scene to help. He and more than 50 faculty and staff had to move temporarily to an adjoining building. They left an area of peeling wallpaper, with all their belongings in boxes stacked up on any and all surfaces above soggy, dirty floors.

Long past midnight, faculty members—aided by Dean Keith Prasse and Stuart Ivy, head of information technology—lifted computers and other important equipment onto desks and tabletops. A pathology resident opened a glass door, which enabled water to drain out of a hallway and through another door to the outside, preventing damage to other rooms.

Zhen Fu, a pathology professor whose lab took the brunt of the deluge, says he lost six months of research data from his computer and notebooks. He has applied to the National Institutes of Health for additional support to help recover the work he lost.

A variety of disaster services responded quickly to calls for help. One company salvaged water-logged computers, recovering data on at least three or four hard drives that had been completely submerged.

"I was here during the flood of '78," says Prasse. "That time, we cleaned out the mud pretty much ourselves, with help only from physical plant. We were still carrying out moldy rugs months afterward. This time, there was a real system in place to help."

—Dot Sparer

New look for UGA home page (www.uga.edu)

The University's home page has a new look. The redesign, which went on line Aug. 3, was developed over the summer by Janet Beckley, a designer in the UGA News Service. "The idea was to be more visual," says Chuck Toney, director of the news service, "and to communicate strategic messages, while still being navigable."

The new home page is UGA's fifth. Home page No. 4 had been in service since March 30, 1999, according to Bert DeSimone, director of communications for UGA's Enterprise Information Technology Services. DeSimone has been guiding the University's Web presence since the end of 1994, when UGA launched its first home page.

The popular news site "UGA Today" (www.uga.edu/news) has also been redesigned to coordinate with the new University home page. It will still feature UGA-related news stories plus access to news releases, special advisories, special reports, as well as links to Georgia Magazine and UGA's faculty-staff newspaper, Columns.

University of Nebraska administrator has degrees in psychology, sociology
New diversity head

Keith D. Parker, who helped develop and manage diversity programs at the University of Nebraska for the past 10 years, is UGA's new associate provost for institutional diversity.


Keith Parker
At a June 27 press conference, President Michael Adams noted that Parker's appointment came the same week as the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the careful use of affirmative action in college admissions. "I believe when we look back five to 10 years from now," said Adams, "we will see this as a very significant week in improving diversity at the University of Georgia."

Parker was selected from a group of 100 candidates and five finalists identified during an extensive national search headed by Art Dunning, vice president for public service and outreach (see p. 14). He is the first full-time head of UGA's Office of Institutional Diversity, which opened its doors in the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building in March 2002. He succeeds Rodney Bennett, dean of students, and Louis Castenell, dean of the College of Education, each of whom held the position on an interim basis.

A native of Mississippi, Parker came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993 as director of African-American and African Studies, and he held a number of other administrative posts. His responsibilities included the coordination of a collaborative program with partner universities to encourage underrepresented students to pursue carers in science and engineering. He has also spoken and written widely about such topics as educational opportunities for African Americans and health and crime issues for minorities.

At UGA, Parker will provide leadership in developing campuswide programs to support equity and diversity among students, faculty, and staff. "The Office of Institutional Diversity is a key component to our commitment to enhancing a culture of inclusiveness within the UGA community," said President Adams.

Parker said he is looking forward to getting ideas and suggestions from his UGA colleagues. "I feel like the infrastructure is in place here," he said, "but I need to hear what the foot soldiers have to say."

Parker said that his efforts will include "stepping up exposure of middle-school and high-school students to UGA so they will make the decision that we're a much more inclusive, more equitable institution than when Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes entered 40 years ago."

—Sharron Hannon

Yegidis will focus on issues such as promotion and tenure guidelines
Social work dean to academic affairs

Bonnie Yegidis, dean of UGA's School of Social Work since 1995, has been named associate vice president for academic affairs and associate provost.


Bonnie Yegidis
"Dr. Yegidis possesses a wide array of expertise and administrative experience at UGA and other institutions, which will be a valued asset to the provost's office," says Provost Arnett Mace. "In addition, she is very knowledgeable about the University of Georgia, and her expertise in the social sciences will be very beneficial."

Yegidis is the co-author of numerous books, book chapters, reviews, and articles published in peer reviewed journals. Her book, Research Methods for Social Workers, is in its fourth edition. She has presented at various international, national and regional conferences and has been the principal investigator on several large contracts in Florida and Georgia.

Active in the development and promotion of social work education at the national level, Yegidis has twice served as a member of the Educational Policy Commission and the Commission on the Role and Status of Women for the Council on Social Work Education. The Council on Social Work Education named Yegidis a "master teacher" in the area of research methods. In 1998, the Georgia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers named her Social Worker of the Year. She is on the board of directors of the Family Counseling Center in Athens and is on the executive board of the Athens Justice Project.

Yegidis' duties as associate provost will include evaluation and development of academic program priorities, leadership in review and revision of promotion and tenure guidelines, recommendations and support for implementation of new initiatives and programs for elimination, evaluation of methods/processes for enrollment management, development of strategic recommendations for processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness of academic programs, evaluation of recommendations to increase service learning, and precollegiate programs.

—Kim Cretors (AB '89)

Iraq, U.S. economy are top concerns, according to survey by Vinson Institute
Peach State Poll

While concern about the war in Iraq was first on the minds of Georgians in March 2003, they now see the economy as the most pressing problem at home, with primary concern about the state budget and taxes. In the latest Peach State Poll, one in four Georgians cited the economy and jobs as the most important issue confronting the state. Seventy percent of the public rated the current economic conditions in the state as either fair (51 percent) or poor (18 percent).

Blacks in Georgia are far more likely than whites to express dismay with economic conditions in the state, according to the recent poll. Thirty-seven percent of blacks in the state cited the economy as the most important problem, as compared to 22 percent of whites. Twenty-five percent of blacks rate current economic conditions in the state as poor, as compared to only 15 percent of whites.

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

Other survey results include:

This data is taken from a Peach State Poll survey conducted between March 31 and April 6, 2003. The poll included 800 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/- 3.5 percent.

The Carl Vinson Institute of Government, a public service and outreach unit of the University of Georgia, has as part of its mission to provide policymakers with systematic, objective research to inform policy decisions. In accordance with that mission, the Peach State Poll aims to give voice to the public on important policy matters and issues pertaining to political, social, and economic life in Georgia.

—Ann Allen (ABJ '78)

Commission on Colleges "impressed with quality, frankness, organization" of UGA's five-year effort
Self Study gets high marks

The University's self study has officially come to a close with the chief accrediting agency issuing high marks and words of praise for the quality of UGA's work.

James T. Rogers, executive director of the SACS Commission on Colleges, was "impressed with the quality, frankness and organization" of UGA's self-study.

UGA is required to conduct a self study every 10 years to retain accreditation from SACS. The self study demonstrates that the University complies with specific SACS standards for academic and administrative functions. Rogers' letter closes the book on a process that began in late 1998 when UGA began its self study, an in-depth look at virtually every aspect of the University's operations.

Prior to the self study process, president Michael F. Adams requested and received permission from SACS to use an "alternative model" that focused the self study on one of the University's central goals: improving the educational experience of undergraduate students. Adams appointed Robert Boehmer, a legal studies professor in UGA's Terry College of Business, to direct the process. The alternative plan centered on four areas that strongly impact undergraduate education: physical facilities, undergraduate research, information technology and general factors that affect the quality of the undergraduate experience.

In early 2001, a SACS review team composed of officials from several leading institutions came to UGA to talk with faculty, students and staff and to review a three-volume report containing findings of the self study. Later that year, SACS formally reaffirmed UGA's accreditation. But that wasn't the end of the process.

The review team issued its own report that included five commendations for outstanding performance—which Rogers said is an unusual number for a SACS report. Three of those commendations were for the University's efforts to enhance undergraduate education. One applauds the decision to focus the self study on the undergraduate experience, and cites the Office of Instructional Support and Development and UGA's Teaching Academy for contributing to better undergraduate learning. Another cites UGA's residential initiative, which brings instruction, research, advising, and other education activities into residence halls. A third praises UGA for creating a "holistic learning environment" through such programs as the Honors Program and the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities.

The other commendations were for physical plant's maintenance of "beautiful campus grounds" and for the excellence of continuing education and public service and outreach programs.

—Larry Dendy (ABJ '65)

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