September 1998: Vol. 77, No. 4

University mourns Terry When Herman Terry died on June 1, UGA lost a man described by his friend Howard Berk as "someone you didn't have to lean on to provide financial support. It was part of his character." Terry became ill while on a European cruise with his wife, Mary Virginia, and died from respiratory complications at a hospital in the Madeira Islands. Terry (BSC '39) made his fortune in insurance, and in 1990 he and his wife gave the business college a $6 million gift to support faculty chairs and student grants. At the time, it was the largest cash gift in UGA history. In 1991, the college was named the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business. "Herman Terry loved the University," says Berk (ABJ '48), director of UGA's Creative Development Unit. "It fulfilled a great need for him to believe in something wonderful and prestigious." A native of Ray City, Terry joined the Commercial Investment Trust Corp. in Thomasville in 1939. In 1941, he was transferred to Jacksonville, where he married the former Mary Virginia Williams. Over the next 50 years, he held executive positions with several insurance firms, including a stint as president of Dependable Insurance in Jacksonville. The business college used the Terrys' gift to create professorial chairs in each of the college's six departments. The gift also provides salary supplements for teaching and research, and financial assistance to outstanding grad students. The Terrys made additional gifts to endow a chair in the name of J. Don Edwards, professor of accounting and acting dean for the past two years. "Herman Terry was committed to the University in every way," says President Michael Adams. "He helped us build the Butts-Mehre athletic hall and provided money for the Georgia Student Educational Fund, which assists UGA athletes. He also provided money for UGA's general scholarship fund." Terry was an emeritus trustee of the UGA Foundation, and in 1986 he received the business college's Distinguished Alumnus Award. They said it Ellen DeGeneres DeGeneres won a Peabody Award for "Ellen," which had already been cancelled by ABC. As a writer, a producer, and star of the first TV show with a gay lead character, DeGeneres thanked the Peabody Board for recognizing the quality behind the controversy. "This really has been a tough year for me. It will all go away, and this moment will remain with me always. It's such a bright spot to receive this kind of honor when the show has gone, and what you're saying is not only did we do something important, but we did it good." UFO Guys It was an extraterrestrial double feature May 26 when Robert Hastings and Bud Hopkins entertained an audience in Georgia Hall with tales of flying saucers and alien abductions. Since witnessing a UFO in 1967, Hastings has been compiling government documents on UFOs. Hopkins, author of Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abductions, is known as the patron saint of alien abductees. Hastings; "It's no coincidence that the UFO phenomenon has greatly accelerated its activity and interaction with humans in the mid-20th century when we acquired nuclear power. There is a definite link . . . Hopkins: "We have enormous amounts of evidence that huge numbers of humans are being abducted. What seems to be happening is that UFO occupants are taking reproductive material from us and mixing it with their own DNA, as if they need to vivify their species . . . They are producing a hybrid mix." Earl Leonard Earl Leonard (ABJ '58, LLB '61) is senior vice president for corporate affairs of the Coca-Cola Company. He taught journalism while he was in law school and was press secretary to U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell. On campus for the dedication of the Coca-Cola Refreshment Center (see below), Leonard told an auditorium full of students what they're likely to face in the 21st century business world, and then entertained questions--one of which had to do with a new soft-drink competitor for Coca-Cola. Q: "Mr. Leonard, what do you think of Virgin Coke?" A: "We spill more than they sell." James Carville James Carville, 53, a political consultant who has managed more big-time campaigns than anyone in history--including those of President Clinton and Georgia governor Zell Miller--addressed a huge crowd at the Tate Center on May 12. On politicians: "There has been an assault in the past 10 to 15 years on all things political. I actually like politicians. They dare to fail publicly. If they're willing to fail publicly and take all the blame, isn't it fair that if something goes right you give them half the credit?" On young people and politics: "You have a perfect right not to be involved, not to vote. But I think you should be careful about confusing having the right to do something with the right thing to do." On returning serious debate to politics: "I think we ought to go back to a time when we made fools instead of criminals out of our political opponents. I would love to engage in a battlefield of big ideas."

New provost has "can-do attitude"

In three years as vice president for research at Florida, Holbrook raised research awards from $193.5 million to $255.9 million--and licensing agreements on UF inventions from $5.2 million to $18 million. She also headed Florida's graduate school.

When an associate vice president uses a football analogy to describe how deeply the University of Florida will miss Karen Holbrook, it's apparent that UGA's new provost and senior vice president for academic affairs is someone special.

"It's the worst thing that's happened since Herschel Walker scored four touchdowns against us," says Arnold Heggestad, who worked for Holbrook in UF's office of research.

Heggestad's aggravation is understandable, given that in three years as vice president for research at UF, Holbrook raised research awards from $193.5 million to $255.9 million. Licensing agreements on UF inventions swelled from $5.2 million to $18 million, and Holbrook also headed Florida's graduate school. It was this combination of skills in research and academics that attracted UGA's attention.

"The chemistry between us was the best," said President Adams when he introduced Holbrook at a press conference in June. "You will immediately like her, as I did, and we are in a business where I frankly like to like the people with whom I spend this much time."

A cell biologist whose expertise lies in the embryonic development of human skin, Holbrook will head the University's day-to-day operations and serve as second in command to President Adams. As senior vice president for academic affairs, she will be UGA's top academic official.

"Those descriptions of me working 18 hours a day seven days a week are pretty accurate," says Holbrook, whose explanation for working that hard is simple and to the point: "I love what I do. It's fun for me."

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Holbrook, 55, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin. After teaching a host of science courses at Ripon (Wis.) College, where she was voted top teacher, Holbrook left in 1969 to get her doctorate in biological structure at the University of Washington. She and her husband loved Seattle, but even in the Pacific Northwest there was foreshadowing that she would end up in Georgia.

"We had these friends who were Georgia grads," Holbrook recalls, "and we were always kidding them about wearing their Bulldog sweatshirts in the middle of Husky territory. They were so loyal to the University of Georgia--and now I work here!"

When it appeared that UF President John Lombardi might be stepping down earlier this year, Holbrook was mentioned as a candidate to serve as interim president. Like President Adams, she is well connected in Washington, D.C., and she says that her days as a teaching assistant, instructor, and associate professor will serve her well in dealings with UGA faculty.

Heggestad knows Holbrook as well as anyone at UF, and he has told reporters that her greatest strength is her "can-do attitude." Her greatest weakness, he says, is that she works too hard. "There's an old management directive that says a manager should never leave a meeting with something to do. Karen always leaves with something to do."
Kent Hannon

Alumni Center

If you're wondering where the center of alumni involvement and socializing will be in the 21st century, look to your left as you come off the bypass at the College Station Road exit. That's where the $15 million UGA Alumni Center will be located--overlooking Lake Herrick with a heritage hall and meeting rooms galore. Sonny Seiler (BBA '56, JD '57), chair of the fundraising committee, says: "We're so excited about it, we can't stand it."

Semester switch brings changes big and small

No doubt you've heard by now. The University's three 10-week academic quarters have been replaced by two 15-week semesters. There will be 7,000 course sections offered each semester, rather than 5,500 each quarter. A bachelor's degree that once required 182 quarter credits now requires 120 semester credits. And the school year will switch from September-June to August-May.

The biggest change for students is that most courses will meet two or three times a week instead of five. And in December and May, most students will study for five finals instead of three. "Students are nervous," says Arts and Sciences advisor Leigh Holland. "Having to take five classes instead of three seems to be a big deal." Associate dean George Francisco, who assisted in the pharmacy school's semester switch in 1995, echoes Holland's concerns: "We had some students used to quarters whose stamina went down after 10 weeks."

Despite the sheer enormity of the change, most say good planning has paid off in a relatively smooth semester switch.

"It's been a lot smoother than I expected," says assistant vice president for academic affairs Tom Bowen, who says the addition of Sanford Hall's classrooms helped ease overflow and prevent the use of temporary facilities.

"The one thing it's going to be better for is teaching grad students," says history professor Bryant Simon. "It will allow time to research and think, and the quality of individual projects will go up."

But the decrease in weekly class meetings is a drawback, says Simon: "Under quarters, I'd lecture four days a week, and a graduate student would lead a discussion section the other day. Now I'll lecture two days a week. There was something good about the intense contact hours--a kind of immersion."

Capitalizing on the semester switch, many academic departments have seized the once-in-a-lifetime chance to make sweeping curriculum changes, says associate registrar Gary Moore.

Also, this fall the entire University switched to a system-wide core curriculum. The advantage of the system-wide core, says associate vice president for academic affairs James Fletcher, is that it drastically improves the transferability of students among Georgia's colleges and universities. In other words, students at DeKalb College will now have the same opportunity to gain entrance into a major at UGA as "native" UGA students.

The disadvantage, says Fletcher, is that because the core curriculum comprises a hefty 60 credit hours, students won't begin work in their majors until junior year. Students refused entrance--35 majors are currently "restricted"--may reapply or choose another major. But they cannot remain at UGA indefinitely without actually being in a major.

Judging these changes in light of the University's history, Fletcher says: "One way of thinking of it is to look at how many changes in curriculum occur each year--about 15 to 20 percent. This is 100 percent."

The University System's new core curriculum, along with semester calendars for 1998 and 1999, the daily class schedule, and answers to frequently asked questions are listed at http://bulletin.uga.edu/.
Laura Wexler

Delta Prize board meets to consider nominees

A selection board appointed by President Michael Adams to choose the first recipient of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding met in Atlanta this summer to consider nominees for the award, which will be presented for the first time at a ceremony in Atlanta next spring.

The newly created award is admini-stered by two UGA faculty members: Gary Bertsch, director of the Center for International Trade and Security, and Betty Jean Craige, director of the Center for Humanities and Arts. Their proposal to the Delta Air Lines Foundation brought an $890,000 grant to UGA to establish the Delta Prize program, which is intended to recognize groups or individuals for "globally significant efforts that provide opportunities for greater understanding among nations and cultures."

In addition to Adams, Bertsch, and Craige, the selection board includes Charles B. Knapp, former UGA president and now president of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. Prominent alumni tapped for service include Morris Abram, Billy Payne, Charles Sanford Jr., and Joe Frank Harris.

Other members of the board include Maurice Worth, COO, Delta Air Lines Inc.; John Clendenin, former chairman of BellSouth; Anne Cox Chambers, director of Cox Enterprises and chair of Atlanta Newspapers; Jane Wales, director of the Project on World Security at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and CNN anchor and senior correspondent Judy Woodruff.
Sharron Hannon

Barks, Madonna & Demi translate Rumi to CD

It wasn't greeted with R.E.M.-type lines at local music stores, but the release of a new CD titled "A Gift of Love" attracted the attention of some people on campus--including Coleman Barks' former colleagues on the English faculty. Barks, who retired recently after 30 years of teaching, has published 14 books of translations of the poetry of 13th century Sufi mystic, Rumi. His translations are currently touring the world in Philip Glass' musical "Monsters of Grace." And last spring, Barks appeared on "A Gift of Love," which features Madonna, Demi Moore, Deepak Chopra, Rosa Parks, Debra Winger, and Goldie Hawn reading Rumi's sacred and erotic poems.
Laura Wexler

Coca-Cola Center opens in Sanford Hall

Coke breaks are a lot easier to take these days, thanks to a $500,000 gift from the Coca-Cola Foundation, part of which was used to construct the Coca-Cola Refreshment Center in Sanford Hall. Students flocked to the new business college facility for the grand opening on May 15, where free Coke products and souvenirs were dispensed. The 1,500-square-foot center has contour-bottle-shaped tables and five TVs mounted in the ceiling. "You gotta love it!" said sophomore Jud Whitney. "It sure beats the hallway we had in Caldwell Hall," said junior Melissa IntVeldt.

Commemorative Cokes, each one emblazoned with the date and a special logo, were a popular item at the grand opening of the Coca-Cola Refreshment Center at Sanford Hall, located next to Brooks Hall on North Campus.

Prokasy bids adieu with "Agenda for Near Future"

William Prokasy ended 10 years as vice president for academic affairs with a speech entitled "An Agenda for the Near Future" in which he outlined a number of steps that UGA could take to become more student-centered. His recommendations included the following:

A university as large as ours is never going to be easy to navigate, but we can cut through the bureaucracy:

• Develop a core curriculum that has minimal adverse impact when students change majors.
• Reduce the number of specific course requirements for graduation to give students more latitude to shape an academic program to their interests and needs.
• Identify the ways in which majors can be accommodated in high-demand areas without extending the time and cost of an education.

We need to establish standards to minimize large-scale disparities in average GPA assigned by different instructors of the same course.

• Instructor A's grading may result in an average course GPA of 2.24, while Instructor B's grading may result in a GPA of 3.12. And the disparity is not attributable to differences in student talent or performance.

Assure all freshmen of at least one seminar-style interaction with faculty.

• I also encourage faculty to have more non-credit interaction with students.

Because of the low correlation between majors and what graduates are actually doing five years out of school, give students more latitude to design their own majors.

• This would provide options for degrees otherwise not possible with current limits on selected majors, and would also encourage joint faculty-student planning of a degree program.

Banner year: UGA hits academic grand slam

UGA hit an academic grand slam this year, becoming the only university in America to collect four top faculty-student honors.

Ed Larson, professor of history and law, won the Pulitzer Prize for history. Susan Wessler, Research Professor of botany and genetics, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Wyatt Anderson, professor of genetics and dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And Scott Hershovitz, a Duluth senior, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

UCLA and Brown came closest to matching UGA's feat. UCLA had a Pulitzer Prize winner, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, but no Rhodes Scholar. Brown had a Rhodes Scholar, a Pulitzer recipient and a member of AAAS, but no NAS member.

Costello is new senior VP for external affairs

As GM went to press, Kathryn Costello, a native Georgian who has served as a vice president at the University of Maryland, Southern Methodist, and Rice, was chosen as UGA's first senior vice president for external affairs.

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