| President
Michael F. Adams presented the following material to the joint
Higher Education Committees of the Georgia Senate and Georgia
House of Representatives on Feb. 12 and repeated the presentation
on campus for members of the university community on Feb.
17.
The tape will air Friday (2/20) night at 8 p.m., Sat. (2/21)
& Sun. (2/22) at 5 p.m. and again on Mon. (2/23) &
Tuesday (2/24) at 8 p.m.
What is Georgia’s return on its
UGA investment?
• UGA has been ranked among the top 20 public research
universities by U.S. News & World Report for the past four
consecutive years.
• UGA is a top-20 public university
today in large part because of the commitment of this body.
• From 1993 through 1999, state support for the University
of Georgia remained relatively constant. Combined with the HOPE
Scholarship, this support laid the groundwork for UGA’s
rise into the upper echelon of American public universities.
• However, many of the factors that U.S. News uses
in its ranking are directly affected by the reduction in UGA’s
state budget, including faculty resources such as class size,
salary and the percentage of full-time faculty; graduation and
retention rates; student quality; and the institution’s
financial resources.
• Georgia first expects UGA to teach its best students,
and to teach them well.
• The high-school core
curriculum GPA of this year’s freshman class was 3.66
and the average SAT score for that class was 1212, up from 1150
in 1991 and almost 200 points above the national average of
1026.
• UGA students have received four Rhodes
Scholarships in the past eight years, and last year UGA students
won the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman and Goldwater scholarships,
an honor shared with only Harvard, Yale and Brown.
• Better students, however, place increased demands on
our faculty and the institution as a whole: technology, facilities,
curriculum—all of which have financial implications.
• Research is one of the missions of a land-grant,
flagship institution. UGA is charged with conducting research
in the public good, and today that research ranges from agricultural
practices to biomedical advances to classics, art, music and
dance. UGA ranks 22nd in total research expenditures.
• At this moment, UGA researchers are investigating the
cellular processes that signal the development of cancer cells.
They are searching for ways to maintain the quality of Georgia’s
water supply. They are deeply involved in efforts to develop
Georgia’s biotechnology/bioinformatics industry through
research.
• They are working to prepare the pharmaceutical and
medical community for the aftermath of a terrorist attack
on a major city such as Atlanta. They have worked over the
past two summers to contain West Nile virus. They are ensuring
the safety of our food supply.
• The list, literally, goes on and on.
• External funding for research—from federal agencies,
private companies and other organizations—allows us
to conduct a wide range of research programs beyond the scope
of what the state provides for UGA’s research activities.
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