President
Dr. Michael F. Adams was named the 21st president of the University of Georgia on June 11, 1997. He immediately focused on securing UGA’s future as one of America’s premier public research universities.
A strategic plan, completed in 2001 at his direction, identified three themes for UGA’s growth in the first decade of the 21st century: Building the New Learning Environment, Maximizing Research Opportunities and Competing in a Global Economy. Under Dr. Adams’ leadership, student quality has risen steadily and the University of Georgia has been recognized as one of the nation’s very best public research universities for eight consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. External funding for research, public service and instruction totals more than $200 million annually. Private giving to the university is at its highest level ever as UGA enters the final stage of the $500 million Archway to Excellence Campaign.
The total value of construction initiated during his tenure approaches $1 billion, financed through the innovative use of state, federal, internal and private funds, and includes the Student Learning Center; new residence halls and a dining commons on East Campus; the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; the Paul Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences; the Animal Health Research Center; and an expansion of Sanford Stadium and the Women’s Athletic Complex. Moore College, Candler Hall, Phi Kappa Hall and Myers Hall have been renovated and Old College, the University’s first building, has been renovated as the home of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Widely recognized as a leader in higher education administration, Dr. Adams recently completed a term as chair of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. He is the only person to have served as chair of both the American Council on Education and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. He has been chair of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the accrediting body for higher education in the southern United States, and in 2005 received the agency’s James T. Rogers Distinguished Leadership Award. He is a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and chairs the NCAA Executive Committee.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in speech and history from David Lipscomb College. He earned a master’s in political communications and a doctorate in political communications, with a cognate emphasis in educational administration, from The Ohio State University. At OSU, he was named a University Fellow, the highest academic recognition given by the graduate school. He holds an academic appointment as a professor of speech communication at UGA.
Dr. Adams was born in Montgomery, Alabama and attended public schools in Albany, Macon and Atlanta, graduating from high school in Chattanooga in 1966. He began his professional career on the communication faculty at Ohio State, later serving as vice president for university affairs at Pepperdine University. He was president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky for nine years before coming to Georgia. He also served as chief of staff for Senator Howard Baker and as an aide to Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
“The people of the state of Georgia deserve a flagship institution every bit as good as the citizens of Virginia or Michigan or California or North Carolina,” Dr. Adams said when he was named president. “I am committed to making the University of Georgia that kind of institution.”
University of Georgia Accomplishments During President Adams' Tenure (.pdf)
Biographical
Statement (.pdf)
Introductory Statement (.pdf)
Georgia Magazine's President's Column
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