Vol. 37, No. 7, September 2000
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The Board of Regents' Budget Request for next year presents a "fiscal blueprint" for the University System of Georgia - the "business plan" and the related required funding needed for the System to achieve the state's ambitious goals for higher education.
At the September board meeting, the regents took the first step in approving that blueprint, in the form of a $1.715 billion Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Request that will wind its way through the General Assembly during the 2001 legislative session.
After undergoing the review of the state Office of Planning and Budget, the document will be considered by Gov. Roy Barnes and the General Assembly for funding during the 2001 legislative session.
The request emphasizes the Board's current strategic themes of maintaining momentum, enhancing the University System's regional and national competitiveness, expanding the use and effectiveness of educational technology, broadening the System's role in economic development, and increasing accountability - particularly in the areas of student and teacher preparation.
The System's data-driven Budget Request reflects $50.4 million in proposed new funding for Board of Regents' initiatives, which complies with the Governor's directive to cap all state agency's budget requests at 3 percent over the base of the previous year's budget. The Board of Regents' FY 2001 Adjusted Appropriation was $1.658 billion.
"We have some major challenges ahead of us, and this budget will help us tackle them," said Chancellor Stephen R. Portch. "Considerable resources have been invested to get the University System to the competitive position we're in today; so we must maintain our momentum. I'm optimistic that we still can achieve much more; however, we must build on our progress and continue to raise expectations and standards."
"Considerable resources have been invested to get the System to the competitive position we're in today; so we must maintain our momentum." - Chancellor Stephen Portch
An area of major emphasis in the Budget Request, with an as-yet-undetermined price tag, is the faculty salary request for FY 2002. While the University System of Georgia's competitive position within the then 16-state Southern region moved from sixth in 1994 to second in 1998, it returned to fifth during the 1999-2000 fiscal year. (Although Delaware has joined SREB since then, and currently is ranked #1 on salaries).
Georgia is loosing ground on competitive salaries, which is beginning to result in challenges in attracting and retaining top faculty. System officials hope to stem that trend by pursuing a competitive increase for FY '02, allowing ground to be regained.
Among the $50.4 million in enhancement requests included in the Budget Request, $18.2 million is aimed at technology initiatives, which, if approved, would fund new demands as well as continue existing efforts. The largest portion of technology funds, $7.7 million, would be dedicated to expanding the capacity of the state's Peachnet network, the University System's primary technology bandwidth infrastructure. To continue efforts with technology master planning, $3.5 million is being requested to fund the development of individual information technology plans for all 34 institutions.
The University System of Georgia also is requesting funding for these additional and/or continuing initiatives for FY 2002:
In addition to the $1.7 billion Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Request, the Board of Regents also approved the System's proposed $37 million Fiscal Year 2001 Supplemental Budget Request. ¶
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"State of the System" Highlights Challenges to Reaching Regents' Goals
Chancellor PortchDespite considerable gains achieved during recent years in enhancing Georgia's public higher education efforts, the combination of an "anti-intellectual culture" and poor academic preparation continues to thwart the state's strategic positioning in the national arena University System Chancellor Stephen R. Portch told the Board of Regents on Sept. 13 in his annual "State of the System" address.
These observations were part of what Portch billed as a "plainspoken and honest talk" to the board about the challenges the System faces in reaching its stated goal of "creating a more educated Georgia."
Citing statistics that Georgia imports the greatest number of college-educated workers while not enough native Georgians earn a bachelor's degree, Portch noted that "the economic imperative to ensure diversity on the campus and in the workplace cannot be ignored. We cannot afford to rely on other states to meet Georgia's workplace needs. We need the brainpower of all Georgians."
The chancellor reviewed the progress and performance of the System over the past six years in meeting the goals set forward in the Regents' 1994 strategic plan, titled "Access to Academic Excellence." In giving personal "grades" ranging from an "A" to "C" on the System's efforts, Portch stressed that such efforts do not take place in a vacuum, but are strongly influenced by the "grade 'D' culture" in which higher education operates. The combination of academic achievement and the cultural environment, Portch said, is reflected in the state's educational attainment rates - to which he gave a failing grade of "F," based on the multiple data available.
"The pace of improvement is glacial when compared to the volcanic nature of our economy," Portch pointed out. "What we need is an educational earthquake."
Portch noted that Georgia fails throughout the educational pipeline, from low high-school graduation rates (55 percent in 1995-96) to low college participation rates (in 1996, 6.85 percent) to low college completion rates (in 1998, only 21 percent of Georgians aged 25-years-and-older held a bachelor's degree, compared to 24 percent nationally). And he noted some statistics are getting worse.
"Between 1983 and 1996, the public high-school graduation rate has dropped almost 11 percent in Georgia," Portch said.
"We get some great students out of some fine schools who've been taught by inspiring teachers," Portch said. "It's just we simply don't get enough of them, and we don't graduate enough of those we do get." Portch noted that Georgia's secondary students do not take enough college preparatory courses and still do not take enough math and science.
Portch said Georgia will continue to have low educational attainment rates until the state - from parents to policy makers, from students to corporations, from Pre-K teachers to distinguished scholars - make a strong effort to improve academic preparation. Such efforts in turn will improve both high-school graduation and college-completion rates. But to be successful, citizens and policymakers honestly must face a "pervasive, anti-intellectual culture, not just in Georgia, but nationally," Portch said.
The University System's new admissions requirements, which go into full effect in fall 2001, mandating more rigorous academic preparation through the completion of 16 College Preparatory Curriculum units, will be important in addressing academic preparation, said Portch. "The greatest long-term contribution to the state we can make is to increase the numbers of students who show up at our doors prepared for college," he said. "This increases their odds of earning a degree, rather than flowing through a revolving door."
The University System must refuse to "back off" its new admissions policies, Portch said, and send a message that academic preparation is important. He noted the responsibility of the System to address this by helping to place "well-qualified teachers in every K-12 classroom." Portch noted that while the efforts of faculty and staff rate an "A," progress made toward achieving the goals of the Regents' Strategic Plan only deserve a "B," and much work remains.
And in the area of performance, Portch said, "The verdict is still out. Here the University System earns only a C-plus" a grade which reflects the Regents' aspirations. Weighing the System's progress in a national context is part of the Board of Regents' current benchmarking effort, which compares both System and institutional performance to nationally identified peers. That effort will shape the Board of Regents' action plan and goals for the coming year.
All of the System's efforts are tied to the core value of creating a more educated Georgia. "This is why I've been so brutally honest today," Portch said. "If we are to achieve this goal, we have to honestly address significant issues."
According to Portch, that includes spotlighting diversity as an educational value in college admissions. "While reasonable people can and should debate whether we ought to pursue clarity on legal issues related to the admission of minority students, I believe we have an obligation to resolve this issue," Portch said. But he cautioned that it would be a "tragic mistake to rest all of the state's hope on legal outcomes," and that effective strategies must include the aggressive pursuit of academic activities that would better prepare all Georgians for full participation in the State's economic promise. ¶
The full text of Chancellor Portch's "State of the System" address can be accessed on the System's web site at: http://www.usg.edu/admin/oc/reports/2000/sept00.html
[ Contents ]Augusta businessman J. Timothy Shelnut officially began his duties as a member of the Board of Regents following his Sept. 13 swearing in ceremony presided over by Gov. Roy Barnes.
Shelnut was selected by the governor to serve the remaining six-and-a-half-year term of Thomas F. Allgood, who was killed in a plane crash in August.
"I am delighted to appoint Tim Shelnut to the Board of Regents," Barnes said. "He possesses a real interest in the continued success of higher education in Augusta and throughout the state of Georgia."
Involved in the financial services industry for more than 30 years, Shelnut is chairman of Four Seasons Securities of Augusta. He served as president of Washington Annuity Sales until he sold the firm to Northern Life Insurance Company of Seattle in 1997. He also is the former owner of the Columbia County News-Times.
Shelnut serves on the boards of both Augusta State University and Paine College. He was the recipient of the 1998 National Philanthropist of the Year Award and was the first donor to contribute $1 million to Augusta's University Hospital in support of its juvenile diabetes program.
Shelnut continues to contribute to several worthy causes in the Augusta area.
He currently serves on the boards of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the American Red Cross, The Augusta Child Advocates, the University Hospital Foundation, Augusta Prep Day School, First Union Bank, the Central Savannah River Area Foundation, Morris Museum and Golf Augusta Pro Shops. ¶
Shelnut sworn in by Gov Barnes[ Contents ]
On CampusThe University of Georgia's School of Law has enrolled one of the most outstanding entering classes in its history, according to Dean David Shipley.
"We couldn't ask for a much better class than this one," Shipley said as the 2000-2001 school year got under way.
The 201 students in the school's entering class this fall had a median Law School Admissions Test score of 162, which puts them in the top 12 percent of test takers nationwide. Their median grade-point average is 3.59 - the highest on record at the school.
The percentage of women in the class, 49 percent, also sets a school record, and 16 percent of the students are minorities. The average age of the students is 24, and 78 percent of them are Georgia residents. ¶
Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center reports that more than four out of every five start-up companies it has assisted during the past five years are successful.
Of the 114 technology firms accepted into the state-sponsored business incubator program during that time, 82 percent are either current members, independent companies that have graduated from the program, or they've been acquired by other companies. Only 21 of the 114 firms are "inactive" or out of business. Since 1986, ATDC has graduated 70 firms, five of which have gone public. They specialize in technologies ranging from e-commerce to telecommunications, software and medical technology.
The most successful ATDC graduate to-date (which joined as a member in 1984) is MindSpring Enterprises, which negotiated a $3 billion merger with EarthLink Networks earlier this year. The resulting company, EarthLink, Inc., is one of the world's largest Internet service providers with 3.1 million customers and combined revenues topping $670 million. ¶
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Clifford BrockBainbridge College celebrated the inauguration of its second president, Clifford M. Brock, on Sept. 21-22. In addition to the formal ceremony, the south Georgia campus hosted a concert and tours of the institution.
Brock has been president of Bainbridge since March 1999. Board of Regents Vice Chair Hilton H. Howell was present to bring greetings on behalf of the board, and Chancellor Stephen R. Portch presided over the inauguration. ¶
Two University System of Georgia campuses recently made news with their efforts to improve Georgia's schools by strengthening the leadership skills of educators.
Georgia Power Company presented the State University of West Georgia with an endowment of $60,000 to support two on-going programs designed to help school principals become more effective leaders, assess their schools and improve student success. And, at Kennesaw State University, a Georgia Teacher Center has been established to help teachers develop the leadership tools needed to change the public education system for the better.
West Georgia's College of Education launched its Leadership Academy in 1999, and currently has four leadership programs operating in the DeKalb, Coosa/Walker, Habersham/Rabun and Coweta/Troup school districts. Carroll County schools will begin participating this year, and several other districts have expressed interest as well. Georgia Power's support is for two particular components of the academy, the Northwest Georgia Leadership Academy for School Principals and the Developmental Assessment Center.
The Georgia Teacher Center at KSU is under the direction of David A. Watts, former education division director in the governor's Office of Planning and Budget. The center will provide Georgia's best teachers with opportunities to identify and share the skills they need to participate in the education reform process.
The center also will focus on helping teachers earn National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification. This certification process is the most challenging level of preparation available to teachers today, Watts said. ¶
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Georgia Perimeter Hosts 'Youth 2 Leaders' ConferenceChancellor Stephen R. Portch has utilized the departure of Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Resources Lindsay A. Desrochers to reorganize the Board of Regents Central Office.
Under the reorganization, there are now three new divisions:
In addition to the restructuring of divisions, Portch has named Margaret Taylor to a new position: Deputy to the Senior Vice Chancellors. Taylor will help coordinate activities among the divisions and will have direct responsibility for MCG Health, Inc. and assisting with the public libraries.
Portch also named former Budget Director Shelley Nickel as Special Assistant to the Chancellor.¶
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BOARD OF REGENTS OFFICERSGlenn S. White
Lawrenceville
CHAIR
Hilton Hatchett Howell, Jr.
Atlanta
VICE-CHAIR
Juanita Powell Baranco
Lithonia
Hugh C. Carter, Jr.
Atlanta
Connie Cater
Macon
Joe Frank Harris
Cartersville
John Hunt
Tifton
Edgar L. Jenkins
Jasper
Charles H. Jones
Macon
Donald M. Leebern, Jr.
Columbus
Elridge W. McMillan
Atlanta
Martin W. NeSmith
Claxton
J. Timothy Shelnut
Augusta
Joel O. Wooten, Jr.
Columbus
James D. Yancey
Columbus
Stephen R. Portch
CHANCELLOR
Gail S. Weber
SECRETARY TO THE BOARD
William R. Bowes
TREASURER
The System Supplement
Arlethia Perry-Johnson
ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR
John Millsaps
COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING DIRECTOR
Diane Payne
PUBLICATIONS EDITOR
OFFICE OF MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
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