Athens Rotary Speech

Our "town-gown" relationship has its ups and downs...more often than not, our relationship is a positive one, with common goals and open and frequent communication.

2009 Year-End Memorial Service

Twenty-two UGA students, faculty and staff who have died since May 2008 were remembered at the university’s annual candlelight memorial service April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Chapel. The service, “Georgia Remembers. . . A Candlelight Memorial,” has been held each spring since 2000 to help the university community find comfort while honoring deceased friends, family members and colleagues.

New Challenges Facing Today’s Young People

Students now saw themselves as young adults not in need of parental or institutional oversight. They wanted the freedom to make more decisions and, for the most part, to accept the consequences that resulted from those decisions. One of the most significant impacts of this transition at UGA was the flight of students to off-campus housing. Until the opening of the East Campus Village in 2004, we had not constructed a residence hall since the late 1960s. But today, students want to live on campus, and we are trying to meet that demand. We are also learning how to work with this Millennial Generation – and their parents.

Gwinnett Rotary Club Speech

The academic competition for a spot at UGA is intense. Every pool sets its own standards; we don’t go into this process with a predetermined notion. We know the size of the class we want to admit, and we rank the applicants based on their academic strength and performance. Not surprisingly, Gwinnett County and UGA are closely linked. Last fall, there were more than 3,600 total students from Gwinnett enrolled at UGA – 10.7% of the student body...

Henry King Stanford Eulogy

UGA is a better institution, more prepared for the future and more grounded in an understanding of its core mission because of the work of Henry King Stanford. It has been more than 20 years since Dr. Stanford left the University of Georgia, and history has been justifiably kind to him. In one of his many letters to me, he wrote that Athens was “a place where I never felt as needed or appreciated as I did in that one year.” He was indeed needed and he was deeply appreciated. He also noted that UGA was his fifth presidency, and it is uplifting to those of us who are serving in that capacity today that five presidencies will not kill you until you are well north of 90.

University of Georgia Budget Statement to the Cabinet

We are facing an economic crisis of a magnitude unprecedented since WWII. My belief has been that we must manage very conservatively during these times, doing all that we can to preserve faculty and staff jobs—which remains my top priority—so that we can continue to carry out our missions of teaching, research and service.

Economic Development and Georgia’s Future

I want to talk to you about three things today: civility and ethics in public discourse, the companion challenges of economic and workforce development, and how the University of Georgia can help you and your communities...

Dedication of the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex

The University of Georgia has a long and proud history in athletics. Throughout that history, certain figures stand above the crowd for the impact they had on the direction of the athletic program here. Charles Herty, the first coach. Pop Warner. Harry Mehre. Wally Butts. Joel Eaves. The University of Georgia athletic program has been blessed with great leadership for more than a century. But none shines brighter than Vince Dooley.

“What do I Want From the Communications Team?”

...as large and complex as UGA, there are multiple audiences, both internal and external, for everything that we say. Trust me, we don’t make all of them happy most of the time. But understanding those audiences and how they connect to the university – whether it is a high school senior applying for admission, a cotton farmer in South Georgia, and alumnus in Los Angeles or a legislator from Hahira or Elberton or Marietta – is an important part of the communications process...

Council of Alumni Association Executives

At our institutions today we are all dealing with challenges and opportunities presented by the changing cultures and changing demographic of our time. For those of you who are, like UGA, in the South, the migrations of students and families to our areas makes it all more pronounced.