POWERED BY PURPOSE
Good afternoon. Thank you to all the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends joining me today. The State of the University Address is a longstanding UGA tradition, and I am honored once again to report on the state of our great institution.
Though it is hard for me to believe, this academic year marks my tenth year leading the University of Georgia. By any measure, it has been a tremendous decade for our University community, distinguished by historic milestones and unprecedented success. It has been a decade of deep transformation and expanded impact, of bold progress and relentless innovation. For our University—the birthplace of public higher education in America—it has been a decade defined by the power of shared purpose, by the limitless potential of a community linked by a noble mission and propelled by a fierce devotion to service.
In preparation for today’s remarks, I spent some time reviewing one of my first speeches as president: my investiture address, delivered in 2013. During that speech, I posed two closely related questions as I contemplated UGA’s immense potential: Where will we ultimately go as an institution? What is next for the University of Georgia?
Today—during this, my tenth State of the University Address—I would like to revisit these simple yet consequential questions, using them as a guide to consider our institution’s past decade and to imagine the one to come. Today, let us ask ourselves: Where did we go as an institution over the past ten years? What did we achieve together as an academic community? Then, let us cast our gaze ahead and consider: What is next for the University of Georgia?
A DECADE OF IMPACT
Let me begin with the most vital aspect of our mission: educating tomorrow’s leaders. Throughout the past decade, the University of Georgia embraced a bold, ambitious vision of teaching and learning in the twentyfirst century. Together, we imagined an institution where students would flourish amid cutting-edge instruction, robust support, and learning opportunities extending to the far corners of the world.
To realize this vision, we transformed classrooms into dynamic learning spaces and became the largest public university in America to ensure that students gain experiential learning beyond the classroom. We recruited additional faculty to reduce class sizes and expanded our corps of advisors to give students more personalized attention. We added tailored support for first-generation students and others from underrepresented backgrounds. We launched the Double Dawgs program, providing more than 250 pathways for students to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years or less. We infused data literacy and writing throughout our curriculum and built an entrepreneurship program to give students additional tools for success in today’s world.
The results have been extraordinary.
President Jere W. Morehead January 25, 2023 president.uga.edu/sotu university of georgiaOver the past decade, the percentage of first-year students returning for their sophomore year averaged 95%, dramatically exceeding the national average, while our students’ four-year completion rate rose to a record 75%, an astonishing increase of almost 13 percentage points. Our six-year completion rate also reached a new high of 88%, eclipsing many of our peers.
U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Georgia as a top 20 public institution for seven consecutive years, and our students secured many of the nation’s most distinguished awards. In the last year alone, UGA was the only public institution to have two students selected for the Marshall Scholarship and was one of just three state institutions to have a Rhodes Scholar.
And throughout this remarkable decade, while the academic strength of our student body continued to rise, applications for admission surged by more than 100%, and our enrollment reached an all-time high. Our graduate and professional students also achieved new heights of excellence. Numerous UGA graduate and professional programs earned top 10 national rankings, while several online graduate programs ranked in the top five in U.S. News & World Report’s best online programs rankings.
We also added nearly two and a half million square feet of new facilities and renovated over one million more. From the Science Learning Center, the I-STEM Research Complex, and the Terry College’s Business Learning Community to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the film studio in the Grady College, and new and renovated residence halls, UGA provided state-of-the-art facilities designed to maximize our students’ potential.
When we embarked upon the past decade, our commitment extended beyond the learning environment, however. Embracing our critical research mission, we envisioned a dynamic ecosystem of exploration and creativity, where UGA scholars would be supported with every feasible resource as they tackled society’s most daunting challenges.
“Throughout the past decade, the University of Georgia embraced a bold, ambitious vision of teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. Together, we imagined an institution where students would flourish amid cutting-edge instruction, robust support, and learning opportunities extending to the far corners of the world.”
president jere w. morehead
Driven by this vision, we bolstered support for investigators, expanding pre- and post-award services and adding new resources and personnel to our Office of Research. Through 11 hiring initiatives, we recruited more than 150 additional scholars in fields of strategic importance as well as nine new Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars. We fostered interdisciplinary research and industry partnerships, and we fashioned a place—an Innovation District—where dreamers and innovators could translate ideas into the products and enterprises of tomorrow.
What were the results of these ambitious efforts?
The University’s annual R&D expenditures rose more than 50% over the last decade, surpassing half a billion dollars last year for the first time, while the number of sponsored awards secured by UGA scholars more than doubled. These results were driven by our extraordinary faculty—the heartbeat of our campus—who earned countless accolades, including a MacArthur Genius Award,
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SEC Professor of the Year, election into several National Academies, numerous Fulbright Scholar Awards, and more.
Intent on bettering lives, our faculty shared their breakthroughs with the world. The number of projects in our startup pipeline grew by 185% over the decade, and more than 400 products based on UGA research were brought to market, including 60 in the past year alone— more than double the number in 2014. As a result, UGA has been named a top five university for research-based products reaching the market for nine consecutive years.
But conducting life-changing research was not enough for the University of Georgia. Ten years ago, when we considered our future as an institution, we pledged to find new ways to engage with community members across our state. Together, we asked: What can the future hold if we recommit ourselves to setting a new standard of public service?
To achieve this vision, UGA’s Public Service and Outreach units tirelessly sought new partnerships and pioneered new programs. They increased access to mentoring and leadership training, expanded resources and guidance to revitalize downtowns, launched programs to help rural communities, and walked hand in hand with entrepreneurs to leverage ideas into small businesses, strengthening the backbone of our state’s economy.
And as we strove to enhance quality of life throughout Georgia, we strengthened our commitment to serving Athens, our home community. Our faculty, staff, and students worked to address food insecurity across AthensClarke County, partnered with local schools to enrich after-school programs and increase students’ readiness for college and the workforce, provided medical care to underserved community members, and more.
The results of these many partnerships and programs were astounding.
Over the past decade, the Small Business Development Center assisted more than 30,000 entrepreneurs across Georgia, creating over 3,000 new businesses and 26,000 jobs. UGA’s 4-H programs served over 170,000 students annually, while year-in and year-out, Cooperative Extension faculty and staff provided reliable, research-based information to farmers, families, and communities in every county across Georgia. It is little wonder that the University’s annual economic impact on
our state climbed to a record $7.6 billion or that our service efforts garnered national recognition. This past fall, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, or APLU, recognized UGA with its highest national award for public service for our Archway Partnership, which connects rural communities to University resources.
Another remarkable achievement was the tremendous service we provided to our state and local community during the unprecedented challenges of the global pandemic. Undergirding that response were our incredible staff members, who went above and beyond to ensure the University continued to fulfill its critical mission. And just last month, amid several consecutive days of subfreezing temperatures, essential UGA staff members spent the holidays away from family to keep our campuses operational—assessing facilities, repairing frozen and damaged infrastructure, and ensuring that those residing on campus were safe.
As you can see, the past decade has been one for the record books across each area of our mission. Without question, strong, consistent investments by our state were key to this success. On behalf of our entire University, I want to take a moment to thank the Governor and the General Assembly, as well as the University System of Georgia Chancellor and Board of Regents, for their unwavering support.
I also want to thank our amazing alumni and friends, who gave record sums to the University of Georgia, including more than $257 million last year. Over the last decade, our benchmark fundraising average surged 84% as donors established hundreds of new scholarships and more than 100 endowed faculty positions. The passionate support of UGA donors was never more evident than during the Commit to Georgia Campaign, the most successful fundraising campaign in University history. Their generosity not only supported academics but also extended to our athletic programs, helping to fund new
and upgraded facilities as well as expanded programs to support the well-being of our exceptional student-athletes. Thanks to the outpouring of support from our donors, our student-athletes had the facilities and resources to excel on the biggest stages of intercollegiate athletics. Who will ever forget our 2021 national football championship— UGA’s first in 41 years—or the stellar accomplishments of this year’s team, including a historic 15-0 record, the SEC Championship, a thrilling win in the Peach Bowl, and a resounding victory in the College Football Playoff National Championship game, earning UGA back-to-back national titles and solidifying our position as an academic and athletic powerhouse. Even with our greatest athletic achievement in history came the heartbreaking reminder of how delicate life is, how quickly those we cherish can be taken from us. Our entire University continues to grieve the loss of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy, and we will continue to lift up their families and friends in our thoughts and prayers. We also hope and pray for the full recovery of those injured in this tragic accident.
Finally, as we reflect back on the past ten years, let me say how proud I am of how our University joined together in the crucial work of making our campus more diverse and inclusive through new programs and through college and facility namings that recognize UGA trailblazers such as Mary Frances Early, our first African American graduate; Shirley Mathis McBay, our first African American PhD recipient; and Harold Alonza Black, Mary Blackwell Diallo, and Kerry Rushin Miller, the first African American students to enroll as freshmen and complete their undergraduate degrees. We are excited about the renovation of the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building on North Campus, which is now underway, that will further honor the legacy of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first African American students to enroll at UGA.