April 26, 2023
As a community, we have much to celebrate as we finish up another outstanding academic year. I hope you’ll join me in taking a few moments to reflect on the many milestones in advancing excellence in teaching, research and service at our great institution this year.
Academic excellence has long been a hallmark of UGA, but this has been an exceptionally strong year. We received reaffirmation of accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. And this month, several UGA graduate and professional programs were recognized in the top 10 by the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools.
As the birthplace of public higher education in America, we are a leader among our peers in creating a university-wide culture of active learning. The five-year, $6 million Active Learning Initiative was launched in 2022 as part of our Quality Enhancement Plan, a foundational component of our reaffirmed accreditation by the SACSCOC.
In February, we celebrated how active learning is shaping instruction across UGA at the inaugural Active Learning Summit. Moving forward, we will continue to cultivate active learning through instructor development, student engagement and classroom enhancement.
At the University of Georgia, we are committed to fostering a world-class learning environment for students. This past year marked the successful launch of the School of Computing, which is jointly administered by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.
In March, the 2023 Academic Affairs Faculty Symposium centered on enhancing the teaching and learning process using artificial intelligence. With ever increasing developments in generative AI, it was an important opportunity to explore how to better navigate and utilize this emerging technology.
For the first time in the University of Georgia’s history, we surpassed a half-billion dollars in research and development spending. Our total expenditures of $545.6 million in fiscal year 2022 represented more than a 10% increase from the previous year and featured significant funding growth from key sources including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy.
The extraordinary growth of our research enterprise reflects our investment in top-tier faculty and research infrastructure. In December, UGA expanded the Presidential Interdisciplinary Faculty Hiring Initiative in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence to recruit 70 leading scholars across 10 cross-cutting areas within data science and AI. We also completed the faculty cluster hire for the Johnny Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research
and are continuing to bring on expert faculty to expand the Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture launched last spring.
It has also been a remarkable year for public service and outreach. UGA won the national Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ highest award for public service. We received the award for our Archway Partnership, an outreach program that connects rural Georgia communities with UGA resources including faculty, students and research.
Thank you for your contributions and commitment to UGA. I look forward to working with you as we continue to advance our exceptional instruction through education, high-impact research and public service in the upcoming year.
Sincerely,
