Updates from S. Jack Hu, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

February 29, 2024

The past week has been a traumatic time as we grieve the loss of two members of the university community. Our thoughts remain with their families and friends. To those needing additional support, resources are available for faculty, staff and students. The safety and security of our campus community remains a top priority for our institution, and we have recently announced an additional investment of more than $7.3 million in security enhancements. While our hearts remain heavy, please allow me to share a few recent updates from across campus.

This month we received the significant news that UGA has been authorized by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to establish a new independent School of Medicine. With Georgia facing a shortage of medical professionals and an ever-growing population, this school will help us to meet these critical needs, attract top-tier researchers and provide a high-quality education to a greater number of medical students.

For the second year in a row, UGA has been named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students. Of the 11 UGA students and recent alumni who were offered Fulbright awards for 2023-2024, eight were able to accept. This is the sixth time in 12 years that UGA has been honored among the top Fulbright producing institutions.

UGA’s commitment to discovery and innovation is evident in our record-breaking $570.9 million in research and development expenditures in fiscal year 2023. For the second consecutive year, we’ve exceeded half a billion dollars in our R&D activity and continued a five-year streak of growth. Similarly, UGA’s impact on the Georgia economy has reached a record $8.1 billion. This was made possible by our education and training programs and extensive research and service efforts throughout the state.

I would also like to highlight UGA’s most recent academic program rankings. The School of Social Work’s online master’s program was ranked No. 1 by Best Colleges, and the Terry College of Business’ full-time MBA received a No. 1 ranking from Financial Times for being the best value for the money worldwide. U.S. News and World Report ranked several UGA programs in the top 10 Best Online Programs including Terry’s online master’s degree in business and technology and four of Mary Frances Early College of Education’s online graduate programs.

As spring nears, we look forward to the upcoming Humanities Festival on March 11-22. The festival returns for its second year and will feature a variety of renowned humanities scholars including Oxford Professor of Poetry and UGA alumna A.E. Stallings and Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and staff writer at The New Yorker. The humanities are vital to our success as a top public university, and this festival spotlights the richness of humanities scholarship and practice at UGA and abroad.

Thank you all for your committed support of our university and your dedicated leadership, discovery and service.

Sincerely,

S. Jack Hu

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

TEACHING

University of Georgia honored as top producer of Fulbright students

Eleven UGA students and recent alumni were offered Fulbright awards for 2023-2024, with eight able to accept. Five are teaching English in countries including Spain, the Slovak Republic, Taiwan and Ecuador. Three are studying or conducting research; their countries are India, Ireland and Taiwan.

RESEARCH

Georgia Museum of Art receives $1M+ grant to enhance galleries

The Georgia Museum of Art recently received a major grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation to reimagine and reinstall the museum’s permanent collection galleries. The $1,085,000 grant is the largest in the museum’s history. A portion of the grant will expand the museum’s opportunities for UGA students, ensuring that they benefit from enhanced engagement with the museum’s collections and staff.

SERVICE

University of Georgia kicks off statewide youth leadership program

Thirty high school students from across Georgia are developing leadership skills and building knowledge about the state through the Youth LEAD Georgia program, which is a partnership among UGA’s J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, Chick-fil-A Inc. and The Same House organization. The program held its opening retreat Jan. 20-22 at UGA, where participants had an opportunity to meet with UGA President Jere W. Morehead, who shared his thoughts on leadership and noted the importance of leadership development to Georgia.

RESOURCES 

CTL Lilly Teaching Fellows Program

This program provides opportunities for early career faculty to further develop skills associated with effective teaching and further develop their ability to appropriately balance teaching with their research and service roles. Up to 10 University of Georgia faculty members are selected each spring to begin participation in the two-year program the following fall. The application deadline for the 2024-2026 cohort is March 26, 2024.

Service-Learning Fellows Program

This year-long program provides an opportunity for University of Georgia faculty participants to learn best practices in service-learning and community engagement, and to integrate service-learning into their teaching, research and public service work while becoming recognized campus leaders in service-learning pedagogy and community engagement. Applications for the 2024-25 program are due by March 29, 2024.

State-of-the-Art Conference Grants

These grants provide UGA faculty the opportunity to organize a unique conference on the UGA campus that facilitates new interaction between national and international scholars and UGA faculty and students. Priority will be given to conferences with an international component, particularly those with the promise of international collaborations. The proposal deadline for the 2024-2025 academic year is April 1, 2024.

Learning Technologies Grants

The purpose of the Learning Technology Grants program is to enhance teaching and learning at UGA through the innovative use of technology. Up to $25,000 per project is available to support work aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating the use of technology to positively impact student learning. All full-time UGA faculty are eligible to apply, and proposal submissions for fiscal year 2025 are due by April 8, 2024.

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