2005 University Convocation Address
Dr. Dorothy Leland
Sept. 12, 2005Welcome to the Fall 2005 University Convocation.
As many of you know, it was only a few short years ago - in 1996 - that Georgia College received its new mission as Georgia's public liberal arts university. This mission designation reflected an important public policy commitment by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to provide access to the diverse range of educational opportunities required to effectively respond to the educational needs to Georgia. At the time, the University System of Georgia included two-year colleges and baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degree-granting institutions. But it lacked a designated public liberal arts university - an institution that could provide the state's most academically talented students with affordable access to an educational experience comparable to that found in the best liberal arts colleges in the private sector.
Georgia College was selected as the institution to fulfill this role for a variety of reasons. Our campus, with its expansive front lawn and stately neoclassical architecture, had the "look" of a private liberal arts university. In addition, for most of its history, the university had enjoyed a statewide mission as a public women's college. Most importantly, the faculty at Georgia College was recognized for exemplary teaching and the staff for creating a welcoming and supportive learning environment.
Those of you who were here at the time know that the decision to change the mission of Georgia College did not come from you, and this initially created some stress and strain. Quite suddenly, you were asked to change the focus and emphasis of your university and to devote your time and talents towards accomplishing some significant institutional transformations. Today, just nine years later, your efforts, and the efforts of those who have since joined you, have yielded remarkable results.
Consider these highlights:
• In a few short years, Georgia College has transformed itself from a commuter campus with a regional appeal to a residential campus with a statewide recruitment base. Today, the vast majority of our undergraduate students come from the state's largest population areas. Rather than commuting to school from their homes, these students leave their homes to live on our campus and in the surrounding neighborhood.
• During this same time period, the academic competitiveness of Georgia College steadily grew. In 1996, the SAT and high school GPA averages of our entering freshmen were lower than the same averages for the University System of Georgia. Today, we are one of the most academically competitive institutions in the system as measured by the SAT scores and high school GPA of our students.
• Not surprisingly, our retention and graduation rates have begun to improve, and with increased attention to student persistence beyond the freshman year, these rates should continue their upward climb
• We've implemented programs and initiatives characteristic of public liberal arts universities and seen significant growth in participation in study abroad, learning communities, undergraduate research and community service.
• Consistent with our mission, the past nine years have also brought significant enrollment and program growth in the liberal arts and sciences. Still, we have retained strong professional programs, and undergraduate enrollment in these programs has remained steady.
• Thanks to mission enhancement funding from the State of Georgia, the university has outpaced all other system institutions in growth of new faculty positions relative to growth of the student population. In 1996, our faculty/student ratio was 1/22. Today, despite some very difficult budget years, that ratio is 1/15, which is comparable to our COPLAC peers.
• Finally, the university's reputation as a high quality, academically challenging institution of choice for Georgia students has steadily increased. In 1996, U.S. News & World Report ranked Georgia College as a third tier institution. This year, we achieved a Top 15 ranking and surpassed all other University System of Georgia institutions in our category. We were also the only public institution in Georgia to be recognized as a College of Distinction.
The university accomplished all this - and much more - through a relentless focus on the distinguishing features of public liberal arts colleges and by implementing changes consistent with these features. Others have helped us along the way - for example, the State of Georgia through mission-related enhancement funding and the Georgia College & State University Foundation through its scholarship support and financing of our residence halls. But without the dedication, talent and hard work of you - our faculty and staff - little of what we have accomplished over the past nine years would have occurred.
Given all that has been achieved, it may be tempting to think that we can rest on our laurels. But, to be brutally frank, I believe that what we have here at Georgia College is very fragile. Let me tell you why.
A number of you have heard me talk about my concern regarding the long-term sustainability of our mission. Some people have interpreted this to mean that I want to change the mission - but nothing could be further from my intentions! This is a wonderful university and its mission is critically important to the state of Georgia. My concern, rather, springs from an awareness of external forces and factors that present significant challenges for sustaining a public university that has our distinctive mission.
Consider funding. By virtue of its mission, Georgia College is a limited growth institution. But it is also an institution within a state university system where most of the general revenue funding is tied to enrollment growth. This means that even in good fiscal times, Georgia College can expect minimal increases in general revenue funding from the State of Georgia.
Consider also our faculty/student ratio. Georgia College enjoys the lowest faculty/student ratio in the University System of Georgia. While a low faculty/student ratio is a hallmark of an institution of our type, for some influential stakeholders, this ratio makes us appear less efficient than other system institutions. These stakeholders will continue to pressure Georgia College to admit more and more students without adding more faculty and staff.
In light of such circumstances, our challenge now is to develop strategies that will render us less vulnerable to pressures for rapid enrollment growth and enhance opportunities for funding that are linked to quality rather than growth.
I believe that a key to the sustainability of our mission lies in achieving distinction and distinctiveness as a public liberal arts university. In the simplest terms, we must be so good that no one questions our value to the State of Georgia. We must demonstrate that we are competitive with out-of-state liberal arts institutions for Georgia's most academically talented students, and we must show that we can achieve remarkable results by virtue of our low faculty/student ratio and moderate size. In short, I believe that we must embark on a journey toward national distinction and distinctiveness in a purposeful way, guided by a clear and compelling strategic focus.
To clarify, let me elaborate on how I am using the terms "distinction" and "distinctiveness". By "distinction," I mean those distinguishing attributes that convey exceptionally high quality. "Distinctiveness," on the other hand, means the quality of being different, of being set apart from the crowd by reputation. In our case, the crowd includes other public and private liberal arts universities - our national peers and competitors.
Over the past year and a half, as I have learned more and more from you and in the process achieved a deeper understanding of this amazing university, I have become convinced that national recognition as a distinguished public liberal arts university is within our grasp. We are on a roll, so to speak, and have the necessary momentum. We have the talent, passion and ambition. What we need now is a process that will help us to focus on achieving distinctiveness and distinction in our core educational mission.
This is why I am pleased to introduce to you a strategic focusing process that will help us to identify our path to national recognition as an exemplary public liberal arts university. The process will begin this fall and has three primary areas of focus.
No university can become great without taking an honest look at itself. For this reason, our first area of strategic focus involves a review of the progress the university has made in achieving its liberal arts mission, an assessment of its competitive strengths and weaknesses, and an analysis of external and internal factors that might challenge us as we seek to enhance our stature as a public liberal arts university. I have appointed a workgroup, co-chaired by Chesley Mercado and Beth Rushing, to lead this part of the strategic focusing process, which will begin in September.
The second area of strategic focus concerns the total student learning experience. By total student learning experience, I mean educational experiences that our students share in common regardless of their major. These experiences may be linked to the curriculum, but they can also be related to extra-curricular or co-curricular activities. A workgroup, co-chaired by Eustace Palmer and Linda Irwin-DeVitis, will take the lead in this part of the strategic focusing process by engaging the university community in conversations about its fundamental educational values and the special attributes of the total student learning experience that Georgia College hopes to be known for, valued and admired. This group will also start its work during the current semester.
The third area of strategic focus will consider the question of distinctiveness and distinction with respect to the academic program. Four school-based workgroups will engage faculty in conversations that seek to identify academic programs, program clusters or program themes best positioned to advance the university's stature and national prominence. A fifth workgroup, which includes the chairs of the school-based groups, will consider program clusters or themes across schools. Dale Young, Martha Colvin, Dee Russell, John Fair and Lila Roberts have agreed to chair or co-chair these work groups. They will begin their work this spring by developing appropriate school based processes.
To help guide this process as a whole, I've appointed a Strategic Focusing Advisory Council, co-chaired by Mike Digby and Bob Haney. The chairs and co-chairs of each of the work groups are included on this council. To keep us honest, an external advisory panel will review the work products that emerge from the process. Dave Brown, interim president at Georgia College before I arrived and founder of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, has already agreed to serve on this panel.
My hope is that each of you will participate in this process because its success depends on your involvement. Even if you are not a member of the strategic focusing advisory council or one of the work groups, there will be ample opportunity for you to contribute your perspectives and ideas. The first of these opportunities will come later this week when you receive what is known as a "stakeholders survey." The results of this survey will provide important information to the work group charged with reviewing the progress we have made in accomplishing our public liberal arts mission and with our assessing strengths, weaknesses and the challenges we face.
It is important to note that the strategic focusing process will not replace other planning and review efforts already underway. For example, we have groups of faculty and staff who have been giving serious attention to areas such as student retention and graduation, campus diversity, and graduate programs. These important efforts will continue as part of our ongoing commitment to institutional improvement.
Some of you are familiar with the book Good to Great, written by Jim Collins. In this book, Collins describes what he calls a hedgehog concept as follows: "A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. [Rather] it is an understanding of what you can be the best at." In an important sense, the strategic focusing process is about finding our hedgehog concepts. It is about discovering aspects of our core educational mission that we can realistically achieve in an exemplary way and that can serve as our pillars of national distinctiveness and distinction.
Pillars, as you know, provide structural support. They help to hold up an edifice. But they are not intrinsically more important or superior to other parts of the building. I ask you to keep this thought in mind during the strategic focusing process. Although achieving national distinction as a public liberal arts university requires strong structural support, the rest of the edifice cannot be neglected.
Last year, when we were once again facing a budget reduction, I recall a member of the faculty saying that she hoped this would not affect our ability to care for the landscaping of the campus. She eloquently described how walking through the campus to her office made her feel, and how these feelings helped to sustain her in her faculty role. This is a wonderful illustration of the interconnected of what we do. Each of you, regardless of your role or discipline, has had an important part in making this university what it is today. Each of you will have an equally important part in creating its distinguished future.
Although University Convocation is the occasion for presidents to sum up the current state of the university, in such talks, one rarely discusses warts and wrinkles, although every institution has its share of these. True to the genre, I've focused my remarks today on the tangible, measurable progress we have made as Georgia's Public Liberal Arts University.
But while I've avoided exposing warts and wrinkles, I have interjected a note of caution. I have talked about the challenges we face in sustaining our mission and argued for the need to focus on elevating the national profile of Georgia College as an exemplary public liberal arts university. With your goodwill, talent and energy, I have no doubt that we can succeed.
Thank you for who you are and all that you do.
