Athens, Ga. — The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents will meet on the UGA campus for the first time in almost 20 years April 15-16. The meeting will be held in the third-floor Reading Room of the Student Learning Center, a Board of Regents-funded facility which will open this fall.
The Regents last met at UGA in 1984. Typically, the board holds two of its monthly meetings each year on the campus of a University System institution.
“It is a great honor and privilege for the University of Georgia to have the Board of Regents hold its April meeting on this campus,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “As a group, the Regents are dedicated public servants who believe that the future of Georgia depends on quality higher education for its citizens. We are pleased that they will conduct their important business on our campus this month.”
Among the items on the agenda for the April meeting are proposed action by the board regarding funding for pilot programs associated with USG’s African-American Male Initiative.
The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents was created in 1931 as a part of a reorganization of Georgia’s state government. With this act, public higher education in Georgia was unified for the first time under a single governing and management authority. The governor appoints members to the Board, who each serve seven years. Today the Board of Regents is composed of 16 members, five of whom are appointed from the state-at-large, and one from each of the 11 congressional districts. The Board elects a chancellor who serves as its chief executive officer and the chief administrative officer of the University System.
The Board oversees 34 institutions: four research universities, 2 regional universities, 13 state universities, 2 state colleges, and 13 two-year colleges. These institutions enroll more than 200,000 students and employ more than 9,000 faculty and 30,000 employees to provide teaching and related services to students and the communities in which they are located. The budget for the University System of Georgia is $4.5 billion.
Thomas C. Meredith is the Chancellor and former Governor Joe Frank Harris chairs the Board of Regents.
The Regents will meet over the course of two days. At 1 p.m. on April 15, the board will convene as a whole before breaking into committees, which will meet during the course of the afternoon. On the morning of April 16, the board will re-convene as a whole to consider and act upon committee recommendations. The meeting is scheduled to end at noon.
A planning group chaired by Tom Landrum, chief of staff in the President’s Office, and consisting of representatives from several UGA departments, including the physical plant, parking services, public affairs, telecommunications, public safety and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education has been meeting since February to prepare for the board’s meeting.
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