UGA President-elect Jere Morehead has announced a restructuring of the university’s senior administration that creates a flatter organizational structure designed to maximize the amount of communication between the president and leaders of major campus units.
The realignment, which is effective July 1, increases the number of people who directly report to the president and is consistent with an organizational structure used at many peer and aspirational institutions.
“The purpose of this reorganization is to create more opportunities for information to flow directly to and from the president,” Morehead said. “We have an outstanding leadership team on this campus, and I plan to meet with them on a regular basis so that I can make decisions that reflect their input as well as the input of those who report to them.”
Under the reorganization, the university’s sole senior vice president is the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. The vice presidents for instruction, research, public service and outreach, student affairs and information technology will continue to report to the provost. The deans of the schools and colleges also will continue to report to the provost.
The positions of vice president for finance and administration (formerly a senior vice presidential position) and vice president for development and alumni relations (formerly senior vice president for external affairs) will report to the president, as will the vice president for government relations and the vice president for public affairs.
The president will have a close working relationship with the vice president for research in recognition of the administration’s emphasis on building the research enterprise and Morehead’s role as president and board chair of the UGA Research Foundation. Morehead also will work closely with the vice president for development and alumni relations and the UGA Foundation in preparation for the upcoming capital campaign.
In conjunction with the reorganization, Morehead is developing a schedule of regular meetings with vice presidents and deans as well as with faculty, staff and student representatives.
“In addition to maintaining an active schedule with external constituents related to our upcoming capital campaign, I intend to engage on a regular basis with members of the campus community to ensure that a diversity of voices is heard,” Morehead said. “My goal is to maintain an environment that encourages open communication with the shared goal of enhancing the University of Georgia’s role as one of the nation’s great public universities.”