When Michael Adams arrived on the campus of the University of Georgia as its president, I was suspicious. Shortly after he moved in, he took on the self-appointed Lord of the Kingdom, Vince Dooley, and deftly canned him.
Adams was to be in charge, not Dooley.
My suspicion turned quickly to admiration. He did not disappoint. The ensuing years have been good ones for our flagship state university, and with the appointment of his successor, Jere Morehead, I expect more of the same.
I can’t overstress the importance of retaining our best and brightest in this state for its future prosperity. The university goes to great lengths to make that happen.
It is a point of pride to me to know we can turn out top-tier graduates and Rhodes Scholars from three major nationally ranked universities in this state — Georgia, Georgia Tech and Emory — and those young people play a vital role in energizing economic growth and stimulating innovation in our communities.
By most accounts, the university does well against its peer institutions. In the closely followed U.S. News annual college ratings, it ranks in the top 20 public national universities. Among SEC schools, only Florida has a better showing.
StateUniversity.com has the school ranked 16th nationally behind only Texas A&M in the SEC in a list of 500 public universities. The succession of Morehead, following the achievements of Adams, should maintain the focus on what really counts: Retaining Georgia’s best students and growing a nationally competitive economy in this state.
And, if you will allow me to add Georgia Tech — ranked Nos. 7 and 6, respectively — our public universities give us much about which to toot our horns. While we are on the subject of engineering, how many of us know that the University of Georgia has just added a College of Engineering?
When I graduated from the University of Georgia, the college was also highly ranked nationally — as a party school.
I did nothing whatsoever to help change that ranking, but my wife did.
We sent our progeny to law school there, where she graduated second in her class.
She clerked for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals with a young man just out of the University of California at Berkeley, considered by many the No. 1 public university in the nation.
She was not surprised to discover she knew as much about the law as he did. Our next generation will arrive there in January on a soccer scholarship, and academically, she will walk in her mother’s footsteps.
I do realize, of course, that the mention of UGA in ordinary conversation does not trigger visions of academic achievement, but an instantaneous response to success on the playing field.
Competitive sports teams are essential to the University of Georgia. The funding they bring to the university allows badly needed money to be used elsewhere for a host of purposes.
It is heresy in this part of the country to cast aspersions on college football, particularly at Georgia. But the ascendancy of college football may be peaking under the pressure of austerity in state budgets and their impact on university programs.
According to a recent USA Today article, only 22 college athletics programs pay their way without taxpayer subsidy. In Georgia’s case, you will be relieved to know, the school contributes no funding from the Uuniversity‘s budget for academics. But in 2011, it did kick in more than $3 million in student activity fees for the athletics programs, although the department was profitable on its own.
Good rivalries with SEC teams on the playing field are important. Students, alumni and thousands around the state with “G” on their vehicles, and who have never been to Athens, let alone set foot on campus, expect that for their allegiance.
However, while the rest of us are at home or in the stands watching our teams compete, or simply basking in the glow from last summer’s UGA representation in London, when it comes to academics and research, it’s a different ballgame.
President-elect Morehead needs to be competing against the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and Texas, not the SEC.
Russ Wigh is a professor of business. Email him at rdwigh@bellsouth.net.