Scoring Big for UGA

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Welcome back to campus! We’ve had an exciting start to the new year with our football team! The UGA campus hasn’t been this alive since our last national championship game nearly 40 years ago. It’s certainly a time that none of us will soon forget. Even though we didn’t win the national title, we can still hold our heads high by what we’ve accomplished in a short period of time. We’ve got a great thing going on with our academics, but we’ve got more work ahead to propel us to excellence.

Many of you may recall President Morehead’s announcement at his January 2017 State-of-the-University Address about his ambitious goals to further enhance the rigorous educational experience for our students with the creation of a new Task Force on Student Learning and Success. VP for Student Affairs Victor Wilson and I were charged with taking a fresh look at UGA’s undergraduate learning environment and develop clear strategies that could be implemented in a relatively short time and would elevate our world-class learning environment.

I am excited to report that our 20-member committee, after nearly a year of collaboration and a critical review of our existing academic and student engagement programs, have made 12 recommendations to President Morehead that will further raise the bar on the student learning experience at UGA. As outlined in the task force’s announcement that went out earlier today, the objectives are bold and ambitious, but they will help provide a richer, more meaningful educational experience for our students and elevate UGA among our peer and aspirational institutions. The three broad objectives of the recommendations focus on evolving the curriculum, enhancing teaching and learning, and expanding student support and mentoring, for both immediate needs and long-term goals. Many of the recommendations stem from recent emerging internal conversations; others are newly developed ideas that will require further discussion.

I invite you to take a look at the recommendations at https://president.uga.edu/archive/ and think about how these might be integrated into your school, college or unit. The Task Force welcomes any feedback you might have on the recommendations. Feel free to send me your ideas at ovpi@uga.edu.

Welcome back to campus!

Sincerely,

Rahul Shrivastav
Vice President for Instruction