GC&SU gets visit from USG Chancellor

Last Friday Georgia College & State University had a visitor on campus — the chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Thomas Meredith.

Chancellor Meredith stopped by the GC&SU campus as the last part of his statewide tour of Georgia’s public colleges. While at GC&SU,
Chancellor Meredith and his wife were shown around campus by President Rosemary DePaolo. After meeting with local media, Chancellor Meredith and his wife were treated to a reception held in their honor. Members of the Georgia College Foundation, GC&SU Student Ambassadors, the Mayor of Milledgeville, various College Trustee members and faculty members were there as well.

Those at the reception all voiced rather high opinions of Chancellor Meredith. Many people had hopes that GC&SU could benefit from the Chancellor’s visit.

“It’s a great time for him to be here because of all the construction. Hopefully the state will allot us more money for our projects when they see all the progress here,” said Tammy Crow of University Advancement. Student Ambassador Herby Agnew, who hoped that “he’ll back us up when we need him to,” shared this optimism.

Dr. Rosemary DePaolo felt the same way. “He and his wife Susan both said they wanted to return to our campus often. Only wonderful things can come from that kind of response.”

The group seemed most impressed with the Chancellor’s journey to visit all 34 public colleges in Georgia. Some even went so far as to say that “he saved the best for last.” Mayor Griffin said he was “very impressed with the Chancellor…I think it’s very important for him to come to the college and get his first hand look at it because we have such a wonderful university here. We’re just very proud to have him here.”

Jenni Prosnak, GC&SU Ambassador and Georgia Education Mentor (GEM) participant, said “I think it’s great, the tour that he’s doing of the 34 schools, and I think he’s a great, great man from what I can tell so far. He’s got a very likeable personality to the students.”

She’s not the only one who thinks so.

According to Ralph Norman, vice president of University Advancement.

“He’s a great leader, a very effective leader. I’m glad to have the opportunity to work with him.”

If Chancellor Meredith is such a noted individual, why did he leave his position with the University System of Alabama? The Chancellor said it was because of “the reputation Georgia has for supportive higher education, and second, the challenge of having 34 institutions in one system like that…a very positive challenge, and I was looking forward to
that.”

The Chancellor and his wife both seemed extremely impressed with GC&SU. “This is a very special place…a lot of good things are happening here.” the Chancellor said. GC&SU is “doing a wonderful job, and just running up the ladder in terms of quality on a yearly basis…the quality of students coming here, the quality of the offerings here…I think the only problem we’re going to have here is having enough space for everyone to come here who would like to be here.” As for the new Bobcat Village, “very impressive. Extremely impressive.”

Susan Meredith, the Chancellor’s wife, felt that GC&SU was “…one of the more beautiful campuses we’ve been on. The architecture is so beautiful, the students are friendly, the landscaping is great, what’s not to like about it?” The Chancellor agreed, saying, “It’s a beautiful campus. Quality is here…the facilities particularly on the front of the campus are beautiful. The four buildings across the front are just striking.”

As Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Meredith has several programs either underway, or in the works. For instance, he said “we’re raising the bar academically in a number of areas across the system. We have initiatives underway to increase the availability of higher education to all areas of the state.” One program already successful is the increasing of baccalaureate degrees across Georgia.
“The legislature helped us fund last time about 1.9 million to help bring some four year programs in the last two years to some of our two year schools in the state,” Chancellor Meredith said.

“Very impressive. Extremely impressive.” “Just striking.” “A lot of good things are happening here.” These are just a few of the comments made by Chancellor Meredith concerning GC&SU. “We’ve been extraordinarily impressed.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 17 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry