January 2014
Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,
I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year and welcome you back to campus for another exciting and rewarding semester at Georgia Southern University. We experienced many successes last year and they were the result of all your hard work and dedication.
As we enter the new semester, I want to highlight a few events we can look forward to in 2014, including the introduction of our new football coach and the annual Staff Merit and Service Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. in the Performing Arts Center. We will also hold the annual MLK Celebration with Andrew Young as the featured speaker this month.
I hope that you will find this newsletter informative, and I look forward to sharing more exciting developments in store for Georgia Southern this year.
Brooks A. Keel, Ph.D.
Eagles Land New Coach
We are extremely excited to welcome Willie Fritz to Eagle Nation as the new head football coach of the Georgia Southern Eagles. Fritz has more than 30 years of coaching experience and has served as the head coach of Sam Houston State University in Texas for the last four years. We hired the right person to lead our student-athletes into the future as we begin play in the Sun Belt Conference in the fall, and I know he will also honor the rich history and traditions of this championship football program. First lady Tammie Schalue and I are thrilled to have Coach Fritz, his wife, Susan and their three children, Wesley, Elaine and Brooke, as the newest members of Eagle Nation.
Best Online Programs
Great things are happening in the virtual classroom for Georgia Southern students. The University has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report for having some of the best online education programs in the country. Here are the four degrees singled out on the “2014 Best Online Programs” list:
- Best online graduate computer information technology programs (#23)
- Best online graduate education programs (#50)
- Best online graduate business programs (#64)
- Best online bachelor’s programs (#160)
This is the third consecutive year for Georgia Southern to be recognized, and it’s great national attention for our outstanding and innovative online programs.
Read more about our online programs.
Georgia Southern Day at the Capitol
We are busy making plans for the first ever Georgia Southern Day at the Capitol in Atlanta. The event on Thursday, Feb. 6, will allow us to thank our state elected officials for supporting higher education, and it will give them an opportunity to learn much more about the great things that are happening at our University, including important developments in our academic, research, athletics and ROTC programs.
Student Health Services Accreditation
We are proud to announce that Georgia Southern’s Student Health Services is one of only three university health centers in the state to receive accreditation from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). The survey identified 22 areas in which our health center excelled with its facility and procedures. The organization also recognized Georgia Southern as a certified Patient Centered Medical Home. Our students deserve the best care possible, and that’s what they get from the medical staff because they are focused on being patient-centered. The accreditation comes as we design a new $10 million health care center that should open in mid-2015.
Read more about the AAAHC accreditation
Softball Achieves Academic Record
Congratulations to the Georgia Southern softball team, which posted its best fall semester in the classroom in program history with a 3.492 team GPA. The Eagles were outstanding academically with 17 of 20 student-athletes recording a semester GPA over 3.0. Overall, five student-athletes appeared on the President’s List with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
MLK Celebration
I hope you will join us at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. for Georgia Southern’s annual MLK Celebration. We are honored to have Andrew Young, a former congressman and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as our featured speaker. I hope you will be there to hear his message on improving human and civil rights for people around the world.
Last updated: 4/2/2022