A December message from the President

Dec. 7, 2021

Dear Colleagues, 

It’s hard to believe, but we are in the final week of exams for the fall semester and preparing for commencement ceremonies on December 11 (Savannah) and December 13 and 14 (Statesboro).  This weekend and into next week, we will confer approximately 2,100 degrees – baccalaureate, masters, doctoral, and certificates – with students from multiple campuses, all backgrounds and experiences.  This is our mission and evidence of achievement as we celebrate our student’s success and accomplishment.  Thank you for being such an important and integral part of their success!

We continue to experience very low levels of COVID-19 cases in our region and on our campuses.  As part of our progression in providing services to our faculty, staff, and students we are now able to offer free expanded on-campus COVID-19 testing.  Partnering with Mako Medical, COVID-19 PCR and COVID-19 rapid antigen tests are now available via walk-up or scheduled appointments (MyGeorgiaSouthern portal) on the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses five days a week.  This is a great opportunity pre-holiday season as you prepare to travel and then again, as we return to campus in January.

Earlier this month, you received an email from me about the FY 2023 budget prioritization and development process. The timeline and process provided opportunity for each level of the institution to engage. It also required leadership to communicate prioritization decisions at each stage of the process — from departmental and unit discussions in August, to prioritization decisions at the college, major unit, and divisional levels, to the submission of our FY 2023 documents to the system office on Nov. 18. 

As a reminder, we have provided the document links via the MyGeorgiaSouthern Portal (these documents are located on the Performance Excellence – FY2023 Budget Documents tab). Please contact your supervisor or divisional vice president if you have any questions.

This fall has been an incredibly successful time for our philanthropic efforts at Georgia Southern as we celebrated the grand opening of the Gretsch Museum in downtown Savannah on November 18 and announced just last week the largest gift in the history of Georgia Southern Athletics for our future Indoor Practice Facility.  I want to thank Anthony and the entire Tippins family for this transformational gift and what it will mean to Eagle Nation now and in the future.  Go Eagles!  In addition, within the same week, we received a $1M gift commitment to support our student scholarships and student research further activating the Manufacturing Engineering Labs in our new state-of-the-art Engineering Research Building.

I know I spend much of these communications providing information and heralding our many accomplishments.  During this season of reflection, gratitude, and celebration, let’s not forget to care for each other and our communities.  From me and my family (Jane and Lily), we wish everyone a wonderful holiday break. Our hope for each of you is that your time off is filled with family, friends, laughter, and joy! 

Thank you!
Kyle 

Last updated: 4/2/2022