Message from the President – September 9, 2019

Good afternoon!

Welcome back, after a few unscheduled days off last week as we watched and waited on Hurricane Dorian.

We are thankful the storm passed us by without major damage to our area. My thanks to the crews from facilities, residence life, public safety and more who either worked or were on standby the entire week to care for our campus and our students. While we are indeed thankful, let us continue to think of the residents of the Bahamas and their loved ones as they face a long road ahead of recovery and restoration.

Now that September is here, we know we are well into the fall semester with the official start of football season. I enjoyed conducting the band’s performance of our national anthem during the first home game in Paulson Stadium, where I also joined in celebrating our first home victory of the season against Maine. Go Eagles! 

Institutionally, we continue to work every opportunity to support our fall semester enrollment.  This has been a full-on effort to ensure we have only a minimal enrollment decrease.  We appreciate everyone’s help especially in developing additional courses for the minimester that begins in early October. Final enrollment numbers will come in mid-October and we will share an update with the university community at that time.

As you know, we are currently moving through our budget prioritization process for Fiscal Year 2021. This month we will be prioritizing our needs assessment at the leadership level and identifying where redirection opportunities exist. We will then begin crafting initial drafts of the institutional budget narrative for our annual submission to the University System the third week of October. It is my goal that everyone is aware of each step in this process. I will share information in these posts and you should also be receiving information directly from your supervisor and/or divisional vice president.  Please let us know if you have any questions about during or about this process.

As the provost shared last week, we recently launched a national search for the Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence (Chief Diversity Officer) position. This is just one step we are taking in our ongoing commitment to inclusive excellence at Georgia Southern. If you have not already, please take time to read Dr. Damon Williams’ report under the “Performance Excellence” tile in the MyGS portal. We look forward to his return to campus for a follow-up visit in October.

As we dive further into the semester, looking ahead to fall Eagle Athletics events, campus life events, guest lectures, recitals, concerts, Homecoming week, and our new Performance Excellence – Staff Professional Development Conference on Nov. 13….we are adding yet another major campus event to the calendar.

My official investiture as your president will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, October 25 at Hanner Fieldhouse on the Statesboro campus. An investiture is a traditional university event where the president is ceremoniously welcomed and charged with his or her responsibilities by the Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. It is also a time for the university to reinforce its relationships with many of its partners. To that end, we will host an event at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening, October 24 in the Fine Arts Hall on the Armstrong campus in Savannah, where we will hear from prominent guest speakers who will highlight our institutional values. More information will be shared with the university community, alumni, and external communities and stakeholders as we approach October.

Thanks for all your efforts every day on behalf of our students and our communities.

People, Purpose, Action: Growing Ourselves to Grow Others!

Sincerely,

Kyle

Last updated: 4/2/2022