Message from the President – October 8, 2019
Good afternoon Colleagues,
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Finally, the temperature has dropped a bit and it has begun to feel like fall! I had a wonderful weekend that started with the 10th annual “Treasure Savannah” event, where a couple hundred Georgia Southern students volunteered their Saturday morning to clean up grounds, facilities, and maintenance for the Savannah community (Liberty Campus also participated in Hinesville). I was honored to be part of the student team that helped with grounds clean up at Union Mission…what an awesome group of students and a great day! I also spent the weekend celebrating our Eagle football win Thursday night in Mobile. The game had a lot of late excitement as our team forced overtime and then relied on special teams to earn a 20-17 Sun Belt Conference win in double overtime. We will get to see them at home on October 19 for Military Appreciation Day and then again this month on October 26 for our Homecoming game.
Last week was a busy week and I wanted to thank everyone who made it to Dr. Damon Williams’ Inclusive Excellence open forums. He was here to follow up on his report and to give us additional in-depth guidance on how to embed the actions of inclusive excellence into our culture. Dr. Williams has given us a roadmap and we must now commit and continue to implement his recommendations ensuring these ideas become practice.
President’s cabinet and other university leadership spent multiple hours with Dr. Williams on Wednesday. We identified strategies for university-wide implementation and committed to continued workshops and town halls. That realization was then reinforced when a standing-room-only crowd participated in his open forums and listening sessions. Stay tuned. This will be a continuing journey for all of us and I welcome your participation and engagement.
We will be taking the remainder of October and the first few weeks of November to finalize our budget narrative to the USG for FY2021. Thank you for your engagement throughout this process. The budget narrative is due to the system on November 20. Once completed, we will share the entirety of the document and all budgetary prioritization decisions. I also want to thank the faculty and departments for helping add classes for the October minimester – we have one more week until enrollment census is due (October 14). Every credit hour gained not only helps our students progress in their degree programs but also helps our budget outlook.
October is a busy and exciting month as students have midterms and as we prepare across our campuses for Homecoming week festivities. In addition to our traditional Homecoming activities, we are holding the investiture ceremony where I will officially be installed as your president. As a part of my investiture, you are welcome to join me on the Armstrong campus on the evening of Oct. 24 for an exciting event where we will hear from six prominent community and corporate leaders as they define Georgia Southern’s values through their lenses. We will then gather again for the investiture ceremony on the morning of Oct. 25 in Statesboro. You can find all the details at https://www.georgiasouthern.edu/president/investiture/. My sincere thanks to all who are helping to organize these events, and to those who are participating.
As we reflect on our week spent with Dr. Williams – defining what inclusive excellence will mean at Georgia Southern – I encourage each of us to remember to care for each other and lift each other up as one community, remembering that it is our common goal to provide the best environment for our students to learn, grow, and succeed.
People. Purpose. Action: Growing ourselves to grow others!
Sincerely,
Kyle
Last updated: 4/2/2022