University President Michael Adams proposed a major shuffle in the administration Wednesday, using his State of the University address to call for a “lean, clean and efficient” structure.

In a 45-minute speech in the University Chapel, Adams detailed a plan that would clarify administrative responsibility, assigning most of it to three new senior vice president posts.

“Our administrative structure needs to be as clean and understandable to the overall community as it possibly can be,” Adams said.

Adams said streamlining the administration affords him more time to travel the state and talk to alumni and friends of the University.

“I do intend to become an increasingly visible spokesperson for UGA,” he said.

Adams, giving his first State of the University address since becoming the University’s 21st president, also called for a renewed focus on the attention the University gives to undergraduates.

“Because of our non-residential nature, we have become a place that does not know one another as well as we need to,” Adams said. “And after-hours residential and campus life have suffered in the process.”

The president announced a $100,000 fund to help faculty and students “know one another better.” Faculty can draw from the fund in small amounts to hold classes and provide meals at their homes.

Adams also cited a need for the University to consider an “increasingly global dimension” and to expand international programs.

Alluding to the success he had with international programs at Centre College in Kentucky, Adams called for a new international program to be in place for the University by next fall.

“I would like to see us aim for 10 percent of each undergraduate class having a residential foreign experience by the first couple of years of the 21st century,” he said.

Adams also spoke about the new “Gwinnett campus,” a planned collaboration of the University and DeKalb College, giving his full support to that plan and other cooperative efforts with state schools.

“We need to be a regular presence in every geographic region of the state,” he said. “The state is our campus.”

This year’s address was attended by about 400 people in the Chapel – close to a full house – and broadcast live on two local radio stations and the University’s cable TV channel.