University seeks to rename SLC after Zell Miller

By: HAYLEY PETERSON

Posted: 8/19/08

The building you're so fond of trekking to each day for class will no longer be the SLC - get ready to take class in the Zell B. Miller Learning Center.

"As the 76th governor of Georgia, Zell B. Miller forever placed his stamp on public higher education not just in the state but in the nation," according to the Board of Regents agenda for today's meeting.

The renaming will "commemorate the career of a two-term governor who spent 60 years in public service to the state ... (and) made education, particularly higher education, one of his policy priorities."

The BOR also will discuss the possible establishment of an Arabic major, an avian health and medicine master's program and a Master of Arts in Teaching program.

One reason for the proposal of an Arabic major is high student demand for the University's beginning Arabic classes. Another is an increasing need for Arabic-speaking individuals in the post-Sept. 11 job market, according to the meeting agenda.

The major would provide undergraduate students the opportunity to study abroad in Morocco and would include courses on the languages, literature, history and cultures of the Middle East.

In the proposed master's program in avian health and medicine the University would partner with the University of Melbourne in Australia. The program would give graduate veterinary students - mainly those who are fully or partially employed - the opportunity to specialize in poultry health and learn skills to diagnose and prevent diseases within the poultry population.

The proposed Master of Arts in Teaching program would offer the same majors currently offered in the Master of Education degree - early childhood education, middle school education, social studies education, mathematics education, science education, foreign language education and special education.

These majors would become available to students with bachelor's degrees in fields other than education who want to pursue a teaching certification at the master's level.