Board of Regents approves projects

University funds multiple changes

By: BRIAN MINK

Posted: 10/10/07

CARROLLTON - The Board of Regents approved Tuesday the transfer of Navy Supply Corps School property in Athens.

The Department of Education will transfer the property to the Board of Regents for the establishment of a Health Sciences Center, according to the Navy Supply Corps School Local Redevelopment Web site.

"I think we could certainly meet the parameters of this requirement," said Linda Daniels, the University System of Georgia vice chancellor for facilities.

The Board approved a list of University System projects funded over the next six years by $1.7 billion in general obligation bonds, which are municipal bonds backed up by an institution's taxing power rather than collateral.

Among the projects slated for funding at the University are a veterinary medicine teaching hospital and a science learning center.

The University System's list of projects also is funded by $2 billion in actual funds and has been culled to meet budgetary restrictions, Daniels said.

"We can always do more with more resources," she said. "The challenge is doing more with less."

The Board of Regents voted Tuesday to take a new approach on academic advising, implementing recommendations from a board-appointed task force.

The Board requires University System of Georgia institutions to develop an advising mission statement, define an advising structure and create an online advising handbook by August 2008.

Advising appointments also will be mandatory before students are allowed to register for classes - a policy in place at the University.

In the coming years, universities will be required to implement advising plans, publish a two-year course schedule and conduct an annual evaluation of their advising structure.

Academic advisers also will be reviewed annually under the plan.

Valdosta State University President Ron Zaccari, who chaired the Board's task force, noted the new advising requirements will be "culturally challenging" to implement at some institutions.

"The recommendations of this task force will require some transformations," he said. "Good advising and mentoring are crucial to retention and progression in graduation rates."

Zaccari said advising approaches around the state ranged from those that were "organized, systemic and prescriptive" to those that students refer to critically as the "five-minute advising model."

The task force met with student government associations and other student representatives at each of the state's colleges and universities, Zaccari said.

He said institutions use three different advising models.

The decentralized model uses advisers within academic departments.

The centralized model offers advisers who are trained specifically as cross-disciplinary advisers. A third model combines the decentralized and centralized models based on how many credits a student has earned.

Zaccari said the task force, which has worked on its recommendations for 10 months, did not recommend a single model for all of the state's institutions to follow. It determined that all colleges and universities must reexamine their present advising model and determine how to improve it.

"I think it's really going to have a positive impact on all of our campuses," he said.