Director named for Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.

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Posted: 7/24/08

ATHENS, Ga. - After a national search, Steve Harris has been named director of the University's Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Harris has been the office's interim director since October 2007, when former director Opal Haley retired. Prior to that, he held the title of emergency operations manager.

"I am very pleased to announce that Steve Harris has been appointed director of the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness," said George Stafford, associate vice president for auxiliary and administrative services, a unit in Finance and Administration.

"Steve has done an excellent job in the role of interim director over the past several months, and he brings to the task a broad range of experience in this area, along with the relationships he has developed with local, state and federal agencies over the years and those he has developed with our campus constituencies."

Harris joined the security preparedness office in January 2006. Previously he worked seven years in the Georgia Emergency Management Agency's Homeland Security office as manager of the State School Safety Unit. He also served as an assistant security administrator with the Clarke County School District.

University faculty awarded grant

ATHENS, Ga. - Integrated global challenges of the 21st century are pushing disciplinary boundaries like never before. The notion of engineering as a societal activity harkens to the original intent of the liberal arts education model: to transform students into capable citizens. This transformation is the focus of University researchers who received a three-year grant to establish a pedagogical model for re-connecting the humanities and social sciences with engineering.

The $114,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge grant is focused on improving the competency of engineering educators within the backdrop of a growing trend in higher education: service learning. The project will engage faculty from the humanities and social sciences to help adapt engineering courses and curricula toward the needs of today's engineering students.

"The concept for the Faculty of Engineering was developed in part to re-establish the crucial links between engineering and the humanities," said Dale Threadgill, director of the University's Faculty of Engineering.

- University News Service