James July-August 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 59
It was in April 2022 when the University System Board of Regents named
Dr. Sonny Perdue the 14th chancellor
of the University System of Georgia.
It is a position that oversees 26 public
colleges and universities with an $11.5
billion annual budget, 48,000 faculty and staff and more than 344,000
students. After more than two years at
the helm, it seemed a perfect time for a
wide-ranging interview at his office to
address education issues of the day.
But first, some background touching on the storied Perdue career.
Before becoming chancellor, Perdue served as the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Secretary (2017 to 2021)
under then-President Donald Trump,
was elected twice as Georgia’s governor (2003 to 2011), was a state senator
(1991-2001) where he chaired the Senate Higher Education Committee and
he later became Senate President Pro
Tempore. Obviously, his political
connections are extensive.
A native of Perry, he was
raised on a farm in Bonaire,
graduated from Warner Robins High School and earned
his Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine degree from the
University of Georgia. He is
also a U.S. Air Force veteran, worked as a veterinarian and agribusiness owner
and is married to the former
Mary Ruff (also a UGA grad).
I began by having him
bring James readers up-todate when it comes to helping high school students
learn about Georgia college
opportunities, as well as
how the University System of Georgia
(USG) is supporting its 26 university
and college presidents. “Our mantra
is that we want student success,” he
responded. “We want to enroll students— and that’s what Georgia Match
(a program to find out where a high
school student is eligible for college
admission) is all about. Enrollment,
retention, success and getting that
diploma is the goal.”
Our degrees are a million-dollar deal
“We say that our degrees are a
million-dollar deal,” he continued,
“because our statistics show that our
bachelor’s graduates will earn more
than a million dollars more in their
lifetimes than they would without
their college degree.” He says Georgia is blessed to have two great systems— the Technical College System
as well as the University System— and
they are addressing workforce needs.
“We have our mantra ‘good, better
and best and never let it rest.’ It is a
continuous process of improvement.
We worked at that when I was governor, and it is working in our system
by empowering presidents to get the
job done and letting them know there
is someone to support them and to
stand behind them.”
Georgia is one of five states with
two of its universities ranked by U.S.
News & U.S. World Report among the
top 20 in the country, and there are also
multiple other USG institutions with
high rankings. So I asked how he keeps
his eye on budget considerations while
at the same time, as evidenced by
those rankings, ensuring that the USG
becomes more efficient while focusing
on its core mission.
“You may remember during my
term of governor I got the reputation
of being a fiscal conservative. That’s
because we really had no money and
we had to conserve,” he quipped. “But
I’m still an efficiency and effectiveness
advocate for our campuses and we do
that through our budgeting process.”
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