As I look back over the last 10 years, I am amazed by the progress we have made to better serve and support students in the work that we do. When I first arrived, we often had to explain who we were, and what we did. Even more frustrating was to be asked why we did it. A good part of our focus at that time was answering the question, “What is Student Affairs?” and promoting our departments and their programs to students, as well as to campus colleagues.

A few years into my tenure, with clarity and confidence in what we were doing, it was time to shift to thinking about HOW to do WHAT we do better. We engaged in a major effort to enhance aspects of inclusion, learning, partnerships, impact, and success throughout every program in the division. We also grew our commitment to fundraising and to genuine programmatic assessment.

Most recently, we have reasserted the core tenets of how our work enriches student learning and supports student development and growth, creating an even more valuable and memorable student experience at UGA. Through the four interrelated strategies of Essential Skills, Engagement, Well-Being & Success, and Belonging, we are now taking an institutional, system, and national lead in student support.

In practice, this ten-year trajectory has forged numerous successes in student support and engagement, including:

• Major initiatives in student well-being, belonging, engagement and experiential learning
• Enhanced integration with academic life and student learning
• Advancements in communication with and outreach to students
• Major facilities improvements (including Black-Diallo-Miller Hall, the university’s newest residence hall, along with major renovations to Brumby and Russell residence halls, the Ramsey Renewal project, and a revitalized Clark Howell Hall for the Disability Resource Center and University Testing Services, among others)
• Leadership of student support and services through the COVID-19 pandemic
• Unprecedented donor and alumni engagement in the co-curricular experience and student support services (Including transformational gifts in support of the Fontaine Center, the Student Veterans Resource Center, and the Let All the Big Dawgs Eat Food Scholarship, and the Sunshine Fund). We have raised nearly 20 million dollars dedicated to Student Affairs programs and services during this ten-year span.
• A consistent commitment to continuing to build an open, welcoming, and inclusive environment for current and former students (including the historic markers installed on the West Lawn of the Tate Student Center honoring the National Pan-Hellenic Council member organizations and the Intersection, a dynamic space in the Tate Student Center)
• We greatly expanded and strengthened resources dedicated to the tailored coordination of care and support for individual students, led by Student Care & Outreach.
• And we established several new departments, including Engagement, Leadership, and Service; Student Transitions; and Student Care and Outreach.
• The legacy of these ten years is not only represented in these and many additional successes, but also in the respect and appreciation for Student Affairs’ role and leadership. We are at the table now, respected as a credible player in what the University of Georgia offers to the community, state, nation, and world.

We have come a long way from the perception of us being on the periphery, sitting on the floor, “playing with the kids.” We are in the meetings playing a key role in most of the important decision-making happening on this campus. And when it comes to students, campus leaders look to us, not only for the programs in our purview, but in all of UGA’s efforts to provide the greatest learning environment possible. We are seen as a full-fledged contributor to the university’s tri-partite mission of teaching, research, and service. This makes me incredibly proud!

As home to dozens of approved Experiential Learning opportunities, a formal partner in the university’s new Active Learning initiative, and a key contributor to UGA’s efforts to support student success, our programs are now understood as effective opportunities for genuine learning.

We have indeed come a long way in our efforts and leadership in support of our students, but we cannot rest now. The challenges facing our students and the opportunities to assist with their success are too numerous and great for us to do anything but proceed into the future with even more resolve and energy.

• Even though I am retiring later this year, do not believe for one minute that I will simply ride off into the sunset or find the nearest rocking chair

 I invite you to use this moment of transition to reinvigorate your own calling in this work

and to propel our engagement and support of students to even greater heights. You have lived and proved that whatever challenges you are presented, or however lofty the goals are set, you are fully prepared and skilled to excel at your work. You are the best student-engagement, student-support, student-serving, and student-experience staff in the world. Period!

I am confident UGA’s engagement and support of students will continue to grow because of you. While we could never thank you enough, I have much appreciation for all that you do. Please know your all efforts are seen and felt and valued.

I began this afternoon by saying that this is a great and historic time to be at the University of Georgia and to be a Georgia Bulldog. Let’s continue striving to keep that true. For the present, and for the future, let’s strive to make each day the greatest day yet, #ForTheStudents.

Thank you for all you do. Go Dawgs!