The University System of Georgia Board of Regents held their first on-campus meeting of the year at Kennesaw State University October 13 and 14, which featured a presentation by President Daniel S. Papp.
The Board of Regents meets nine times a year, but only two of these visits are held outside of the Board’s headquarters in Atlanta and hosted by a Georgia university. According to Vice President of Strategic Communication and Marketing Arlethia Perry-Johnson, it is an honor for KSU to be chosen as one of those schools.
The meeting also happened at an ideal time, as KSU has much of which to be proud. Papp’s presentation, entitled “What We Were Then, What We Are Now, What We Are Becoming”, opened the meeting by reflecting on the past 52 years and the growth KSU has experienced.
Papp took a look at KSU’s history, from the university’s beginnings as the Kennesaw Junior College in 1963, to being renamed Kennesaw College in 1977, to becoming Kennesaw State University in 1996.
He also detailed the history of Southern Polytechnic State University, now KSU after the 2013 consolidation, and defined the “new KSU” as beginning in 2013 with the consolidation, 50th anniversary, Regents’ designation of KSU as a “Comprehensive University” and Regents’ approval of football at KSU.
The KSU Tellers, a co-curricular storytelling troupe housed in the Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, presented “Fifty Years in Five Minutes” to give life to the story of KSU’s development.
“It was very entertaining,” Mark Anderson, Dean of KSU’s College of Science and Mathematics, said of the KSU Tellers’ presentation. “I think the theme was ‘what are the KSU traditions’ and…one of the Tellers says ‘we have traditions, and the tradition is change.’ Fifty years is a very short period of time for a university, and where we are compared to where we were is pretty dramatic.”
Henry “Hank” Huckaby, Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, expressed appreciation for Dr. Papp’s speech and the university.
“I would say, thus far this morning, that we’re very impressed,” he said. “It’s a dynamic place—it’s the kind of dynamism that is easy to feel so it has been a great trip so far.”
Huckaby stressed the importance of university-hosted meetings, as it allows the Board to see campuses firsthand, what the university has accomplished, the facility’s growth and what is happening academically.
Vice Chancellor for Communication of the University System of Georgia, Charles Sutlive, added, “There’s no better way to learn more about what the university system is doing than to be on campus and see it in person. We appreciate everybody being so welcoming and just the insights and opportunities we get. And…we get the exposure to students. I mean, that’s what we’re about, that’s what we’re here to do—to serve.”
Other topics of discussion throughout the meeting were online learning, consolidation, increasing Georgia graduation rates and students’ needs.
KSU is a leader in online education, according to in-depth reports. The Board of Regents used this meeting to discuss a development in online learning, entitled eCore, or electronic core-curriculum, which allows students to complete the first two years of their college education entirely online.
Vice President of KSU’s Division of Student Affairs, K. C. White, summed up the theme of the Board of Regents meeting. “It’s all about the students. We want to make sure we highlight [them].”
