RUNNING

HEAD: February 2015 BOR Monthly Meeting

Field Observation:
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia Monthly Meeting
Amanda D. Seals
Georgia Southern University
EDLE 7431-02F, Spring 2015
Dr. Don Stumpf
April 20, 2015

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Introduction
An envy of higher education governance across the nation, the Board of Regents (BOR)
of the University System of Georgia (USG) is comprised of 19 appointees called regents
tapped by the Governor of the state to serve seven-year, staggered terms. As a group, the board
meets nine times during the calendar year, setting various policies, approving academic programs
and laying the groundwork for the future of public post secondary education across Georgia. In
the months that meetings are not scheduled, the chair may convene a called meeting of the board
when necessary. Even though the board is the ultimate governing authority for Georgias 30
institutions, the group hires a Chancellor to oversee the day-to-day operations and implements
the governing policies that they set (see Appendix A for organizational chart). In order to
understand the work that the Board of Regents and its staff handles, first one must understand the
configuration of the colleges and universities that comprise the USG.
In the 2004 American Council on Education article, An Overview of Higher Education in
the United States, the authors describe the type of governance system found in Georgia:
Some public universities are part of statewide multi-campus systems in which an
additional layer of oversight exists between the campus and state government. System
administrators may oversee campus budgets, set policies such as admissions standards,
coordinate degree programs, and facilitate credit transfer and articulation between the
states public colleges and universities. Additionally, and importantly, they advocate to
the legislature on behalf of public colleges and universities. (p. 3)
In Georgia, there are two separate systems that govern public intuitions of higher education the
USG and the Technical College System of Georgia. The USG is different than the TCSG as it
has its own constitutional authority separating the government, control, and management from
the executive branch to that of the Board of Regents.
Much like a college or university, the composition of the System office has a chief
executive officer (CEO), which is the Chancellor. Just as the president is the CEO on a campus,

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the Chancellor is that for the system. The Chancellor has a senior cabinet that also mirrors that
of the cabinet of a college president. The vice chancellors cover the areas of administration,
academic affairs, external affairs, student affairs, facilities and business and finance. Basically,
if on a campus there is a member of the cabinet of the president, there is a corresponding
counterpart at the system office. This is how the checks and balances of the governing system
function.
According to its website, the public higher education institutions under the umbrella of
the USG are divided into four categories: research, comprehensive, state universities and state
colleges. The research institutions provide a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary
academic programming at the baccalaureate, masters and doctoral levels, as well as a range of
professional programs at the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate level, including the doctoral
level (Core Mission Statement for Research Universities). The four comprehensive institutions
offer a similar variety of programs as the research intuitions, however; they include a limited
number of professionally-oriented doctoral level programs (Core Mission Statement for
Comprehensive Universities).
The nine state universities offer a high quality general education program supporting a
variety of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and professional academic programming at the
baccalaureate level, with selected masters and educational specialist degrees, and selected
associate degree programs based on area need and/or interinstitutional collaborations (Core
Mission Statement for State Universities). These intuitions do not offer doctorial programs.
The final category of institutions in the USG is the state colleges designation. These
colleges are often termed access institutions by those in higher education. Rather than offering
masters and doctorial programs, these institutions offer a very limited number of four-year

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degrees, focusing more on associate programs that prepare the student for matriculation into a
baccalaureate program. Over the years, colleges that only offered two-year programs have now
crept into very limited offerings of four-year degrees with the exception of Bainbridge College.
February 2015, Board of Regents Monthly Meeting
For the purpose of the Field Observation assignment, I attended the second meeting of
the year for the Board of Regents on March 18, 2015. The decision to hold the meeting over one
day versus two is up to the sitting board chair and varies from term to term. Most recently, the
meetings have been whittled down to a one-day gathering, as many of the current Regents are
high-ranking officials in their profession. Despite only meeting for roughly five hours, much
work was done in the sunshine and even more so behind the scenes before the Regents descends
up on the system office located in Atlanta. This is obvious due to the number of system staff that
joins the Chancellor and that are available for the BOR members during the meeting and its
breakout sessions on the agenda.
Located in downtown Atlanta a block away from the state capitol, the BOR meets at the
USG central office in its boardroom - a large public space that houses a massive 19-seat table
with one additional place at its head for the Chancellor, who sits next to the Board Chairman.
The Chair guides the board through the lengthy agenda, which is filled with sections of
presentations that are made to the full board in what is dubbed the committee of whole. In
addition to the committee of the whole meetings, the BOR are divided into two groups that meet
separately. These smaller divisions named Track I and Track II cover specific areas of board
governance. At this particular meeting, Track I covered the topics of academic affairs and
organization and law, while the Track II committee covered a joint internal audit and finance and
business committee meeting along with real estate and facilities. Track I also includes a

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committee on Personnel & Benefits that meets when necessary, while Track II has a committee
on economic development that convenes when necessary. There are several special committees
that are formed outside of the Track assignments for the board members. These committees
include the graduate medical education (GME), non-track, state archives, intercollegiate
athletics, consolidation, statewide academic health planning and search committees that meet at
various times throughout the year either during a BOR meeting or at special meetings called by
the chair of the BOR. There is also an executive and compensation committee that is a standing
committee of the board that is comprised of the board chair and vice chair, as well as four other
regents.
At this particular meeting, the committee of the whole met several times throughout the
agenda to approve the new mission statement for Georgia State University as the BOR recently
approved the recommendation by Chancellor Hank Huckaby to consolidate Georgia State
University, a research institution, and Georgia Perimeter College, mainly a two-year access
institution with limited Bachelors degrees. The new institution will be one of the largest in the
nation offering everything from two-year to doctoral level degrees. In addition to approving this
mission statement, the BOR also heard a presentation on the recommendation to change the
status of Middle Georgia State College to university status effective July 1, 2015. The new
institution will be named Middle Georgia State University and will move into the arena of
offering more Masters level degrees at its campuses.
Perhaps one of the most interesting policy changes made at this particular meeting during
a committee of the whole was the motion to allow certain institutions with declining enrollment
growth the ability to use a waiver to accept students from border states at an instate tuition rate
rather than charging out-of-state tuition. Vice Chancellor for Fiscal Affairs John Brown along

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with Dr. Houston Davis, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer, made the
compelling presentation both from an academic and budgetary perspective as to why this could
be of assistance to these institutions. In speaking with Dr. Davis and Mr. Brown after the
meeting, I learned there were few questions by the Regents after their presentation before voting
in favor of the proposal due to the work that they and their staffs did prior to the meeting.
Briefings of small groups of regents occur leading up to full board meeting so as to get any data
that might be required to answer the questions they receive. Since the waiver change was
approved at the March 2015 meeting, impacted campuses are able to recruit students from
Florida immediately, offering the lower tuition as soon as the 2015-2016 fall term.
Tracks I and II meet simultaneously, so many of the institutions bring multiple staff
members along with the president of the college or university in many instances to cover both
tracks. For the purposes of this exercise, outside of attending the full BOR meeting, I attended
Track I. Track I meets in a separate meeting room on the fifth floor while Track II meets in the
main boardroom. The track started off with the committee on Academic Affairs, chaired by
Regent Lori Durden, one of two female members of the board. Regent Durden rather than
moving through the agenda herself, calls upon Dr. Davis and Dr. Teresa Joyce, associate vice
chancellor for academic affairs, to review each item and answer any questions regarding the
action items. Even though the subject matter experts provide in-depth reasoning for the items
brought to the committee for action, the Regents on the track committee are very inquisitive
about the agenda items. At this particular board meeting, there were three new program requests
to establish new Bachelor, Masters and Doctorial programs; two program substantive change
program modification requests; the addition of a college to the collaborative online program also

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known as eMajor; the termination of two degree programs; and the approval of the establishment
of two new named faculty positions.
After the committee moves through the agenda items, there is a presentation given by Dr.
Davis and Merryll Penson, executive director for Library Services, on efforts by the USG keep
the costs of textbooks down for its students. Through the Affordable Learning Georgia
Initiative, a partnership with The California State University, the USG is developing a zero-cost
textbook option for the top 50 lower division courses offered throughout the system. Since the
presentation was well received by the track members, a motion is made for a committee of the
whole be held at the next BOR meeting so that all the Regents may learn about what is being
done regarding post secondary affordability.
Upon the motion to end the committee meeting on academic affairs, Regent Larry Walker
convenes the meeting on Organization and Law. This meeting is a closed session for strictly the
Regents and the legal staff of the system and the parties involved. In these meetings, the
committee hears cases that have been appealed from the campus level to the system level
concerning personnel matters and student records. Once the Regents make their decision in
closed session regarding the matters at hand, they reconvene in open session reporting out any
actions that occurred. More often than not, the Regents do not rule in favor of the faculty
member or student in question.
Background on building the agenda
If you inquire the staff from the system as well as the institutional staff that attends the
meetings, both indicate that much work is done prior to the actual board meeting itself. For the
matters voted on in Track I, the provost and vice president of academic affairs as well as in some
cases, deans from the institution, are involved in close conversation with the reciprocal staff at

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the system, informing them of the need of the campus to add or terminate programs. This
process will continue until the system staff is confident that the campus has made a strong
argument for its ask. As the items progress through the process, Dr. Joyce and her staff keep Dr.
Davis informed of upcoming actions.
When items in a track are ready for prime time, the system office staff assists the
Chancellor compile the agenda for each section of the meeting and the two tracks. As soon as
one board meeting is completed, within a week, the system begins to plan for the next month by
holding an all hands on deck agenda review meeting. During this, all of the subject matter
experts and the senior staff join the chancellor in reviewing the items on the agenda and how
much time will need to be devoted to each item.
In the case of academic affairs, Dr. Davis brings forth the items for consideration of the
next meeting of the full Board. During the staff review process, briefing conversations are
conducted between the point staff at the system and the chair and vice chair of the committees in
each track. Two weeks prior to the full BOR meeting, Executive Assistant for Board Member
Services Erika Triplett a meeting packet full of information about the items on the upcoming
agenda. This process allows the board to review the materials before arriving to Atlanta as well
as submit any questions they might have in advance.
Thoughts and Observations
Overall, the dynamics of the meeting and the interaction between the Regents,
institutional representatives and the staff from the USG are fascinating. Prior to the official start
of the meeting, presidents that are in attendance swoop upon the Regents as they enter the room
so as to have face time with members. In addition, various provosts and vice presidents from the
institutions seek out their counterparts from the system office in order to have dialogue as well.

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It reminds me of the opening line from the journal article, The Organization as Political Arena by
Henry Mintzberg. He states, politics and conflict sometimes capture an organization in whole
or significant part, giving rise to a form we call the Political Arena (1985, p. 134). As the swirl
of conversation fills the room prior to the BOR meeting and during the various breaks
throughout the day, one could certainly agree with him that the BOR monthly meeting is a
political arena. However, in my opinion, it is a healthy form of politics. In Georgia, although
the Regents set the policy and the Chancellor manages the institutional presidents, the
administration at each college and university does have some autonomy to operate within the
system itself.
The Chancellor and his staff have the complicated task of managing the ongoing actions
of the Regents as well as the processes the institutions use to implement them. From my
background research of board policy and procedure, it is evident that the actions of the BOR and
the USG fall under the guiding principles of a strategic plan that was recently updated and
approved in 2013 to last until 2018. The plan complies with the Complete College America and
Complete College Georgia initiatives. Every action is analyzed to ensure that it complies or
compliments the strategic plan. As we read in Schloss and Cragg at the beginning of the
semester, strategic planning is an exercise in which all facets of higher education participate in at
some point. The USG is the working arm of the BOR that ensures that its strategic plan is being
implemented at its fullest potential.
If I had not worked for the USG or done research prior to attending the BOR meeting, I
believe that it would be easy to assume that the BOR members are simply rubberstamping the
items that the Chancellor and his staff present. However, I have learned that the full meeting is
simply the final step of a long and sometimes complicated process of staff from institutions and

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the system working together to help keep Georgias system of post secondary education one of
the best in the nation. For any person that is looking to further their career in higher education
administration, I highly recommend attending a few of these meetings so as to learn about this
influential governing body and its staff.

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References
Board Meeting Agendas. (2015). Retrieved February 2, 2015, from
http://www.usg.edu/regents/documents/board_meetings/agenda_2015_02.pdf
Core Mission Statement for Comprehensive Universities. (nod). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from
http://www.usg.edu/inst/mission/category/comprehensive_universities
Core Mission Statement for Research Universities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from
http://www.usg.edu/inst/mission/category/research_universities
Core Mission Statement for State Colleges. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from
http://www.usg.edu/inst/mission/category/state_colleges
Core Mission Statement for State Universities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from
http://www.usg.edu/inst/mission/category/state_universities
Eckel, P., & King, J. (2004). An Overview of Higher Education in the United States. Retrieved
February 20, 2015, from http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/Overview-ofHigher-Education-in-the-United-States-Diversity-Access-and-the-Role-of-theMarketplace-2004.pdf
March Board Meeting Agenda. (2015, March 13). Retrieved March 13, 2015 from
http://www.usg.edu/regents/documents/board_meetings/agenda_2015_03.pdf
Schloss, P., & Cragg, K. (2013). Organization and administration in higher education. New
York: Routledge.
USG Strategic Plan. (2013). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.usg.edu/strategicplan/
What Can You Do With $1,440,000,000? (2015, February 9). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from

https://youtu.be/ix2WvkHPkVs

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Appendix A
Organizational Chart for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia