Spring commencement ceremonies set for Saturday

The University of West Georgia's spring commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday, April 28 at UWG's Coliseum.

There will be two ceremonies, at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The speaker for both will be Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Huckaby began serving as chancellor in July 2011. His career has focused on a long record of public service to the state of Georgia in many areas of government, including the University System, where he earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He has headed up at various times in his career the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and the Georgia Residential Finance Authority.

Huckaby also served in the Georgia House of Representatives in 2011, prior to taking the helm at the USG, representing Georgia House District 113 as a Republican. His legislative experience also includes a stint as the director of the Georgia State Senate Research Office.

UWG also proudly announces that it will award an honorary doctorate to Bob Stone, a former faculty member who is founder and chairman of Systems and Methods Inc., a data processing firm.

Stone, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, began his career at Lockheed Aircraft – Georgia Division, followed by stints at Southern Railway and Georgia State University. In 1969, Stone came to West Georgia as an assistant professor of business, where he would become chairman of the computer center committee and director of the business internship program.

In 1971, while still at West Georgia, he founded SMI, a computer service bureau that offered payroll, accounting and consulting servicing. His company automated a food stamp process and donated it to Carroll County. Shortly thereafter, SMI was serving all 159 counties in Georgia. The company would grow to deliver over $1 billion in food stamp services to 15 states. In the 1980s and 1990s, SMI was the largest private issuance provider of food stamps in the nation. SMI has since developed and supported information systems for tracking data for Health and Human Services agencies and processing child support payments and check imaging.

Here are the approved order and times for University of West Georgia Spring Commencement on Saturday:

9:30 a.m.
College of Arts and Humanities
College of Education
School of Nursing

2 p.m.
Richards College of Business
College of Science and Mathematics
College of Social Sciences 

Regents Approve Campus Consolidation Plan

ATLANTA — January 10, 2012

The Board of Regents approved today University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby’s recommendation to consolidate eight of the System’s 35 colleges and universities. Huckaby announced the recommendation last week.

The recommended consolidations are: Gainesville State College and North Georgia College & State University (Dahlonega); Middle Georgia College (Cochran) and Macon State College; Waycross College and South Georgia College (Douglas); and Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University.

“The Board’s approval now paves the way for us to proceed,” said Huckaby. “We will focus on how these consolidations enable us to better serve our students and areas of the state more efficiently and effectively. I look forward to working with the eight institutions on this process.”

Now that the plan has board approval, Huckaby will begin to implement the plan, which is expected to take between 12-18 months to finalize.

Campus working groups will be appointed by Huckaby and charged with developing detailed recommendations for consolidation. Huckaby said the campus working groups should be up and running by the end of January. Implementation actions will be reviewed by the University System Office and approved by the Regents’ Special Committee on Consolidation and the full board.

The consolidation plan is just one of a series of new efforts launched by the chancellor, each part of a focus on increasing college completion rates, broadening access to public higher education and maintaining affordability. Others include the System’s participation in Gov. Nathan Deal’s “Complete College Georgia” initiative, a study of how the USG uses its current facilities, the future design and construction of facilities, the expansion of distance education, a new model of academic program review as well as the integration of academic, facilities and fiscal activities.

The University System has created a special website to help coordinate information and communication related to the consolidation effort: http://www.usg.edu/consolidation/