Administration: Meet the Dean
Angle's Update
A weekly report from Dean & Director J. Scott Angle
May 16 , 2006
TIFTON CHANGES - Congratulations to Dr. David Bridges on being named the President of ABAC. David has provided outstanding leadership to our Tifton campus and he will be sorely missed.
Significant improvements to the Tifton Campus have occurred under David's tenure. And linkages with the Tifton community, and indeed all of South Georgia are strong as a result of his leadership and hard work. David has helped to assure that the Tifton campus is an economic engine for the entire region. We can look forward to building on the foundation he started, including an enhanced collaboration with ABAC.
David is expected to begin at ABAC no later than July 1. A fitting party will be planned soon to celebrate his new position and his many years of service to the CAES.
As I have discussed in the past, there are concerns related to the relationship between the Tifton, Griffin and Athens campuses. Many of you have provided details on the problems and have made suggestions for an improved structure. I literally have a list of 15+ alternative structures. Improvements are not obvious and are clearly difficult as these problems have existed for many years...in fact, decades. This is despite several past attempts to improve the structure.
Over the course of the summer, I will be bringing in several external administrators to review the organizational structure. This review will be limited to the relationship between Tifton, Griffin and Athens, and whether any alternative organizational structures are better than what we currently have. I expect the review be completed by the beginning of the fall semester. At that time, a college-wide dialogue will take place to discuss the results of the review before I make a final decision.
Given that the review will take place over the summer, I will be appointing an interim assistant dean to replace David. I do not want to begin a search for a permanent assistant dean when the structure could potentially change. If you would like to recommend an interim assistant dean, please forward your recommendations DIRECTLY TO ME. I need to move quickly since David will be moving on before we know it.
COLLEGE BUDGET - Last week, the Governor signed the state budget. All of our items that were in the budget coming out of the legislative session remained. Now is the time to thank the Governor and legislators for their support. Please do so when the opportunity arises. Preliminary work has started on next year's budget. I hope that a rough outline of our request will be available by the end of the summer.