Questions and Answers
I believe it will continue to rise. There is a cost associated with education, and I believe the funds we receive from the state will continue to decline. There are only a few sources of revenue available that we can apply to education: state appropriations, tuition and fees, and philanthropy. We’re currently engaged in a $1.5 billion capital campaign, and one of our foremost priorities is raising money for scholarships and other initiatives that will help offset the cost for students to receive a Georgia Tech education.
We don’t actually have plans to reduce lanes on North Avenue. The video (shown during the presentation) was an early vision of what the road might look like. It is a state highway, and we expect it will remain four lanes.
We aspire to be an Institute that pursues excellence and embraces and leverages diversity in all of its forms. In the years ahead, we must continue to enhance a culture of collegiality, close collaboration, global perspective, intercultural respect, and thoughtful interaction among a diverse community of scholars that includes all of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Only when we strive to create an inclusive academic environment will we be able to reach our goal of preparing our graduates to be leaders and innovators in society.
Historically, arts programs at Georgia Tech have been pushed to the periphery, and are often the best kept secrets on campus and throughout Atlanta. We are actively working to break down these barriers through the TechArts Initiative, an outgrowth of the Institute strategic planning process. A leadership team has been formed to establish and prioritize clear action steps to strengthen the presence of arts programs—from student music ensembles and Poetry@Tech to research collaborations visible on the international stage.
The particular issue you’ve raised has the attention of Georgia Tech Capital Planning and Space Management, and leadership in the College of Architecture and School of Music are working (literally this week) to find a space appropriate to meet the needs of our vocal groups.
Based on the recommendations of faculty, staff and students, we seek to find some synergies between the programs but do not intend for either program to lose its focus or identity. Our objective is to offer our President's Scholars and our Honors students more opportunities to engage with faculty, staff and each other.
Integration refers to providing Honors Program and President's Scholarship Program participants with greater access to staff and programming resources. For example, we are hiring an advisor who will serve students in either program. Honors Program Director Dr. Gregory Nobles and PSP Director Chaffee Viets will be collaborating to develop an expanded menu of engagement opportunities for students from either program. Our intentions are to work more closely to achieve greater efficiency but most importantly, enhance the student experience.
While many people think of international growth to mean establishment of international campuses, our strategic plan has called for more "organic" growth of location where GT should be. In the future our growth will be more centered on focused research and educational initiatives rather than full-blown campuses. We have had considerable recent success in strategic relationships in Korea, Central America, China, and the Middle East and continue to explore the possibilities in India. We have a new faculty international advisory board that will serve a key role in guiding where the Institute establishes a presence.
It would certainly be our preference to roll any increases into tuition for both undergraduate and graduate students. For in-state undergraduates, the HOPE Scholarship would cover a tuition increase but not a fee increase. For graduate students, many graduate assistant contracts would cover a tuition increase but not necessarily a fee increase. The Board of Regents will make the ultimate decisions regarding tuition and fees, but we will certainly provide all pertinent information so they can make a fully informed decision.
We are exploring a number of ideas to address this concern. Faculty were invited to participate in the new First Day Lecture initiative, which asks the instructor to devote a few minutes during the first class of each semester for sharing research interests or biographical information with the students. We have also asked faculty to come forward with proposals that improve student-faculty relationships, for which the provost’s office has set aside some seed funding. Our approach to the design of classrooms — like those found in the Clough Commons — was also intended to help facilitate these kinds of interactions. That said, there is much more we can do.
Parking and Transportation Services currently offers the Weekend Grocery Shuttle, which transports students, faculty and staff to the Publix grocery store at Atlantic Station. This shuttle operates from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Currently, PTS is in discussions about future service to Atlantic Station provided by the Atlantic Station management.
We believe we need to improve the available web utilities that support institutional websites, and are actively discussing how we should do this and how we could resource it.
