PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

“Celebrating the many achievements of our graduates and seeing the promise in their eyes as they begin careers, military service or advanced education is rewarding for all of us at UNG.”

Celebrating 150 years of producing leaders

Commencement is one of my favorite parts of serving as president of the University of North Georgia. Celebrating the many achievements of our graduates and seeing the promise in their eyes as they begin careers, military service or advanced education is rewarding for all of us at UNG. This academic year we will confer more than 3,200 degrees—ranging from associate to doctoral degrees. We will commission more than 120 military officers this year, and 34 of them are Distinguished Military Graduates who rank in the top 20% of nearly 7,000 Army ROTC cadets nationally. Nine of those graduates are in the top 10% in the nation.

We are excited that academic and student development opportunities at UNG continue to grow. The new Cottrell Center for Business, Technology & Innovation will open this fall at our Dahlonega Campus with state-of-the-art labs to provide hands-on experiences for students, and we will expand access to programs with facility expansions approved for our Cumming and Blue Ridge campuses. Our Oconee Campus added a Veterans’ Center to its offerings this past fall, marking the third UNG campus to have dedicated space for veterans. In addition, the recent expansion of our Gainesville Campus has provided much-needed instructional, lab and study spaces to support students and faculty.

UNG will celebrate our 150th anniversary—our Sesquicentennial—throughout the 2022-2023 academic year, commemorating our university’s rich history and looking toward our future as a leading regional university. In addition to our designations as The Military College of Georgia and as a State Leadership Institution, UNG has numerous distinctions–from being the first public college in Georgia to admit and graduate a woman, to more recently, being a national top producer of Fulbright students for five consecutive years.

UNG is known for developing professional, civic and military leaders who make a difference in their communities in our region, state and beyond, and our reputation is growing. The articles in this issue of UNG Magazine highlight our momentum as one of the state’s top universities and our steadfast commitments to excellence, student success and leadership development. We are tremendously grateful to our alumni, donors and community stakeholders for your ongoing support of our mission.

I look forward to our yearlong Sesquicentennial Celebration and the many academic programs, performances and exhibitions, alumni gatherings, and campus and community celebrations that will commemorate this special time in our history. I hope that you will watch for and join in opportunities to celebrate with us in the weeks and months ahead.

Sincerely,

Bonita C. Jacobs, Ph.D. President