A New Year and A Time to Re-Engage

I hope you are having a great summer and enjoying a time of relaxation and rest. Engaging with our loved ones and friends is part of that need for R&R. As we say goodbye to one academic year and begin another, I’d like us to think about that theme of engaging as we prepare for our return next month for the fall semester.

Our faculty, staff, and students have so much to look back on with pride this past year. We have achieved many tangible successes, none greater than graduating over 1,300 students. This past year also saw amazing University successes in our SACS re-designation, our State University tuition level, and our strengthening of campus identity and presence to ensure we will help even more students meet their goals in the year ahead. To maintain that trend toward greater excellence, I ask you this summer to think about how we will engage more strongly with each other and with our students in FY23. That will be the hallmark of continued strength to this innovative, young University.

One of my commitments this year will be to ensure I engage with you and your teams more in person and less online, to be visible and available on the daily level. Engagement works best person-to-person and in our post-pandemic environment, as we see more students seeking an education at MGA, it is imperative we model that engagement as both a value of our institution and a model for performing in our work and life on campus.

We start that engagement by coming together on our Macon campus on Thursday 4th August. If you have not done so already, please note that date as a priority on your calendar, and set aside all other commitments that day so we can truly engage each other as a community. Further details on our Convocation Day will be issued later this week.

For now, I wish you continued health and a wonderful summer.

Chris