From the Director 2015

This past academic year was a particularly busy one, as the Institute of Higher Education marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. Events held throughout the year brought distinguished scholars to campus–including our own alumni–to interact with current IHE faculty, staff and students. Please enjoy the photos on pages 16-17.

Over the course of the past 50 years, the Institute has steadfastly supported the land-grant missions of outreach, education, and applied and basic research. This issue of the IHE Report highlights recent research efforts by six of our core faculty, whose investigations help piece together a better understanding of current issues in higher education. Their topics range from examining measures of faculty satisfaction to understanding how students make decisions about college attendance to positing the fate of the liberal arts… and more.

Our instructional efforts are equally strong, and as we noted in celebrating our 50th anniversary, more than 200 graduates from our Ph.D. and execu­tive doctoral programs have served or are currently serving in leadership positions across postsecondary education as presidents, vice presidents, researchers, directors, and faculty in colleges, foundations and agencies nationwide. This issue of the IHE Report provides a glimpse into the ways leadership is promoted in the executive doctoral program under the direction of former UGA President Charles Knapp, a much admired and respected national leader in higher education.

In addition to graduate education, IHE continues its commitment to public service and outreach through our oldest program, Faculty Development in Georgia, and its spin-off, the Governor’s Teaching Fellows program, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this past January. More recently, we added to our research and outreach efforts the Georgia College Advising Corps, a college access program that assists underserved students with the complex college-going process. I hope you will enjoy reading about our instruction, research, and outreach in this issue and that you will return to the Institute for one of our many activities in the upcoming year.

On a poignant note, this issue also includes a salute to Sheila Slaughter (page 4) as she enters retirement and steps back from daily involvement with the Institute she has served for the past decade as the Louise McBee Professor of Higher Education. Her contributions both to the Institute and to the field of higher education are immeasurable. We are so grateful to have her as a colleague. We are especially pleased that Professor Slaughter has agreed to continue working with us, even though in a more limited scope, throughout this academic year.

Please visit IHE soon, or at least make a call or send an email. We want to stay in touch.

Libby V. Morris,

Director, Institute of Higher Education