October 13, 2020
Contact: Linda Fox  |   | More about Linda

FACS MISSON STATEMENT AND STRATEGIC PLAN 2025 FINALIZED

The FACS Faculty Advisory Committee and Strategic Planning Team finalized the 2025 Strategic Plan for submission to the UGA Office of Accreditation and Institutional Effectiveness. Feedback was received via the online survey. We had 72 total survey respondents: 45 faculty, 25 staff, and 3 graduate students.

Last week, the SP Team identified 14 high priority goals and tasks to accomplishment in the College during the current academic year to advance the three strategic directions of teaching and learning, research, entrepreneurship and innovation, and community partnerships in Georgia and around the world.

I. Enhancing Teaching and Learning

  1. Expand affordable experiential learning opportunities
  2. Connect FACS Body of Knowledge in experiential learning, content-specific, and core courses
  3. Train more faculty and graduate students in active learning and online learning
  4. Create guidelines for cross-disciplinary courses in FACS
  5. Assess and plan upgrades to classrooms
  6. Incorporate diversity and inclusion, promoting access and success for underrepresented, rural, first-generation and other underserved students

II. Growing Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

  1. Expand research capacity by applying for federally funded PhD Training Grants
  2. Facilitate interdisciplinary research across academic unites, share equipment and space, increase collaborative endeavors from GA CTSA
  3. Assign senior research mentor to enhance early-career tenure track faculty research progress
  4. Enhance media reports, impact statements in lay language, videos on web pages of current faculty research
  5. Host a virtual symposia to national audience focused on specific core research strengths of college

III. Strengthening Partnerships with Communities across Georgia and around the World

  1. Pilot new collaborative community focused research, scholarships, and outreach projects in Georgia
  2. Provide trainings for college faculty to develop cultural, racial, and ethnic competence
  3. Strengthen communication on benefits to communities through GA Counts and FACS Common Measures data, stories and visuals

The full version of the strategic plan, with all Goals, Key Performance Indicators and action strategies over the next five years are on the web site https://www.fcs.uga.edu/about/strategic-plan

The Mission Statement https://www.fcs.uga.edu/about revisions were also approved by the FAC and SP Team on October 8th. The vote to support the new Mission Statement, survey responses were positive with 63 yes, 2 no, and 8 no opinion.

Here is the new mission statement:

Our mission is to advance the well-being of diverse individuals and families over their life span and strengthen communities through the generation and dissemination of knowledge, development of professionals, and provision of research-based programs.

WATCH FOR ARCHNEWS: HIGHLIGHTS FOR PLANNING SPRING 2021 INSTRUCTION

Over the past few weeks, Vice President for Instruction Rahul Shrivastav and his staff met with several faculty, advisors, and students to seek feedback about the fall semester and the challenges they are faculty in the classroom. This is an important step in planning for spring semester.

This week, a comprehensive summary based on this feedback will be shared with the entire university community. Patti Hunt-Hurst, associate dean for academic program and I encourage you to thoroughly read, review and discuss the key priorities and recommendations for our classes. Some recommendations need the attention of faculty to implement immediately, before registration begins on Nov. 5, and other recommendation should be a focus for the spring semester.

In the College, we’ve asked the department heads and directors take time during the upcoming faculty and staff meetings to discuss and prepare within the disciplines responses for teaching strategies, attendance policies and tools, classroom and learning technologies, student support, mental health and engagement, as well as available resources for teaching in spring 2021.  Timely discussions are held with the department heads and directors in the College each week and we anticipate feedback from the faculty and staff in the College to continue to teach under great uncertainty, evolving COVID-19 related information, and a wide range of need and requests from students, and administrators, including the dean and associate dean!

Thank you for all your efforts and hard work! We are more than half-way through the semester in person instruction, as all instruction and final exams move to online after Thanksgiving.

UGA SPRING AND SUMMER 2020 COMMENCEMENT THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16

In keeping with directives from the state and federal government to suspend large events and promote social distancing due to COVID-19, the University of Georgia has provided updated guidelines for Spring and Summer 2020 graduates. 

This Friday is the re-scheduled Spring 2020 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Visit the October Undergraduate Ceremony website https://commencement.uga.edu/undergraduate/index.php for details related to the ceremony. 

You can watch the livestream of the ceremony at commencement.uga.edu and follow along across UGA main social channels.

For our FACS spring or summer 2020 graduates, they will receive in the mail a gift and a two printed FACS Commencement Programs to say CONGRATULATIONS!  

We will be suggesting students and families planning to attend the UGA Ceremony, be sure to stop by and take photos in front of Dawson Hall! A balloon display and graduation signage will make the perfect photo op! Decorations will be displayed between 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Friday. Please remember all social distancing recommendations for photo ops.

Be sure to tag us on Instagram @ugafacs and @ugafacsalumni and #FACS2020. Please follow health and safety guidelines. 

UGA is asking all the Faculty & Staff that usually attend Commencement to please join in the celebration by posting photos or short videos with encouraging words or congratulations using #UGAgrad this week.  We have some fun #UGAGrad GIFs you can use too.

Want to help even more? Follow #UGAgrad and #UGA20 on Instagram and Twitter and reply to grads celebrating! We’d love to see your faculty and leadership participating. We will be amplifying all this great content on the main UGA social channels and aggregating posts in a live social feed at commencement.uga.edu.

BEAT WEEK – AUBURN VS. GEORGIA GIVING CHALLENGE 

The University of Georgia and Auburn University have competed in football for more than a century, but now, the rivalry moves to a new playing field: charitable giving. The total number of gifts, not the amount of money raised will determine the winning score!

Beat Week is a one-week giving challenge designed to engage, inspire and draw support from alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, fans and other friends. 

To up the stakes, Auburn University College of Human Sciences Dean Susan Hubbard and Dean Fox have a friendly wager to coincide with Beat Week. The college with the most gifts received during this week will have the other dean wear that institution's spirit colors! It is the total number of gifts, not the size that will determine the winner.

I have good news, and not so good news as far at the results for the Beat Week fundraising challenge.

Georgia v. Auburn, UGA had the most total gifts for Beat Week! Georgia won https://auvuga.com/ by a wide margin, scoring 3252 gifts to Auburn’s 2978.

The good news is FACS fundraising reaped over $23,500 in new gifts during Beat Week! Thanks for your support, your gifts, and your enthusiasm to Beat Auburn.

However, the personal challenge to the College of Human Sciences at Auburn, and my colleague Dean Susan Hubbard didn’t go so well for FACS.

Yes, I had to put on an orange Auburn t-shirt and congratulate the CHS for scoring 256 gifts, compared to FACS scoring 196 gifts. Watch social media posts from Cal as I congratulate CHS for their success.

Thanks for your gifts and enthusiasm throughout the Beat Week challenge.

SCHEDULE (Dean’s travel and purpose during the next two weeks):

  • Remote work contact: 706-224-6086 (cell)
  • The next Dean’s Update will be week of October 26, or earlier.

Sincerely,

Linda Kirk Fox

Linda Kirk Fox

Dean

The College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia embraces a commitment to diversity by modeling for the state and nation a community of individuals and programs which seek to reduce prejudice, disparities, and discrimination and build a supportive environment for all.

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