UGA News Roundup

UGA has emerged as #1 in yet another category: Parking.

The International Parking Institute recently dubbed the University of Georgia Parking Services as the 2011 worldwide parking organization of the year. UGA competed against thousands of parking organizations including universities, hospitals, municipalities and private entities for this award.

 “The UGA Parking Services’ tagline, ‘beyond expectation,’ highlights the importance of customer service to the department’s mission and exemplifies all that is best in the parking profession,” said Shawn Conrad, IPI’s executive director.

UGA Parking Services has a strong commitment to customer service. This has resulted in increased safety, security and physical appearance of its parking facilities; the development of more customer-driven solutions to parking challenges; the maintenance of fiscal responsibility and accountability; the enhancement of staff training and morale; and programs that are infused with technology.

The department focuses on sustainability. This has created reward programs for drivers of high efficiency cars and incentives for those using alternative transportation.  Focusing on safety offers students a free vehicle maintenance and inspections program before school holidays.

 “It was an honor to accept this award on behalf of our professional and dedicated employees,” said Don Walter, manager of Parking Services.  “We are very grateful that the IPI recognized our department.”

President Adams has appointed a committee to search for a new vice president for government relations.

Tom Landrum, senior vice president for external affairs will chair the committee. Its members represent faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumni. The committee will conduct a national search to find a successor to Steve Wrigley, who recently to serve as executive vice chancellor for administration for the University System of Georgia.

is serving as interim vice president for government relations.

“The vice president for government relations has become an increasingly critical position at the University of Georgia,” said Adams. “I am confident that this committee will recommend to me some very talented candidates for consideration.”

In addition to Landrum, committee members include: Michelle Garfield Cook, interim associate provost for the Office of Institutional Diversity; Steven Gibson, vice president of Staff Council and a human resources coordinator in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Thomas P. Lauth, dean of the School of Public and International Affairs; Steve Stice, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Reproductive Physiology and faculty member in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Pat Allen, director of community relations; Ryan Nesbit, senior associate vice president for finance and administration; Kaitlin Miller, vice president of the UGA Student Government Association; and Abit Massey, a UGA alumnus and president emeritus of the Georgia Poultry Federation.

The committee will begin its work in the coming weeks with a goal of completing the search process during the fall semester.

Pepperdine University administrator Timothy M. Chester has been named chief information officer for the University of Georgia, effective Sept.15. 

He succeeds Barbara A. White, who announced her intention to step down from that post. 

“Dr. Chester’s strong background is a great match with what we were looking for in a candidate for this position,” said Jere Morehead, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Chester will report to him.

 As UGA’s CIO, Chester will be responsible for the university’s information technology strategies and programs. He will direct UGA’s Enterprise Information Technology Services unit. 

Chester went to Pepperdine from Texas A&M University, where he was a project leader in Computing & Information Services from 1997-2003. He was name chief information officer of Texas A & M’s branch campus in Qatar, where new engineering programs were being launched. In 2007, he was named Pepperdine’s chief information officer and was promoted to his current position there in 2009.    

Chester earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Tyler in 1991, and a master’s and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1995 and 1999 respectively.  

Laura Meadows has been named the interim director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. She was appointed to that position by another interim, Jennifer Frum, who’s serving as UGA’s Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.

In addition to directing the institute, Meadows will serve as associate director of its training division, a position she has held since 2009. The Vinson Institute’s training division provides professional development to thousands of local and state government officials and staff each year.

Before joining the Vinson Institute, Meadows wsa the associate vice president for economic development at UGA, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and assistant secretary of state for the State of Georgia. She also has held executive positions in the OneGeorgia Authority and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Commission.