S. Eugene Younts serves as vice president for public service and outreach at The University of Georgia.
...about the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and its 40 years of outstanding service to the people of Georgia. As a land-grant/sea-grant university, one of the landmark characteristics of The University of Georgia has been the comprehensive statewide program of public service and outreach to the citizens of Georgia. Paralleled only by Wisconsin, the Georgia concept is unique in that it flows from a single campus through faculty engaged in public service and outreach. Over its 40 years of existence, the Georgia Center has emerged as a major service unit of the University, second only to the Cooperative Extension Service.
When I became vice president at the University 25 years ago, the Georgia Center was 15 years old. At that time, the University enrolled about 16,000 students. The Center was about half the physical size that it is today (some 300,000 square feet), and it served about one-fourth the number of people that it now annually serves (140,000-plus). The changes that have transpired at the Georgia Center during my tenure have been remarkable.
While the numerical changes, programs, the number of people served, and facilities are impressive, to me the most significant changes have been in the scope and quality of programs, activities, and services offered to the adult learners throughout Georgia. To thousands of Georgians, their only experience with "their university" has been through the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
In 1984, when the W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave a second major grant to the University, primarily for new programming at the Georgia Center, the state's matching funds enabled the expansion of the physical facility to its present size with state-of-the-art rooms and equipment. These funds enabled the Center to become the largest and most comprehensive of the dozen or so Kellogg continuing education centers and one of the largest university-based centers in the world.
However, even with this major expansion of facilities and programs, the Georgia Center's purpose and philosophy were not altered. Just as in the beginning, in 1957, the Center has continued to offer high quality professional and personal development workshops, short courses, conferences, and institutes for the adult citizens of the state from all walks of life and segments of society. I cannot imagine The University of Georgia without it.
For 40 years, the Georgia Center for Continuing Education has been a major contributing force for enhancing the quality of life for millions of Georgians through its educational efforts for a better-educated population, improved state and local governments, and an ever-strengthening economy.
It can do no less over the next 40 years!
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