The original groundbreaking of the Georgia Center, January 1955: O.C. Aderhold, then-president of The University of Georgia, does the honors as University administrators, staff, and friends look on. Directly behind Aderhold, holding what appear to be blueprints, is Hugh B. Masters, Georgia Center director from 1954 through 1968.
As the nation settled in for a second term of "liking Ike," the Georgia Center welcomed its first conferees. Since January of 1957, the Center has been the focal point of The University of Georgia's continuing education efforts, building its clientele to the present day's 140,000-plus through on-campus, off-campus, and distance education programs, and through various support services. Throughout the year 1997, the Georgia Center will be "Celebrating 40 Years of Service...." The celebration, featuring a conference for the field of residential adult and continuing education in September, will involve a number of special events and activities that highlight the Center's past accomplishments and its plans for the next 40 years.
The mission of the Georgia Center today, "...to serve the learning needs of adults and organizations and to provide leadership in developing the theory and practice of continuing education," reflects the University's ongoing commitment to bring its teaching, research, and service expertise to the people.
"I draw a parallel between the changes the Center has seen over the last four decades and the changes in the field of adult education. Adult education was just beginning to take its present-day form in the 1950s. We've been fortunate to be in a position to both lead and be a part of our field's evolution," said Edward G. Simpson, Jr., Georgia Center director (since 1983) and associate vice president for public service and outreach of The University of Georgia.
"We're proud of our accomplishments and thankful for the support and encouragement we've received from the State of Georgia; the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, who originally funded us; the University; and our many conferees. And, of course, the great work of our staff and faculty. There are thousands of people responsible for the success of the Center's programming," said Simpson.
"With the events and activities we're planning during this calendar year, and with the conference in September -- we're still finalizing that -- our goals are to take stock of where we've been and where we are, to plan for the future of residential adult and continuing education, and to 'recommit' to the service and outreach principles on which the Center was founded," Simpson said.
In December 1952/January 1953, Hugh B. Masters, then-educational director at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, and later director of the Georgia Center (named director in January of 1954, a post he held until retirement in 1968), visited The University of Georgia to discuss with UGA President O. C. Aderhold the Foundation's interest in UGA's adult education program. Aderhold appointed a committee of University personnel to study the University's program. By January of 1953, the Committee on Continuing Education included: Chair John A. Dotson, dean, College of Education; E. A. Lowe, director, Division of Extension; Louis T. Griffith, assistant professor of journalism; T. W. Mahler, administrative dean, Atlanta Division of UGA's continuing education program and later the second director of the Georgia Center, 1968-1983; J. P. Nicholson, director, Southern Film Service; W. A. Sutton, State 4-H Club leader; Henry K. Stanford, assistant chancellor of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and at present UGA president-emeritus, having served as interim president for the 1986-1987 academic year; and a "Research Committee" -- Chair Glenn Sutton, professor of finance; Sidney G. Chandler, district agent, Agricultural Extension Service; M. W. H. Collins, Jr., Bureau of Public Administration; and I. V. Sperry, professor of family development.
In October 1953, the University submitted Georgia's Plan, a grant "blueprint" calling for the establishment and initial development of the Georgia Center, to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. In December 1953, the formal agreement between Kellogg and the University was signed. The Center was the second of the "Kellogg centers," the first being at Michigan State University. Today, there are ten Kellogg centers in the U.S. and one in Britain.
In the early '50s, "continuing education," as envisioned in the Center's concept, was "a broad program of organized learning experiences based on the needs and interests of the people.... dedicated 'to the end that more people may live richer, more useful lives,'" as chronicled in the Center's Annual Report 1953-1954. The report states:
"Continuing Education is a new program for which there is no set pattern, either here at the University or elsewhere in the country. It must develop through experimentation and subsequent revision in the critical light of searching evaluation. Those teaching and those being taught will be serving as co-performers in the constant process of program growth."
A view of the original structure of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. Staff began moving into the unfinished building in September of 1956, and the first conference was held in January of 1957.
Staff began moving into the building in September of 1956. The entire facility was not available until February 1957. Thus, the first conference in the building in January 1957 was perhaps a bit on the "wing-it" side. From the Center's Annual Report 1956-1957:
"The first conference to be held in the new building was on January 8. It was the Fourth Southern Forest Tree Improvement Program. Only one conference room was available. A fine exhibit was necessarily placed in the Resource Room since the regular exhibit areas were not available. The conferees could not be housed in the bedrooms, and no food services were available. Much of the carpet was still unlaid, and much of the furniture had not been placed."
Despite the temporary austerity, the conference "proceeded smoothly, the conferees were enthusiastic," the report goes on to say. The Center offered programs and events to some 14,000 participants during its first year in the new building.
In March 1984, the Center received a second Kellogg grant, which also involved the University's Department of Adult Education and Cooperative Extension Service, Fort Valley State College Cooperative Extension Program, and a series of UGA Faculty Interdisciplinary Task Forces. The grant was designed to establish a National Center for Leadership Development in Adult and Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, an umbrella concept to bridge practice and theory of continuing education and lifelong learning. The Kellogg grant was matched by the State of Georgia to renovate and expand the Georgia Center complex to its present-day configuration.
Beginning with this issue, the Georgia Center Quarterly will include several "40th" features. "Special guests" have been invited to write the column "I've Been Thinking...". The Spring and Summer issues will highlight Georgia Center history and assorted facts through the years, as well as some of the ongoing partnerships the Center has enjoyed with various individuals and organizations. The Fall issue will review the September conference and events.
For more information: Director's Office, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-3603, 706-542-3451, or visit the Center's web site at http://www. gactr.uga.edu/.
(Information for this article was gathered from numerous in-house documents, including the Center's annual reports for 1953-1954, 1954-1955, and 1956-1957.)
Web administrator: webmaster@gactr.uga.edu All contents copyright © 1997 University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. All rights reserved. Last revised: Tue, Mar 18, 1997, 10:42 AM URL: http://www.gactr.uga.edu/GCQ/GCQwin97/40th.html