UGA News
UGA three-year fundraising average hits record $235.1 million
Donors have long been a powerful source of progress at the University of Georgia, and the past year was no exception. Private donations to UGA in fiscal year 2023 reached $242.8 million, the second-highest fundraising total in the university’s history.
“I want to express my sincere thanks to each and every donor for helping us continue to elevate the University of Georgia to new heights,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “UGA would be a vastly different place without the generous support of our alumni, friends and the UGA Foundation. Private giving helps faculty members raise the bar in their fields, helps connect communities across Georgia to university resources, and helps students achieve things they never thought possible.”
From July 2022 to June 2023, 71,223 donors contributed to UGA, resulting in the third consecutive year—and sixth year of the last seven—that donations have surpassed $200 million. The university’s three-year rolling average, which averages the three most recent years of giving, rose to a record $235.1 million—the third consecutive year this number has risen and the sixth consecutive year it has exceeded $200 million.
“What is so special about the UGA community is that their support is not just strong, it is always so consistent” said Neal Quirk, who chaired the UGA Foundation Board of Trustees during FY23. “Year in and year out, our donors give generously, and that reliable support is so very valuable. No matter what economic conditions arise, the university and its students can thrive thanks to the backing of our great alumni and friends. It makes our entire board very grateful and very proud.”
Over the course of the year, donors endowed 16 faculty positions, bringing UGA’s total to 356, and created 158 scholarship funds. In total, private giving established 301 endowed funds, which will provide reliable, long-term funding to a multitude of areas at the university.
But these numbers tell just a small part of the story. Donor support for UGA took many forms during the 2023 fiscal year. Among them:
- The UGA College of Engineering is significantly expanding its work in electric mobility thanks to a $5 million investment from Georgia Power Company—the largest single gift ever made to the college. This funding will create scholarships for students pursuing an e-mobility certificate, support e-mobility research and facilitate a statewide e-mobility network and community partnerships.
- A new, women-directed fundraising group, Georgia Women Give, launched in March to invite more women to become philanthropists and deepen their engagement with UGA. Since then, the group of 75 founding donors have raised over $1.8 million, all directed to three funds supporting scholarships, study away and UGA priority areas.
- The UGA Poultry Science Building continued to receive significant support, including the largest single gift toward the building to date: a $3 million pledge from the Luther and Susie Harrison Foundation. The building—a 70,000+ square foot, state-of-the-art facility on D.W. Brooks Drive—will help make UGA the global epicenter of poultry science. Its doors will open this fall, with classes beginning in spring 2024.
- A gift of $1.5 million that, along with a previous commitment, established the John and Alice Sands Offensive Coordinator position on the football team.
- Chick-fil-A pledged $1.5 million to develop a new statewide youth leadership program and annual summit. The Youth LEAD Georgia program will provide college- and career-readiness through leadership development for 30 to 40 rising Georgia high school sophomores and juniors each year, and the summit will take place at UGA, bringing together high school students from each of Georgia’s 159 counties.
The University of Georgia’s annual Dawg Day of Giving provided perhaps the best example of how widespread support for UGA has become. On March 30, donors contributed 11,091 gifts to UGA in 24 hours, setting a single-day giving record at the university for the second year in a row. Donors hailed from all 50 states, and their gifts totaled $5.6 million.
The annual Senior Signature student giving campaign also set a record this year, with 3,377 members of the Class of 2023 donating to the class gift program, which has been in place since 1991. Parents of UGA students set high watermarks as well when the Parents Leadership Council both raised and awarded over $1 million to benefit campus organizations.
“UGA’s status as a powerhouse of academics and athletics relies so much on donor support. We just can’t thank our generous supporters enough,” said Jill S. Walton, interim vice president for development and alumni relations. “Our successes are in large part thanks to them, so watching that support grow is exciting—just imagine where our students, our university and our state will go next.”
UGA career fairs host record number of students, employers
This story was originally published on UGA Today on Oct. 20, 2022.
The University of Georgia Career Center hosted a record number of students and employers during its annual Fall Career & Internship Fair and Fall Engineering & Computer Science Career & Internship Fair held on Sept. 28 and 29.
Over those two days, 526 employers and more than 3,900 students passed through the doors of The Classic Center in downtown Athens where the events were held. The day after the fairs concluded, more than 60 employers hosted individual interviews with 388 students.
“The increase in attendance by companies this year signals that the appetite for recruiting UGA students has never been greater,” says Scott Williams, executive director of the UGA Career Center. “We’ve seen uncertainty and upheaval in labor markets, and it’s really exciting to help additional employers actively engage our pipeline of well-prepared students.”
A bevy of companies from a wide array of fields attended the events. Among those recruiting during the career fairs were The Home Depot, Google, Deloitte, AT&T, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, General Electric, Peace Corps, Siemens, BMW, Lockheed Martin, and Oracle. They were seeking to fill both full- and part-time positions, as well as internships in a variety of industries.
Successful events like these are one of the ways UGA has achieved a reputation for securing successful futures for its graduates. For the past ten years, over 90% of each year’s graduating class gained employment, entered graduate school or engaged in post-grad internships within six months of graduation. The fields these graduates entered—as reflected in the career fairs’ attending businesses—run the gamut, but engineering and computer science are rapidly growing interests among UGA graduates and students. Growth in those areas figures to continue with the establishment of the UGA School of Computing and the recent completion of the UGA College of Engineering’s renovation of the Driftmier Engineering Center.
“We were also pleased at the impressive number of UGA alumni who were back on campus representing their employer during the fairs,” says Williams. “They proudly wore their ‘alumni’ ribbon on their nametag and were able to more directly connect with students who may share a major or extracurricular activity with the recruiter.”
To prepare students for the fairs, the Career Center holds Resume Review Days. This year’s four-day event attracted 738 students for individual meetings with a Career Center staff member or volunteer employer representative.
“We knew that such strong student interest in our Resume Review Days was a harbinger for successful career fairs,” says Williams. “But watching a record number of students walking into the hall, realizing all the opportunities open to them and making personal connections that will improve their future was tremendously fulfilling for our team.”
Computer science gets a new home at UGA
In 1984, Bill Gates was on Time Magazine’s cover for the first time, Steve Jobs launched the original Apple Macintosh PC and eight University of Georgia faculty members launched UGA’s computer science department. Thirty-eight years later, what began with a single undergraduate program has today grown into the UGA School of Computing.
Now, more than 4,600 UGA computer science alumni have a school to call their own, and thousands of students looking to enter what is a massive—and still growing—field can look to UGA’s enhanced commitment and know that they can pursue their passion as a Bulldog.
The School of Computing is jointly administered by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences—where UGA Computer Science began—and the College of Engineering.
“The University of Georgia is committed to creating synergies across our campus that foster new opportunities for students and faculty and better serve communities in Georgia and around the world,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I am excited about the positive impact the School of Computing will have on research and education in the STEM disciplines at UGA.”
Those disciplines are among some of the most popular ones at the university:
- The College of Engineering is the fastest growing college at UGA—the number of engineering majors has almost quadrupled since 2012;
- Computer science enrollment at UGA has increased by 202% over the last eight years;
- And the number of UGA graduates with a bachelor’s degree in computer science has jumped from 51 in 2013 to 256 in 2021.
It makes sense why students would have such an interest in pursuing these fields. Nationally, employment in STEM-related occupations is projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to grow 8% through 2029, which is more than double the 3.4% growth projected for non-STEM occupations. Within STEM, computer science and engineering are among the fields with the highest forecasted growth.
The School of Computing is the home to the Institute for Artificial Intelligence as well as the Institute for Cybersecurity and Privacy, allowing students to delve deep into these specifics areas. And partnerships with the Department of Energy and UGA’s Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture allow for even more nuanced, high-level work.
Faculty at the School of Computing are experts in a vast array of disciplines, including artificial intelligence, data analytics, bioinformatics, parallel and distributed computing, robotics, virtual reality, evolutionary computing and beyond. The number of faculty and the range of their expertise figures to grow in the next few years.
“The strategic hiring of new faculty will create new opportunities for undergraduate and graduate instruction while also supporting research in areas that are of strategic importance to our state and world,” said UGA Provost S. Jack Hu.
UGA Class of 2021 achieves 92 percent career outcomes rate
Ninety-two percent of the University of Georgia Class of 2021 are employed, attending grad school or engaged in post-grad internships, all within six months of graduation, according to career outcomes data released by the UGA Career Center. The information includes undergraduate, graduate and professional students who earned degrees between August 2020 and May 2021.
Specifically, among 2021 UGA graduates, 63 percent reported being employed full time; 20 percent were attending graduate school; and 9 percent were engaged in post-graduate internships, fellowships, residencies, postdoctoral research, part-time jobs, reported their status as entrepreneurs or said they were not seeking employment.
“UGA students are exceptionally talented and possess not only the technical skills, but also key career readiness skills that employers are seeking. This includes leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and professionalism,” said Scott Williams, executive director of the UGA Career Center. “Furthermore, our university community is becoming more involved in helping students achieve their career goals, evidenced by the over 1,200 faculty and staff who were nominated and identified by students via UGA’s Career Outcomes Survey as individuals who greatly influenced their career development and decision making.”
A total of 2,950 unique employers hired graduates from UGA’s Class of 2021. Of the graduates working full time, they reported working across all sectors of the economy, including:
- Business – 73 percent
- Education – 17 percent
- Government – 6 percent
- Nonprofit – 4 percent
Top employers for the Class of 2021 include AT&T, Cox Communications, General Motors, State Farm Insurance and Wells Fargo & Company.
Of those graduates employed full time, 61 percent said they secured employment prior to graduation and 99 percent were hired within six months of graduation.
Following time off for travel, December 2021 graduate Merryn Ruthling will work as a SHINE marketing associate at Deloitte (a Top 25 Employer for the Class of 2021). She credits the UGA Career Center as the number one reason she landed this role. She met with her UGA career consultant to practice interviews, build a portfolio, create targeted resumes and cover letters and, finally, for tips on salary negotiations. Ruthling first visited the Career Center as an incoming freshman.
“Meeting with various career consultants helped me learn that getting a job is a combination of who you know, your experiences and what you study–not just what you majored in,” she said.
UGA welcomes and prepares students from around the world, but as a land- and sea-grant institution, it places great emphasis on ensuring the state of Georgia has a strong pipeline of leaders across all industries. Of the Class of 2021, 71 percent accepted jobs within the state of Georgia. The other 29 percent secured positions across 48 states and 21 countries. Some out-of-state destinations include Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
The 20 percent of 2021 graduates furthering their education have enrolled in top schools, including Columbia University, Duke University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, the University of Virginia and, of course, UGA.
For example, Lizy Hoepfinger, a December 2021 UGA graduate, chose to continue her education rather than entering the workforce following graduation.
“Using resources provided by the UGA Career Center, I determined what kind of job I want; from there I realized that going to grad school was the best next step for me,” she said.
Hoepfinger began a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence at UGA and plans to pursue a career with an innovative tech company upon completion of her degree.
The UGA Career Center calculates the career outcomes rate each January by collecting information from surveys, phone calls, employer reporting, UGA departments, LinkedIn and the National Student Clearinghouse. The preceding data is based on the known career outcomes of 7,618 graduates from the Class of 2021.
UGA Class of 2021 sets new Senior Signature participation record
The University of Georgia Class of 2021 set a Senior Signature record with 3,009 students making a gift to the university prior to graduation. This is the fifth consecutive year that the graduating class broke the preceding class’s participation record and the highest donor count in the program’s 30-year history.
Students are asked to contribute to UGA through the Senior Signature program during their final year on campus. In appreciation for giving back to the university, students’ names are included on a plaque in Tate Plaza in the heart of campus.
“This record is a true sign of the senior class’s Bulldog tenacity,” said Kevin Nwogu, Student Alumni Council president-elect who also helped lead this year’s campaign. “They managed challenges presented by the pandemic alongside preparing for graduation—and still made room to give back to their soon-to-be alma mater.”
Senior Signature allows students to select any fund on campus to receive a portion of their gift—and students often select a program or department that enhanced their college experience. This year’s minimum donation was $30 in honor of Senior Signature’s 30th anniversary.
This year, the Student Alumni Council, which educates the student body on how philanthropy at UGA improves lives, launched a new component to Senior Signature in which donors to the program vote on a student organization to receive a grant from the Senior Signature endowed fund. The hope is that this new initiative will build a ‘philanthropic cycle’ in which students donate, direct and receive funds—building an understanding of the power of private support at universities like UGA.
Senior Signature was established in 1991. Since then, more than 40,000 students have donated to UGA through the program—their names still visible on the plaques in Tate Plaza.
Learn more about Senior Signature at alumni.uga.edu/seniorsignature.
