Another year of Augusta University’s Planning and Resource Alignment Hearings is complete. Over the span of five mornings from March 20-24, deans, vice presidents and other administrative leaders shared 32 presentations highlighting the achievements of their departments and units during the 2022-23 academic year and outlining their priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

These leaders have worked with their team members over the current academic year to develop plans that align with the university’s strategic plan, Creating a Legacy, and their priorities shared at the hearings emphasize that strategic alignment and how they will help Augusta University achieve its three aspirational imperatives: enroll 16,000 students by 2030, achieve top 60 NIH ranking by 2030 and receive the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification by 2026.

Open to all Augusta University faculty, staff and students, the sessions were hosted in person and streamed live. In comparison to last year, overall attendance increased and included about 409 unique virtual attendees (6.5% increase) and 231 unique in-person attendees (52% increase).

Here’s a small sample of the takeaways from some of the presentations:

• Augusta University Online: Launched with three academic programs accepting students for fall 2023 enrollment with future programs planned (view the presentation);

• College of Education & Human Development: Updates on the AU National Writing Project, the AU Literacy Center, recruitment efforts, and launch of the Columbia County Schools Pounce into the Profession Program (view the presentation);

• College of Science & Mathematics: Community engagement efforts, including the Augusta University-Augusta Utilities Rain Sensor Project, dual enrollment math classes in Columbia County and Richmond County schools, and alumni council (view the presentation);

• Communications & Marketing: Strategic staffing and content platform updates with the goal of reaching a wider audience across all platforms as well as updates to JagMobile (view the presentation);

• Diversity & Inclusion: Update on Faculty Inclusive Excellence Initiative, including the Visiting Scholars Program and the Small Grants Program (view the presentation);

• Enrollment & Student Affairs: Enrollment and student achievement projections, updates on investments in the Maxwell Theatre and student success initiatives (view the presentation);

• Medical College of Georgia: New partnerships and potential expansions (view the presentation);

• Research Administration: Update on the Transdisciplinary Research Initiative in Inflammaging and Brain Aging (TRIBA) and new cores (view the presentation);

• Staff Council: Updates on engagement efforts and Fall 2023 USG Staff Council Conference (view the presentation);

• The Graduate School: Update on recruitment efforts, graduate assistantships, graduate research assistantships and projected graduate student enrollment (view the presentation).

University leaders also referenced possible new academic programs and strategies used to increase cost savings and/or enhance efficiency. AU faculty, staff and students can view all presentations and the executive summary report by visiting the planning webpage.