State of the University

Welcome

Welcome to the 2025 State of the University address. I’m delighted to take this moment to reflect on our institution’s history and trajectory.

The story of Georgia State University reflects the same generational change that our students experience year after year. Georgia State University is absolutely the anchor research institution for Atlanta, and the largest producer of Georgia-born graduates for the state.

From a commuter, evening School of Commerce in 1913, to a full-blown university in the 1960s, today, GSU is a residential, urban, Research-1 institution, a leader in student success and one of the fastest-growing research enterprises in the nation.

Make no mistake, momentum is our super-power!!

I’m so impressed and energized by this community’s accomplishments. The collective efforts of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters have led to another remarkable year.

Our results are evidence that when we work together, on a common mission, we can achieve anything.

As you can see by the opening video, the state of our university is strong!

We are seeing growth in enrollments, the broadening impact of our research, impressive outcomes in student success, continued faculty excellence, elevation in our rankings and historic levels of fundraising.

Furthermore, the enhancements to our campuses are like never before.

Your efforts are paying off and will undoubtedly position GSU for even more growth.

Our strategic plan, BluePrint to 2033 — Our Place, Our Time, is the roadmap that reflects and guides our collective vision. Today, using our strategic plan as a guide, I will highlight outcomes that shine a spotlight on academics, student success, research, financial operations and infrastructure.

Before I start, let me say that I will be at risk acknowledging units and individuals by name.

I am ever mindful that it takes everyone working together to achieve our overall levels of success.

BLUEPRINT TO 2033

Many of you will remember that just after my first 100 days, we charged a strategic plan committee led by Dr. Nancy Kropf where university-wide stakeholders, including our Senate Executive Committee and University Senate members, drafted our plan.

Just over a year later, the strategic plan was approved and adopted at the April 2023 Senate meeting.

Although many initiatives started right away, I would like to thank Dr. Cynthia Lester for leading the task force teams that finalized our initial set of initiatives this past fall.

As you know, the plan has four pillars:

• Identity, Placemaking and Belonging
• Innovating Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity
• Student Success 2.0, and
• Beyond College to Career

To start funding our strategic initiatives, in 2024, I was pleased to approve an initial amount of $3 million annually to our budget for the duration of the plan.

We also anticipate one-time gifts from our donors and capital funding from the State of Georgia over the next decade to support this work. Some of these I will discuss today. 

Supporting our external funding, I am pleased to recognize the partnership of our Board of Regents, Chancellor Sonny Perdue, and our colleagues at the University System of Georgia.

Student Success 2.0/Beyond College to Career

I’m going to take these pillars out of order. Let’s start first with Student Success 2.0 and Beyond College to Career.

Our students are the heartbeat of the university, and our diverse community is our greatest strength. Graduating students from all backgrounds at the highest rates is written prominently  within our mission. That said, student success and career preparedness are inherently linked.

This past year, one of our nursing faculty was talking about her 18-year-old son, and said, “That boy better be learning or earning.” I told her that thanks to her work at GSU, we can give him both.

And, of course, I am not the only one who thinks so. GSU received 65,000 applications for admittance this fall — an all-time record.

More students are choosing GSU than ever before.

The credit goes to the reputation of our esteemed faculty, our diverse student body, our unique location and the proactive efforts of our enrollment leadership team to highlight the institution.

I’m pleased to report that our enrollments were also quite positive: We grew by 3.8 percent overall. This level of growth outpaced the national average of 2.9 percent.

This means that our student body, of 52,400 this fall, increased by more than 1,900 students.

Let’s take a look at how we got there:

As a comprehensive research institution, I have believed from day one that our Perimeter College is one of our strongest, most unique assets.

So, first of all, let me thank Dean Barbara Johnson. Her team, through their outstanding work, led the university in growth and at the same time had its second-largest enrollment of incoming first-year students in its history.

Perimeter College saw an incredible, 50 percent increase in fall 2024 dual-enrollment students. These proactive, innovative students have decided to experience some of our insightful faculty in parallel with their high school studies.

And we are counting on Dean Johnson and her team to recruit every one of these students to GSU full time come next fall!

In another demographic, we welcomed 1,300 new transfer students in the fall, which represents a 9 percent increase and the largest transfer enrollment since the start of the pandemic.

Let me recognize Senior Vice President Dr. Allison Calhoun-Brown, Mr. Scott Burke and their dynamic teams. Their strategies to partner with the Common App really increased our out-of-state applications. And their creation of the Transfer and Transition Center aided in the development of special pipelines for associate and dual-enrollment students.

Our story would not be complete without mentioning the success of our provost and deans this year in graduate student enrollment.

After its peak during the pandemic, we have had several years of declining graduate student enrollments.

Well, this year we turned a corner.

Graduate student enrollment increased by nearly 150 students to well over 7,500 students, in total.

The leadership of Provost Nicolle Parsons-Pollard and Dean Lisa Armistead and the Graduate Enrollment Management Plan, entitled GEM, has had significant traction.

Although all our deans had a hand in this growth, I am so impressed by the gains led by Deans Paul Alberto and Dean Huanbiao Mo particularly in education and nursing.

And, while we’re talking about graduate students, earlier this year, during our RISE symposium, I mentioned that it was imperative that we have competitive graduate stipends.

Let me say that the provost has worked hard to develop an action plan. I am pleased to announce our Cabinet’s $1.8 million investment in our graduate stipend budget.

The provost and graduate dean are including these enhanced stipend levels in the offers of admission and will work this year to start a phased approach to enhancing our overall competitiveness.

Also, I am pleased to announce that we were recently approved for a market-competitive E-rate for five of our graduate programs and all graduate certificates, which will have an incredible impact in the coming years on enrollments.

Students and our enrollments are why we all are here, but there is no great university without a vibrant faculty.

In 2024, we welcome 116 new faculty to our campuses!

This is why I am pleased to report that our student-to-faculty ratios are decreasing.

With ratios of 25:1 on the Atlanta Campus and 19:1 on the Perimeter campuses, we are working to ensure that there are enough faculty to offer our students’ favorite courses and even more faculty welcoming them to innovative projects. It was an honor to celebrate faculty excellence late last year where we recognized three Regents’ Professors, 11 Distinguished University Professors, 12 Faculty Award recipients and 146 faculty members receiving promotions and/or tenure.

Our faculty have worked closely with our Enrollment Management teams to improve our student outcomes in the classroom and thus increasing our retention rates.

As a result, the student fall-to-fall retention increased over the past year while the number of  first-year students receiving a D, F or W decreased.

Let me thank our faculty and staff involved with the Math Taskforce, which has significantly impacted how well our students have done in their math classes over the past year.

In addition to our strategies in the classroom at Georgia State, we are also sharing our approaches with over 100 other colleges and universities through the work of our National Institute for Student Success led by its Executive Director Dr. Tim Renick.

Let me tell you, the world continues to take notice!

Here are just a few highlights over the past year. GSU was awarded the Department of Education’s first-ever Trailblazer award citing the university’s success in increasing graduation rates through data-driven, evidence-based interventions.

Secondly, the National Institute for Student Success received a Postsecondary Student Success Program award to expand their techniques using AI chatbots.

Moreover, the institute also received a $2 million grant from Ascendium Education Group to help six Georgia colleges implement our approaches to student success.

All of this is great news, but as you know our impact on students extends beyond the classroom, but also in how we promote their career outcomes.

Georgia State has a long history of experiential learning opportunities that propel our students into their dream careers.

I’m so pleased with our immersive programs, technology and career partnerships.

In 2024, we continued our Panther Immersion Programs including Panthers in Charlotte, Panthers in Chicago, Panthers in the District, Panthers in the Valley and Panthers on Wall Street.

Industry leaders RAVE about these programs, and other institutions are trying to imitate them.

The Flexible MBA Program, the expanded online Master of Public Health and several new certificate programs and degrees have been updated to meet evolving workforce needs.

Among other deans, let me recognize the leadership of Dean Rich Phillips, Dean Rodney Lyn and the innovative recruitment of Dean Tom Vicino.

College to Career

Our College to Career efforts have led to enhanced buildings and facilities as well.

On our Perimeter-Dunwoody Campus we opened a $6.3 million dental hygiene clinic. This expanded clinic will provide dental care to the community and address the critical demand for professional dental hygienists.

Students from this program can enter the workforce, or transition to a four-year degree on our downtown campus.

To support university-wide professional programs, in 2025, I announce that we will charge two new Presidential Initiatives in the area of College to Careers.

The first initiative will be a new six-month commission on Credentialing and Certificates. This commission will examine new courses and new program opportunities to propel GSU to be the definitive public institution for professional training.

Provost Parsons-Pollard and interim Dean of Arts and Sciences Lindsey Cohen have also been working on a plan for a new School of Computer Science.

As a computer scientist myself, it’s no secret that I also have a personal interest in this area.

I will augment those efforts by sponsoring a full-day university summit to discuss how Georgia State should be positioned broadly around the areas of information, computation and artificial intelligence.

I hope this summit will help inform our multi-year planning to support computing infrastructure broadly.

In the spring, I will personally be visiting the departments of the programs that overlap these areas of computing.

Let me thank our Chief Innovation Officer Phil Ventimiglia for partnering with me to champion both of these initiatives.

Innovating Research, Scholarship
& Creative Activity

Let’s switch gears to research and creativity.

GSU has a reputation for innovative research, scholarship, creativity and solving complex problems. Scholars from across the university contribute to our mission of advancing frontiers of knowledge.

At GSU, we thrive to transform lives and communities, improve the human condition and answer questions in our global society.

Our investment in research continues to grow.

For 25 years, we have had the privilege of the designation of a Research 1 university by the Carnegie Foundation.

We believe our investigations are a vehicle for life-changing impact.

It’s not all about dollars, but I would be remiss if I did not report that in FY24, our faculty earned nearly $186 million in research awards. So far this year, we have already topped $90 million in awards.

After securing funding from the state in three consecutive years, last month, we formally broke ground on a new, $100 million Research Tower! This nine-story, 155,000-square-foot tower completes a three-tower research quad on the south side of our downtown campus.

Scheduled for completion in 2026, this tower will have a profound impact on the next round of faculty hires in the biomedical sciences, neurosciences and health science research generally.

Let me thank our Facilities Management Services team for planning, designing and now supervising construction.

There is even more exciting news for undergraduates pursuing research this year.

Last year, I met one of our incredible students who built her research interest throughout all of her degrees.

Her name is Emma McDaniel. I met Emma during the Computer Science Department’s 25^th anniversary, and, congrats again to Dr. Armin Mikler and the CS Department for 25 years. Let me also recognize The Gerontology Institute which celebrated its 50-year anniversary as well as Africana Studies for its 30^th.

Emma is a Ph.D. student and hails from Texas. She started her career with a B.A. in English. Serving briefly as a schoolteacher, she then took courses in computer science at North Texas before coming to GSU.

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the foundational impact that often originates from our faculty in the humanities and in education.

Well, today, she just completed an internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work has led to important feasibility studies when using drones to provide decision-support during urban search and rescue situations.

Talking about real-world impact!

If that’s not enough, one of her recent papers at the top conference in computer science education introduces techniques that remove barriers placed on high school students who take the AP Exam.

She is literally bringing all her diverse skills to bear on real-world issues — this is what we refer to as making national impact #TheStateWay!

Students like Emma help us realize how important it is to promote research at the undergraduate level. This is why I’m excited to announce the significant progress of one of our strategic plan initiatives.

This year, we will introduce a new Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry entitled “Querky.” This center will be the central hub for undergraduate research, university wide.

You may also remember that during my first 90 days, one of our first research initiatives was a $2.5 million investment called Project RISE. This initiative funded eight projects with one-year internal grants.

This project had such positive results — it yielded nearly 10 times the investment in regard to new sponsored awards in the RISE areas.

So, in 2024, under the leadership of our interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development Donald Hamelberg, we announced the launch of the next evolution of this program, entitled ARISE.

As opposed to a one-time event, ARISE will have a rolling application cycle for proposals to be submitted anytime.

Like Project RISE, it will foster collaborative research across the university and facilitate the funding of large-scale proposals.

To support these projects and research for the entire university, in 2025, we will make additional investments in our Research Administration infrastructure particularly as we finalize the search for the next permanent vice president for research and economic development.

Identity, Placemaking and Belonging

Now let’s talk about all the exciting progress made for Identity, Placemaking and Belonging,

Our identity as one of the most important urban institutions in the nation continues to be reinforced. In the 2025 U.S. News and World Report ranking, we had the highest overall ranking in our history.  We had a 31-point improvement over 2023.

This move was based on stronger peer rankings and the notoriety of our success in providing social mobility.

For the fifth consecutive year we are the No. 1 public university for undergraduate teaching.

We are No. 2 in learning communities, No. 4 in first-year experience and No. 5 for innovation, while also receiving high marks in social mobility and study abroad.

Our recognition is also at the individual, school and program level.

To name a few, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies was ranked No.16, the risk management and insurance programs in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business continued its long history of success with a ranking of No. 3, and the International Business program ranked No. 24.

Thanks again to our dedicated faculty and committed staff for propelling us forward.

I think it is no secret to our community that last year was a year of reimagining the possibilities for GSU’s campus communities and how we continue to thrive in the heart of downtown and in our Perimeter settings.

I believe passionately that the best trajectory for GSU’s future lies in how we leverage our space. I feel we must amplify our personality as an urban institution.

This strategic vision is to create unique spaces that feel like residential campuses but not lose the benefit of our close access to industry, government, entertainment, hospitality, the arts, and community and civic engagements.

Several of our Perimeter campuses do this so well, already.

If we do this successfully for all campuses, we create more vibrancy while promoting a safe environment.

Furthermore, we will improve our ability to not only recruit and retain students but also to attract talented faculty and staff.

In 2024, we were excited to announce the five- to seven-year implementation plan for this vision: We unveiled the new GSU Blue Line and corresponding campus quads.

Let me recognize the leadership of our EVP and Chief Operating Officer Jared Abramson, and his facilities team.

Thanks also to Jo Ann Herold, Kerry Heyward and Brian Harris for their leadership in Public Relations and Marketing, and in Legal Affairs and Government Affairs.

To explain this common vision of revitalizing our downtown Atlanta Campus to our supporters and donors, early in my term, I coined the buzzword — a “True College Town… Downtown.”

I've asked our stakeholders to envision quads, walking paths, lighting, landscaping and modern enhancements to our buildings. In short, feel like you are at GSU anywhere within the perimeter of our campuses.

To achieve this, we also must encourage our neighbors and municipalities to be like-minded.

The GSU Blue Line

But not just downtown, we are creating and enhancing “quads” on each of our six campuses and expanding facilities to better serve the students and the community.
In 2024, on the Perimeter Campus, we refreshed buildings, made classroom technology upgrades and updated furniture for common areas.

Also, on the downtown campus, we improved our Student Center by creating the Panther Place Lounge, in Student Center West, scheduled to open next month.

We have introduced a new Student Health Hub in our 75 Piedmont Building that will provide in-person augmented medical and mental health services.

Perhaps the most widespread news of 2024 was a major step forward for one of our strategic plan initiatives, WE received an $80 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation to accelerate our efforts to create true quad spaces downtown.

This was the largest gift in history to a public university in the state of Georgia.

Again, we benefited greatly from the support of the Board of Regents and the rapid partnership with Chancellor Sonny Perdue and his staff at the University System of Georgia.

It will fund nine different projects to develop quad and plaza spaces around Hurt Park and Woodruff Park while also modernizing the walking paths that connect the two areas.

The Honorable Andrew Young, a former member of Congress, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, mayor of Atlanta and namesake for our Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, speaks with the voice of our nation, our state, our city and, most importantly, one of the newest schools of our university.

Although I know you’ve seen this video, I think Ambassador Young explains this exciting new initiative best.

I agree with Ambassador Young, we are indeed the anchor institution for Atlanta — that’s a real point of pride.

But enhancing our facilities is only one piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, we must also create authentic experiences within our space as the primary goal.

Last year, when walking from the College of Law to Centennial Hall around noon, I ran into a group of staff, I believe, advisers from the College of Arts and Sciences. This group had decided to walk segments of the GSU Blue Line during their lunch hour.

I was inspired by how our community is beginning to use this strategic initiative to create new experiences altogether.

Let me recognize Dr. Michael Sanseviro, our vice president for Student Engagement, for his work in this space.

In 2024, through his leadership among others, we started the “Hidden Gems” initiative, which will highlight the history of Georgia State as well as other interesting facts about the university to engage our entire Panther community.

This initiative underscores the uniqueness of Georgia State and it will serve as a clearinghouse where we record and highlight the signature events that we hope to repeat every year.

Athletics

That said, there are no better signature activities at GSU than our athletics. Thank you to our Director of Athletics Charlie Cobb for his leadership.

Athletic events bring together our students, faculty and staff with many generations of alumni, partners, government officials and donors.

Furthermore, GSU’s scholar-athletes continue to lead the Sun Belt with their academic performance while also consistently competing athletically at the highest levels.

In 2024, we announced that a $16 million baseball stadium was approved for construction in the Summerhill community.  This will increase engagement of our students on campus at the games as we bring baseball from Decatur to downtown.

By creating spaces where students feel connected and empowered, we are not only enhancing their experience but shaping our campuses into vibrant and inclusive communities.

Finances

Finally, let’s talk about university finances.

We had our GSU budget hearing with the University System of Georgia just a few weeks ago.

Although we have had several years of mitigating lost enrollments from the pandemic era, our financial position remains strong. We have one more year to mitigate a $2.4 million reduction in appropriations for FY26, but the good news is that we will see an increase in appropriations in FY27 of nearly $4 million.

I’m so pleased that we have turned the corner and will soon start a trajectory of growth.

Our approach is not to pass the FY26 mitigations to the community, but instead we will leverage recent tuition and fee increases, in addition to interest income, to bridge this reduction until FY27.

One of my first presidential initiatives was to commission the first-ever comprehensive compensation study with the goal of increasing the competitiveness of our pay university-wide.

The study helped us define what it means to be competitive.

This was followed by the first adjustment made in December 2022. We increased the minimums for more than 200 employees at the lowest end of our pay scale. They all received a 9 percent increase.

Later in 2023, we used data from the study to restructure and provide competitive salaries for our police officers.

During the most recent phase, in 2024, we increased the compensation of 314 of our least competitively paid faculty across all campuses.

I know this effort is important to the entire community, and I know that we cannot enhance our compensation fast enough.

But I do appreciate that our financial leadership has remained committed to making steady progress, while at the same time conducting $40 million in budget reduction efforts over the last three fiscal years.

We commit to make even more progress in the coming years.

This year we will complete a new salary structure for staff to enable our next phase of the plan in FY26.

And it’s not all about state funds and tuition dollars — we continue to have historic years in fundraising.

Let me thank our Vice President of Advancement Cheryl Harrelson and her team for their leadership.

Over the past three and a half years, we have raised over $335 million. That is nearly $95 million a year over the last three and a half years. In short, we will have raised more money in the last four years than the eight previous years.

Some of the highlights include funding for endowed professorships, endowed scholarships, and endowed schools and departments.

But also, we have had specific funding for the National Institute for Student Success, the Library Commons, the Nursing Simulation Lab, the Stamps Scholars Program, the Greenberg School of Risk Science and, of course, the new PantherQuads on the GSU Blue Line.

Our Future

As you can see GSU’s future remains bright.

Although we can certainly expect to navigate the evolving terrain including shifts in the student demographic, uncertainty in research funding and changing political dynamics, there is no place I’d rather be.

We will continue to provide educational access to so many, while continuing to innovate and grow.

GSU continues to serve so many in our community and drives over $3.2 billion in annual economic value.

We stand at the intersection of possibility and promise.

As we reflect on our achievements, let us also look forward to a future defined not just by our aspirations, but by our actions to achieve them.

We will continue to transform our campuses into vibrant spaces while elevating our ability to recruit and retain.

We will amplify our research, elevate our student success, and foster a culture of belonging and innovation that sets the standard for urban universities nationwide.

Imagine a Georgia State where every student, faculty member and partner feels empowered to dream bigger and achieve more.

Picture a university that not only adapts to the future but shapes it.

GSU will continue to be a place where academic excellence, community impact and transformative vision leave an indelible mark on Atlanta and the world.

Let’s continue imagining, reimagining and innovating as we build an even brighter future for Georgia State University.

This is our place, our time and our moment to make history.

I appreciate you being a part of this incredible journey.

Thank you, and Go Panthers!