Augusta University's faculty and students gathered in the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre as President Brooks Keel gave the State of the University Address at noon on Friday, Oct. 20. The State of the University Address began with introductions by Dr. Wendy Turner, professor of history in the Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy; Stephanie Myers, president of the Graduate Student Government Association; and LeDarius Scott, president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association. President Keel began the State of the University Address by giving a brief history of the institution. He got the crowd laughing by mentioning the various names that the university has gone through before finally settling on Augusta University, and assured everyone that this name was here to stay. Then he moved into what he called, “updates on where we are now,” where he began to discuss the progress that has been made and the challenges the university will face in the upcoming years. President Keel made it clear the people he considered to be a top priority are the students and the patients of Augusta University. The goal he has always had for Augusta University is to provide the best education possible for students of every major. Also, President Keel discussed the increase in student enrollment each year. After announcing that the Class of 2021 is the largest class yet, he projected that we are currently on track to reach our goal of 11,000 students in the Class of 2024. Augusta University has made a lot of progress during the past two years with President Keel as president. In the past two years, 1,000 journal articles were published, nine international and U.S. patents were issued, and over 110 million dollars were donated in support of the university. There has also been a lot of expansions taking place and being planned for the future. The Georgia Cancer Research Center, located on Laney Walker Boulevard, is scheduled to be finished by May of 2018; the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, located on the Riverfront campus, is scheduled to be opened in June of 2018; and the College of Science and Mathematics is scheduled to move from the Summerville campus to the Health Sciences campus. Though plenty of progress has been made, there are still numerous challenges that Augusta University will face in the upcoming years. The first challenge President Keel addressed was the lack of parking spaces available on the Summerville campus. He assured the audience that he is aware there is a problem with parking and that they are working tirelessly to fix it. The next issue that he highlighted is even though Augusta University is the only public medical school in Georgia, we are still ranked seventieth in terms of the National Institute of Health (NIH) funding. The next challenges he covered were the university's aging facilities and the unbalanced student to faculty ratio. After listing the challenges, President Keel began to discuss his strategic plan and how its focus areas would help to resolve those challenges. The four main focus areas that he outlined were education, research, clinical care, and outreach and economic development. The strategic priority for education was to prepare a diverse student body that will provide lifelong contributions to the communities they choose to live and work in. For research, the priority focus is advancing the knowledge of cultural, economic, health and societal needs of the surrounding communities through research and scholarships. The strategic priority for clinical care was to build exceptional patient and family-centered care throughout the community. And lastly, the strategic plan he set forth for outreach and economic development was to build a stronger impact through the community and surrounding regions through economic and cultural development. President Keel ended his address by assuring everyone in the audience that although there are many challenges, he is positive we can overcome them and continue to help Augusta University grow and prosper. When asked if she thought that the challenges and the strategic plan was too ambitious, Stephanie Myers said that no plan could be too ambitious with the right support. “I don’t think it’s ever ambitious, especially not with the support of all the administration, faculty members and students,” Myers said. “I think that we could have all the parts of his strategic plan completed within the next five years.” When asked the same question of whether or not this strategic plan is too ambitious, Dr. Gretchen Caughman, the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, said that it would be difficult but not impossible. “We were very specific in developing this strategic plan," Caughman said. "It will be a lot of hard work, but it is still doable.” In the words of President Brooks Keel, he said it is important to recognize how much progress Augusta University has made while still acknowledging the challenges we will have to face in order to make the university the best it can be. “We can take one nice sigh, take a drink and rest, then keep going again,” Keel said. Contact Madison Brown at madbrown@augusta.edu.