ATHENS, Ga. – Longtime University of Georgia President Michael Adams will retire next year after 16 years at the helm of the state’s flagship campus, he announced Thursday.
Adams, 64, said he plans to teach and write at UGA, along with serving on corporate boards and doing some consulting. He told a capacity crowd at the university chapel that it was time for him to step aside and “let others continue the work.”
He said he made the decision to retire in the last few weeks, declining to give more details.
“I want to go back to where I started in this business, and that’s with you,” he told the faculty members in the crowd. “I am proud of where the university is. It is in excellent shape, despite the challenges of the last few years.”
Under Adams’ leadership, UGA has climbed in college rankings and national profile; it’s been named one of the top 20 public research universities in the country for the last decade. The university’s enrollment swelled to 35,000, including the most selective freshman class in its history.
Adams brought in more than $1 billion in new construction on campus since he took office in 1997 and hired nationally prominent researchers to build UGA’s federal grant coffers.
Adams also established medical and engineering programs at UGA, a move that was politically unpopular for years because the state was already paying for Georgia Tech in Atlanta and the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
