Working Deal
GSM: Georgia Southern University has established itself as a premier place for postsecondary education, not only in the state of Georgia but across the nation. What does Georgia Southern University mean most to you, Governor Deal, and its standing among our university elite?
Governor Deal: First of all, I believe we all take great pride in the fact that Georgia Southern University is a growing institution and one whose prestige continues to expand daily. It is certainly an institution in which I have a great deal of personal pride, as both my parents were natives of Bulloch County. Many members of my own staff are graduates of Georgia Southern University, so I know the quality of the graduates you produce, and it is indicative of the fact that you are producing the kind of people that can fill a variety of roles in our state. I know your accolades will continue to grow. You are a well-rounded University, and you should take pride in that.
I believe that if people are going to continue to advance, you have to be willing to take a risk and be comfortable with making choices that take you out of the status quo. On an institutional level, Georgia Southern is a great illustration of not wanting to be just another university, but a major player in our University system, whether it be with your athletics program—congratulations on beating the Florida Gators by the way—or in taking the lead when I asked Georgia Southern to assume control of the Herty Foundation, which I believe will provide greater employment and research opportunities for your graduates. Just because you get a degree, that should not be the end of your growth or expansion.
GSM: Thanks to Georgia’s strong commitment to improving education, international enrollment is growing. Today, Georgia Southern students represent 89 different countries on campus. Talk briefly about how international growth is impacting education and how Georgia is partnering with the international community.
Governor Deal: I think we all recognize the world is getting much smaller in many respects. Not only is travel easier but telecommunication is able to penetrate almost every part of the world. But the same is true in the educational arena. The addition of exchange students or students from other countries who come here to study is an enriching process for both traditional students and certainly a growth opportunity for everyone. My wife and I have hosted many international students over the years. We are still very close with one of our former German exchange students. We call her our “other daughter.”
From an economic standpoint, we’re having more and more international business opportunities appear in Georgia. We’re seeing companies headquartered in other countries deciding to establish a presence in our state. I know we’re always encouraged to see qualified students come our way. In fact, the newly elected president of Panama is a graduate of Georgia Tech, so to have alumni of Georgia institutions become the heads of other countries is a unique distinction that puts the state of Georgia and its higher institutions, like Georgia Southern, in an enviable spot as countries around the world begin to look at our state as a place to get a quality higher education.
GSM: With so much accomplished during your first few years in office, including saving HOPE from the brink of bankruptcy, what are your main objectives as you near the end of your first term as governor?
Governor Deal: Well, a continuation of programs and projects that we’ve already initiated—certainly to emphasize job creation. The latest employment numbers indicate that 243,000 private sector jobs have been created in the less than three and a half years that I’ve been governor. Practically every day we have new announcements. Earlier this week I was on campus for the announcement by a glass company that has had a presence in your community for a number of years, but has decided to expand by adding 125 employees…and creating meaningful job growth is vital to Georgia Southern University graduates. We’ve also, I believe, operated very efficiently in education, and are able to put back half a billion dollars into K-12 education, which has allowed school systems to remove furlough days and in some cases give teachers pay raises. Over the last month, we’ve also introduced the High Demand Career Initiative, which brings business leaders together with educators. The goal is to hear from the business community as to what their labor needs are going to be five to ten years down the road, so that universities like Georgia Southern can produce the graduates that our businesses are going to want.
GSM: What’s the most difficult decision, or concession, you’ve had to make as Georgia’s 82nd Governor?
Governor Deal: One of the most difficult was early on when I became governor —to be informed that without changes the HOPE Scholarship program that we all take so much pride in was going to go broke by 2013. That was a serious issue and one that required difficult choices to be made. Fortunately, we made reforms to the HOPE programs and now the three areas that HOPE supports are all prospering. The pre-K program is back up to 180 days and recognized as one of the best pre-K programs in the country. In the college arena, we’ve continued to make reforms and instituted programs like Complete College Georgia. It was an incentive funded by private industry with the purpose to improve our graduation rates. Getting that degree is a pivotal difference in terms of being able to get a better job… Education should ultimately lead to employment.
GSM: Many of our readers may not know that you met your wife, Sandra, on a blind date. Together, you now have four grown children and six grandchildren. What does family mean to you?
Governor Deal: Well, we have one son and three daughters. Fortunately they all live in Georgia. We’re extremely proud of them and welcome the opportunity to be with our family. They are all college graduates. Two of them have postgraduate degrees. Our son is a superior court judge and our daughters have a variety of employment—business as well as in the education fields. Our youngest is an actress and performer. But family is very important to us and important to most people in our state I truly believe. Our citizens understand the importance of family and that it is the building block for a stable society.
GSM: Governor Deal, what would you like both your personal and professional legacies to be?
Governor Deal: I’m not one who thinks about those kinds of things. I think if you start thinking about that, your attention gets diverted from the things that you need to do. I suppose if there is any legacy at all I hope it will be that I served the state of Georgia with distinction, that I brought us through a very difficult economic period, that we have given more of our citizens good job opportunities, and improved the quality of education. If that is a legacy, it is not something you put on plaques or name roads after. Instead, it will be something that is built in the hearts of future generations…and that is legacy enough for me.