STATESBORO — Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero gave his State of the University address at the Student Government Association meeting last Wednesday.

The President of the university was able to speak to students on the ways GS can help make their experience the best it can be. 

“The process of the strategic plan started last academic year when we asked what will be the direction of this institution,” GS President Kyle Marrero said. “With that framework we are able to take it to the next level and put more around it in terms of our objectives, actions and values of who we are and the way we behave as an institution.” 

The six values of the university according to Marrero are integrity, innovation, openingness and inclusion, collaboration, sustainability and excellence. The five pillars that were announced were student success, teaching and research, inclusive excellence, operational efficiency of sustainability and community partnership. 

With the third pillar being inclusive excellence, Marrero sees the Three Campuses, One Heartbeat study by Damon A. Williams to be a mirror of how the university can improve.

“It provides a roadmap for us with seven recommendations in which we’re following,” Marrero said. “[Students] are the most important aspect.”

The president has met with the Student Advisory Council twice to discuss diversity and inclusion on campus and has meetings planned for the future with them. 

“We all have a purpose and that is the transformational power of education,” Marrero said. “And that purpose, at least when we just want transformational power of education, is that belief that we have a higher calling and opportunity.”

Provost Carl Reiber, Ph.D., announced several new programs, including three new engineering programs. The regional academic programs are supposed to take advantage of an expanding GS, and to have students job-ready when they graduate, according to Reiber.

“We span a larger swath of the state. So we want to make sure that we capture the needs of Savannah, the needs of Bulloch County, the needs of Liberty and beyond,” Reiber said. “One of the big advantages of being a student at Georgia Southern University is that our employers tell us that [students] are job-ready when you graduate. That’s tremendous.”

Engagement and structured academic affairs with the needs of the future will prepare students for the future, according to Reiber.

“We have worked very hard with the deans, chairs and faculty on student success, scholarships to make sure what [students] do here at Georgia Southern transcends out into the broader communities that we serve,” Reiber said.

More about the diversity report can be found here.

Sarah Smith and Nathan Woodruff contributed to this article

 Davon Johnson, The George-Anne News Reporter, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu