Michael F. Adams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael F. Adams (B.A., speech and history, David Lipscomb College, 1970; M.A., communication research methodologies, Ohio State University, 1971; Ph.D., political communication, Ohio State University, 1973) is the president of the University of Georgia.

Adams began his career in education as faculty at Ohio State University 1973-1975. He later served as vice president for university affairs at Pepperdine University 1982-1988.

Adams was president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky for nine years, 1988-1997. While Adams was president at Centre, the endowment tripled to $120 million, faculty salaries nearly doubled, and Centre was usually first in the nation in percentage of alumni making donations to the school each year.

Since 1997 Adams has served as president of the University of Georgia. Adams grew up in Georgia until the ninth grade.

He is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Southeastern Conference.

Prior to entering higher education, Adams held a number of political positions. He served as chief of staff for Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker 1975-1979 and as an aide to Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 1980-1982. Adams was the Republican nominee for the United States House of Representatives in 1980 for Tennessee's Fifth District, but he lost the general election to Democrat Bill Boner 118,506 votes (65.4%) to 62,746 (34.6%)

President Adams is a controversial figure at the University of Georgia. He is widely unpopular among the student body^{[citation needed]}, receiving boos at Sanford Stadium during half-time at a University football game. He also is unpopular with numerous Alumni who withhold contributions to the University due to personality conflicts with President Adams and the president's dismissal of athletics director Vince Dooley.^{[verification needed]}

President Adams was the subject of a highly critical forensic audit dated October 24, 2003 by Deloitte & Touche, LLP that criticized Adams's stewardship, including but not limited to (i) expenditures for which Adams later reimbursed the University of Georgia, (ii) a stipend given to his wife, Mary, (iii) Adams's oversight of the purchase of an ecolodge in Costa Rica, (iv) and a secret payment by Adams to former football coach Jim Donnan.

In 2004 President Adams was given a vote of "No Confidence" by the faculty of the UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college in the university.

[edit] External links

• Biography from University of Georgia
• Biography from Centre College

Preceded by Richard L. Morrill	President of Centre College 1988 – 1997	Succeeded by John A. Roush
Preceded by Charles Boynton Knapp[1]	President of the University of Georgia 1997 – present	Succeeded by incumbent

[edit] Notes

1. ^  William Prokasy, UGA's Vice-President of Academic Affairs at the time, served as the interim UGA president for 3 months from the time of Knapp's departure in the spring of 1997 until Michael Adams's official start in the fall of that same year.