Azziz receives University Senate resolution, Visiting Scholar appointment

Outgoing President Ricardo Azziz received another pair of honors this month.

On April 1, Azziz learned he had been appointed as a Visiting Scholar for the 2015-16 academic year at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

Nominated by Professors Bill Tierney and Adrianna Kezar, the appointment gives Azziz temporary visitor status, meaning he’ll have access to USC services as well as shared office space in the Pullias Center.

Then, on April 20, the University Senate adopted a resolution honoring him on behalf of the more than 1,500 faculty members of the university he helped create.

Among the partial list of accomplishments, the resolution acknowledged:

• Raising graduation rates and dramatically increasing the number of new freshmen successfully completing 15+ credit hours per semester
• Creating a closely aligned, integrated, and successful health system to be part of Georgia’s only public academic health center
• Earning the highest research funding in the institution’s history during the worst funding environment in decades
• Moving the GRU Cancer Center toward NCI designation
• Nearly tripling yearly philanthropic contributions, achieving the largest donation to a capital project in the university’s history, and also, separately, the largest philanthropic gift ever given to a public institution in Georgia
• Obtaining funding and support for the construction of more than $200 million in new building space

Azziz, who earlier this year announced plans to step down on June 30, held his final State of the Enterprise address at noon on Wednesday, April 22.