As a resident of Oconee County, the wife of a University of Georgia graduate, the mother of another UGA graduate and the mother of a UGA undergraduate, I am disappointed in the lack of forward planning on the part of the UGA administration. Why build and install beautiful gardens and conservatories if you can't maintain them, as the proposal to close the State Botanical Garden in connection with state budget cuts would suggest? Don't you teach students in your business school to plan ahead?
If UGA really is the big family that is portrayed to prospective students, how about the UGA Athletic Association, as part of the family, offering financial help during this hour of need? Isn't that what families do? We read about and see the terrific financial success of football at UGA. Is it a school of higher learning or of athletics?
Why has UGA let the pastoral agricultural corridor of South Milledge Avenue decline? Why did the school pay to relocate a landmark red barn to that corridor, and then not maintain it? It used to be a symbol of the value and strength of agricultural programs at UGA. Our UGA bulldog mascot serves the same purpose and enjoys deluxe accommodations.
The joys and benefits of agricultural programs at UGA through education, 4-H, the Cooperative Extension Service and the botanical garden give our community vitality and offer learning opportunities to preserve and improve our world. Isn't that what UGA is all about? In recommending budget cuts, UGA officials should trim the fat, not the meat.