Michael F. Adams

For other people called Michael Adams, see Michael Adams (disambiguation).

Michael F. Adams
Adams at the Peabody Awards in 2010
21st President of the University of Georgia
In office September 1, 1997 – June 30, 2013
Preceded by	Charles Boynton Knapp
Succeeded by	Jere Morehead
19th President of Centre College
In office December 1988 – 1997
Preceded by	Richard L. Morrill
Succeeded by	John A. Roush
Personal details
Born	(1948-03-25) March 25, 1948 Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Spouse	Mary Lynn Ethridge ​ (m. 1969)​
Alma mater	David Lipscomb College (BA) Ohio State University (MA, PhD)

Michael Fred Adams (born March 25, 1948) is an American former political staffer, educator, and academic administrator who is currently president emeritus of the University of Georgia. He was president of the school from 1997 to 2013 and before that was president of Centre College from 1988 to 1997.

Early life and education

Michael Fred Adams was born on March 25, 1948, in Montgomery, Alabama, to Jean and Hubert Adams. He was raised Christian as a member of the Church of Christ. In his youth, he moved with his family to Atlanta, Albany, and Macon, Georgia, and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, following his father's work at Kraft Foods Inc. He graduated from Chattanooga High School.

Adams attended David Lipscomb College—now Lipscomb University—for his undergraduate studies, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in speech and history in 1970. Afterwards, he earned a Master of Arts in communication research methodologies and a Doctorate in communications, both with a concentration in educational administration, from Ohio State University in 1971 and 1973, respectively. After graduating from Ohio State, where he was named a University Fellow, he completed a postdoc at Oxford University.

Career

Political work and Pepperdine, 1974–1988

Adams' first career experience was in politics; he worked as a staffer for Howard Baker, the Senate minority leader, from 1974 to 1979. The last three years of his time working for Baker was as his chief of staff. Adams was the Republican nominee for Congress in Tennessee's 5th congressional district but lost the general election to the incumbent Democratic representative Bill Boner. From 1980 to 1982, Adams was a senior advisor to Lamar Alexander, then the governor of Tennessee, specifically as the deputy commissioner of economic and community development.

Adams left Alexander's staff to accept a position as the vice president for university affairs at Pepperdine University. He was also a member of the Pepperdine faculty as a professor of political communication.

Centre College, 1988–1997

Adams was named the nineteenth president of Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky, in December 1988. He was Centre's first non-Presbyterian president.

Adams expanded and improved Centre's campus and offerings both in Kentucky and abroad. Old Centre, the Carnegie Library, Horky House, Combs Warehouse, and several houses on Greek Row underwent renovation and improvement during his tenure, as did several dormitories on campus. Study abroad programs in London and Strasbourg were also established. The college added multiple degree offerings, including anthropology and sociology, computer science, and classics. Fundraising was also a major emphasis of Adams' administration; Centre had received multiple large research initiative grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation, respectively, and outraised a $60 million goal as part of their Front and Centre fundraising campaign. Over Adams' tenure as president, Centre's endowment tripled to a total in excess of $120 million. Additonally, Centre became the top college by the percentage of its alumni to donate.

While president of Centre, Adams held numerous leadership roles at various organizations. These included stints as a vice chair on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Presidents Commission, the Board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Board of the American Council on Education, the Board of the Kentucky Center for Public Issues, Leadership Kentucky, the Executive Council of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. He helped to reorganize, and was the first president of, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, of which Centre was a member.

University of Georgia, 1997–2013

Adams applied for the presidency at the University of Georgia (UGA), left vacant by the resignation of Chuck Knapp in 1996, on the last possible day. He was announced as UGA's incoming president on June 11, 1997; he resigned from Centre effective around that same time and took office as UGA's twenty-first president on September 1, 1997. At Georgia, he received an annual salary of $177,000.

Following the conclusion of the 2001–2002 academic year, Adams used a reported job offer for the presidency of Ohio State University—with a supposed salary of between $850,000 and $1,000,000—to leverage a salary increase from the UGA Foundation, which they granted.

A dispute arose beginning in mid-2003 between Adams and members of the faculty regarding UGA's leadership and their confidence in Adams. Disagreement between Adams and longtime athletic director and former football coach Vince Dooley led to Dooley's retirement after his contract was not renewed, a move that drew ire from many. Years earlier, Adams had fired head football coach Jim Donnan despite the fact that Dooley recommended otherwise. In July of that year, a poll of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences revealed that seven out of ten faculty members lacked confidence in Adams' administration and the faculty senate released a statement alluding to an "erosion in excellence" over the course of his tenure. Around this time, the UGA Foundation announced that it would no longer provide Adams with additional annual compensation of over $300,000, but would instead donate to the UGA general fund. In July 2010, athletic director Damon Evans, whom Adams hired to replace Dooley, was arrested for DUI and resigned as a result. In spite of the scandals that took place within the Georgia athletic department during Adams' tenure, which also included NCAA violations for academic fraud that took place under the watch of head men's basketball coach Jim Harrick, UGA teams won nineteen national championships and athletic department revenue grew from $25.7 million to $92.1 million.

During Adams' presidency, UGA established five new colleges: the School of Public and International Affairs and the College of Environment & Design in 2001, the College of Public Health in 2005, the Odum School of Ecology in 2007, and the College of Engineering in 2012.

Adams was named vice president of the executive committee of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) for the 2003–04 academic year under committee president John A. White, the chancellor of the University of Arkansas. Thereafter, Adams served for two years as the committee's president in his own right. After the end of his term in 2006, he was elected to a two-year term as the chairman of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Executive Committee. During this time, he attracted attention by publicly announcing his support for a playoff championship system for college football.

Adams announced his resignation as UGA president on May 3, 2012, set to be effective June 30, 2013. He was succeeded by UGA provost Jere Morehead. Upon departing Georgia, Adams and his wife continued to maintain a residence in Athens.

Post-presidency, 2013–present

After leaving Georgia, Adams returned to Pepperdine for a three-year term as the university's chancellor from August 1, 2015 to July 31, 2018. He was the second-ranking member of the school's administration and worked directly for university president Andrew K. Benton, whom Adams first hired during his first stint at Pepperdine.

Personal life

Adams married Mary Lynn Ethridge on June 7, 1969, in Union City, Tennessee. The couple has two children together.

References

Bibliography

• Weston, William J. (2019). Centre College: A Bicentennial History. Danville, Kentucky: Centre College. ISBN 978-1-6943-5863-9. OCLC 1142930784.
• Whitt, Rich (2011). Behind the Hedges: Big Money and Power Politics at the University of Georgia. Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books. ISBN 978-1-58838-206-1. OCLC 771056631.