糖心Vlog

November 7, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

I hope everyone enjoyed October鈥檚 Homecoming and Celebrate Together events on the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses. Across all the festivities, we welcomed more than 40,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members on our campuses鈥�now that鈥檚 something to celebrate! I want to give a special thank you to all of the staff, faculty, and students who helped organize these events and activities.

November is a busy time of the academic calendar as we race toward Thanksgiving week and the end of the semester. There is so much happening on our campuses鈥攑lease check out our  where you will find a multitude of concerts, speakers, athletic events, and gatherings to take part in. We also have two home football games remaining鈥攁gainst Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion鈥攂efore the Thanksgiving break. Go Eagles! 

The October enrollment census was finalized and yes, we had record enrollment at 糖心Vlog with 29,633 students! To ensure we continue our record-setting pace, our Enrollment Management team, led by Dr. Ale Sosa Pieroni, will hold a Strategic Enrollment Management Summit on Wednesday, November 19, 1-5 p.m. This will be an informative and interactive opportunity to further our enrollment success and we need you to be there. Please register. The workshop will also be available via Zoom if you are unable to attend in person.

November also marks the finalization and submission of our FY2027 Budget Narrative and Prioritization Plan to the University System of Georgia. Due to our growth from FY2024 to FY2025, we are modeling investments totaling $7M in recurring funding. We have submitted these documents to the USG and will present and post all of these documents in the coming weeks to the Faculty Senate and Staff Council. 

I want to thank everyone who has been working and continues to provide leadership and engagement in our Consolidation Action Teams. We remain on schedule, having started and/or completed nearly 75% of the tasks assigned. As we transition into the spring semester, much of the remaining operational transitions will be completed through our shared governance processes and at the leadership level providing continuous communication and engagement throughout. Our goal is to be operating as one institution, honoring the traditions and uniqueness of each of our campuses.

Soaring Beyond, Because of You

We are so proud of Dr. Francisco M. Lugo, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, who recently won a national award for his work with the Georgia Southern Theta Kappa Chapter. He was selected as the Campus Advisor of the Year from the national Sigma Nu fraternity. For the past 12 years, Dr. Lugo has advised the fraternity with encouragement and accountability so its members can thrive as leaders on campus and beyond.

This semester, we are proud to mark a special milestone: five years of partnership with the Gretsch family that has grown into a legacy that continues to shape the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music. In 2021, Georgia Southern received a transformational gift from Fred and Dinah Gretsch. Their $3 million pledge, along with their personal Gretsch Collection of historic guitars, drums and archives, led to the creation of the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music, named in their honor. Along with the gift, the Gretsch family also donated a collection of instruments, which is included in 鈥淭hat Great Gretsch Sound!鈥� museum, housed in the Plant Riverside District in Savannah. It showcases more than a century of iconic Gretsch instruments, from banjos and early drums to guitars played by legends like George Harrison and Malcolm Young. The Gretsch family also donated three major additions to the archives to the Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections, including Gretsch Company Records, Gretsch Audio-Visual Collection and Musical Industry Reference Collection. 

Finally, thank you to everyone who participated and have been part of this week鈥檚 Ethics Awareness Week.  At Georgia Southern, our values guide every decision, every discovery, and every interaction.

Sincerely,

Kyle