The Board of Regents met Tuesday morning to confirm Dr. Ricardo Azziz as the new president of MCG. Azziz currently chairs the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles California. He also holds leadership positions at UCLA. Azziz comes to MCG as the institution faces more than $25 million in budget cuts on top of the $30 million in cuts it has already seen in less than 2 years.

Azziz says one way he plans to address the cuts is by prioritizing the funding of programs at MCG.

"We probably will not be able to be everything to everybody but there will be some areas that we will excel at and those areas we may have to invest more," Azziz said.

The announcement coincides with a joint press conference hosted by MCG and Augusta State University on the University System’s growing budget crisis.

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