The governing body for the state’s 35 colleges and universities is doing a tour of a handful of institutions this week. Tuesday the Board of Regents were spread across north Georgia.

Dalton State, Georgia Perimeter and Gainesville State are among the colleges getting on-site visits. It’s a chance for the Regents to get in-person updates from school administrators, and see how things are running for individual institutions.

Regents spokesman John Millsaps says visiting schools in clusters is a new approach:

“They started a process last year in September of breaking up into small groups of three or four Regents, and trying to hit five or six institutions in a key geographic part of the state.”

Millsaps says last September they visited schools in middle Georgia.

Wednesday, the Regents will get together to give reports on their visits. They’re also expected to approve almost $200 million in bond projects.

Some of the money, about $17 million, will go to local library systems statewide.

Kathryn Ames directs the Athens Regional Library System. She says the money is doled-out to the Georgia Public Library System which the Regents oversee:

“They’re an umbrella agency within state government, and each library system in the state does receive some grants from the state including a construction grant.”

Ames says her system will get $1.5 million for an expansion project to the Madison County Public Library.

The Regents Wednesday will meet on the Bartow campus branch of Georgia Highlands College.

Tags: funding, budget, colleges, universities, north Georgia, Georgia Highlands College, University System Board of Regents, public libraries