The Pulse – October 2026
Happy Fall, team!
Can you believe the first quarter of our fiscal year is officially in the books? We’re off to a tremendous start in FY27, and I look forward to keeping our strong momentum going. I love this time of year as the weather is starting to turn cooler, campus is buzzing with students and all of our teams are DARing to Level Up each and every week!
A special thank you to everyone who worked on 40 Under 40 and the Parents Leadership Council Fall Weekend over the last several weeks. These are two signature annual programs that impact alumni and donors across our campus, and I’m grateful for the collaboration and teamwork that went into making these events a success.
There is no doubt that October is an incredibly busy month, and there’s no better way to kick things off than with Homecoming festivities this weekend! Many teams throughout our division are hosting events around Homecoming, including tailgates ahead of the game on Saturday. This is always such a fun time of year and a great way for us to reach lots of engaged alumni who are excited to return to campus.
I hope you feel the excitement on campus, too, and that you’re energized to head into the second quarter of FY27 together.
As always, if I can do anything to support you or your team, please let me know.
Go Dawgs!
Upcoming Alumni Chapter and Council Events
- Black Alumni Homecoming Tailgate
- Saturday, October 3
- Myers Quad | Athens, GA
- Mentorship Mondays: Handshakes and Headshots
- Monday, October 19
- Terry Executive Education Center | Atlanta, GA | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
- Gainesville Chapter Event (Hosting Dean Nuss – School of Medicine & Dean Clevenger – Victoria Kay Ivester School of Nursing)
- Thursday, October 22
- Northeast Georgia Health System | Gainesville, GA | 6 – 7:30 p.m.
UGA Alumni Game-Watching Parties
Whether you’re an alum, a Dawgs superfan, or maybe you just look really good in red and black, join the UGA Alumni Chapter in your area to cheer on the Dawgs at your closest game-watching party all season long.
NASA @ UGA Career Center
On September 24, the Career Center partnered with the Student Industry Fellows Program in the Office of Experiential Learning to host representatives from the Launch Services Program in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for an information session and panel discussion focused on career pathways, internship opportunities, and a general overview of the critically important role that the Launch Services Program occupies within NASA.
The NASA delegation included the current president of UGA’s Space Coast Alumni Chapter, Joan Palmer, as well as a current UGA student, Alex Egan (Electrical & Electronics Engineering), that is participating in a federal Pathways Internship with the Launch Services Program.
Students were reminded that the deadline for NASA’s Spring 2027 Pathways Internship Program is September 25.
PLC Weekend
Thank you to everyone involved with our Parents Leadership Council Fall Weekend. It was a great turnout hearing from Dean Auer and bringing together some of UGA’s most engaged families to connect with students about campus life and the PLC community.
Tasty Tailgate Recipe Submissions
With another season of Georgia Football coming up we want to know what you all eat or drink at your tailgates. Submit a recipe today (and include pictures/videos if you’d like) for a chance to have it featured on UGA Alumni socials during the season!
GAIL is Moving
GAIL is moving to Blackbaud’s cloud over the next year. In practical terms, that means GAIL will run in Blackbaud’s secure hosted environment rather than on servers we maintain here. Day to day, GAIL will look and work the same for you; what changes is behind the scenes, where we strengthen our ability to keep GAIL available and recover quickly if something goes wrong, and gain access to the improvements Blackbaud is building for its cloud customers. In the coming months we’ll run two to three practice migrations, and you’ll get plenty of notice before anything affects your work.
Mentor Program Update
Since July 1, 2026:
# of mentors – 6,888 (208 new registrations)
# of mentees – 5,948 (1,039 new registrations)
# of connections – 1108 (including 16 week, Quick Chats, and Circles)
