USG Institutions:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
GOOD NEWS FROM SCHOOLS: Local Kappa Alpha Psi chapter gives $30,000 in scholarships
By Keith Farner
The Lawrenceville-Duluth Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi recently had its annual Kappa Luau Weekend, and the group celebrated by giving away almost $30,000 to local high school seniors and college students. Awardees include graduating LDAC Kappa Leaguers, deserving Gwinnett County high school seniors and Georgia Gwinnett College students. It’s the third straight year Kappa Alpha Psi Lawrenceville-Duluth Alumni Chapter has awarded at least $20,000 in scholarship monies to deserving African-American students in Gwinnett.
www.accesswdun.com
Work expected to begin this summer on convocation center at University of North Georgia
By AccessWDUN staff
The University of North Georgia will break ground June 3 on a long-awaited convocation center at the Dahlonega Campus that will replace the smaller, outdated Memorial Hall as the university’s primary event center when it opens in 2018. “We are really excited about the new convocation center for UNG, as it will be a transformational facility for UNG,” Mac McConnell, UNG’s senior vice president for business and finance, said. “With a seating capacity of up to 3,600, the new, multifunction building will fill the needs of our growing institution much better than the 56-year-old Memorial Hall. It also will be easily accessed from the Morrison Moore Parkway to serve the north Georgia region.”
www.nytimes.com
U.S. Relocate Puerto Rico Camp Over Zika Concerns
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/05/20/sports/olympics/20reuters-swimming-usa-zika.html?_r=0
By REUTERS
(Reuters) – USA Swimming has moved a pre-Olympic training camp from Puerto Rico to Atlanta due to concerns about Zika but does not expect the mosquito-borne virus to keep them from competing at the Rio Games in August. The U.S. team, which were originally headed to Puerto Rico following a July 11-21 training camp in San Antonio, will now hold that second camp at the Georgia Tech aquatic center that hosted swimming events during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Higher Education News:
www.nytimes.com
The Broken Bargain With College Graduates
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/opinion/sunday/the-broken-bargain-with-college-graduates.html
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
In his recent commencement address at Rutgers University, President Obama focused on the noneconomic reasons for going to college. The skills gained in college, he said, are tools to help “make the right choices — away from fear and division and paralysis, and toward cooperation and innovation and hope.” It was an important reminder, well suited to the times and the occasion. But it also came across as if the economic benefits of college were a given. In fact, the familiar assumption — graduate from college and prosperity will follow — has been disproved in this century. College-educated workers have not seen meaningful pay raises, and public policy has failed to address the stagnation. It is true that as a group college graduates make more than high school graduates. This gap is one reason that politicians like Mr. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump want to make college more affordable. College affordability is thus linked to equality of opportunity. Since 2002, however, inflation-adjusted pay for college graduates has risen a measly 64 cents an hour, to about $31 on average. That’s surely better than the 49-cents-an-hour drop for high school-educated workers in the same period, to a little less than $17. But standing still while others regress is no cause for celebration. The problem is that the economy does not produce enough jobs that require college degrees.
www.insidehighered.com
Tennessee Bill to Cut Diversity Office Becomes Law
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, on Friday announced that he would permit a bill to cut the entire $436,000 state appropriation for an office at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville that promotes diversity to become law. The bill also bars the use of state funds for an annual student event known as Sex Week (the event has long been produced without state funds) and bars the university from promoting the use of gender neutral pronouns. Many students and others have criticized the bill as a move against diversity and said that lawmakers distorted the work of the office. For example, the office did produce materials on the pronouns preferred by many transgender students, but never mandated the use of any pronouns, as some lawmakers suggested it had. Students organized protests (above right) against the bill.