University System News:
www.ajc.com
Foundation raises $1.4 million for need-based scholarships
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/foundation-raises-million-for-need-based-scholarships/iN60tQlvcyJzFEhkCm9yXL/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=666ca3ccc9-eGaMorning-4_5_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-666ca3ccc9-86731974
Will Robinson
The University System of Georgia Foundation raised $1.43 million for need-based scholarships, 10 percent more than last year. The money will be used to promote, support and provide scholarships at the system’s 28 institutions. This year’s gala, held March 31, recognized faculty and alumni for their support of higher education in Georgia. The foundation bestowed the Regent Elridge McMillian Lifetime Achievement Award – its highest honor – to its former chancellor, Hank Huckaby. Governor Nathan Deal presented the award. Huckaby became the system’s chancellor in 2011 and retired in December 2016. He was the first in-state chancellor hired by the Board of Regents in more than two decades.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State’s online MBA among ‘50 Best’ in 2017 ranking by College Choice
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article143000709.html
BY MARK RICE
Columbus State University is listed among the 50 Best Online MBA Degrees in the 2017 ranking by College Choice, an independent online publication dedicated to helping students and their families make postsecondary education decisions. “Receiving this kind of recognition among peer institutions is a great validation of the quality of programs delivered by our faculty,” Linda Hadley, dean of CSU’s Turner College of Business, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “This is the ideal program for the career-minded professional seeking career advancement. We continually strive to make our Georgia WebMBA students feel like they’re part of our thriving campus through close communication from staff and faculty who are committed to their success.” According to its news release, the factors College Choice used to develop its ranking include overall cost, financial aid and post-degree career success, based on publicly available resources, such as the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, PayScale.com, individual school websites, and the National Center for Education Statistics.
www.tiftongazette.com
Full house at ABAC Alumni Award Ceremony
http://www.tiftongazette.com/sports/full-house-at-abac-alumni-award-ceremony/article_5dd4cd2e-1c9f-11e7-826c-bb1778a9ad83.html
Shelby Evans
TIFTON — President of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, David Bridges, called it his greatest honor to hand out awards to nearly 20 ABAC alumni, and the entire 1964 men’s basketball team who were inducted to the Hall of Fame. The ceremony and dinner, which took place Friday, was one of the last events for Homecoming Week, themed “ABAC Suits You.” To fit the theme, tables in Gressette Gym were decorated with poker chips and each guest could take home a pack of customized ABAC playing cards. Every year the ABAC Alumni Association celebrates outstanding alumni and honors inductees to the Athletics Hall of Fame. This year there were eight inductees: Craig Sowell, Class of 1982; Joey Dixon, Class of 1985; Alton Hudgins, Class of 1975; Lacy Whatley Kennon, Class of 1992; Luiza Biktyakova, Class of 2002; Worth Hartry, Class of 1974; Katrina Duncan-Marshalleck, Class of 2009; and the 1964 Men’s Basketball Team. The basketball team and their head coach Benny Dees, towered over the crowd on stage. More than one person at the ceremony described the boys on the team as crazy and their coach as even crazier. At the height of their basketball career, the team rallied the student body as they would go on their journey to become the state basketball champions.
www.wjcl.com
Georgia Southern Co-Ed Cheer Squad claims National Championship
http://www.wjcl.com/article/georgia-southern-co-ed-cheer-squad-claims-national-championship/9247421
Eagles soar in Daytona Beach
The Georgia Southern University Co-Ed Cheerleading Squad claimed the 2017 National Cheerleaders Association National Championship Friday afternoon in Florida.
www.goldenisles.news
CCGA students share science lessons at Boys & Girls Club
http://goldenisles.news/news/local_news/ccga-students-share-science-lessons-at-boys-girls-club/article_314323f8-e2e4-5a83-a4ee-c4e338c19065.html#utm_source=goldenisles.news&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1491399044&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
By LAUREN MCDONALD
The Boys & Girls Club students first put on their goggles, aprons and plastic gloves, then waited patiently for the fun to begin. “Today, we’re going to be doing an acid and base reaction,” began College of Coastal Georgia student Daisha Alston. She asked the students to start by pouring a sodium bicarbonate — or baking soda — into their water bottles, followed by dish detergent, food coloring and finally vinegar, the acid. “Which reacts with the sodium carbonate to give you an explosion,” Alston explained, just as the first volcano erupted and two girls jumped back in their seats in surprise. Their initial shock quickly transformed into obvious amazement. They leaned in more closely to watch the pink bubbles spill over. “This is a base, and this is an acid,” Alston told them. “And when you put it together, it reacts.” A group of CCGA chemistry students took a trip to the Boys & Girls Club in Brunswick on Tuesday, to share with middle schoolers the magic of science.
www.thegeorgeanne.com
CURE hosts dodgeball tournament to raise money for kids in Ethiopia
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/camayak-content/article_769b2c53-aec8-58ed-b215-362a5d42c86e.html
By:Tara Bailey The George-Anne staff
The Georgia Southern University CURE student chapter is holding a dodgeball tournament this Thursday, April 13 to raise money for kids in CURE’s hospital in Ethiopia. CURE is an international association that not only has hospitals that help kids receive the medical attention that they need, but also spreads the word of God. Hannah Pressey, junior marketing major and the executive director, officially started the GS student chapter of CURE last year after attending some CURE events at the University of Georgia while she was in high school.
www.savannahnow.com
Savannah State students debut facial reconstruction projects at forensic science week
Forensic science week project aims for deeper understanding of physical development
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-04-07/savannah-state-students-debut-facial-reconstruction-projects-forensic-science-week
By Brittini Ray
It was a local mash-up of “Bones” and “CSI: Miami” on Friday afternoon as Savannah State University students debuted their facial reconstruction skills during the university’s forensic science week. Savannah State’s Department of Forensic Science hosted a week of lectures and events that culminated in the unveiling of a five-month-long project involving the study of anthropology, anatomy, mathematics and fine arts. “The purpose of the project is for engagement,” said Karla-Sue Marriott, Savannah State University forensic science coordinator. “Students can participate in something hands-on. It’s something that they can see just evolve right in front of their eyes and it’s something that they created. So they can see how the science merges with art because we’re sculpting. It’s something that science students here didn’t think they could do.”
Between October and March, forensic science students reviewed scientific literature and studied cranial features, depth marker measurements and the process of creating a full-size, three-dimensional rendering of a person’s face using only skeletal clues. The project gave students a deeper understanding of physical development, Marriott said.
www.11alive.com
Georgia Tech astronaut returning to Earth
http://www.11alive.com/news/nation-now/georgia-tech-astronaut-returning-to-earth/429962266
Christopher Buchanan, WXIA
ATLANTA — In an official change of the guard, an astronaut with Georgia ties will be handing off command of the International Space Station ahead of his trip back to the Earth. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, a Georgia Tech graduate, will be returning home early Monday morning in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko. The craft is expected to make touchdown in Kazakhstan around 7:20 a.m. EST. Kimbrough has been on the space station since late October.
www.georgiastatesignal.com
USG plans to combat the growing opioid epidemic in Georgia
Syrina Merilan
Georgia is exhibiting an epidemic in opioid abuse and overdose, so much so that the University System of Georgia (USG) is whipping up a new security measure to lower the rates of overdose deaths caused by opioids in college students. According to Georgia State’s Neuroscience Institute Professor Dr. Mark Conklin, opioids are classified as drugs derived from the poppy plant, including the natural drugs morphine and codeine, and is not limited to heroine, the synthetic subgroup. “Opioids is sort of the collective name they call compounds that are derived from the opium poppy. The active ingredient of the opiates, [which are] another name for the natural opioids,” Conklin said. “These are things like morphine and codeine. In the laboratory acetyl groups were added to morphine to produce heroine, so heroine is considered the semi-synthetic opioid.”
www.savannahnow.com
Committee moves combined Armstrong-Georgia Southern mission statement forward
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-04-07/committee-moves-combined-armstrong-georgia-southern-mission-statement-forward
By Dash Coleman
A committee tasked with consolidating Armstrong State University with Georgia Southern University reached consensus on a mission statement Friday for the combined school. The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents voted in January to combine the two universities, which are about 50 miles apart. The new university will retain Georgia Southern’s name and president and is expected to become operational next year. Current academic programs at both schools will be offered at the new institution through spring 2022, but Armstrong’s NCAA Division II sports program will end after this season. The mission statement went through several edits over the past few weeks, with input from faculty from both universities. The statement was sent back for revision after the last consolidation committee meeting in late March, when members raised concerns that it was verbose or too closely resembled a marketing pitch. Even at the 41-member committee’s meeting Friday in Statesboro, there were some last-minute edits about word usage and placement. “We learned a lot about ourselves as a group,” Georgia Southern President Jaimie Hebert said after the meeting. “We learned that we can disagree. We can go back to the drawing board and we can come back with compromises that really represent the best of both places.”
www.savannahnow.com
Party with the Pirates: Athletes, alumni come together to celebrate Armstrong
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-04-08/party-pirates-athletes-alumni-come-together-celebrate-armstrong
By Brittini Ray
There was a mixture of joy and sadness in the warm spring air Saturday afternoon as Armstrong State University athletes and alumni came together one last time to celebrate 50 years of Pirate athletics. “Today is an opportunity to give our alumni and students a final chance to come out and celebrate all of the great things that have happened under this athletic department,” said Lisa Sweany, Armstrong athletic director. Current and former students crowded the school’s soccer field during the Party with the Pirates event to celebrate the athletic department’s final season. The Savannah school is being consolidated with the larger Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. Alumni and students snacked on hot dogs and hamburgers while others played outdoor games, danced to music and stood in line to receive a T-shirt that said it all: Once a Pirate, always a Pirate. To the dismay of many Armstrong student-athletes, the plan to bring the university’s sports program to a halt was approved last month, making 2017 the 50th and final anniversary of Armstrong athletics.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
‘Campus carry’ critics take their message to the Masters
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/09/campus-carry-critics-take-their-message-to-the-masters/
Greg Bluestein
Some of the state’s most prominent politicians and executives will be at the closing round of the Masters in Augusta on Sunday. And a gun control group is hoping that they’ll take notice of a full-page ad in the Augusta Chronicle about controversial Georgia legislation. The ad by Everytown for Gun Safety invoked Gov. Nathan Deal’s veto last year of legislation that would legalize firearms on more places in college campuses – and urges him to do the same this time around. It quotes from his veto statement that found “overwhelming justification” would be needed to sign the law. “Gov. Deal’s words remain true in 2017,” the ad said. “That justification didn’t exist last year, and it doesn’t exist now.”
www.onlineathens.com
Athens legislators address ‘campus carry’ at post-session luncheon
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-04-08/athens-legislators-address-campus-carry-post-session-luncheon
By Hilary Butschek
A recent post-session briefing by the Athens delegation to the Georgia General Assembly focused on the “campus carry” gun legislation now awaiting action by Gov. Nathan Deal. The bill would allow licensed gun owners, who have to be at least 21 years old, to carry concealed handguns on public college campuses. The bill includes some exemptions, prohibiting weapons in student housing including fraternity and sorority houses, at athletic venues, in places where disciplinary hearings are held, in on-campus child care facilities, in faculty and administrative office space, and in areas where high-school students attend classes. The exemptions are the result of Deal’s guidance to lawmakers in terms of what he would accept in the bill. Deal vetoed broader “campus carry” legislation approved by lawmakers last year Speaking to a combined meeting of the Athens Rotary Club and the Classic City Rotary Club under the auspices of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce last week at the Athens Country Club, the lone member of the local delegation to support the bill, state Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, couched his support in terms of student safety.
www.saportareport.com
World War I changed Georgia
In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia’s history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.
This week, TOM JACKSON, Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, and LAURA MCCARTY, of Georgia Humanities, examine the changes World War I brought to Georgia and efforts across the state to commemorate the war.
By Tom Jackson and Laura McCarty
Those of a certain age – early Baby Boomers – grew up through the centennial of the War Between the States and were regaled with stories of Georgia’s role in it. Our parents were of “the Greatest Generation” who fought World War II, so we were well familiar with those stories as well. But when we note that April 6 this year marks the centennial of the United States’ entry into the “Great War,” some actually have to pause to think what war that might be. World War I, as it came to be known, had been thought “the war to end all wars,” until it didn’t. There were 70 million military personnel mobilized, nine million combatants and seven million civilians who died as a result of the war. We know of the trench warfare, the use of mustard gas and barbed wire, but the stories of Georgia’s role in the war and of the doughboys it sent to the front are less well known. One hundred years ago this week, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I. Though President Woodrow Wilson recently had been reelected with a narrow victory under the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War,” increased German submarine attacks on trading and passenger vessels and the Zimmerman Telegram (a secret communication from Germany to Mexico that offered the latter the opportunity to reclaim land in the American Southwest if they allied with Germany) led him to seek the declaration. Congress also passed the Selective Draft Act requiring men from ages 21 to 30 to register. …The Georgia World War I Centennial Commission (GWWICC), in partnership with Georgia Humanities and other key organizations, is working to honor the memory, educate about, and commemorate the roles that Georgians played in the war through exhibitions, K-12 curriculum development, and other programs. Among many of note:
www.ajc.com
College costs in Georgia up 77 percent since 2006
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/college-costs-georgia-percent-since-2006/xvxSOCqVZ51MFu2HiY0TSO/
Christopher Quinn
The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute writes on its website about the reasons college costs in the University System of Georgia continue to rise. Families and students are paying more because the state is paying a smaller percentage of the costs that it used to cover. GBPI bases its report on a audit ordered by the state and delivered in December. …The state used to support 70 percent of the cost of a college education. That is down to about 50 percent. There are concerns that prices for an education will continue to rise. AJC reporter James Salzer reported recently from state budget hearings at the General Assembly: Lawmakers are just beginning their review of the state budget that Deal proposed. Several department leaders made presentations Tuesday, including new University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley. The University System has come under increased scrutiny because of the rising cost of college tuition, and chancellors get asked about the issue by lawmakers each year. While the Board of Regents doesn’t set tuition until after lawmakers approve the state budget and leave town for the year, Wrigley assured legislators that students won’t see a huge hike next fall.
www.bloomberg.com
College Grads Stuck With Low Wages as U.S. Hiring Heats Up
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-06/college-grads-stuck-with-low-wages-as-hiring-in-u-s-heats-up?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=324ac27330-eGaMorning-4_6_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-324ac27330-86731974
by Steve Matthews
Connor Reyer gave up after more than a year of looking for a job in his preferred field of forest resources following graduation from the University of Georgia in Athens, finally opting in February for a hotel front-desk job paying $10 an hour. The relegation of college graduates to non-degree positions was once seen as a temporary blow for young people unlucky enough to graduate around the time of the deep 2007-2009 recession. Instead, millions of Americans like Reyer continue to face the same struggle. About 44 percent of recent college grads were employed in jobs not requiring degrees in the final quarter of 2016, not far from the 2013 peak of 46 percent, while the share of that group in low-wage positions has held steady, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed Wednesday. That’s a sign that the nation’s labor market isn’t at full health, despite an unemployment rate forecast to remain at 4.7 percent in March, close to the lowest in almost a decade. In fact, the elevated level of college grads in non-college jobs could mean there’s still slack and that the Fed can go slow in raising interest rates, betting that more high-wage jobs will materialize. It could also mark a more permanent shift in employment that the Fed can’t fix and be a tough challenge for President Donald Trump and Congress.