University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia colleges exploring new ways to recruit students
Eric Stirgus
University System of Georgia officials discussed a new plan Tuesday to recruit more students who graduate from the state’s public schools. The percentage of Georgia high school graduates who attended colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia has declined from 46 percent in 2009 to 41 percent in 2015, according to state data. Georgia Board of Regents members and others suggested the decline could be attributed to the economy and rising costs to attend college. “It is clear we need to reverse this trend,” said Matt Hauer, a demographer who lead the presentation. To reverse the declining numbers, the USG has created an internal online portal it hopes will show where they can recruit students.
www.ajc.com
Demonstrators removed from Georgia Board of Regents meeting
Eric Stirgus
Georgia state troopers removed eight people from the Georgia Board of Regents meeting Tuesday morning who came to protest the system’s policies that restrict those without legal immigration status. “This is segregation,” said the Rev. Jonathan Rogers, the first speaker to interrupt the meeting. Board members left the meeting when the protest began. When they returned, the demonstrators continued their protests. Several demonstrators repeated the phrase “To come for one of us is to come for all of us,” before their removal.
www.ajc.com
Demonstrators arrested at Georgia Board of Regents meeting
Eric Stirgus Miguel Martinez The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police arrested eight people who came to Tuesday’s Georgia Board of Regents meeting to protest the system’s policies that restrict those without legal immigration status.
www.barnesville.com
Caps, gowns and smiles at GSC graduation
http://www.barnesville.com/archives/10101-Caps,-gowns-and-smiles-at-GSC-graduation.html
Walter Geiger
A huge throng of parents, family members and well-wishers was on hand at Gordon State College on a beautiful Spring morning Friday for commencement exercises on Lambdin Green. New this year were decorated mortarboards after the college relaxed its rules regarding them. The commencement address was delivered by Dr. Tommy Hopkins of Griffin, chairman of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.
www.goldenisles.news
CCGA honors Class of 2017, retiring president at spring commencement
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Nearly 260 College of Coastal Georgia graduates walked across the commencement stage on Sunday, shook their president’s hand and received their diploma, along with one last candy bar. “I don’t want you to be without one more Snicker — or Milky Way, if you have a peanut allergy,” said Greg Aloia, CCGA’s president, who has long had a tradition of handing out Snickers to late-night studiers in the school’s library. “When you come to get your degree, there’s your last Snickers up there.” The commencement ceremony, held at the Jekyll Island Convention Center, honored not only the college’s Class of 2017, but also its president, who will be retiring June 30.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
58-year-old janitor cleans CSU Friday night then walks across stage with degree next day
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article150748297.html
BY CHUCK WILLIAMS
It was a late night Friday for Columbus State University custodian Gary Freeman. As the lead janitor in the Lumpkin Center, he led the team that cleaned up after the first of three graduation ceremonies. Freeman, 58, got off work well after midnight Saturday morning. Less than 12 hours later he was back at the Lumpkin Center, wearing a cap, gown and huge smile for the Colleges of Arts and Business graduation, ready to pick up the Bachelor of Business Administration degree that he earned as a part-time student over nine years of attending classes.
www.savannahnow.com
Bryan County High senior finds success with ‘Move on When Ready’ program
Ashley Kramer is in the top 10 of senior class of Bryan Country High School. She is an honors student, a member of the National Beta Club, and participates in extracurricular activities. However, Kramer does not actually attend classes at the school from where she will soon graduate. For the last two years Kramer has attended college full-time as a participant in the state-funded Move On When Ready program. …In 2015, after finishing the 10th grade, and with a desire to jump start her college career, Kramer passed the required SAT exam and was accepted into Georgia Southern University in the Georgia MOWR program. Two years later, she will walk with her high school graduating class of 2017, receive her diploma but will also have completed her freshman and sophomore years of college. To Kramer it was the best move she ever made.
www.goldenisles.news
Girls getting in on summer learning action at CCGA
By LAUREN MCDONALD
College of Coastal Georgia will host its first Girls of Summer program this July, offering middle school girls from Glynn and McIntosh counties a chance to spend their summer learning on a college campus. The program will replicate the framework of the annual Boys of Summer program and will target rising sixth- and seventh-grade girls who may have academic needs, as recommended by their school counselors, or those who may benefit from academically-enriching campus experiences. The free academic program is being supported by the college’s minority outreach program, and funds have been provided by an anonymous donor.
www.goldenisles.news
CCGA inducts members into international honors society
By LAUREN MCDONALD
College of Coastal Georgia’s newest international honors society recently gained 30 members at its first induction ceremony. The Theta Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, an honors society for international scholars, received its official charter at CCGA in 2016. Phi Beta Delta, founded at California State University, Long Beach in 1986, recognizes and promotes scholarly achievement in international education. …He said CCGA is one of nine higher education institutions in Georgia that have a society charter, including University of Georgia, Kennesaw State University, Georgia State University and Columbus State University. “The honor organization helps promote CCGA’s vision of internationalizing our campus,” Lynch said.
www.wsav.com
New NMAAHC exhibit features work of SSU professor
http://wsav.com/2017/05/12/new-nmaahc-exhibit-features-work-ssu-professor/
By Kim Gusby
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has been open since last September and this month, the museum debuted its first special exhibition. It’s called “More than a Picture,” and the work of award-winning photographer and Savannah State University professor, Jason Miccolo Johnson, is part of the display.
www.wbtv.com
ASU announces two new projects to support downtown Albany
http://www.wbtv.com/story/35418460/asu-announces-two-new-projects-to-support-downtown-albany
By Emileigh Forrester, Anchor
Albany State University students will soon have a safer way to cross the Flint River to go into downtown Albany. Friday, the Board of Regents chairman joined ASU and Flint Riverquarium leaders along with the University System of Georgia’s chancellor to announce the Albany State-Downtown Albany connector trail. It will be part of the Flint River Trails System and provide a way for bikers and pedestrians to cross the Flint River safely. It’s one of two initiatives ASU President Dr. Art Dunning announced Friday. The other is a partnership with the Flint Riverquarium.
www.wsbtv.com
Commission talks about Flint River Trails
http://www.wbtv.com/story/35429759/commission-talks-about-flint-river-trails
By Zachary Logan, Reporter
On Monday, May 15, 2017, Dougherty County commissioners met to discuss potential funding for the beginning phase of the Flint River Trails. The first segment would be called the Albany State University-Downtown Connector and would allow ASU students to travel safely between Albany State University’s East Campus and Downtown Albany. It would also serve as the base for future trails to branch off from it. Last Friday, the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents announced that it would give Dougherty Co. $750,000 for the first segment. According to Dougherty Co. Attorney Spencer Lee, the estimated cost of the ASU-Downtown Connector is around $1.7 million.
www.wtvm.com
ASU aims towards internationalizing curriculum
http://www.wtvm.com/story/35432557/asu-aims-towards-internationalizing-curriculum
By Amanda Hoskins, Reporter
Less than one percent of all Albany State University students study abroad each year. That’s why leaders want to make sure every student who graduates has a grasp on the global community. On Monday, the global programs department held a conference for faculty members. Department leaders taught others how to add global affairs to their course curriculum. If a professor is teaching about diabetes, they can teach students about how people are affected by diabetes all over the world. The director of global programming, Dr. Nneka Osakwe, said students who don’t get the chance to study abroad need to be able to learn about what is happening internationally.
www.wtvm.com
ASU’s Bachelor Nursing program placed on conditional status
http://www.wtvm.com/story/35414873/asus-bachelor-nursing-program-placed-on-conditional-status
By Dave Miller, Digital Exec. Prod.
Albany State University said in a release today that its traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program is currently on conditional approval from the Georgia State Board of Nursing. It went on conditional approval when the four-year average pass rate for the NCLEX-RN, the required licensing exam following the receipt of a nursing degree, fell below an 80 percent pass rate. The 2013-2016 average pass rate for the traditional nursing BSN is 76.89 percent.
www.dailycallernewsfoundation.org
Prof Receives Over $200,000 To Study Microaggressions
http://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2017/05/16/prof-receives-over-200000-to-study-microaggressions/
Rob Shimshock
The National Science Foundation awarded a professor over $200,000 to research microaggressions. Specifically, her research seeks to identify how microagressions keep racial minorities from comprising a larger chunk of science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs, and it seeks ways to improve minority representation in these fields. Mary Atwater, a science and mathematics education professor at the University of Georgia, received $229,061 to study microaggressions and their implications, according to a statement the university released Monday. “This grant can have an impact on the number of African-American and Latino/a faculty members we have in science education,” said Atwater in the university’s statement.
www.insidehighered.com
The Future of the College Presidency
Citing a shrinking talent pool and a retirement boom, a panel of campus leaders convened by the Aspen Institute lays out what the changing job requires and who might fill it.
By Ashley A. Smith
The number of college presidents announcing their retirements has only picked up steam in recent years as the average age of institutional leaders continues to increase. And many of these presidents are concerned about the future of their positions.
So the Aspen Institute, along with a task force of 35 college and university leaders it assembled, is releasing a report today that details the challenges college presidents face and what will be required for the next generation of leaders to succeed.
Colleges and universities are facing growing pressure to help people reach their own opportunities to get ahead in life and to improve the nation’s economy, but there hasn’t been enough attention paid to improving the leaders at these institutions, said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. Aspen also operates a presidential fellowship program to prepare people who have recently been appointed as, or aspire to be, a community college president. …Each of the 35 presidents was interviewed separately and in groups over 18 months, and they come from a mix of rural, suburban and urban community colleges and liberal arts, regional and research universities. …The 35 members of the task force are: …Mark Becker, president, Georgia State University
See also:
www.chronicle.com
What Should a College President Do in Year One?
www.ajc.com
Police investigate alleged drug scandal within UGA tennis program
Chip Towers DawgNation
University of Georgia police confirmed Tuesday morning they are actively investigating a case in which prescription drugs are alleged to have been stolen and/or mishandled by persons associated with Georgia’s nationally-renown tennis programs. No names were included in a preliminary incident report, which was released to DawgNation.com in response to an open records request for information about the recent suspensions of two assistant tennis coaches. Bo Hodge, associate head coach of the men’s tennis team, and Drake Bernstein, associate head coach for the women’s team, are each under suspension while their respective teams compete in the NCAA tennis tournament.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
UGA wrestles over whether ‘campus carry’ law covers football tailgating
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/05/16/tailgating-guns/
Greg Bluestein
Here’s a big question about Georgia’s new campus gun law that remains unanswered: Does a provision that bans weapons from “buildings or property used for athletic sporting events” also include parking lots used for tailgating outside stadiums? The Telegraph of Macon reports that the University of Georgia, home to tens of thousands of tailgating fans on many fall Saturdays, is still wrestling with that question.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
Federal Lawmakers Begin New Push for Student-Outcomes Data
by Adam Harris
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is starting a push to repeal the federal ban on tracking the educational and employment outcomes of college students, Politico reports. The prohibition was enacted as part of the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Four senators — Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah; Elizabeth A. Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts; Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana; and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island — are spearheading the effort. The legislation they plan to propose would allow the federal government, families, and prospective students to glean more “accurate and complete data” about students at a particular college or in a certain major, whether they graduate on time, and what kinds of jobs they land upon graduation, among other things, according to Politico. “The College Transparency Act will patch up the big gaps in college data transparency and finally provide students, families, and policy makers with an accurate picture of how colleges are serving today’s students,” Ms. Warren said in a news release announcing the effort.
www.chronicle.com
AAUP Rebukes College for Firing Professor Who Called Armed Student a Threat
By Peter Schmidt
Spalding University wrongly fired a tenured professor who had complained of inadequate protection from a student who brought a gun to the campus, concludes a report released on Tuesday by the American Association of University Professors. For their part, officials of Spalding, a private university in Louisville, Ky., have told the AAUP that its investigative report is “replete with misstatements, half truths, and inexact facts,” and is based partly on student information that should have remained confidential under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. In February 2016 a female student brought a gun in a car to a campus parking lot, showed it to another student, and said in angry terms that she was tired of “these people” bothering her, the report says. Believing that the comment referred to faculty members and others in the university’s social-work program, the fellow student alerted Spalding authorities. The report says the gun incident involved a white student with “a history of making inflammatory and racially charged comments in class,” and using racial epithets. In an interview, Tori Murden McClure, Spalding’s president, accused the professor at the center of the report of having long been biased against the student involved in the gun incident. Erlene Grise-Owens, a professor of social work, discouraged the student academically before stigmatizing her as a security threat, Ms. McClure said. State law gave the student the right to have the gun in her car on the campus, Ms. McClure said.
www.usatoday.com
Survey: Just 1 in 4 say our higher ed system functioning as it should
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/05/11/survey-higher-education-system/101523096/
Greg Toppo , USATODAY
Looking for another thing that Americans are sour about these days? How about college? A new survey of American adults finds that we are deeply split about the USA’s higher education system and increasingly frustrated with the costs. While most of us still believe a college degree makes it more likely that a young person will be successful, only one in four of us believe that our higher education system is functioning as it should.
www.hechingerreport.org
They still value a degree, but Americans increasingly question the cost
Fifty-eight percent in new poll think colleges put their own interests ahead of students’
http://hechingerreport.org/still-value-degree-americans-increasingly-question-cost/
by JON MARCUS
Three-quarters of Americans think it’s easier to succeed in life with a college degree than without one, but only 43 percent say private, nonprofit universities and colleges are worth the cost, according to a new poll. Fifty-eight percent say colleges and universities put their own interests ahead of those of students, and only one in four believe the higher-education system is working well, the survey, commissioned by the foundation New America, found. It’s the latest in a series of reports suggesting public approval of colleges is foundering. Nearly half of people surveyed last year by Public Agenda said higher education is no longer necessarily a good investment. A Gallup poll found that about the same proportion of university and college graduates were less than certain their degrees were worth the money.
www.diverseeducation.com
House Democrats to Seek Increase in Pell Grant
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim and Ya-Marie Sesay
House Democrats on Monday said they plan to seek an increase in the Pell Grant to make college more affordable but conceded the increase would only be by a couple hundred dollars. The plan is part of a new “Aim Higher” legislative campaign that touches on broad issues of access, affordability and completion, although lawmakers offered few details about the specific policy solutions they intend to introduce. U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) said the Pell grant increase and other measures they expected to seek to increase access, affordability and completion are “a matter or priority.”
www.insidehighered.com
Discounting Keeps Climbing
The average first-time, full-time tuition discount rate edged even closer to 50 percent in 2016-17 as net tuition revenue and enrollment struggled.
By Rick Seltzer
Tuition discounting at private colleges and universities is up again. Tuition revenue is straining to keep up. And enrollment is weak. Those are the top takeaways from the 2016 Tuition Discounting Study from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The latest version of the annual study, which was released today, provides a look at how much colleges and universities are awarding students in scholarships and grants — and how much they are effectively undercutting their own tuition and fee sticker prices. It also offers a glimpse at how such tuition discounts affect other key measures of college and university financial health.
www.insidehighered.com
Words Fly on Free Speech Bill
Critics of proposed legislation to ensure First Amendment rights at Wisconsin public universities say it could backfire and limit expression. Requirement for political neutrality alarms professors and administrators alike.
By Colleen Flaherty
Numerous states are considering legislation designed to ensure free speech on college campuses, following violent protests over speakers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Middlebury College. Some of the bills would, controversially, mandate punishing students who disrupt campus speakers and require institutions to keep mum on political issues — and perhaps nowhere has the debate been as contentious as in Wisconsin. Republican lawmakers who support a bill there say it would ensure all views may be heard across public universities. Those opposed question the proposal’s scope and see it as one more legislative incursion into academic life. That’s following last session’s gutting of legal protections for tenure in Wisconsin. …The university system hasn’t opposed or supported the bill publicly, and a system spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment. During the hearing, Jessica Tormey, chief of staff for System President Ray Cross, reportedly called Republicans’ criticism that too few conservative speakers have been invited to speak on campus “legitimate.” …Officially, Gow said, La Crosse hasn’t taken a position on the proposed legislation because it’s never had an incident like the ones at Berkeley or Middlebury. In 10 years on campus, he added, “I’ve witnessed many demonstrations and protest speeches, and I’ve never seen anyone shut down by counter demonstrators.” The current policy is to have university police present at public events where there may be “controversy and conflict, but our police only would intervene if actual physical violence were to occur,” he said, but, thankfully, “they’ve never had to intervene. We think our current policy provides a good defense of free speech on our campus.” He also praised a new free speech law in Tennessee that’s been lauded by FIRE and other groups for strengthening the First Amendment on campuses without requiring punishments for disrupters.