University System News:
www.albanyherald.com
USG Chancellor, ASU president speak to Rotary Club
Marion Fedrick says Albany State’s current enrollment exceeds 5,700
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/local/usg-chancellor-asu-president-speak-to-rotary-club/article_d6180ead-5b5f-5842-9938-2e5561f84edd.html
By Terry Lewis
University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley and Albany State University interim President Marion Fedrick were guests of the Albany Rotary Club Tuesday, offering a first-hand look at the progress being made in revitalization efforts at ASU. “While I have worked with ASU in the past, I am now on the ground,” Fedrick, who is also the USG’s vice chancellor for human resources, said. “I have a really big heart when it comes to ASU and want to make sure it is successful.” Fedrick assumed the role of interim president shortly after former President Art Dunning announced his retirement late last year. “When we came down in October, we wanted to make sure as Dr. Dunning was transitioning that we had a really good plan in place for academics so it could grow,” Fedrick told members of the civic club. “We wanted to redesign our academic curriculum like we are doing right now as well as becoming involved in student affairs and engagement. It’s been a challenge, but it’s something we have really focused on. We’ve spent the last six months really working with our students. “We’re also looking at our internal operations. We’re looking at how we get from recruitment to enrollment to financial aid and how we get that all under one umbrella, and making sure that we are doing it really well.” Fedrick added that she and her staff are simply looking for ways to get better.

www.walb.com
Interim ASU president gives university update to Rotarians
http://www.walb.com/story/37872328/interim-asu-president-gives-university-update-to-rotarians
By Amanda Hoskins, Reporter
The Board of Regents for the University Systems of Georgia is continuing to focus on improving higher education in Albany. On Tuesday Chancellor Steve Wrigley paid a visit to the good life city, where he and Interim Albany State University President Marion Fedrick spoke with members of the Albany and Dougherty Rotary clubs. Wrigley said the board of regents has three main goals: to graduate more students, make colleges and universities more affordable and make them more efficient. Wrigley said those goals apply to Albany State University as well. He explained that changes to the ASU curriculum to better focus on the industry needs of Southwest Georgia are on the horizon. Wrigley also said the Board of Regents is working to encourage students to enroll in broad majors. “Pick a broad area and take classes in that right away. We find over time, students have more success and they are more likely to graduate,” explained Wrigley. Chancellor Wrigley said he feels good about the progress being made by Interim President Marion Fedrick at ASU. She’s now held the position as president for two months.

www.tiftonceo.com
Destination Ag Jump Starts Careers for Ag Education Majors at ABAC
http://tiftonceo.com/news/2018/04/destination-ag-jump-starts-careers-ag-education-majors-abac/?utm_source=Tifton+CEO&utm_campaign=48d04ffa79-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b977a0f8f6-48d04ffa79-303871653
Staff Report From Tifton CEO
Destination Ag provides agricultural education majors at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College the opportunity to experience teaching before they reach the curriculum required student-teaching semester. A dynamic program at ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture which connects agriculture to the daily lives of elementary school students, Destination Ag involves ABAC students in mentoring roles for children attending the field trips. ABAC students serve as the instructors to develop and teach the Destination Ag lessons. Programming includes fun, hands-on lessons focused on a variety of agricultural and natural resource topics. Destination Ag hired nine student instructors this spring, six are agricultural education majors. The program provides vital experience for all its student instructors but especially for agricultural education majors as it helps to jump start their careers.

www.thecollegefix.com
University encourages women, minorities to apply for fellowship honoring white male

University offers research fellowship devoted to studying famous psychic

Michael Jones
The University of West Georgia has opened applications up for its inaugural Ingo Swann Research Fellowship, encouraging women, minorities and people with disabilities to apply for the scholarship named after Swann, a white male who famously pioneered “remote viewing.” “Applications from women, minorities, and persons with disabilities are encouraged,” the university website page for the fellowship states under the eligibility section. This type of job posting language has become more and more frequent as universities try to meet diversity quotas and goals.

www.thegeorgeanne.com
GS graphic design students win design awards
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/camayak-content/article_a5c6f173-7e5f-5d8d-bcd7-517726a6a4f3.html
by Tara Bailey The George-Anne contributor
Georgia Southern University graphic design students won silver and gold awards at the American Advertising Awards or ADDYs from the American Advertising Federation of Augusta, Georgia. Abigail Hutchins and Macintyre Pullen both won a gold ADDY in the Cross Platform Integrated Brand Identity Campaign category for their branding for R&R Chicken. R&R Chicken is a business located in Blackshear, Georgia, and it is owned by Robin and Rick Heavilon. They created the branding for the restaurant’s BBQ sauces to be sold in stores.

www.educationnext.org
EdStat: Georgia Tech’s Online Master’s Degree Program in Computer Science Costs About $7,000

EdStat: Georgia Tech’s Online Master’s Degree Program in Computer Science Costs About $7,000

In 2014, Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, which is regularly ranked in the top 10 in the United States, started enrolling students in a fully online version of its Master of Science in Computer Science degree—the earliest educational model to combine the inexpensive nature of online education with a degree program from a highly ranked institution. The online degree costs about $7,000, less than one-sixth of the $45,000 that out-of-state students pay to enroll in the same program in person. The classes were designed by faculty to mirror the in-person courses, are graded to the same standards, and lead to the identical degree without any “online” distinction. It is now the nation’s largest master’s-degree program in computer science. Read “An Elite Grad-School Degree Goes Online” to learn more about how the Georgia Tech program meets a need in the higher-education marketplace, or listen to author Joshua Goodman discuss his findings on the Education Exchange podcast.

www.themercury.com
Georgia Tech president receiving honorary doctorate from K-State
http://themercury.com/georgia-tech-president-receiving-honorary-doctorate-from-k-state/article_f4a6c77f-2ce7-5212-8975-5043a508f56c.html
A Kansas State University alumnus who has an active role in helping establish the national research and education agendas will be the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the university. G.P. “Bud” Peterson, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, will receive the honor at commencement for Kansas State University’s Graduate School at 1 p.m. Friday, May 11, in Bramlage Coliseum. Peterson also will present the commencement address at the ceremony. The awarding of the honorary doctorate follows approval by the Kansas Board of Regents and is the highest honor the university can give.

www.gainesvilletimes.com
UNG’s Dahlonega campus wants Chestatee Regional property
https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/ung-dahlonega-wants-chestatee-regional-property/
Nick Bowman
Chestatee Regional Hospital could become home to several medical programs of University of North Georgia in the coming years. Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health System announced on Friday, March 30, that it was moving to buy the property in Dahlonega this year. The hospital’s current owners bought it for $15 million in 2016, and the Friday announcement revealed the two groups had reached a conditional agreement to sell the Dahlonega hospital. …The system’s plans for Lumpkin County “will include evaluating the possibility of a newly constructed facility on that property,” said Louis Smith, president of acute and post-acute operations for NGHS, in the Friday announcement. But that leaves Chestatee Regional Hospital near downtown Dahlonega available — and it’s less than a mile from the edge of the UNG Dahlonega campus. It’s no surprise then that UNG is looking to get into the hospital. “We do have interest in that. We have large demand for our health care education programs,” said Kate Maine, chief of staff at UNG Dahlonega. “We have nursing, physical therapy and counseling programs at the Dahlonega campus.” The popular programs have a limited amount of space in the historic North Georgia university campus — an opportunity presented by the Chestatee Regional sale doesn’t come along often. As a result, state lawmakers added cash into the 2019 budget to allow UNG Dahlonega to purchase the hospital from the Northeast Georgia Health System. The budget still needs to be signed off on by Gov. Nathan Deal and the purchase of the property would need to be approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

www.mdjonline.com
Devereux Georgia and KSU team up to impact young lives from Southeast Asia
http://www.mdjonline.com/news/education/devereux-georgia-and-ksu-team-up-to-impact-young-lives/article_b375c0fe-3791-11e8-b9b0-b73003c87876.html
Staff reports
Through a partnership with Kennesaw State University, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health Georgia recently impacted the lives of more than 20 young adults from Southeast Asia. Devereux Georgia was selected as the local nonprofit to host the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows. This program launched in 2013 as a U.S. government program focused on strengthening leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. YSEALI brings recently graduated students and undergrads to the U.S. for a five week study at a university.

www.myajc.com
Opinion: ‘Campus left’ is not silencing conservatives or indoctrinating students
https://www.myajc.com/blog/get-schooled/opinion-campus-left-not-silencing-conservatives-indoctrinating-students/GCHsjz7vX3xNusswYcU3dL/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Matthew Boedy is an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia and frequent Get Schooled contributor.
In this piece, he discusses conservative Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA. Kirk spoke to about 200 last night at the University of Georgia. Among Kirk’s contentions: Most college campuses are intolerant of conservative beliefs. The organization keeps a watchlist of professors and Boedy is on it. Turning Point is a favorite of the Trumps, but has been the subject of several investigative pieces about its practices and policies.
By Matthew Boedy

www.chronicle.com
New Tensions Erupt Over Georgia’s Handling of Presumed Slave Remains
https://www.chronicle.com/article/New-Tensions-Erupt-Over/243027?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=c2c17ea58e6a4e19bd6a4c15bf50b6a8&elq=186e0a33c3604d6ca5ea13ce06fe2046&elqaid=18461&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8282
By Marc Parry
The University of Georgia is once again embroiled in controversy over its handling of presumed slave remains discovered during a campus construction project. The new tensions, triggered by the Georgia administration’s aggressive response to faculty discontent reported in the local press, are a reminder of the unresolved issues that to continue to bedevil academe’s two-decade-long reckoning with slavery. As The Chronicle Review reported last May, the Georgia controversy blew up after the university announced that most of the remains, which had belonged to a 19th-century burial ground, were of African descent. Faculty members hoped the discovery would lead Georgia to undertake a sustained examination of its historical entanglement with slavery, just as many other universities around the country have done. But the university hastily reburied the remains in secret. Its actions incensed some local African-American leaders. Professors from fields like history and African-American studies, who felt excluded from the decision-making, worried that the university was trying to suppress history. What has brought the situation back into public view is a report that appeared last month in a local newspaper, the Athens Banner-Herald, that described faculty Senate discussions in which professors questioned the ethics of how Georgia dealt with the remains. The university’s spokesman, Greg Trevor, responded by publishing his own opinion piece in the paper. Trevor scolded the Banner-Herald and pushed back against the professors. He named one in particular: Laurie Reitsema, a member of the anthropology department who has studied the remains.

www.myajc.com
Savannah State police chief under sexual misconduct investigation
https://www.myajc.com/news/local-education/savannah-state-police-chief-under-sexual-misconduct-investigation/73ge6ZM3HiOFQWO3SygdhM/
By Eric Stirgus – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The police chief of one of Georgia’s public universities is on paid administrative leave amid allegations he sexually harassed and assaulted female police officers in his department. At least three female officers have accused Savannah State University police Chief James Barnwell of inappropriate behavior. Two of the women filed complaints last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, their attorney, Abda Quillian, said Tuesday. Felicia Spears, an attorney representing the third woman, said Tuesday she plans to file an EEOC complaint. Savannah State placed Barnwell on leave on March 23. The attorneys declined to discuss specific details of the claims against Barnwell, but Quillian did say the chief’s actions against her clients included sexual assault. The conduct occurred for about two years, they said. Barnwell was hired in March 2016. …Savannah State University is investigating the allegations, but declined further comment because it is a personnel matter. Barnwell could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Gov. Nathan Deal tells Blue Cross, Piedmont Healthcare to resume negotiations
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/gov-nathan-deal-tells-blue-cross-piedmont-healthcare-to-resume/article_63075179-110e-5241-a3e0-fde7acf716bc.html
By Curt Yeomans
With nearly 600,000 state employees, retirees and family members hanging in the balance, Gov. Nathan Deal decided Tuesday that Blue Cross Blue Shield and Piedmont Health couldn’t just walk away from each other. The governor’s office said he directed the insurance provider and the medical care provider to resume negotiations to settle their ongoing contract dispute. Blue Cross Blue Shield provides insurance to state employees and retirees and, if the dispute isn’t resolved, those people and their families would find Piedmont hospitals out of their network. The old contract between the insurance company and Piedmont Healthcare expired Saturday night and the two sides have been unable to agree on the terms of a new contract. …Piedmont Healthcare is a major player in Georgia healthcare. It operates 11 hospitals and several more locations, including 21 urgent care centers, 28 Piedmont QuickCare locations, 527 Piedmont Clinic physician practice locations and more than 1,800 Piedmont Clinic members, according to its website. Hence the desire from the governor’s office and the University System of Georgia to see the two sides reach an agreement on a new contract.

www.politics.myajc.com
State will help cover workers’ extra costs in Piedmont-Blue Cross spat
https://politics.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/state-will-help-cover-workers-extra-costs-piedmont-blue-cross-spat/dzQp51GBRTnMzyhcKKpNCK/
By Ariel Hart – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday that for at least 30 days the state would absorb the additional costs its employees with Blue Cross insurance experience from being out of network with Piedmont Healthcare providers. The move affects 600,000 people, including current state employees, retirees and their families who are eligible to use Blue Cross at a Piedmont provider. …The University System of Georgia, whose employees also have Blue Cross as a major option, also stood ready to absorb a month’s worth of costs from the impasse.

Higher Education News:
www.washingtonpost.com
The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don’t have enough to eat
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/03/the-hidden-crisis-on-college-campuses-36-percent-of-students-dont-have-enough-to-eat/?utm_term=.c3b02bbfcebb
By Caitlin Dewey
… According to a first-of-its-kind survey released Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, 36 percent of students on U.S. college campuses do not get enough to eat, and a similar number lack a secure place to live … Researchers blame ballooning college costs, inadequate aid packages and growing enrollment among low-income students — as well as some colleges’ unwillingness to admit they have a hunger problem. College hunger is not a new issue, researchers caution. But it appears to be growing worse, and not merely because college is getting more expensive. “Prices have gone up over time,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy at Temple and the lead author of the report. “But the rising price is just a piece. This is a systemic problem.”

www.nytimes.com
An International Final Four: Which Country Handles Student Debt Best?
In America, college student loan defaults are a really big problem. In Australia? No worries.

By Matthew Chingos and Susan Dynarski
Although an American college degree remains a good investment on average — the higher earnings for most graduates justify the cost — millions of borrowers are in default on their loans. Policy analysts generally agree on a need for reform, but not on which path policymakers should take. Can America learn anything from other nations? We gathered experts with a range of perspectives, from America and abroad, and asked them to compare the systems in Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States.