University System News:
www.ajc.com
Kennesaw State University has new president
By Eric Stirgus
Georgia’s Board of Regents voted unanimously Tuesday appoint Pamela Whitten the new president of Kennesaw State University. Whitten had been provost and senior vice president of academic affairs of the University of Georgia since 2014. She will start her new position on July 16. Her salary will be negotiated with University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley, who congratulated Whitten in a statement. Whitten said she was excited about her new job.
www.mdjonline.com
Whitten appointed president of KSU in unanimous vote
Staff reports
Pamela Whitten is the new president of Kennesaw State University. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia unanimously approved Whitten’s appointment at its meeting Tuesday morning. Whitten will leave her post as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia to take over at KSU. She was named the sole finalist for the KSU president position last week. Whitten will take over the president’s office from Ken Harmon, KSU’s former provost who had been serving as interim president since February.
www.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
It’s official: Pamela Whitten is Kennesaw State University president
As the sole finalist, there was no doubt Pamela Whitten would be approved as president of Kennesaw State University Today, the Board of Regents made it official. Whitten will start her new job on July 16.
Here is background from the Regents:
www.ajc.com
Board to vote Tuesday on Kennesaw State presidential finalist
By Eric Stirgus
Pamela Whitten could be president of Kennesaw State University as soon as Tuesday. The Georgia Board of Regents has scheduled a meeting Tuesday morning to vote on whether to make Whitten, the University of Georgia’s provost, KSU’s president. The board announced last Tuesday that Whitten is the finalist for the KSU position. Veteran KSU faculty member and administrator Ken Harmon has been KSU’s interim president since February, when former Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens resigned from the position after 16 months on the job.
www.mdjonline.com
Vote on KSU president expected Tuesday
Ricky Leroux
A vote to appoint the University of Georgia’s provost as Kennesaw State University’s new president is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning. Pamela Whitten, who also serves as UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs, was named the sole finalist for the KSU president position last week. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has scheduled a meeting at 11 a.m. Tuesday to vote on Whitten’s appointment, Charlie Sutlive, the USG’s vice chancellor for communications and governmental affairs, confirmed on Monday.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
CCGA ranked among nation’s most affordable small colleges
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Student Loan Hero, an organization that aims to help college students manage and eliminate loan debt, recently ranked College of Coastal Georgia as the ninth most affordable small college in the nation. CCGA was the only college in Georgia on the ranking list, which included 20 colleges. CCGA also offered the lowest tuition and fees of any college on the list among the schools that charge out-of-pocket tuition. “While the experience at a small college has a lot of offer, it can come at a price,” according to Student Loan Hero’s ranking. “With fewer students paying tuition, small colleges often have higher prices per student.” The organization researches and tracks developments in colleges costs, student loan debt and its impacts.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
County bus route offers more options to GGC, Gwinnett Tech students
By Trevor McNaboe
Traveling around campus will be easier for students at Georgia Gwinnett College and Gwinnett Technical College following the announcement of a bus route taking students to and from campus. According to a map released by Gwinnett County Transit, Route 45 will have stops that include Gwinnett Medical Center, GGC, Lakes Parkway and Sugarloaf Mills Mall. County transit buses will follow an organized hourly route beginning at 5:50 a.m. at Gwinnett Medical Center Monday through Friday. The route will stop at GGC every hour at 13 minutes past the hour…
www.ajc.com
Judge dismisses campus speech lawsuit against Georgia college
Court rules college has resolved issues that sparked the lawsuit
By Eric Stirgus
A federal court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by two students against Georgia Gwinnett College, saying the school has resolved the main issues that sparked the legal challenge. Chike Uzuegbunam filed the lawsuit against the college in December 2016 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, arguing his free speech rights were violated. Uzuegbunam said a college official told him he couldn’t distribute fliers sharing his Christian faith where he was standing on campus. The college had two “free speech expression areas,” which his attorneys described as “tiny.” Another student, Joseph Bradford, who also wanted to preach on campus, joined the case as a plaintiff. … The judge, Eleanor L. Ross, agreed with the college’s motion to dismiss, noting it has since changed its campus speech policy to make it easier for students, guest speakers and organizations to speak on campus.
See also:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Federal court judge dismisses free speech lawsuit against Georgia Gwinnett College
www.politics.myajc.com
Feds approve record funding for Savannah harbor deepening
By Tamar Hallerman and J. Scott Trubey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WASHINGTON — A key federal agency on Monday announced plans to set aside a record amount of funding for the Savannah harbor deepening project following an intense lobbying campaign by the state and its allies. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it plans to spend nearly $35 million on the roughly $1 billion project in its 2018 budget work plan. That’s in addition to the $50 million Congress had carved out for Savannah in its March government spending package, on its own a high water mark for one of Georgia’s top economic development projects. The total amount allocated still falls short of the roughly $100 million advocates were initially pushing for this budget cycle. But still, the Georgia Ports Authority and the state’s congressional delegation celebrated the news and said it was enough to keep the project “on track.” “It speaks volumes,” said Griff Lynch, the executive director of the Ports Authority. The White House and corps “view this project as extremely critical to the nation and they’ve acted accordingly with the money.” Georgia’s inland and coastal ports are vital cogs in the state’s economy. A study released in March by the University of Georgia found that maritime trade accounts for $44 billion of the state’s gross domestic product and the ports directly or indirectly touch more than 439,000 jobs.
www.todaysveterinarybusiness.com
Zoetis donates $200,000 for heartworm research
Three research teams will work to identify new preventive strategies.
University researchers studying heartworm disease will share $200,000 in grants from drug maker Zoetis Inc. The awards are intended to help improve understanding of the fundamentals of heartworm disease and explore potential novel interventions to help prevent it, Zoetis reported June 7. …The grant recipients are: …Guilherme G. Verocai, DVM, MSc, Ph.D., DACVM, director of the Parasitology Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
FLETC hosts dig for prehistoric fossils
By TAYLOR COOPER
Around 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, Glynn County would have looked a lot more like the area around Metter than the beautiful Golden Isles we know today — if Metter had mammoths, giant tortoises, sloths and saber-toothed cats. Back then, the beach would have been around 50 miles farther away than it is now, and rivers crisscrossed what was likely a heavily wooded region with scattered stretches of open field, said David Patterson, assistant professor at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega. He and a team are looking for signs of animal life from that era during an excavation of areas along the Altamaha Canal on campus at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. “Sea level during this time, the time we’re looking at, the sea level was lower. It was much farther out. Some people have said it was 50 miles farther out back then than it currently is in the Brunswick area. So these types of environments would have been mixed open grassland, forest type environments,” Patterson said.
www.gpbnews.or
Changing Ocean Temperature Affecting Georgia Shrimp
By J. CINDY HILL
World Ocean Day was marked on Friday, June 8, 2018. This month is usually the start of Georgia shrimp season. But shrimp boats from St. Mary’s to Hilton Head are staying docked until the end of this month. An unusually cold spring delayed spawning. Climate change and global warming are also creating problems. Marc Frischer is a professor and marine science researcher at the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. He says ocean warming could affect the shrimp industry in a different way.
Higher Education News:
www.accesswdun.com
GA ranks 11th in public higher education spending
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/6/680521/ga-ranks-11th-in-public-higher-education-spending
By Rebecca Hubbard Reporter/Anchor
The nation’s states spent over $83 billion dollars on public higher education in 2017. That’s an average of $7,600 per full time student according to a study by financial website 24/7 Wall St. Georgia ranked 11th on the list with an average spending of a little over $8,500 per student.
- Georgia
Annual public higher ed. spending per student: $8,550
2017 public college enrollment: 347,479
# of state colleges + universities: 53 (10th most)
Tuition revenue per student: $5,178 (9th lowest)
Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 30.5% (23rd highest)
www.bizjournals.com
Study: Georgia has nation’s 9th best economy
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/06/11/study-georgia-has-nation-s-9th-best-economy.html
By Crystal Edmonson – Broadcast Editor
The nation’s economic health depends, in part, on how well each state is doing. A study by the personal finance website WalletHub ranks Georgia as the ninth top-performing state in the country. To determine which states are pulling the most weight, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 key indicators of economic performance and strength. Georgia beat out some of its economic rivals, including Texas, North Carolina and Virginia.The Peach State scored well (No. 7) for the share of fast-growing firms, (No. 8) for GDP growth and (No. 10) for startup activity in the state.