University System News:
www.ajc.com
Fundraising campaign begins for Zell Miller Foundation
Current and past HOPE scholarship recipients urged to give
By Eric Stirgus
Current and former HOPE Scholarship recipients are being encouraged to give $25 to an organization named after the man who started the scholarship a quarter-century ago. The Miller Leadership Academy Class of 2018 on Monday launched a fundraising campaign for the Zell Miller Foundation in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the start of the Georgia Lottery, which funds the HOPE Scholarship. The lottery began selling tickets on June 29, 1993. The HOPE Scholarship, spearheaded by then Gov. Zell Miller, pays much of the cost of tuition for academically-eligible Georgians to attend colleges and universities in the state. “Zell Miller embodied ‘servant leadership’ in our state. HOPE scholarship empowered my family, and I am truly honored to contribute to this campaign in appreciation of Gov. Miller’s hard work for the future generations of Georgians,” Kathleen Bennett, member of the 2018 Miller Leadership Academy Class and former HOPE recipient, said in a news release.
www.mdjonline.com
Court: USG can release records in KSU case
Staff reports
The Supreme Court of Georgia has decided in favor of Kennesaw State University’s governing body in a case centered on the release of information via the state’s open records act. A firm that contracted with KSU to produce research had wanted to keep its correspondence concerning the research confidential. However, Georgia’s high court on Monday said the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia could release the information. The court unanimously ruled that the material could be released by the Board of Regents even though exemptions in the Georgia Open Records Act would have allowed it to withhold the information. The genesis of the case was a November 2013 consulting agreement between the Consumer Credit Research Foundation and the Kennesaw State University Research and Service Foundation, which led to a KSU professor’s research about the effect of “payday” loans on the financial health of consumers.
See also:
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Supreme Court sides with consumer watchdog group in open records case
www.wtol.com
WTOC Investigates: Board of Regents reports detail former SSU Police Chief’s alleged misconduct
By Amanda LaBrot, Anchor/Reporter
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – More than three months after three female officers accused former Savannah State University Police Cheif James Barnwell of sexual misconduct, investigative reports from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia detail exactly what those women say happened. “There was touching,” said Pierre Ifill, an attorney representing one of the accusers. “There were suggestive sexual encounters.” The Board of Regents started its investigation into whether their allegations against Barnwell violated Savannah State University’s sexual harassment policy in March. SSU placed Barnwell on paid administrative leave the same month. The university announced in May he was no longer serving as chief after a Board of Regents investigator found evidence to support he violated SSU’s sexual harassment policy. The alleged encounters often happened while Barnwell and the accusers were in uniform or at the police department on campus, according to the investigative reports.
www.wgauradio.com
UGA TOPS STATE RANKINGS
https://www.wgauradio.com/news/local/uga-tops-state-rankings/VBmapegcKb7wkyCkacu7aI/
By: Tim Bryant
The website Schools dot com says the University of Georgia is the top four-year institution of higher learning in the state. …The top five: UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia College and State University, Georgia Southern, and the University of North Georgia.
www.bizjournals.com
State hiring designer for $12M Georgia Tech ‘Eco-Commons’ project
By David Allison – Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The state of Georgia is preparing to hire a designer for Georgia Tech’s $12 million Eco-Commons permanent open space on its campus. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia on Monday posted a request-for-qualifications and request-for-proposals for the project, which will offer a design professional fee of approximately $950,000. The total construction cost is estimated at $12,232,668. The overall Eco-Commons concept encompasses approximately 80 acres within the 400 acre Georgia Tech campus. The portion of the Eco-Commons included in this project consists of approximately 8 acres.
www.bizjournals.com
State of Georgia to hire construction managers for four university projects totaling $104M
By David Allison – Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The state of Georgia says it’s about to seek bids from construction management firms for four big university projects with a combined value of more than $104 million. The Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission said Monday it plans to hire construction management firms for Georgia State University’s planned Convocation Center, a $61 million project; the University of West Georgia’s new College of Business building, a $17.6 million project; Georgia College and State University’s integrated science complex, a $16.8 million project; and Middle Georgia State University’s Academic & Student Success building renovation, a $9.1 million project. …Separately, the state said it also plans to advertise for a construction manager for a nearly $13 million project at the University of North Georgia.
www.albanyherald.com
UGA School of Law opens Veterans Legal Clinic
Georgia has ninth-largest U.S. veteran population
From Staff Reports
ATHENS – Beginning this month, veterans living in Georgia can receive legal assistance they may not otherwise have access to or be able to afford through the University of Georgia School of Law’s new Veterans Legal Clinic. Georgia has the ninth-largest population of veterans in the United States, many of whom return home with service-related disabilities and therefore rely on benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to 30-plus-year public service lawyer and educator Alexander W. “Alex” Scherr, who will direct the clinic’s operations. “Law students will work directly with veterans and their dependents to ensure access to both benefits and services, especially for those with mental or physical disabilities resulting from their time in the military,” he said. “No veteran should be denied benefits simply because they cannot afford legal assistance. …The school announced it would open the Veterans Legal Clinic last year after receiving initial funding from renowned trial attorney and 1977 law school alumnus James E. “Jim” Butler Jr. in memory of his father, Lt. Cmdr. James E. Butler Sr., who was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. The elder Butler was also the grandfather of James E. “Jeb” Butler III, a 2008 graduate of the law school.
www.myajc.com
Best way to aid underrepresented students not so clear cut
By Eric Stirgus – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
…Many education leaders on the K-12 level and in higher education have grappled with finding the right formula to provide access to more historically underrepresented students in high-caliber high schools and colleges. I thought about this dilemma as I recently reported on an article about the ongoing effort of several top-flight Georgia universities, such as Emory, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, to improve enrollment rates for another group of underrepresented students: those from rural communities. About 5 percent of Georgia Tech’s undergraduate students come from what it considers rural Georgia counties. Emory is at 8 percent. UGA is at 15 percent. Georgia Tech is trying to boost the percentage by offering automatic admissions to valedictorians and salutatorians from each Georgia high school, an initiative it started last year. The effort has made some headway, Tech officials say. However, in about one-quarter of all Georgia counties Georgia Tech did not get a single application from a student. “It’s incumbent on us to recruit students from that area,” said Rick Clark, Georgia Tech’s director of undergraduate admissions, citing data he’s seen that show rural students are more likely to return to their communities upon graduation.Georgia Tech started a similar program a few years earlier with Atlanta’s public school system. Clark said it’s resulted in more applications and more APS students enrolled at Georgia Tech.
www.walb.com
ASU students receive prominent internship and research opportunities
By Asia Wilson, Reporter
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Honor students from Albany State University will further their education this summer while becoming world leaders across the country at leading research universities and businesses. Sixteen Velma Fudge Grant Honors Programs students will research at UCLA, Duke University, Carnegie Mellon, and more. The summer research and internship opportunities will prepare students for advancement in graduate-level programs, enhance their resumes, and get them one step closer to landing a job after graduation.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
College student named first recipient of Georgia Natural Resources Foundation scholarship
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Clayton Davis gets to spend 10 weeks this summer working in his dream job. Davis, a rising senior at College of Coastal Georgia, has been named the recipient of the first Georgia Natural Resources Foundation Scholarship, which supports a student selected for an internship at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division. The Georgia Natural Resources Foundation is a charitable organization that supports the preservation of Georgia’s natural and cultural resources through the projects, activities and programs of the Georgia DNR. …Davis, a biology major with a concentration in coastal ecology, hopes to work as a coastal resource manager for Georgia DNR.
Higher Education News:
www.washingtonpost.com
Now that the University of Chicago dropped its testing requirement for applicants, will other elite colleges follow?
By Jeffrey J. Selingo
… That confusion among applicants is likely to grow with the announcement Thursday by the University of Chicago that it will no longer require SAT or ACT scores to admit American students. By doing so, Chicago became the most selective institution so far to go test-optional … Standardized test scores “are not as much of a signal as they were before,” Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admission at Georgia Tech, told me in an interview recently. “There’s a lot of noise surrounding them.” For instance, Clark noted that the average SAT score of last year’s applicant pool at Georgia Tech was on par with the students who were actually accepted to the university a decade ago … As a result, like other top universities, Georgia Tech is increasingly considering other factors in making admissions decisions. Rather than just looking at high school grades, Clark said, “we’re now looking at actual course selection” to see how an applicants’ classes line up with their intended majors.
www.chronicle.com
An Ultra-Selective University Just Dropped the ACT/SAT. So What?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Ultra-Selective-University/243678
By Eric Hoover
…On Thursday, the University of Chicago announced that it would no longer require the ACT/SAT for admission, becoming the most-selective institution ever to adopt a test-optional policy. With that, the South Side campus caused an admissions-obsessed planet to wobble. Several deans and college counselors predict that the move will soon prompt other high-profile colleges to abandon their testing requirements. At the very least, the national conversation about testing has changed, probably for good. As The Washington Post first reported, Chicago has unveiled a broad initiative to increase access for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students. Dropping its testing requirement for all domestic applicants is just one part of the plan (those who don’t submit scores will still be eligible for the university’s merit scholarships, officials say). …Before anyone gets carried away, though, it’s worth keeping a few things in mind. The first is that ACT and SAT, long fixtures of the admissions process, aren’t about to vanish just because one big-name private college made a bold move. As the ACT and College Board noted in written statements on Thursday, more students than ever before are taking the two exams. Also, the vast majority of all applications to four-year colleges go to campuses that require the ACT/SAT. And many colleges still require incoming students to submit test scores for various purposes besides admission. In an email, a College Board spokesman noted widespread concerns about high-school grade inflation, including how the phenomenon might affect lower-income students, and also touted its free “personalized practice” program. … By all means, even an apparently well-intentioned testing policy doesn’t guarantee a particular outcome, which some research seems to affirm. In 2015, for instance, researchers at the University of Georgia published a report concluding that selective liberal-arts colleges that had adopted test-optional policies hadn’t increased their enrollment of underrepresented minority or Pell-eligible students. And who could forget one college president’s harshly worded claim that test-optional policies are merely a superficial ploy for status in the “admissions arms race”?