University System News:
www.albanyherald.com
Sumter EMC awards GSW Foundation $5,000 grant
Grant money will provide two scholarships for GSW students
From Staff Reports
AMERICUS — The Georgia Southwestern Foundation was recently awarded a grant in the amount of $5,000 from the Sumter Electric Membership Corporation Foundation Inc. to establish an annual scholarship fund for students. Two worthy students at Georgia Southwestern State will be recipients of this new scholarship this fall semester. The students should reside in the Sumter EMC service area and have achieved junior or senior status in the area of science, education, nursing, business or accounting. …Through fundraising and management of assets and gift accounts, the GSW Foundation provides resources to Georgia Southwestern State University.
www.ajc.com
Transgender UGA employee sues over “discriminatory” health care benefits policy
By Eric Stirgus
A University of Georgia employee who appeared on a recent episode of a Netflix reality show is suing his employer, the University System of Georgia, the university’s healthcare providers and administrators over health care guidelines he believes are discriminatory to him and other transgender workers. Skyler Jay, identified in his legal complaint as Skyler Musgrove, said he was denied reimbursement for a May 2017 surgery to treat gender dysphoria, described by medical organizations as a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which the person identifies. Skyler appealed the denial, but said his health insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, refused his appeal because the plan is self-insured and had “no flexibility” to override the plan exclusion. Skyler said University System of Georgia (USG) leaders denied his request to discuss the dispute.
www.rheaheraldnews.com
A.G. blasts campus anti-free speech efforts
http://www.rheaheraldnews.com/news/article_84d9e8dc-17c4-5d19-9837-4bd7f2342e94.html
By TN News Service
WASHINGTON – U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Session Tuesday sharply criticized colleges and universities, saying “nowhere has there been more arbitrary and capricious restrictions on free speech than in supposedly educational institutions.” “Rather than molding a generation of mature and well-informed adults,” Sessions said, “some schools are doing everything they can to create a generation of sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes.” Sessions said the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education surveyed 450 colleges and universities across the country and found that 40 percent maintain speech codes that substantially infringe on constitutionally protected speech. Of the public colleges surveyed—which are legally bound by the First Amendment—fully one-third had written policies banning disfavored speech. …Sessions said that Georgia Gwinnett College allegedly limited free speech to just 0.0015 percent of campus—and even there students couldn’t speak freely. “Students had to get permission from campus officials in advance; they could only use the free speech zone at a specified date and time, and they could not say things that might ‘disturb the…comfort of person(s).’ “Under a system like that, anybody can stop anybody else from speaking their mind merely by acting offended. It doesn’t matter how reasonable, how peaceable, or how true their speech may be—if somebody doesn’t like it, then it’s forbidden,” Sessions said. “That is the exact opposite of what the First Amendment demands.”
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
How Republican and Democratic Wish Lists on Higher Education Stack Up
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-RepublicanDemocratic/244007?cid=wcontentlist_hp_latest
By Teghan Simonton
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday introduced their proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the main legislation governing federal higher-education policy. Their bill, called the Aim Higher Act, presents a stark contrast to the Republican alternative, the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity Through Education Reform Act, or the Prosper Act, which was unveiled last year and currently awaits action on the House floor. Legislators in both parties agree that the higher-education system is flawed. Access to affordable four-year degrees is limited, and students struggle with loan debt. The two bills suggest changes in several of the same programs, including simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, holding colleges accountable to their goals and their students’ educational outcomes, and enhancing access for more financially vulnerable students. But how the bills would go about making those changes differs greatly. Neither party’s proposal is likely to become law, especially in an election year with many higher legislative priorities, so the long-delayed reauthorization of the law might be years away. Here’s how the two parties’ wish lists stack up, based on their respective bill summaries.