University System News:
www.tigersroar.com
BREAKING NEWS: SSU rescinds decision to eliminate Africana Studies
http://www.tigersroar.com/news/article_c9094c8a-c678-11e8-b4c9-537104d82f8e.html
Angela Farley
On Tuesday, Oct. 2, Savannah State University officially rescinded an earlier decision to eliminate the Africana Studies department from the curriculum. On Twitter, the university posted the following statement: Effective immediately, Savannah State University has rescinded the decision to deactivate the Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies degree major. On Wednesday, Sept. 26, professors Jamal Toure and Christina Davis informed their students that Savannah State would remove Africana Studies as department at the institution. Students that already have declared Africana Studies as their major or minor would be able to complete requirements to graduate; extended to the Class of 2022.
www.mdjonline.com
AROUND TOWN: The gender-neutral debate: Is it he and she or ne and ve?
IF YOU THOUGHT the Great “Gender-neutral” Pronoun Debate of KSU had died down in Owl country, well, so much for wishful thinking. It continues to broil, most recently by a student group accusing KSU of removing from its website documents that offer alternatives to students who don’t want to be referred to as a he or a she (alternatives include they, ne, ve, ey, ze/hir, ze/ziror and xe), along with directions to where on campus the gender-neutral bathrooms are. Further, KSU’s American Studies Student Organization says the university has removed the university logo from those pamphlets, as if to strip them of their Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. The story was first reported by the campus newspaper, The Sentinel, and has since made its way into the alternative press.
www.albanyherald.com
Nobel nominee to speak in GSW lecture series
Georgia Southwestern alumna Dukureh to give Bell address
From Staff Reports
Jaha Dukureh, a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and GSW alumna, is set to deliver the annual Griffin Bell Convocation and Distinguished Lecture at Georgia Southwestern State University Wednesday at 11 a.m. in GSW’s Convocation Hall. This event is free and open to the public. Earlier this year, Dukureh was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for her work toward ending female genital mutilation and child marriage in The Gambia in West Africa, her home country, and across the world. Dukureh was herself a victim of FGM at just one week old. Her arranged marriage to an unknown older man at age 15 brought her to New York City. After two months, Dukureh was able to leave her husband and continue her education in the U.S., where she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2015. Dukureh earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and management online at GSW in 2013. That same year, she founded the nonprofit organization Safe Hands for Girls, which provides support for survivors of FGM and advocates for an end to FGM practices. She was then part of the movement that successfully banned FGM in The Gambia in 2015, a journey chronicled in the 2017 documentary “Jaha’s Promise.”
www.wgauradio.com
UGA HAS TOP-RANKED INSURANCE PROGRAM
By: David Dodson, UGA
The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business is ranked No. 1 for Risk Management and Insurance by U.S. News & World Report and its familiar Best Colleges guide. U.S. News has ranked specialized fields in business every year since the 1990s, and the Terry College’s Risk Management and Insurance program is perennially ranked as a Top 5 program nationally. The new ranking marked the second time in five years that the Terry College of Business claimed the top spot.
www.tiftonceo.com
David Bridges of ABAC on the School Being Engaged with the Tifton Community
http://tiftonceo.com/video/2018/10/david-bridges-abac-school-being-engaged-tifton-community/
David Bridges, President of ABAC, talks to us about how the school is involved with the Tifton community and the impact it has.
www.albanyherald.com
UGA President Jere Morehead takes part in annual farm tour
UGA, state government officials get up-close look at diversity of Georgia farming
By Clint Thompson
University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead traveled to South Georgia last week to learn more about Georgia’s top industry — agriculture — during his annual Farm Tour. The tour’s stops highlighted the diversity of the agriculture industry, ranging from the Pure Flavor greenhouse complex in Fort Valley to Premium Peanut in Douglas. The 2018 Farm Tour marked the sixth year that Morehead, joined by Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black and members of the Georgia General Assembly, visited farms and connected with the state’s agriculture industry leaders. Each year, the Farm Tour visits a different region of the state to understand the range of challenges and opportunities facing Georgia’s farmers. The annual event provides a critical opportunity to connect the state’s land- and sea-grant institution to Georgia’s communities, businesses and leaders.
www.onlineathens.com
Water Coalition praises UGA prof, water projects
http://www.onlineathens.com/news/20181003/water-coalition-praises-uga-prof-water-projects
By Lee Shearer
Two University of Georgia projects and a UGA professor are among 13 “clean water heroes” honored by the Georgia Water Coalition this year. The coalition named the three as it released its 2018 “Clean 13” report recently, noting people, industries, businesses, nonprofit groups and government agencies such as UGA whose “extraordinary efforts have led to cleaner water in Georgia.” UGA’s honored projects include the partial removal of a dam in the Middle Oconee River near Athens earlier this year, efforts by UGA researchers in South Georgia to encourage farmers to use more efficient irrigation practices, and Jenna Jambeck, whose efforts to reduce ocean plastic pollution have garnered global attention and praise.
www.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Opinion: When faculty put their politics first, students lose
Joseph Watson Jr. is the Carolyn Caudell Tieger Professor of Public Affairs Communications at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
A Harvard Law School graduate, Watson was an appointee in the George W. Bush administration where he led the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s domestic policy office. This is his first guest column for the AJC Get Schooled blog. He takes on a controversial issue — whether the personal politics of faculty members should influence dealings with students. Watson cites the recent case of a University of Michigan professor who rescinded his offer to write a recommendation for a student seeking to study abroad when he realized the program was in Israel. In an email to the student, Michigan professor John Cheney-Lippold said: “As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine. This boycott includes writing letters of recommendation for students planning to study there.”
By Joseph Watson Jr.
The recent news that a University of Michigan professor rescinded a letter of recommendation for a student to study abroad, after learning that it would take place in Israel, underscores the problems that arise when faculty put their personal politics ahead of the interests of students. Quite simply, students lose.
www.savannahnow.com
Savannah’s Memorial hospital no longer part of Blue Cross Blue Shield network
By Katie Nussbaum
As of Oct. 1 the Hospital Corporation of America, which owns Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, is no longer an in-network care provider with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, according to notice posted on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGa) website. The current contract between HCA and BCBSGa expired on Sept. 30 and any claims filed starting Oct. 1, for all care provided by HCA, will be considered out-of-network and reimbursed as out-of-network under the terms of your health plan. …Several major employers in the Savannah area that offer BCBSGa plans include, Chatham County, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, Georgia Southern University and some State of Georgia employees.
www.ajc.com
Former Georgia Tech professor sues officials for “inaccurate” investigation he says destroyed his career
By Eric Stirgus
A former Georgia Tech professor is suing several current and former university officials, accusing them of conducting an “incomplete and inaccurate” investigation that ruined his reputation and resulted in the loss of millions of dollars in potential earnings. The plaintiff, Joy Laskar, was suspended by Georgia Tech and indicted in December 2014 on charges he and others funneled institute funds to a company Laskar owned. Laskar an electrical engineering professor, was the first director of Tech’s Electronic Design Center and secured more than $70 million in grants and research contracts. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney dismissed the charges in October 2016. The defendants “attempted to influence a criminal investigation and criminal prosecutor by knowingly providing false, incomplete and misleading information regarding Plaintiff and his actions,” Laskar’s attorneys wrote in a complaint filed in federal court on Sept. 28.
www.statesboroherald.com
HIV positive man charged with aggravated sexual battery, reckless conduct
A Georgia Southern University student from Macon who, according to police reports, admitted he is HIV positive, faces aggravated sexual battery charges after reportedly exposing another man to the disease.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
A $1-Million Fine for Violating the Clery Act? Expensive, but Not Unprecedented
By Dan Bauman
A fine of nearly $1-million imposed by the U.S. Department of Education against the University of Montana could be the second-largest penalty ever assessed for campus-safety violations under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, known as the Clery Act. Montana officials say they do not dispute the department’s findings that the university failed to comply with Clery Act regulations that require universities to accurately report campus-crime data. The violations include the failure to report at least seven forcible sexual offenses from 2012 to 2015. “While UM anticipated fines, we were surprised by the magnitude given UM’s cooperation in reviewing and updating the statistics,” said the university’s director of communications, Paula Short, in a statement. …Colleges don’t always end up paying their full penalties. They have a variety of means to reverse or reduce the fines imposed on them by the government. …An analysis by Inside Higher Ed in 2014 found that fines imposed on colleges were reduced by more than 25 percent, on average, through appeals or settlements.
www.insidehighered.com
Tackling Poverty to Increase Graduations
A growing number of colleges are trying to help poor students meet their basic needs and remove barriers that keep them from graduating.
By Ashley A. Smith
…Karen Stout, president and chief executive officer of Achieving the Dream, a student success organization, said there is still debate in academic circles over whether colleges should even be responsible for helping students meet basic needs. But she said that viewpoint is changing as more people become aware of the extent of housing and food insecurity among college students. A study released last year by the Urban Institute found about 13 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity in 2015, although other studies indicated the rate may be much higher. There is growing national awareness of the issue, including among policy makers. A group of Democratic senators has asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on the scope of hunger and poverty on college campuses. That study is still ongoing. And a couple of documentary film crews also attended the conference as part of upcoming special reports about college students living in poverty.
www.chronicle.com
International Students’ Graduate Enrollment Is Down, Study Finds. Some Say U.S. Policy Is to Blame.
By Andy Tsubasa Field
Graduate enrollment by international students in the United States has decreased for the second time since 2003, according to an annual report by the Council of Graduate Schools. The report, “Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, 2007 to 2017,” released on Wednesday, shows that first-time graduate enrollment of international students fell 4 percent from 2016 to 2017. After the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from several countries, most of them with Muslim majorities, experts said the policy could be a significant factor in a possible decrease. The decline wasn’t across the board. Universities categorized as “highest research activity” under the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Learning saw a 3-percent increase in international graduate enrollment from 2016 to 2017, said an author of the report, Hironao Okahana. …In terms of total graduate enrollment, moderate-research universities saw a decrease of 7 percent. The number of first-time graduate applications fell, too, by 9 percent — the largest percentage drop — compared with the highest-research universities, which saw just a 0.1-percent decrease.
www.chronicle.com
‘It Would Have Been Catastrophic’: Trump Administration Suggested, Then Shelved, a Plan to Bar All Chinese Students
By Karin Fischer
Reports that the Trump administration had considered, but not carried out, a ban on visas to all Chinese students — far and away the largest group of international students in the United States — sent ripples of alarm across American campuses on Tuesday. Even as educators expressed relief that President Trump had been dissuaded from acting on the visa proposal, they worried it could be a prelude to future policies that could undermine international enrollments or, more broadly, higher education’s global outreach. And they expressed concern that news that such a plan was even debated could poison perceptions abroad about America’s openness to foreign students. According to the Financial Times, the issue came to a head in an Oval Office meeting this spring when immigration hardliners, led by Stephen Miller, a White House aide, pressed for a blanket prohibition on Chinese citizens studying in the United States. While Miller cited the national-security vulnerabilities of universities, the plan was ultimately shot down because of its economic and diplomatic impact, the paper reported.