University System News:
www.ajc.com
Resources for veterans
https://www.ajc.com/news/resources-for-veterans/FtGcykY866OPT9chObIVjN/
By Nancy Badertscher
Who’s doing what to help the Georgia veteran? Here’s a list of some of the resources available to help Georgia veterans.
…The University System of Georgia
The Veterans Resource Center at Georgia Tech http://www.veterans.gatech.edu/ is dedicated to serving students who are veterans, military, reservist, guard members, and dependents by providing comprehensive support services that enhance and complement the academic experience. Visit the center at Tech’s Smithgall Student Services Building, 353 Ferst Drive, Atlanta 30332, Room 150. All University System of Georgia institutions have a dedicated space for student veterans and provide some form of early/priority registration for veterans utilizing VA Educational Benefits. The University System of Georgia enrolls more post-9/11 GI Bill students than any other public “four-year system” in the nation, according to the Veterans Administration. Eight USG institutions have been designated as Centers of Academic Excellence for Cyber Operations by the National Security Agency and Dept of Homeland Security. Here are the eight and their area of focus: Georgia Southern University (forensics); Augusta University (healthcare); Columbus State University (cyber security education); Georgia Tech (cyber security education); Kennesaw State University (cyber security education); Middle Georgia State University (cyber security defense); University of North Georgia (information assurance); and University of Georgia (cyber defense research). Georgia was the only state with two public institutions in the Top 10 of the Military Times Best Colleges 2018 ranking. …University System of Georgia provides support for veterans pursuing education. Contact: 404-962-3110 or 404-962-3082
www.wsav.com
Georgia Southern ranked number one four year school for veterans
By: Khalil Maycock
The Military Times has ranked Georgia Southern University number one in the nation, as the best four-year college for veterans. Georgia Southern beat out 136 other schools for this top honor, which Military Times stated on their website is based on surveys of hundreds of colleges across the country, combined with federal data. One way the university helps its veterans and service members is through its Military Resource Center, which is located on all three Georgia Southern campuses. It’s a place where veterans and service members can go to get connected, relax, study, and meet others who have the same background as them. It’s a center Hunter Smith, a senior majoring in education, used after coming back from deployment with the Army Reserves.
www.onlineathens.com
UGA veterans center founder to speak at Athens Veterans Day observance
By Staff Reports
William C. “Bill” Huff, founder of the Student Veterans Resource Center at the University of Georgia, will be keynote speaker at the 2018 Veterans Day Observance sponsored by the Friends of Oconee Hill Cemetery. The annual observance is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at the flagpole plaza at the entrance to Oconee Hill Cemetery. The event is free and open to the public. Huff, a businessman, UGA graduate and Vietnam War veteran, launched the SVRC in 2013 to provide support for today’s military veterans and their families. The successful program, the first in the University System of Georgia, helps returning veterans readjust to civilian and college life and works to boost veteran graduation and job placement rates. This year’s national Veterans Day event falls near the centennial of the Armistice agreement signed Nov. 11, 1918, between Germany and Allied forces that brought to an end to more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives during World War I. During his remarks, Huff will also discuss the differences between Armistice Day, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. The annual Athens observance will also include a color guard from the UGA Army ROTC, patriotic music provided by the Athens Christian School Chorus under the direction of Heather Pillsbury, and an invocation by Josh Miles, youth minister at Athens First United Methodist Church. Army veteran and FOHC Director Gib Johnston is chairman of the Veterans Day event at Oconee Hill Cemetery.
www.onlineathens.com
Air Force veteran studying risk management at UGA knows all about risk
By Sara Freeland / University of Georgia
For veteran Josh Anderson, it’s all about managing risks. As part of ground operations for the Air Force, he was in charge of making sure bombs hit exactly what they were intended to, rather than dropping on nearby civilians. Trained as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller, Anderson used cameras and sensors on overhead Air Force planes that showed him a live feed of the landscape below. His job was to pinpoint enemy locations and call in airstrikes. Now, he’s a risk management and insurance major at the University of Georgia. Anderson joined the Air Force right out of high school. Less than two weeks after graduating from Salem High School in Conyers with a 3.9 GPA, he was in basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, which is based in San Antonio, Texas. After that, most of his training took place at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he was stationed for six years. There, he would train with a 100-pound ruck sack and practice going on combat missions. In 2016, he was deployed to Iraq to fight ISIS. It’s the work he’s most proud of.
www.onlineathens.com
Jvonte Ross: From homeless in Athens, to the Army to UGA
http://www.onlineathens.com/news/20181110/jvonte-ross-from-homeless-in-athens-to-army-to-uga
By Sara Freeland / University of Georgia
The first time Jvonte Ross ran past Stegeman Coliseum, he knew the University of Georgia was going to be his home. Ross had just graduated from Berkmar High School in Gwinnett County. Difficult circumstances had led him to live in an Athens homeless shelter. His single mother was raising three children, money was tight and it was a transitional period for the family. While awaiting basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Ross started running in the mornings to keep in shape for the Army. “After the first time I saw the coliseum, I’d tell myself that one day I was coming back here,” Ross said. “I’d do my time, and then I’d come back. And I stuck with that.” In the Army, Ross was a combat engineer. He described his job as blowing stuff up, setting up obstacles and tearing down obstacles. For his first three years in the military, he sent as much money as he could back to his single mother and two siblings, who found an apartment shortly after he arrived in basic training. Ross did a tour in Afghanistan, where he drove armored trucks down the road at 5 mph slowly scanning for explosives. He worked as security, gunner and as a ground soldier on a dog team with dogs sniffing out explosives.
www.lagrangenews.com
A military soldier and scholar who serves his fellow veterans
By John A. Tures
To commemorate this year’s Veterans Day, I’d like to tell you about one of our graduates. He’s the model of a leader, one who does so by serving his fellow veterans. Jason Peden probably had collegiate ambitions, but he put them aside, serving our country as an aircraft structural repairer in the U.S. Army for six years, from 2006 to 2012. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled at LaGrange College. Unless you knew him well, you’d never guessed he was in the U.S. Army. He was quite humble, though eager to learn and lead. He could be counted upon to help with conference presentations, attend Hallock Lectures at Columbus State University while helping with talks, and even playing an active role in our Model United Nations, managing local high schools through our crisis simulations and role playing countries. He probably never bargained for so much math, and so little CNN vs. Fox News style arguments past each other. But that’s how we teach political science at LaGrange College, with an emphasis on researching theories, constructing hypotheses, data collection and statistics. But he took it on like any challenge. He was one of the researchers who statistically analyzed media bias via newspaper endorsements, article slants and which candidates received more coverage and better press. After graduating, and marrying a local lass, he joined the University of Georgia to work as an administrative specialist with the University of Georgia School of Law. But, we press our students to do more than just get a job. We want them to lead and find ways to serve others. That is exactly what he did.
www.savannahnow.com
Savannah, Chatham County observe WWI Armistice centennial with bells, bugles
By Amy Paige Condon For Savannah Morning News
…Remnants of war
Inspired by a student-curated exhibit at Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro campus, Luciana Spracher, city municipal archives and records management director, put out a community call in summer 2017 for World War I memorabilia. “The initial idea was to focus just on Savannah soldiers,” says Spracher, “but we received calls from people who now live in Savannah who had family members that fought in the war. So, we’ve included a mixture.” The physical exhibit covers two areas in City Hall: the first-floor rotunda and the council chambers. From field manuals and posters to helmets and photographs, the exhibit reminds visitors that moments of crisis and courage are fought and overcome by ordinary people who answered the call. It includes poignant pieces of “trench art,” decorative objets d’art fashioned by soldiers in the trenches during downtime — a palm-sized cannon handcrafted from a spent bullet casing and coins, an artillery shell transformed into a vase. Evidence of soldiers making something beautiful and life-affirming out of death and destruction.
www.13wmaz.com
Middle Georgia State University and Bibb Co. observe Armistice Day
The ceremony coincided with a remembrance happening at the same time in Europe
Author: Suzanne Lawler
Early Sunday morning, Middle Georgia State University and Bibb County observed Veterans Day before the sun even came up. Dee Lindsey is an Air Force veteran. “We are out here celebrating the signing of the Armistice, which was actually signed, we’re coming up on the exact hour that it was signed, and for us to sacrifice this morning, it pales in comparison to what they actually had to endure during that war, so this is just a very small price for us to pay,” Lindsey said. The candle lighting ceremony took place on Coleman Hill at 5 a.m., which coincided with an 11 a.m. ceremony in Europe. It’s meant to mark Armistice Day, which is when World War I ended. This is the 100 year anniversary of that event.
www.bizjournals.com
Board of Regents to take up UGA residence hall project
By Dave Williams – Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents this week is expected to authorize a $53.8 million renovation of one of The University of Georgia’s largest residential towers. The approximately 214,000-square-foot Brumby Hall was constructed in 1966 and contains 950 beds primarily serving first-year students. The renovation would reduce the number of beds to 938. “To improve the student experience, the living, bathroom, and programmatic spaces would be reconfigured to improve privacy and enable more flexible furniture placement,” according to the agenda packet for the regents’ Nov. 13 meeting. “Enhanced student amenities such as laundry facilities, community kitchens, and increased study spaces, would be provided to encourage interaction and engagement.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State’s enrollment declines while University System of Georgia at all-time high
https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article221351110.html
BY MARK RICE
The year after having the most students in its history, Columbus State University’s enrollment decreased while the University System of Georgia increased to an all-time high. CSU’s 2018 fall semester enrollment of 8,076 is 4.5 percent less than 8,453 in 2017, according to the USG’s report. It’s the lowest enrollment at CSU in 10 years, nearly wiping out the growth since 2008, when the figure was 7,951. And it’s the largest drop in enrollment at CSU in 20 years, when it fell 5.2 percent, from 5,405 in 1997 to 5,122 in 1998. The USG’s enrollment across its 26 institutions rose 1.1 percent, from 325,203 students in 2017 to 328,712 in 2018 — the fourth straight year the system surpassed its record. Meanwhile, CSU failed to keep pace with that trend, but it is among more than half of USG’s institutions (14 of the 26) that had their enrollment decrease this past year. Only four of the 26 institutions have a steeper enrollment decline than CSU: 12.6 percent at Atlanta Metropolitan State College (from 2,501 to 2,187), 8.1 percent at Gordon State College (from 3,986 to 3,663), 7.9 percent at Savannah State University (from 4,429 to 4,077) and 4.8 percent at Georgia Southwestern State University (from 4,429 to 4,077). The USG’s highest 2017-18 growth rate is 11.4 percent at Georgia Tech (from 29,369 to 32,723). The University of Georgia increased by 2.8 percent (from 37,606 to 38,652). In an emailed interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, CSU president Chris Markwood said Thursday that this enrollment report is disappointing but not surprising. “I have been briefing faculty and trustees about our numbers, and stressing the need for everyone in the CSU family to play a part in recruitment,” Markwood said. “We predicted our overall enrollment numbers would dip because of an expected slowing in graduate enrollment, which has seen record growth in past years.” Then he noted some positive aspects in the enrollment numbers.
www.patch.com
Georgia Highlands College Sees Increase In Enrollment
GHC had a 2.8-percent increase in enrollment growth for fall 2018, the highest increase among state colleges in Georgia.
https://patch.com/georgia/cartersville/georgia-highlands-college-sees-increase-enrollment
By Kristal Dixon, Patch Staff
Georgia Highlands College leads the University System of Georgia’s state colleges in enrollment growth for fall 2018, according to numbers released by the system. The Rome-based institution’s current enrollment is 2.8 percent higher than what it recorded in fall 2017, the highest percentage in year-to-year growth among USG colleges. Georgia Highlands’ enrollment is 6,184, compared to 6,013 reported in the fall of 2017. GHC’s enrollment trails Georgia Gwinnett College, which had the highest enrollment among state colleges at 12,508. Georgia Gwinnett College comes in second place with enrollment growth, reporting a 1.8-percent spike from 2017 to 2017.
www.thegeorgeanne.com
Diversity and inclusion modules to be added to Georgia Southern core curriculum
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_1617186e-70ad-5ccc-a402-3de3d74e8538.html
By Rachel Adams, The George-Anne staff
Georgia Southern University is working to add diversity and inclusion to its curriculum. After the passing of a diversity and inclusion resolution by the GS Student Government Association on Nov. 3, GS is planning to implement diversity and inclusion modules as well as an array of assignments into its first and second year experience courses. “We would like to integrate diversity and inclusion throughout the curriculum to reinforce the importance of this at many levels of the curriculum,” Carl Reiber, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs said in an email. “Not just a single course.” All GS students are required to take first and second year experience courses as part of their core curriculum.
www.albanyherald.com
ABAC journalism students receive national awards
Students’ work judged among the best in the nation
By Rachel Lord
Herald Correspondent
TIFTON — Several ABAC students won national awards for their work with “Stallion TV,” a student news organization that produces newscasts. The awards were given out at the American College Press/College Media Association Fall Conference in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 27. “The Stallion” won second place in the College Media Association Film Festival at the conference for a newscast from May of 2018. The newscast was anchored by Jamie Worsley and Bryce Phillips. Worsley also produced the newscast, and it was directed by Billy Ray Malone with Ricky Rodriguez as the floor director. Faculty advisor to “The Stallion,” Thomas Grant, said that many other students were involved in the production of the newscast. …Grant said he believes that the newscast stood out from others in the same category because of the wide variety of stories covered in it. …Grant and the students involved were excited to see their work compete with another entries on a national scale. “What made me proud was seeing the winning entries from ABAC played alongside other winners from around the nation,” Grant said. “Our students are producing material that competes strongly with the work from colleges everywhere. There is always room for improvement, but this is an important sign that the work ethic and strong values of south Georgia students will serve them well in media. And it is also a sign that ABAC’s writing and communication program is capable of producing top-quality graduates who will rank favorably with graduates anywhere.”
www.redandblack.com
UGA wins award for helping save rural Georgia hospital, supporting local medical care
Lauren Tolbert | Contributor
In recognition of the University of Georgia’s efforts to save a local hospital in rural Georgia from closing and to support local medical care, UGA received a National Award of Excellence from the University Economic Development Association. The UEDA held an annual summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Oct. 21-23, where they honored UGA’s Archway Partnership with their top award. The Archway Partnership is a part of UGA’s Public Service and Outreach Division and serves the state of Georgia by responding to issues related to economic development. “It is truly an honor to be selected for this national award by a group of our peers,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead in a press release. “This is a well-deserved recognition for our public service and outreach faculty and staff who fulfill this university’s land-grant and sea-grant mission by addressing critical issues across the state.”
www.thebrunswicknews.com
Girls explore STEM at college event
By LAUREN MCDONALD
It just takes a spark to ignite a fire. A group of middle school-aged girls may have found their sparks Saturday during the annual “Expanding Your Horizons” event at the College of Coastal Georgia. The students participated in hands-on activities related to the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The event was hosted by the college in partnership with Glynn County Schools and Pinova. …The girls were also able to visit Coastal Georgia’s campus and complete the workshops in the college classrooms.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Georgia Gwinnett College earns national nursing accreditation
Staff Reports
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education announced Tuesday Georgia Gwinnett College has earned accreditation for its baccalaureate degree in nursing program. Officially recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a national accreditation agency, the CCNE ensures the quality and integrity of baccalaureate, graduate and doctoral programs in the United States and its territories. “Obtaining this accreditation reaffirms our reputation as a top nursing program,” Dr. Diane E. White, dean of the School of Health Sciences, said. “It is the highest standard of distinction and we achieved it in record time. This designation demonstrates our commitment to academic excellence, to our students and to the community at large. I am proud to say that a degree from our program makes our graduates formidable candidates in today’s competitive health care market and opens to them a large pool of employment opportunities.”
www.ajc.com
Kennesaw State University, student group settles lawsuit
By Eric Stirgus
Kennesaw State and a student group that sued the university over its campus speech guidelines have agreed on a settlement. The group, Young Americans for Freedom, said university administrators intentionally made it difficult for the students to bring a guest speaker to campus because of the group and speaker’s conservative beliefs. The lawsuit was filed in March. The two sides last week agreed on a settlement and are expected to file paperwork formalizing the agreement next week. The settlement includes $17,100 in attorney fees from KSU to the student group, said Travis Barham, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the students. Barham said the two sides settled after KSU made changes to its policies that made it less restrictive for students to speak on campus, such as charging security fees to bring a guest speaker.
www.nique.net
Peterson speech precedes Ethics Awareness Week
http://nique.net/news/2018/11/10/peterson-speech-precedes-ethics-awareness-week/
By Jeffrey Luo
Amid the recent departures and firings of senior administrative officials, Institute heads have pushed to recommit focus on the issue of ethical leadership. On Tuesday, Nov. 6, President G. P. “Bud” Peterson and other members of the administration communed at the Historic Academy of Medicine to host the Ethical Leadership: A Shared Commitment forum, which was attended by department heads and high-positioned faculty. This talk comes one week before Ethics Awareness Week, an annual effort by the University System of Georgia (USG) to promote ethical behavior that will take place from Nov. 11 to 17. This week features numerous activities focused on cultivating character and highlighting the themes of community, transparency and integrity. In the wake of troubling ethics concerns arising across Tech, replete with conflict of interest issues and abuse of Tech resources, the USG Chancellor Steven Wrigley on July 20 instructed Peterson to make several administrative and policy changes across Tech and to participate in the USG Ethics Awareness Week. Peterson is scheduled to give Wrigley a second update on progress made by Monday, Nov. 12. Peterson began his speech by restating the measures taken promptly following these scandals.
www.albanyherald.com
UGA economist: Georgia farmers needs financial relief
Hurricane Michael agricultural devastation widespread in Georgia
By Clint Thompson
To avoid losing their farms following Hurricane Michael, Georgia farmers need financial relief as soon as possible, according to Jeff Dorfman, a professor and agricultural economist in the University of Georgia Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. South Georgia growers are still picking up the pieces after the hurricane hit Oct. 10, destroying homes and agricultural commodities. The storm’s timing could not have been worse for the producers who were impacted, as cotton, pecans, peanuts and vegetables were ready to be harvested. “The timing of this was not good,” Dorfman said. “Farmers have already spent most of, if not all, their money growing their crop. If you lose a crop at the start of the growing season, at least you didn’t put any of those extra inputs into it.”
www.thebrunswicknews.com
College showcases research at Coastal Science Symposium
By LAUREN MCDONALD lmcdonald@thebrunswicknews.com Nov 10, 2018
Katie Brill has spent the past year researching an invasive species of ants that’s known for trying to attack power lines and marching in confusing zig-zag lines. Brill, a senior biology major at College of Coastal Georgia, had the chance Friday to showcase her year’s worth of research at the college’s Coastal Science Symposium. She set up a poster with information about the ant species, commonly known as “crazy ants,” and fielded symposium participants’ questions about her work. …The symposium included a panel discussion with coastal science experts, presentations of research and a student and faculty research showcase. Local groups, including Keep Golden Isles Beautiful and Glynn Environmental Coalition, also set up booths for an information fair. Guest speakers at the event were Rachel Gittman, an estuarine ecologist at East Carolina University, and Dionne Hoskins-Brown, a fisheries biologist and director of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration program at Savannah State University.
www.georgiatrendblog.com
The future of food – insects!
http://georgiatrendblog.com/the-future-of-food-insects/
BY MARY ANN DEMUTH
University of North Georgia’s (UNG) Oconee campus is a-buzz with interest in researching sustainable food sources. Alex Olvido, associate professor of biology at UNG, is studying yellow mealworm beetles as potential food for the future, and is providing his undergraduate students with valuable research experience. Olvido says that by 2050, when the world population is projected to be more than 9.7 million, there will be a need for nutrient-rich food. That’s why he and his students are exploring entomophagy, which means insect eating. Insects are easier to grow than traditional protein sources, such as cattle, pigs and chickens, he says. And, if the thought of eating insects is stomach-turning, he points out that they are closely related to shrimp.
www.thewestgeorgian.com
Remembering History: Preserving The West Georgian
http://thewestgeorgian.com/remembering-history-preserving-the-west-georgian/
By Matthew Harvey
Special Collections at Ingram Library has begun the preservation of The West Georgian for future scholars and alumni through digitalization with the help of a grant provided by the Watson-Brown Foundation. The Watson-Brown Foundation was designed to improve education in the American South by funding schools and students, preserving school history and encouraging responsible scholarships through creativity, diligence and financial support. “We connected with the Watson-Brown Foundation through our department of development here at UWG which works with Special Collections and the office of Alumni Relations to develop relationships with granters that see the value in Special Collections and materials,” said Shanee’ Murrain, Assistant Professor and University Archivist. Ingram Library will be digitizing editions of The West Georgian ranging from when the paper was founded in 1934 up to 2007. They will be available online on Ingram Library’s internet archive making them fully accessible to students, faculty, researchers and community members for free.
Higher Education News:
www.macon.com
The need for nurses is growing in Georgia. How will hospitals keep up with the demand?
https://www.macon.com/news/local/article221351830.html
BY SAMANTHA MAX
Norris is one of approximately 80,000 nurses serving as the bedrock of Georgia’s health care industry — attending to patients’ every need in hospitals, hospices, clinics and schools across the state. But Georgia faces a dire nursing shortage, and it’s only expected to get worse. Georgia is on pace to have the sixth-highest gap between the supply and demand of nurses nationwide by 2030, according to a 2017 report by The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. Researchers estimate Georgia’s demand for registered nurses to rise to 101,000 in the next dozen years, while the supply is only projected to grow to 98,800. The state will likely need over 10,000 more licensed practical nurses than it can supply by 2030, as well. As the need for nurses escalates, educators and health care providers are working together to grow the workforce, before the deficit gets out of hand.
www.chronicle.com
Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?
By Beckie Supiano
Colleges’ responsibilities to students end at the classroom door. Colleges’ responsibilities extend into every corner of students’ lives. Those are the extreme edges of a spectrum on which colleges have moved back and forth for centuries. For a while now, higher education has been comfortable with a narrower view of what it owes its students. This was only exacerbated by the Great Recession. Since then, colleges have made their case in starkly utilitarian terms: Come here, get a degree, and you can earn a good living — even in this economy. Conversations about what else one might get out of college still happen, of course, but they have been pushed to the margins. That, however, is starting to change, in a shift that calls to mind a much earlier vision. At the dawn of American higher ed, colleges held dominion over students’ lives. Think explicit rules governing students’ conduct — from mandatory chapel attendance to an enforced “lights out.” Colleges knew the path, and as long as students followed their directions, they would get to the right destination. No one is suggesting that colleges should resume this paternalistic role today. But things like the troubling rates of anxiety and depression among today’s students and the pressure they face to focus on careers make a strong case that students need more help in making meaning and staking out a direction in their lives.
www.insidehighered.com
Cal State Sees Major Gains in Graduation Rates
At same time, gaps between underrepresented minority students and everyone else are narrowing.
By Ashley A. Smith
Administrators at the California State University System worried two years ago when the system set ambitious goals for increasing graduation rates. They were concerned that low-income students and students of color would be harmed by the new targets. One criticism, for example, was that students would be pushed into courses they were not prepared to take. Instead, the nation’s largest and most diverse public university system is seeing record levels of achievement and narrowed equity gaps among low-income and minority students. …Preliminary data released earlier this month show the four-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time freshmen increased six percentage points over three years, from 19.2 percent in 2015 to 25.4 percent in 2018. The six-year graduation rate also increased by four percentage points, from 57 percent in 2015 to 61.1 percent in 2018. The system is scheduled to release final data later this month. The graduation rate gap between students who receive federal financial aid, or Pell Grants, and peers who don’t receive the aid decreased by one percentage point, from 10.6 percent in 2017 to 9.5 percent in 2018. Among African American, Native American and Latino/Hispanic students, the graduation rate gap narrowed by two percentage points from 12.2 percent in 2017 to 10.5 percent in 2018. Graduation rates also increased for transfer students.
www.insidehighered.com
College Completion Group Announces New President
By Ashley A. Smith
Complete College America announced Thursday that Yolanda Watson Spiva will be the nonprofit organization’s new president. Watson Spiva is a former educator and held management roles at the U.S. Department of Education. She most recently served as president and chief executive officer of College Success Foundation, a national nonprofit that provides support and scholarships to low-income students.
www.insidehighered.com
Court Upholds Injunction Keeping DACA in Place
By Elizabeth Redden
A panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling blocking the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era program that provides protection against deportation and work authorization to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, including many college students. The Trump administration had moved to end DACA, arguing that the program is unlawful and that its establishment represented an unconstitutional attempt on the part of Obama to circumvent immigration laws passed by Congress. Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the court’s opinion that the administration acted to rescind DACA based on the “erroneous view” that it was illegal. Wardlaw wrote that deferred action — defined as “a revocable decision by the government not to deport an otherwise removable person from the country” — has been an established feature of the U.S. immigration system for decades and that “DACA was a permissible exercise of executive discretion.”