University System News:
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Kennesaw State elevated to ‘R2 doctoral university’
By Eric Mandel – Digital Producer , Atlanta Business Chronicle
Kennesaw State University received a boost in its latest report card. The Georgia school has been elevated to an “R2” designated institution – doctoral university with high research activity – in the revised 2018 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning, the second-highest classification for research institutions in the country. KSU is now one of 259 institutions to carry the “R1” or “R2” designation, according to a news release According to the Carnegie classifications, doctoral research institutions are those that awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the upgrade year and had at least $5 million in research expenditures. Kennesaw State became an R3 doctoral research institution in 2015, up from its previous classification as a larger Master’s College and University – M1.
Albany Herald
ASU Foundation receives clean 2018 audit
The Albany State University Foundation received a clean audit review for 2018. University officials credit the implementation of internal controls for results of this year’s audit.
By Danyelle Gary
The Albany State University Foundation received a clean audit review for 2018. University officials credit the implementation of internal controls for results of this year’s audit. Auditors reported that the Foundation has improved specifically in the areas of timely completion of the annual audit, reduction of significant deficiencies and a decrease in the number of adjustments of transaction recordings. According to auditors, the Foundation is in a strong financial position. “Due to the introduction of new procedures, the overhaul of our financial system and additional training of staff, the Foundation is in a strong financial and operational position,” A.L. Fleming, vice president for Institutional Advancement and executive director of the ASU Foundation, said. Fleming became vice president in March 2018. The audit is a regular review of the fundraising and nonprofit unit of Albany State University.
The Oconee Enterprise
UGA college celebrates centennial
Katie Tiller
In 1918, with the closing of World War I, women were permitted to enroll at The University of Georgia for the first time. The world was facing a food shortage and Home Economics was the first degree program women could pursue at the university, bringing about the creation of the School of Home Economics, which has grown today into UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “We consider this really important because it’s 100 years of having the doors open for women,” said Dean of the college, Linda Kirk Fox, who is also a Watkinsville resident. “At that time, 12 women were in the one degree program in home economics. That was the beginning. The first woman graduated in 1919. She became our first dean of the college. It’s a pretty remarkable history.” Mary Ethel Creswell served as the first female dean for the college from 1933 to 1945. This year, the school has been celebrating its 100th birthday through a variety of ways, including publishing a pictorial book featuring black and white photographs, facts and timelines of the college’s history.
Atlanta Jounral-Constitution
Universities clearing shelves of Chinese-made clothing
By Staff and wire reports
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A Georgia university has been touched by the international report that China was using forced labor to sew clothing, including sportswear, shipped to the U.S. market Georgia Southern was listed as a receiver of products produced by the Chinese company and sold through a North Carolina supplier, Badger Sportswear, which sells to colleges and schools around the U.S. Georgia Southern spokesperson, Jennifer Wise, emailed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying: “Georgia Southern was made aware of this report very recently. We have initiated a review and have asked for a review also by our licensing partner, which handles such contracts and agreements for us.” The school made sure no Badger products are not on the shelves of its stores, Wise said.
WTOC
WTOC Investigates: SSU Alumni Suspicions
By Elizabeth Rawlins
More changes are being announced at Savannah State University this week. The Dean of the College of Business is planning to retire at the end of this year. This comes as the university is being forced to make budget cuts because of declining retention rates. WTOC spoke to some concerned alumni who say the announcement was abrupt and unexpected. WTOC obtained a copy of the letter that was sent to Savannah State University President Dr. Dozier on Nov. 20. The three-page letter from the College of Business Dean, Dr. Mostafa Sarhan, outlines his concerns about the proposed budget cuts impacting the college of business.
Moultrie Observer
UGA recognized for Archway Partnership’s work
By MarKeith Cromartie
A University of Georgia program that began in Colquitt County recently won a national award for its work in Pulaski County. The Archway Partnership is a unit of the University of Georgia Public Service and Outreach that helps rural communities in Georgia. The first one was a pilot program that started in 2005 in Colquitt County. In October the university received a national Award of Excellence from the University Economic Development Association for helping Taylor Regional Hospital in Pulaski County to stay open. The hospital was within days of shutting down in December 2015 because it did not have enough funds to complete a Community Needs Health Assessment as required by the Affordable Care Act, according to a story about the award in UGA Today. Without the assessment, the hospital would lose its nonprofit status and be forced to close, the article said. Over the years, the partnership in Colquitt County has included leadership development, local planning, efforts to increase the high school graduation rate and health-related outreach. In 2018 Archway has helped establish the 2018 Colquitt County Leadership Summit, which brings together elected and appointed officials from Colquitt County, the cities of Moultrie, Berlin, Doerun, Ellenton, Funston and Norman Park, the Development Authority, Board of Education, and the Hospital Authority.
Athens CEO
UGA CAES Professor Receives 2018 New Innovator Award
Merritt Melancon
Jason Wallace, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has received one of nine 2018 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Awards from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. The New Innovator Award provides the early investment needed to successfully launch a scientific career in food and agriculture. Award recipients were selected based on a number of criteria including scientific merit, innovation and a demonstrated commitment to mentoring other young scientists. FFAR has awarded $292,000 to Wallace, a researcher in the CAES Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, an amount that will be matched by funding from UGA. Wallace will use the award to fund his study of how crops are affected by the microbes that live inside them, referred to as the “microbiome,” and how the environment impacts this relationship. This work will help researchers understand how microbes affect crop production and how they can be harnessed to improve agriculture.
Savannah CEO
Staff Report From Albany CEO
Joseph Johnson (’08,’16) started his career at an internet company in Atlanta where he worked his way up to management over five years. His work sparked a passion but not to continue working in the private sector. Instead, Johnson wanted to take his experience and skills in technology and apply it in public schools. After moving to Savannah, Johnson completed a bachelor’s in elementary education from Armstrong State University and taught for seven years at Robert W. Gadsden Elementary School. “My hopes were to become a teacher-librarian,” Johnson said. “The librarian at my childhood elementary and middle school really shaped my love for reading and learning.” While teaching, Johnson pursued his master’s degree in instructional technology from Georgia Southern University. Completing his library media certification and master’s degree in 2016, Johnson says he was finally able to achieve his dream. Receiving the position of librarian and instructional technology specialist at Otis J. Brock, III Elementary School, Johnson says he now gets to educate students and teachers on technology and the love of reading.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
DeVos Outlines a Vision for Higher Education. But the Devil Remains in the Details.
By Eric Kelderman
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos laid out her clearest positive vision for higher education on Wednesday, calling for a fundamental re-examination of how colleges operate, whom they serve, and how their success should be measured. “We must expand our thinking about what education actually is, as well as resist the urge to expect all students to follow the same track,” DeVos said in prepared remarks to a group of officials from higher-education associations at the offices of the American Council on Education. While DeVos’s remarks were short on specifics, she named several issues that have challenged higher education for more than a decade, including increased prices and student-loan debt for students, and concerns that colleges are not preparing students for the work force. She also repeated her earlier advocacy of cutting regulations as a way to encourage innovative education models and new kinds of institutions to award a variety of credentials that will lead to well-paying jobs.
Inside Higher Ed
National College Completion Rate Continues to Rise
By Ashley A. Smith
National college completion rates have increased for a third consecutive year, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The overall national six-year completion rate increased by 1.5 percentage points from 2011 to 2012, reaching 58.3 percent. It’s the highest rate in the six years the research center has tracked the data. The report also found that completion rates for transfer students from two-year to four-year institutions increased 1.1 percentage points, to 15.8 percent.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Lumina Foundation Grant Aimed at Strengthening Student Success
by Monica Levitan
The Lumina Foundation has made a grant to Workcred, an associate of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to collaborate with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) to strengthen student success and career outcomes. Workcred, APLU and UPCEA will brainstorm and determine how colleges and universities and other certification organizations can more effectively give students opportunities to earn certifications as part of their baccalaureate degree program.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis
By David Gooblar
As faculty members, because we see our students on a regular basis, we often can tell if they are struggling emotionally. Yet we’re not mental-health professionals. Most of us don’t have the training to know how to offer support and guidance to students who are suffering with mental-health issues. So how should we help? Anxiety, in particular, seems to be on the rise among undergraduates. The most recent data from the American College Health Association suggest a mental-health crisis on American college campuses. In its 2017 survey of 26,000 undergraduates, 40 percent said that at some point in the previous 12 months they had felt “so depressed that it was difficult to function,” 61 percent had experienced overwhelming anxiety, and nearly 13 percent had seriously considered suicide. Those are worrisome numbers, and many faculty members see the fallout in our classrooms every day. To find guidance, I spoke with Barry Schreier, director of counseling services at the University of Iowa, where I teach. He has been working in campus mental health for 27 years, and maintains that instructors have a significant role to play in helping students with their mental health. He recommended a three-step response.
Inside Higher Ed
Johns Hopkins researchers have calculated that requiring all college students to be vaccinated against meningitis B would not be cost-effective.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Requiring every college student to be vaccinated against a relatively uncommon strain of meningitis would not be cost-effective, a new Johns Hopkins Medicine study has found, an assertion that has angered activists who have lobbied colleges and universities to require the immunization. The Hopkins analysis was published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers found that the universal immunization against serogroup B of meningococcal disease, or meningitis B, for college-aged students would only be beneficial if the vaccine cost less than $65. The average price for it is $324. The authors calculated the cost per “quality-adjusted life year,” which is a metric used to quantify the value of a medicine — essentially how long a person lived after being treated and the quality of their health. The researchers developed a computer algorithm that would track the cost-effectiveness and cost per case prevented by universal vaccination of incoming students at a midsize, four-year institution. The dangers of meningitis B on campus became widely known about five years ago, following outbreaks at Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, although it remains rare.