University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The pathway to graduation is difficult for many transfer students
By Eric Stirgus
About 500 educators and staff recently visited Atlanta to brainstorm ways to help an overlooked segment of college students: transfer students. A 2017 report to Congress by the federal Government Accountability Office highlighted a problem many face, particularly when enrolling in a four-year college or university. A significant percent of students’ credits are not accepted by their new school, making it more difficult to graduate. On average, students lost 43 percent of their credits, the GAO found during a five-year stretch. Making up those credits is costly. The GAO found “schools often do not offer the same amount of institutional aid to transfer students compared to first-time, non-transfer students.” Goodness, the transition is daunting. The National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS), which is based on the University of North Georgia’s Dahlonega Campus, spent three days exploring ideas at the InterContinental Buckhead hotel. About one in three students transferred from one school during a recent six-year stretch, the GAO reported to Congress, so we’re not talking about a small number of students. More than 16,000 University System of Georgia students are transfers, according to state data.
Savannah Morning News
Georgia Southern town hall in Savannah focuses on university’s future
By Ann Meyer ameyer@savannahnow.com
At a town hall meeting Thursday night to discuss Georgia Southern University’s strategic plan, Leandro de la Torriente raved about the 62+ program, which offers free classes for students age 62 and older. “To me it’s a wonderful opportunity because what else would I do, sit on the couch and watch TV? Forget it,” he said. At the sparsely attended meeting, which was the last of seven town hall meetings the university held this month to encourage suggestions and feedback from the public, Julie Gerbsch, executive director of development and co-chair of the university’s strategic planning committee, listed the five pillars the university intends to focus on: equity, diversity and inclusion; operational effectiveness and sustainability; community engagement; student success; and teaching and research. Gerbsch said as part of the process, some members of the strategic planning committee reviewed the strategic plans of Georgia Southern University’s “aspirational” peer group of universities in other parts of the country, such as Western Michigan University, Kansas State University, East Carolina University, Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University. “What we’ve been doing is reading all of those strategic plans,” Gerbsch said. “It’s been very informative to think through what are the issues and goals they are tackling.”
Savannah CEO
Staff Report From Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern University’s School of Nursing’s RN-BSN program, designed exclusively for registered nurses who wish to earn a B.S. in nursing (BSN), was recently named one of the most affordable of its kind in the nation by GreatValueColleges.net. Of the 50 schools included on the 2019 list, Georgia Southern took the No. 27 spot. “We are pleased to be recognized by Great Value Colleges as one of the top 50 most affordable online RN to BSN programs for 2019,” stated Sheri Carey, DNP, assistant professor and RN-BSN program director. “This recognition attests to the affordability and outstanding reputation of our program and ongoing faculty excellence.” The RN-BSN program is a fully online program with the working registered nurse in mind, providing flexibility that allows both full-time and part-time enrollment.
WGAU
UGA MEETS, SURPASSES FUNDRAISING GOAL
By: Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia says its ongoing capital campaign has already passed its goal: UGA says it has raised $1.2 billion with still almost a year and a half of fundraising yet to go.
WGAU
UGA DANCE MARATHON RAISES $1.1 MILLION
By: Marilyn Primovic
More than 1,000 students and community members strapped hospital bands on their wrists and raised $1,144,453.19 for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta during UGA Miracle’s 24 hour Dance Marathon Saturday and Sunday in Tate Grand Hall. This is the fourth consecutive year that this student organization has raised more than $1 million.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
UGA Miracle, the largest student-run organization at the university, seeks to encourage the families of patients and financially support the Rehabilitation Services and Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. “The first $1 million raised directly funds Rehab Services and all additional funds support the Aflac Cancer Center,” said Lydia George, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta program coordinator. This year, UGA Miracle focused on raising money for the aquatic therapy pool under construction in Scottish Rite Hospital.
The Brunswick News
Students explore education options at HBCU fair
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Annie Polite kept the Fort Valley State University table busy during Friday’s seventh annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fair. Polite, a Brunswick resident and Fort Valley State alumna, was one of many local HBCU alumni who participated in the fair. HBCU programs from Georgia and around the country sent representatives to the event, at which students were able to learn about HBCU opportunities. Polite had only positive words about her alma mater, from which she graduated in 1957. …The fair, held in Glynn Academy’s gym, also brought in students from Brunswick High School, McIntosh County Academy and the Job Corps Center. Eighth-graders also had the opportunity to attend.
Albany Herald
Rachel Lord joins Albany Herald news staff
Ashburn native is newspaper’s audience engagement specialist
By Carlton Fletcher
Rachel Lord has joined The Albany Herald news staff as an audience engagement specialist. One of her primary roles in the position will be to impact reader engagement on the newspaper’s website, AlbanyHerald.com. An Ashburn native who was Turner County High School’s valedictorian and STAR Student, Lord recently completed requirements for her degree in English-Creative Writing from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, where she maintained a 3.95 grade-point average. Lord earned an associate’s degree in English at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, where she maintained a 4.0 GPA. At ABAC, Lord was on the staff of the college’s literary magazine, “Pegasus,” for two years. She was fiction editor and editorial assistant, and won a Pacesetter award. She also was on the staff of GCSU’s literary magazine “The Peacock’s Feet.” She had works published in both magazines.
The Red & Black
UGA professor recognized with 2019 Dream Award for contributions to diversity
Danielle Osakwe | Contributor
University of Georgia professor Paige Carmichael has been working relentlessly to help minority students feel at home at the School of Veterinary Medicine. Because of this, she was distinguished with the 2019 President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award. Beginning in 2004, the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award is granted to UGA faculty who have strived to further Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of equality and inclusion. Carmichael said she was nominated by Henry Green and Susan Williams, members of the Black Faculty and Staff Organization.
Access WDUN
University of North Georgia names its first director of diversity, inclusion
By AccessWDUN Staff
Dr. Pablo Mendoza has been named the first director of diversity and inclusion at the University of North Georgia. He started in his new role Feb. 11. Kate Maine, UNG chief of staff, said Mendoza will collaborate with individuals and groups at UNG and beyond to promote diversity and inclusion efforts that inform and enrich the university’s teaching, learning and work. … Mendoza said national population trends are moving in a direction where no majority group will exist in the near future. “We are preparing students to live in a more diverse and demographically changing environment than has existed in the recent past,” Mendoza said. “Diversity and inclusion are added benefits for the cross-cultural competency of students, faculty and staff.”
Emanuel County Live
Williamson named director of EGSC-Statesboro
by WHITLEY CLIFTON
East Georgia State College announces the appointment of Jessica Williamson as the new director of EGSC-Statesboro (EGSC-S). She has served as interim director since July 1, 2018.
As director, Williamson will oversee the daily delivery of services at EGSC-S, work collaboratively with Georgia Southern University to facilitate student transfers and contribute strategically as a member of the President’s Cabinet. EGSC President Dr. Bob Boehmer said, “We are proud and pleased that Jessi Williamson will serve as director of East Georgia State College-Statesboro. In addition to her military service, she has earned a degree at EGSC, two degrees at Georgia Southern University and returned to EGSC to progress through all levels at EGSC-Statesboro as a staff member. She will be an outstanding director and a model for the educational pathway we urge our students to follow.”
MNN
Georgia Tech honors the life and death of a 100-year-old tree
Ben Bolton
While towering over Georgia Tech’s campus in Atlanta, Big Al saw it all. The 100-year-old willow oak watched as students and staff used his crown for shade, his branches for cover from the rain and his trunk for a resting place for studying and reading. He was one of the oldest and most beautiful trees on campus. Sadly, the 106-foot tree split in September 2018 due to failing health and couldn’t be saved. The campus community felt a loss. However, one group of students decided to honor Big Al by creating the Fall of a Champion exhibit.
WTOC
GSU Police looking for man posing as alumnus
The Georgia Southern University Division of Public Safety is seeking information about a man who entered several residences on Greek Row claiming to be an alumnus. Police say the man was described by witnesses as a well-dressed, well-spoken, older while male who is tall and has thinning hair. They say he was knowledgeable of Greek organizations and claimed that he was hired to do a job. If you see this man or if he attempts to make contact with your student organization, contact University Police immediately. He was last seen driving a new model black Nissan sedan with a white tag.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia colleges struggle with legacy of blackface, racist imagery
By Eric Stirgus Ernie Suggs Rosalind Bentley
…Here in Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reviewed several decades of yearbooks of some of the state’s largest colleges and universities. It found more than two dozen images of typically unnamed students in blackface at UGA, Emory, Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Mercer universities. Most of the photos were in the 1950s and 60s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and were typically confined to fraternities and sororities. As such images receded from yearbooks, incidents of blackface continued to roil campuses in Georgia as recently as 2004.
Union Recorder
GC grant seeks to preserve local African-American history
There is a shortage of local African-American history in Georgia College’s Ina Dillard Russell Library, but a grant recently received by the library will try and change that, all the while providing locals with digital copies of their personal photographs and documents. The $12,000 grant comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Program and it will fund three phases of activities centered around historic preservation.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Pushing for Radical Change in Admissions
Senators urged to end financial aid at colleges that use legacy preferences and early decision and to ban research grants to universities that do not use a lottery system to admit applicants.
By Scott Jaschik
In January, several Democrats in the U.S. Senate sent out letters to higher education experts asking for ideas on how to narrow racial and ethnic gaps in student debt and access to higher education. The results that have come in include numerous ideas about Pell Grants and loan programs, as one might expect. One group, New America, is going for changes that it termed “radical” (along with plenty of other proposals that aren’t). Officials at New America believe these ideas just might get more attention this year than they would have previously. The group is proposing that colleges that have a preference for alumni children lose access to federal aid programs. Ditto for colleges that have early-decision programs. And the group wants to require universities that seek federal research grants to replace admissions systems with ones in which a lottery plays a prominent role (among applicants who have made it over some bar). The ideas would involve an assertive role for the federal government, and are certain to draw strong opposition. But New America says it is trying to prompt debate by challenging conventional wisdom about college admissions being meritocratic.
Inside Higher Ed
Hate Incidents on Campus Still Rising
Results of a new survey show that administrators are still reporting incidents targeting minority students.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Incidents targeting students of color and of different sexualities and religions continue to plague campuses, and the number of incidents appears to be increasing, according to a new report. Because these episodes are on the rise — white supremacist literature proliferating at colleges and universities, racial slurs written in public places and dormitories, for example — advocates are urging administrators to be vocal in denouncing them and suggest they have a plan in place for when they occur. Two groups worked on the report — the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Fund for Leadership, Equity, Access and Diversity, or LEAD Fund, part of the American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED). They created a survey with 30 questions to send to professionals on the AAAED mailing list asking about hate- or bias-related incidents on their campuses. The survey was also made available at the AAAED annual conference last year. A total 69 staffers, whom the groups called “equal opportunity professionals” — generally employees of a university’s diversity or student affairs offices — answered the survey. Most came from public, four-year institutions (64 percent) while 25 percent worked at private colleges or universities. Roughly 9 percent were from two-year institutions, and 2 percent reported “other” institutions. …The Federal Bureau of Investigation, though, said in November that nearly 280 hate crimes had been reported to the agency by campus police forces in 2017. This was an uptick from 257 in 2016 and 194 reports in 2015.
Inside Higher Ed
Yearbook Review Finds Dean With Confederate Flag
Wake Forest stands behind admissions dean and notes her work to promote diversity. Not everyone agrees with the university’s decision. Associate dean of admissions found in separate photos with Confederate flag.
By Scott Jaschik
A few weeks ago, as scandals over racist images in yearbooks proliferated, Wake Forest University announced that it had found offensive images in its past yearbooks. Nathan O. Hatch, the president, said in a statement that, as a historian, he was disheartened but not surprised by what was found. “Wearing blackface is racist and offensive — then and now,” Hatch said. “The behavior in these images does not represent the inclusive university we aspire to be.” On Thursday evening, minority students at Wake Forest gathered to discuss their experiences with racism, and their frustrations with how they are treated — on campus and off.
New York Times
As Students Struggle With Stress and Depression, Colleges Act as Counselors
By Brad Wolverton
The email set off alarms at Ithaca College. “I’m literally fighting for my life but staying safe,” 22-year-old Christopher Biehn emailed a professor in late September. “I won’t be in class today (or perhaps for a bit) & just pray I won’t be hospitalized long-term.” As Mr. Biehn prepared to check into a psychiatric ward four hours from campus, a crisis team from the private liberal arts college in central New York swung into action. Shortly after Mr. Biehn wrote to his professor, a campus safety officer went to his apartment to make sure he was O.K. A social worker from the college reached out to discuss academic options as he worked to manage his bipolar disorder. Two weeks later, after returning to his home in Medford, N.J., for treatment, he applied for a medical leave of absence from the college — his sixth leave in four years.
New York Times
Colleges Expand Their Reach to Address Mental Health Issues
By Brad Wolverton
Colleges are struggling to keep up with an increase in requests for mental health counseling. Many have hired additional staff members and are experimenting with new approaches to treatment. When Elizabeth Gong-Guy was named director of U.C.L.A.’s counseling and psychological services in 2005, the university was providing mental health services to less than 10 percent of its students. A decade later, when she moved into a different role, as executive director of U.C.L.A. campus and student resilience, more than 20 percent were under the university’s care. Seeing no end to the growth, U.C.L.A. became an early adopter of internet-based screenings and online mental health treatment. The university has also invested in “resilience peers” who are not licensed to provide counseling but who offer a release valve for stressed-out students.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
On Campuses, Electric Scooters Meet Speed Bumps
By Chris Quintana
Colleges are under siege. And no, it’s not the skeptical politicians looking to slash budgets or the conservative talk-show hosts issuing broadsides. This menace is two-wheeled. The electric scooters made by tech companies like Lime and Bird have swept into the nation’s urban areas, college campuses included. Using one is easy. Download an app to your smartphone, use it to unlock a scooter near you, and hop on. That technology-enabled ease has appealed to younger people, who’ve long been used to nontraditional modes of transportation.
Inside Higher Ed
Professors Protest Campus Carry Bill in West Virginia
By Scott Jaschik
Some faculty members in West Virginia walked out of class last week to protest fast-moving legislation that would permit those in the state with concealed-carry permits to bring guns on campuses.