University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Latest U.S. grad school rankings find some high performers in Georgia
By Ty Tagami
Georgia universities ranked among the nation’s most elite for graduate schools of nursing, public affairs and engineering. The latest annual lists from U.S. News & World Report put Emory University in fourth place for nursing, behind John Hopkins, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania. Students seeking an advanced degree in public affairs will find a top program at the University of Georgia, ranked fifth. And Georgia Tech was seventh for engineering. Here are the universities in Georgia with programs among the top 100 in business, education, engineering, law, medicine, nursing and public affairs: Augusta University…
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: A school closes; concerns about falling enrollment
By Eric Stirgus
It’s Spring Break this week for several Georgia colleges and universities and it’s already been quite a semester. Heck, last week was filled with plenty of news. Here’s our weekly breakdown of some of what happened over the last seven days in this week’s AJC On Campus. For-profit college abruptly closes
Argosy University students were scrambling to explore their options last week as the for-profit school, which has a campus near the top end of I-285, closed for good Friday evening amid financial problems. Some colleges have offered to take the students. …Crossover Day Some legislation involving higher education became closer to becoming law last week after passing through one chamber of the Georgia Legislature on Crossover Day. One bill we were closely watching that didn’t make it out of the Georgia Senate’s Higher Education committee was SB 57, which would allow students to borrow money against future earnings under what’s called income sharing agreements. … Becker urges schools to help overlooked students Georgia State University President Mark Becker was honored Monday at the American Council on Education’s annual meeting in Philadelphia with the Hesburgh Award, given each year by the TIAA Institute to recognize leadership excellence in higher education. Becker was honored for the university’s work in, among other things, boosting graduation rates among traditionally underserved communities. …Becker, who became Georgia State’s president in 2009, urged the gathering of higher education leaders in his acceptance speech to do more to recruit and graduate students often overlooked by the nation’s top colleges and universities. …You’ve been warned Moody’s, the financial analyst company, released a survey last week that’s raising the alarm that some colleges may be in financial trouble in the coming years. Why? Many colleges will see a drop in enrollment, Moody’s predicts. They say fewer students will graduate from high school over the next decade due to declines in population growth. The projections are higher in the South, which has seen robust population growth, particularly among Latinos. University System of Georgia leaders are watching the numbers closely. Chancellor Steve Wrigley has discussed this issue with state lawmakers several times in recent months.
Albany Herald
‘Groundbreaking’ held for new ABAC Fine Arts Building
‘Dream-come-true’ facility expected to be completed in spring 2020
From Staff Reports
No shovels lifted dirt into the air on a recent rainy spring afternoon, but when the Fine Arts Preview event in the History Room at Tift Hall was over, the mission was accomplished. Construction on the new Fine Arts Building at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is now officially underway. ABAC President David Bridges and Susan Roe, the Fine Arts department head, both elaborated on how the new 24,000-square-foot building will complete the traditional “Sweetheart Circle” on the front of the campus. “This college has always emphasized the arts,” Bridges said, pointing to a picture of the Frank Park Literary Society at the Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School in 1911.
Rolling Out
Jaylen Denson reflects on student life at Atlanta Metropolitan State College
Jaylen K. Denson is preparing to graduate from Atlanta Metropolitan State College in May with a degree in business. The 21-year-old from East Point, Georgia, is one of the shining stars on campus, serving as vice president of the Student Government Association and as a former president of the Brother-2-Brother club. Denson’s reflected on his life as a student at Atlanta Metropolitan State College with rolling out in the interview below.
Why did you choose AMSC?
Let me be honest and transparent: AMSC was the last resort for me. At the time, I was going through a rough patch in my life. I had to leave my dream school, and I didn’t have a job. Luckily, I had a little bit of an income from making music, but I felt like I was being left behind. One day, I was at home, and my mother called me and told me to apply for AMSC. She was a student when it was known as Atlanta Junior College. If I had never applied for the fall semester, I don’t know where I’d be today. This was definitely a life-changer and a stepping stone towards my future. Attending AMSC has been the best decision of my life. What do you love most about AMSC?
Athens Banner-Herald
Clarke students learning leadership through UGA program
By Kellyn Amodeo / University of Georgia
A new high school leadership development program has seen positive results in its first six months. Georgia Possible is designed to help students have success in the classroom and after graduation. Starting freshman year, students will participate in the program for three years. After nine sessions, administrators from the University of Georgia and Clarke County School District are pleased with the partnership and excited for the future of the program. “I am delighted that the University of Georgia and the Clarke County School District have partnered to create this innovative program,” said UGA President Jere Morehead. “I look forward to the many outstanding contributions that these students will continue to have in our community.” Administrators in the school district have seen major impacts.
The Red & Black
UGA faculty win early career awards, set example for young researchers
Alaa Ahmed | Contributor
Junior faculty prove you don’t need many years in academia to leave your mark. Here’s a recap of recent awards and honors that assistant professors at the University of Georgia won in recognition of their early career work.
APS Janet Taylor Spence Award
Katie Ehrlich, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is one of eight recipients of the Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award, which recognizes researchers early in their careers who cross traditional sub-disciplinary lines in psychological sciences. …Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
Two UGA assistant professors won the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field, according to the Sloan Foundation. Rachel Roberts-Galbraith is an assistant professor at the Department of Cellular Biology and the first UGA faculty member to win this prestigious award in the field of neuroscience. …The other UGA recipient of the Sloan Fellowship is Elizabeth Harvey, an assistant professor at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah. Harvey said she hopes this fellowship would reflect positively on UGA as she highlighted the importance of the university’s support to her research.
Reporter Newspapers
Buckhead Coalition marks 30th year with ‘$30’ chocolate bar
Posted by John Ruch
The Buckhead Coalition is celebrating its 30th anniversary in one sweet way – handing out chocolate bars designed to look like $30 bill in local currency. The candy wrapper is designed to look like a bill of “30 Big Bucks” is decorated with a deer’s head and bears the slogan, “Forty-Five Neighborhoods United in Buckhead.” The design was dreamed up by Sam Massell, the Buckhead Coalition president and a former Atlanta mayor. But the actual illustration was created by his granddaughter Isabel Massell, who graduated from Georgia Southern University with a bachelor’s degree in studio art and is now pursuing a master’s in medical illustration.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Should Spelman, Morehouse and Clark Atlanta merge into one super school?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
In a guest column today, Scott Craft, a graduate of Albany State and Clark Atlanta universities, proposes merging Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine to form a new powerhouse Atlanta University. Now, the four are part of what’s known as the Atlanta University Center Consortium, the world’s oldest and largest association of historically black colleges and universities. …By Scott Craft For years, even prior to the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University, there had been discussion of merging the Atlanta University Center schools. These discussions never developed into action due to a number of factors including hubris, prestige, tradition, and lack of foresight. With the recent events of so many struggling HBCUs such as Bennett College and Paine College, the AU Center should be seriously considering ways to sustain a more cohesive institution to withstand these types of economic and financial shortfalls. Clark College and Atlanta University merged out of necessity. Atlanta University, as a standalone graduate school, suffered declining enrollment and its budget was under exigency. Clark was the most logical choice and the school that would benefit the most from a consolidation with Atlanta University. …Take the University System of Georgia’s recent mergers and consolidations, for example. The USG has aggressively moved to consolidate several of its state college and universities of recent years. Over the past six years, the USG has merged or consolidated 20 of their public colleges and universities in an effort to streamline and restructure its system of schools as a cost saving measure. There have been so many that it’s almost hard to keep count. Some of the larger mergers were Kennesaw State and Southern Polytechnic State, historically black Albany State and Darton State, Georgia Southern and Armstrong State, Georgia Perimeter and Georgia State, and Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences University. The university system saw a vulnerability in its ability to effectively sustain the number of small to midsize public college and universities in operation. In response, it decided that rightsizing and restructuring the system by merging some of these institutions would not only potentially make the institutions stronger and more viable, but also help to thwart the effects of an economic downturn and enrollment declines.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Federal Education Department Releases Budget Proposal
by LaMont Jones
College funding, school safety and school choice are items addressed in the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget, which department officials shared with media in a conference call Monday morning. The Trump administration’s proposal provides $131 billion in new post-secondary grants, loans and work-study and includes $64 billion in discretionary spending, a 10-percent reduction from the prior year. It includes recommended decreases, increases and unchanged or “level funding” throughout.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Here’s What Trump’s 2020 Budget Proposal Means for Higher Ed
By Terry Nguyen
President Trump’s proposed federal budget for the 2020 fiscal year, unveiled on Monday, includes a $7-billion cut for the Department of Education, a streamlined repayment process for student loans, and the elimination of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The proposal, for the fiscal year that begins on October 1, is unlikely to be enacted in a divided Congress. But, as is the case every year, the wish list does signal the White House’s priorities, including those for higher education. This year’s proposal is yet another effort by the administration to streamline the student-loan system, which could bring down costs for taxpayers and students, said Robert Kelchen, an assistant professor of higher education at Seton Hall University. But the department and the president, he said, “have little ability to change the terms of federal student loans,” a process that must involve Congress.
Inside Higher Ed
Congressional appropriators have rejected previous White House calls to cut student aid. New budget plan also backs congressional deal on “risk sharing” for colleges.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
President Trump called for a $7.1 billion cut to funding at the Education Department with a proposed budget that retreads familiar higher education ideas for this White House. The budget proposal released on Monday asks Congress to open Pell Grants to “high-quality” short-term programs, eliminate Public Service Loan Forgiveness and subsidized student loans, and streamline income-driven repayment programs for student borrowers. It also called for deep cuts to scientific research. The budget also said the Trump administration hoped to work with Congress on advancing an accountability system that puts colleges on the hook for student loan repayment outcomes. But although the White House highlighted “risk sharing” for colleges in a preview of the budget, it didn’t offer any details of what that system should look like. The proposal marks the third straight year that President Trump has asked Congress for major cuts to education spending — the proposal would mean a 12 percent cut for the Education Department from fiscal year 2019 — and to overall discretionary expenditures. But Congress has responded to his two previous budgets by ignoring calls for cuts and instead appropriating new funds for programs like TRIO, GEAR UP and Pell Grants.
Inside Higher Ed
Promoting Tuition-Free Programs to Undocumented Students
States are embracing undocumented immigrant students as colleges expand tuition-free programs.
By Ashley A. Smith
When Tennessee and Nevada started tuition-free community college programs several years ago, state lawmakers made no allowances for students who were undocumented immigrants. The two states were not alone. Among the approximately 15 states that now offer tuition-free programs, only a handful allow such students to participate. That trend may be changing. Maryland, which is starting its Promise Scholarship program this year, and New York, which passed legislation in January to extend state aid to undocumented students, are the latest states to join California, Delaware, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington in offering financial aid and grants or scholarships to students who live in those states but lack legal-immigrant status. In a political climate where undocumented students are increasingly feeling unwelcome under the Trump administration’s stated opposition to illegal immigration and risk deportation under its tough law enforcement policies, some states are openly promoting their tuition-free programs to those very students and encouraging them to apply.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin among several charged in nationwide college admissions cheating scam
By Cox Media Group National Content Desk and Boston25News.com
Authorities in Boston announced charges Tuesday against more than 40 people, including coaches at prestigious colleges and Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, as part of an alleged large-scale college entrance bribery scheme. Documents unsealed Tuesday in federal court showed coaches at schools including Wake Forest University, Georgetown and the University of Southern California were charged as part of the scheme, in which coaches were bribed to admit students as athletes regardless of their ability, according to The Associated Press.
Inside Higher Ed
Massive Scandal Alleged in College Admissions
Dozens of people — including college coaches and Hollywood actresses — indicted.
By Scott Jaschik
Federal authorities in Boston on Tuesday announced the indictments of dozens of people on charges related to an alleged scheme to get people into elite colleges and universities through purported, but not necessarily real, athletic talent. The indictments include charges of conspiracies related to racketeering, wire fraud and more. The charges involve coaches, parents and some who administered exams. Two prominent actresses — Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin — are among those charged. The institutions involved include Georgetown, Stanford, Wake Forest and Yale Universities and the University of Southern California. Federal authorities are only this morning releasing documents in the case, but the general patterns appears to be helping non-athletes gain the benefits of being admitted as athletes. At top colleges, being a recruited athlete can create an enormous advantage.