University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Board names finalist for Georgia Gwinnett College presidency
By Eric Stirgus
The Georgia Board of Regents announced Thursday that the interim leader of Indiana University’s South Bend campus is the sole finalist for the current presidential vacancy at Georgia Gwinnett College. Jann L. Joseph, interim chancellor for Indiana University South Bend, is in line to lead the largest higher education institution in Gwinnett County. Georgia Gwinnett College has more than 12,000 students. One in eight students are 25 or older. “The opportunity to lead GGC would be a dream come true,” Joseph said in a statement. “The path of my career in higher education intersects perfectly with the vision and goals GGC has for the future. My background and values also fit with the culture and priorities of the institution from the Board of Regents to the faculty, students, staff and community. I’m impressed with the accomplishments of GGC and believe that my experience and leadership would enable the institution to reach new heights.”
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Finalist tapped for Georgia Gwinnett College presidency
By Dave Williams – Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
An Indiana university administrator is the sole finalist to become the next president at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). The University System of Georgia Board of Regents has nominated Jann Luciana Joseph, interim chancellor of Indiana University South Bend, to succeed Stanley C. “Stas” Preczewski at GGC. “This institution requires a dynamic, experienced leader who will work with the community, faculty and staff to take it to the next level academically in student success,” system Chancellor Steve Wrigley said. “I believe the right person for the job is Dr. Joseph. I’m grateful for the efforts of the search committee and excited she is our finalist.”
See also:
Gwinnett Daily Post
Georgia Gwinnett College names Indiana University chancellor as finalist for presidency
Metro Atlanta CEO
Finalist Named for Georgia Gwinnett College Presidency
Gwinnett Forum
3/29: Finalist for GGC president; Survey results; Medicare for All?
Sole finalist for GGC president is Dr. Jann Joseph of South Bend, Ind.
Albany Herald
Albany State University celebrates honor students
Annual honors convocation highlights three high-achieving students at Albany State University
By Rachel Lord
Albany State University celebrated its best and brightest students at the annual Honors Day Convocation at the institution’s West Campus on Thursday. The theme for this year’s program was “Honoring Academic Commitment and Success” and included student speakers Rachael Slappey, a sophomore early education major, Chiagoziem Agu, a junior biology major and Scott Roach, a senior marketing major. The three students were the highest overall ranking sophomore, junior and senior, and they shared with the audience their experiences and tips for success.
WTVM
CSU hosts forum to celebrate diversity and inclusion
By Olivia Gunn
Columbus State University’s diversity forum was held Wednesday night. Attendees gathered at CSU’s Lumpkin Center to celebrate diversity and inclusion. The keynote speakers were NPR TV critic, Eric Diggins, and Kim Katrin Milan, co-founder of The People Project and Activist for Justice and Inclusion. The diversity program is presented by CSU’s Office of Diversity Programs and Services.
Statesboro Herald
Looking for more female engineers
Women’s trade group tours Georgia Southern
Julie Lavender/staff
Statesboro Herald
The only national trade association dedicated to providing year-round support to women who have chosen a career in the manufacturing industry came to Georgia Southern University recently to learn about manufacturing in Bulloch County. The Georgia Chapter of Women in Manufacturing were the guests of the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing at Georgia Southern, who showed off the engineering facilities. Following a luncheon on campus with guest speakers from Great Dane, participants toured the Great Dane facility in Statesboro. Alyssa Rumsey, project manager for the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing and a board member for Women in Manufacturing, said that about 40 women attended the event.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Proposed changes in how colleges investigate assault cases draw fire
By Eric Stirgus
Jill Cartwright and Joseph Roberts both had encounters with sexual misconduct while they were students at colleges in Georgia. One made an accusation; the other was accused. Their experiences, from separate ends of the process, left both scared and thinking that the way schools investigate such claims is broken. Cartwright, a Spelman College senior, said she was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend as a sophomore and the school was initially slow in investigating her complaint. Roberts, a Savannah State graduate, said he was falsely accused of sexual harassment by some female classmates and the school suspended him without due process weeks before he was scheduled to receive his degree in 2013.U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed changes late last year to how schools handle sexual misconduct complaints, and how students like Cartwright and Roberts are treated during the process. The changes are an attempt to further revise Obama administration guidelines that DeVos and some student rights groups said too frequently denied due process to students accused of misconduct. The proposed changes receiving general approval include preventing the same person on campuses from investigating and making decisions on a misconduct complaint, prohibiting unwelcome contact between accusers and the accused, and allowing both sides to appeal a decision. But many educators, activists and assault survivors disagree with some of the provisions, particularly one that would change how complaints off campus are investigated.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA prepares STEM for rapidly changing future
By Aaron Hale
The number of University of Georgia undergraduate students in STEM disciplines has risen about 20 percent in the past five years. In fall 2018 along, 11,832 (40 percent of the student body) declared a major in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Combine this surge with the recent launch of UGA’s Innovation District and construction beginning on the I-STEM Research Building, one can see the STEM momentum growing on campus. The increase in STEM-related majors matches national trends. According to the Education Commission of the States, STEM jobs in the U.S. are expected to grow 13 percent from 2017 to 2027. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimates that 93 percent of all STEM occupations provide wages above the national average and more than twice the national average of non-STEM jobs. Such trends indicate that the world is looking to STEM professionals to address its grand challenges. “We have more complex problems in our world,” said Timothy Burg, director of UGA’s Office for STEM Education, “and we’re expecting effective, ethical, sustainable, equitable solutions.” At UGA, there has been a focus on invigorating STEM education to better prepare students to solve these big, complex problems, said UGA’s Vice President for Instruction Rahul Shrivastav. “STEM education at UGA is more than just learning facts,” said Shrivastav. “It’s a holistic approach, where students develop a broad set of skills that enable cross-disciplinary collaboration along with expertise in a given area.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Demonstrators want KSU to create anti-racism center on campus
By Eric Stirgus
Kennesaw State University is one of the most racially diverse campuses in Georgia, but some students and community activists gathered there Thursday to say administrators aren’t doing enough to prevent racist acts and punish those who commit them. Seven speakers led a midday rally on the university’s Kennesaw campus that at one point drew about 60 supporters and onlookers. One of the main demands is that KSU open an anti-racism center on campus, which speakers said was promised by a former university president a decade ago.
11Alive
Women allege decade of sexual harassment, abuse by campus police sergeant went unchecked
Our investigation revealed Fort Valley State University received multiple reports alleging aggressive sexual misconduct by the officer, but not even the ones the university substantiated were mentioned in his yearly employee review.
Author: Faith Abubey, Lindsey Basye
An 18-year-old student was on one end of the phone, mostly quiet, while recording a conversation that would become the beginning of Fort Valley State University Police Sergeant Wilbur Bryant’s legal troubles. “Everyone has a freak inside of them. You just got to pull it out of them,” the 52-year-old is heard in the recording, telling the freshman student. “To make love to you would be great,” he continued. “If I’m willing to put my job on the line for you, what that tell you?” “True,” the student replied, shyly. “That tells you that I’m really into you. It’s not a joke. It’s just like coming to your [dorm] room. You’ve got cameras in the hallway so if you go back and pull the camera, they see what room I went to. You follow me?” Bryant continued. That recorded phone conversation is now part of a criminal investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation into the campus police officer. It goes on for about an hour. The character of the man on the phone is in stark contrast to the Sgt. Wilbur his employment records show. …By Spring Break, the veteran police officer ramped up what Fort Valley State’s own investigation found to be “inappropriate contact with a female student.” Sgt. Bryant was still in full uniform with a service weapon by his side when, according to court documents, he “forced” himself into Hall’s daughter’s dorm room. … Hall turned that recording over to attorney Kenneth Lewis who’s now representing the family against Bryant, the university and the Board of Regents in a lawsuit.
First Coast News
Queer Eye ‘Hero’ sues UGA after insurance refuses to cover gender transition surgery
Some lawmakers believe it’s an inappropriate use of taxpayer money – but recent court decisions indicate they may be on the wrong side of history.
Author: Andy Pierotti, Lindsey Basye
In June 2018, Skyler Jay’s life was changed forever when he was featured on the hit Netflix series Queer Eye. The episode documents Skyler medically transitioning as a transgender man, from his mastectomy, to changing his gender on his driver license from female to male. “Those are huge moments in my life that I feel privileged to have documented,” said the 31-year-old. …Skyler is a catering manager at the University of Georgia. A few years ago, he asked his human resources office what insurance plan the school offered that would cover transgender healthcare, but was told it didn’t exist. …In July last year, Skyler filed a lawsuit, claiming the university’s transgender healthcare exclusion is discriminatory.
Saporta Report
Georgia Senate panel narrows medical cannabis cultivation bill
By Maggie Lee
Medical cannabis advocates think a rewrite of a House-approved medical cannabis cultivation bill is mainly unworkable and contains some poison pill provisions. But a key state Senator says the original might have had unintended consequences. The deadline for moving any legislation to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk this year this year is April 2. House Bill 324, as approved by the state House 123-40, was as a way to license up to 10 companies to cultivate cannabis in secure greenhouses and make a liquid from it in attached lab-like spaces. …The Senate committee version would also turn to Georgia’s university system first for growing, and also to fill medical research gaps. The University System of Georgia would get the right of first refusal on a cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution license. Two schools — the University of Georgia and Fort Valley State University — could cultivate cannabis, and use it to make this liquid and to do medical research. Cowsert said the bill directs the university system to apply for federal permission to grow and research cannabis; and that it could mean more federal grants. The university system isn’t saying what it thinks of the idea. A spokeswoman said the university system doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
Higher Education News:
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Film industry ratcheting up pressure on Georgia lawmakers over abortion bill
By Dave Williams – Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Members of the film industry, famous and not-so-famous, are ratcheting up the heat on Georgia lawmakers considering what would become one of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the nation. More than 40 film celebrities have signed onto a letter threatening to encourage production companies to pull up stakes in Georgia if the so-called “heartbeat” bill now before the state House of Representatives becomes law. The list of signees includes Alec Baldwin, Amy Schumer, Rosie O’Donnell, Sean Penn and Ben Stiller. Meanwhile, in a second letter, 61 of Georgia’s film and television workers came out against the bill and asked Sony, Netflix, Disney, Marvel, HBO and Universal Pictures to join them.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Study: Some Four-Year Institutions Provide Inaccurate, Confusing Cost Information
by Monica Levitan
While bipartisan legislation is being introduced on how to improve net price calculators (NPCs) — a tool that shows prospective students total costs of an education after scholarships and federal grants — a newly released research brief found that many four-year institutions are providing misleading or confusing cost information and some universities are not following legislation that requires NPCs to be prominently presented on their website. The brief, conducted by the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn AHEAD) studied 80 four-year colleges universities, including both private and public institutions that serve large percentages of Pell Grant recipients. Prospective students and families have been, and still are concerned about how to pay for a student’s college education, said author of the brief Dr. Laura Perna who is the James S. Riepe Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and executive director of PennAHEAD. …Under the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, U.S. colleges and universities are legally required to provide prospective students with accurate information about the cost of a college information. Having this information early in the college application process and without completing a FAFSA application, the brief said, is increasingly important for first-generation, low-income students and those who do not have access to college and financial aid counselors. Twelve of the 44 institutional NPC outputs that provided a line item for loans did not clearly differentiate loans from grants and scholarships, the brief found.
Inside Higher Ed
Mixed Results on Florida Remedial Education Gamble
New research on Florida’s remedial education law shows more students are taking and passing college-level courses. Despite the progress, researchers still see significant numbers of students failing and can’t explain why.
By Ashley A. Smith
Florida gambled big in 2013 when the state adopted a law eliminating placement exams and remedial college courses and gave recent high school graduates the option to take college-level introductory math and English courses. New research released this month by the Center for Postsecondary Success at Florida State University found that the gamble paid off. More first-time college students, including black and Hispanic students, passed the college-level math and English courses, also known as “gateway” courses, after the law went into effect in 2014. While other states have made big moves to reform college-based remedial education, Florida remains the only state that allows students to opt in to a gateway course. The state’s remedial education law also mandated that two-year colleges replace remedial courses with credit-bearing developmental education courses. The researchers studied six years of freshman data, from 2011 to 2016, at Florida’s 28 two-year colleges and found more students passed the college-level English and math courses after the remedial education law was adopted. The law also required the colleges to offer “enhanced advising” and more academic support services, such as tutoring and early alert academic intervention systems because of concerns that an influx of underprepared students would rush into college-level courses. Those additional services appear to have helped students, according to the report.