University System News:
Georgia Trend
Albany | Dougherty County: Forging Ahead
K.K. Snyder
…Training the Future
With the Board of Regents’ approval last August, Albany State University (ASU) became the first in the University System of Georgia (USG) – and the only historically black college or university in the United States – to offer nexus degrees in blockchain technology, one in blockchain with machine learning and the other in blockchain with data analytics, says Robert Owor, professor of computer science and software engineering at ASU. Twelve recent ASU graduates have jobs with IBM, and currently 55 students are enrolled in the degree program, says Owor. The degrees stem from work being done as part of the USG’s College 2025 Initiative, which seeks to ensure public higher education meets 21st-century learning and career needs.
AllOnGeorgia
Logistics students place third in first-ever Innovation Challenge
A team of Georgia Southern University logistics students placed third out of 14 schools and received $1,000 in the first-ever FreightTech Innovation Challenge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in March. The FreightTech Innovation Challenge, organized by logistics industry leaders FreightWaves and CO.LAB and sponsored by Reliance Partners and U.S. Xpress, is a 24-hour transportation and logistics use case competition. Students spent two days working to solve challenges facing the transportation and logistics industries with the chance to win cash prizes and find potential employers. Marc Scott, Ph.D., assistant professor of logistics, said the feedback the team received from the judges set this 24-hour case challenge apart from others our logistics students have participated in previously.
Inside Higher Ed
Commencement Speakers Announced: Barton, College of the Atlantic, Dillard, Dominican, Mississippi Valley State, NYIT, Paul Quinn, Thomas Nelson CC, U Mary Washington, UNC Asheville, U North Georgia, VCU, Westfield State
By Scott Jaschik
University of North Georgia: Nathan Deal, former governor of Georgia; and others.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who’s speaking at 2019 metro Atlanta commencement ceremonies?
By Eric Stirgus
GEORGIA TECH – Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan will speak at the morning ceremony on Sat., May 4, 9 a.m. at McCamish Pavilion. Georgia Lottery President & CEO Gretchen Corbin will speak at the afternoon ceremony, which starts at 3 p.m. at the same location. …UNIVERSITY OF NORTH GEORGIA – Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal will be one of three keynote speakers at its ceremonies.
Albany Herald
GSW ‘Homework’ project, fundraiser to aid homeless
From Staff Reports
The Huss Foundation’s Artists’ Gallery will present “Homework,” an art exhibit intended to raise money for the homeless. The exhibit will run from Tuesday until May 10 with a reception and silent auction on Friday from 5-8 p.m. This event will mark the third iteration of “Homework” and corresponds with May’s First Friday theme, “May’d in Americus.” The Georgia Southwestern State University Department of Visual Arts initiated the project in 2016 as a collaboration with the Americus Sumter County Transitional Housing Ministries and the local Fuller Center for Housing affiliate as a way to strategically put theory into action. The project asks students, faculty and alumni to work collectively and individually and use their skills in a way that would benefit a family in need, specifically the need for those preparing to move from homelessness to their own homes. As a result, “Homework” includes a range of objects every family needs when starting a new home, including dinnerware, glassware and furniture pieces.
Savannah Business Journal
Georgia Southern professor accepted in prestigious 2019 PRIDE Institute summer program
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) Assistant Professor Tilicia Mayo-Gamble, Ph.D., has been accepted into the 2019 Programs to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE). She will be a part of the Functional and Translational Genomics of Blood Disorder Program.
Georgia Trend
CSU capital campaign concludes
BY MARY ANN DEMUTH
Columbus State University (CSU) recently completed its First Choice Comprehensive Capital Campaign, raising roughly $120 million from 8,000 alumni and community donors since the campaign began in 2012. Nearly 40 percent of donors were alumni who gave more than $17 million and 52 percent were non-alumni individuals who contributed more than $55 million. Corporations and foundations accounted for 8 percent of the donors and contributed approximately $44 million. Among the corporate supporters were Synovus, TSYS, Pezold Management Group and W.C. Bradley Co.
Savannah Now
Renovation, restoration of Savannah’s Armstrong-Kessler Mansion returns to former glory
By Katie Nussbaum
The Armstrong Mansion at Bull and Gaston streets is set to begin a new, but familiar chapter as hotelier and developer Richard Kessler marks the end of a multi-year restoration process to return the mansion to its original use as a private residence a century after its completion. “I always admired the building and I had a little bit of a connection to it back when I was a sophomore at Georgia Tech,” Kessler said of taking a political science and world history course in the building before then Armstrong Junior College moved to the southside in the late 1960s.
The history
Constructed from 1917 to 1919, the Italian Renaissance Revival style home was designed by Henrik Wallin for Effingham County native George Ferguson Armstrong who served as president of Strachan and Co. Shipping, director of Hibernia Bank, and president of Mutual Mining Co. After Armstrong died in 1924, his wife, Lucy May Camp Armstrong, continued to live in the home with their daughter, Lucy Camp Armstrong. Lucy May Camp Armstrong later remarried and donated the building to the city of Savannah in 1935 to be used as the founding location of Armstrong Junior College. A few years later the original carriage house on the rear of the property was demolished to make way for the Herschel V. Jenkins auditorium, which was also designed by Wallin. The auditorium was completed in 1938, but as the college began to expand, it outgrew the downtown campus. In 1966, the school, then named Armstrong State College, moved to the southside.
See also:
WSAV
Armstrong Kessler Mansion: a fresh take on an iconic Savannah structure
The George-Anne
Georgia Southern Theatre Program nominated for 11 awards for “The Master and Margarita”
By Elizabeth Gross
The Georgia Southern University Theatre program was nominated for 11 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival awards in Region IV for the play, “The Master and Margarita.”
13WMAZ
MGSU equestrian team competes for title
The Middle Georgia State Equestrian team will be represented in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association National Championships next month.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Golfers Qualify for National Tournament
Staff Report From Tifton CEO
Led by the heroics of tournament medalist Will Bozeman, the Golden Stallions of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College finished second in the recent National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) District J golf tournament at Chateau Elan Golf Club in Braselton. After tying with Walters State through 36 holes, ABAC lost to the Tennessee team on a playoff hole. Bozeman shot a 71 and a 76 for a 147 total in the two-day tournament to finish just ahead of teammate Adam Park, who tied for second with a 150. The tournament also served as the NJCAA Region 17 tournament. As a result, Bozeman received two plaques for medalist honors. Other Stallions who contributed were Hunter Dokey in 14th place and Tyler White and Matthew Cheek, who tied for 15th. ABAC Coach Larry Byrnes, who has now guided the Stallions to the national tournament in four consecutive seasons, was named NJCAA Region 17 Coach of the Year for the fourth year in a row.
WSAV
Georgia Southern players earn opportunities with NFL teams
By: Connor DelPrete
Shortly after the 2019 draft wrapped up, we learned four Georgia Southern players will have a chance to make an NFL team. Tight end Ellis Richardson inked a free agent deal to join the Chicago Bears and three Georgia Southern players earned invites to various mini camps. The San Francisco 49ers extended a mini camp invite to running back Wesley Fields. Safety Sean Freeman and center Curtis Rainey will be at the Atlanta Falcons mini camp starting May 16th. If Fields makes the 49ers team, he would join Jerick McKinnon and Matt Breida as the third Georgia Southern running back in San Francisco.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
House Subcommittee Approves Funding Bill With Billions in New Student Aid
By Andrew Kreighbaum
Federal student aid programs would receive a $492 million funding increase in a bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. The bill now goes to the full appropriations committee. The fiscal year 2020 funding bill, the first authored by House Democrats under the Trump administration, would increase the maximum Pell Grant by $150 to $6,345.
Inside Higher Ed
Report Examines Office of Federal Student Aid
By Andrew Kreighbaum
The Office of Federal Student Aid, which distributes $120 billion in student aid each year, is one of three performance-based organizations in the federal government. That structure is supposed to make FSA operate more like a private enterprise and focus on clear outcomes. But the independence that status grants the agency can also shield FSA from accountability for performance, according to a joint report released today by the Center for American Progress and American Enterprise Institute.
Inside Higher Ed
Do Colleges Measure What They Value?
Study examines what colleges say they want students to learn and how they are measuring that learning.
By Doug Lederman
As Americans express growing doubts about the value of a postsecondary degree, colleges and universities have been under increasing pressure to show that students emerge with the knowledge and/or skills the institutions say they’re trying to develop. Not everyone applauds the push to measure student learning, but the pressure to be more intentional about the outcomes a college or program aims to develop isn’t likely to abate soon. A new report, “Degree of Difference: What Do Learning Outcomes Say About Higher Education?” digs into data about “learning outcome statements” at dozens of colleges and universities to see what institutions say they want their students to be learning and how they measure whether that learning occurred. Its conclusions: many colleges don’t align what they’re trying to do at the program and department level with an overall institutional approach.
Inside Higher Ed
Discrepancies in Estimates on Food Insecurity
New research finds that while food insecurity among college students is a serious problem, studies on the issue may not provide accurate estimates of its magnitude.
By Ashley A. Smith
A group of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says more research is needed to accurately estimate the number of college students facing food insecurity and hunger, as awareness of the problem grows and lawmakers and colleges grapple with it. The researchers analyzed multiple studies on food insecurity and found discrepancies in the way hunger is measured. Those discrepancies cast doubt on estimates of the share of college students who are reportedly hungry or food insecure, according to a paper the researchers, Cassandra J. Nikolaus, Breanna Ellison and Sharon Nickols-Richardson, published in PLOS ONE last week. “The main reason we are concerned about accuracy with these surveys is so we can effectively implement and assess the solutions,” Nikolaus said.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
2 Students Are Killed in Shooting at U. of North Carolina at Charlotte
By Dan Berrett
Two students were killed and four others injured on Tuesday in a shooting inside a building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The police announced that they had disarmed a suspect and taken him into custody. He was later identified as Trystan Andrew Terrell, 22, a former student at the university. He was reportedly armed with a pistol. On Wednesday morning, Philip L. Dubois, the university’s chancellor, identified the two students who had been killed. He said on a local radio station that they were Ellis Parlier, 19, and Riley Howell, 21, according to The Charlotte Observer. Three of the students who were injured were described in news reports as being in critical condition. The injuries to the fourth person were described as less serious.