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James magazine: Lanier Tech, Piedmont among state’s top-ranked colleges, universities
By Ken Stanford Contributing Editor
Lanier Technical College and Piedmont College are among the state’s top-ranked colleges and universities, according to James magazine. Other northeast Georgia schools cited in the report include the University of North Georgia, Brenau University and Young Harris College.
PR Newswire
Value Colleges Releases Rankings of the Best Value Information Technology Degree Programs
Value Colleges (www.valuecolleges.com), an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate education, is pleased to share three new rankings:
…Value Colleges’ rankings of the Best Value Campus IT Programs, the Best Value Online IT Programs, and the Most Affordable Online IT Programs focus on degrees that provide the best overall return on investment. For all three rankings, Value Colleges focused specifically on regionally accredited colleges and universities with an established reputation for quality.
Top 25 Best Value Online IT Programs for 2019: Georgia Southern University; Kennesaw State University
Top 25 Most Affordable Online IT Programs for 2019; Georgia Southern University
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State University earns continuing approval for teacher education
Georgia Professionals Standard Commission (GaPSC) granted continuing approval to Savannah State University’s (SSU) College of Education for the following educator preparation programs: biology education, engineering and technology education; and mathematics education, according to SSU. These programs earn a student a bachelor of science in education degree, and prepare them to teach grades six through 12 in that subject. In addition, developmental approval was granted for a music education program, SSU said.
Fayette News
ASPIRING FILMMAKER’S WISH COMES TRUE AT PINEWOOD
Last week, Zach got the surprise of his life at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, where a crowd of 150 people cheered as his limo pulled into the studio bay. Students from Georgia Film Academy, Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and members of the community gave him a welcome he will never forget. Zach, who is 14 years old, was diagnosed with a heart condition at birth, but it doesn’t stop him from dreaming big, and Make-A-Wish Georgia helped make his dream come true. Frank Patterson, president of Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and Jeff Stepakoff, Executive Director of Georgia Film Academy, let him in on the secret: His wish to write and direct a film was coming true. The two industry leaders presented Zach with a director’s chair embroidered with his name, making the start of his journey official. Zach was also able to interview Frank and Jeff and receive industry and life advice that he’s sure to remember. They told him how they transitioned from young filmmakers to the professional world and advised him to never stop learning. They also informed him of the next step in his journey: Zach will begin writing his screenplay alongside professors at Georgia Film Academy immediately to prepare for filming on site this fall.
Daily Report
Couple Donate $1M UGA Law School to Aid Challenged Students
UGA law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said the gift will help “future lawyers and leaders as they earn their degrees and pursue jobs that make sense for them without burdensome debt.”
By Katheryn Tucker
A million-dollar gift from a Marietta couple for a University of Georgia Law School scholarship fund comes with one caveat: the privileged need not apply.
Griffin Daily News
Local students take part in Young Scholars research program
By Merritt Melancon
For CAES News
This year, 60 students from across the state and two from outside of Georgia joined the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Young Scholars research program and broke new ground in the agricultural sciences.
WTOC
Children attend ‘Camp Invention’ at East Georgia State College
Over 50 children spent a week of their summer vacation learning about science through East Georgia State College’s ‘Camp Invention’. The campers learned about all kinds of STEM subjects, such as circuit boards, motors, and even the basics of running their own business.
The Moultrie Observer
College students, faculty reach out to help with farm worker health care
By Rebecca Rakoczy
It’s a hot, muggy evening in South Georgia when a convoy of pickup trucks, vans and cars turns down a rutted dirt road lined with acres of lush squash and cucumber plants. The travelers aren’t local farmers. They’re recent dental hygiene graduates and doctor of physical therapy students from Georgia State, nursing students and nurse practitioner students from Emory University and pharmacy students from the University of Georgia. They’re continuing a 25-year-old mission of serving Georgia by providing preventative health care to hundreds of migrant farm workers and their families. Called the Farm Worker Family Health Program, the service-learning experience is organized through the Ellenton Farmworker Clinic, which offers health care services for migrant farm workers and their families in southwest Georgia. It’s one way these institutions help local communities while providing a unique learning experience for students.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
School shooting sprung Columbus State faculty member into action
BY JOSHUA MIXON
April 16, 2007, began like any other day for Chip Reese, the then-dean of students at Andrew College in Cuthbert, Georgia. Reese strolled through the student center on campus and stopped to watch the news headline that popped up on the TV. “I saw something, and I said, ‘Wow, what’s going on here?’” Reese said. “I said, ‘Good Lord, what is happening on that college campus?’” At Virgina Tech, some 600 miles away, a gunman opened fire at the university, killing 32 students and faculty over the course of about two hours. The shooter, 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho, mailed videos, photos and writings to NBC News, but the organization did not receive them until two days after the shooting. At that moment, Reese knew something had to change on college campuses. “That’s a day in higher education that we all remember very well,” Reese said. “The world just changed … And then you start thinking — if it can happen in one place, it can happen in another place. None of us are immune to this.” So, Reese got to work.
Valdosta Daily Times
Unearthing A Buried Identity: VSU professor fights to gain recognition for Mississippi tribe
VSU professor fights to gain recognition for Mississippi tribe
By John Stephen
…“You can look at my dad and tell he’s definitely not a white man, but he wouldn’t talk about it either,” said Ealy, now 51. “He would say, ‘We don’t discuss that.’ We weren’t allowed to talk about our color.” That “color” was Native American, an identity that for generations has been stolen from Ealy’s people, either by society mislabeling them or by Ealy’s people choosing to suppress their identity in an attempt to escape the hostile racism and prejudice in their homeland of southern Mississippi. Ealy is part of the Pascagoula River Tribe, named after the body of water that winds through southeast Mississippi. Her people have lived in that area since at least 200 A.D. Now her contemporary tribe of around 900 people is in the thick of the monumental task of trying to get officially recognized by the federal government. …But what the Pascagoula River Tribe has that the other groups did not is Dr. Dixie Haggard, professor of history at Valdosta State University who specializes in Native American history. For the past six years, Haggard has worked with the tribe to trace their history and gather the mountain of evidence that the Bureau of Indian Affairs requires. He has crisscrossed Mississippi to interview more than 70 tribal members. He has scoured land records, court documents, school records, newspaper clippings, census reports and colonial documents from the Spanish, British and French — just about anything and everything he could get his hands on that mentions the tribe — to prove the tribe’s historical existence and right to recognition. His colleague, Dr. John Crowley, an associate professor of history at VSU who specializes in genealogy, has helped to verify the tribe’s lineage.
Athens CEO
UGA Peanut Researchers Win Accolades for International Impact
Merritt Melancon
Peanut researchers from UGA met with hundreds of peanut scientists from around the world earlier this week to discuss the international impact of peanut research and to recognize top researchers. With a “Peanuts Around the World” theme, the annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society was held in Auburn, Alabama, featured presentations by the UGA-housed Feed the Future Peanut Innovation Lab demonstrating the benefits of research collaboration to science, industry and agriculture in the U.S. and countries around the world. Among the team’s well-attended sessions was a two-hour symposium titled “Synergies from U.S. Global Research Partnership,” which highlighted individual projects in the lab’s portfolio and how scientists in the U.S. and African partner countries are working to harness genetic diversity in the peanut. Such diversity will help farmers in partner nations, as well as in the U.S., adapt to pest and climate challenges today and for years to come.
Atlanta Inno
GenCyber Warrior Academy Encourages Girls to Pursue to Computer Science
By J.K. Devine
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by J.K. Devine, communications specialist at the University of North Georgia.
Learning to hack into a car, control a robot, program a drone and write computer code are just a few of the activities high school students will master during the GenCyber Warrior Academy in June at the University of North Georgia. More than 170 national and international students applied for 40 positions to the highly selective 10-day summer program. Of those accepted, 20 were boys and 20 were girls. Dr. Bryson Payne, professor of computer science in UNG’s Mike Cottrell College of Business, said the gender split is deliberate for two reasons. First, is that the National Security Agency, which sponsors and funds the summer program, seeks out diverse participants, including minority and female applicants.
Marietta Daily Journal
DICK YARBROUGH: Gov. Kemp makes long overdue changes to Board of Regents
Gov. Brian Kemp has made some crackerjack appointments since taking office in January, but none better than naming Atlanta real estate executive Sam Holmes to the Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia. Holmes comes from good stock. His dad, businessman Paul Holmes, is one of the most widely respected and best-liked souls in the state. His momma is Susan Dykes Holmes, former mayor of Monticello and currently a state representative. Despite their stellar credentials, they are what we in the South call good folks. The governor also appointed Jose Perez of Gwinnett County to the Regents, as well as reappointing Dean Alford of Conyers. Gone from the board is deep-pocketed liquor baron Don Leebern, first appointed to the Board of Regents by Gov. Zell Miller in 1991 and subsequently reappointed by the administrations of Roy Barnes, George E. Perdue and Nathan Deal. Before leaving office, Deal made a somewhat clumsy attempt to reappoint Leebern for another seven-year term, along with 63 other board appointments. Oops! He found out there is a new sheriff in town named Geoff Duncan.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rhodes Scholar from Georgia Tech arrested at ICE protest
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Calvin Runnels issues call to action for others to join him in fighting demonization of immigrants.
Police arrested a Rhodes Scholar from Georgia Tech at this week’s Jewish-led Never Again Action protest at the Atlanta Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. In a guest column, Calvin Runnels, a native of Baton Rouge, explains why he protested and why more Americans ought to join him. (He and another activist were charged with disorderly conduct under a city ordinance during Monday’s protest, which drew more than 100 people.)Runnels graduated Tech last year with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. One of 32 Rhodes Scholars in 2018, he is pursuing postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford. He is the sixth student in Tech history to be named a Rhodes Scholar, which is one of the most prestigious student honors in the world. Runnels, 22, was a Beckman Coulter Petit Undergraduate Research Scholar, Stamps President’s Scholar and a member of the Honors Program, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow. He is a transgender male and served as the student co-chair of the campus LGBTQIA Action Team.In her Rhodes recommendation letter on behalf of Runnels, Stephanie Ray, Georgia Tech associate dean of students and director of Student Diversity Programs, wrote, “Calvin has spent a great deal of time at Tech learning about himself and learning about others. As a result, Calvin is very committed to improving the human condition.” With that background, here is a letter Runnels wrote about his arrest, addressing it to other American Jews.
Savannah Morning News
Judge declares mistrial in 2015 murder of Savannah State University student Christopher Starks
By Jan Skutch
A murder trial of Justin Stephens in the 2015 slaying of a Savannah State University student ended in a mistrial Friday after jurors informed the judge they could not reach decisions on any of the counts in the indictment. Chatham County Superior Court Judge John E. Morse Jr. called jurors back to the courtroom about 11:30 a.m. and was informed by the jury foreman that they were hopelessly deadlocked and did not feel any further deliberations would resolve the issue. Jurors deliberated more than eight hours over two days before informing the court of their deadlock this morning. “The jury was unable to reach a verdict,” Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap said after court. “We will retry the case.” Defense attorney David Burns said he would seek a bond for his client pending further court action.
WFXL
1968, 1969 ABAC Basketball Team makes history, inducted into ABAC Hall of Fame
by Kailey McCarthy
The ABAC 1968, 1969 Golden Stallions Basketball Team made history after receiving a prestigious award earlier this year. Half a century later and the team is still making a lasting impact on the college and in Southwest Georgia today. …It’s been half a century since the 1968, 1969 Golden Stallions at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton have been together on the same basketball court. The team compiled a record of 25-6 and won the Southern Conference of the Georgia Junior College Athletic Association with a perfect twelve to zero mark.
WJCL
Optim Sports Medicine & Georgia Southern Athletics helping protect student-athletes
First-ever Sports Medicine Conference held Saturday
Frank Sulkowski
Football coaches and athletic trainers from 15 southeast Georgia counties gathering in Statesboro to learn the most up-to-date information sports-related topics like concussions, heat safety, and hydration. The first-ever Sports Medicine Conference was presented by Optim Sports Medicine and Georgia Southern University Athletics.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
When a misleading op-ed in The Wall Street Journal irks academics, it’s time for a fact check on faculty work and pay.
By Colleen Flaherty
Hearing politicians mischaracterize and discredit faculty work is par for the course in academe. It’s much more surprising to hear someone with actual teaching experience do it. So professors shared a collective “WTF?” moment last week when Joseph Epstein, writer and emeritus lecturer of English at Northwestern University, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal stating that it’s not uncommon to make $200,000 per year for “essentially a six-month job, and without ever having to put in an eight-hour day.” The premise of Epstein’s piece is that “if government is going to pay for college, at least it ought to try to bring down the cost,” and that he knows where to start cutting because he taught for 30 years. He doesn’t just attack faculty work — Epstein also suggests reducing the salaries of university presidents by 90 percent, curing administrative bloat and slashing athletic coaches’ pay.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Alaska Regents Will Vote Monday on Declaration of a Financial Emergency
By Nick DeSantis
The University of Alaska’s Board of Regents will vote on Monday on whether to declare a financial emergency, instead of delaying such a decision until the end of the month, the university system’s president said on Friday. Last Monday the regents put off voting on a declaration of financial exigency until July 30, in the hope that by that date, they would have more clarity on whether state lawmakers planned to restore some of the drastic cuts set in motion by Gov. Michael J. Dunleavy’s budget vetoes. University leaders have said the impact of Dunleavy’s cuts could eventually exceed $200 million — even more than the $136 million cut this fiscal year. Declaring financial exigency would make it easier for the system to downsize rapidly, including closing programs and laying off tenured faculty members.