University System News:
Douglas Now
SGSC’S Tuition And Fees Remain Among The Lowest In The Nation
SGSC’s tuition and fees remain among the lowest in the nation
What is the cost of attending in 2019? Most entering college freshmen and their families underestimate the total cost of attending a four-year institution. For the 2018-2019 school year, the College Board, a not-for-profit organization formed in the late 1800s to expand access to higher education, estimated the average annual cost of tuition and fees was $10,230 for in-state students at public four-year universities — and $35,830 for students at private not-for-profit four-year institutions. These estimates didn’t include room and board, books, supplies, transportation and other expenses a student may incur. Compare these figures to the College Affordability and Transparency Center’s (CATC) recently released figures, and you’ll find that students attending South Georgia State College (SGSC) are among those paying the lowest tuition in the University System of Georgia (USG). In addition, the college is in the top 10 percent of institutions charging the lowest tuition nationally. The report is based on tuition and required fees for 790 four-year public institutions reporting to the IPEDS Data Collection System.
Savannah CEO
Giving Increases at Savannah State
Staff Report From Savannah CEO
Savannah State University (SSU) closed the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) with increases in donations. The university generated $2.2 million in gifts during FY19 which is 15 percent more funds than the previous year. Alumni donors accounted for more than $500,000 of FY19 donations. The number of individual alumni donors also increased 33 percent over last year. Annual events such as the president’s scholarship gala aim to increase the available scholarship funds for students.
Savannah CEO
Allen Amason of Georgia Southern, Their Relationship and Partnership with Parker’s
Allen Amason, Dean of the Parker College of Business at Georgia Southern, discusses the generous gift to the school received from Greg Parker and their partnership with Parker’s.
WGAU Radio
UGA’S Morehead Meets With Dawg Campers
President Jere W. Morehead met with 20 incoming students for Dawg Camp Innovate, a new program focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. Announced at the president’s State of the University Address in January, Dawg Camp Innovate is a weeklong immersion program that helps students launch new ideas and connect with local entrepreneurs and Athens nonprofits.
Progressive Farmer
By Loren Lindler, Editorial Intern
OMAHA (DTN) — This summer I had the opportunity to be an editorial intern with DTN/Progressive Farmer. I wrote a number of pieces for the website and magazine, and learned about writing, photography, videography, graphic design and layout. As an agricultural communication major at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, I was so excited for an internship that would allow me to learn more about the industry. With the industry continuously evolving, it was a very rewarding experience to learn more about the industry that feeds and fuels the world. I’ve always wanted to work in the ag industry, but I have never been set on what I want to do with my career, which is why internships are so vital for college students. Working here has taught me so many things, and each day brought something new. A typical day consisted of working in the office, interviewing interesting people, writing a story, or sometimes doing research for Crop Tech Corner columns.
John Creek Herald
Second year of FirstSTEP brings 71 student teachers into classrooms
Fulton Schools program serves as recruiting tool to draw area’s top talent
By CANDY WAYLOCK
An innovative program to recruit and retain top teachers enters its second year with 71 teacher interns embedded in Fulton County schools for the 2019-20 school year. The goal of the district’s FirstSTEP (Student Teacher Education Program) is to transition these interns into full-time teachers, with a year of classroom experience and lessons learned from mentor teachers. “We want [our interns] to start their career with us and stay,” said Marsha Francis, PhD., program manager for FirstSTEP. “[The program] identifies teachers before they enter the labor market with the expectation they will choose to remain with Fulton Schools at the end of their internship.” The 71 interns this school year come from six local colleges and universities — Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Spelman College, the University of West Georgia, and the University of Georgia. The interns receive a $3,000 stipend for the 9-month internship, and the promise of a full-time contract upon successful completion.
energy.gov
University’s Environmental Outreach at SRS Continues to Grow
A team of environmental educators reached over 60,000 individuals last year through an outreach program supported by EM funding at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Team members with the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) program educate the public about the animal and plant diversity surrounding the site’s operations and the ecosystem in neighboring communities. Pacifico Perea, the program manager for SREL, said the team reached between 35,000 and 40,000 individuals in previous years, but with expanded programming and staff, SREL has surpassed those numbers. “Our educational offerings have diversified from a primarily amphibian- and reptile-focused program to programs that reflect the broad range of wildlife seen across the SRS,” Perea said. “We also highlight the research the lab conducts to monitor, manage, and protect the habitats that these animals call home.”
WTOC
Georgia Southern, Ogeechee Tech sign student transition agreements
By Dal Cannady
Georgia Southern University and Ogeechee Technical College signed an agreement Tuesday to simplify the transition from a technical degree to a bachelor’s degree. Those who have studied information technology, logistics, intermodal transportation, criminal justice, or criminology at Ogeechee Tech will be able to move those credits towards a four-year degree at Georgia Southern, rather than starting from scratch. “We’re learning we have to value the students’ time,” said Lori Durden, OTC President. “We don’t want students wasting time taking courses they don’t need or they have to repeat somewhere else.” Ogeechee Tech had some agreements with Georgia Southern and some with Armstrong State. The deal signed on Tuesday streamlines the requirements now at Georgia Southern under consolidation. It also widens the range of credits accepted to move from a two-year associate’s degree to a four-year degree.
WSAV
Some residence halls at Georgia Southern to remain closed for Fall
Mold and structural problems are forcing some dorms at Georgia Southern University to remain closed through the start of the school year. Mold forced Georgia Southern’s Kennedy Hall to close back in January and a few months later in April, parts of University Villas closed due to structural problems. Peter Bluetreich, Executive Director for University Housing, said those two residence halls housed a good portion of first-year students. “So we’re down 750, 760 student beds looking at housing the entering freshmen class,” Blutreich said. This year’s freshman class includes 3,000 students. Blutreich said at this point nearly all of them have received their housing letters. Georgia Southern has a rule that first-year students must live on campus, but there are exemptions to the rule. To accommodate the incoming freshmen class living on campus with losing nearly 800 student beds, housing had to cut down on some upperclassmen’s housing request to return to campus. …No word yet on exactly when those closed residence halls will reopen.
WSB
Georgia Tech remodeling home of campus landmark; students left with mixed feelings
By: Berndt Petersen
Some Georgia Tech students say a campus tradition is about to be ruined. The university is remodeling an area currently home to a large sculpture and fountain. Once construction is in full swing, the 80-foot sculpture that some call “The Shaft” will be moved and the fountain will be demolished.
WGAU Radio
UGA PREPARES TO MARK 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF CORTONA CAMPUS
By: Heather Skyler
Prisca Zaccaria grew up in Cortona, Italy, and every summer for as long as she can remember, she anticipated the day when the Americans would arrive in Cortona from Rome by bus. These Americans were students in the University of Georgia’s study abroad program in Cortona. “I remember growing up seeing these different people in town. They would wear shorts and baseball caps and running shoes. Rayban sunglasses,” Zaccaria said. “They took their cameras everywhere, and they would be photographing, painting and sketching everything they saw. The views, the architecture, and art that the American students marveled over were all things we locals took for granted.” Zaccaria is part of the UGA Cortona inception story. Her father worked for the Ministry of Public Education in Italy, and when UGA professor Jack Kehoe stumbled across the small town of Cortona on his way to Rome back in 1969, he met with her father and asked if there was any room in town for study abroad students. Zaccaria’s father offered up the elementary school, which was vacant during summer, and the Cortona program was born. The program turned 50 this year, and an alumni celebration takes place Aug. 10 in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Marietta Daily Journal
City of Milton appoints new public works director
Elizabeth Nouryeh
The city of Milton selected Robert Drewry to serve as the new public works director, following Carter Lucas’s departure earlier this year. Drewry is a highly experienced public works official with more than 30 years of experience in local government. He served as Chatham County Public Works Director since 2000 and was interim director and assistant director for two years prior to that. …Drewry began his career as assistant county engineer in Lowndes County, before joining Chatham County’s department of engineering as a civil engineer, where he spent almost five years. Drewry is a South Georgia native and received his degree in Civil Engineering Technology from Georgia Southern University. He also has a Certificate of Public Works Management from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Hypepotamus
by Holly Beilin
When G.P. “Bud” Peterson was appointed President of Georgia Tech in 2009, the campus and surrounding neighborhood looked quite different than its 2019 iteration. Many of the skyline-defining buildings — NCR, Coda, and countless apartments and condos — were not even conceived. Frankly, Midtown Atlanta was simply not the walkable, bustling neighborhood it is today. And just that one decade ago, the 30-plus corporate innovation centers clustered around the university’s Tech Square also did not yet exist. Through his 10-year tenure, Peterson oversaw and drove the establishment of all of these corporate innovation centers and their corresponding company partnerships with the school.
11Alive
Tech Tuesday Takeover! Salt, the Humanoid Robot, joins Christine & Cara.
Meet Salt, the humanoid robot and learn how the Georgia Tech HumAnS Lab uses him in healthcare and education. Features Ph.D. student De’Aira Bryant.
Savannah Morning News
Shai Werts arrest footage reveals substance plastered on majority of car’s hood
By Travis Jaudon
Tuesday afternoon through the Saluda County Sheriff’s Department, the Savannah Morning News became the first non-law enforcement entity to view body and squad car camera footage from the July 31 arrest of Georgia Southern junior quarterback Shai Werts. A native of nearby Clinton, Werts was charged with misdemeanor possession of cocaine and speeding after his 2016 silver Dodge Charger was clocked going 80 mph on Chappells Highway at 8:58 that evening. After having detained the suspect in the rear of a squad car for nearly 10 minutes, officers began to grow suspicious of the substantial sheet of white substance covering the majority of the hood on Werts’ car. “What is this stuff?” asked one officer to the others while shining a flashlight.
…Two different officers tested the substance using Narcotics Analysis Reagent Kits (NARK) in two spots of the hood with two different kits. The samples, taken a few minutes apart, turned to a distinct pink color and appeared to shock the officers. “This is pretty crazy, man,” Deputy Charles A. Browder said to other police on the video recording. “It’s as pink as can be,” said another. “I’ve seen it all now.” Werts said the tests were incorrect. “What is the white stuff on the car? It’s everywhere,” Browder asked after opening the door to find a seemingly comfortable Werts. “Bird s–t,” replied Werts to begin an exchange with Browder.
See also:
New York Post
Georgia Southern’s Shai Werts arrested in bizarre cocaine-bird poop case
Index Journal
College athlete says it was bird poop, not cocaine
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What a Tech Company’s Big Shift Portends for the Future of the Master’s Degree
By Goldie Blumenstyk
The end of the master’s degree as we’ve known it?
2U’s stock plunged last week after its executives announced some business changes in response to shifts they were seeing in the market. Lots of higher-education leaders and faculty members should be paying attention to that, even if they don’t care about the future of OPMs, or even know what those initials mean. I say this not because of the stock — frankly, I don’t understand why the price of this online-program manager dropped from about $36 to under $14 in a matter of hours. After it spent more than $850-million over the past two years to buy companies that offer professional education and run coding boot camps in conjunction with colleges, 2U investors could hardly have been shocked over the company’s moves to diversify from a reliance on contracts with universities for master’s degrees. (Certainly, 2U’s intentions were clear in the interview I did earlier this year with its chief executive, Chip Paucek.) If the investors were surprised, that’s their problem.
The Hechinger Report
Under a Watchful Eye: critics question if predictive analytics at college invades privacy and reinforces racial inequities
by Jill Barshay and Sasha Aslanian
When Keenan Robinson started college in 2017, he knew the career he wanted. He’d gone to high school in a small town outside Atlanta. His parents had never finished college, and they always encouraged Robinson and his two older siblings to earn degrees. Robinson’s older brother was the first in the family to graduate. “My parents always stressed how powerful an education is and how it is the key to success,” Keenan said. When Robinson arrived at Georgia State University in Atlanta, he wanted to major in nursing. “I always knew I had a passion for helping people,” he said. Biology had been his best subject in high school. “My dad, my mom would always kind of call me like the king of trivia because I’d always have just like random science facts,” he said. During his freshman year, Robinson earned a B average. But the university was closely tracking his academic performance and knew from 10 years of student records that Robinson wasn’t likely to make the cut for the nursing program.