University System News:
Marietta Daily Journal
Hames takes the reins at Heritage Preparatory School
Bill Baldowski
Author and researcher Brené Brown, PhD., a professor of social work at the University of Houston, described a true leader as someone who holds himself or herself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. If that be the case, Erin Hames. the new headmaster at Heritage Preparatory School, fits that description well. Heritage is a pre-K through eighth-grade school which plans to incorporate a high school component in 2021. Hames takes over for Beth McCauley, who left the school to return to North Carolina to be near her grandchild and will also work as an education consultant there. …According to her biography provided by the school, Hames has a great deal of education-related experience at numerous levels. She served as president of ReformEd, a law and consulting firm focused on improving educational opportunities and outcomes for children and students. …Hames is a member of the University System of Georgia’s board of regents, the State Bar of Georgia, the Drew Charter School board, the GeorgiaCAN advisory board, the Atlanta Speech School advisory board, the American Enterprise Institute’s Enterprise Club and the State Charter Schools Commission Foundation board.
Albany Herald
Registration open for ABAC Family Weekend Oct. 4-5
From staff reports
Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will welcome family and friends to the campus on Oct. 4-5 during the college’s eighth annual Family Weekend. Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will welcome family and friends to the campus on Oct. 4-5 during the college’s eighth annual Family Weekend. ABAC Dean of Students Bernice Hughes said there is a food and activity cost of $25 for each adult family member and friends, $15 each for ABAC students, and $5 for children 5 and under. The deadline to purchase tickets is Sept. 27 at 3 p.m.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU researcher receives National Science Foundation grant
The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to Kennesaw State University researcher Martina Kaledin to unravel the molecules in hydrogen-bonded systems, using the university’s supercomputer. The aim of the research is to contribute to the development of molecular dynamics computer simulation models, which advance scientists’ understanding of chemical systems, as well as complex biological systems. “Computational chemistry is an integral part of theoretical physical chemistry,” said Kaledin, associate professor of chemistry. “Our students will receive training in computational chemistry methods through the NSF project. This is an exciting advancement for Kennesaw State.”
Moultrie Observer
Broadband, education top issues on 2nd day of Rural Development Council meeting
By Savannah Donald
During the second day of the state House Rural Development Council meeting Wednesday, presenters discussed the implementation of new degrees, the improvement of satellite campuses and federal and state opportunity loans, but the biggest issue that was brought to the table was broadband internet service. The meeting at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine South Georgia, began at 8 a.m. with a panel from Deana Perry, broadband director of the Department of Community Affairs. Her panel covered the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative and the statewide mapping of the areas without broadband coverage. “Not only does the map approach work, but it can also be implemented statewide,” said Perry. “We’re targeting completion of the mapping in June 2020.” …Tristan Denly, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and chief academic officer for the University System of Georgia, introduced 20 of the 300 new degrees that had been offered in Georgia colleges. Among them were a bachelor’s in technical writing at South Georgia College, a bachelor’s in engineering technology at Valdosta State University and a bachelor’s in respiratory therapy at Middle Georgia State University.
Marietta Daily Journal
Kennesaw State, Haskell partner to develop innovative construction safety aid
Haskell, a leading architecture, engineering and construction firm, has partnered with Kennesaw State University’s College of Computing and Software Engineering on developing an innovative virtual reality training aid. The project, known as the Hazard Elimination/Risk Oversight program, is an immersive simulation that teleports users into a virtual construction site riddled with potential hazards in an effort to reinforce safety training among its employees. Originally conceived by Dysruptek, the corporate venture arm of Haskell tasked with developing emerging construction technologies, the program was refined by a team of KSU software developers and students over a six-month period.
Athens CEO
Horticulture Student Builds Website to Introduce New Generation to UGA Campus Arboretum
Chad Cain
Usually, visitors to the University of Georgia associate trips to the Athens campus with the hedges and ball fields, but UGA horticulture student Kendall Busher wants them to consider the trees. Busher, a horticulture major in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is on a quest to introduce students and visitors to one of the university’s best-kept secrets, the UGA Campus Arboretum. While it is not necessarily a well-known fact, UGA’s entire campus is an arboretum — think a zoo or a gallery for trees. Busher had no clue that the campus trees were special until she was asked to develop an online map and a virtual tour of 115 of the campus arboretum’s most unique and exemplary trees.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Forbes: UGA has 7th most valuable football program
By Eric Jackson – Sports Business Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University of Georgia has the seventh most valuable college football team in the country. That’s according to a study done by Forbes which was released on Thursday. The Bulldogs have a three-year average revenue of $125 million and a three-average operating profit of $74 million, according to the study.
WSB TV
UGA expanding capacity of Sanford Stadium for Notre Dame game
By: Chip Towers
Athens – When you hear that Georgia will have an overflow crowd for the Notre Dame game, believe it. The Bulldogs will set an all-time attendance record for Sanford Stadium when the Fighting Irish visit Sept. 21. In the visitors ticket agreement UGA made with Notre Dame when it brokered a home-and-home series to be played in 2019 and 2017, the Bulldogs promised 8,000 tickets to the Fighting Irish for this year’s contest. The trouble is, Sanford Stadium does not have the room to accommodate its home crowd plus 8,000 visitors. It has room to seat only 7,500. To solve the problem, UGA decided to bring in extra seats for next week’s historic matchup between the hedges between the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs and No. 8 Notre Dame (8 p.m., CBS). To do that, temporary aluminum bleachers will be installed on the West End plaza, underneath the Sanford Stadium scoreboard and at the back of Sections 143 and 139. So, the official capacity of Sanford Stadium – normally 92,746 – instead will be 93,246 on Sept. 21.
WSAV
Rape reported at Georgia Southern
by: Khalil Maycock
Update: A Conner H. Kennedy from Claxton has been arrested in connection with the reported rape. Kennedy is not a student at the school. According to a university official, reports noted the two communicated through an online dating site and met Sunday night when the incident occurred. Authorities are investigating allegations of rape inside a dorm at Georgia Southern. The alleged attack happened over the weekend. According to the university’s Crime and Fire log the attack took place at the University Villas on Sunday. The report states it happened between three and three-thirty in the morning. The victim told police about the alleged crime Sunday afternoon.
WJCL
Hazardous chemical spill reported at Georgia Southern’s Statesboro campus
By Staff reports
From Statesboro Fire:
“On Thursday, September 12th the Statesboro Fire Department responded to Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro campus off Akins Boulevard near the Bishop Alumni Center for a reported hazardous materials spill. Upon arrival to the scene, first arriving units found a small, University delivery box truck that was leaking from the cargo space onto the parking lot asphalt. A safe, isolation area was established around the scene; and protected, SFD hazardous materials technicians made entry into the truck’s cargo space to find that there were several 30-gallon containers of hydrochloric acid that were leaking, causing damage to the truck itself and the asphalt underneath. Responders were able to patch the leaks, secure the containers, and neutralize the spills quickly preventing any further damage. There were no injuries sustained and Georgia Southern officials called in a hazardous materials clean-up team to secure the truck and its cargo. The cause of the spill was undetermined at the time of this press release”
The Inkwell
INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE REPORT EXPOSES LOW MARKS ON ALL THREE CAMPUSES
Madison Watkins, Editor-in-Chief
To say Georgia Southern has been going through growing pains post-consolidation is putting it lightly. From the low-enrollment, particularly on this campus, low morale, commencement issues and negativity towards how administration handles diversity flashpoints, the university has been through a lot the past year. After the fallout of the “trigger-ish” incident, administration reached out to the Center for Strategic Diversity Leadership and Social Innovation to assess the university and how it can improve to become a more inclusive university. Dr. Damon Williams, along with his colleagues from the Center for Strategic Diversity Leadership and Social Innovation put out a campus climate survey to all students, faculty and staff, campus listening sessions and interviews, campus-wide community forums and an organizational university audit to collect the data they needed. After holding events and collecting data throughout the 2018-2019 school year, the report was published by administration on Aug. 28.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Flagships Are Rolling Out New Need-Based Aid Programs for Low-Income Students. Why Now?
By Kathryn Palmer
When the University of Arizona on Thursday announced a pledge to cover the full tuition costs for Pell Grant-eligible students next fall, it joined a wave of need-based-aid programs that are available at other public flagship universities. Within the last few years, the Universities of Michigan at Ann Arbor, of Wisconsin at Madison, and of Texas at Austin have announced their own need-based-aid programs. College affordability and access have long been a concern of policy makers and education activists, and research shows that many flagships have priced out low-income students. In recent years, however, tackling those concerns has become a greater priority of high-profile politicians as well as a handful of the nation’s top public universities. So why are flagships taking action now? …In the 1990s a handful of Southern states, eyeing lower taxes and higher retention of in-state middle-class students, created merit-based scholarships, such as Georgia’s HOPE scholarship and Florida’s Bright Futures. “What that meant for the University of Georgia at Athens, for instance, was an increase in caliber of students,” Clotfelter said. “Students who were once looking at going to Vanderbilt or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are now going to Georgia for free. It’s had a perceptible effect on enrollment and average SAT scores.”
Higher Education News:
GPBI
2019 Georgia Higher Education Data Book
By Jennifer Lee
Education Levels and Benefits of College
Georgia boasts the distinction of being the first state to create a publicly funded college in the United States. The original charter for the University of Georgia in 1785 recognizes a secure, prosperous and democratic society as a critical public benefit of higher education, saying “the common wishes of the People become the Laws of the Land, their public prosperity and even existence very much depends upon suitably forming the minds and morals of their Citizens.”[1] In Georgia, 31 percent of adults age 25 and over have a bachelor’s degree or above. Thirty-nine percent have an associate degree or above. Postsecondary attainment varies by county. Attainment rates are highest in metro Atlanta counties, where about 50 percent of adults have bachelor’s degrees, and lowest in rural areas. In about half of Georgia’s counties, fewer than one in five adults have a college degree.[2] Today, most Georgians who want to live financially secure and independent lives will need a postsecondary degree or credential. As the economy changes and grows, a college credential is more important for today’s working Georgian than for past generations.
Inside Higher Ed
HBCUs Press Congress to Extend Funding
With deadline fast approaching for lawmakers, historically black colleges face a loss of $85 million in annual funding for STEM education.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
Historically black colleges are putting on a full-court press to have Congress extend more than $250 million in mandatory funding for minority-serving institutions that is set to expire at the end of the month. The funding includes roughly $85 million for HBCUs to support education programs in science, technology, math or engineering. The rest goes to tribal colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions. Although they make up just 3 percent of nonprofit or public higher ed institutions, historically black colleges produce more than a quarter of all black STEM graduates. The mandatory federal funds “allow us to punch above our weight,” said Lodriguez Murray, vice president for public policy and government affairs at the United Negro College Fund. The money at stake is a subset of Title III funds, which are supposed to level the playing field for institutions that serve large percentages of low-income and minority students.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
International Students Bailed Out Colleges in the Last Recession. They Won’t This Time.
By Karin Fischer
International students bailed out public universities during the recession that began in 2008, their tuition helping fill the budgetary hole left by state funding cuts. But as another downturn looms, colleges won’t be able to rely on students from overseas as a safety net. Several factors – including changes in American visa policy, the perception of the United States now as unwelcoming to outsiders, and the trade war with China, the largest source of foreign students – have already led to two years of declines in new international enrollments. And few experts expect a turnaround. They certainly don’t anticipate the boom in students from overseas that occurred during the most recent recession. From 2007 to 2012, the number of international students on American campuses increased by 30 percent. At public research universities, the growth was even greater – the number of foreign freshmen there soared 112 percent. According to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a 10-percent decrease in state appropriations was accompanied by a 12-percent increase in foreign enrollments at public research universities. At flagships and research-intensive institutions that are members of the Association of American Universities, the impact was even greater – foreign enrollments increased 17 percent.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
California Is Poised to Challenge the NCAA Over Amateurism. Here’s What Could Happen Next.
By Wesley Jenkins
For the foreseeable future, California’s most anticipated athletics showdown probably won’t be on the gridiron, the court, or the diamond: It will be in the courtroom. Awaiting the signature of Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, is a bill that would prevent colleges in California from prohibiting their players from being compensated for the use by others, such as advertisers, of their names, images, or likenesses. If Governor Newsom were to sign the bill, it would seriously challenge the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which forbids such compensation under its definition of amateurism. On Wednesday the association sent a letter cautioning Newsom against approving the bill, which would make the Fair Pay to Play Act a law. The letter, which was signed by all members of the organization’s Board of Directors, called the California legislation “unconstitutional” and said “it would erase the critical distinction between college and professional athletics.” Newsom now has 30 days to sign or veto the bill. A spokesman for the governor declined to comment on his intentions, but Newsom has shown support for student-athletes in the past. If the bill becomes law, expect litigation to follow.