University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Oprah’s gift; Regent resigns; an easier FAFSA?
By Eric Stirgus
The purpose of higher education is to prepare young people for life. But educating young people requires money. In recent days, several Georgia colleges and universities were the recipients of some big checks that will help educate more students. However, one Georgia leader stands accused of using at least two institutions in a scheme to collect cash for his company. Here’s a look at some of these developments in the latest edition of AJC On Campus.
Georgia Regent resigns amid criminal investigation
Gov. Brian Kemp demanded and got the resignation of state Board of Regents member Dean Alford last week, who turned himself in on fraud and racketeering charges.
An easier FASFA form in the works?
A bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate could make it easier for students and parents to apply for financial aid. The bill would reduce the number of questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) from 108 to between 17-30, said U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, an Alabama Democrat who co-sponsored the bill with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee.
UGA to partner in effort to preserve Hispanic impact in state politics
Hispanic turnout has surged in Georgia in recent years. On Friday, two organizations and the University of Georgia announced an effort to catalog Hispanic impact in Georgia elections.
Speaking of UGA partnerships…
The university announced last week it has embarked on a new effort to recruit students from the Atlanta Public Schools district. UGA officials said in a statement they want more Atlanta students on campus.
University System employees push back against rising health care costs
Several University System of Georgia employees canvasses their campuses last week to gain support for their demands that the system rescind a recent decision to increase employee health care costs in 2020.
GPB
Transgender Exclusions Removed From University System Of Georgia Policy
By Kaley Lefevre
A monumental policy change of University System of Georgia health insurance is now allowing transgender employees to complete gender-affirmation surgery. The change in coverage came in response to a lawsuit filed by Skyler Jay, a University of Georgia employee, against USG and BlueCross BlueShield, his health insurance provider.
The George-Anne
Five pillars, six values of the University featured in Marrero’s State of the University address
By Davon Johnson
Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero gave his State of the University address at the Student Government Association meeting last Wednesday. The President of the university was able to speak to students on the ways GS can help make their experience the best it can be. “The process of the strategic plan started last academic year when we asked what will be the direction of this institution,” GS President Kyle Marrero said. “With that framework we are able to take it to the next level and put more around it in terms of our objectives, actions and values of who we are and the way we behave as an institution.” The six values of the university according to Marrero are integrity, innovation, openingness and inclusion, collaboration, sustainability and excellence. The five pillars that were announced were student success, teaching and research, inclusive excellence, operational efficiency of sustainability and community partnership. With the third pillar being inclusive excellence, Marrero sees the Three Campuses, One Heartbeat study by Damon A. Williams to be a mirror of how the university can improve.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
T.I. talks tech, diversity at Georgia Tech
By Eric Stirgus
T.I. became a star by rapping about the gritty west Atlanta neighborhoods near the Georgia Tech campus. On Monday, the entertainer and entrepreneur visited the institution as part of an effort by Georgia Tech to expose students from those neighborhoods to the university and encourage them to use technology to create innovative projects. The hour-long visit was organized by Magnus Egerstedt, the Steve W. Chaddick Chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Vernell Woods, who earned a scholarship to attend Tech and is current chief technology officer for Grand Hustle Records, the label founded by T.I.
Tifton Gazette
‘Much Work To Do:’ Candlelight vigil remembers victims of domestic violence
By Eve Copeland-Brechbiel
When Jennifer Thomas thinks about domestic violence, she thinks of all those tables that will always have at least one empty seat. …Thomas has formerly been the executive director of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence and is currently the vice president of strategic partnerships with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. She spoke at the annual candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House puts on at the beginning of every October. …“Georgia most recently ranked 10th in the nation for its rate of men killing women,” Thomas said. “That’s a national study. We have been in the top 20 states, and that’s not the top you want to be, for the last 15 years of that study. …Four members of the community were recognized for their efforts to help victims. Jacob Teter with the Tift County District Attorney’s Office was presented with the Above and Beyond Award, Chief Superior Court Judge Bill Reinhardt received the J. Harvey Davis Award, Dr. Maggie Martin, director of student development at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, was presented the Third Door Award and Betty Ryfun was given the RCPCH Service Award. RCPCH will be hosting a variety of events throughout October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes: The Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 22 at ABAC’s front campus. …The walk is a visual show of men who support an end to domestic violence and abuse.
WGAU Radio
UGA to eliminate some student fees
Art students need paint, brushes and paper to create their works. Chemistry students need chemicals and test tubes to complete experiments in labs. Starting in spring 2020, students will not have to pay additional laboratory and supplementary course material fees for those supplies. “All students at UGA should have the same access to the classes required for their degrees,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “By eliminating course material fees, the university is removing a potential financial barrier to ensure that our students can focus first and foremost on learning. My administration remains committed to supporting our students through this initiative as well as continuing to raise new scholarship funds during the final year of our capital campaign.”
WUGA
Provost Hu Launches Task Force on Academic Excellence
By Morgan Frey
Following a successful multi-year plan to enhance the undergraduate experience at UGA, Provost S. Jack Hu has now launched a task force to enhance academic excellence at UGA with an initial focus on graduate studies and research. The task force consists of 23 faculty members and university administrators who will begin meeting biweekly to come up with a list of focus areas followed by a list of strategies to be implemented and metrics to track their success.
Emanuel County Live
Softball camp to be held at EGSC
by Harley Strickland
High school juniors and seniors who have an interest in softball at the college level will have the opportunity to get an inside look at the sport. East Georgia State College is hosting a softball camp Saturday, November 16, 2019, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. for players to learn new techniques to step up their game. … The camp also offers participants a chance to tour the college campus and learn what is expected from a player at the next level.
Savannah Morning News
Georgia Southern golfer Steven Fisk selected Sun Belt Male Student-Athlete of the Year
Golfer Steven Fisk became the first Georgia Southern athlete to earn the Sun Belt Conference Male Student-Athlete of the Year honor when the awards for the 2018-19 season were announced Monday night at the league’s annual fall meetings. A first-team PING and Golfweek All-America selection and a member of the All-Nicklaus Team, Fisk finished second at the NCAA Championships at 5-under par after shooting 68-68-71 in the last three rounds. It was the 13th top-five finish in his stellar Georgia Southern career and his 25th career top 10. …Fisk, who was one of three finalists for the Haskins Award — considered the Heisman Trophy of college golf — won six tournaments last season, including his second Sun Belt Championship, becoming the second player in league history to win the conference championship twice.
GPB
A Look Inside Georgia’s First Legal Industrial Hemp Field
By ROSS TERRELL
The smell hits you before anything else. Rows of green plants sprout from brown dirt, covered by a white tarp. It’s the first legal industrial hemp field in the state of Georgia in decades. Congress outlawed the plant with the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, which classified it as a schedule one drug. The field maintained by the University of Georgia has 24 different varieties of the plant and about 72 plots. The plants have been in the ground since early June and are overseen by Tim Coolong, an associate horticulture professor. …For now, growers are reduced to hand picking and harvesting the crop. As Lee examined the pilot field overseen by UGA, he seemed pleased with how some of the plants were turning out. “When we’re extracting this out, we want the flowers to be as big as possible and as potent as possible,” he said. “That’s where over 90% of all the CBD is located.”
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
New Report Explores How State Policy Impacts Access to Higher Education
by Sara Weissman
Higher education leaders often cite state disinvestment as one of the main problems plaguing their institutions. And it’s true, state governments have allocated less resources to colleges and universities after the Great Recession in 2008. But state investment alone, while crucial, isn’t enough to make higher education accessible, according to a new report by Ithaka S+R, a higher education consulting company. The brief advocates for states to create strategic plans for three financial factors – appropriations, tuition and financial aid – to better support underrepresented students. Each one is a facet of affordability, it argues, so when the three aren’t aligned and considered together in a state-specific context, that leads to inefficient funding.
Inside Higher Ed
Grad Enrollment: Gains at Home, Losses Abroad
New graduate school enrollments continue to fall among international students, but underrepresented U.S. minority enrollments are way up.
By Colleen Flaherty
Graduate school applications were up 2.2 percent year over year in 2018, and first-time enrollments increased 2.1 percent across institution types, according to a new report by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Educational Testing Service. The groups were especially pleased to see higher increases in first-time enrollments among people of color, including Latinx (6.8 percent), black (3.5 percent), Asian (6.2 percent) and Native American students (8.3 percent). Over all, 24.1 percent of all first-time enrollees who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents in fall 2018 were underrepresented minorities.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Mississippi’s Chancellor Search Provoked a Fury. Will It Change Anything?
By Sarah Brown
Yet another campus leadership search is provoking widespread backlash. This time, it’s at the University of Mississippi, where the institution’s board picked a new chancellor who had been paid as a consultant for the very search that resulted in his hire. Glenn Boyce didn’t submit an official application and wasn’t among the candidates that the board formally brought in for interviews last week. And he went through a much shorter vetting process than most chancellor hopefuls. Just after his last-minute interview on Thursday, he got the job. On Friday, there were protests. Students and faculty members disrupted the news conference where the university planned to announce Boyce as the new chancellor, and some were forcibly removed by police. The university then canceled the news conference. …The Role of the Accreditor One potential consequence board members can face for suspicious searches: scrutiny from accreditors. Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on College — Mississippi’s accreditor — said in an interview with The Chronicle that she hadn’t yet reviewed potential accreditation issues with the university’s chancellor-selection process. …A formal complaint could also prompt SACS to take a closer look at an institution’s presidential search, she said. That was the case when Kennesaw State University hired Georgia’s former attorney general as president, even though he had little experience working in higher education. (He lasted just 16 months in the job.)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Alaska Board Suspends Consideration of Controversial Merger
By Katherine Mangan
Updated (10/7/2019, 8:54 p.m.) with news of a vote to suspend consideration of the merger of the Alaska system’s campuses.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted on Monday to suspend consideration of merging the system’s three separately accredited universities into one until the accreditation of the university at Fairbanks is secured in 2021. The board also voted to postpone fast-track reviews of academic programs until administrators have time to consult with the chancellors and president about plans for the future. The decision followed an emergency board meeting with Sonny Ramaswamy, president of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Ramaswamy told the board members it was essential that they make the lines of authority clear to everyone involved in the discussion over how best to deal with the $70 million in state budget cuts the system faces over the next three years.