University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Task force created to address mental health at Georgia colleges
By Eric Stirgus
The University System of Georgia announced Wednesday it has created a task force to find ways to help students grappling with mental health issues. The task force will look at what’s currently working at some of its 26 colleges and universities and identify successful programs at schools across the nation to see if they can work in Georgia. Additionally, the task force will explore partnerships with state and local agencies to support students.
Metro Atlanta CEO
Georgia Tech-Lorraine Recognized for Boosting Economic Development
Staff Report
In the Economic Development in France category, Georgia Tech-Lorraine is being honored for bringing the Southeast to France. The campus was established in 1990 in Metz and hosts more than 700 students each year, from undergraduates in all disciplines to postdoctoral students in engineering — creating a two-way talent pipeline across the Atlantic. With a focus on academics, research, and innovation, the campus houses a joint international research laboratory between Georgia Tech and the French National Center for Scientific Research, with a presence on both the Metz and Atlanta campuses.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Demonstrators demand Georgia Regents remove special fees on students
By Eric Stirgus
ATHENS – Several dozen people protested outside a Georgia Board of Regents meeting on Tuesday to demand it end an annual fee imposed on students created a decade ago. The “special institution fee” ranges from $200 to $300 at most of the 26 schools in the University System of Georgia schools, but it is $450 at the University of Georgia, where the demonstration was held. Most of the protesters were University of Georgia graduate students who teach on campus and say the fee is a burden. “It causes a lot of hardship for me and my fellow grad students,” said Valerie McLaurin, 32, a first-year UGA doctoral student who works as a teaching assistant in the history department.
Emanuel County Live
EGSC’s president delivers State of the College Address
by Whitley Clifton
On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, East Georgia State College’s president, Dr. Bob Boehmer, held the yearly State of the College Address. Students, faculty, staff, and members from the community all gathered in the Luck Flanders Gambrell Center auditorium for the event. Dr. Boehmer began the address by stating higher education in the United States is currently undergoing a period of rapid transformation and change. Across the United States, students in rural high schools are doing quite well but after high school, fewer rural students are choosing college. “It is East Georgia State College’s mission to understand why this is happening, provide college access for more students in our region and then graduate them at higher rates,” said Dr. Boehmer. “This is a complex and difficult question. However, it is critical to the economic and social viability of our region and to the life success of our amazing students.”
Albany Herald
Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership expands
From staff reports
ATHENS – Expansion of the class size and recent facility renovations at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, a second four-year campus of the Medical College of Georgia in Athens, are both part of the state’s public medical school’s strategy to address Georgia’s critical shortage of physicians.
The George-Anne
BRIEF: Georgia Southern ranked 90th most secure college campus in the US
By Nathan Woodruff
Georgia Southern University has been ranked by asecurelife.com as the 90th most secure college campus in the US. The study studied 11 years’ worth of crime data for hundreds of public and nonprofit colleges in the US. The list features 100 colleges that had the lowest rates of property crime from 2007 through 2017. The study also looked at data from four-year schools that offer student housing and have an average yearly enrollment of 10,000 students or more.
Middle Georgia CEO
Chris R. Sheridan, Jr. of Macon, who is chairman of the board of Sheridan Construction, is the 2019 recipient of the Legacy of Leadership honor, while Dr. Christina Chu, who conducts research in physics for a contractor, is this year’s Outstanding Alumna in awards that the Middle Georgia State University Foundation recently announced. The Legacy of Leadership award recognizes an individual, persons or group who has given exemplary service to Middle Georgia State (MGA) and the Foundation. It is the highest honor the MGA Foundation bestows. The Outstanding Alumnus award is given to selected alumni who have distinguished themselves academically, professionally, or through community involvement – and achieve positions of influence and regional or national reputation.
Statesboro Herald
Georgia Southern alumna makes book tour stop at The University Store
Rebekah Faulk Lingenfelser be at Georgia Southern Thursday
From staff reports
Food writer and author Rebekah Faulk Lingenfelser will make a book signing tour stop at The University Store, 91 Georgia Ave., on the Statesboro campus of Georgia Southern University this Thursday, Oct. 17 from 4 – 6 p.m.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Neighbor arrested, charged in KSU student’s death
By Alexis Stevens
The man accused of killing a Kennesaw State University student was arrested Tuesday afternoon, Cobb County jail records showed. Kashman Rael Thomas, 22, had been on the run since the Oct. 6 shooting at the Stadium Village apartments. Thomas is accused of killing 18-year-old Oluwafemi Oyerinde and injuring two other teenagers at the complex, located near the KSU stadium, according to police. Thomas was charged with murder, and two counts each of aggravated assault and aggravated battery on the same day as the shooting, his arrest warrant states. But he eluded capture until Tuesday.
The George-Anne
President Marrero responds to book-burning incident in Armstrong open forum
By Nathan Woodruff
Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero fielded questions regarding the book-burning that took place last Wednesday at an open forum event on the Armstrong campus Monday. Marrero said that the students that were involved in the burning of Jennine Capó Crucet’s novel “Make Your Home Among Strangers” outside a GS residence hall last week are not being being punished because they are protected by their first amendment rights according to administration. “This is a campus of which we have to unite together and understand what we will tolerate what we will allow to happen on our campus’ and then how we will uphold First Amendment rights,” Marrero said. “These aren’t easy conversations.” Marrero said that he sympathized with students, but that he has to protect student’s rights.
The Signal
Planning for a greener Georgia State
By Sara Munoz
The Senate Sustainability Committee’s second meeting of the semester on Sept. 27 was a look forward at some of the goals the members hopes to accomplish over the next year — and even further. From creating a new environmentally related minor to funding environmentally friendly construction, the committee is looking at laying the groundwork for sustainable projects and education at Georgia State. …Reducing waste and Georgia State’s carbon footprint can be attainable through sustainable goods the university purchases. This idea is also in the investigating stages, but members are looking at modeling after Georgia Tech, which uses wind power to produce paper towels and swaps out some of the chemical cleaning supplies for Green Seal-certified cleaning agents, according to the committee.
Buckmasters
By Buckmasters Online
It’s big. Not gigantic, but big. About 4 1/2-feet long, if it’s an adult. It’s invasive. And that’s the really scary part. Some people keep them as pets. But when they escape or grow so large that the pet owner can’t handle it, sometimes the pet owner (foolishly) releases it into the wild. Or, it may have grown so large it escaped from its cage. In Georgia and Florida, they’re spotted on game cameras. Sometimes they’re found as roadkill. In every single instance, there are people in a state Department of Natural Resources or Fish and Game who want to know where it was seen, so it can be removed or trapped before it further endangers native wildlife. What is it? It’s an Argentine black and white tegu. …Another consideration once a nonnative species becomes established, is the amount of time and funds needed to control the species as its number increases. Stopping the influx of tegus before they become firmly established is the goal in Georgia where the Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Southern University scientists are asking residents to be on the lookout for the invasive tegu lizards. They are especially interested in reports from eastern Toombs and western Tattnall counties. With help provided by scientists at the US Geological Survey, the DNR and Georgia Southern University Biology Department, biologists, faculty and students are on the hunt and are trapping tegu lizards this fall.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
House Democrats Have a Plan for Higher Ed. Here’s What’s in It.
By Lauren Fisher
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives announced a plan on Tuesday touted as a “comprehensive overhaul” of America’s higher-education system, a decade after the last reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The bill, dubbed the College Affordability Act, focuses on lowering the price of college but is markedly more moderate than the higher-education proposals that have animated supporters of progressive 2020 presidential contenders like Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. The bill is unlikely to gain any traction in the Republican-controlled Senate or from the Trump administration, which released its own proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act in March.
Inside Higher Ed
House Dems’ Vision for Higher Ed
Proposal would steer new money to community colleges, restore regulation of for-profit colleges and overhaul student loan repayment. But legislation hinges on Senate.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a new bill to overhaul the Higher Education Act, which doubles down on key provisions of a 2018 proposal to update the landmark law. The plan, dubbed the College Affordability Act, would boost the size of the Pell Grant, enact a federal-state partnership to make community colleges free, streamline student loan repayment and codify Obama-era college accountability rules. The bill would restore the gainful-employment rule, repealed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which was designed to weed out programs that produce graduates who are overburdened with debt. And it would restore borrower-defense regulations her department overhauled this year. It also would close the so-called 90-10 loophole — a priority for several veterans’ groups.
Inside Higher Ed
In the Dark on Digital Learning
College IT officials don’t believe campus leaders are particularly informed or engaged in digital learning, new survey results suggest.
By Lilah Burke
The results of a new survey offer presidents, provosts and CFOs a wake-up call about how they’re perceived by their colleagues in IT and digital learning. The reviews are less than glowing, with only about 40 percent of IT officials reporting that college leaders are “well informed” about digital learning and digital transformation. Presidents or CEOs, along with CFOs, fared particularly poorly, with slightly more than 30 percent of IT officers saying those colleagues are “very engaged” and about 40 percent saying they are “well informed.” Provosts were spared the worst in the assessment, with more than 40 percent of IT officers saying provosts or chief academic officers at their institutions were “well informed” and “very engaged.” Casey Green, founding director of the Campus Computing Project, which conducted the survey released this morning, said the fact that many administrators are judged to be neither well informed nor very engaged is striking. “Their engagement, their understanding is critical in terms of campus strategies and moving forward,” he said.
Inside Higher Ed
Public Support for Making Loan Repayment Easier
By Paul Fain
Newly released results from a national survey found that 80 percent of Americans think the government should make it easier for borrowers to pay back student loans, with 58 percent saying so strongly. The survey was conducted by SSRS, an opinion and market research company, for the Pew Charitable Trusts. A majority of respondents from both political parties said the government should make it easier for borrowers to pay back student loans, with 91 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans backing that assertion. But 79 percent of all respondents said borrowers can do more to prioritize repaying their loans.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
More Than 1 in 4 Undergraduate Women Experience Sexual Misconduct in College
By Sarah Brown
More than one in four undergraduate women experience a form of nonconsensual sexual contact while enrolled in college, and most of them don’t report it or seek out campus resources, according to a new survey of 180,000 students conducted by the Association of American Universities. But compared with 2015 — the last time the association did such a survey — a larger share of undergraduate students knew the definition of sexual assault, where to get help, and how to report it. “It could be what we’re seeing is, we’re informing our students of what it is, they see it, and they recognize it and say, This happened to me,” said Kimberlee Eberle-Sudré, director of policy research at the association. At the same time, Eberle-Sudré said, “we also are recognizing that some students still won’t say that it happened to them.”
Inside Higher Ed
Top Universities Release Sexual Assault Reports
Nearly all of the universities that participated in a 2019 campus climate survey published their individual results and will be addressing specific problems or challenges identified.
By Greta Anderson
All but one of the 33 leading research universities that participated in a major survey of campus sexual assault and misconduct on Tuesday published their individual results, which show a range of outcomes, including improved student awareness about how to report sexual assault but low rates of reporting and outreach to university-sponsored programs. The elite institutions made their full reports on the 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct available at the same time the aggregate data was released by the Association of American Universities.