University System News:
WRDW
I-TEAM: As mental health becomes a concern in GA, what about students that are struggling?
By Meredith Anderson
Mental illness has become such a concern in Georgia, the university system now has a mental health task force. It’s not even a month old yet. Right now, the group is working on everything from prevention to how to treat mental health emergencies on college campuses. But what about high schools? A recent school threat could show younger students are also at risk. It’s a dangerous cycle. Someone with a mental illness is in crisis, they act out, get arrested, and they’re released after a short hospital stay. The cycle repeats itself. Our I-Team has looked at that trend with adults in our community. But what about kids?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Groups raise mental health awareness at Georgia Tech
By Eric Stirgus
There was an unusual display in the center of Georgia Tech’s campus Thursday. One thousand backpacks were laid out on the grass, each representing a college student who committed suicide. Some backpacks had messages of love from relatives of the students. The goal: encourage students to seek help if they’re suffering from anxiety, depression or considering suicide. “NEVER be afraid to ask for HELP,” read one sign. The display was organized by Active Minds, a national nonprofit suicide prevention organization.
Kiplinger
Protecting Teens’ Mental Health Is a Wise Investment
As kids settle into college life, parents and teachers need to be on the lookout for signs of anxiety and depression and be ready to step in to help.
By Timothy Barrett, Trust Counsel | Argent Trust Company
My son graduated from high school this summer and now attends college in Savannah, Ga., studying architecture. Among other recognitions, he was named high school athlete of the year, he holds five school track records, he has received several team leadership awards and is a member of the National Honor Society — on top of averaging 135 volunteer hours a year during high school. Now he is a college freshman in a new city, sharing a dorm room with two roommates, and must learn to balance all the freedoms that come with college life with all the responsibilities that come with college coursework. …In fact, student anxiety is considered so serious that Lisa Adams, director of counseling at the University of West Georgia and the president of the American College Counseling Association, thinks that even just publishing statistics could set off some students: “Students are really sensitive to this issue, this generation of students, anxious and depressed already, really high levels of alert,” she says.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
EXCLUSIVE: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s wife not cited in 2016 car crash
By Stephen Deere
Sarah-Elizabeth Langford Reed sped through a red light on Peachtree Street in a city-owned SUV and plowed into a Chevy Malibu hanging a left onto 10th Street in Midtown. It was almost 10 p.m., and the collision sent chunks of metal and plastic flying across the intersection. As Mayor Kasim Reed’s wife, Langford Reed was First Lady of Atlanta at the time of the 2016 wreck. She was not a city employee and had no authorization to operate the vehicle under city code. Yet Langford Reed walked away from the collision without receiving a ticket — or a bill for the damage. The Atlanta Police Department responded to the scene but did not cite her for running a red light. In addition, the report incorrectly stated that Langford Reed was the registered owner of the vehicle and that she was self-insured. …In 2017, Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to the powerful Georgia Board of Regents, the governing body of the state’s university system.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
University of West Ga. may cut faculty to fill $3 million revenue gap
By Eric Stirgus
The University of West Georgia may not retain some faculty members as part of a plan to fill a $3 million tuition revenue gap, officials said Thursday. Officials are blaming the gap on an enrollment decline of about 500 undergraduate students this fall. Last fall, the university had about 13,700 students, the seventh-largest enrollment of Georgia’s public universities. UWG’s initial budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, was about $208 million. Officials have sent non-renewal notices to an unspecified number of faculty members. The university’s interim president, Micheal Crafton, has scheduled a campus forum at 2:30 p.m. Monday in its Campus Center ballroom in Carrollton to discuss the situation.
Albany Herald
Former Henry County student takes part in Georgia Southwestern Carter Leadership Program
From Staff Reports
Twenty Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) students in the inaugural class of the President Jimmy Carter Leadership Program, including Emma Carter from Henry County, had the opportunity to visit Plains on Sept. 13 and speak with the program’s namesake, GSW alumnus and former President Jimmy Carter. During their first year in the program, the students, known as Mix Scholars, are focusing on individual growth and development, working to understand their own beliefs and values. In their private meeting at Plains High School, President Carter explained the importance of choosing one’s principles and values early in life and how his time at Plains High School helped him do just that.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU art students use wine reductions as pigments
Staff reports
Kennesaw State University School of Art and Design students from two painting classes have created works with aqueous media pigments made from reductions of wine. All of the art in the exhibition utilizes colors from red, rose and white wine reductions. The artwork will be available for sale at the Decatur Wine Festival on Saturday and on exhibition at Worthmore Jewelers in Decatur from Friday to Dec. 6.
Statesboro Herald
GSU air rifle standout to make bid for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Rosemary Kramer training in Colorado Springs for trials in December, February
Angye Morrison/staff
Rosemary Kramer, a senior at Georgia Southern University majoring in biology, has taken a year off from academics to pursue her dream — representing the U.S. on its Olympic shooting team.
Jacksonville Daily Record
The Marbut Report: Georgia wins annual moot court competition
The decision in battle that pits the Florida and Georgia law schools is based on the quality of advocacy.
by: Max Marbut Associate Editor
The University of Georgia Bulldogs made it a clean sweep last week, defeating the University of Florida Gators in the courtroom as well as on the football field. Thomas Paris and Georgia Turner, second-year students at UGA School of Law, prevailed in the annual Florida-Georgia Hulsey-Kimbrell Moot Court Competition on Friday at the Bryan Simpson U.S. Courthouse.
WTOC
Georgia Southern students donating canned goods to get rid of parking tickets
By Dal Cannady
Georgia Southern University students in Statesboro and Savannah have a chance to help others on campus that are less fortunate. Find a college student with a car and they’ve probably gotten a parking ticket. The Parking and Transportation Department offered to write one off for students willing to give to a worthy cause. Students have made a beeline to the office to drop off canned goods. A donation of 10 items gets one outstanding ticket off your record. Earlier Thursday, they’d seen nearly 200 students on the Statesboro campus take part and they’d collected close to 1,000 pounds of canned food. It’s called Food for Fines and the donations – in Statesboro and at Armstrong – go to food banks on each campus that help students who’re struggling to make ends meet and still have money for food.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They sued to integrate Georgia State University and won. They still couldn’t enroll.
By Maureen Downey
History overlooked these three ‘hidden figures’ of Georgia’s civil rights movement. A new book hopes to correct that.
In 1956, Myra Elliott wanted to return to college. Valedictorian of her high school class in Keysville, Ga., she had attended Spelman but couldn’t afford the tuition and left to work at Atlanta Life Insurance Company on Auburn Avenue. She thought the Georgia State College of Business — soon to be renamed Georgia State University — would be ideal; it was around the corner from her downtown office and, as a public institution, less expensive than Spelman. There was one problem. The state of Georgia had ignored the federal mandate to integrate its schools, and denied African American students admission to its all-white public colleges and universities through bogus requirements to obtain endorsement letters from alumni or certification from a judge. Elliott was among the rejected students.
Science Magazine
Layman Receives Top Reproductive Medicine Researcher Award
Dr. Lawrence C. Layman, chief of the Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, is the 2019 recipient of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Distinguished Researcher Award. Layman, Robert B. Greenblatt, MD, Distinguished Chair in Endocrinology and co-director of the MD/PhD Program of MCG and the University System of Georgia, was selected for his basic and clinical research efforts to significantly advance the understanding of genes important in the process of reproductive development, sexual differentiation, puberty as well as the function of other organs. He was honored at the society’s recent Scientific Congress in Philadelphia.
Marietta Daily Journal
Bartow Teacher of the Year makes sure students “have fun while learning”
Tom Spigolon
Esthela Guzman said she tries to mix “fun” into the work her first-grade students do daily at White Elementary School. And she said her philosophy toward instructing 6-year-olds is “meeting the kids where they are.” “The kids come at all levels, learning styles (and) abilities,” Guzman said. …Guzman was named the Bartow County School System’s 2020 Teacher of the Year during a recent ceremony at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville. …She earned a bachelor’s degree from Kennesaw State University and is working on a master’s degree from Augusta University.
Newser
Report: Teacher broke rule, caused student injury
By Kate Brumback, Associated Press
A Georgia high school teacher presenting a flashy demonstration to get her students excited about chemistry made a mistake that caused a fire to burn “out of control” and seriously injure a teenager in the front row, a school district report released Wednesday by the student’s lawyers says. Malachi McFadden, 16, suffered third-degree burns on his face, neck and torso and was hospitalized after his chemistry teacher bungled the “burning money demonstration” at Redan High School, just outside Atlanta, on the second day of his junior year, his lawyers said. On Wednesday, they released a report prepared by an investigator for the DeKalb County school system that uses witness statements from students and teachers to piece together what happened Aug. 6. Teacher Bridgette Blowe wrote in a statement included in the report that she’s successfully done the demonstration — lighting an accelerant-soaked bill on fire — in previous years and for two other classes this year. In this particular class, the flame didn’t burn out completely, Blowe wrote, “so I attempted to extinguish the flame with water, but I reached for the alcohol instead, by mistake.” …While a student at Georgia Southern University, she worked as a teaching assistant in the chemistry department, according to an employment application. Among the responsibilities she listed: “Made sure all laboratory procedures were run safely and properly.”
Albany Herald
Georgia Power supports North Pole Express at ABAC ag museum
From staff reports
Thanks to a sponsorship from Georgia Power, the North Pole Express is on the tracks headed toward another great year at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture. In fact, thanks to tremendous community interest, every ticket has been sold for the event on Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 12-14. “I appreciate the support from Georgia Power for this year’s North Pole Express,” museum Director Garrett Boone said. “Georgia Power’s contribution allows us the opportunity to offer events such as this for Tifton and the surrounding counties. “Georgia Power has always been a strong supporter of ABAC, the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Tifton. And I have to thank the community for its support. Every ticket we had was sold on the first day they were available.”
On Common Ground News
Rockdale UGA Extension Office wins national award for nutrition program
A Rockdale County UGA Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Agent MaryBeth Hornbeck was honored at the National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) 85th annual session. Hornbeck received the First Place National NEAFCS Family Health and Wellness Award at the conference held September 30 – October 3, 2019 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The theme was “Nurturing the Richness of Lifelong Learning”. In receiving the award, Hornbeck was recognized for the #RockdaleEatsARainbow Fun with Fresh Food program. She developed the Fun with Fresh Food Rainbow Nutrition program for families to improve attitudes and behaviors around fruit and vegetable consumption through a series of short, interactive food demos.
Athens CEO
Georgia MBA Ranked No. 9 by The Economist
Staff Report
The Full-Time MBA Program at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business is ranked among the top 10 U.S. public business schools by The Economist in its worldwide survey of the 100 best graduate business programs, called “Which MBA?” The Georgia MBA ranks No. 9 among public universities in the U.S., No. 25 among all U.S. business schools and No. 33 in the world. It rose 11 spots in the global ranking from last year to this year. The latest rankings are the highest the Terry College has recorded in The Economist survey.
Military Times
4-year Schools
These are the top-finishing institutions that told us they offer bachelor’s or graduate degrees or both.
Rank 7 – Georgia State University; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 52,726; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 2,068; Military graduation rate 51%
Rank 45 – University of Georgia; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 38,652; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 250; Military graduation rate 81%
Rank 50 – Columbus State University; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 8,076; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 504; Military graduation rate 76%
Rank 56 – Kennesaw State University; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 35,846; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 2,325; Military graduation rate 60%
Rank 81 – College of Coastal Georgia; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 3,546; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 128; Military graduation rate 27%
Rank 108 – University of North Georgia; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 19,722; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 588; Military graduation rate No data
Rank 118 – Augusta University; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 9,072; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 345; Military graduation rate No data
Rank 131 – Valdosta State University; Overall fall 2018 enrollment 13,406ˡ; Military and veteran fall 2018 enrollment 171ˡ; Military graduation rate 53%
Middle Georgia CEO
Wesleyan Ranked as a Top Five Best College in Georgia
Staff Report
According to the personal-finance website WalletHub, Wesleyan College is one of three Middle Georgia
colleges ranked in the top ten of the 2020’s Best Colleges within the state. WalletHub ranks the colleges
as follows: Georgia College & State University ranked 5th; Georgia Institute of Technology ranked 1st, Emory University ranked 2nd, and the University of Georgia
ranked 3rd.
13WMAZ
Georgia College receives grant for nurse training with sexual assault victims
The School of Nursing received $800,000 to cover costs of tuition for their Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program
Author: Pepper Baker
These Georgia College nursing students will care for real people one day, but few will go on to get the training needed to treat patients who are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Professor Josie Doss submitted a grant into a federal health administration to start a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program at Georgia College’s School of Nursing.
The Augusta Chronicle
Campbell Vaughn: SWAG team seeks to boost skills for women farmers
By Campbell Vaughn / Columnist
Once a year in the fall, all of the UGA Extension Agriculture and Natural Resource Agents in the state travel to a new place in Georgia for a get-together to showcase to each other what we are doing. It is great to catch up with contemporaries and talk about what kind of work they have going on in their part of the Peach State. Agents are given opportunities to highlight their work and share the impact they have had on educating the people in their communities. …One of the projects that was highlighted this year was an ongoing program developed by a group of women Ag Agents that has received some national attention. We have many women Ag Agents with UGA throughout Georgia and a group of them started Southern Women in Agriculture or SWAG to improve the skills and confidence of women who work in the farm industry. …Our SWAG team identified a need for expanding skill sets in a female-only environment to help build better farms and, specifically, better-trained women cattle producers. Six women UGA agents and two UGA Animal Science Specialists developed a one-day program to improve knowledge on a variety of topics.
Tifton Gazette
Farming for the future: UGA focuses on precision agriculture
By Scott Michaux CAES News
A fifth-generation farmer in Calhoun County, Adam McLendon starts his days at the crack of dawn. He looks at software logs that show his tractors’ fuel use the previous day, and whether his irrigation system is functioning efficiently. He reviews satellite imagery of his 8,500 acres of corn, cotton, peanuts and pecans, revealing which areas he needs to prioritize. “I spend the first 45 minutes of my day, every day of the week, utilizing technology to make me a more efficient manager of our labor and our farm,” McLendon said. Efficient management is the hallmark of modern agriculture. Scientists project that the world’s population will reach 9.7 billion by the middle of the century, and to feed all of those people, crop production will need to double in the next 30 years. …The University of Georgia was among the first academic institutions to delve into precision agriculture when it emerged in the mid-1990s. A quarter-century later, UGA is stepping up efforts to expand its faculty, curriculum, research and outreach to again become a leader in the field.
WGAU
UGA looks to enhance diversity in STEM
By: Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia has joined a multi-institution alliance that is working to enhance faculty diversity and the use of inclusive teaching practices in STEM courses at UGA and other schools around the country. Upwards of three dozen colleges and universities have joined the alliance that was formed earlier this year.
Aiken Standard
Press On Fund donates $1 million for childhood cancer research
Staff Reports
The Press On Fund, which has local ties, recently donated $1 million to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia and the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University. The money will create the Press On Pediatric Cancer Fund at the Georgia Cancer Center and will support the Pediatric Immunotherapy Program. Aiken residents Mark and Terri Rettig are among the four families that have teamed up to fight childhood cancer through the Press On Fund.
GPB News
GSU Researchers Identify Protein That Could Unlock West Nile, Zika Virus Treatments
By Ellen Eldridge
A research team at Georgia State University is gaining greater insight into mosquito-borne illnesses. A biologist at GSU said his team found a protein that, when modified, stops the spread of Zika and West Nile viruses. Dr. Mukesh Kumar said that’s important because global warming is expected to make mosquito-borne illnesses worse over time.
The Augusta Chronicle
Georgia business climate, Cyber Center attracting companies and jobs
By Tom Corwin
Georgia was named best business climate for a seventh year in a row by one magazine and Georgia Cyber Center’s unique ecosystem is also attracting companies and jobs to the state, officials said. Georgia may have the best business climate but it is the environment inside Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta that excites Tom Barnes of Parson Corporation and other cyber and defense contractors. Gov. Brian Kemp was at the center Wednesday to announce that Georgia has been named the best state climate for business for a record seventh year in a row by Site Selection magazine. “This ranking is not given, it is earned,” Kemp said. “Site Selection magazine highlighted our world class workforce, infrastructure and logistics hubs. They acknowledge our low cost of doing business and praise leaders on the state, regional and local level who are focused on advancing policies to grow jobs and economic opportunities.” Kemp last month announced Parsons would be expanding its Augusta operations by 80 positions, in addition to the 20 or so already on the ground, and Wednesday he got to meet at the center with Parsons and a number of the other entities there, such as Augusta University and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Cyber Crime Center.
WJBF
Business booms in Georgia with help of cyber in Augusta
by: Renetta DuBose
Governor Brian Kemp’s first visit to the Georgia Cyber Center came with positive news for the state’s economic development. He told local leaders the growing cyber industry centralized in Augusta plays a role in Georgia’s recent high ranking for business. “This is exactly what Governor Deal had in mind with he funded this project,” Gov. Kemp told the crowd promising to do all that he could to help the Georgia Cyber Center. This is just one more time that Augusta’s investment in cyber translates to an economic win for the Peach State.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Receives Top Business Ranking for Record-Breaking Seventh Straight Year
Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced that Georgia’s business climate has been named No. 1 in the nation by Site Selection Magazine, an internationally circulated business publication covering corporate real estate and economic development, for the seventh year in a row. Georgia is the only state that has received the distinction seven consecutive times in the history of Site Selection’s rankings. Governor Kemp made the historic announcement at the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta, Georgia.
Gwinnett Daily Post
GGC soccer’s Alfredo Rivera, Krishna Clarke named Academic All-District
From Staff Reports
A pair of Georgia Gwinnett College men’s soccer players have been recognized for their success on the pitch and classroom as Academic All-District selections by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Forward Krishna Clarke and midfielder Alfredo Rivera, both junior business majors, earned the distinction for the first time, based upon their strong academic and athletic performances for the No. 23-ranked Grizzlies. Academic all-district recognition is bestowed upon student-athletes achieving a 3.3 or higher cumulative grade point average and having at least two academic years at their current institution.
WALB
Georgia Southwestern’s Men’s Golf making history
GSW ranked no. 1 in the Peach Belt Conference
By Paige Dauer
Georgia Southwestern’s Men’s Golf is making history. For the first time ever, they’re ranked number one in the Peach Belt Conference. “I think it’s pretty good, because you get a receipt that you put in the work and it’s actually working,” said senior Vincent Norrman. Norrman is also making history. He recently captured his second consecutive PBC Golfer of the Week honor this season. After securing his fourth individual win, he now holds a GSW’s record for the most wins.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
The Landscape for Master’s-Level Education
Can traditional postbaccalaureate learning stay relevant?
By Lilah Burke
The landscape of postbaccalaureate learning has never looked more complex. On one hand, demand for the master’s degree has never been higher — the share of the U.S. population with an advanced degree has increased from 5 percent in 1980 to 13 percent today, leading the most competitive sectors of the workforce to refer to the master’s as “the new bachelor’s.” But while employers continue to demand master’s-level credentials and the skills they endow, societal concerns surrounding debt and the value of degrees have led others to assert that the master’s degree is no longer “worth it,” the return on investment too shaky to bet on. Throw in competition from less expensive and shorter-term alternative credentials, such as coding boot camps and microcredentials from for-profit companies such as Google and IBM, and where once there were only master’s degrees, and at a tight range of prices, now a worker hoping to reskill has more choices in regard to price, admissions standards and instructional model.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
New Universities Just Joined the AAU. That Will Change Their Campuses in These 3 Ways.
By Lindsay Ellis
Joining the Association of American Universities is a lot about the prestige. But it’s not only about the prestige. That’s what three new members will find as they join the selective group. On Wednesday, Dartmouth College, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and the University of Utah announced that they are now part of the elite association, upping the group’s composition to 63 American and two Canadian institutions. It’s a big deal for the top echelon of research universities. Campuses openly vie to join the association, and even nonmembers use its membership criteria to judge their own research money and faculty performance.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher-Ed Groups Raise Concerns About Foreign-Gift Reporting
By Karin Fischer
Higher-Ed Groups Raise Concerns About Foreign-Gift Reporting
The American Council on Education and 29 other higher-education associations sent a letter this week to the U.S. Department of Education that raises concerns about new reporting guidelines for universities that receive foreign contracts or gifts. The groups say that the proposed information-collection requirements go beyond the scope of the law governing funds colleges receive from foreign sources. They argue that the procedure, as proposed, is unclear, risks disclosure of intellectual property and proprietary information, and could impose a significant burden in cost and time on institutions.