University System News:
AllOnGeorgia
USG Names New Vice Chancellor for Communications
University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley has announced the appointment of Aaron Diamant as the Vice Chancellor for Communications, effective Feb. 3. Diamant has been an investigative reporter at WSB-TV in Atlanta since 2011. Diamant has prior television experience at stations in Milwaukee, Wisc.; Memphis, Tenn.; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Columbia, Mo.; spanning a more than 20-year career covering government, politics and higher education. “Aaron brings a wealth of communications experience to the USG, and we look forward to his leadership in getting the news out about the system’s successes and priorities,” Wrigley said. “He is well acquainted with the latest communications strategies and digital storytelling techniques and will serve the Board and our institutions well in providing public relations counsel.”
Marietta daily Journal
KSU selling property near Marietta campus
By Thomas Hartwell
Kennesaw State University has asked the Board of Regents to authorize the $1.3 million sale of 3.26 acres across the street from KSU’s Marietta campus. The Board of Regents’ Committee on Real Estate and Facilities will consider the sale at the board’s Wednesday meeting. The former Southern Polytechnic State University, the school with which Kennesaw State University merged in 2015, purchased the property at 401 Rose Drive, Marietta in 2013. Prior to that purchase, the two-story, 32,000-square-foot commercial building on the property operated as a multi-tenant shopping center, according to the Board of Regents agenda item. University officials say the property no longer serves a strategic purpose for KSU, and its sale to Block C, LLC will eliminate maintenance costs of the vacant building.
WRDW
Augusta University incentivizes troops to become teachers
By Sydney Heiberger
A program at Augusta University is teaching military service members to serve in a new way. It’s called Troops to Teachers and it benefits more than just the students. Amanda Woods says she went to boot camp right after she finished high school. But after making the transition to teaching sixth grade math after eight years in the Navy, she said she was surprised by the similarities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta school system honors former student, UGA’s first black graduate
By Vanessa McCray
Atlanta Public Schools honored Mary Frances Early, a history-making former student and educator and the University of Georgia’s first African American graduate. Next month, the university’s College of Education will be named in Early’s honor. But on Monday, the school district where she graduated from high school and later taught music took its turn paying homage to her.Before Monday’s board meeting, APS officials paused to recognize Early.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ivery Clifton, UGA’s first African American dean, dies at 76
By Eric Stirgus
Ivery Clifton, whose 27-year career at the University of Georgia included history-making accomplishments such as becoming its first African American dean, died last week at the age of 76. Clifton, a native Georgian, was a professor, department chair and was interim dean from 1994 to 1995 in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also was an associate vice president for academic affairs. Clifton retired in 2003 and was named professor emeritus status in agricultural economics. He died Jan. 1.
Tifton CEO
Get Your Own Robot at ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Ag on January 25th
Staff Report
Visitors can begin the new decade with their very own robot when they attend a new exhibition on Jan. 25 at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture. Titled “Rust and Recreation,” the exhibition of 70 robots by Columbus native Dave Clegg will include several with price tags on them. “‘Rust & Recreation’ celebrates the fact that there is a treasure trove of beautifully aging vintage objects out there just waiting to be discovered and assembled into something new,” Museum Curator Polly Huff said. “Many of the robots have been given clever and descriptive names, and most of the robots in the exhibition will be available for purchase.”
Black Enterprise
LIL NAS X TEAMS UP WITH SCHOLLY TO GIVE AWAY $30,000 IN STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
by Selena Hill
Despite dropping out of college, Lil Nas X is making it easier for students to earn a college degree. The Grammy-nominated artist teamed up with Scholly, a popular scholarship-matching platform, to give away $30,000 in scholarships. Born Montero Lamar Hill, the 20-year-old rapper revealed that three deserving high school and current college students will receive $10,000 each. To apply, students must complete a two-minute application and submit an essay on Scholly’s website or through the Scholly app. The deadline is May 15, 2020. …Lil Nas X graduated from a Georgia high school in 2017 and studied for one year at the University of West Georgia before dropping out to pursue a career as an internet sensation and rapper. …“Not too long ago, I was in college racking up student loans,” said the rap star, who is up for six Grammys, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year, in a promo video. “I still understand the challenges my fans have when it comes to paying for school.”
Thomasville Times-Enterprise
A recent study said that Georgia is the sickest state in the nation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited a Kinsa Health report that pointed out Georgia has a higher rate of people falling sick than any other state. Kinsa Health is a health technology company. And flu season had an early start, according to Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control, in their report for the final week of 2019, said flu activity across the country has been high and has been at an elevated level for eight weeks. …The MCG states flu season typically starts in December and ends in late March or early April. There are generally two types — A and B — of flu. Flu vaccines target the A virus. For B, adults who have been exposed develop an immunity.
Albany Herald
Peanut Farm Show offers education, products showcase
From staff reports
Producers have an opportunity to improve the bottom line of their farming operation with knowledge, connections and information gained at the 44th annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show and Conference, planned at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center, Jan. 16, from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Peanut farmers and those involved in the peanut industry will be able to learn more about the latest products, services and peanut research at the show, which is sponsored by the Georgia Peanut Commission. …The University of Georgia Peanut Team will present an educational peanut production seminar from 9-10:30 a.m., entitled “Common Mistakes that Reduce Your Profitability.” UGA specialists will present information and tips focusing on fertility, weed, insect and disease management. Farmers also will have the opportunity to earn private or commercial pesticide applicator certification.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech students build speedy sofa using electric scooters parts
By Raisa Habersham
It started as a joke. Each year, the Georgia Tech Wreck Racing team would bring their dirty, tan sofa to watch the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine $2000 Challenge. The annual event is for teams who race cars built on a tight budget .Wreck Racing, an all-student team that builds cars specifically for the challenge, would get teased by the other drivers who said Tech should enter the couch in a race. So they did. “The couch is really the first big general population project people can enjoy [from the team],” said Thomas Barone, press secretary for the team. The team began working on the project in April, shortly after Lime donated about 15 scooters to the team, Barone said. Using the scooters’ electric motors, wheels, and braking switches, the team designed and built the drivable couch — which travels at about 25 mph to 30 mph, Barone said.
Tifton Gazette
Go Nuts, Georgia: Georgia Tech alumni, engineers innovate in $2.2 billion peanut industry
By Kathrin Havrilla-Sanchez
The next time you grab an afternoon pick-me-up candy bar, a protein shake packed with peanut butter powder, or even a classic PB&J, chances are that you’re helping one of Georgia’s biggest sectors thrive. The state produces about half of the United States’ peanuts, roughly 2 million tons each year, making Georgia the biggest peanut producer in the U.S. Peanuts have been growing in Georgia’s soil since before the Civil War, and as farming technology has evolved, many researchers, students and alumni at Tech have contributed to innovation that increases yield, streamlines the production process and improves the bottom line. And some of them are even peanut farmers themselves, growing and producing the quality product that gives the state its reputation.
Tifton Quality Peanuts
Originally from quaint Waycross, Georgia, Bill Park (electrical engineering, Class of 1976) spent his summers cropping tobacco on and around his grandparents’ farm. After working as an engineer for more than 25 years, Park became the president and CEO of Tifton Quality Peanuts in 2006. These days, he uses his farming background, as well as his business acumen, to run the successful peanut company. …Don Koehler, executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission for the past 33 years, knows better than most how the innovations created at Georgia Tech have impacted the peanut industry.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Poll on Higher Education’s Affordability and Accessibility
By Paul Fain
Most adults in the U.S. (60 percent) say education beyond high school is available to anyone in the country who needs it, according to newly released results of a Gallup poll. That finding is similar to what Gallup found in 2015, the last time it asked that question. But the number has declined since 2011, when it was 71 percent. Those portions decline among younger respondents, however. For example, 46 percent of respondents who are 18 to 29 years old think higher education is available to anyone who needs it.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Happy New Year, Higher Ed: You’ve Missed Your Completion Goal
By Eric Kelderman
It’s barely the beginning of the new year and higher education has already missed its “moonshot,” the goal of making the United States the world leader in college attainment by 2020. President Barack Obama issued that challenge to the nation in 2009 as part of his very first speech to Congress. That aspiration was just one of many items on the newly elected president’s agenda to support economic recovery after the Great Recession. More training after high school was necessary, the president said, to give workers an opportunity for a well-paying job. …More than a decade after that speech, the nation has fallen far short of becoming the world leader in college attainment. Finding and scaling the right policies and practices to drastically improve degree completions has been a daunting challenge. Competing priorities and the wreckage of the recession have made that task even harder. Meanwhile, countries like Canada, Japan, and South Korea keep moving the goalposts, making it mathematically difficult to close the gap with America’s international competition.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Are Rural Students the Next Priority for Colleges?
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Redux on rural students’ college-going conundrum.
It’s not hard to find folks in higher education talking about the challenges of getting more rural students to and through college. It’s the solutions that are more elusive. Yet after I wrote about this issue in a newsletter last fall, readers helped to connect me to several ideas worth highlighting. Most notable: Some colleges are beginning to consider their rural students as a separate demographic group and are consciously devising services, such as internships and orientations, especially designed for them. Likewise, I heard about some cool examples in response to my specific question about strategies for improving broadband access, which is one of the biggest and most-obvious barriers right now.
Inside Higher Ed
The wide availability of cheap new education-related web addresses is creating a headache for university brand managers.
By Lindsay McKenzie
Most U.S. university websites have ended in “.edu” since the dawn of the internet, but in recent years the number of domain name options has exploded. New extensions such as “.university,” “.college,” “.degree” and “.education” present an opportunity to modernize the online branding of higher education institutions that, in many cases, selected their web address in the ’80s and ’90s. But it’s an opportunity few institutions have embraced, said Bob Brock, president of the Educational Marketing Group. Many institutions are buying these new domain names but aren’t actively using them, said Brock. Colleges are purchasing these addresses simply to protect their brands and prevent third parties from snapping them up.
Forbes
Higher Education Appropriations Up 5% For FY 2019-20
Michael T. NietzelSenior Contributor
The 50 states appropriated a total of 96.6 billion dollars to support their public universities and financial aid programs in Fiscal Year 2019-20. That’s a 5% increase over 2018-19 and an 18.8% increase over five years ago, according to Inside Higher Education’s summary of the annual Grapevine report of state higher education spending published by Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Education Policy in cooperation with the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). This year’s increase continues an eight-year trend of annual increases, and it’s larger than any percentage increase in the past four years. The figures come as welcome news, reflecting the continuing recovery of state revenues and a corresponding investment in public higher education by state policy makers. Unlike in prior years, where there was considerable variation among the states, only three states reported decreased funding for higher education in FY 2019-20 – Alaska (-11.2%), Hawaii (-2.2%) and New York (-.3%).