University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sonny Perdue under consideration to lead Georgia’s higher ed system
By Greg Bluestein
Former Gov. Sonny Perdue is under serious consideration to lead Georgia’s higher education system, one of the most powerful and influential jobs in state government, five people with direct knowledge of the search told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Republican has not yet formally applied to lead the University System of Georgia, which oversees the state’s public colleges and universities, and officials say the national search will be an open and transparent process. Still, people involved in the search who spoke on condition of anonymity acknowledge the former two-term governor is a strong contender. Perdue, 74, declined to comment through an aide.
Growing America
Top Agricultural Universities in the World Unveiled
By: Agri Marketing
QS, in partnership with Elsevier, has released its eighth annual ranking of the world’s best Agricultural Universities. To learn more about the study and its methodology click here. The top 10 globally and top 18 in North America include: (Indicated behind each is their prior year’s ranking). …Others of interest 37. University of Georgia
WGAU Radio
UNG online degree programs earn high rankings
Second consecutive year
By Tim Bryant
Three online master’s degree programs at the University of North Georgia land top spots in US News and World Report’s latest rankings. The magazine recognized UNG’s criminal justice, education, and nursing online graduate programs.
VOA News
Lessons in Finance Could Reduce Student Debt
By Yanet Chernet
Millions of student loan borrowers owe a collective $1.7 trillion in debt, but many commit to loans without knowing what they are signing up for, research shows. Students lacking education in personal finance are more likely to underestimate future student loan payments, wrote Nikolaos Artavanis of Virginia Polytechnic University, and Soumya Karra of the University of Massachusetts. Nearly 40% of borrowers who said they lacked understanding of how loans work underestimated their future payments by more than $1,000 a year, the researchers wrote in The European Journal of Finance in January 2020. Understanding their future financial commitment corrected their estimates by 17-18 percentage points. And some borrowers concluded that although the educational benefits outweighed the disadvantages of taking on student debt, they would have borrowed less if they had understood the financial and mental strain those loans caused. Student debt is a flashpoint for many Americans and a cause among politicians. …In the gender divide, a study by Lu Fan, assistant professor of personal financing at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Swarn Chatterjee, professor of financial planning at the University of Georgia, in 2018 showed that women are less likely to be late on loans, but more likely to stress about it than men. Men are less likely to worry, even with a higher likelihood of being late on student repayments. Younger borrowers showed the least financial knowledge, as did borrowers from underrepresented or lower socioeconomic backgrounds, according to Brookings.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fauci tells Georgia Tech students more work needed on vaccine access
By Eric Stirgus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Anthony Fauci told Georgia Tech students and faculty Monday he wants to find ways to improve access to the coronavirus vaccine to underserved communities and get more Republicans vaccinated. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talked about the challenges in a virtual question-and-answer session after receiving the school’s annual Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage for his decades of work in public health and leading the federal government’s COVID-19 response effort. … Fauci talked about ways to increase vaccine access to Black and Hispanic communities, such as providing more doses to pharmacies in those communities. Fauci also insisted there’s no difference in the effectiveness of any of the three vaccines approved by the federal government for emergency use.
accessWDUN
Georgia Tech honors Fauci with annual social courage prize
By The Associated Press
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the nation’s fight against COVID-19, has accepted an award that honors his courage in leading Americans through an exceptionally partisan pandemic. Fauci, who appeared via video call, wore a Georgia Institute of Technology lapel pin during the Monday afternoon ceremony hosted by the university. He called the outbreak, which has raged for more than a year, the most polarizing public health crisis he’s yet endured. “I have never in my decades-long experience seen the level of divisive that exists in the country today,” he said.
WSAV
‘Economy Bouncing Back,’ reports Georgia Southern’s Q4 Economic Monitor
by: McKenna Cieslak
Georgia Southern University’s latest Economic Monitor reports that the Savannah metro area economy continued to bounce back during the closing quarter of 2020. “Total regional employment rebounded strongly, along with continued strength in port activity and logistics, but the tourism industry continues to struggle,” stated Dr. Michael Toma, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Economics. Employment growth will slow in the first quarter as compared to the gains reported for the fourth quarter, noted Toma. More substantial recovery will be delayed until the regional hospitality industry, and the service sector in general, return to early 2020 levels. There is little change in the forecast for those sectors until the population begins to approach herd immunity from COVID-19. The business index for the Savannah metro economy soared 6.6% during the fourth quarter. The index increased to 176 from 165.1. Across-the-board growth in all eight underlying indicators spurred the rebound.
Growing Georgia
ABAC Foundation Receives Wildlife Viewing Grant from Georgia DNR
The Nature Study Area at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will get a new boardwalk thanks to a recently announced $2,097 Wildlife Viewing Grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to the ABAC Foundation. “The Nature Study Area on the ABAC campus is one of only two public nature trails in Tift County,” Dr. Mark Kistler, Dean of ABAC’s School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said. “This grant will allow our students in Natural Resource Management under the supervision of the faculty and staff in the Department of Forest Resources to make needed repairs and improvements to the boardwalk along the nature trail.
Savannah Morning News
Georgia higher education left behind on vaccine eligibility
Mary Landers
When Georgia expanded its COVID vaccine eligibility to include educators starting March 8, many of the state’s university professors and staff expected to be included. They weren’t. Instead, they’ve had to seek out vaccines from waitlists or even travel to Alabama where higher education workers are eligible and out-of-state-residents are welcome. Or they wait. “Higher ed workers were considered frontline workers in neighboring states and given COVID19 vaccine access along with K-12 educators,” Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Southern University Wayne Johnson wrote in an email. “I wish we could learn more about the decision-making process in Georgia.” Johnson and all the faculty who spoke to the Savannah Morning news did so to share their personal perspective and not on behalf of their employer. …”Gov. Kemp prioritized K-12 faculty and staff for vaccination for school systems to reopen for in-person instruction of Georgia’s children five days a week to allow parents to return to work and alleviate the negative impacts of online learning that are leaving many students behind,” Mitchell wrote in an email. “The University System and other higher education institutions have more flexibility for varied instruction than K-12 schools do.” Biology Professor Kathryn Craven, who teaches at the Armstrong campus of Georgia Southern University, said that while some professors can teach online or generally have small classes that reduce their risk, she can’t.
Middle Georgia CEO
Macon-Bibb Municipal Court Judge Elected to MGA Foundation Board of Trustees
Crystal Jones, Macon-Bibb County Municipal Court judge, has been elected to a three-year term on the Middle Georgia State University (MGA) Foundation Board of Trustees. Jones earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Service from MGA, where she was named President’s Scholar and earned the Division of Social Sciences Academic Excellence award. She also received the Student Life Distinguished Student Leadership award two consecutive years and served as Student Government Association president for two years.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Member of Georgia Tech men’s basketball travel party tests positive for COVID
By Ken Sugiura
A member of the Georgia Tech men’s basketball travel party tested positive for COVID-19, coach Josh Pastner said Tuesday as the team is preparing to play in the NCAA Tournament. The person, who Pastner would not identify as a player, is said to be asymptomatic. Georgia Tech arrived in Indianapolis Sunday night after receiving its bid. No. 9 Georgia Tech will play No. 8 Loyola Chicago on Friday in a Midwest Region first round game. The positive test was discovered on intake in Indianapolis. Pastner said the person is isolated and cannot participate in games this weekend.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgians scramble for vaccine slots on day 1 of expanded eligibility
By Ariel Hart, Helena Oliviero, Eric Stirgus and Johnny Edwards
Gov. Kemp says metro Atlantans should consider driving to South Georgia, where demand is less
Georgia’s big push to quell COVID-19 began Monday with overwhelming demand, prompting celebrations among those able to get vaccines into their arms and frustrations for those who couldn’t. Appointments were quickly booked at vaccination sites in Fulton County, DeKalb County, Macon and Habersham County. Fulton’s vaccine hotline saw a surge in callers trying to get a place in line. Others navigated though the multiple state and pharmacy sign-up websites available to Georgians, only to be likely informed that all slots were gone and they’d be contacted at a later date.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: COVID relief will be at center of the storm in Georgia politics
By Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell
The $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal is in the books. The $1,400 checks started hitting bank accounts over the weekend and more than $4 billion is headed for Georgia schools. But the political battle over the legacy of the bill will unfold over months, maybe years. In Georgia, it’s only just beginning. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris head to town on Friday to promote the measure, and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, facing re-election next year, toured vaccine clinics last week. Meanwhile rural areas of Georgia saw the opposite situation, with the state having shipped more doses than there are people willing or able to take them. Some savvy metro Atlanta vaccine seekers have been taking advantage of the low demand by booking appointments in distant zip codes, and Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday urged Atlanta-area residents to do just that to prevent vaccines going to waste.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
States Maintain Higher Ed Funding
Federal relief dollars appear to be enough to keep nationwide totals of state higher ed funding steady this fiscal year, even amid the pandemic. But almost half of individual states still reported funding declines.
By Emma Whitford
With the help of nearly $2 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding, state funding allocations for higher education during the 2021 fiscal year remained roughly the same as last fiscal year, according to the latest Grapevine higher education funding report. Total state support for higher education edged up by 0.3 percent to $96.7 billion in the 2021 fiscal year, which began July 1, 2020, and will end on June 30, 2021. Without federal dollars, direct state funding levels would have declined by 1.3 percent this fiscal year.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Pandemic May Have Permanently Altered Campuses. Here’s How.
Trends accelerated by Covid-19 may make more sense than ever in the future, experts say.
By Francie Diep
The Covid-19 crisis has transformed all aspects of higher education, and the physical campus is no exception. The Chronicle recently released a special report, Rethinking Campus Spaces, that offers strategies for doing more with less space, to save money and prepare for an uncertain future. Here is an adapted excerpt from the report.
One-way signs, sparsely furnished classrooms, and empty faculty offices are the norm now, but they won’t last forever. Still, the pandemic may have permanently altered campuses in other ways, accelerating changes that began years before. The Chronicle asked more than 40 architects, campus planners, and leaders in student life and housing about how several categories of campus spaces might look different in the future. As colleges navigate difficult financial straits, many interviewees predicted more public-private partnerships, and renovations instead of new construction — which can be less costly and more environmentally friendly. Overall, their answers paint a picture of future campuses that are more adaptable, perhaps smaller, and focused on what’s most valuable about seeing one’s peers in person.
Inside Higher Ed
As Students Dispersed, Tutoring Services Adapted
With the pandemic limiting face-to-face interaction, universities turned to new virtual peer tutoring pathways that save money and can offer sessions at any time of day. But are students booking as many sessions and getting the academic help they need?
By Greta Anderson
As the coronavirus pandemic forced college campuses to shut down last March, Tiana Iruoje scrambled to quickly transition peer tutoring services at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering to online-only appointments. Iruoje, director of student engagement and success for the school, needed to be able to track student check-ins and tutor hours….Learning center staff members across the country faced a similar dilemma. Just as faculty members and mental health support staff members were forced to pivot to remote instruction and online therapy sessions within a matter of weeks, academic support services also quickly shifted gears and made accommodations for the public health emergency. Very few centers had existing online systems established to smoothly transition their traditional, brick-and-mortar centers to online peer tutoring sessions. …First-year students who say their colleges provide “quite a bit” or “very much” academic support in general are more likely to want to return to their institution the following year, according to recent results from the National Survey of Student Engagement, or NSSE.
Inside Higher Ed
Trying Times for Tribal Colleges
Lack of internet access, declining first-year enrollment and increasing student withdrawals are just some of the pandemic-related challenges tribal colleges face. Many students and staff have also lost family members to COVID-19. College leaders say students have shown great resiliency nonetheless.
By Elizabeth Redden
At Navajo Technical University, which has campuses on the sprawling Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, some students commute up to two hours each way to attend classes. Many of them lack reliable access to the internet. The pandemic has made attending the university even more challenging, but university leaders have come up with creative ways to engage students and keep them enrolled, even starting a Homework Express service through which campus shuttle bus drivers bring packets of homework to designated drop-off points for students who lack internet access altogether. The drivers then return to pick up the completed assignments. … Over and over again, leaders of tribal colleges say the same thing: their students are resilient — and college administrators will do whatever it takes to get them to the finish line.