University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clayton State University presidential finalist selected
By Eric Stirgus
Fort Valley State vice president in line to lead Clayton State
University System of Georgia officials announced Thursday a top administrator at another public university in the state as the finalist to become Clayton State University’s next president. T. Ramon Stuart, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Fort Valley State University since 2016, is in line to lead Clayton State. The current president, Tim Hynes, is retiring at the end of June. He has been its president for 12 years and has worked in leadership roles at various University System of Georgia schools for 25 years. The Board of Regents will take action on Stuart’s candidacy, likely next week.
See also:
WGXA
FVSU Provost named as sole finalist for President of Clayton State University
The Atlanta Voice
Clayton State University ends search for new president
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sonny Perdue on why he wants to be the state’s next higher ed leader
By Greg Bluestein
Former Gov. Sonny Perdue cast himself as an experienced public leader who could bring stability to the state’s higher education system in an interview on Thursday, his first public remarks about the secretive push to tap him to the coveted position. Perdue told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would help burnish the University System of Georgia’s reputation as an economic engine if the 19-member Board of Regents selects him to lead the state’s 26 public colleges and universities, one of the most powerful and high-paying jobs in government.
The Haralson County Gateway-Beacon
The heart of a wolf: Scholarship established in memory of UWG employee
By Sam Gentry
When University of West Georgia staff member Alan Thomas recently lost his battle with COVID-19, the shockwave was felt throughout the university community. Now, Thomas has joined his family as an alumnus of the institution, earning a posthumous degree at UWG’s Spring Commencement. Furthermore, through the Alan Thomas Endowed Scholarship, Thomas’ family has ensured his legacy of care and commitment to UWG and its students will continue to make a positive impact. Thomas’ family has a rich history at UWG, with both of his sons and wife, Tammy, being alumni. Tammy said Alan always regretted not finishing college when he was younger and had been working toward his degree for the last few years.
Monroe County Reporter
Double grads–Four MP scholars claim college degree before H.S. diploma
By Diane Glidewell
Among the slightly less than 300 graduates who walked across Dan Pitts Field on Friday night to receive their Mary Person diplomas were four young ladies who were awarded their Associate degrees by Middle Georgia State University earlier in May. Each of them decided shortly after their freshman year in high school to begin taking college courses while they were still enrolled in high school. Maci Joiner, Lily Keck, Logan Landers and Maggie Sanders are ready to enter college this fall as juniors, already halfway to a bachelor degree and with a giant financial jump on paying for college.
AllOnGeorgia
A 2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Major of the Year Award from Eta Sigma Gamma (ESG), a national honorary society for the profession of health education, is evidence of the hard work and growth that Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) senior Ife Kayode has experienced during her time at Georgia Southern University. In collaboration with the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC), the honor is given to outstanding students who exemplify the highest ideals of the health education profession.
Americus Times Recorder
Georgia Southwestern business students finish among top teams in worldwide Business Strategy Game
By Ken Gustafson
Three teams of senior business students at Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) received high accolades this spring semester for their top performance in the Business Strategy Game out of more than 3,500 teams from 400+ colleges and universities around the world. The Business Strategy Game is an online exercise where class members are divided into teams of three or four and assigned the task of running an athletic footwear company for a total of 12 “simulated” years in head-to-head competition against companies managed by other class members and thousands of teams across the world. The comprehensive computer simulation is part of a final senior capstone Strategic Management course led by Robert Bennett, Ph.D., professor of management in the College of Business and Computing. The exercise brings together all areas of business, requiring students to position their firms competitively to achieve overall strategic and financial success.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Receives $2.1 Million CAMP Grant
The United States Department of Education recently awarded Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College a $2.1 million College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP -S149A200013) grant from the Office of Migrant Education. Scott Pierce, Director of Sponsored Programs at ABAC, said the five-year CAMP grant is federally funded by the U. S. Department of Education and is designed to provide support to first-year college students of migrant and seasonal workers within the area of agriculture. The CAMP grant is dedicated to meeting the academic, social, emotional, and financial needs of its students. The program pays for tuition, room and board, books, and a small stipend for student participants.
Vegetable Growers News
30 years of service to agriculture in Georgia seen by UGA Weather Network
On June 1, 1991, the first agricultural weather station operated by the University of Georgia began transmitting data from Griffin, Georgia. Since then, the UGA Weather Network has grown to include 87 stations scattered across the state, providing weather data to a variety of users. On June 1 this year, this 30-year record of continuous weather data makes the University of Georgia (UGA )Weather Network one of the oldest state weather networks in the country.
WTOC
JA Colonial Group Discovery Center reaches capital goal for construction in Savannah
By Sean Evans
WTOC is getting an update on a project that aims to help young students learn about business and personal money management. In less than a year, the Junior Achievement Colonial Group Discovery Center will open to students on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus. Once finished, the JA Colonial Group Discovery Center will teach 15,000 middle schoolers a year from eight to nine school systems around the area about personal finance and how to run a business.
11Alive
Georgia film, production studios staying busy (Video)
Georgia film and production studios are not only filming again, many are expanded. …Georgia Film Academy is unique. It uses the existing resources of the entire Georgia university system, all 26 institutions along with Georgia’s 22 technical colleges, that means there are opportunities to people all over the state to learn about then work in the film industry. Jeffery Stepakoff is a Hollywood tv writer and producer …and came home to be the founding executive director of the state’s film academy.
WFXG
Georgia Cyber Center training military and families in IT and Cyber
By Eliza Kruczynski
The Georgia Cyber Center hosted an orientation for the inaugural cohort of the workforces program Thursday. They were able to do so through a nearly $9 million award from the U.S. Department of Labor. This grant is to help train military veterans, military spouses and those transitioning out of the military with free IT and cyber training. Executive director at the Georgia Cyber Center, Eric Toler, says “This is one way to take the talent that’s at Fort Gordon for those that have already been trained, in many cases in cyber skills, and transition them into the work force.” He says this is to help take care of the veterans, and will help fill the cyber security workforce gap that they’re seeing around the country.
WJBF
College students eager for sense of ‘normalcy’
by: Taylor Leverett
After more than a year of confusion over masks and virtual learning Augusta University students are ready to return to normal. I spoke with University President Brooks Keel and he says his students faced many challenges over the past year, and he hopes they’re ready for a return to on-campus learning. Keels also says transitioning back into the classroom is long overdue…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Ga. public colleges should require COVID shot
By Mark H. Ebell Mark H. Ebell, M.D., M.S., is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Georgia.
We are sure to have a significant proportion of students who choose not to get vaccinated, and we are therefore unlikely to achieve herd immunity.
The University System of Georgia has refused to allow its member colleges and universities to institute COVID-19 vaccine mandates for the 2021 fall semester, and unfortunately there is no evidence that the university presidents have pushed back. Let me explain why this is a bad policy decision, driven by politics and not by concern for the health of the public. What do I know about the pandemic? First, I am a family physician and professor of epidemiology who has been doing research on acute respiratory infections for over 20 years, including 6 published studies on COVID-19 to date. I designed and taught a course on disease outbreak investigation at UGA. I currently edit a reference for primary care physicians and wrote the chapter on COVID-19, and with two colleagues have written over 220 summaries of COVID-19 studies for the American Academy of Family Physicians. All that is to say, I have been immersed in research and teaching about COVID-19 for the past 15 months.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus in Georgia: COVID-19 Dashboard
Latest stats and the news on the coronavirus outbreak
Q: What is the latest on confirmed and probable coronavirus cases in Georgia?
896,894 TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES
1,125,017 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE CASES
Q: What is the latest on coronavirus deaths in Georgia?
18,103 TOTAL CONFIRMED DEATHS
20,900 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE DEATHS
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
College Board analysis is latest to find that community colleges suffered more than four-year colleges, but report also suggests that four-year colleges saw a loss of students with higher grades. And some states saw gains in enrollment at four-year colleges.
By Scott Jaschik
Who showed up last fall? That’s the question the College Board attempted to answer with a new report on enrollment — new and continuing — of students. The College Board used its own data and those of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center to create a sample of nearly 10 million students who represent about 80 percent of all U.S. high school graduates in the last three years. The students attended more than 22,000 U.S. high schools and 2,800 U.S. colleges, resulting in a nationally representative data set for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on college enrollment and retention among recent high school graduates. (The report does not include adult students.) Some of the results confirm past reports on the coronavirus.
Inside Higher Ed
How Many Will Take Tomorrow’s SAT?
By Scott Jaschik
Many high school students and counselors are complaining that the students will not be able to take tomorrow’s scheduled SAT despite signing up for it. For more than a year now, some testing centers have been closed on the test day. …Zach Goldberg, a spokesman for the College Board, said via email, “We’ve continued to see strong demand from students to take the SAT and submit scores. While COVID-19 still has an impact on students’ ability to take the SAT, we’re seeing the situation improve significantly since last fall. For the May 2021 weekend administration, almost 75 percent of the students who registered were able to test, compared with only 43 percent back in August when we began to administer the SAT during the pandemic.
Inside Higher Ed
White House Kicks Off College Vaccine Challenge
By Alexis Gravely
The Biden administration has launched an initiative called the COVID-19 College Challenge for colleges and universities to encourage their students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Any college or university is able to sign up for the challenge and have their institution added to the White House’s list of challenge participants, which currently includes several hundred colleges across 46 states and Washington, D.C. By adding themselves to the list, the institutions commit to ensuring every member of their college community has information about vaccine eligibility and site locations, implementing a plan to get as many people vaccinated as possible, and providing accessible vaccine sites near their community.