University System News
Statesboro Herald
Marrero: GS enrollment should top 27,000 now; 29,000 by 2026
By Al Hackle
After obtaining its two largest freshman classes ever despite a pandemic, Georgia Southern University is set to start classes Wednesday with more than 27,000 students expected for fall semester, the most the university’s campuses have greeted since fall 2017.
Stories also appeared on WJCL and Fox 28.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Freshmen 2.0: Georgia colleges give sophomores overdue welcome to campus
By Eric Stirgus and Anjali Huynh
The first year of college is supposed to be one of the seminal moments in life; a time of independence, personal growth, new experiences and the beginning of lasting friendships.
The students and their schools are trying to recapture that lost time by renewing those interrupted rituals and creating new traditions. The fall semester begins this week on some campuses.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett students sign up to tutor
By H.M. Cauley
In April, rising 10th grader Amira Jackson was mulling over what to do after school ended when she overheard her dad, the director of co-curricular assessment at Georgia Gwinnett College, talking about a summer program that needed tutors. Gwinnett County Public Schools’ Summer Enrichment and Acceleration classes give elementary and middle schoolers a jump start on the fall with 15 days of learning. Teachers are assisted by student tutors from GGC, but this year, with the enrollment close to 6,000, the college’s 300 tutors weren’t enough to fill the need. “When I found that out, I wanted to get involved,” said Jackson. “I started talking with my friends at Brookwood High, emailed class directors, talked to my counselors and put the info on a shared student website to push the word out. Kids were able to sign up for the subjects they were comfortable tutoring.” The Snellville resident’s efforts resulted in 21 students volunteering to tutor half or full days at six schools.
The Moultrie Observer
Valdosta State offering system’s first all-online degree programs
By Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
When the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia in March of last year, Georgia’s colleges and universities suddenly had to switch to online instruction to protect students and teachers from the virus. Now, the University System of Georgia is applying the lessons learned from that experience to establish the state’s first all-online four-year degree programs. Valdosta State University is launching an E-degree pilot project this month that will offer eight undergraduate degrees in subjects ranging from criminal justice to general business to elementary education.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia State University eyes Auburn Avenue parcel for new building
By David Allison
Georgia State University is seeking to buy a piece of property on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta for a new academic building. The school is proposing to acquire about a third of an acre at 159 Auburn Avenue for $1,850,000. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia is scheduled to consider a deal for the property at its Aug. 10 board meeting. The seller is Auburn Avenue Village LLC, according to the state. According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the agent for the business entity is Egbert L.J. Perry, a prominent Atlanta developer. The property is on the southwest corner of Auburn Avenue and Piedmont Avenue and is currently a parking lot. It’s adjacent to Patton Hall and near several other GSU properties.
Griffin Daily News
Clayton State secures grant funds
Clayton State University has secured American Rescue Plan funds to help nearly 6,000 students resolve current account balances allowing them to remain enrolled for the fall semester. “The pandemic was financially difficult for many of our students,” said Dr. T. Ramon Stuart, president of Clayton State. “It is our mission to help them reach their educational goals. Unfortunately, sometimes all that is hindering them from continuing their journey is a few hundred dollars. The emergency grant funds that we were able to obtain will help keep many of our students on the path to reaching their potential.”
The Business Journals
Expert View: Colleges waking up to ‘immense potential’ of virtual reality
By Hilary Burns – The National Observer Higher Education
Evaristo Doria, a senior lecturer at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, worked with virtual-reality company Arthur to create a program for international business students studying management in Central America.
Douglas Now
Bobby Bowden, Former South Georgia College and FSU Head Football Coach, Has Died at 91.
By Staff Reports
Former Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden, who began his head coaching career at then-South Georgia College in 1955, has died from pancreatic cancer. He was 91. South Georgia State College released a statement this morning regarding Coach Bowden’s passing: “Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and players of Coach Bobby Bowden. Coach Bowden started his head coaching career at SGC in Douglas, Ga., from 1955 – 1958 and has returned to campus annually to spend time with his former team. He will be missed!
WABE
By Martha Dalton
Shortly afterward, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the system’s accrediting agency, wrote a letter to the regents warning them they could put the accreditation of the entire university system at risk if they were to hire Perdue. The board ‘paused’ its search, and in June, it tapped Teresa MacCartney as interim chancellor. AJC reporter Greg Bluestein broke the story. He spoke to WABE about how the pieces came together and shares one of the messages made clear to him by sources: Never count Sonny Perdue out.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Here are Columbus State’s COVID rules as cases and delta variant soar in GA
By Brittany McGee
Columbus State University strongly encourages individuals on campus to wear masks and get the COVID-19 vaccine, but neither will be required for the upcoming semester. The only places where masks are required is the Student Health Center and on CSU shuttles. Classes begin on Aug. 16. This policy is across all University System of Georgia schools and facilities. CSU asks unvaccinated individuals to continue wearing a mask or face covering and practice social distancing, Gregory Hudgison, director of communications at CSU, said in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer.
Other News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated August 6)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is keeping track of reported coronavirus deaths and cases across Georgia according to the Department of Public Health. See details in the map below. See the DPH’s guide to their data for more information about definitions.
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,829 | Deaths have been confirmed in every county. This figure does not include additional cases that the DPH reports as suspected COVID-19-related deaths. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 953,870 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Fox 54 WFXG
Surge in COVID-19 cases puts strain on local health resources
By Jared Eggleston
Recent spikes in COVID-19 cases have put stress on health resources around the city of Augusta, leading hospitals to briefly stop taking incoming ambulance traffic. Augusta University Medical Center’s Dr. Richard Schwartz says that the strain on resources is a mixture of COVID-19 and generally sick patients. “In general sick patients, from other conditions in addition to the COVID. I think what has happened is the COVID patients have put some additional stress on all of the health systems,” Dr. Schwartz said. As of Friday, August 6, AU Medical Center says they are caring for 59 COVID-19 inpatients while University Hospital says they are caring for 74. Those numbers are a steep jump from what we were seeing just a month ago, with University Hospital seeing over a 1,000% increase in cases. This unexpected spike has led to hospitals having to re-route resources.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poll: Georgians prefer COVID relief be spent on economic assistance, health care
By James Salzer
A new poll out Thursday suggests economic support — such as direct cash payments — and health care are Georgians’ top priorities for spending the $4.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money the state is receiving. Committees appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp are going to review applications for spending the money in three categories: expanding high-speed internet service throughout the state, water and sewer projects, and measures to help individuals and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia law allows Kemp to make the final decision.
Higher Education News
Inside Higher Ed
Loan Repayment Pause Continues
By Alexis Gravely
The temporary pause on student loan repayment has been extended to January 31, 2022 for the final time, the Department of Education announced Friday. Repayments were originally scheduled to resume October 1, 2021. This is the fourth time that the repayment pause has been extended since it was first enacted in March 2020 by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The announcement was met with praise by many, though some with caveats. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers criticized the decision.
Inside Higher Ed
Pressure Building for Vaccine Mandates
By Elizabeth Redden
With the fall semester approaching, the much more easily transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus spreading, and COVID-19 cases rising, professors and students at several flagship public universities are pushing their institutions to join the more than 600 other colleges and universities that are mandating vaccines. Dimitri Drekonja, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, co-authored an open letter in June signed by more than 500 people calling on the university to reconsider its decision not to require vaccines.
Inside Higher Ed
Coursera vs. 2U/edX? Noodle Joins the Fray
By Doug Lederman
The two behemoths in what one might call the online degree and training platform space, Coursera and 2U, took different paths to their respective perches. 2U began by promising to help prestigious colleges take their academic programs online in a big way; in recent years it has swallowed companies that also allowed it to offer short training courses, bootcamps and — assuming its stunning proposal to purchase the nonprofit edX goes through — non-degree courses and programs and low-cost degrees. Coursera took the opposite route: It started nearly a decade ago promising to help universities market free, open online courses to the world, expanded into career training, and a few years ago began working with its higher education partners to build and market low-cost degree programs to its tens of millions of learners. Now the two publicly traded companies, both valued in the billions, describe themselves as “lifelong learning platforms” that provide the full gamut of offerings that learners might want to advance in their careers or stay vital after high school and well into their lives.