University System News:
Americus Times-Recorder
It has been proclaimed! Sept. 16 is GSW Day of Giving
By Tracy K. Hall
There is always a great return on giving. It is a quality we honor and admire. On Thursday, September 2, 2021, Georgia Southwestern (GSW) friends, faculty, staff and alumni gathered to celebrate this quality. There is a standing invitation for you to join in GSW’s efforts to give. Mayor Barry Blount knows Americus is known for her giving. Over the years he has seen our community pour out on others. On behalf of the citizens of Americus, the mayor signed a proclamation declaring 9.16.2021 as the GSW Day of Giving.
EDsmart
Most Affordable Online MBA Programs
2021 Rankings
An online Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) degree can cost upwards of $10,000 per semester, but luckily that’s not always the case. Forty-one of the fifty-nine affordable online MBA programs on our list have base costs of less than $10,000 and cover concentrations from Finance to Agri-business to IT Management and more. An MBA provides students with the knowledge, skill sets, and experience that make them desirable candidates in the most competitive of positions. …The schools on our list of the Most Affordable Online MBA programs range in cost from $3,200 to $20,000, with the most inexpensive online MBA coming from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin College in Odessa Texas.
#3 Georgia Southwestern State University School of Business Administration
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Black college president on importance of STEM: ‘I never heard of engineering until college’
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Clayton State University’s new leader wants students exposed earlier to science and technology fields
In July, T. Ramon Stuart became president of Clayton State University. He is the first Black president of the 52-year-old public campus, coming to Clayton State from Fort Valley State University where he had been provost and vice president of academic affairs since 2016. Stuart earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the West Virginia University and a doctorate in higher education administration from Ohio University. In his first guest column for the AJC education blog, Stuart addresses the need to expose more students of color to engineering and other STEM disciplines.
By T. Ramon Stuart
…My mother’s educational journey concluded with a doctorate. I can only appreciate now the monumental feat I witnessed that I could not – and would not – understand until later in my life. This is because while my mother worked tirelessly to expose me to life’s opportunities, there were things my small county could not provide me. For instance, I never heard of the word engineering until my sophomore year in college. Once I learned more about this profession, I chose it as my major and future career. At the time, I did not realize how rare it was for a minority student to study engineering. …Engineering is part of what academia calls STEM education – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM is important because it educates and trains individuals with skills that are essential in our complex, technology-driven global economy. It provides the science that is necessary to meet our challenges in everyday life.
Athens CEO
UGA Works with APLU to Support Diverse STEM Leadership
Leslie Matos
The Aspire Alliance’s Institutional Change Initiative (IChange) has selected 27 college and university faculty and administrators for the third cohort of fellows for the IAspire Leadership Academy. The program aims to create not only individual, but institutional change by supporting these individuals and giving them a support network. This program, led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the University of Georgia, aims to support STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds to leadership roles at colleges and universities. The academy provides professional development for academic leaders to succeed in leadership roles by equipping them with executive leadership skills and strategies for influencing institutional transformation.
Albany Herald
Fort Valley Extension to host free webinar on disaster relief
From staff reports
Farmers and landowners seeking information on federal disaster relief and risk management programs are encouraged to tune in to a free ZOOM webinar hosted by Fort Valley State’s Cooperative Extension Program September 21. From noon-1:30 p.m., “Disaster Programs and Risk Management Programs” will be simulcast on FaceBook live (facebook.com/pg/FVSUCAFST/videos). To register for the event, visit bit.ly/fvsuag-disaster-risk-management-202109. Stinson Troutman, the FVSU Extension agent for Irwin County and moderator for the event, said the information discussed will help growers stay abreast on the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture programs.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The reimagining of Georgia Tech
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
In new book, former President G. Wayne Clough recalls challenges and changes of his 14-year tenure
When G. Wayne Clough became president of Georgia Tech in 1994, the first alumnus to hold the title, a belief remained that the school’s chief purpose was to produce capable engineers. He recognized that Tech’s mission and vision needed to be bigger, deeper and wider. “It can’t be 100% engineers and be successful,” he said. “If you took in all engineering students, it would be bad for the student, bad for the school and bad for the whole system,” he said. Clough also understood that it no longer served Tech to lionize a tale from his era as a student in which a dean warned freshmen, “Look to your left, look to your right; only one of you will graduate.” …All those innovations, which Clough details in a new book, “The Technological University Reimagined,” propelled Tech from a respected regional engineering school to an elite campus routinely ranked in the top 10 public universities.
The Poultry Site
UGA researcher improving sustainability, profitability for poultry processors
Over time, the U.S. poultry industry has bred strains of birds that grow rapidly to meet consumer demand for chicken products — especially breast meat — but that rapid growth has led to a higher incidence of muscle tissue defects that could lead to revenue loss. Now a team of University of Georgia and U.S. Department of Agriculture poultry scientists have received a Critical Agricultural Research and Extension (CARE) grant from the USDA to help develop ways to use the meat that increase sustainability and profitability, according to Maria M. Lameiras for the University of Georgia’s CAES News.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Campus workers to Regents: You’re following orders rather than science
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Board of Regents shirks responsibility to keep Georgia campuses safe
Decades ago, when I first began to cover education issues, I attended a Board of Regents meeting where I noticed few members demonstrated any expertise in higher education. I asked my colleague Jim Wooten, editorial page editor then of The Atlanta Journal and an authority on state government, about the qualifications for an appointment to the Regents. Wooten explained Regent posts went to generous donors or political allies. In Georgia, you either want an appointment to the Regents or to the Georgia Ports Authority board, he said. The former assured you great seats to college football games, and the latter offered seats on airplanes to great places. So, I understand the 19 political appointees to the Board of Regents were never expected to inspire or innovate the 26 public campuses under their management. But I did think they would, at the very least, ensure the safety of the 317,000 students and 48,000 employees of the University System of Georgia.
Gainesville Times
COVID-19 cases increase at local colleges, universities
Ben Anderson
As COVID-19 surges, here is a look at local universities and colleges and how they are handling rising case numbers on their campuses.
University of North Georgia
The University of North Georgia has reported a total of 281 COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, 259 among students and 22 among staff. Since Aug. 1, the college has had a total of 326 cases. There have been a total of 82 cases at the Gainesville campus, the vast majority among students. The school has a total enrollment of 19,000 students. UNG follows Department of Public Health guidance on quarantining, but does not provide that data on its website. “Because there is such variability in this information, we do not include quarantine numbers on our dashboard,” said UNG spokeswoman Kate Maine.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 7)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,134,891
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 20,258 | 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.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New mu COVID-19 variant now found in 49 states
By Brandon Sapienza, New York Daily News (TNS)
Since being discovered in Colombia in January, the mu variant of COVID-19 has spread to nearly four dozen countries and has made its presence known in Hawaii and Alaska. It has so far been found in 49 states, with Nebraska being the only state to not have a mu variant case detected. Health officials believe mu is even more transmissible than the delta variant and has the potential to resist vaccines. In the U.S., the mu variant has been detected in 49 states and the District of Columbia, according to Newsweek.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
President Biden Kicks Off National HBCU Week with Pledge for Equity
Liann Herder
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden declared Sept 5 through Sept 11 National Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) week and encouraged educators, public officials, and all Americans to “observe this week with appropriate programs and ceremonies that acknowledge the countless achievements of HBCUs.
Inside Higher Ed
Record Numbers of Men ‘Give Up’ on College
By Maria Carrasco
The number of men enrolled at two- and four-year colleges has fallen behind women by record levels, The Wall Street Journal reports. For the 2020-21 academic year, women made up an all-time high of 59.5 percent of college students, while men trailed at 40.5 percent, according to enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. institutions had 1.5 million fewer students compared to five years ago, and men accounted for 71 percent of that decline. More women also applied to college than men for the 2021-22 year — 3,805,978 compared to 2,815,810. That’s nearly a percentage point higher than the gap from the previous academic year, according to the Common Application.
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges Ramp Up Internship Resources
Career centers are developing new virtual programming to help students make up for the internships they lost to the pandemic.
By Maria Carrasco
…COVID-19 robbed college students of countless opportunities, including internships, which often lead to full-time employment. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, a nonprofit for college career services, recruiting practitioners and others who wish to hire the college educated, found that about 22 percent of employers revoked internships in April 2020. Additionally, NACE found 41 percent of employers delayed internship start dates in May 2020, thus reducing the total length of internships, which traditionally run 10 to 12 weeks. Shawn VanDerziel, NACE’s executive director, said the pandemic “negatively impacted the number of internship opportunities available.”
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges are trying to recruit women for training and apprenticeship programs that prepare them for male-dominated fields. Progress is slower than advocates hoped.
By Sara Weissman
…There’s been a “pretty long-standing” push among community colleges to bring more women into utilities and skilled trade fields, said Deborah Kobes, senior director at Jobs for the Future and deputy director for its Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning. She said “attracting a wider range of potential students” is in the best interest of the colleges at a time when many are experiencing enrollment declines. Graduating more women is also a way to meet local employer demand for more diverse workers.