University System News:
Patch
Georgia Gwinnett College Students Win National Awards For Biodiesel Research
A group of Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) students and faculty from across multiple disciplines have been doing research that is making a real-world impact on the science of biodiesel fuel. …A 2021 graduate Evelyn Calina, who was part of an Environmental Research Cluster of six students and faculty from throughout GGC that worked on the biodiesel project, recently received the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Student Award for her work on the project and for her overall excellence in undergraduate studies. She is the fifth GGC student in the GGC Environmental Research Cluster to win the prestigious award, which is given to only about 20 students per year.
WTVM
WTVM Editorial 9/8/21: A New Miracle Ride
By Holly Steuart
One of the many signs things are returning to some semblance of normal is seeing the wonderful charity work of Scott Ressmeyer and his Miracle Riders happening once again. COVID threw them off their famous motorcycles in 2020, but now they’ve regrouped and they’re headed out on another fundraising ride, and for the first time, they’ll ride in all 50 states, yes Alaska and Hawaii included! The group pays their own way on the cross country tour, so that every dollar they raise goes to the cause they champion. And this year, that cause is the Columbus State University’s School of Nursing.
Savannah CEO
Celebrate Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month with Georgia Southern University
Celebrate Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, with Georgia Southern University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. This year’s month-long celebration, which highlights the history, culture and many contributions of the Latino and Hispanic communities in the U.S., will feature a series of brown bag lectures and lunches, movies, discussion panels, study abroad information sessions, soccer, fiestas, food and more. …“Even after the national recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month ends on Oct. 15, Georgia Southern will continue hosting cultural events to celebrate Hispanic heritage throughout the academic year. Additionally, we have joined the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities in order to further our commitment and ensure we stay on top of emerging trends in higher education and beyond to support our students.” Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month events will take place on the Statesboro, Armstrong and Liberty campuses and are free and open to the public.
WALB
Albany judge honored with scholarship
By Dave Miller
The late Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Goss of Albany is being memorialized with a scholarship bearing his name at the University of Georgia School of Law. More than 100 former classmates and friends have contributed to the Judge Steve Goss Scholarship Fund. The effort was spearheaded Marlan Wilbanks, who is the chair of the School of Law’s Board of Visitors, and Dan Willoughby, Jr., both of whom graduated with Goss in 1986 and were part of his law school section. These gifts were matched by an anonymous donor who has helped to spearhead the law school’s efforts to provide scholarships to first-generation college graduates.
Athens CEO
Georgia 4-H Youth Participate in State Land-judging Competition
Craven Hudson
More than 25 Georgia 4-H youth participated in the 2021 State Land Judging contest at the University of Georgia’s C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park in Camila, Georgia. Four counties from across the state brought teams to compete. The Georgia 4-H Land Judging Program offers youth the chance to build critical thinking, science-based education and life skills in soil science. The youth analyze soils from north and south Georgia in pits and trays at four different stations. At each station, youth must identify soil characteristics and identify the crop rotation and utilization for that soil.
WABE
Atlanta Architect John Portman Has Final Sculpture On Display At Georgia Tech Posthumously
Adron McCann
The great architect and artist John Portman was a significant influence on the look of Atlanta with his dozens of landmark buildings. He also excelled in sculpture and paintings, examples of which still adorn the interior spaces of his architecture. Before his passing in 2017 at the age of 93, the artist conceived one more ambitious final sculpture, which his faithful collaborators would go on to see completed this year. Portman’s final work, “Koan,” now has a permanent home on the campus of Georgia Tech, where Portman himself attended. It stands 40 feet tall, constructed over years in an adventurous alliance between a luxury bath company, a boat manufacturer, and supercomputers at the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. Portman’s lifelong collaborator Stanley Mickey Steinberg, along with President and Chief Design Officer at MTI Baths Russell Adams, joined “City Lights” Senior Producer Kim Drobes to talk about the grand project and how it honors the vision and philosophy of its designer.
GPB
Georgia Tech’s Urban Analytics Degree Seeks To Train Cities’ Future Problem Solvers
By: Rickey Bevington
Think about your biggest day-to-day roadway headaches like traffic, finding a parking space or avoiding that intersection with the eternal red light. Now, imagine a computer solving those problems. That’s the goal of a new degree program launching this month at Georgia Tech. The Master of Science in Urban Analytics combines the fields of urban planning, computing, and industrial and systems engineering to “fix big city problems.” It’s not just about transportation. Urban analytics could be used to prevent crime, mitigate flooding, limit air pollution, keep housing prices affordable — the list goes on. “Urban analytics is essentially a discipline that uses data and data science tools to solve urban problems,” said Subhrajit “Subhro” Guhathakurta, professor at Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional Planning. He’s an urban planner who invited engineers and computer scientists to team up to create the new degree program. GPB’s Rickey Bevington spoke with Guhathakurta about the program’s debut.
Forbes
College Presidential Pay Makes No Sense: Little Relation To Excellence
Richard Vedder Contributor, Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University.
America historically has been a meritocracy, and the pay of workers has usually been pretty closely associated with what they add to the national output (big exception: slavery before 1865). Oprah Winfrey makes much more than college professors because she adds more value to more people, but the professors make more than the custodians whose contribution is adjudged typically to be less. But what about university presidents? Two data sources released recently offer some insights. Forbes released its 2021 Top College rankings, while the Chronicle of Higher Education updated salary data on public university presidents. One would expect a positive correlation between university excellence, recent financial success, and/or school size on the one hand and pay on the other. Maybe it is there, but I could not see it upon admittedly fairly cursory examination. … Isn’t it peculiar that the president of Augusta University (a Georgia school not as highly regarded by Forbes as Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Georgia State and other Georgia institutions), makes substantially more than the highest paid UC president?
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Colleges are reaping billions from corporate sports partners. We follow the dollars.
By Matthew Kish – Staff Reporter, Portland Business Journal
How much corporate money is on campuses? There’s at least $3.1 billion in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football, according to an American City Business Journals analysis. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell.
Here’s what’s known.
Universities file annual financial statements with the NCAA that include one line item for media rights and one line item for royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships.
SEE ALL THE DATA:
Scroll down to access a searchable database of media, apparel and licensing contracts and related details affecting more than 100 major college athletic programs in the U.S.
Capitol Beat News Service
University System of Georgia keeping COVID-19 vaccinations, masks voluntary
by Dave Williams
The University System of Georgia is doing everything it can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 short of imposing a mask mandate, the system’s acting chancellor said Thursday. The system’s policy encouraging but not requiring students, professors and other employees to get vaccinated and wear masks is in keeping with Gov. Brian Kemp’s position that mandates are divisive, and people should be given a choice. “Everybody has the ability to get vaccinated,” Acting Chancellor Teresa MacCartney told the system’s Board of Regents. “Everybody has the ability to wear a mask.” The university system’s decision not to require vaccinations or masks comes as COVID-19 cases continue increasing at some of the system’s 26 colleges and universities. Some faculty groups have passed resolutions demanding mask mandates in indoor spaces where social distancing is difficult and have held demonstrations on some campuses. MacCartney encouraged those demanding mask mandates to remain civil.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC COVID-19 college tracker: Cases continue to rise on Georgia campuses
By Eric Stirgus
Hospitalizations also up among college-age Georgians
New COVID-19 cases continue to rise on Georgia’s largest college campuses. So, too, are hospitalizations among college-age Georgians, federal data shows. Georgia Tech has reported some of its highest new case numbers in recent days. The University of Georgia saw another increase, to more than 500 new cases in a recent seven-day stretch, according to data released Wednesday. Both schools are hosting football games Saturday, the first home contest for UGA.
WSB-TV
Georgia’s colleges, universities seeing COVID-19 cases rising
By Justin Gray
The number of COVID-19 cases is going up at some of Georgia’s largest colleges and universities. The University of Georgia, Emory University and Georgia Tech all have seen case counts rise the past two weeks. …We reached out to metro Atlanta’s largest colleges to see where COVID cases are on the rise. We found a wide variety in how schools track that.
Inside Higher Ed
University System of Georgia professors demand a mask mandate and more options for teaching students in quarantine as the system considers disciplinary action, up to suspension, for professors who take classroom COVID-19 mitigation into their own hands.
By Colleen Flaherty
The University System of Georgia, which opposes mask and vaccine mandates across its 26 institutions, appears poised to discipline professors who defy these policies in their classrooms. At the same time, many professors are ramping up their opposition to the system’s stance on COVID-19 mitigation. “I’m getting basically an email an hour: ‘Are we walking out? Are we going to court?’ Every day, all day,” said Cindy Hahamovitch, B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of History and incoming chair of the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate. Faculty members in Georgia aren’t currently planning a walkout, and they’re legally prohibited from doing so in that state as public employees. (Hahamovitch didn’t exactly rule out a future walkout, however, saying that state law “doesn’t mean we can’t do it, just that you have to do it en masse.”) Professors are currently planning a series of actions, starting today with a Franklin Senate vote on a resolution condemning the system’s “failure” to protect its campuses and demanding a mask and vaccine mandate.
GPB
After Contracting COVID-19, Professor Joins Protests Against Georgia Regents’ Relaxed Precautions
By: Ellen Eldridge
Faculty at colleges and universities in Georgia are protesting the Board of Regents’ COVID-19 policy that says masks cannot be mandatory and classes should be in person. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge reports. Dennis Loubiere thought he did everything correctly. He got vaccinated against COVID-19, maintained physical distance in public and wore a face mask where recommended. The Kennesaw State University professor taught students virtually over the summer, and decided it would be safe to return to campus for fall classes. He felt comfortable with his decision because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people no longer needed to mask in public. He changed his opinion as new COVID cases surged, and he was prevented from taking class online or asking students about vaccination status. The sentiment is shared — angrily — by many professors and faculty across the University System of Georgia. They want a mask mandate at a minimum.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Don’t burden professors with more of the responsibility for student learning
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Faculty member says: My most important act is giving students freedom to learn, not success on a test
In a guest column today, Matthew Boedy, an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, discusses a possible new measure to determine whether faculty members on Georgia campuses are doing their job — “activities of student success.” If you search out the term, you will see it applied to a wide range of student services in K-12, but not so much in colleges. That underscores Boedy’s concerns about the Board of Regents applying a standard that is ill defined in a higher education setting where students are expected to take greater responsibility for learning. Boedy is conference president of the Georgia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a national organization that represents the interests of college and university faculty members.
By Matthew Boedy
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 8)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,140,068
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 20,298 | 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.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Who Didn’t Submit Test Scores?
The Common App has previously reported that 43 percent of applicants reported a test score in an application, down in one year from 77 percent. Now it is explaining which students were most and least likely to submit scores.
By Scott Jaschik
When all the agonizing over test scores was done for this admissions year, 43 percent of students had submitted SAT or ACT scores, according to a report from the Common Application. That’s down from 77 percent in 2019-20 — a dramatic change in the year of the coronavirus pandemic. The Common App has previously reported those numbers, but it has now released a report on who is still submitting test scores and who isn’t.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Biden to Appoint Dr. Tony Allen to Help Advance White House Initiative on HBCUs
Jessica Ruf
President Biden intends to appoint Dr. Tony Allen as chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Board of Advisors on HBCUs works to advance the White House Initiative on HBCUs, established by the Carter Administration in 1980 to help HBCUs provide high-quality education and competitive opportunities to underrepresented student populations.
Inside Higher Ed
Higher Ed Spending Not as Big as Hoped
House Democrats packed lots of higher education investments into their proposal for the budget reconciliation bill — including tuition-free community college — but some of that funding wasn’t as high as advocates were hoping.
By Alexis Gravely
Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee revealed their proposals Wednesday for billions of dollars in new higher education spending — from tuition-free community college to increased Pell Grants — as Congress works to develop President Biden’s Build Back Better Act. The bill text is modeled on Biden’s American Families Plan, released in April, and will be a part of a package that Democrats intend to pass using a procedural process called budget reconciliation. That allows the legislation to pass with a simple 51-vote majority in the Senate, meaning Republican support won’t be necessary.
Inside Higher Ed
College Education Is Drawing Political Party Lines
By Alexis Gravely
Though college graduates are a growing and increasingly vocal part of the Democratic Party’s base, the party hasn’t grown any stronger, because at the same time, it’s losing white voters without a degree, according to The New York Times. American politics is realigning along cultural and educational lines — a switch from the 20th century, when party lines were drawn based on class and income, the author wrote. College graduates have been pushing Democrats to adopt their interests and values, alienating the party’s former working-class base in the process.