University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AMSC students have new pathway to transfer to Clayton State University
By Leon Stafford
Clayton State University is making it easier for Atlanta Metropolitan State College students who want to transfer to the south metro school. Under a new partnership between the two institutions of high learning, some AMSC students will be allowed to live and go to classes at Clayton State while continuing to be enrolled at AMSC. The selected AMSC students can transfer to Clayton State after a year if they earn 30-plus credits and have a 2.0 minimum GPA. “Our agreement with Atlanta Metropolitan State College provides a unique opportunity for students to be immersed in academic and student activities here at Clayton State University while simultaneously improving their academic standing to allow a seamless transfer after their first year,” Clayton State President T. Ramon Stuart said in a news release.
The Georgia Virtue
Georgia Southern students save more than $748,000 with digital textbook program
Staff Reports
When students collectively save $748,925 in one semester and have easy access to textbooks on the first day of classes, coupled with Georgia Southern’s University Store’s ability to provide lower costs to students and avoid inventory delays, it’s a win-win for the campus community. The University-hosted Day1Access (D1A) program, a digital textbook model in collaboration with top publishers to reduce the cost of required course materials, ensures that all D1A materials are delivered at the lowest possible cost to the student – even lower than buying the material directly from the publisher.
Marietta Daily Journal
Kennesaw State faculty member endows graduate scholarship in data sciences
Staff Reports
Jennifer Priestley believes to find someone’s heart you need only to look at where they send their gifts. As for her and her husband, Stephen, their hearts lie in higher education. Recently, through a $26,000 gift to Kennesaw State University, the couple established the J. Stephen and Jennifer Lewis Priestley Doctoral Endowed Scholarship, which will be offered to students pursuing a Ph.D. in Analytics and Data Science. The scholarship endowment is the university’s first for a Ph.D. program. Priestley, who will soon retire after serving more than 17 years at KSU, said the endowment signals the couple’s continued commitment to education. Having been instrumental in launching the institution’s Ph.D. program — the first of its kind in the country — and KSU’s School of Data Science and Analytics, she is intimately familiar with the needs of data science students.
The Gwinnett Daily Post
Georgia Gwinnett College launches new online degree program for special education majors
Georgia Gwinnett College students who want to pursue a special education degree can now do so wherever they have an internet connection. GGC has introduced an online option for the Bachelor of Science in Education degree for special education majors.
Albany Herald
Georgia Ag Foundation to award $65,000 in scholarships
Staff Reports
The Georgia Foundation for Agriculture is offering $65,000 in scholarships to Georgia students pursuing a degree in agriculture, veterinary medicine, family and consumer sciences, or a related field, Dougherty County Farm Bureau President Laney Wooten recently announced. The GFA will award scholarships in the following four categories: Scholarship for Agriculture — This scholarship is for high school students who plan to enter a college that is part of the University System of Georgia, Berry College, Emmanuel College or any accredited college/university in Georgia with an ag program during the 2022-23 academic year to pursue an undergraduate degree in agricultural and environmental sciences, family and consumer sciences or a related agricultural field. The GFA will award 10 scholarships of $3,000 each. The top three ranked applicants will be eligible for an additional $1,000 bonus.
The Griffin Daily News
UGA Griffin gives back to local community
The University of Georgia Griffin Campus holds a food and toy drive each year where faculty, staff and students bring in donations to support local organizations. This year the campus was able to donate 258 pounds of food to the Five Loaves and Two Fish Food Pantry and over 100 toys to the Griffin Fire Rescue Toy Drive.
Columbus CEO
Degree Decades in the Making for Columbus State Business Grad
Staff Reports
Proving it’s never too late to learn, Jim Money, Jr. received his degree on Dec. 11, 2021, from Columbus State University’s D. Abbott Turner College of Business, amidst a bustling career in the financial industry. Money was among the university’s 900-plus graduates honored during its fall 2021 commencement. Money, the brother of CSU Foundation Board of Trustees vice chair Tim Money ‘86, began studying at then-Columbus College in 1978. He was placed on academic exclusion and eventually decided to join the U.S. Air Force, where he went on to serve six years. After beginning a business career with his father in the financial services industry, Money decided to come back to CSU in 2018—40 years after he first enrolled.
On Common Grounds News
Gwinnett College celebrate new Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center
Staff Reports
Officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Dec. 15 for the new Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center.
In partnership with Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) in Lawrenceville, the Gwinnett County-sponsored center supports entrepreneurs and nurtures small business startups. “The entrepreneur center will serve as a safe space to exchange ideas, collaborate, receive mentoring and build a foundation to become the best business leaders possible,” said Gwinnett County Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson. “This is an equitable opportunity for small business owners to thrive in a low-cost, central location.” Through a rigorous application process, leaders looked for hopefuls who show promise for starting or growing a business but need help along the way.
A $2.2 billion impact: Study shows Savannah River Site’s economic reach
The Savannah River Site nuclear facility delivers an estimated $2.2 billion impact to the regional economy, an Augusta University study concluded. That figure likely could have reached higher, if not for a recurring culprit in U.S. economic misery – COVID-19. “The study in the past used 2016 and 2010 data. In both those years the economic impact was $2.4 billion,” said Dr. Simon Medcalfe, an economics professor at Augusta University’s Hull College of Business.
yahoo!finance
Staff Reports
District’s launch enabled by strategic partnerships across philanthropic and industry leaders, including Sharecare, Transwestern and anonymous West Coast foundation. The Center for Global Health Innovation (CGHI) today announced the launch of a new global health district in Midtown Atlanta that is poised to become the world’s leading hub for innovation at the intersection of global health, health technology, and life sciences, solidifying the region as the world’s global health capital. Atlanta is home to leading global health organizations such as the CDC, CDC Foundation, the Task Force for Global Health, the American Cancer Society, MedShare, MAP International and the Carter Center, along with research universities including Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech, and other University System of Georgia Schools. The region also enjoys a burgeoning life sciences and digital health community, including UCB, Alcon, Sharecare, Microsoft, Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, Becton Dickinson, VERO Biotech, MiRus, McKesson, Jackson Healthcare, Azalea Health, and more.
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Georgia State University Scholar Looks at Factors Contributing to Successful Black Marriages
Staff Reports
Much has been written about the disintegration of the traditional family structure in the African American community and the struggles of single parents in raising their children. But a new study led by Antonius Skipper, an assistant professor of gerontology at Georgia State University, focuses on factors that lead to successful Black marriages. The researchers concluded that cultivating open communication, including the ability to have uncomfortable conversations, was an important skill for successful couples. Strong couples also tended to have a flexible view of the role they needed to play at different points in their relationship. For example, the researchers found that in the couples they studied, husbands and wives might shift the balance of household duties and breadwinner status over time, depending on health or job-market challenges. As for money, the study found it did not matter who managed the money as long as the husband and wife were in agreement, and “financial agreement may be more important to marital stability than financial comfort.”
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Dec. 16)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,303,549
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 26,007 | 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:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Emory University mandates COVID booster shots for students, staff
By Eric Stirgus
Emory University announced Thursday that it will require all employees, faculty and students to get a COVID-19 booster shot within the next month. Emory, the state’s largest private university, has become one of the biggest schools in Georgia to order booster shots. It has more than 32,000 employees and about 15,000 students. President Gregory Fenves said in a letter the university is requiring the shots because of the increased spread of COVID-19 nationwide and the emerging omicron variant.
Inside Higher Education
Inflation for Colleges Up 2.7% in Fiscal 2021
By Emma Whitford
Inflation for U.S. colleges and universities rose 2.7 percent in fiscal year 2021, which ended in June, according to Commonfund’s latest Higher Education Price Index (HEPI). The increase is a jump from last year’s 1.9 percent bump but falls in line with the five-year average of 2.6 percent. The price index, released Thursday, is a more accurate measure of cost changes for colleges and universities than the Consumer Price Index and helps institutions project future budget increases that will preserve purchasing power.
Inside Higher Ed
Winter Graduations Could Be Super-Spreader Events
By Maria Carrasco
With the Omicron variant fueling a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, one expert is urging institutions to use layered mitigation strategies to minimize contagion during December graduation ceremonies. As some students across the country prepare to graduate in the coming weeks, experts are voicing concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant. COVID-19 cases have been on the rise, prompting a number of institutions to cancel in-person events and shift quickly to online final exams. University of Maryland president Darryll Pines announced via email Thursday the university would be canceling all winter commencement activities, including the main ceremony scheduled for Monday, as well as all college, school and department ceremonies scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week. He wrote that all winter graduates will be invited to the spring ceremony in May.
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Doctoral Degrees for African Americans Hold Steady Despite the Pandemic
Staff Reports
The National Science Foundation recently released its annual data on doctoral degree recipients in the United States. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates shows that universities in the United States conferred 55,283 doctorates in 2020, down just slightly from 2019. Of these, 3,095 were earned by Black students, up slightly from the previous year. But more than one fifth of all doctorates earned by Black students at U.S. universities went to foreign students.
Inside Higher Ed
Education as a ‘Consumption Good’
By Simon Baker
U.N. official warns that universities are at risk because of their packaging. The public benefits of universities risk being further underestimated due to the increasing packaging of education as a “consumption good,” the director of an annual United Nations report has warned. Manos Antoninis, director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, said societies have to be “very, very careful” that a growing emphasis on learning as a personal investment for financial return does not lead to a “degrading” of the “concept of education.”