USG e-clips for February 15, 2022

University System News:

Marietta Daily Journal

KSU student to appear in Jeopardy! National College Championship tournament Tuesday

By Zach Edmondson

Raymond Goslow, who has been a fan of “Jeopardy!” ever since his father introduced him to the program as a child, will represent Kennesaw State University in the “Jeopardy!” National College Championship set to air Tuesday. Goslow is one of 36 contestants selected from universities all over the country. He is guaranteed at least $10,000, which is awarded to the 24 contestants who will be eliminated in the first round, but he is competing for the $250,000 grand prize.

Albany Herald

PHOTOS: The Road Map to Law School – Meet the Lawyers at Albany State University

Photos contributed by Reginald Christian

Students interested in the legal profession at Albany State University had an opportunity to “meet the lawyers” on Saturday at event on campus. The event was designed to offer students opportunities to ask questions about law school.

The Georgia Sun

Augusta University gears up for homecoming

This week at Augusta University, James M. Hull College of Business’s online MBA program receives national recognition, AU Health Imaging is offering a heart screening discount this month, homecoming week caps off with the crowning of the king and queen, and Augusta University recognizes some of the brightest high school seniors in the Central Savannah River Area.

The George-Anne

Vaccine Incentive Program for Students

Megan Glass, Staff Writer

With spring break coming into sight, Georgia Southern is now offering a vaccine incentive program for any currently enrolled student and any full-time and part-time faculty/staff to get any Covid-19 vaccine or booster shot. Students and faculty can schedule a vaccine appointment through the MyGSU portal under the Covid Information and Resources Tab. Students can also schedule appointments with the medical provider in the Armstrong Campus Health Center This new incentive offers a $25 credit towards EagleExpress that will be directly loaded to the student or staff accounts.

WJBF

Augusta University gets approval for new parking deck

by: Kim Vickers

Augusta University is taking steps to solve the parking problems on the Health Sciences Campus. In early February, the Georgia Board of Regents approved a request by AU for a new parking deck. As the University continues to grow, so does the need for parking. Without sufficient parking, students sometimes have to park several blocks away in neighborhoods and make a long trek to class. A few years ago, some of the residents there took their frustrations to the Augusta Commission to keep the cars from blocking their streets.

See also:

The Augusta Chronicle

New parking deck at AU campus could spell relief for neighbors

Albany Herald

UGA journalism professor Valerie Boyd dies

By Sarah Freeman

UGA News Service

Valerie Boyd, writer, teacher, motivator and encourager, died Feb. 12, 2022, leaving many former students, colleagues and friends grieving, but grateful for the time they shared. “Valerie Boyd’s towering prose, gentle spirit and moral compass will be greatly missed by all of us,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College. “She possessed a rare combination of gift and grit, a colleague who, once she set to a task, never let go. Her work with our MFA program set the course for what has become a family of writers – a family that grieves today, but also celebrates what she helped to build. Boyd was an award-winning author who turned to teaching in 2004, following several years as the arts editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was named the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence in 2007, and Boyd has directed the Giving Voice to the Voiceless grant program created by Hunter-Gault and her husband, Ron Gault. …In 2017, Boyd received a Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities.

Douglas Now

IT ALL BEGAN AT SOUTH GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE: AN ALUMNI LOVE STORY

Every love story has a beginning, and Kristen and Chase Hinson’s began on the campus of South Georgia State College. They can’t remember exactly when they initially met at SGSC. With Kristen playing on the women’s soccer team and Chase being a member of the Hawks baseball team, they were involved in many of the same activities. They would see each other in the dining hall and pass by each other in the residence halls. But one day Chase must have decided it was time to get Kristen’s attention. …After a time of dating, they knew a proposal was inevitable. …After graduating from SGSC in 2017, they continued their education to finish their undergraduate degrees. Kristen and Chase became Mr. and Mrs. Hinson in 2019 in a ceremony at The Barn at Melan farm in Baxley. The future looks bright for this couple who began their journey at SGSC. …Chase and Kristen both agree that the years they attended SGSC were by far two of the best years of their lives. Kristen says, “We had the most fun and met some of the best people. We are forever grateful that we were able to be students there. Nothing could be better than that!”

SaportaReport

Historians of the future should find legislator’s letter a useful source

By Tom Baxter

What with all the current efforts to tell teachers what they can’t teach and students what they can’t read, some may wonder what exactly the schools of tomorrow should be teaching. Here’s a suggestion. In the future, any course on the contemporary history of Georgia should include as required reading the 11-page letter which Rep. David Knight, chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on higher education sent on Feb. 4 to Teresa MacCartney, the interim chancellor of the University System of Georgia. You can read it here. The letter is over the top in the amount of “data” it expects college administrators to provide and ludicrous in the piled-on legalisms and bureaucratese employed to disguise what it’s really about. But it’s a valuable historical document, directly connected over the span of eight decades to the most stupendous political miscalculation in the modern history of this state.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Opinion: Georgia GOP sanitizes classroom lessons on racism

Get Schooled with Maureen Downey

Legislators push laws that would limit how teachers discuss race

The General Assembly is now full of Southern white men bemoaning the threat to their children from class discussions of “divisive concepts” such as systematic racism. While agreeing the existence of racism ought to be taught in a historical context, they maintain there’s no need for it being mentioned elsewhere, often citing Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a colorblind society. The Republican majority wants to banish any examination of present-day racism, introducing multiple bills that derive from a 2020 Donald Trump executive order, since repealed by the Biden administration. …College students speaking at the hearings told legislators that banning so-called divisive concepts assures a continued whitewashing of state history, which already favors nostalgia over facts. …Georgia Tech student Alex Ames said these bills disregard the real problems in Georgia schools, including students of color seldom seeing teachers who look like them, immigrant children being told their families don’t belong and schools with only one counselor for 700 kids.

WTOC

GSU professor looks at the splurge companies take on purchasing Super Bowl ads

By Dal Cannady

Millions of Americans go to work Monday and the Super Bowl ads bring as much conversation as the Super Bowl game. The Super Bowl serves, not just as the biggest pro football game of the season, but one of the biggest advertising platforms of the year. One Georgia Southern University professor we spoke to says companies put a lot on the line in a precious few moments to get your attention. It’s what we talk about as much as the catches or the tackles. The Super Bowl commercials can be the genesis of catchphrases that become part of the culture. Dr. Jin-Woo Kim from the Parker College of Business says companies spend anywhere from $6 million to $7.5 million for an ad in the big game.

SaportaReport

Yet another barrier to college…required tests that are too often canceled

Learn4Life

Laila Williams is a senior at Towers High School in DeKalb County. She is the editor of the school newspaper, the secretary of the student council, and a participant in multiple organizations including the Technology Student Association, Future Business Leaders of America, Young Ladies of Purpose, and College AIM. Laila boasts an impressive 3.7 GPA, and dreams of one day starting multiple businesses that address inequities in her community. Despite her impressive profile, Laila missed the opportunity to attend University of Georgia (UGA) because of issues with taking the SAT. She registered junior year for a June administration of the exam. On test day, she arrived to find the location changed. Laila was unable to get across town in time to take the exam and had to forfeit her waiver. In October, Laila registered a second time. The evening before her exam, Laila received a call from her principal stating she was exposed to COVID. Again, Laila was unable to take the test, and she forfeited her last remaining waiver. Laila was unable to meet UGA’s test requirement and missed the application deadline. Laila’s case is not uncommon.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia higher ed board set to vote on Sonny Perdue

By Greg Bluestein, Eric Stirgus

The state Board of Regents is set to vote Tuesday on whether to name former Gov. Sonny Perdue as the sole finalist to be next leader of the state’s university system, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned. The board is not expected to give final approval on appointing the Republican as the chancellor of the University System of Georgia until later this month, according to three senior officials, but the members are expected on Tuesday to clear the way for him to secure the job. The regents have scheduled a 4:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday to announce the finalist. A staunch ally of Perdue, Gov. Brian Kemp has replaced four members of the 19-member board, including the former chair, with political allies who are expected to be supportive.

AP News

Regents to name pick to run Georgia’s 26 public universities

By Jeff Amy

The regents of Georgia’s public university system will name their choice Tuesday for its next chancellor, a post in which former Gov. Sonny Perdue has publicly expressed interest. A 19-member board overhauled by Gov. Brian Kemp in recent weeks is scheduled to name a sole finalist to lead the system’s 26 universities after the search for a permanent successor stalled in May amid dissension on the board. The board will vote later on whether to ratify its choice. Perdue could be named at an exceedingly awkward moment, with his cousin, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, challenging Kemp in the Republican primary for governor. David Perdue told Axios last year that his cousin hadn’t endorsed him and was “in an awkward position” because of his bid to be chancellor. “But I’ve stayed out of that, and I think he’s staying out of my little dog fight here.”

Article also appeared in:

Fox 5 Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Opinion: If regents pick Sonny Perdue, Georgia’s colleges will suffer

Get Schooled with Maureen Downey

Professor emerita: Accrediting agency already warned about experience issue

In a guest column, Christine Gallant, a professor emerita of English at Georgia State University, warns against the selection of Sonny Perdue to lead Georgia’s public college system. The AJC reports that the Board of Regents is set to vote today on whether to name Perdue as the sole finalist as the next leader of the state’s university system. The board is not expected to give final approval on appointing the former governor as the chancellor until later this month.

By Christine Gallant

…Kemp has expressed strong support for Perdue. Yet, the consequences of selecting Perdue could be disastrous for the University System of Georgia. Georgia’s 26 colleges and universities could lose their professional accreditation as a result. On April 27, 2021, then-Regents chair Sachin Shailendra received a warning letter from the president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, referred to as SACSCOC. The University System could be found “out of compliance,” which would mean loss of accreditation, if the chancellor’s search is politicized. …Higher education systems should select candidates with “appropriate experience and qualifications” to lead institutions. A former two-term Georgia governor who served as Donald Trump’s top agriculture official, Perdue has no experience in higher education leadership.

Other News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 14)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

CONFIRMED CASES: 1,894,653

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 28,684 | 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:

Atlanta Business Chronicle

‘Gainful employment’ regulations to improve college accountability are back on the table

By Hilary Burns – Editor, The National Observer: Higher Education Edition,

The U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking committee is expected on Monday to discuss the highly controversial topic of gainful employment regulations. The regulations, finalized in 2014 under the Obama administration, were created to ensure that programs resulted in good outcomes for students by sanctioning for-profit and certificate programs that left students with excessive student loan debt relative to earnings after graduating. Critics said the regulations unfairly targeted the for-profit higher-ed sector, and some argued that the reporting requirements were too burdensome for schools. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded the regulations in 2019. Now, the Biden administration is giving gainful employment another look and higher-ed experts and analysts are measuring the pros and cons of such regulations.

Inside Higher Ed

Report: When College Doesn’t Pay Off

New data from Georgetown show that nearly a third of colleges and universities leave most students worse off 10 years after enrolling than their peers with only a high school diploma.

By Emma Whitford

Most students who attend college earn more 10 years down the road than those who don’t. But at roughly one-third of institutions, a majority of students end up earning less than those with a high school diploma, according to a new analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The analysis examines new data from College Scorecard and looks at net economic gains for college students 10 years and 40 years after they enroll. The data includes all students, including those who did not graduate. “College typically pays off, but the return on investment varies by credential, program of study, and institution,” Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Center for Education and the Workforce, said in a press release. Low earnings are often linked to low graduation rates at a given institution, said Martin Van Der Werf, director of editorial and education policy at the center. At many institutions, the share of students who earn a degree is 50 percent or less.

Inside Higher Ed

Sallie Mae Report Documents What Families Don’t Know on Paying for College

By Scott Jaschik

A new report from Sallie Mae and Ipsos documents what families don’t know about paying for college. Among the results: While nearly three-quarters of families (74 percent) have started thinking about how they will cover the cost of higher education by the time their child is a high school junior, fewer than half of college-bound families (44 percent) are very or somewhat familiar with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Only 62 percent of families plan to complete the FAFSA, with 29 percent feeling it’s a waste of time if the family makes too much money.

Inside Higher Ed

‘Using Data to Drive Student Success’: A Compilation

By Doug Lederman

Inside Higher Ed has published a new print-on-demand editorial compilation, “Using Data to Drive Student Success.” The free collection of news articles and essays is available for download here.

Inside Higher Ed

The Key Faculty Role in Student Success: Academic Minute

By Doug Lederman

Today on the Academic Minute: Kathryn Boucher, associate professor of psychology at the University of Indianapolis, explores how faculty members can help make sure students feel included.

Inside Higher Ed

Colleges Follow States on Lifting Mask Mandates

Several states have announced plans to lift mask mandates, and public colleges are following suit. Some mask requirements ended immediately, while others will remain in place for weeks.

By Josh Moody

A string of states lifting indoor mask mandates means changes are in store for a number of public colleges in the U.S., though others will continue with face coverings for the foreseeable future. Following a slowdown in the latest COVID-19 surge, a handful of states across the country have dropped mask mandates in recent days. Now states including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Oregon are changing their mask requirements—some effective are immediately, and others will be rolled out over time. However, some states will still require those working and studying in colleges and K-12 schools to continue to mask up as a COVID-19 precaution.