The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oversight group isn’t reviewing Georgia regents’ choice of Sonny Perdue
By Eric Stirgus
The accrediting body for Georgia’s public university system says it currently has no plans to look into the potential appointment of former Gov. Sonny Perdue as the system’s chancellor, a blow for critics hoping to derail the selection. The Decatur-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges said in an email Tuesday that it will not contact the state’s Board of Regents about its chancellor search process. The email was a reply to Matt Boedy, Georgia conference president of the American Association of University Professors. He doesn’t believe Perdue is qualified for the job because he lacks higher education administrative experience.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Sonny Perdue is ideal choice to lead Georgia’s University System
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Head of Georgia Chamber of Commerce cites Perdue’s track record as governor
In a guest column, Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, heralds the choice of Sonny Perdue as sole finalist to lead the University System of Georgia and its 26 institutions. Perdue appointed Clark to several key jobs when he was governor of Georgia, including commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic Development.
By Chris Clark
…Critical to building that long-term talent pipeline are the Georgia Board of Regents and the chancellor of the University System of Georgia. This pivotal public servant is the most critical link back to the business community. Georgia has a long history of partnership between business and the Board of Regents. That’s why it is exciting to learn that former Gov. Sonny Perdue has been named sole finalist as the next chancellor. That role is one of the most important in state government and most vital for long-term economic prosperity and mobility. I was privileged to spend a decade working directly for and with the former governor and know his heart and service. I know his love of this state is echoed in every Georgian. As governor, Perdue had a particular passion and deep understanding of education, workforce and talent development.
Georgia Recorder
Bookman: Regents pledged to find qualified new chancellor; they fished for Sonny Perdue instead
Jay Bookman
A year ago, the Board of Regents announced it would begin a search to find the best-qualified candidate in the country to serve as its chancellor and lead Georgia’s 26 institutes of higher learning and their 340,000 students into what was sure to be a bright and glorious future. What the regents sought, we were told – what they hired an executive search firm to comb the nation to find — was a person with “impeccable professional and personal integrity,” a person with the “understanding of and ability to lead a range of institutions from research universities to state universities to two-year colleges,” a person with “a successful record of and commitment to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.” But three months into the job, the search firm quit, apparently because they realized the fix was in, it was all a sham and they wanted no part of it. …What we got is Sonny Perdue.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp wields raw power of gov’s office to cater to conservatives
By Greg Bluestein
Under attack by a Republican challenger, Gov. Brian Kemp is using the broad authorities of his office to strengthen his conservative credentials. The governor’s yearlong effort to secure former Gov. Sonny Perdue as the leader of the state’s higher education system is only the latest example of Kemp’s aggressive use of the executive branch’s power in an election year.
Marietta Daily Journal
DICK YARBROUGH: Paying tribute to a friend who has made a difference
Well, this is a bummer. State Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-west Cobb, has announced he will not seek reelection for another term. Speaking on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Tippins said, “There’s no question in my mind I’m in the fourth quarter. I just don’t know how many minutes are on the clock and I want to spend most of it with the folks that I love.” Good for him and his family. Not so good for the rest of us. …It was the suggestion of our mutual friend, the late Otis Brumby, Jr., publisher of the Marietta Daily Journal and a strong advocate for public education, that the new senator and I should meet. We did and it was friendship at first sight. …Georgia has not had a better advocate for quality public education than Sen. Lindsey Tippins. …Lindsey Tippins is still here and is currently chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, which has oversight of the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia and other postsecondary institutions.
The Red & Black
ANALYSIS: UGA, state and county COVID-19 cases continue to decrease
Simran Kaur Malhotra
Major updates
COVID-19 cases have continued to decrease at the University of Georgia compared to last week, according to the university’s reporting system. UGA reported 87 new cases during the week of Feb. 7-13 — 79 fewer cases than last week. The surveillance testing positivity rate slightly decreased during the week of Feb. 7-11 to 3.62% compared to 3.83% the previous week. The university conducted 552 surveillance tests during the week of Feb. 7-11 compared to the 652 tests the previous week. Fewer tests performed may mean fewer positive cases reported.
Douglas Now
USG AWARDS BUILDING GRANT TO SOUTH GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE
The University System of Georgia (USG) Foundation has awarded the Foundations of South Georgia State College (SGSC) with a Capacity Building Grant in the amount of $75,000 over the next three years. The funding will assist the SGSC Foundation and the James M. Dye Foundation with the planning phase of the college’s first-ever capital campaign that will support priorities in SGSC’s 2019-2024 Moving Forward strategic plan. The campaign will be based on the college’s goals of developing existing and new academic programs as determined by the needs of the workforce and community; recruiting and retaining talented and diverse faculty and staff; improving student success as measured by course completion, retention, graduation and transfer rates; and collaborating with the community and region to establish and develop partnerships for educational purposes.
Patch
Georgia Southern University has been awarded $517,575 to train elementary education literacy tutors who will work in select schools in Chatham and Bulloch counties. The University piloted summer tutoring last year with the support of University President Kyle Marrero and the Regional Education Collaborative (REC), made up of local higher education institutions and K-12 schools. Previously funded with CARES Act funding, the pilot provided the framework for the most recent grant, prepared by several members of the College of Education (COE).
Marietta Daily Journal
Kennesaw State student balances coursework, deployment and job with positive attitude
Dylan Sandoval’s path toward a bachelor’s degree in construction management from Kennesaw State University has come with some unexpected detours, including one that sent him 7,500 miles away. Sandoval is a Georgia native and first-generation college student who moved to Kennesaw to attend KSU. After his freshman year, Sandoval enlisted in the National Guard and expected to serve locally. When he returned from basic training in 2018, however, he received life-changing news.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU’s Goslow advances to Jeopardy National College Championship semifinals
By Zach Edmondson
After a dominant performance in the quarterfinal round of the “Jeopardy! National College Championship,” recent Kennesaw State University graduate Raymond Goslow has advanced to the semifinals. Goslow competed with Lucy Greenman, a senior studying health analytics at William & Mary, and Jeric Brual, a senior studying film and television at NYU. Goslow, who graduated last December, finished the night with $26,021. Greenman finished with $16,000 and Brual finished with $8,001.
The Brunswick News
Executive director begins role at college’s entrepreneurial center
By Lauren McDonald
Ande Noktes’s first day on the job as the first executive director of the Art and Lindee Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship at College of Coastal Georgia was Tuesday. …Noktes has since learned in her two decades of work as an entrepreneur that while it’s not as simple as seven quick steps, there are core ingredients to creating and running a successful business. “Having a clear why,” said Noktes, who began this week in her new role as executive director of the Art and Lindee Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship at College of Coastal Georgia. “Knowing what your North Star is so you can make decisions in alignment with that. Knowing where your own strengths are so that you can complement those strengths in your hiring with your team. Having a strong team environment. Thinking about what value you bring to your customers and how you communicate that value.”
IBL News
Google Will Support “Responsible AI” Courses Developed by 15 Universities along with NHC
Fifteen universities, along with the non-profit National Humanities Center (NHC) and financial support from Google, will launch courses in Responsible AI technologies. The goal is to “help students comprehend the myriad ways AI technologies are integrated into modern life and to think through the ethical issues involved in developing and deploying them,” according to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based NHC. Participating institutions will include leading public and private research universities, liberal arts colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions from across the United States. They are: University of Georgia …Faculty from these institutions will develop courses focused on developing responsible AI that will be offered to undergraduates at their home institutions during the 2023–24 academic year.
Connect Savannah
An important story of hope, justice, and community honoring a legendary woman
Savannah State University Hosts ‘Ida B. ‘n the Lynching Tree’
By Marley Gibson
Black history is American history, to be shared and experienced by all. This is the message the Savannah State University’s (SSU) theatre group, Players by the Sea, in collaboration with The Collective Face Theatre Ensemble, hopes audiences will take away from their theatrical performance of “Ida B. n’ the Lynching Tree,” showing Feb. 16-20 at the Kennedy Fine Arts Center on SSU’s campus. …This production is a partnership with Collective Face Theatre Ensemble and that partnership has laid a bridge for the idea of unity, community, students, faculty, staff, everyone working together to make this a special event.
Statesboro Herald
Council restores distance requirement between liquor stores and GS campus at ½ state standard
Square footage requirement dropped; rules still not final
Al Hackle/Staff
After lengthy debate and a couple of quarrels Tuesday evening, Statesboro City Council by a 3-2 vote amended the proposed Package Stores Ordinance to require at least 100 yards distance between any liquor store and any college building and to eliminate entirely a previously proposed 3,000-square-foot requirement for store size. When all was said and done, the rules for licensing liquor stores were still not enacted as city law. A new second reading, for possible final approval, is slated for March 1. Going into Tuesday’s meeting for its first “second reading,” the proposed ordinance had contained no minimum setback from, in effect, any part of Georgia Southern University’s campus or its other properties in Statesboro. State law contains a default 200-yard distance requirement to any college campus, but since a change in the law in 2020, cities and counties can reduce or remove that requirement.
WTOC
The Girl Center is set to open in March
WTOC got a sneak peek inside The Girl Center which is new in Savannah. It’s a team effort between Georgia Southern University and the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia. It’s all aimed at making sure the next generation of community leaders have access to hands on experience in the STEM field. Remember – that stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The new space will offer programming in those areas and gives the scouts a chance to earn a one-of-a-kind badge. That’s something a few of the scout’s got a head start on today when they got a sneak peek at the program’s coding kit.
iHealthyzone
Medical College of Georgia researcher uses NIH database to study autism, cancer survivors
Getting data on just about any subject is not that hard to do in this day and age. The difficult part is organizing that data and putting it to use. That’s where Dr. Jie Chen comes into play as professor and program director of the Division of Biostatistics and Data Science in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the Medical College of Georgia. Chen sees how analytics can play an important role in the medical and health fields.
Reason
Sea Level To Rise One Foot by 2050, Says NOAA
Another good reason to stop subsidizing people to live at the beach.
Ronald Bailey
“Sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10-12 inches (0.25-0.30 meters) in the next 30 years (2020 -050),” says a new report from the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency notes this “will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920-2020).” While the report stops short of saying so, this projection is yet another excellent reason to stop subsidizing coastal living. …For example, a 2019 study in the Journal Financial Economics found that houses “exposed to sea level rise sell for approximately 7% less than observably equivalent unexposed properties equidistant from the beach.” Another 2021 study found that residential properties on Long Island that “were exposed to future sea level rise experienced an annual price appreciation rate of roughly 1% point below unexposed properties.” Researchers at Georgia Southern University calculated in 2020 that homes in Savannah “most at risk from sea level rise are associated with an approximate 3.1 percent price discount.”
Axios Atlanta
Analysis reveals Atlanta’s redlining history
Thomas Wheatley
The federal government’s New Deal-era project to rate neighborhoods based on whether residents could make their mortgage payments — and which later helped banks practice redlining — contributed to segregation in Atlanta for generations. Why it matters: The mapmakers heavily factored race into their evaluations, a decision that influenced lending practices for decades, leading to segregation in neighborhoods — some of which continue to this day, according to a recent FiveThirtyEight analysis, though other communities are now some of Atlanta’s most desirable. The maps hindered generations of Black people in Atlanta and elsewhere from homeownership, the primary driver of wealth in the U.S.
…Of note: Some white neighborhoods, including working-class Cabbagetown, were also drawn red, says Todd Michney, a Georgia Tech professor who studies redlining. Today, it and other formerly redlined neighborhoods, like Old Fourth Ward and Home Park have seen substantial investment. …Dan Immergluck, a professor at Georgia State University, also suggests targeting downpayment assistance and innovative programs like special purpose credit and baby bonds to Black, lower-wealth families, among other measures.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
White Violence and Black Success: Why HBCUs Receive Bomb Threats
Liann Herder
Ever since the first historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were built on U.S. soil, threats of white violence followed suit. “HBCUs were founded in response to the nation’s desire to maintain strict separation between Blacks and whites, to keep Blacks ignorant and economically dependent,” said Lezli Baskerville, CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO). NAFEO is a membership association for all HBCUs, two and four-year alike, as well as Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs). …The recent bomb threats came in waves, starting with Howard University at the beginning of January. As recent as last week, 13 HBCUs including Albany State University, Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Southern University and A&M College received bomb threats. Bethune-Cookman University received a bomb threat later identified as hailing from the neo-Nazi terrorist group, Atomwaffen Division.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 16)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,898,410
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 28,889 | 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
Education Department Approves $415M in Borrower-Defense Claims
By Scott Jaschik
Nearly 16,000 borrowers will receive $415 million in borrower defense to repayment discharges following the approval of four new findings. This includes approximately 1,800 former DeVry University students, who will receive approximately $71.7 million in full borrower-defense discharges after the U.S. Department of Education determined that the institution made “widespread substantial misrepresentations” about its job-placement rates. These are the first approved borrower-defense claims associated with a currently operating institution, as opposed to institutions that have closed, and the department will seek to recoup the cost of the discharge.
Inside Higher Ed
Reading Between the Lines to Support Struggling Students
What higher ed educators and leaders need to know about how student identities and the traumas they’ve experienced in life relate to current challenges.
By Melissa Ezarik
…Faculty members and other student-facing campus employees can often identity the challenges students are facing but typically don’t know what exactly students are going through and what factors may be making them more likely to struggle. In the Student Voice survey of 2,003 college undergraduates, only 28 percent identifying issues such as time management, anxiety, financial insecurity and not fitting in say they have shared their struggles with professors or other professionals at their institutions. So when developing, strengthening or promoting available campus supports, it helps for higher ed professionals to know what groups of students are most likely to be experiencing specific types of challenges. The following infographic offers insights on who is dealing with what, as well as students’ stories about individuals supporting them.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Community Colleges and HBCUs Forge Partnerships to Uplift Students
Liann Herder
“Racial, social and economic inequities aren’t new, they go back to how our country was founded. After the decimation of Native Americans, and after slavery, separate and unequal was the way of living.” That was Dr. Monica Parrish Trent speaking at the virtual DREAM 2022 convention, hosted by Achieving the Dream (ATD), a network of 300 community colleges including HBCUs and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Trent, ATD’s vice president for network engagement, was joined in conversation with community college and HBCU stakeholders about the challenges they face from historic underfunding, and the ways in which, despite their small size and endowments, they have continued to provide social and economic uplift out of poverty, not just for their students but for the communities around them.
Inside Higher Ed
Charitable Gifts to Colleges Top $52 Billion
Alumni giving is on the rise. So is the share of charitable gifts with no strings attached, thanks largely to the billions MacKenzie Scott donated to HBCUs, tribal colleges and community colleges.
By Emma Whitford
Charitable giving to U.S. colleges and universities increased by nearly 7 percent in fiscal year 2021, according to the latest Voluntary Support of Education survey by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Total giving to U.S. institutions grew to $52.9 billion, up from $49.5 billion the year prior—a 5.1 percent increase after adjusting for inflation. The survey, released Wednesday, includes information about charitable gifts and grants to higher education institutions from private sources during fiscal year 2021, which began on July 1, 2020, and ended on June 30, 2021. More than 860 institutions participated in the survey, representing 27.2 percent of U.S. colleges and universities but 83.8 percent of total voluntary support for higher education during that year.
See also:
Diverse Issus in Higher Ed
Charitable Giving to Higher Education Increased from 2020-2021