41 WMGT
MGA campus improvements already paying off
Middle Georgia State University recently invested in several campus updates, and it’s already paying off.
Ariel Schiller
Middle Georgia State University recently invested in several campus updates, and it’s already paying off. The school saw a 20% higher application rate for the fall semester compared to the same time last year. The upgrades included new signage at the Macon campus, which is visible from I-475. “We have over 22 million vehicles going up and down 475 every year,” Associate Vice President of Facilities David Sims said. “Now our name is visible to those 22 million vehicles.” In addition to the new signage, the university updated campus roadways to be more pedestrian friendly and also opened the Peyton Anderson Enrollment Center. Sims says the center helps potential students learn more about career opportunities and programs it offers.
WTOC
Program to help residents, accounting students prepare taxes
By Dal Cannady
Tax season is already here, and it can get overwhelming. A program in Statesboro can help low to moderate income taxpayers. The program also gives accounting students some valuable experience. Tax time can be stressful, even if you’re trying to file a simple return. But some Georgia Southern students and professors can offer some help. It’s called Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or VITA. It’s designed for low to moderate income taxpayers to get a simple return done. Most of the accounting students who do the returns are in graduate school and all have had extra courses and gotten certified. For them, it’s a chance to tackle tax issues not always covered in a book.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Study Will Assess Barriers to Minoritized Student Success in Gateway Courses
Liann Herder
Shutterstock 1734106484A new national study involving over 1,500 educators will explore how evidence-based teaching practices, digital learning, and faculty mentality impact Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Pell-eligible students enrolled in gateway courses. Ten institutions have been chosen to participate in the study, run by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and sponsored with a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. …The ten institutions are: …Georgia Southern University
Fox 5
Dr. David Ludden shares the science behind keeping your new year resolutions
While the new year is in our rear-view mirror, you may still want to be making or keeping new goals. Georgia Gwinnett College psychology professor Dr. David Ludden joined Good Day to talk about the science of why we have a hard time keeping resolutions and what we can do to make it easier.
Georgia Recorder
State lawmakers consider changes to college loan program plagued by defaults
By: Ross Williams
When Emily Bressler was in her sophomore year at Armstrong State University in Savannah, she faced a problem familiar to many college students. A new semester was coming up, and she did not have the tuition money. “I had federal loans, but I didn’t have enough to be able to pay for the remaining semester, and I didn’t qualify for Pell, my parents made too much, and I was putting myself through school,” she said. …Her advisor suggested she look into applying for a Student Access Loan, a state program with low interest rates and an opportunity for loan forgiveness for people who work in public service, and she thought it sounded like just what she needed. …Georgia’s Student Access Loan program was established in 2012 as a last resort for students like Bressler who had exhausted their other options. In the last school year, it helped about 5,600 students with nearly $28 million in loans across 78 institutions at public, private and technical schools. But a recent report from the state auditor found major challenges with the program, including a default rate of about 31% after three years, compared with 10% for federal borrowers. The auditor’s office recommended the Legislature take action to solve the problems alongside the Georgia Student Finance Authority, which oversees the program. Lawmakers took their first step toward that goal Wednesday when members of the House Higher Education Committee heard testimony from Emily Denis, a senior management analyst with the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts.
The Union-Recorder
Sheriff Massee talks mental health, crime
Billy Hobbs
Mental health issues are a key factor in the ever-growing crime issue both locally and nationwide, according to Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee. He said the issue has to be addressed. He also talked about the growing number of mental problems facing the community, and certainly those in the law enforcement community. …Massee said he told other sheriffs from across the state that the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office was going to host a hiring jamboree. “We’re going to notify every criminal justice program in the State of Georgia under the Board of Regents,” Massee said. “We’re going to pick a day — set it up — and ask everybody to come to Milledgeville and Baldwin County. We’re going to tell them, look, we’ll run you through our hiring process, even give you a psychological battery. We’ll vet you to be a law enforcement officer.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FBI investigating bomb threats to HBCUs as hate crimes
By Eric Stirgus
The FBI said Wednesday afternoon that its joint terrorism task forces are leading the investigation of recent bomb threats to about two dozen historically Black colleges and universities — including three in Georgia — which it described as hate crimes. “This investigation is of the highest priority for the Bureau and involves more than 20 FBI field offices across the country,” the FBI said in a statement on its website. …Albany State University received a bomb threat Monday. Fort Valley State University and Spelman College received threats Tuesday. No devices were found, authorities said.
See also:
Georgia Recorder
FBI probes bomb threats against HBCUs; campuses reopen after no explosives are found
Three Georgia campuses affected
Inside Higher Ed
New Bomb Threats Evoke Past Fears
Repeated bomb threats at historically Black universities and colleges over the past month are raising concerns and conversations about historical violence fueled by racism.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Why Sonny Perdue’s push to become chancellor is gaining steam
By Greg Bluestein
It seemed safe to assume that Sonny Perdue’s chance to be the next leader of Georgia’s higher education system would fizzle the moment his first cousin challenged Gov. Brian Kemp. Instead, the opposite has happened. Sonny Perdue’s chances of being the next University System of Georgia chancellor have dramatically improved since David Perdue entered the contest – thanks in part to the support of Kemp’s administration. After months of gridlock, Kemp has restocked the 19-member Board of Regents with several allies who could back Sonny Perdue as chancellor. A formal interview said to be scheduled for later this month will jumpstart the process.
CBS46
Atlanta parent, Georgia Tech scientist share opinions on COVID vaccine for children
Adam Murphy
As COVID-19 cases begin to decline, there’s a new effort to keep the curve trending in the right direction. On Tuesday, Pfizer applied for emergency authorization for a two-dose regimen of it COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years. …The Biden Administrations aims to clear the way for the shots as soon as late February. Georgia Tech scientist M.G. Finn works with vaccines for bacterial infections and is confident the COVID vaccine in young children will be safe.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Report: How A Credit Transfer Project at CUNY Helps Students
Rebecca Kelliher
A new report from Ithaka S+R outlined how a credit transfer project at the City University of New York (CUNY) is helping to get more students across the degree finish line. Ithaka S+R is a nonprofit organization that researches and provides consulting services to universities as well as other nonprofits. …Kurzweil noted studies have shown that 43% of student credits nationwide are lost in a transfer because a new institution did not accept the earned credits. Research has also found that community college students who transfer to their state universities lose over 20% of their credits, or almost a whole semester. And the vast majority of students will transfer into or out of a community college. …Dr. Janet Marling said that lost credits during transfers especially harm students of historically underrepresented backgrounds. Marling is the executive director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students at the University of North Georgia, where she is an associate professor of education.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 2)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,854,905
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 27,750 | 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
Bill Would Deny Aid to Colleges With Legacy Admissions
It has support from the ACLU and the group seeking to end affirmative action.
By Scott Jaschik
A new bill has been introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives that would ban any college that participates in federal student aid programs from offering admissions preferences to children of alumni or donors. Similar proposals have failed in the past, and this bill will face a tough road ahead. But several factors have the sponsors and their supporters hopeful this time around. The bill has support from more than 20 progressive organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
‘This Is Not New’: Unsettled by Threats, HBCUs Reflect on a Long History of Racist Intimidation
By Oyin Adedoyin
… As Black History Month began, dozens of HBCUs across the country were swarmed with bomb threats for two days in a row. These followed a series of similar threats made in early January. The FBI has identified six persons of interest who are suspected of making the latest round of threats, “which appear to have a racist motivation,” NBC News reported. When Favors learned of the threats, he wasn’t surprised. “My first initial thought is that this is not new,” he said. Black institutions have been targets of violent threats ever since they were created, said Favors, the author of Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism. …While all of the recent threats have so far been found to be meritless, they have unnerved the campuses. And historically, not all bomb threats made against HBCUs have been empty.