Marietta Daily Journal
Kennesaw State again awarded Carnegie R2 Classification
Kennesaw State University has once again been recognized as a doctoral university with high research activity, or an R2 university, in the most recent report by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The designation also marks the institution as one of the largest suburban research universities in the U.S. According to the Carnegie classification, doctoral research institutions are those that awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the upgrade year and had at least $5 million in research expenditures. Since its R2 designation in 2018, KSU has seen a substantial increase in new external funding and in the number of external awards received. This trend parallels growth in the KSU research infrastructure and commitment to undergraduate research opportunities.
WGAU Radio
UNG grant will help cadets study abroad
Money also going to HBCSUs in Ga
By Tim Bryant
The University of North Georgia is among the recipients of grant money from the Olmsted Foundation, $26 thousand that will help send UNG cadets to study abroad.
From Clark Leonard, UNG…
The University of North Georgia has received a $26,000 grant from the Olmsted Foundation for 2022 to support international opportunities for cadets from UNG, three historically black colleges and universities in Atlanta, and Georgia State University. These trips, typically one to three weeks in length, take place in non-English-speaking countries for cadets who display outstanding leadership and plan to commission into a combat arms branch in the active-duty Army.
WRBL
by: Chuck Williams
After a year off because of COVID-19, the Georgia Thespian Conference is back in Columbus. And the three-day high school theater gathering — known as ThesCon — is back in full force. The buses from across the state are lining up in downtown Columbus. And according to the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, the event brings a direct economic impact of nearly $1 million. ThesCon is back in person for the first time since 2020. And longtime Columbus educator Dr. Paul Hampton, who is the organizer for the statewide event, welcomes it. …“It is really nice for theater students like us to be on a college campus because it gives us exposure to Columbus because it has such a good theater program,” she said. “It gives us exposure to what we could be pursuing next year or in the years to come.” And that’s what Columbus State University is banking on. Kristin Williams, CSU’s Director of Admissions, Recruitment, is working the event and looking to attract potential students.
Augusta CEO
Two Faculty Members Named Inaugural Provost Fellows
Miguelangelo Hernandez
The Provost Faculty Fellowship is designed to provide eligible Augusta University faculty members with leadership and administrative experiences to prepare a pipeline of future academic administrators and leaders at the university. Arora and Abdulovic-Cui will work with Provost MacKinnon and the Provost Operations Management Team. MacKinnon said both inaugural fellows will be actively involved in university-wide projects related to academic affairs and will gain an inside perspective of the operations of the Provost’s Office. It is his hope that this experience will prepare them for future academic leadership positions at Augusta University.
ENR Southeast
University System of Georgia Named 2022 Southeast Owner of the Year
Scott Judy
When the University of Georgia celebrated completion of its nearly $80-million Interdisciplinary STEM Research Building 1 last November, the university reported via its website that the occasion marked a milestone in the system’s multi-year capital plan to “build, renovate and modernize hundreds of thousands of square feet devoted to research and innovation.” …The I-STEM project marks just one of the latest facility milestones for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, the construction project owner for all 28 of Georgia’s public colleges and universities. (By comparison, North Carolina’s state university system numbers 17 institutions, while Florida’s state system includes 12.) …In its March print edition, ENR Southeast will profile the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia as its 2022 Southeast Owner of the Year. In doing so, we’ll report on some of the latest projects, as well as ongoing construction and design trends currently shaping the delivery of higher education and research facilities in the state of Georgia.
CalTimes
This PennWest merger can be found similar to a university merge in Georgia
Alexandra Paes, Staff Writer
Consolidation has become one of the eleventh-hour endurance moves left for small institutions in order to survive the changing demands of higher education. The PASSHE merger was first announced in early July of 2020 as a means to combine and save on administrative and student costs. …As the merger was announced to the public through a state press release, the governing board of Pennsylvania’s Higher Education System voted to consolidate not only three western universities but a northeast merger as well. …With Pennsylvania state enrollment declining and a strain on financial stability for many of the state-funded universities, the pressure to combine resources and education efforts has been felt once before by the Georgia Board of Regents. The merger of two Georgia universities integrated in 2016, Georgia Perimeter College and Georgia State University decided to combine resources and the decision has improved retention and graduation rates, increased enrollment, and expanded many student service programs. …In 2018, Insider Higher Ed article, Georgia State’s senior vice president for student success, Timothy Renick said that the school’s retention rates had rapid progression in a relatively short period. Year to year retention rates increased from 58% before the merger in 2014, to 70% as of 2018 nearly three years after the merger was completed.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Capitol Recap: Plan unfolds to boost internet service in rural Georgia
By Jim Denery
State to pay $408 million to fund broadband expansion
Georgia will spend $408 million in COVID-19 relief money on internet expansion projects in 70 counties, connecting more than a quarter of the state’s locations currently not online. The plan is expected to provide internet service to 183,600 locations across the state, including 132,000 homes and businesses that currently lack access. State government leaders have planned for years to expand internet access to more of the 482,000 locations that lack sufficient services. Some of those areas have no internet service; others have slow connections, below 25 megabits per second for downloads. …New regents could ease Sonny Perdue’s path to head University System
A few alterations to the state Board of Regents could help former Gov. Sonny Perdue clear the last hurdle to becoming chancellor of the University System of Georgia. Perdue first surfaced in March as a candidate for the job leading the 340,000-student University System.
Marietta Daily Journal
Staff reports
After one season away, Tim Glanton has returned to the Kennesaw State football coaching staff. Glanton, who served as the Owls’ running backs coach and special teams coordinator for six seasons before announcing his retirement after the spring 2021 season, will reprise his role in charge of running backs. Glanton replaces Joe Speed, who coached Kennesaw State’s running backs during the fall 2021 season.
WABE
Persons of interest identified in string of bomb threats targeting HBCUs
A caller who threatened to blow up a historically Black university in Florida — one of numerous threats made against schools across the nation including three in Georgia — described an elaborate plot involving seven bombs hidden in duffel bags and backpacks around the school’s perimeter, a Florida police chief said. In a 20-minute phone call, the caller said the bombs containing C-4 explosives would be detonated at Bethune-Cookman University on Monday, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a news conference. The caller also said a gunman would open fire on the campus around lunchtime the same day, Young said. …The threats to some of the other schools also were telephoned in, school officials have said, but few details of those calls have been released. The HBCUs in Georgia receiving bomb threats included Spelman College in Atlanta, Fort Valley State University just south of Macon and Albany State University in Southwest Georgia. Investigators have identified at least five “persons of interest,” a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The investigators believe a spoofed phone number was used to make the threats, the official said.
WABE
Former prisoner pressures USG to get rid of criminal record application question
Jim Burress, Lily Oppenheimer
Five years behind bars in the Georgia Department of Corrections gave Patrick Rodriguez time to think about how he would ever go back to school. “When I was incarcerated, I just kept thinking about education,” Rodriguez said. “I just kept thinking about what is it that I’m going to do to be able to make it in todays society, as somebody who now has a criminal record.” Rodriguez dropped out of Kennesaw State University back in 2013 to sell drugs. He’s been arrested in several Georgia counties and other states. Rodriguez told WABE’s “All Things Considered” that he’s very transparent with his story because he knows many folks have a hard-nosed belief about people who carry a criminal record. “Let’s stop talking about crime and punishment, and let’s start talking about safety and resolutions,” Rodriguez said. … He’s also the mind behind Beyond the Box Georgia — a campaign push to get the University System of Georgia to remove an application question of any past or pending convictions. USG officials told WABE in a statement that staff members have met twice with students involved with Beyond the Box to discuss their concerns.
yahoo!news
‘Alcatraz of the Piney Woods’ lecture topic of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College professor
The Albany Herald, Ga.
ABAC professor Russell Pryor will speak on the contentious issues of crime and punishment in Georgia at 7 p.m. on Feb. 17 in Howard Auditorium as a part of the Jess Usher Lecture Series at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Pryor, an assistant professor in the ABAC School of Arts and Sciences, said that part of his story about Georgia’s history may shock some listeners.
WRDW
MCG researcher studies the role of genetics in COVID-19
By Craig Allison
The way the virus impacts different people can still seem mysterious. We met with a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia who’s looking at genetics to find more answers about how the virus moves from one person to the next. Thanks to health experts, who’ve been answering questions for the past two years, we know so much more about COVID than we did when the whole thing started. Doctor Ravinda Kolhe has his sights set on finding out why some people get sicker from COVID than others.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 3)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,860,616
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 27,865 | 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:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Latest Completion Data Trends Up for All
Liann Herder
Six-year completion rates are up in every institution, according to the latest National Student Clearinghouse Completing College report which studied the fall 2015 cohort. Numbers show that 62.2% of all students who enrolled for the first time in fall 2015, no matter their age, race, or enrollment status, were able to achieve a credential in at most six years, a 1.2 percentage point increase from the previous cohort. Last year, only 12 out of the 46 states with sufficient data saw completion improvements of at least one percentage point. This year, 32 out of 46 states showed improvement.
Inside Higher Ed
States Seek to Boost Higher Ed Budgets
In their State of the State addresses, governors have signaled that higher education will be a priority in the next fiscal year. So far, their budget proposals back that up.
By Emma Whitford
Two years into the pandemic, state revenues have for the most part made strong recoveries, easing fears that COVID-19 could plunge the public higher education sector into a cycle of budget cuts akin to those prompted by the 2008 recession. Federal assistance from the three stimulus packages buoyed college and university funding even as states slashed higher education budgets—cuts they later reversed. As governors and state legislatures work out their budgets for the fiscal year that begins in July, experts agree: states are flush and higher education will likely reap the benefits. “We’re seeing states have fairly sizable budget surpluses that have allowed higher education agencies and state higher education systems to make more ambitious requests than they have in other years,” said Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Remember the flurry of tuition-refund lawsuits? Here’s what you need to know.
By Hilary Burns – Editor, The National Observer Higher Education,
Dozens of colleges and universities have faced a major headache over the last couple of years — lawsuits arguing that institutions owe students refunds for moving operations and instruction online. Most cases have so far been unsuccessful but two years into the pandemic, the tension has not gone away. A recent Wall Street Journal column penned by two Northwestern University law professors argues that with vaccines now readily available, students can more easily claim that colleges and universities have breached contracts by moving courses to online formats. The column, along with anecdotal gripes from students and parents frustrated by pandemic-induced limitations on campus, raise questions of whether the higher-ed sector should be bracing for more legal burdens. Steven Richard, partner and leader of law firm Nixon Peabody LLP’s Higher Education team, spoke with The Business Journals about how we got here, how colleges across the nation have reacted to the lawsuits and what’s next. The following is an edited transcript of his comments.