AP News
Public college costs to fall in Georgia as fee goes away
By Jeff Amy
College costs do not always go up. For almost all of the 340,000 students at Georgia’s public universities and colleges, they’ll be going down next fall. That’s thanks to a big boost in state funding granted in exchange for eliminating a budgetary hangover that had lasted more than a decade. University System of Georgia regents, meeting Tuesday at Albany State University, approved tuition and fee rates for the system’s 26 schools that will result in overall costs going down by 7.6% at the typical school. Students will save anywhere from $226 for a full two-semester load at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong campus in Savannah to $1,088 at Georgia Tech. The only exception is Macon-based Middle Georgia State University, where total costs for in-state undergraduates will rise $20 next year to $4,762 as part of a three-year plan to increase tuition to line up with similar universities.
See also:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regents vote not to raise tuition, fees for most Georgia universities
Capitol Beat, The Augusta Chronicle, Gwinnett Daily Post, Rockdale Citizen, Albany Herald, Marietta Daily Journal
Board of Regents holding the line on tuition again
WSB-TV
No tuition increase for most University System of Georgia students, fee also going away
11Alive
USG keeps tuition the same, minus one school
The Red & Black
USG will not raise tuition next year, eliminates special fee
Fox 31
University System of Georgia Board of Regents votes not to raise tuition fees
WRDW
Ga. regents vote to keep tuition flat at AU, most other schools
Flagpole
Board of Regents Freezes Tuition, Eliminates Fee at UGA
accessWDUN
Regents won’t raise tuition at state colleges, universities
AP News
A glance at Georgia universities’ total fees and tuition
Metro Atlanta CEO
Georgia Gwinnett College Unveils Four New, Entertainment-related Nexus Degrees
Staff Report
Four new Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) degrees will prepare students for careers in the entertainment industry, such as film and TV production. Beginning fall semester 2022, GGC will offer nexus degrees in professional editing in film/television, motion picture set lighting, production for film and television, and production design. GGC began offering a nexus in professional sound design for film and television in spring 2022. Nexus degrees, introduced by the University System of Georgia (USG) in 2018, focus on developing immediate familiarity with a particular career path, after completing the required general education courses. Students pursuing these degrees will complete their core curriculum of 42 credit hours and then take courses onsite at GGC and/or the Georgia Film Academy’s Trilith and OFS studios for a total of 60 credits, including an apprenticeship, if approved for one of the GFA highly competitive internships.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ludacris to receive honorary degree from Georgia State University
By Eric Stirgus
Rapper and actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges will soon have something that he never obtained: a bachelor’s degree from the university school he attended before becoming a star. Georgia State University is planning on awarding the metro Atlanta-bred entertainer an honorary bachelor’s degree during its May 4 commencement ceremony. The state’s Board of Regents approved the university’s plan at a meeting Wednesday.
SCCPSS
SCCPSS Students Excel at Georgia Southern Math Invitational Tournament
Four of those schools placed students and teams in the Top 20 of Tournament results. The Georgia Southern Mathematics Tournament is an annual invitational tournament serving the East Central and Southeast regions of Georgia. The tournament is designed to recognize students’ accomplishments in mathematics, to allow outstanding mathematics students to meet and compete with each other, and to promote public interest in mathematics.
Savannah CEO
Sharon Subreenduth of Georgia Southern University Talks About the Future of Education
Sharon Subreenduth is Dean of the College of Education at Georgia Southern University. She talks about how they are working to engage students, families and all in the community to have a wholistic ecosystem to further education.
Marietta Daily Journal
UGA National Football Championship Commemorative Coca-Cola Cans Unveiled
Coca-Cola® is raising a toast to University of Georgia (UGA) fans celebrating the Bulldogs’ first College Football National Championship win in 41 years. Coca-Cola wants to commemorate this huge achievement alongside the Georgia Bulldogs and fans. In honor of UGA’s 2021 national championship win and the dedicated Bulldog fans who cheered on their team to victory, Coca-Cola has unveiled a commemorative 12-ounce can to mark this milestone. The limited-edition Coca-Cola can – available in six packs – features the custom logo commemorating UGA’s impressive national football championship.
Tifton CEO
‘Coming to America’ Mural Artist Andrew Sabori at ABAC’s Edwards Hall
Staff Report
Artist Andrew Sabori and National Archives Presenter James McSweeney will participate in a special reception at 6 p.m. on April 19 in Ernest Edwards Hall at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College as a part of the mural exhibition titled “Coming to America—The Immigrant Experience Featuring the Lost Mural of Ellis Island.” The 85-foot mural by Sabori is a reproduction of the 200-foot mural titled “The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America” which was created circa 1935 by Edward Laning as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Sabori’s mural has been on display in Edwards Hall since Jan. 18 and will continue to be displayed through the end of the spring semester on May 4.
Moultrie Observer
Colquitt County’s Perry family receives ABAC’s Family Legacy Award
Staff Reports
The Perry family from Colquitt County received the Family Legacy Award from the ABAC Alumni Association at the recent Homecoming 2022 awards luncheon at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Four generations of the Perry family have attended ABAC. Schley L. Perry Sr. graduated from the Second District A&M School in 1921. He often shared his memory of being part of the student crew that built the amphitheater during his time on the ABAC campus. He studied agriculture and returned home to the family farm after college.
11Alive
The book, “Hey Georgia,” was unveiled in a ceremony with Gov. Brian Kemp, First Lady Marty Kemp and Malcolm Mitchell on Tuesday.
Author: Jonathan Raymond (11Alive)
Georgia’s first lady and a former UGA football star have teamed up on a children’s book that will be distributed to all Pre-K classes in the state. The book, “Hey Georgia,” was unveiled with a reading to young students at the Capitol on Tuesday. Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp and Malcolm Mitchell, who won a Super Bowl in the NFL before injuries derailed his career and he devoted himself full-time as a children’s writer, co-authored the book.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rowen Foundation has three new board members this year
By Alia Malik
The Rowen Foundation, the nonprofit planning the Rowen development in eastern Gwinnett County, earlier this year added three board members from local higher education institutions. Georgia Gwinnett College President Jann L. Joseph, University of Georgia Provost S. Jack Hu and Georgia Tech’s vice president of institute relations, Bert Reeves, joined the board. “A key to Rowen’s success in serving the future of Georgia is through deep partnerships with our institutions of higher learning,” Sachin Shailendra, chair of the Rowen Foundation, said in a news release. “Jann, Jack and Bert are three of our state’s most respected academic leaders, and they will bring immense value and insight to Rowen as site development begins and we activate the partnerships and programs that will bring a unique mix of tenants to our property.”
WGAU Radio
Today at UGA: congressional candidates debate, US Congressman speaks
Illinois Republican Kinzinger is at Russell Library
By Tim Bryant
Eight Republican candidates for Congress are scheduled to face off in a forum set for 6:30 this evening in the University of Georgia’s Miller Learning Center. The event is organized by UGA’s College Republicans. It will feature the political hopefuls who are running to replace 10th District Congressman Jody Hice, who is leaving the House to run for Secretary of State US Congressman Adam Kinzinger speaks today at UGA: the Illinois Republican is at the University of Georgia’s Richard Russell Library at noon.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COVID trends downward in Georgia. Will it stick this time?
By Helena Oliviero
Vaccines continue to be extremely effective in protecting people from severe disease
The number of Georgians being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen to the lowest point since the earliest days of the pandemic. And so far, the sharp rise of BA.2, a subvariant of omicron, is not leading to an uptick in severe cases, according to a state health official who provided an update on the pandemic at a Georgia Department of Public Health board meeting Tuesday. “Looks like good news and indeed is good news particularly relative to other waves in this pandemic,” said Georgia Department of Public Health epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek during her presentation. “But as you’ve heard me say many times before, we cannot be complacent, this virus is still with us. It will not be eliminated. It has proven very adept at changing.”
Clayton News-Daily
Georgia’s COVID-19 response gets a mid-pack grade
By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square contributor
Georgia ranked in the middle of the pack for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee To Unleash Prosperity (CUP) gave Georgia a C for its pandemic response. The Peach State ranked No. 19 overall and performed better than neighboring Alabama (20) and Tennessee (24) but lagged North Carolina (13), South Carolina (12) and Florida (6). “Shutting down their economies and schools was by far the biggest mistake governors and state officials made during Covid, particularly in blue states,” CUP Co-Founder Stephen Moore said in an announcement. “We hope the results of this study will persuade governors not to close schools and businesses the next time we have a new virus variant.” The study found that closing schools had almost no impact on the death rates of children or adults. However, the group said it did “severe damage” to students’ educational progress.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated April 12)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,942,592 | Note: The DPH reports that starting on March 30 and into the next several days, it expects to clear a backlog of cases from a laboratory that were not previously recorded. DPH noted that the majority of these cases were from December 2021 and January 2022, and do not represent a spike of new cases in late March.
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 31,343 | 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:
Higher Ed Dive
Inflation and labor shortages set to squeeze college budgets, Moody’s says
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
Dive Brief:
Colleges face their highest expense growth in over a decade as rising costs combine with wage inflation, labor shortages and a push to hire, according to two new reports issued this week by Moody’s Investors Service. At the same time, volatility has returned to the investment market, and recent public funding increases are waning, Moody’s said. Colleges also face mounting enrollment uncertainty that raises risks for tuition-dependent institutions that lack a national brand and deep pockets. Most of the U.S. higher education sector will remain financially stable in the near term thanks to strong endowment values and liquidity levels that grew recently, the reports said. But Moody’s analysts expect the converging pressures to squeeze many colleges’ budgets in fiscal 2023 and beyond.
Inside Higher Ed
College Towns Come Back to Life
The COVID-19 pandemic turned college towns into ghost towns, decimating local economies. Now they’re bouncing back, thanks to new initiatives, innovative partnerships—and hungry students.
By Maria Carrasco
The local economies of college towns were hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, as students fled, employees stayed home and families, alumni and prospective students stopped visiting. For many downtowns that depend largely on a university population to thrive, things are looking much brighter this year. On Tuesday afternoon, Cornell University organized a virtual forum of college and community experts to discuss their struggles and successes in reviving local economies post-pandemic. For Gary Stewart, associate vice president for community relations at Cornell, the key to survival for both college and community was to work together, no matter how bleak the circumstances.
Inside Higher Ed
Courseware Designed to Close Equity Gaps
Coalitions of companies, colleges and research groups, funded by Gates, will develop digital courses especially aimed at improving learning outcomes for underrepresented students in gateway statistics and chemistry courses.
By Doug Lederman
The gaps remain stark: first-year students of color and learners from low-income backgrounds wash out of entry-level “gateway” courses at significantly higher rates than their white peers. Those early setbacks contribute significantly to the higher dropout rates that Black, Latino, Indigenous and Pell Grant–eligible students experience between their first and second year of college, and they ultimately are a factor in the persistently lower graduation rates for students from these groups. Individual colleges and universities, national groups and philanthropies, and a slew of companies have worked in recent years to address this seemingly intractable problem. But a new initiative, still in its early stages, aims to bring all those players (and more) together to build high-quality, low-cost courses in 20 general education subjects that enroll the most students nationally.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Williams College Announces ‘All Grant’ Financial-Aid Policy
By Eric Hoover
Williams College on Wednesday announced plans to adopt an “all grant” financial-aid program, apparently the first of its kind. Starting this fall, the institution will eliminate loans, as well as campus-job and summer-earnings requirements, from all aid packages, replacing them fully with grants. Maud S. Mandel, president of Williams, said in an interview that the new policy — which will apply to current and incoming students — would bring the college closer to its goal of “true affordability” for all those receiving aid. The initiative, she hopes, will ease the burden students often feel when balancing work with their studies and other commitments, all the while worrying about post-graduation debt.
Higher Ed Dive
More than 200 colleges have open seats for fall 2022, NACAC says
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Reporter
Dive Brief:
More than 200 colleges, including several outside the U.S., have reported to the National Association for College Admission Counseling that they have open seats for fall 2022. The admissions trade group on Monday published its annual Colleges Openings Update, a database that also indicates availability of housing and financial aid. For the second year in a row, citing high demand, NACAC released its list ahead of May 1, the traditional deadline by which students select their colleges.
Inside Higher Ed
Texas Judge Grants Out-of-State Students a Tuition Break
By Josh Moody
In a case that could have significant consequences for higher education in Texas, a federal judge ruled that out-of-state students cannot be charged higher tuition than undocumented immigrants. The ruling came down Friday in a case that pitted the Young Conservatives of Texas Foundation against the University of North Texas. The Texas Tribune reported that the University of North Texas has already appealed and other university systems are watching the case closely. The University of North Texas has argued that such a ruling could cost the college millions of dollars.
Inside Higher Ed
USC Sues YouTubers Who Stormed Classrooms for Prank Videos
By Susan H. Greenberg
The University of Southern California has sued two men who allegedly barged into classrooms to film prank videos for their personal YouTube channels, causing “terror and disruption,” the Los Angeles Times reported. On three occasions, Ernest Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai—who are not USC students—stormed classrooms in a humanities building, interrupting lectures and in at least one instance subjecting students to “insults and demeaning behavior,” according to the lawsuit. On Friday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order, barring both men from the USC campus. Most recently, according to court documents, Kanevsky and Bai disrupted a March 29 lecture on the Holocaust, impersonating “a member of the Russian Mafia” and fashion designer Hugo Boss, who manufactured Nazi uniforms during World War II. Students panicked, knocking over chairs and abandoning their belongings in an effort to flee “what reasonably appeared to them as a credible threat of imminent classroom violence,” according to the lawsuit. Following the incident, Los Angeles police arrested the two men.