The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sonny Perdue says Georgia must sell value of college degree
By Eric Stirgus
University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue said its schools must find more ways to recruit students and help them graduate as it faces a projected enrollment decline in a few years. One recruitment strategy could be encouraging adult learners to seek degrees or certificates through some of its online programs, the former two-term governor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in his first interview since becoming chancellor earlier this month. He also suggested having more advisers work one-on-one with struggling students.
University Business
How one university made wellness top priority at the presidential level
The University of West Georgia’s holistic approach includes the creation of a key position within its cabinet
By: Chris Burt
A triumvirate of crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic—mental health, food insecurity and financial instability—have prompted higher education leaders to take a deep look at how well they are providing resources and services to students, staff and faculty. Well-being has become a top priority, but getting help to individuals hasn’t been smooth. Siloed departments, red tape and a lack of marketing about available programs mean that assistance can go unnoticed or underutilized. So forward-thinking presidents like Brendan Kelly at the University of West Georgia are raising the importance of health and well-being by helping create administrative-level leadership positions. In February, UWG promoted Bridgette Stewart as its new Chief Wellness Officer, a role becoming increasingly popular across higher ed but one that surprisingly doesn’t exist at many institutions. Stewart’s position is one of the first in the Georgia system.
Albany Herald
Fitzgerald student selected as J.G. Woodroof Scholar at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
From staff reports
Raines Evans, a writing and communication major from Fitzgerald, has been selected as the J.G. Woodroof Scholar at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College for the 2021-22 academic year. The award is named for ABAC’s first president, who took office in 1933. ABAC President David Bridges said the Woodroof Scholar represents the top academic student at ABAC. In her capacity as the Woodroof Scholar, Raines attended a meeting of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia as ABAC’s Academic Recognition Day Student. She and her family also attended a lunch sponsored by the Board of Regents.
Georgia Entertainment News
“The Power of the Pen” Documentary VIP Screening Presented by Carl Gilliard
By Staff
You are invited to the VIP screening of the documentary “The Power of the Pen,” on April 19, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. in the Howard Jordan Auditorium in Jordan College of Business Administration building at Savannah State University. The program is being presented by the Gilliard Foundation, Savannah State University, and Savannah State University Student Government Association. “The Power of the Pen” is a powerful documentary on the passing of Georgia House Bill 479, the repeal of Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest Law and Ahmaud Arbery. It was written and narrated by GA State Representative Carl Gilliard and was editing by Kareem McMichael.
WSAV
SSU Visual and Performing Arts Dept. to showcase senior students
by: Dajhea Jones
Visual and Performance Arts program senior students at Savannah State University(SSU) will be showcased in an art exhibition and dance performance. “The War is Not Over,” a 28-minute contemporary, hip hop and African dance routine, will be performed by Zhakyra Nelson. As a part of Telfair’s Family Day, the performance will be held on Apr. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Neises Auditorium, located in the Jepson Center at 207 W York St. An artist talk will follow the performance.
The Atlanta Voice
Clayton State University Announces Spring Commencement Speaker Lineup
by Staff Report
An international crisis response organization executive, a local public radio executive producer and host, and an Emmy-winning advertising entrepreneur will speak during the undergraduate and graduate spring 2022 commencement ceremonies at Clayton State University. Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) vice president of partnerships and development Laura Cansicio, WABE veteran broadcaster Rose Scott, and H3 Media founder Andrea Rivera have been tapped as spring commencement speakers to celebrate students graduating from the university’s four colleges on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7, at the Clayton State University Athletic Center, 2000 Clayton State Boulevard, Morrow, Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boyfriend acquitted in strangulation death of University of Georgia professor
By Joe Kovac Jr., The Telegraph for the AJC
The boyfriend of beloved University of Georgia entomology professor Marianne C. Shockley was acquitted April 8 in her 2019 strangulation death at a friend’s house east of Milledgeville. After hearing four days of testimony, a jury of four women and eight men deliberated for about 35 minutes before returning its verdict. Marcus Allen Lillard, 44, was found not guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. He was, however, sentenced by Judge Alison T. Burleson to serve an eight-year term for violating his probation on a drug charge. How long he may be incarcerated was not immediately clear.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated April 20)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,945,962 | 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: 31,486 | 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.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New COVID-19 vaccines are in the works, but how much will they help?
By Zachary Hansen
Health experts from across the country are optimistic that better vaccines can be achieved
In the quest to design a better COVID-19 vaccine, scientists are attempting to hit a moving target. Vaccine researchers are working to reformulate the existing vaccines to be effective against variants that have yet to emerge, while taking into account how quickly the coronavirus can mutate. Health experts from across the country are optimistic that better vaccines can be achieved and be potentially ready to administer by the fall — before holidays and flu season converge. Scientists will not only have to predict the future with the vaccine’s formula, they’ll also have to convince the public to get yet another shot.
Higher Education News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ossoff vows to push for more support for Georgia’s Black colleges
By Eric Stirgus
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff on Wednesday announced federal funding for several historically Black colleges and universities in Georgia, while stressing his desire to provide more aid to the schools. Ossoff, D-Ga., said Clark Atlanta University will receive $1 million for its program to train students in cybersecurity. Morehouse School of Medicine will get $500,000 for its planned academic and research building. The senator made the announcement at Spelman College, which has received $2.5 million for upgrades to its wireless network, research and virtual learning courses.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why Students Quit College During Covid
By Sahalie Donaldson
Students cited emotional stress, health concerns, and financial worries as some of the biggest barriers to staying in college during the pandemic, according to a new report on a survey by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup. Even among students who persisted, more than one-third of those seeking bachelor’s degrees and 40 percent of those seeking associate degrees reported that it was difficult to stay enrolled in the 2021-22 academic year. The study, conducted last fall, expanded on a 2020 Lumina/Gallup survey that explored students’ concerns about the shift from in-person to remote learning. The number of students who considered dropping out of college in 2021 stayed about the same as in 2020.
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
Stress Still Driving Students to Consider Stopping Out
Higher Ed Dive
Admissions association will help lead test-optional enrollment study
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Reporter
Dive Brief:
Higher education’s top admissions association will spearhead a study examining how dropping the SAT and ACT as an entrance requirement affected college and university enrollment. The National Association for College Admission Counseling — through a $1.4 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant — will work with researchers who will review enrollment patterns of 150 four-year colleges, some of which adopted test-optional policies. The Equity Research Cooperative, a consultant, will also examine how test-optional practices influenced enrollment of Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian and low-income students through a survey and six case studies conducted at selective and minority-serving institutions.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
MIT Is Bringing Back the SAT. Your College Shouldn’t.
The institution’s explanation for re-embracing standardized tests offers contradictory statements and no new research.
By Akil Bello
Breaking from a trend that started during the pandemic, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced last month that it would end its Covid-inspired suspension of admission testing. In a blog post explaining the move, Stu Schmill, the college’s dean of admissions, cautioned that the decision was specific to MIT, but when a high-profile institution makes a move of this magnitude, higher-education observers will naturally wonder if other colleges that have jettisoned the use of standardized tests should follow suit. Based on the evidence and reasoning MIT provided for its reversal, the answer is no. …The permanent test-free admission policy for the California State University system, following the same policy at the University of California, means that two of the five largest public-university systems in the country will not consider tests in their admissions review. … Other universities are making similar moves. The University of Georgia system was one of the last state systems to adopt a test-optional policy in 2020 and was one of the first to announce in 2021 that they would reinstate the test requirement. However, in recent weeks, most of its campuses have once again instituted test-optional policies. And during a recent board meeting in which the University of North Carolina system renewed its testing waiver, competition with peer institutions and access were raised as considerations. MIT was not mentioned.
Inside Higher Ed
Creating a Friendlier Syllabus
Course syllabi set the tone for the whole semester. With the help of a new tool kit, some instructors are overhauling theirs to make them more welcoming, inclusive and focused on student success.
By Maria Carrasco
A new tool kit that launches today aims to help college instructors revise their syllabi to include more supportive language and resources, in an effort to put students at ease and create a more welcoming learning environment. The First Day Toolkit, developed by the Student Experience Project—a collaborative of university leaders, faculty, researchers and national education organizations dedicated to tackling student inequities—provides a revision module and guide for instructors to re-evaluate their syllabi. The module includes video demonstrations, sample syllabi and an instructor to lead professors through the revision process.
Inside Higher Ed
Should All Speakers Be Approved by the President and Cabinet?
Saint Vincent College adopts new rules after many found speaker’s remarks at conference sponsored by college to be racist.
By Scott Jaschik
Saint Vincent College, in Pennsylvania, announced a new policy for speakers at college-sponsored events after a speech last week was called racist by many who heard it. The Reverend Paul Taylor, president of the college, announced the new policy in a statement Tuesday. He said the college would have “a formal speaker’s policy for all public presentations sponsored by the college. The president and cabinet members will now approve all sponsored speakers to make sure that the message to be delivered is not in conflict with the spirit and mission of the college.” The speech was by David Azerrad, an assistant professor at Hillsdale College, a private liberal arts institution in Michigan (although he teaches in Washington, D.C.), and is posted on YouTube. In the beginning of the speech, Azerrad said that Kamala Harris is vice president only because her father is from Jamaica.
Inside Higher Ed
Researcher says it’s time to study, then stop, child sex trafficking in higher education. Her new paper showing that predators skew white, male and academic is a start.
By Colleen Flaherty
Following the 2015 arrest of the University of North Dakota’s then chair of family and community medicine, Robert Beattie, on child pornography charges, the Dakota Student newspaper ran an opinion piece asking, “We can’t help but wonder if this type of thing is common in other schools around the nation?” Lori Handrahan, an independent scholar of gender-based violence in conflict zones, wondered the same thing. She’d already been researching child sex crimes involving military personnel and other classes of workers, so she started studying abuse perpetrated by college and university employees, too. Of particular interest to her was child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), otherwise known as child pornography. Handrahan previously shared some of her initial findings on sex trafficking in higher education on Medium. But her new article in the Journal of Human Trafficking, and corresponding database, is the most complete picture of sex offenses against children in higher education published anywhere, ever. It’s also one of the only projects to ever broach the subject.