The George-Anne
Students save $290 per semester after USG change
Vanessa Countryman, Digital Managing Editor
Students will save almost $300 on tuition starting next semester after a USG decision to remove one fee. The Fiscal Year 2023 budget allows The University System of Georgia to remove the Special Institutional Fee (SIF) from students’ tuition and increase HOPE Scholarships at some colleges which will go into effect July 1, 2022, according to GBPI. SIF, the largest fee, made up 40% of mandatory fees. Georgia Southern students will save $290 per semester once this goes into effect. The SIF was put into place in 2009 in order to make up for revenue loss from state budget cuts. Students paid $230 million total to colleges and universities in this fee in 2021-2022.
WSAV
Savannah State receives $830K for new computer science degree track
Dajhea Jones
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Savannah State University a grant for over $830,000 for a new Computer Science Technology degree program. The degree track offered will be a modeling and simulation program that aims to increase the number of minorities, women, and disabled students in the computer science field, which remains underrepresented.
Times-Georgian
UWG wins Inaugural Legends Track Meet
By Bryant Derricotte UWG Sports
For the first time in nearly 40 years, The University of West Georgia hosted a track meet on campus. The UWG Legends Track meet featured more than 20 teams, including both men’s and women’s competitors. As the host team, the UWG Track and field team scored 225 total points, 100 points more than the second place team Life University. UWG saw many of their athletes claim first place finishes. …The West Georgia “A” team earned the Wolves yet another first place finish in the 4×100 relay race. …The Wolves also had one of their three teams finish top three in the 4×400 relay. …The UWG track and field team will have a break, until they head to Atlanta to compete at Georgia Tech, on April 22.
Gwinnett Daily Post
PHOTOS: Georgia Gwinnett College nursing students participate 2022 Emergency Day at Lanier Tech
Todd Cline
Georgia Gwinnett College nursing students joined their peers from other area higher education institutions at the Emergency Day simulation, held at Lanier Technical College. The annual event, formerly known as Trauma Day, provides students an opportunity to care for multiple patients while working within multidisciplinary teams. Participants triaged patients, prioritized care, and worked collaboratively to provide care to both human “patients” as well as practice on high-fidelity simulators.
Savannah CEO
Staff Report
Parker College of Business alumnus Tommy Jones and The Parker Companies were recognized with two of the college’s most prestigious awards during the inaugural Parker College of Business Gala held in March at the DeSoto Hotel in Savannah. Jones, a 1973 accounting graduate, was awarded the Parker College Distinguished Service Award, the highest award conferred by the college. It honors alumni who exemplify the aspirations, accomplishments and reach of the college. Jones is a certified public accountant (CPA) and the president of Jones, Jones, Davis & Associates, CPA, PC, in Augusta, Georgia. …Greg Parker, founder and CEO of Parker’s and Parker’s Kitchen, accepted the award on behalf of The Parker Companies. …The Parker of Business Gala was presented by Synovus and hosted by members of the Parker College Young Alumni Board, and raised more than $45,000 for student scholarships.
Times-Georgian
UWG scholarship named in honor of Dr. John Ferling
Thanks to the generous support of the local Casimir Pulaski Chapter of the Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution (GSSAR) and other community members and organizations, the John Ferling Scholarship in the University of West Georgia’s history program has been established as a fully endowed scholarship to support graduate history students with their research. The scholarship is named for Dr. John Ferling, professor emeritus of history, who taught at UWG for more than 30 years and is considered one of the nation’s leading historians on the American Revolution. It will be presented annually to a graduate student in recognition of scholarly activity excellence.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Concert Band to Perform Tribute to Bridges
Staff Report
Emotions will be sure to envelop the audience at the ABAC Concert Band’s spring concert at 7 p.m. on April 14 in Howard Auditorium at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Under the direction of Deborah Bradley, the Concert Band will dedicate “Winds of Change” to ABAC President David Bridges. Bridges is retiring this year. The ABAC Singers will be featured during the performance of this piece.
Savannah CEO
Mary’s Place to Host Multiple Events During Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Staff Report
April is Sexual Assault Awareness (SAAM) month, and Mary’s Place of the Coastal Empire (formerly known as the Rape Crisis Center) is hosting various events and activities to highlight ways for Savannah to join in support of putting a stop to this solemn reality. To kick off the month, beginning Friday, April 1st, companies can join the Jeans4Justice awareness campaign, allowing employees to wear jeans to work for a $1-$5 donation. Georgia Southern University Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) will continue their support with “Wear A Pair” to generate donations for Mary’s Place, as well as promote their own campus SAAM events.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA scientist to speak at Parkinson’s support group in Athens
Staff Reports
University of Georgia professor Anumantha Kanthasamy was announced recently as the guest speaker Friday for a Parkinson’s disease support group in Athens. Kanthasamy, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Parkinson’s research at UGA, will speak to the group during its 1 p.m. meeting in the rotunda area of Athens First Baptist Church on Pulaski Street. The support group is a member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, and open to those with Parkinson’s or those who are caregivers.
The Penn
IUP hosts presentation on war on drugs, how students can be involved
Patrick Hough, Staff Writer
A presentation discussing the war on drugs was sponsored by IUP’s Title IX, Social Equity office and Office of Students Wellness and Engagement on Wednesday. Dr. Mai Naito Mills was the speaker, an associate professor of criminology at the University of West Georgia in the department of civic engagement and public service.
11Alive
UGA: Research team developed more accurate home COVID test to cover all current and future variants
The technology is said to be “much more accurate” than what is currently available on the market.
Author: Jonathan Raymond (11Alive)
The University of Georgia said Thursday that one of its research teams had developed a “much more accurate” COVID rapid home test than those currently on the market, which will also be cheaper and work faster. A post on the school’s news site touted the team’s developments, published in the May edition of the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. The test uses “nanotechnology-based optical sensors designed for COVID-19 detection,” according to the post, and research lead author Yanjun Yang said the technology is “much more accurate” than what is currently available on the market. It would cover all current and future variants as well, according to the UGA news site.
The George-Anne
Prejudice Against Muslim-Americans After 9/11
Taylor Coleman, Writer-Content Creator
September 11, 2001 was the beginning of increased prejudice towards Muslim-Americans. As stated by the FBI, hate crimes towards Muslims increased after the 9/11 event. Since 9/11, Muslims have experienced Islamophobia. According to A Georgetown University Initiative, Islamophobia is an “extreme fear of and hostility toward Islam and Muslims which leads to hate speech and hate crimes, and social and political discrimination”. Georgia Southern University students were asked in an anonymous survey if they believe Islamophobia exists. 100% of the respondents said “yes”. Here is what Georgia Southern University students had to say about experiencing or witnessing Islamophobia:
Rome News-Tribune
Chargers featured in Lakepoint documentary on college baseball
The sound of a bat cracking against a baseball. The smell of wet grass under the warm sun in the morning. The sight of blue caps with orange letters across the field. This is an average day at Lakepoint in Cartersville where the Georgia Highlands College baseball team practices and plays home games. This season, Lakepoint Digital Media is producing an episodic documentary called “On the Charge” featuring GHC’s baseball team. …Each episode highlights a different part of college baseball as the team trains in the pre-season and starts playing games.
Science
Scientists breed honey bees to fight deadly parasite
Improved variety is 30% more likely to survive varroa mite infestation
By Erik Stokstad
The greatest threat to honey bees isn’t much larger than a pinhead. But left unchecked, the varroa mite—a blind, eight-legged parasite—can kill enough bees to doom an entire colony. Now, researchers report that a strain of honey bee bred to fight back survives much better than standard commercial colonies, even under the stressful conditions of industrial-scale pollinating. …The study also contained another surprise. The team analyzed the levels of four key viruses spread by mites, including deformed wing virus. In most cases, virus levels didn’t significantly affect the odds of colony survival for either the regular or Pol-line bees. That unexpected result suggests the mite is more harmful than the viruses it helps spread, says University of Georgia honey bee expert Keith Delaplane.
Inside Higher Ed
Students, parents, employees and administrators at historically Black colleges and universities are wrestling with the mental health challenges caused by repeated bomb threats.
By Sara Weissman
When Tanya Washington Hicks heard there was a bomb threat at Morgan State University, she felt like her heart was being “squeezed” in her chest. She called her son, a freshman at Morgan State, in a panic on that February day but tried to tamp down the fear in her voice to keep him calm. He told her he was on lockdown in his dorm room. Similar threats spread at historically Black colleges and universities across the country in February and March. Washington Hicks and other mothers with children at HBCUs started a text chain and shared the latest news as campus leaders and media outlets reported threat after threat. Washington Hicks, a professor of law at Georgia State University, said the incidents raised unexpected concerns about her son going to college and never factored into the advice she’d given him when he enrolled at Morgan State, “like make sure that you’re getting enough sleep, make sure that you’re safe, make sure that you wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic.”
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated April 7)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,940,907 | 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: 31,268 | 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
Common Application Adds 50 Members
By Scott Jaschik
The Common Application, which has more than 900 members, has just added 50 more. More than 20 of the new members to Common App are minority-serving institutions. In 2021, Common App launched an initiative to increase member representation of minority-serving institutions. Under this program, MSI membership has grown significantly, with the highest number of MSIs joining between 2021 and 2022.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Major Increase in Black First-Year Enrollments in U.S. Medical Schools
The Association of American Medical Colleges has released new data tables on medical school applications, acceptances, and enrollments. The total number of students applying to medical school in 2021 increased substantially, up nearly 18 percent from 2020, to a record 62,443 applicants. In 2021, 7,331 Black or African American students applied to U.S. medical schools. This was an increase of 41 percent. The pandemic undoubtedly had a negative impact on 2020 applicants. But 2021 applications from Black students were up by 41 percent from 2019, the year before the pandemic. Since 2014, Black applicants to U.S. medical schools are up by nearly 84 percent.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Analyzing the Social Justice Implications of the Critical Race Theory Debate
Autumn Arnett
In the summer of 2020, cities, corporations, higher ed institutions and hordes of individuals around the globe declared “Black lives matter” in public statements and on protest signs and streets and sidewalks across the country. The murder of George Floyd sparked a global movement for social justice that saw a growing number of cities vote to defund police forces and reallocate their budgets to fund increased mental health and other social services. In 145 cities across 27 states, racism has been called a public health crisis and several European countries have agreed to return artifacts and control of natural resources to their former colonies. As people around the globe have begun to understand the impact of racism on the world and its systems, they have also started to work to dismantle it. But there has been a simultaneous effort to prevent people from talking about it. Notably, there is an effort by conservatives in 36 states to block any discussions of race and racism under broad attacks on the idea of critical race theory. And scholars say that while social justice and critical race theory are not synonymous, they are important components in the fight for equity — along with antiracism.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Hilary Burns – Editor, The National Observer: Higher Education Edition,
The ongoing supply-chain shortages throughout the Covid-19 pandemic have put a spotlight on longstanding challenges plaguing the trucking industry. Driver training programs, for now, are left to prepare students for potentially undesirable careers unless industry leaders, government agencies and schools can come together to improve the lives of truckers.