USG e-clips for May 18, 2022

University System News:

Americus Times-Recorder

Georgia Southwestern education program named among the best in the nation: Program earns national recognition for preparing future elementary education teachers to teach math

By Ken Gustafson

The undergraduate elementary teacher preparation program at Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) has been named among the best in the nation when it comes to ensuring future elementary teachers have the essential content and skills they need to teach mathematics. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a national research and policy organization that regularly evaluates the core requirements and practices of over 1,100 programs that prepare future elementary teachers, released a new report today in which the undergraduate program at GSW earned an A+ designation for its requirements in elementary mathematics. Georgia Southwestern is among only 79 programs in the nation to earn this distinction as an “exemplar” in the new report.

Barnesville Dispatch

Gordon State College, GA Power Host Education, Leadership Summit

Gordon State College African American Male Initiative (AAMI) in partnership with Georgia Power hosted its first summit, Under Construction: The Power of Power on Friday, April 29th, at the GSC Student Center Auditorium in Barnesville.

Albany Herald

Katherine Mann receives Eric Cash Memorial Award at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

From staff reports

Katherine Mann from Milner recently received the inaugural Eric Cash Memorial Writing and Communication Award at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Cash, who passed away in 2010, was a much-loved professor of English and journalism and advisor for the ABAC student media program. The annual award comes with a plaque and a check for $250. Mann was one of three senior Writing and Communication majors who were nominated for the award based on academic performance, evidence of campus involvement, proof of intellectual curiosity, and the “Cash Factor.”

Albany Herald

UGA-Griffin students celebrate multicultural campus community

By Jennifer L Reynolds Special

To celebrate its abundant cultural diversity and enhance the local sense of community on campus, the Griffin Student Advisory Council decided recently to organize an international potluck dinner, dubbed Taste of Nations, as a way to unite people around a common connection — food. Nestled on what was once a Georgia experiment station, the University of Georgia Griffin campus has evolved since those early days to embrace a multicultural, international community of researchers from all across the globe. The modest, 123-acre campus is home to more than 300 faculty, students and staff representing nearly 30 different countries — all coming together in one place to pursue their passions.

Grice Connect

GSU erects temporary armed forces memorial at Sweetheart Circle

by Eden Hodges

Georgia Southern‘s president placed the first U.S. flag in the lawn of Sweetheart Circle Monday morning, the first of over 1000 placed across all three campuses for their armed forces memorial. Members of the GSU community submitted photos and information of fallen service members to be put on display.

The Washington Post

Remote Working Boom Is Huge for College Towns Like Knoxville

Analysis by Conor Sen | Bloomberg

It’s now been two years since the rise of remote work enabled people to start moving out of the big cities, transforming the geographic demography of the United States. …A generation ago, before it became a booming tech hub, that might have described Austin, Texas. Today it’s places like Athens, Georgia; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Fayetteville, Arkansas — college towns that students have historically left behind after graduation. …Plenty of urban college towns provide opportunities for students and graduates alike — the aforementioned Austin; Berkeley, California; Boston — but others are nice places to live that don’t have large enough populations to attract big employers of white-collar workers. Athens is only an hour outside of Atlanta, yet it is geographically and culturally distinct from Georgia’s capital. …Despite limited employment options for college grads, all three metros have grown faster than the US as a whole for each of the last three decades, speaking both to the growth of their universities — the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee and the University of Arkansas — and their desirability for people who are able to find jobs there. And while home prices are rising everywhere, all three remain relatively affordable, particularly for college grads with incomes above the national average.

Griffin Daily News

Gordon softball finishes positive season

By Dom Joseph Sports Editor

The Gordon State Highlanders softball season has come to an end, but it was a year of many positives for the program. Gordon ended their season well above .500 at 24-19 overall. The Highlanders were nearly perfect at home at 17-1 and were 15-9 within their conference. The month of April was good for the squad, as players enjoyed a 10-game winning streak, and a record of 12-4 within the month alone.

Savannah Business Journal

Mark Lane named vice president of Communications and Marketing at Augusta University

Staff Report

Mark Lane has been named vice president of Communications and Marketing at Augusta University, effective July 1. As Augusta University’s chief marketing and communications officer, Lane will work closely with campus leaders to promote, enhance and protect the Augusta University brand and provide strategic communications counsel to expand the university’s influence and impact.

Food Safety News

USDA gives grant to University of Georgia to study antimicrobial blue light tech

By News Desk

The U.SDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded researchers from the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety a three-year, $599,900 grant to begin a new study to investigate the effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light technology in reducing foodborne pathogens.

Southeast AgNet

GCC, UGA Extension Caution Dryland Growers About Shallow-Planted Seed

By Clint Thompson

The Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) and University of Georgia Extension recommend dryland cotton producers be mindful of how deep they are planting their seed this spring. Hot and dry conditions are rampant across Southeast Georgia and should worsen this week. Growers can endanger their seed if it is planted too shallow. This is according to Wes Porter, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension precision agriculture and irrigation specialist.

The Royal Borough Observer

Diseased dolphins use muscles as energy source to survive, study suggests

By PA News Agency

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Medical University of South Carolina, Georgia Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Denmark analysed the metabolism of dolphins as part of the study. They compared the blood profile of diseased bottlenose dolphins with the blood profiles of healthy bottlenose dolphins from wild populations at Charleston Harbour and the Indian River Lagoon in the US. The research found that dolphins in poorer health had lower levels of amino acids, the building blocks for muscles, and may use those building blocks to substitute the shortfall in energy they have to fight the disease.

CNBC

The 2022 Disruptor 50: How we chose the list of companies

David Spiegel

KEY POINTS

The 10th annual CNBC Disruptor 50 list comes amid a challenging economy for venture-backed companies, with the IPO market all but closed and investors pushing down public and private stock valuations. There is a generational shift from a group of companies that leveraged the ubiquity of smartphones to a new generation of mission-driven start-ups born in an era of social and political upheaval, and possibly recession. The companies on the 2022 Disruptor 50 List represent a way forward, with ideas for every major industry to innovate out of yet another crisis. …The qualitative scores were combined with a weighted quantitative score to determine which 50 companies made the list and in what order. Special thanks to the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council, who again offered us their time and insights. As always, we appreciate their contributions:

…Debra Lam, Executive Director, Georgia Tech Partnership for Inclusive Innovation

WABE

Sustainability nonprofit leader is focused on reducing energy burdens on low-income zip codes

Jim Burress

From the future Rivian electric vehicle plant east of Atlanta, to massive venues like State Farm Arena prioritizing a zero-waste culture, Georgia’s becoming a hub for clean energy and sustainability. But a mission of Atlanta-based non-profit Southface Institute is working to make sure that all communities can have a part in sustainable living and reap its benefits. Monday was Southface president James Marlow’s first day on the job. Marlow told WABE one of his focus areas will be housing —  specifically, with the guide of Georgia Tech research, studying how low-income neighborhoods are in what he calls “energy poverty.\”

Higher Education News:

Inside Higher Ed

What’s Really Wrong With Our Flawed System of Elite College Admissions

How our fiercely competitive system of elite college admissions distorts student aspirations and damages their mental health—and what we can do about this.

Steven Mintz

It’s no secret: our system of elite college admissions is deeply flawed. It’s exploited by the affluent and well-connected. It’s utterly opaque, arbitrary and unpredictable. And worst of all, it increasingly damages and distorts applicants’ lives and aspirations and mental health. For an example, read a recent article in The Wall Street Journal that describes a Texas high school senior with an impressive record of accomplishments who was rejected from virtually every top college she applied to. Her pile of rejection letters came from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Northwestern and the University of California, Berkeley, among others. She was even rejected by her home state’s flagship college of business. Her likely destination? Arizona State.

Inside Higher Ed

Decline in Male, Black and Latino Students Planning on College

For the high school Class of 2022, they all showed declines in the percentage wanting to go to college, compared to the last class before the pandemic.

By Scott Jaschik

The percentage of male, Latino and Black high school seniors who want to go to college has declined in the last three years. YouthTruth, a nonprofit, surveyed 22,000 members of the Class of 2022 and compared the results with a similar survey of the Class of 2019, the last high school class to predate the pandemic.

Inside Higher Ed

College Board Adds Exam in Precalculus

By Scott Jaschik

The College Board announced Tuesday that it is creating a new Advanced Placement exam in precalculus. “Without strong preparation in high school, students struggle to complete remedial or introductory college math classes that are often taught in large lectures with minimal student support,” the College Board said. “More than half of students enrolling at public two-year colleges and nearly a third of students at public four-year colleges are assigned to remedial math, and more than 40 percent of those students fail to complete their remedial coursework.”

Inside Higher Ed

Student Debt Gap Still Growing

By David Steele

Racial and income gaps that affect students’ ability to attend and pay for college continue to grow and contribute to more debt and less wealth for certain groups of students, according to an annual report on equity trends in higher education. The “Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States: 2022 Historical Trend Report,” released Tuesday, showed that students from low-income families and those who received Pell Grants borrowed $43,983 to attend college, compared to $25,375 borrowed by students from higher-income families. Black students from low-income backgrounds borrowed $27,066 more than white students from similar backgrounds.

Inside Higher Ed

Student Spending on Course Materials Fell 22% in 2021–22

By Scott Jaschik

Average student spending on college course materials, including textbooks and digital materials, declined 22 percent during the 2021–22 academic year, according to new data reported today by the research firm Student Monitor. The trend continues a decade-long decline, according to the research firm, with student spending on the category dropping 44 percent between the 2011–12 and 2021–22 academic years.

Higher Ed Dive

Students, higher ed leaders diverge on post-COVID priorities

Laura Spitalniak, Associate Editor

Dive Brief:

College students and educators aren’t aligned with each other about how higher ed should proceed once COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency, according to new survey data covering 10 countries around the world from Anthology, a Florida-based education technology company. In North America, roughly one in four college leaders said their institutions don’t plan to offer remote or virtual class options by 2025. But 63% of students said they preferred fully online classes or classes that blend in-person and remote learning — and 23% said they prefer a mix of in-person and online courses. Respondents agreed on the impact of the economy. Around the world, about three out of four students and campus leaders alike said that outside of the pandemic, the economy has the biggest impact on students. The economy easily outpaced other factors like a lack of access to technology, cited by about a third of students and leaders.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education

CUNY Remembers COVID Losses

Liann Herder

Under the watchful gaze of the Goddess of Wisdom, painted at the turn of the 20th century in The City College of New York’s Great Hall, two tables were covered in white cloth, adorned with purple roses and empty candle holders. By morning’s end, those empty holders would be filled with tapered candles, placed by the family, friends, and colleagues of the at least 74 members of the City University of New York (CUNY) system who lost their lives to COVID-19. The Day of Remembrance was held on Tuesday morning, not a week after CUNY celebrated its 175th anniversary. When the world came to a crashing halt in early 2020, New York City became the epicenter of the crisis. Barely three months into the pandemic, CUNY had already seen some of the highest losses in all of higher education.

Higher Ed Dive

Most colleges permit faculty to ‘stop the clock’ on tenure, survey finds

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter

Dive Brief:

More than 80% of colleges allow faculty to extend a year’s long probationary period before they’re awarded tenure, a practice known as stopping the clock, a new American Association of University Professors survey found. This is a significantly higher share than two decades ago, the AAUP said. Only 17% of colleges gave the option to stop the clock 20-plus years ago, according to a similar survey released in 2000. The AAUP polled more than 270 chief academic officers and found more than 92% of institutions permit faculty to stop the clock regardless of their gender. Typically, professors stop the clock and delay tenure reviews so that they can have children or care for family members. Policies not specific to gender recognize “that partners can be coequal caretakers of newborn or newly adopted children,” the faculty organization said.

See also:

Inside Higher Ed

Tracking the Evolution (and Erosion) of Tenure

AAUP finds tenured faculty lines declined dramatically since 2004, but many institutions have updated their tenure policies to account for diversity work and work-life balance.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Exit Interview

Nine departing presidents on how the job — and higher ed — is changing.

By Eric Kelderman

The wave of turnover among college presidents feels portentous. The list of college leaders who have announced their retirement over the past two years includes some of the best-known presidents in the nation at some of the most-revered institutions. We don’t know yet whether the changing of higher education’s senior guard signals a change in how institutions are run. But it is the latest evidence of how the world is changing around higher education. Many of the presidents now retiring began their climb to leadership in the late 1990s and 2000s, when higher education itself seemed irrepressibly ascendant: enrollments were on a steady climb, a larger share of the public and politicians had a positive view of higher education, and even state appropriations to public colleges were still on the rise. …Most of the presidents interviewed here, though not all, have led institutions well-positioned to weather the economic storms and have avoided major political clashes. All the same, they are worried about the long-term future of higher education, and whether and how it can continue to contribute to the nation’s well-being.