Albany Herald
Governor signs bill providing needs-based college tuition grants
By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service
College students needing a financial boost to complete their degrees will get help from the state under legislation Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law. Under House Bill 1435, students who have earned at least 80% of the credits required for the degree they are seeking will receive a grant of up to $2,500 to help pay their tuition. The bill passed overwhelmingly on the last day of this year’s legislative session, with only one “no” vote in the state Senate and four in the Georgia House of Representatives. Kemp thanked House Higher Education Committee Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, for introducing the bill.
Inside Higher Ed
Academic Minute
Getting a jumpstart on college courses can pay off for high school students. In today’s Academic Minute, Georgia Gwinnett College’s Wes Routon discusses the benefits. Routon is an associate professor of economics and quantitative analysis at Georgia Gwinnett.
Albany Herald
Albany State education students get classroom experience
From staff reports
Students enrolled in the School of Education at Albany State University receive classroom teaching experience to prepare for a career in education after matriculation. ASU partners with school systems regionally and statewide for student teaching opportunities. This experience provides insight into how students can apply what they have learned in the classroom. The School of Education helps candidates evolve into reflective, culturally responsive, and technologically competent practitioners.
Tifton Gazette
ABAC dedicates John W. & Margaret Jones Langdale Forest
With a brilliant canopy of blue sky covering 944 acres of timberland, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College dedicated ABAC’s John W. and Margaret Jones Langdale Forest at Willis Still. “Students of the past, present and future need to understand the sacrifice, investment and gift of money, mind and effort that has already been invested in the John W. and Margaret Jones Langdale Forest at Willis Still,” ABAC President David Bridges said as he stood under a giant sand post oak tree on the property. “This investment has been made in order to provide the best opportunity for hands-on, real-life experiences in the conservation and managed productivity of Georgia’s precious natural resources. The assets developed on this site will provide a comprehensive living classroom for students for years to come.” With a barrel of resin and other turpentine-harvesting equipment in front of his microphone, Bridges pointed out the long history of the Langdale family with ABAC and the forest industry. college officials said in a statement.
Griffin Daily News
UGA-Griffin breaks ground on site to showcase new irrigation technologies
By Ashley Biles UGA Griffin
Industry professionals, homeowners and researchers will soon be able to get a firsthand look at new irrigation technologies in action at a demonstration irrigation site being constructed on the University of Georgia’s Griffin campus. On March 28, workers broke ground on the project, a collaboration between the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture, UGA Cooperative Extension’s Urban Water Management program and irrigation companies Hunter Industries, Rain Bird and Torro/Irritol.
American Recycler
EPA SELECTS 11 ORGANIZATIONS TO HELP WITH FOOD DIVERSION
Waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected 11 organizations expected to receive a total of approximately $2 million in funding to divert food waste from landfills by expanding anaerobic digester capacity nationwide. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a process in which microorganisms break down organic materials, such as food scraps, manure, and sewage sludge, in the absence of oxygen. The process produces biogas, which can be captured and used for energy production, and digestate, a nutrient-rich product used for fertilizer. …Each selected organization will receive a range of approximately $150,000 – $200,000 over a two year period. The 11 organizations selected for AD project funding are:
•Georgia Southern University Research and Services Foundation (Statesboro, Georgia): Plans to conduct a feasibility study to advance the understanding of how existing AD capacity at pulp and paper mills can be sustainably leveraged for the treatment of food waste from university campuses.
Albany Herald
State chamber to bring New Georgia Economy Tour to Albany
From staff reports
The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce will host an economic forecasting seminar in partnership with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce as part of the statewide organization’s 2022 New Georgia Economy Tour. Presented by Wells Fargo, the New Georgia Economy Tour will gather input and data from all regions of the state to prepare a planning strategy for the future. The Region 10 event will be held in Albany on May 12 at Albany State University. …The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education will be on hand for the event, with its president, Dana Rickman, presenting alongside Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark, followed by a panel discussion covering the economics of education.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Georgia making right moves for business
By James R. Waite
Pro-economic growth legislation, solid infrastructure boosts industry here.
Despite the pandemic and its fallout, business in Georgia is thriving. Area Development and Site Selection magazines have ranked the Peach State “No. 1 for Business” for seven and eight years running, respectively. A 2021 CNBC survey ranked Georgia the No. 6 state in the nation for business, citing its superior infrastructure, economy and workforce and recently Georgia finished a close second to Texas in WalletHub’s survey of “2021′s best and worst states to start a business in.” So what is Georgia doing right? After the state House and Senate adjourned around midnight on April 4, the Georgia Chamber thanked the legislative leadership for their economic growth and mobility focus and celebrated a “pro-business” 2022 legislative session. The Chamber noted that the bills sent to the governor represent a wide range of business topics, spanning the areas of economic development, education and workforce, health and wellness and transportation. State legislative leaders have consistently adopted policies that foster a skilled workforce, reliable infrastructure, low taxes and high state credit ratings. This is why Georgia is home to 440 Fortune 500 companies and 18 have located their headquarters here. …In a December, 2021 address, Benjamin Ayers, Dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, noted that the Georgia economy is on track to exceed its pre-pandemic peak and make a full recovery by the end of 2022, recovering faster than the national economy. He observed that, despite supply-side challenges, he expects the state to surpass its pre-pandemic jobs count later this year.
NewsBreak
Jerky maker to create 800 jobs and invest $450 million in Georgia
Jason Weiland
Jerky wizards Jack Link’s are expanding and looking to build a new manufacturing facility in Georgia, creating 800 jobs and investing over $450 million in the process. Link Snacks considered 30 locations before coming up with their decision to locate in Perry, Georgia. President of Jack Link’s North America, Kevin McAdams, said that the city’s community pro-business environment, quality workforce, great infrastructure, and business climate were factors for choosing this location. USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue told WMAZ that “Perry is where Georgia comes together, and it’s happening today,” He says when he heard about “Project Birdcage”, which is what the movers and shakers are calling the project, he told leaders that Georgia had to have Jack Link’s there. He stressed the jerky maker is a great company and family.
The Union-Recorder
State’s largest law enforcement job recruitment expo held at GC
Billy Hobbs
Law enforcement agencies across the country are experiencing shortages. Here in Georgia, there is no exception. Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee and Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord teamed up with Georgia College last week to play host to the largest law enforcement job recruitment expo ever held in Georgia under one roof to recruit men and women to careers in law enforcement. “Every time that Dray and I go to meetings, and it doesn’t matter where it is, all we hear is negative comments about they can’t hire people — we can’t do this; we can’t do that,” Massee recently told The Union-Recorder. “We came up with the idea of having a collaborative with Georgia College and our other two colleges, Georgia Military College and Central Georgia Technical College.”
Athens Banner-Herald
Remember playing ‘The Oregon Trail’ as a kid? You can partially thank this UGA graduate
Aaron Hale UGA Today
If you played games on your grade school’s computer in the late ’80s and early ’90s, if you’ve ever traversed a river in an ox-drawn wagon, or if your avatar has ever died of dysentery, then there’s a good chance you’ve come across the work of R. Philip Bouchard. Bouchard, who graduated from the University of Georgia in 1976, is a lifelong science educator, a nature photographer, a writer, and, you guessed it, a creator of the classic 1980s version of The Oregon Trail. To be clear, Bouchard didn’t invent the iconic game. The first iteration of the computer game, called Oregon, was devised in the early 1970s by three student-teachers who were amateur software designers.
Inside Higher Ed
New Threats to Tenure and Faculty Speech
Serious changes to faculty speech and tenure rights went under the radar in Mississippi until they were passed. Now that the secret’s out, faculty advocates are pushing back—including by raising concerns about constitutionality.
By Colleen Flaherty
In near secrecy last month, Mississippi’s Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning changed how faculty members get and maintain tenure. Instead of the board having final say on tenure candidates at all eight public universities in Mississippi, as has long been the case, campus presidents will now make those decisions. The board will review only appeals to tenure decisions. …No Input
The AAUP and other academic freedom advocates have also long opposed collegiality and similar concepts as distinct criteria in tenure decisions, for their potential to introduce dangerous levels of subjectivity into the review process. The AAUP doesn’t discount collegiality entirely but argues that one’s ability to engage in “collaboration and constructive cooperation” is already accurately and appropriately reflected in their teaching, research and service records. Unlike major recent changes to how tenure works in Georgia and Florida—which faculty groups vocally opposed as their governing board and state Legislature, respectively, weighed them—those in Mississippi were entirely unknown to professors until they were a fait accompli. And it appears that was by design. …The University System of Georgia last year approved policy changes that make it possible to fire a tenured professor as part of the posttenure-review process without faculty input.
AP News
Study assesses taking of Black homeowners’ property in 1960s
yesterday
Residents of a Black neighborhood in north Georgia lost more than $5 million on their properties when their homes were destroyed and replaced with university dorms and parking lots more than 50 years ago, according to an analysis by University of Georgia professors. The study of the loss to homeowners in the Linnentown section of Athens, Georgia, was reported last week by the Athens Banner-Herald. The city of Athens used eminent domain to force Black families out of Linnentown in the 1960s as part of an urban renewal plan. It sold the land to the state Board of Regents, and dorms and parking lots for the University of Georgia went up after the homes were razed.
Higher Education News:
Gallup
A Third of U.S. College Students Consider Withdrawing
By Stephanie Marken
Editor’s Note: The research below was conducted in partnership between the Lumina Foundation and Gallup.
About a third (32%) of currently enrolled students pursuing a bachelor’s degree report they have considered withdrawing from their program for a semester or more in the past six months. A slightly higher percentage of students pursuing their associate degree, 41%, report they have considered stopping out in the past six months. These are similar to 2020 levels when 33% of bachelor’s degree students reported they had considered stopping out and 38% of associate degree students said the same.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Francie Diep
…Having a separate president and CEO is unusual — possibly unique — in higher education, experts say. “At most universities, the president is the CEO,” said Sally M. Johnstone, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonprofit that consults for colleges. Michael S. Harris, a professor who studies higher-education leadership at Southern Methodist University, agreed, adding: “Literally, that’s their job.” Nevertheless, the college presidency has become an increasingly difficult and time-consuming role over the past several decades. There are more departments and majors. For universities like Miami with attached hospital systems, health care in America has gotten more complex. Experts said it’s understandable to wish to divide the duties among more people.
Higher Ed Dive
OPINION
President Speaks: Why free speech and diversity and inclusion go hand in hand on campus
The president of DePauw University draws her commitment to free speech from growing up in a diverse working-class neighborhood.
By Lori White (Lori White is president of DePauw University, in Indiana.)
Confidence in higher ed is slipping, in part because some adults assume colleges do not provide open opportunities for learning and debate. Regardless of whether this perspective is wholly accurate, campuses should rest on freedom of expression and exploration of ideas. As the president of DePauw University, I am often asked about my contention that a college campus cannot have a climate that fosters freedom of expression without an equal commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Without including diverse people and perspectives, expression is potentially one-sided. And without adjustments to power imbalances among individuals and groups, one cannot have equal footing to debate. One of our highest priorities should be to help students develop tools to debate ideas and ensure all voices — and in particular, voices of those historically underrepresented and marginalized on our campuses — are heard and affirmed.
Inside Higher Ed
Poll Finds the Public Doesn’t Favor Affirmative Action
Pew poll of American adults finds 74 percent think race and ethnicity should not be considered in admissions decisions. For gender, 82 percent think it shouldn’t be considered.
By Scott Jaschik
Americans do not favor the consideration of race, ethnicity or gender in college admissions decisions. A new Pew Research Center report found that 74 percent think race and ethnicity should not be considered in admissions decisions. For gender, 82 percent think it shouldn’t be considered. The results extend to every racial group and to Democrats as well as Republicans.
Inside Higher Ed
Biden Considers Income Caps for Loan Forgiveness
By Scott Jaschik
President Biden is considering an income cap of either $125,000 or $150,000 for individuals as he is preparing a student loan relief plan, The Washington Post reported. For couples, the cap would be $250,000 or $300,000. Much of the plan remains uncertain, including how much relief would be provided.