WFXL
Finalist named for Georgia Highlands College Presidency
by Takyia Price
The Board of Regents voted today, May 10, to name Dr. Mike Hobbs as the sole finalist for president of Georgia Highlands College (GHC). Hobbs currently is the vice president for student affairs and athletic director at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham, Ala. …“I want to thank GHC’s campus search committee for bringing forward three qualified candidates,” Perdue said. “The Regents Special Committee was impressed with Dr. Hobbs’ professional career and innovative outreach to students using technology to keep them engaged and progressing toward earning their degree.” “During that time, he has played a key role leading the college’s efforts to increase overall cohort graduation by 200%, student retention by 22% and transfer-out rate to four-year schools by 20%,” says the University System of Georgia. …The Board of Regents will take action on the position at a future board meeting, no sooner than five days from naming a finalist.
Albany Herald
CAES double-major named UGA Student Employee of Year
By Clarke Schwabe Special
Christian Albritton, a third-year avian biology and biological science double major from Butler was selected as the 2022 Student Employee of the Year thanks to his work with Georgia 4-H. Albritton was honored at a luncheon April 13 in the Tate Student Center Grand Hall that brought together 100 of UGA’s top student employees as determined by supervisor nomination. During the luncheon, special recognition was given to the top three student employees and the student employee team award winners.
Tifton CEO
Kelly Honored for 35 Years at ABAC During Service Awards Ceremony
Staff Report
Ernest Kelly was honored for 35 years of service at the recent faculty-staff recognition ceremony at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. ABAC President David Bridges presented the award to Kelly in a televised ceremony in the ABAC TV studio. Kelly, a systems administrator in the Office of Technology Services, led the list of honorees who also included employees who have been at ABAC for 25, 20, 15, 10, and five years. All the honorees were treated to a reception in Tift Hall.
Athens CEO
Inaugural HOST Summit Highlights UGA Impact on Hospitality and Tourism
Maria M. Lameiras
More than 100 University of Georgia faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders involved in the hospitality and tourism industry gathered May 2 for the inaugural Georgia Hospitality and Tourism Summit organized by the UGA HOST Research Initiative. The summit was designed to address the challenges faced in hospitality and tourism industries, foster collaboration among university personnel working on hospitality and tourism research support, and to enhance and enrich ongoing community public engagement efforts around tourism in Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s public university presidents to get $5,000 raises
By Eric Stirgus
Four presidents will make close or more than $1 million
The state’s Board of Regents on Tuesday approved $5,000 salary increases for the presidents of Georgia’s largest public universities. Augusta University’s Brooks Keel remains the highest-paid president in the University System of Georgia. His annual compensation is slightly above $1.2 million. The presidents of the system’s three other research schools are the next highest-paid on the list. Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera will make $980,000. Georgia State University President M. Brian Blake is third, at $955,000. The University of Georgia’s Jere Morehead is the fourth highest-paid president, at nearly $917,000. The total compensation includes deferred pay and allowances.
Marietta Daily Journal
Beeman to lead new ABAC cross country programs
Becky Taylor, The Valdosta Daily Times
Runners, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is making a long distance call. Cross country was announced Monday as the college’s newest men’s and women’s sports and a familiar face, Mike Beeman, is at the helm. Beeman, longtime cross country coach at Tift County High, is stepping down from his teaching position at the end of the 2021-22 school year. …”It’s an honor to be here and on the ABAC staff,” said Beeman. He already knows the campus well. For more than a decade, TCHS has been running the Blue Devil Invitational and postseason meets by Baldwin Lake. Beeman said he was thrilled to be part of history.
Gwinnett Daily Post
Georgia Gwinnett College softball earns No. 2 seed for NAIA Opening Round
From Staff Reports
The host Georgia Gwinnett College softball team has been selected the No. 2 seed for the NAIA Opening Round Lawrenceville Bracket beginning Monday, May 16, at the Grizzly Softball Complex. The national office announced the entire 40-team national tournament field Tuesday, May 10. The Grizzlies will face No. 3 seed Saint Xavier University (Ill.) in the opening game of the Lawrenceville Bracket on Monday, May 16, starting at noon. Southeastern University (Fla.) is the No. 1 seed and will play No. 4 seed University of Michigan-Dearborn at 2:30 p.m.
Griffin Daily News
GSC hosts inaugural alumni soccer game
By Karolina Philmon Marketing Manager, Gordon State College
At the Barnesville campus, Gordon State College hosted its inaugural Alumni Soccer Game on Saturday, April 30. The event-filled day began at 1 p.m. with a Blue and White scrimmage featuring current Highlander women’s soccer team members. After the kick-off game, GSC soccer alumni along with current players and GSC’s first soccer coach, Herald Henderson attended the alumni reception held at the GSC Collaborative Learning Center in the Nursing, Health, and Natural Sciences building.
Higher Ed Dive
Georgia system downsizes faculty role in presidential searches
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The University System of Georgia on Tuesday approved a new policy reducing the role of faculty in presidential searches, escalating tensions between the Board of Regents and educators on its 26 campuses. Previously, a faculty member would chair presidential search committees, except for those at the system’s four research institutions, which a regent would lead. Faculty also needed to comprise a majority of committee membership at all institutions. Now, a regent will chair all search committees, regardless of institution type, and the board will continue to have sole power to name finalists from a list of candidates selected by those committees. Faculty can still sit on search panels, but not in any mandated number. System officials say not having a separate process for research institutions creates consistency, but the American Association of University Professors argues the change strikes at shared governance principles.
Georgia Recorder
University system ends era of free-speech zones on Georgia’s college campuses
By: Ross Williams
When Georgia college students return to their campuses in the fall, they could be in for more spirited intellectual debate than they’re used to. The state Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s 26 public universities, voted Tuesday to change their institutions’ free speech policies to bring them in line with newly-signed state legislation. The new policy largely does away with so-called campus free speech zones, areas of the campus open to protests and rallies. The zones are a relatively new concept in Georgia that has come under fire in recent years, especially with religious and conservative groups, who say the idea curtails First Amendment rights and opens the state up to lawsuits. …Under the change, set to go into effect July 1, members of the campus community — students, faculty, staff and invited guests — can have access to outdoor parts of campus for protests.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former UGA football player indicted in federal court on four counts, faces life
By Matt Bruce
A federal grand jury indicted a former University of Georgia football player on four charges tied to the killing of an Oconee County gas station clerk. Ahkil Nasir Crumpton faces life in prison if convicted of the most severe indictments. The 24-year-old Philadelphia native was arrested in his hometown and charged with murder on March 16. Authorities say Crumpton shot and killed Elijah James Wood, 23, while trying to rob a RaceTrac on Hog Mountain Road outside of Watkinsville on March 19, 2021. Wood was working the graveyard shift alone the night of the shooting, according to reports.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Saving Academic Freedom From Free Speech
The difference between the two is critical — and widely ignored.
By Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth
We expect a great deal of criticism of our new book, It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom, but we were taken aback by Jeffrey Aaron Snyder’s misconstrual of its main argument. If you go by Snyder, we’ve written a deeply flawed book attacking three racists that is “bound” to get attention because of its “bold thesis.” Snyder positions himself, in his essays in these pages, as a defender of free speech against left overreach and the excesses of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, and he has also written a notable entry in the “free speech is threatened by both sides” subgenre. Articles like those can help fuel exaggerated perceptions of campus politics, but we do not begrudge him this territory. It’s just not our territory. We are not interested in saving free speech: We are interested in saving academic freedom from free speech. It’s Not Free Speech explains how academic freedom differs from free speech and why that difference is of great importance in the era of what Richard Hasen calls “cheap speech.”
CNBC
Jessica Dickler
KEY POINTS
As the U.S. economy adds more jobs and wages rise, some college students are choosing to join the workforce instead. The opportunity cost of staying in school is even greater among lower-income students. However, the potential loss to these students’ earnings and futures is significant.
Inside Higher Ed
Tide of Exits Without Degrees Still Rising
The number of students who left college before earning a credential continued to rise during the last two years.
By David Steele
The number of students in the United States who have attended college but left before receiving a credential, certificate or degree has risen to 39 million, from 36 million in 2019, according to a new report released Tuesday. Black and Hispanic students continued to make up of disproportionate share of the total number. The report, “Some College, No Credential,” by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, follows similar reports from the center in 2019 and 2014. The total number of uncredentialed students reported represents an 8.6 percent increase and partly reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic outcomes of college students who faced unprecedented financial and personal challenges, including job and income losses and the sickness and deaths of family members.
See also:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
Provosts Stand Firm in Annual Survey
By Scott Jaschik
Most provosts say the academic health of their institution is good, and changes made during the pandemic have not negatively impacted academic quality. No provosts indicate that academic health is failing at their institutions, and 54 percent rate it as good. That is a key result of the 2022 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, published today by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research. … Academic Health
One of the issues that the provosts’ survey has always highlighted is academic health. Most of the provosts saw their institution’s academic health as good or excellent—32 percent of provosts said excellent, 54 percent good, 12 percent fair and 2 percent poor.
Inside Higher Ed
Stanford Investigates Another Noose Found on Campus
By Maria Carrasco
Stanford University is investigating a noose found hanging from a tree outside a residence hall Sunday as a hate crime, the Associated Press reported. In an email to students and staff Monday, university officials said campus safety authorities immediately removed the noose and “retained it as evidence.” In a separate message to the campus community, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne said the noose was being investigated by the university’s department of public safety. He called the noose a “hateful representation of anti-Black racism and violence” and said he found it “deeply disturbing” that someone would choose to commit such a “repugnant” act.
Inside Higher Ed
2 Community Colleges Cancel Classes After Threats
By Sara Weissman
Skagit Valley College and Everett Community College in Mount Vernon, Wash., canceled in-person events and classes Monday in response to threatening emails. The threats remain under investigation, KIRO 7 reported. Everett Community College went into lockdown in the morning after a threat was sent to multiple campus offices, according to a news update from the college. Students and employees were then told to leave campus until Tuesday. …Skagit Valley similarly issued a lockdown Monday morning then lifted it, but all campuses and centers remained closed for the rest of the day.
Inside Higher Ed
NCAA Aims to Limit Booster Role in Funding for Athletes
By Doug Lederman
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I Board of Directors issued guidance Monday that aims to limit the role that boosters affiliated with sports programs can play in programs that compensate players for use of their name, image and likeness. The NCAA has been forced by court decisions to allow athletes to profit from marketing of their likenesses, which conflicted with its long-standing efforts to limit the compensation of athletes to things that protect their “amateur” status. But as numerous institutions have embraced such policies, many of them appear to involve boosters—alumni and other supporters of the sports programs who have often provided money to woo players, and whose influence the NCAA has long sought to constrain. The lack of NCAA guidance has created a situation some have compared to the Wild West.