University System News:
13WMAZ
Eastman’s own sees work pay off with new James Webb Space Telescope
By Alex Forbes
When you think of cities that make significant contributions to research in outer space, Houston and Cape Canaveral may be two that come to mind. But what about Eastman, Georgia? The first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope were recently released. The telescope is a joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. The road to getting those stunning images went through central Georgia’s own Dodge County. It was a Christmas present unlike most for Rick Krontz, the now-retired director of the Institute for Applied Aerospace Research at Middle Georgia State University. The rocket carrying the James Webb was launched the morning of December 25 from Kourou, French Guiana.
Albany Herald
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College named to ‘military friendly’ college list
Staff Reports
The “G.I. Jobs” magazine has recognized Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on its 2022-23 Military Friendly Schools list, making ABAC one of the seven University System of Georgia institutions designated as Military Friendly. For more than 20 years, “G.I. Jobs” has committed to helping veterans connect to opportunities for education and employment. They evaluate schools for federal government accreditation and veteran satisfaction through the Military Friendly assessment survey.
Albany Herald
Georgia State grant study will focus on career and technical education
Staff Reports
The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded Georgia State University a $1.7 million grant to conduct a four-year study of the relationship between student outcomes and career and technical education, and teacher preparation and experience. The research also will examine the challenges school districts face in recruiting and retaining qualified CTE teachers.
MSN
Augusta University holds health fair for nearby farm
By Sydney Hood
At one farm in Trenton, it’s not the health of the crops, but the health of the workers that was Friday’s focus. Costa Layman has partnered with Augusta University since 2005, making sure workers who could not get medical care would have the care come to them. At Costa Layman Farms, the plants are growing and so is the access to healthcare services. “To be able to be back and give the full-service approach is great,” says Dean of College of Nursing at Augusta University, Tanya Sudia.
Albany Herald
PHOTOS: African-American Art Exhibit at Albany State University
Photos by Carlton Fletcher
The art exhibit for Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art opened at Albany State University opened on July 11. The exhibit will run through August 24 in the Arthur R. Berry Gallery in the ASU Dr. Joseph W. Holley Fine Arts Center. Regular gallery hours are 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, or by appointment.
Albany Herald
Jennifer Walls making her mark at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Staff Reports
How could a California girl who played softball in Arizona and then played professionally in Italy find contentment on a hot, dusty, gnat-plagued field in deep south Georgia? Just ask Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Coach of the Year Jennifer Walls. “I love it here,” Walls, who just completed her seventh year as the head coach of the Golden Fillies of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, said. “I know the pressure that Division I coaches have on them. This is where I want to be.” Since taking over as the ABAC coach in 2015, Walls has thrived at ABAC. She was named the GCAA Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2022.
Albany Herald
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College goes Tinseltown for movie production
Staff Reports
Making the magic happen is what moviemakers do. This week, the production crew from Workhorse Cinema spun the web of fiction and frivolity at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College for a holiday-themed movie that is scheduled to be released in 2023. “Tifton has been good to us, and we’re using many locations in the area,” Associate Producer Ava Paloma said. “The plot of the movie is kind of ‘Hitch’ meets ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,’ set over the holidays.”
MSN
Augusta University Professor warns about long-lasting e-cigarette effects
By Hallie Turner
The FDA is looking to pull Juul E-Cigarettes off the shelves. They were originally created as a way to wean smokers off tobacco products. Researchers at Augusta University have been looking into the lasting effects vapes can have. Dr. Zubair Karim, an assistant professor of interdisciplinary health sciences at A-U says, “There is no such remedy that we can take the alternative to the smocking pattern.” According to the CDC in 2021, 2.06 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigs in the past 30 days.
Savannah Now
‘This is healthcare’: Savannah State students speak on their future after Roe v. Wade decision
By Olivia Carter
In late June, Roe v. Wade, which granted women the constitutional right to an abortion, was overturned. For many women, they feel that the Supreme Court decision has put their health in danger. Two Savannah State University students, Aniyah Coaxum and Sierra Norwood, said they were devastated by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and abolish the constitutional right to an abortion. Both students echoed they wanted justice for their reproductive health.
Other News:
Albany Herald
New COVID variants sickening people of all ages
By Alan Mauldin
When COVID-19 first hit, the elderly made up the largest population of those who developed severe illness and succumbed to those illnesses. The novel coronavirus ravaged nursing homes around the country and hit particularly hard during the first wave in southwest Georgia facilities. The latest variants of the disease, BA.4 and BA.5, which are much more transmissible, are still infecting those residents, but the heavily vaccinated elderly population are for the most part not getting seriously ill, medical officials say. But the easy spread of new variants and the impending return of students to school have them concerned. And the young and healthy are not immune to catching, and in rare instances having severe complications from, the disease, said Bainbridge pediatrician Dr. Winston Price, a physician for nearly 50 years who works at Memorial Pediatrics.
GPB
Georgia Milestones testing results move closer to pre-pandemic scores
By Amanda Andrews
Georgia Milestones results are in and the Georgia Department of Education is warning against comparing the data from spring 2021. This year’s participation level returned to near pre-pandemic levels. Over 95% of Georgia students participated this year compared to just 59% to 79% across the state in the 2021 school year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia schools open amid COVID, politics and safety concerns
By Maureen Downey
Many teachers who resisted the urge to quit during the pandemic credit their commitment to the profession, saying they have a calling they just can’t ignore. Let’s hope the upcoming school year doesn’t finally push them to cover their ears and dash out of classrooms screaming, “I can’t hear you!” The 2022-2023 school year is beginning to echo last year’s difficult start. Georgia schools will open their doors next week amid a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus. Masking may be required of school staffs; Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill in March that allows parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates.
The Post and Courier
Relocation of Cyber Command to Fort Gordon will have huge impact on region
By Elizabeth Hustad
The U.S. Army’s consolidation of its entire Cyber Command from eight separate facilities in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to the single installation in Augusta will only grow that impact. Most of the personnel build-up at Fort Gordon has already occurred. The installation added nearly 8,500 service members since 2012, and the Army’s projected stationing plan shows that this build-up will top out by the end of this year. But the $2 billion federal investment into some 80 construction and renovation projects at the base will still be coming into Fort Gordon over the next 10 years, and that will leave its mark on the area as the direct impact ripples out to schools, healthcare providers, housing developers and commercial and industrial enterprise; and as it induces sustained economic activity: more workers spending more paychecks, more governments investing in more institutions.
Times Georgian
West Georgia needs investment in domestic semiconductor plants
By Carolyn Hughley
It’s no secret that if you are looking to buy a new car, there are few choices available on the market. The continued supply chain crisis has hit the semiconductor industry hard and that has shut down vehicle manufacturing plants across the country. Even here in West Georgia, the state’s noted Kia manufacturing plan in West Point sat idle for several days last year due to a shortage of semiconductors. Semiconductors are the important computer chips needed to make 21st Century vehicles run.
Higher Education News:
Forbes
Stop The Shouts Of Faculty Burnout
By Ryan Craig
College and university faculty could learn a little something from Super Dave. Cries of burnout resound across the higher education landscape. On the heels of the Great Resignation of 2020-21 comes the Great Griping. Although the big picture gives everyone a lot of targets (see e.g., Vladimir Putin, Mitch McConnell, inflation), by most measures most of us are better off than ever. But burnout is specific to work: unhappiness on the job, feeling at the end of one’s rope. And while there are lots of jobs where it’s remarkable such feelings aren’t endemic – including adjuncts trying to cobble together a living one $4K course at a time – I’m getting burned out reading articles about exhausted tenured faculty and administrators planning to leave higher education.
Higher Ed Dive
Over half of higher ed employees likely to seek another job, survey finds
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
- More than half of college employees reported they are likely to leave their jobs in the next year in a new survey from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, CUPA-HR.
- The most common reason workers gave for seeking new employment was the prospect of higher pay, followed by an opportunity to work remotely, and more flexible work hours.
- Nearly two-thirds of respondents reported they’re working mostly or completely on campus, but almost 70% wanted to work remotely at least part time.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Higher Education has Important Role to Play in Stopping AAPI Hate
By Liann Herder
It’s been two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but incidents of hate against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the U.S. have showed no signs of slowing. That’s according to the second report from Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition between equity organization AAPI Equity Alliance, civil rights group Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies program.
Higher Ed Dive
Pennsylvania university system aims to boost enrollment by 20%
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
- Pennsylvania’s network of 10 state-owned universities wants to boost enrollment by 20% over the next several years after seeing it plummet in the last decade.
- Dan Greenstein, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, outlined enrollment benchmarks at a meeting of its governing board this week. PASSHE will aim to add 18,000 more students — 11,500 undergraduates, 3,400 graduate students and 3,000 who are seeking nondegree credentials.
- Greenstein told the board of governors that bolstering the number of degree earners will help fill employment gaps in the state, including in sectors like education and health care.
Inside Higher Ed
Harvard and UNC Cases to Be Heard Separately
By Scott Jaschik
The U.S. Supreme Court, which a few months ago combined the affirmative action cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on Friday separated the two cases. The court did not say why it was separating the cases. However, it is widely believed that the reason was to permit the court’s newest member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to participate in the North Carolina case. Brown said during her confirmation hearings that she would not participate in the Harvard case because she was a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers. (She is not currently a member.)
Inside Higher Ed
Creating a New Tour Experience
By Scott Jaschik
A series of small changes in tours yields impact at University of Lynchburg. Lynchburg, Va., is known as a quiet town that is the home to Liberty University, the religious institution that is regularly expanding and lately is a key player in several scandals. A little further away is Sweet Briar College, a women’s institution that is building back its classes after it briefly embraced the idea of shutting down. But the small Virginia city is also the home of the University of Lynchburg, founded in 1903. It’s not an institution that has captured many headlines, like its neighbors have. And for many years, people at Lynchburg were fine with that. Sure the university has lost some of its undergraduate enrollment, but new graduate programs could make up the difference. At least that was the thinking.
Inside Higher Ed
A New Approach to Ranking Colleges
By Sara Weissman
New updates to an Economic Mobility Index seek to help policy makers and others better understand which colleges and universities are best for low-income students. When the public policy think tank Third Way released a report earlier this year ranking colleges on an economic mobility index measuring the return on investment for low-income students and the percentage of Pell Grant-eligible students that each institution enrolls, the results were surprising
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Under Proposal, More Nontenured Faculty Members Would Qualify for Loan Forgiveness. Here’s How.
By Adrienne Lu
More contingent faculty members would qualify to have their federal student loans forgiven under changes the Biden administration has proposed in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The federal program, which offers student-loan forgiveness to public-service employees who have made loan payments for at least 10 years, has been widely criticized as overly complex and poorly administered, with very few borrowers succeeding in having their debt forgiven.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans Sponsors House Legislation to Increase Diversity in Military Academies
By Arrman Kyaw
Legislation aiming to take a closer look at potential demographic disparities among those applying for and being nominated for military academies is underway, recently passing in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation – sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania – is an amendment in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, one of Congress’s annual must-pass bills. Evans said that the amendment did not face any opposition.
Inside Higher Ed
By Meghan Brink
A group of 60 Congressional Democrats asked the Education Department to clarify how Title IX protects students who are pregnant, parents or seeking an abortion. A group of Democrats in Congress are calling on the Education Department to clarify how Title IX protects pregnant students from discrimination, including whether students can be referred to law enforcement for seeking an abortion.
Title IX, the law that protects students from sex-based discrimination, requires all colleges that receive federal funding to provide specific accommodations for students who are pregnant or are parents. This can be anything excused absences for doctors’ appointments to basic protections from discrimination