Grice Connect
City partners with GSU for small business recruitment, retention
by Bobby NeSmith
On Tuesday, the Statesboro City Council approved a proposal from Georgia Southern University’s Business Innovation Group (BIG) to provide small business recruitment and retention services. In March 2020, the City sought to hire a full-time small business recruiter to attract new businesses and retain existing ones. Those efforts stalled, however, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and took a back seat to more pressing matters. Last month, the BIG proposed an “economic partnership” with the City to provide the services while also leveraging GSU’s wealth of resources throughout the region.
Columbus CEO
Columbus State’s Orientation Program Gives Students a Glimpse Into the CSU Experience
Staff Report
Conventional wisdom might say that college campuses slow down for the summer, but that has been the complete opposite at Columbus State University. This summer, hundreds of new Cougars have rotated through eight orientation sessions to ready them for their studies this fall at CSU—with two remaining before fall classes begin on August 15. The summer orientation program—called ROAR—exposes incoming students to everything they’ll need to thrive and succeed in college, including receiving their first course schedule, meeting new people, forming friendships, and learning about different student organizations on campus and how to get involved. Orientation sparks interest for the soon-to-be Cougars because it gives them a glimpse of the community that Columbus State offers. Orientation leaders also navigate groups of students around campus, teaching them about classes and campus life, as well as showing different parts of the campus. These sessions provide these students with more opportunities to explore what life as a student is really like at Columbus State.
International Society for Presence Research
[Presence via virtual reality has been used to increase the empathy of health care professionals for patients who are at the end of their lives by simulating the patient’s experience (e.g., see a 2018 WBUR story that includes a 3:31 minute video of a simulation by Embodied Labs). But a collaborative teaching project at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia is providing students with the caregiver’s perspective to help them develop empathy and learn how to navigate these difficult experiences by practicing, and then discussing and refining, their interactions with these patients. The story below from the University’s Jagwire describes the effort; the original story includes a 2:17 minute tour of the simulation facilities and WRDW in Augusta has a two minute news report on the collaboration. –Matthew]
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why college presidents don’t speak out.
By Eric Kelderman
In January 2017, just days after the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark., announced a new social-media campaign “to celebrate its legacy of being a university that embraces inclusion, equality and justice.” Richard L. Dunsworth, the president at the university, promoted the hashtag #AllAreWelcomeHere on social media and encouraged staff to do the same. The message was not unusual for the private university, which has a long history of encouraging diversity. It was the first college in Arkansas to admit women, in 1875. Nearly half of current students are from low-income families, and around 30 percent are international. But within 24 hours, Dunsworth said, he received about two dozen angry emails from across the state telling him he shouldn’t be running a college, “split fairly evenly between people known to me and people who didn’t know me or the University well enough to understand any context,” he said in an email. “Our efforts to support and reassure our students from diverse backgrounds” was perceived as “political, even anti-American,” he told The Chronicle … For many presidents, weighing in on any topic comes with the danger of being seen as taking a political stance. “It’s a dangerous situation for the president to become political or to be perceived as political,” said Margaret H. Venable, president of Dalton State College in Georgia. “If I make a public statement that I like cats better than dogs, that creates unhappiness with the institution.” Venable said she has personal and professional values that she is willing to stand up for, such as free speech and academic freedom. But because Dalton State is a public college, she can’t afford to tick off state officials who appropriate money. So she avoids weighing in even on some state laws that affect her campus, such as a 2017 Georgia law that allowed concealed carry of firearms on public college campuses.
Gwinnett Daily Post
PHOTOS: Georgia Gwinnett College’s Summer Preparatory Academic Resource Camps
Photos by Rod Reilly/GGC
Georgia Gwinnett College’s Summer Preparatory Academic Resource Camps, create academic bridges between the spring and fall semesters for students to experience supportive sessions. These sessions range from small group environments with GGC faculty providing brief class examples, to larger sessions where students are given information about resources available to them, including tutoring, peer mentoring and other support services such as the Registrar’s Office, Counseling and Psychological Services and more.
13WMAZ
Milledgeville’s Andalusia Farm dedicated as historic landmark
The farm was given to Georgia College as a gift, and is now nationally-recognized by the institution and the state.
Author: B.J. Patterson
Georgia College celebrated the dedication of their second National Historic Landmark Monday. Andalusia is the historic farm of Flannery O’Connor, a beloved author and alum of Georgia College. O’Connor was a novelist and short story writer who did most of her work in Milledgeville after she was diagnosed with lupus. She died 1964 at age 39. In 2017, her home was gifted to her alma mater, Georgia College. Matthew Davis is Director of Historic Museums at the college. He says this milestone allows the college to expand its knowledge of the historical landmark to other people.
Athens Banner-Herald
Ukraine Orchestra, ‘This American Life’ host, award-winning R&B duo headed for Athens
Andrew Shearer
The University of Georgia Performing Arts Center’s most eclectic calendar yet will begin with a Sept. 8 performance by Nashville-based R&B duo The War and Treaty and continue through May 2023, featuring concerts by violinist Itzhak Perlman, Ukraine Orchestra and “This American Life” host Ira Glass among others. Season tickets are now on sale at the Performing Arts Center’s box office or via their website pac.uga.edu. … Nashville-based husband and wife vocalists Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter make up The War and Treaty, whose combination of soul, rock and gospel genres brought about a comparison to Ike & Tina Turner by Rolling Stone magazine. The War and Treaty was named Emerging Artist of the Year by Americana Music Honors & Awards in 2019 and won Folk Alliance International’s Artist of the Year award in 2020.
The Tifton Gazette
ABAC golf earns multiple academic awards
Becky Taylor
When Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s golf team sets out to do something, they do it well. Head coach Larry Byrnes’ Stallions annually appear in the NJCAA nationals and, in 2022, they placed high in a second type of competition. ABAC golf finished third nationally for highest grade-point average. The Stallions’ GPA averaged at a 3.68, three hundredths of a point behind Odessa (Tex.) College, the NJCAA’s leader at 3.71. Andrew College, a short trip up the road to Cuthbert, was in between at 3.70. Academic teams are recognized in each NJCAA sport. …Six members of the roster made the All-Academic teams. Hagen Marion earned first team honors, Byrnes adding that his GPA was 4.0 for the second consecutive year. Kole Williams merited second team, with Brock Barber, Gabe Lewis, Ben Sanders and Steven Wood all making third team.
Connect Savannah
JAUDON SPORTS: Technicalities be damned, Erk Russell should be in College Football Hall of Fame
By Travis Jaudon
College football has always had the ability to make legends out of its mere human players and coaches. The pageantry, history and traditions engrained among the fan bases of the sport’s biggest programs has a special way of preserving those who came before. In Atlanta, the College Football Hall of Fame officially immortalizes the sport’s all-timers when they are inducted as players or as coaches. Heck, even some broadcasters have had enough impact to gain entry into the hall. One man, however, is criminally absent from the CFB’s HOF. When the Southeastern Conference held its annual Media Days at the Hall of Fame last week, it revived a conversation among officials that many Georgians have been having for years. Well, in this state it’s become more of a question than a conversation, really. How the hell is Erk Russell not in the College Football Hall of Fame? Thanks in large part to a story done by Anthony Dasher of UGAsports.com last Thursday, the former University of Georgia defensive coordinator and Georgia Southern head coach could soon be inducted. The key word there being “could.”
The Brunswick News
LIFE scholarship awarded to local senior
Shirley Douglass
Kenadee Jones, a senior at McIntosh County Academy, received the Brunswick Chapter of The Links, Incorporated’s LIFE scholarship. She will be continuing her education at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro The Links International Foreign Affairs and Business Empowerment (LIFE) program for youth exposes minority high school students to career possibilities in foreign affairs and international business. The Brunswick Chapter of The Links, Incorporated strives to encourage minority students and students in underserved or rural communities to enroll and graduate from an accredited college, university, or post-secondary school. This year, eight scholarships totaling $3,600 were awarded to local seniors.
Athens CEO
McDuffie County Expands Leadership Pipeline with UGA Support
Charlie Bauder
Census data on Thomson-McDuffie County caught Elizabeth Brown’s attention. Fifty-nine percent of households in the community were run by single parents. “As a social worker, I know the importance of ensuring those children and parents have support to ensure positive outcomes later in life, and I wanted to help address that need,” said Brown, resident services director of the East Georgia Housing Authority. At the time, Brown was completing Leadership McDuffie, a community leadership program facilitated by the UGA J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development. She suggested that the class take on the issue as one of its projects. The result was a one-day retreat in February for 20 single parents that focused on community resources for single parents and information on self-care, and included guest speakers.
Progressive Cattle
Veterinarian shortage in rural America: An ongoing issue
Progressive Cattle Editorial Intern Abby George
For over two decades, rural America has faced a crisis very few are talking about: a shortage of veterinarians. This shortage puts stress on both veterinarians and producers, affecting the entire food animal system. While this shortage is not a new issue, it’s worsened since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shortage of veterinarians is a national and international issue, according to Rosslyn Biggs, DVM, director of continuing education and beef cattle extension specialist at Oklahoma State University. Here in the U.S., over 500 counties in 44 states had vet shortages in 2019, many of them rural areas, according to the USDA, and this has only worsened since. “Rural veterinarians have been experiencing shortages and underservice for a long time,” Biggs says. “This is largely related to similar issues with human medical care in rural areas.” Only about 5% of vet students are interested in food animal and rural medicine, said Lee Jones, DVM, food animal health and management professor at the University of Georgia. Students’ focus tends to narrow during vet school. There are more opportunities for small-animal faculty work in many vet schools and more mentors in practices who reach the students compared to the food animal-focused veterinarians.
WGAU Radio
UGA expands access to native plant certificate
“Participants can do their volunteer hours anywhere within the state as long as there is a native plant focus to their project”
By Laurel Clark, UGA Today
At the University of Georgia’s Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center, adult students study bees under a microscope, build bee houses and tour the center’s ethnobotanical garden. It’s all part of the Bee-utiful World of Native Bees course, an elective in the curricula for the State Botanical Garden of Georgia’s Certificate in Native Plants program. Offering the course at locations throughout the state, like this one in Blairsville, is an attempt to educate more Georgians about the importance of native plants and pollinators. …The Certificate in Native Plants program began as an adult education program at the State Botanical Garden in Athens in 2007 as a way to connect volunteers with native plant conservation and restoration projects.
KPVI
UGA releases parasitic wasp to control invasive fruit fly
By Emily Cabrera
In a quiet field of abandoned blueberries and shrubby brush in south Georgia, Cera Jones released hundreds of tiny parasitic wasps into the thicket and watched them fly away, following their natural instinct to search for a host to incubate their predatory progeny. Jones manages the University of Georgia Small Fruit Entomology Lab under the direction of Associate Professor Ash Sial. This spring, the lab was one of a handful of select institutions in the nation to receive a permit for raising and releasing Ganaspis brasiliensis, a parasitoid wasp of the most destructive insect pest in the small fruit industry, the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), or Drosophila suzukii.
Southeast AgNet
GCC, UGA Extension: Watch for Target Spot, Areolate Mildew
By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) and University of Georgia (UGA) Extension caution growers about the potential for an increase in diseases, especially as more rain impacts the Southeast. Bob Kemerait, UGA Extension plant pathologist, highlights a pair of diseases producers should be wary of – target spot and areolate mildew.
Marietta Daily Journal
All-clear given after KSU, Georgia Highlands College receive bomb threats
Hunter Riggall
Local colleges received unsubstantiated bomb threats Tuesday, leading law enforcement to sweep buildings in order to ensure no danger was present. Kennesaw State University received a bomb threat Tuesday morning concerning a building at its main Kennesaw campus, KSU spokesperson Tiffany Capuano said, prompting an evacuation. KSU Police, city of Kennesaw police and Cobb County police secured the area and swept the premises. …Rome-based Georgia Highlands College, which has a campus in Marietta, canceled Tuesday classes and closed all of its campuses out of an abundance of caution following threats. The college announced shortly before 2 p.m. that law enforcement had given an all-clear after checking the campuses. Normal operations will resume Wednesday. The college received two separate threats, one for the Rome campus and one for the Marietta campus, MDJ partner the Rome News-Tribune reported. The Floyd County Police Department is investigating the hoax threats. Summer classes, including those scheduled for Tuesday night, were affected by the closure.
The Brunswick News
CCGA student arrested on firearms charges
By Larry Hobbs
Authorities arrested a College of Coastal Georgia student Monday afternoon on firearms charges stemming from a July 18 incident in which she allegedly armed herself and threatened others in a dorm on the campus. The 23-year-old student initially was taken to Southeast Georgia Health System’s Brunswick hospital for psychological evaluation following the incident, school authorities and Brunswick police said. Grace Ashley Wright was booked into the Glynn County Detention Center at 3:53 p.m. Monday, charged with aggravated assault, willful obstruction of law enforcement officers with threats of violence, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, pointing a firearm at another, disorderly conduct, reckless conduct, and carrying a weapon in a school safety zone as a non-licensed holder, according to jail records.
Other News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How Colleges Can Prepare For — and Prevent — Monkeypox Outbreaks
By Sylvia Goodman
Even with many campuses emptied out for the summer, colleges are seeing their first cases of the latest disease sweeping across the world: monkeypox. Georgetown University, the University of Texas at Austin, and West Chester University are among the campuses urging their communities not to panic. “This infectious disease is not like COVID-19 or the flu, meaning it does not spread as quickly,” read West Chester University’s statement to the community. “The risk to the greater campus community remains low,” said a spokesperson at the University of Texas. And Georgetown reminded its community that monkeypox is a “rare disease.” But monkeypox is becoming decidedly less rare. As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 3,500 people in the United States have tested positive for monkeypox, just two months after the first case was confirmed. …Now colleges must contemplate the potential for outbreaks on campus when students return in the fall. The tight-knit social and sexual networks on college campuses could exacerbate the virus, experts told The Chronicle, and the best way to prevent outbreaks is through direct and frequent communication and speaking to the most vulnerable communities where they are.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Education Writers Association Conference Tackles Student Debt
Rebecca Kelliher
Logo ShareOn Monday at this year’s Education Writers Association (EWA) conference, two sessions dug into pressing federal higher education policy issues, including student debt forgiveness and college affordability concerns. EWA is a nonprofit journalism organization focused on advancing education coverage. At a session called “Forgiveness, Fairness, and the Future of Student Loans,” moderated by Cory Turner, correspondent and senior editor at NPR, panelists were asked for their take on whether the Biden administration should erase some level of federal student loan debt (and if so, how much).
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Americans’ Confidence in Higher Ed Drops Sharply
By Karin Fischer
Public confidence in higher education’s ability to lead America in a positive direction has sunk steeply in recent years, falling 14 percentage points just since 2020. Two years ago, more than two-thirds of Americans said colleges were having a positive effect on the country, according to a survey conducted by New America. In the most recent version of the survey, released Tuesday, barely half agreed. As with other recent public-opinion polling, New America’s findings reveal a yawning partisan gap. While nearly three-quarters of Democrats saw higher education’s contributions in a positive light, just 37 percent of Republicans did. Yet the think tank’s annual Varying Degrees survey found that a strong majority, more than 75 percent, thought that some education beyond high school offered a good return on investment for students. And public perception of online education improved markedly in the latest poll, with nearly half of Americans saying it was comparable in quality to in-person education, up from just a third in 2021.
NPR
A growing number of Americans are questioning the value of going to college
The share of Americans who believe colleges and universities have a positive impact on the country has dropped by 14 percentage points since 2020. That’s according to the latest results of an annual survey conducted by New America, a nonpartisan think tank. Since 2017, the organization has been collecting data on Americans’ attitudes about the value of education after high school and how that education should be funded. Many of the report’s findings have remained stable over time – for example, the general consensus that post-secondary education offers a good return on investment for students remains. But there’s been a steep decline in the overall perception of higher education’s impact on the country. That decline is driven by economic challenges, according to Sophie Nguyen, who co-authored the report.
Inside Higher Ed
Understanding the College Enrollment Drop
Two national experts explore why community colleges have lost students, whether and when enrollments are likely to start climbing again, and how institutions should respond.
By Doug Lederman
College and university enrollments—particularly at community colleges—continue to plummet. Have they bottomed out? Will they recover if the economy cools off as expected? Has enrollment dropped to a new lower plateau that’s likely to be the baseline going forward? A recent episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, explored the 7.5 percent decline that college enrollments have suffered since the pandemic, with a focus on community colleges that enroll working learners and first-generation students, which have been especially hard hit. The conversation featured Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College system, and Nate Johnson, a researcher and policy analyst whose firm, Postsecondary Analytics, advises states, foundations and businesses on education and workforce policy.
Inside Higher Ed
‘The New Megatrends’ and the University of 2038
Permanent understaffing and other questions about the future of higher ed.
By Joshua Kim
As I was finishing Marian Salzman’s The New Megatrends, two articles resonated in relation to the book. The first article was a July 21 Inside Higher Ed piece, “Higher Ed’s Hiring Woes.” The second is the July 22 Chronicle article “More Than Half of Campus Staff Members Are Thinking About Quitting, Survey Finds.” The reason that The New Megatrends and these two articles on existing and potential higher education labor shortages are linked has everything to do with the future of the university. We are at the point where we all have to ask ourselves: Is the staffing crisis we are experiencing in higher ed a permanent aspect of our future? Are we in the midst of some academic labor market anomaly for staff (and some faculty), driven by temporary factors associated with the pandemic’s Great Resignation and nationally low level of unemployment?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
One President’s Playbook for Public Statements
By Eric Kelderman
Like a lot of college presidents, Steven C. Bahls knows what it’s like to wake up to an inbox full of angry emails. Bahls, who retired as president of Augustana College earlier this month, has spoken in support of some issues that might be seen as controversial, such as supporting same-sex unions in the college chapel, explicitly defending free speech for conservative students on campus, and opposing President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to end legal protections for undocumented minors, known as Dreamers. For some presidents, those positions could cause tensions with their colleges’ governing board. But not at Augustana, in large part because Bahls and the trustees agreed to a set of guiding principles on what topics the president and other administrators will speak about publicly. In a Chronicle survey of presidents, respondents did not often identify their board as a source of concern about their public statements, except on the issue of state politics. But in interviews, many campus leaders said they still take care not to surprise their boards.
Inside Higher Ed
Advocates for Privacy: A Model for the CPO 2.0
The chief privacy officer role in higher ed should be reimagined to move beyond compliance functions to encompass privacy advocacy, Michael Corn and Joanna Grama write.
By Michael Corn and Joanna Grama
Nota bene: After the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the authors debated whether this article, with its express call to action in support of privacy, was rendered moot with the court’s tacit elimination of constitutional privacy rights. Rather than fall victim to the cynicism and feeling of hopelessness that the recent decision has engendered in our hearts and our country, we choose to advocate on the side of privacy.
Having had the honor of watching the practice of privacy grow within higher education for the past 20 years, we argue there can be no better time to examine the role of the modern privacy officer in higher education and to propose a new paradigm to support our rapidly changing technology environment. In the 20-odd years since Lauren Steinfeld created the pioneering privacy program in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, chief privacy officers have become widespread as colleges and universities have struggled to comply with a host of privacy regulations. The dominant higher education model for the role of CPO is heavily borrowed from industry. At many colleges and universities, the privacy office and CPO role are closely aligned with the general counsel and information security and risk management offices. The focus of these roles is on the administrative and management functions of compliance and risk reduction, including involvement in privacy incident response, policy creation, data governance and employee training. At their core, these are compliance-related functions.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Proposed Title IX Change That Worries Some Experts
By Tom Bartlett
In its proposed rules for enforcing Title IX, issued last month, the U.S. Department of Education promised that it would “restore crucial protections for students” that were eliminated or weakened by the Trump administration. The 700-page document addresses broad philosophical issues, like the definition of sexual harassment, along with a host of nitty-gritty procedural matters, like whether complaints require signatures. Among the slated changes in the rules is a return to what’s known as the “single investigator” method of conducting inquiries, in which, as the name suggests, a complaint is often handled by one administrator. In 2020, Betsy DeVos, then secretary of education, put an end to that approach, announcing that those accused of wrongdoing must be allowed to challenge the evidence at a live hearing, a move DeVos deemed necessary in order to “ensure a fair and transparent process.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Federal officials attempt crackdown on for-profit colleges
By Eric Stirgus
Education Department leaders say schools recruit veterans with deceptive promises
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced its latest effort to crack down on for-profit colleges and universities they say are conducting dubious practices to recruit military veterans and service members as students. U.S. Department of Education officials released proposed regulations that would adjust how private for-profit institutions determine at least 10% of their revenue doesn’t include federal aid. They would no longer be able to include aid for veterans or service members. Veterans and their families say some for-profit schools recruit students with false promises that they help them get high-paying jobs. However, the average graduation rate for veterans who used Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits at for-profit schools was about 22%, according to a federal study released in 2019. The average six-year graduation rate nationwide for college students is about 60%.
Higher Ed Dive
Discrimination complaints involving colleges total over 3,000 in fiscal 2021, OCR says
Published July 26, 2022
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The arm of the U.S. Department of Education charged with investigating and resolving reports of discrimination in schools received more than 3,000 complaints related to colleges in fiscal 2021. The Education Department shared the figure with Higher Ed Dive as its Office for Civil Rights this week released a report detailing how many complaints it received in fiscal 2021. More than 8,900 complaints were filed that year related to K-12 schools and colleges combined, and OCR resolved more than 8,200 complaints, the report states. An Education Department spokesperson did not share a breakdown of how many resolved complaints stemmed from colleges.
Higher Ed Dive
OPINION
How higher ed collaboration helped a district streamline college opportunities
A superintendent shares how his district’s partnership with Arizona State University has expanded postsecondary opportunities with an automatic-entry program.
By Chad Gestson Chad Gestson is superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District in Arizona.
Too many of our young, bright minds question whether a postsecondary education is in their future. Some don’t have an academic role model, while others lack the confidence that they are college material. Many see it as just too expensive. It all adds up to a stressful and uncertain time for teenagers and parents to manage. Those perceived deterrents have a profound impact over the course of their lives. Most research shows education strongly influences one’s economic prospects, and a person with a college degree can earn hundreds of thousands more over their lifetime than someone with only a high school diploma. This begs the question, what more can our education system do to increase access to this clear path of opportunity? Our district at Phoenix Union High School believes we have an answer. Our school launched a program to make higher education more attainable by simplifying and demystifying the experience. By partnering with one of the top colleges in our state, Arizona State University, we have collaborated to eliminate barriers, create a transparent and efficient process, and alleviate much of the stress.