WGAU Radio
Retiring president delivers UNG’s State of the University address
“Our commitments to quality, affordable education and leadership development opportunities remain unchanged”
By Clark Leonard, UNG
University of North Georgia President Bonita Jacobs highlighted UNG’s 150-year legacy, rising prominence and bright future in her annual State of the University address. The faculty-staff convocation at the Convocation Center on UNG’s Dahlonega Campus also served as the kickoff for the university’s yearlong Sesquicentennial Celebration. Jacobs pointed out that UNG started in 1873 as North Georgia Agricultural College and that its students included 98 men and 79 women that first year. It was the first public college in Georgia to grant a bachelor’s degree to a woman. UNG’s history also includes the former Gainesville State College, which opened in 1964 as Gainesville Junior College, to fill a need for accessible, quality higher education. UNG was created through the consolidation of Gainesville State College and North Georgia College & State University in 2013. “In the 150 years since our founding, we have changed names and consolidated institutions, but our commitments to quality, affordable education and leadership development opportunities remain unchanged. In fact, that thread ties us all together — regardless of our decade, legacy institution or home campus,” she said.
Tifton CEO
New ABAC President Says Convocation is a ‘Springboard’ Into Future for Students
Staff Report
Addressing the incoming freshman students at the annual Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Freshman Convocation on a drizzly, gray Saturday morning, new ABAC President Tracy Brundage said the students should use the opportunity as a “springboard” to their futures. “This day serves as a springboard toward your future self,” Brundage told the standing room only crowd in front of historic Tift Hall. “We are honored that ABAC is able to accompany you on this significant journey. “At ABAC, we pride ourselves on teaching you the transferrable skills needed for success. ABAC is a place where you can achieve your full potential, a place where you can realize your dreams. We want you to feel a sense of belonging here.”
Griffin Daily News
Summer enrollment growth continues at GSC
By Press Release
Gordon State College experienced an enrollment increase for the summer 2022 semester as 1,048 students enrolled for classes, according to a college statement. GSC officials stated this reflects a 3.6% increase from the summer 2021 term when the college had 1,012 students enrolled in classes. This increase is also reflected in the full-time enrollment category as 576 students enrolled this summer compared to 556 students in summer 2021.
Henry Herald
UGA welcomes largest freshman class
By Sara Freeland UGA News Service
The University of Georgia’s class of 2026 is its biggest and one of its most academically qualified yet. More than 6,200 new first-year students start classes at UGA Aug. 17, selected from a record number of nearly 40,000 applications. The students have impressive academic achievements, high school GPAs and test scores. They also excel outside the classroom, with extracurricular participation and service to their communities.
Grice Connect
GS starts the school year with millions in campus construction projects
More Parking, convocation center, Indoor athletic practice facility and new continuing ed facility highlight improvements
At the beginning of each new Georgia Southern University (GS) school year, Grice Connect takes a look at new construction projects that are underway on their campuses. Again this year, there are millions of dollars in exciting additions and improvements underway. Here are some of the highlights.
Statesboro Campus – Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center (Statesboro
Williams Center 2nd floor Renovation (Statesboro
Anthony Tippins Family Athletics Indoor Practice Facility (Statesboro)
Freedom’s Landing Housing complex upgrades (Statesboro)
Renovation to portion of the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center and East Georgia State College (EGSC) Highway 301 Building in conjunction with East Georgia State College (Statesboro)
Demolition and Redevelopment of the University Villas Housing complex (Statesboro)
Extension of Akins Blvd to connect to Lanier Drive (Statesboro)
Armstrong – Memorial College Center 2nd floor Renovation (Armstrong); Student Success Complex (Armstrong)
The Moultrie Observer
South Georgia LEADS to kick off new class Thursday
Staff Reports
Twenty-eight participants from across South Georgia have committed to investing in the future vitality and sustainability of the region by participating in the 2022-2023 class of South GeorgiaLEADS. This year’s class represents 16 counties of the 21-county region. South GeorgiaLEADS Chair Barbara Grogan shared the Board’s support, “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I welcome the 2022-2023 class of South GeorgiaLEADS! Representing an array of communities, professions and cultures across Southwest Georgia, we are excited about the great conversations and skill sharing the class will experience—and take back to their hometowns. Reflective of the diversity of our region, we have professionals from a wide range of sectors including non-profits, K-12 and post-secondary education, local government, financial institutions, utility companies, entrepreneurs and more. This diversity of experiences and mindsets will make for engaging and productive discussions as we gather for the kick-off retreat in Bainbridge next week.” …The 2022-2023 South GeorgiaLEADS class is as follows: …Shannon McGee, Valdosta State University.; Wendi Jenkins, University System of Georgia.; Adrian Martinez Franco, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. …South GeorgiaLEADS will kick off Thursday, Aug. 18, at SouthWind Plantation in Bainbridge, Decatur County. Emphasizing regional priorities throughout the program, SGL links regional site visits and issue awareness to relevant leadership development content within the framework of the South GeorgiaLEADS priorities. The Board will be joined throughout the year by implementation partners University of Georgia J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development and Valdosta State University Center for South Georgia Regional Impact.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When stress can actually be good for the brain
By Anagha Ramakrishnan
UGA study finds some perceived stress can be beneficial
Stress can be harmful to your health, yet a new study has found certain types of stress might actually benefit brain function. Researchers at the University of Georgia studied 1,200 participants about their perceived stress, thoughts and feelings. After the survey, participants were given a test to assess their neurocognitive abilities. The results showed those who had low to moderate perceived stress levels benefited psychologically and could prevent developing mental health conditions.
Times-Georgian
UWG Football ranked 12th in AFCA Preseason Poll
By Jared Boggus UWG Sports
With just over two weeks until toe meets leather, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) released their Preseason Poll on Monday with the UWG football team coming in at 12th in the initial rankings. The Wolves, who are coming off of a 9-3 campaign in 2021, are one of three Gulf South Conference teams in the preseason rankings, joining number two Valdosta State and number 11 West Florida. Defending national champion Ferris State is ranked number one. Head Coach David Dean and his squad have already been ranked 13th in the Lindy’s Football Preseason Magazine. It’s the first time since 2019 the Wolves have been ranked in the AFCA Preseason Coaches Poll.
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta University names new director of athletics
Will Cheney
Augusta University has found its new athletic director. The university announced Tuesday it has tabbed Ryan Erlacher to take over the athletic department following Clint Bryant’s retirement this summer. He’s just the third athletic director in Augusta University’s history. “My family and I are beyond excited to be joining Augusta University and the local community. I’d like to thank President (Brooks) Keel, Dr. Russell Keen and the entire search committee for their vote of confidence in me to lead Augusta athletics into the future. Clint Bryant was a great leader in our field, and I look forward to continuing the tradition of excellence he started,” he said in the university’s news release.
NPR
How Georgia reduced heat-related high school football deaths
Molly Samuel
High school football teams around the country are starting training this time of year, including the Cedar Grove Saints. On a hot, humid morning, players were doing drills on the field behind their suburban Atlanta high school as head coach John Adams gave them guidance and encouragement. This is a good team; they’ve won four state titles in the past six years, and four former Saints were in the NFL draft this past year – more than any other high school in the country. So Adams was excited about the upcoming season. But he was also watchful about keeping the athletes safe as they worked out in the Atlanta heat. …From the pros, to college, to high school, football players start practicing at the hottest time of year, many on turf fields roasting under direct sun. They wear layers of equipment, and many of them – especially the linemen – are big. That can add up to a dangerous situation. According to research from the University of Georgia, between 1980 and 2009, 58 football players around the country died from heat-related illness. Most of them were in high school. The study, published in 2010, found that the number of football players dying from the heat was going up over time. Georgia was one of the worst states, leading the country in high school football player heat-related deaths. But in the last decade, Georgia has turned things around. Experts say it’s bucked the trend of rising numbers of players suffering from heat illness. And the rules put in place here have become a model for other states looking to protect student athletes from the heat.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: In its simplicity, college website misleads students of color
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Walter M. Kimbrough just finished 10 years as president of Dillard University in New Orleans, and will spend the next year at home in Atlanta as the interim executive director of the Black Men’s Research Institute at Morehouse College. In this guest column, Kimbrough faults the new Georgia Degrees Pay website for oversimplifying the payoff students get from campuses in the state, especially the outcomes for students of color. As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution explained: The University System of Georgia last week launched a website that allows college-bound students to compare the cost to attend its 26 colleges and universities. The site also provides salary data for graduates by school and by major, plus graduation and loan default rates and the percent of students who keep their HOPE Scholarship after the first year.
WGAU Radio
UGA: prehistoric fish may be poised for comeback
“There’s been a lot of questions about long-term survival, growth rates, and when these fish would become sexually mature”
By Kristen Morales, UGA Today
Researchers studying lake sturgeon in Northwest Georgia’s Coosa River have found evidence that the fish may be reproducing for the first time since they were wiped out in the 1970s. The discovery was made earlier this year, as a team of researchers prepared for a project of tagging and tracking sturgeon in the river system. It’s part of an ongoing effort to assess the population of lake sturgeon since they were reintroduced by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 2002. It can take 20 years for female lake sturgeon to reach sexual maturity—when they develop black eggs also coveted as caviar. Because of the timespan, fisheries experts were unsure of the long-term viability of the fish, which have been released into the river every year since their reintroduction. “We found three females that had black eggs—mature eggs that are ready to be fertilized,” said Marty Hamel, an associate professor at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “This was the first time anybody has found a sexually mature female since the reintroduction program began, and it’s exciting because it’s confirmation that they are becoming mature and trying to spawn.”
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Meghan Brink
Completion rates for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid have increased slightly after a four-year decline, reaching 70 percent in academic year 2021–22, a 2 percent increase from the year prior. However, a report found that misconceptions and confusion about the FAFSA prevented many families from applying. The report by Sallie Mae, a loan servicer, and Ipsos, a global market research company, found that only 53 percent of families know that all students are eligible to send in the FAFSA, and 75 percent of families did not know that the FAFSA was available in October.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Adults with some credits but no degree hold the keys to enrollment and equity.
By Katherine Mangan
Fourteen years, one baby, a marriage and divorce, and three job moves after Desirée Vanderloop started college, she’s finally closing in on a goal that had always seemed just beyond her grasp. When she walks across the stage next May to receive her bachelor’s degree at Morgan State University, she’ll join a growing number of returning adult students who are being lured back by programs designed specifically for people like them. The skills Vanderloop learned on the job as her interests shifted from pre-med to health-care technology will apply toward her degree. So will 90 of the 102 credits she accumulated, one or two courses at a time, while winding her way through college as a working single mom. An adviser helped her design a degree path that integrated her job skills and studies, saving several semesters’ worth of tuition and time. What’s happening at Morgan State reflects an emerging trend in higher ed nationwide as advisers and registrars reach out to former students and help piece together fragments of launched and abandoned college careers.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Half of U.S. Adults Without Degrees Want More Education
By Brianna Hatch
Nearly half of American adults without college degrees think they need additional education to advance their careers — and just over half said they will likely pursue that education in the next five years. That’s according to a new survey of 350,000 adults from Strada Education Network and Gallup. The level of interest in higher education is a potential dose of good news for colleges amid grim enrollment declines over the past few years. But the adults hoping to seek more education reported that they were most likely to do so from employers, instead of colleges or universities. What’s more, that interest varied greatly by age, location, and race. People between the ages of 18 and 24, people of color, and urban residents reported the greatest need for more learning and the greatest likelihood to enroll. About 60 percent of American adults don’t have a college degree. Here are some key data points on adults without degrees from the survey:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Survey Shows Changing Picture of Campus Mental Health Crisis
Jon Edelman
As colleges and universities prepare for a fourth academic year shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, students continue to endure mental health issues at a high rate. However, students’ sources of stress and anxiety may be changing, according to a new survey from TimelyMD, a telehealth provider that focuses on higher education. The survey, conducted at the end of July, garnered nearly 1200 responses from college students who plan on returning to school in the fall. Although the respondents are not necessarily demographically representative of the college student population in America, their responses offer insight into the contours of mental health on campus. The results show that mental health remains a crisis. Nearly seven out of ten respondents said that they were currently experiencing some form of mental health issue, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, and 86% reported that their level of stress or anxiety was the same or greater as at this point last year.
CNBC
Felipe Henao, Dean of Students at New York Institute of Technology
KEY POINTS
College enrollment has been falling steadily for a decade and, since 2020, student numbers have fallen by 1 million. Many prospective and current students no longer see the value that a college education actually does still afford. U.S. colleges should emulate the customer service innovations of successful private corporations to turn public perceptions around.
Inside Higher Ed
The True Cost Faced by Student Parents
A new report shows that student parents from low-income backgrounds must work 50-plus hours a week at minimum wage in order to afford both tuition at a public college and childcare.
By Meghan Brink
Picture this: you are a student parent attending a public college. You come from a low-income family, making less than $30,000 a year. Between attending class, studying and parenting duties, you manage to work 10 hours a week making minimum wage. Think you can still afford both tuition and childcare? According to a new report from the Education Trust and Generation Hope released today, across the U.S., a student parent from a low-income background (a household making less than $30,000 a year) who works 10 hours a week at minimum wage still cannot afford both childcare and college tuition at a public university in any state in the U.S. In fact, a student parent would have to work 52 hours a week at minimum wage in order to break even on their childcare and tuition expenses. This report is the first of its kind to factor in both the costs of tuition and childcare to analyze college affordability for student parents. It provides new data showing how multiple challenges, including low wages and the high cost of college and childcare, create boundaries that make it difficult for many low-income students to attend college and graduate on time.
Higher Ed Dive
How can leaders bridge the gap between higher ed and employers?
By Lilah Burke
Dive Brief:
Partnerships between higher education institutions and employers can be difficult to create, often because of misalignment between the cultures, structures and values of the two groups, according to a July report from California Competes, a nonprofit policy organization focused on higher education. Higher ed leaders could improve employer relations by making industry engagement an expected responsibility of both faculty and staff, said the report, which drew from 28 interviews with people at colleges and employers. Robust employer engagement can strengthen enrollment and job outcomes for students, the authors argued, while also benefiting state and local economies.
Inside Higher Ed
Students Are Learning to Stop Opioid Overdoses
As concerns grow over the presence of fentanyl and other opiates on campus, more colleges and universities are making the overdose-reversal drug naloxone widely available.
By Liam Knox
Students at Virginia Commonwealth University might run across a new but familiar sight while walking through the Richmond campus this fall: a man on an electric bicycle, the words “free naloxone bike” laser-etched into a wooden lockbox above the handlebars. That man would be John Freyer, an associate professor of cross-disciplinary media at VCU. He’s been biking for a cause on campus since 2016, when he started a “free hot coffee bike” project where he and student volunteers dispensed mugs of freshly brewed joe along with conversation about substance use stigma, addiction recovery and harm reduction. Freyer, inspired by the project’s success, launched the free naloxone bike as a kind of spinoff in February 2020. Instead of coffee and brewing gear, the new bike is equipped with a wooden box that can hold up to 100 doses of naloxone, an emergency medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose; a practice dummy named Mannie Fresh rides in the back seat. Interested students and community members with a few minutes to spare can get trained and go back to their dorm or apartment with the knowledge and tools they’d need to save someone who was experiencing an opioid overdose.
Higher Ed Dive
State educational gag orders targeting colleges are on the rise, report finds
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
State-level bills that seek to restrict topics colleges can teach, like race-related subjects, are on the rise this year compared to 2021, according to a new report from PEN America. The free speech nonprofit tracked 137 state bills this year and found nearly 40% of them target colleges and universities. This represents an uptick from last year, when state lawmakers introduced 54 bills, and 30% of them were aimed at higher education. Most of the measures this year and last also tried to limit instruction in K-12 classrooms. These bills almost entirely stem from Republicans, PEN America found. Only one piece of legislation in 2022 had a Democratic sponsor, and it failed to pass.
Higher Ed Dive
Price-fixing lawsuit against 568 Group of top-ranked universities can continue, judge rules
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
Dive Brief:
A lawsuit accusing 17 wealthy universities of price fixing can continue, a federal judge said Monday, ruling against efforts by the top-ranked institutions to dismiss the case. The universities criticized evidence filed by plaintiffs — who were mostly students who have attended or are attending one of the institutions. But the institutions didn’t show the allegations are implausible, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly wrote in court documents. “Taking all of the plaintiffs’ allegations together, there is more than enough to plausibly allege that the various enrollment management strategies described in the amended complaint violate the requirements of the 568 Exemption,” Kennelly wrote, referencing an antitrust exemption for colleges that’s at the heart of the case.
Inside Higher Ed
Debt Relief for All Former ITT Students
Total debt is $3.9 billion. The Education Department also announced that it will seek to recoup $24 million from DeVry University.
By Meghan Brink
The Education Department announced Tuesday that a total of $3.9 billion in student debt will be forgiven for all former ITT Technical Institute students. The department will also initiate a process to hold DeVry University, a for-profit that was found to falsely advertise job-placement rates, accountable to recoup $24 million to the department for borrower-defense claims. “In recent years too many for-profit colleges and career schools have been caught defrauding and deceiving their students. Their entire business model relies on driving students into debt,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “Years of investigation have indicated that ITT Technical Institute was among the worst offenders.”