The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sonny Perdue formally installed as University System of Georgia leader
By Cassidy Alexander
As the new leader of the University System of Georgia, Sonny Perdue pledged to treat students like customers. The former two-term governor was formally recognized as the system’s chancellor on Friday during an investiture ceremony at the state Capitol. He used his address as an opportunity to continue selling the value of a Georgia college degree — something he has said is a necessity as the University System braces for declining enrollment. “Above all, our students — no matter what age, how many academic credits they have or if they’re the first in their family to attend college — are our customers,” he said. “That’s not a word you hear very often in academics, but that’s the way we’re going to treat our students. As customers.”
Capitol Beat
University system Chancellor Sonny Perdue officially takes up new role
AP News
Perdue in chancellor debut: Georgia universities to aim high
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most Georgia public colleges won’t require SAT, ACT for 2023-24
By Vanessa McCray
Students applying to most of Georgia’s public universities will not need to take the SAT or ACT exam as a criteria for admission during the next academic year. Sonny Perdue, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, announced Thursday that the college-admissions exams will only be required at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, two of the system’s most academically rigorous schools. The system’s other 24 schools will be test-optional for students who enroll in the fall of 2023 through the summer of 2024. The system largely has waived SAT and ACT requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, most recently in March. “I know that there are strongly held views over standardized testing both pro and con,” said Perdue, at a Georgia Board of Regents meeting.
See also:
Capitol Beat
University system waiving standardized test scores for admission to most campuses
accessWDUN
UNG acquires $1.5 million grant which includes scholarships for STEM students
By Austin Eller News Director
Select STEM students at the University of North Georgia could receive some assistance with their tuition thanks to the institution’s acquisition of a nearly $1.5 million grant. The six-year National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program grant is valued at $1,499,859. Funding for the grant will begin on Jan. 1, 2023. The grant will allow UNG to give scholarships of up to $10,000 annually to at least 31 students. Those scholarships will be roughly split between the Dahlonega and Gainesville campuses. The scholarships will be available to full and part-time students pursuing degrees in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. Clinical fields are not included.
Marietta Daily Journal
Georgia Highlands College opens new Marietta campus
Andrew Cicco
Georgia Highlands College, a multi-campus community college based in Rome, cut the ribbon on its new and expanded Marietta campus this week. University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue and newly-appointed Georgia Highlands College President Mike Hobbs were joined by Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-east Cobb, campus dean Ken Reaves, and other school executives to celebrate the new location. The school, which celebrated the completion of its summertime move to 1090 Northchase Parkway, comes equipped with six classrooms, a learning commons, two computer labs and a counseling office. “Our move will allow Georgia Highlands College to continue to grow and provide access to an affordable, career-focused college degree for students in Marietta,” Hobbs said. The new campus will include all of the resources the school has to offer, including more than 40 different degree programs, remote learning and an adult accelerated program.
Story also appeared in:
Douglas County Sentinel
Perdue attends GHC ribbon-cutting in Marietta
Americus Times-Recorder
GSW will ‘Propel’ students forward by raising $1 million in scholarship funds
By Ken Gustafson
There is a powerful force behind many Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) students propelling them forward, as over 300 of them receive private scholarship funding from 120 GSW Foundation scholarship funds. Over the next year and a half, GSW plans to add to that total and fulfill current unmet needs by raising $1 million in scholarship funding. University officials made this formal announcement today during the annual Scholarship “Thank You” Day. This fundraising effort is titled “Propel: GSW’s Campaign for Scholarships.” “Scholarship opportunities are a major factor when prospective students are considering which college they will attend,” said GSW President Neal Weaver, Ph.D. “Over the next year and a half, we will be raising funds for existing scholarships and establishing new ones. I believe in what a degree from Georgia Southwestern provides, and I am confident that current and potential donors will be prepared to support our efforts.” Many of the scholarship funds currently in place are named for individuals or families and are designated on specific academic criteria like major and grade point average. Others are more general in nature and can be granted to a larger group of students. For instance, the flexibility of Southwestern Promise fund allows a significant impact to a wider variety of students meeting the academic requirements to receive financial assistance than ever before. The University and its Advancement staff welcome scholarship contributions of any type and would be delighted to establish new funds. …The $1 million scholarship funding campaign will conclude at a scholarship gala at the end of January 2024. Between now and then, potential donors, GSW alumni and friends alike, will have many opportunities to contribute – beginning with the Day of Giving on September 22.
The Red & Black
UGA students compete in season two of NBC’s ‘Capital One College Bowl’
Lindsay Owens
The 2022 “Capital One College Bowl” is quickly approaching and no — it’s not football — it’s a trivia tournament. Hosted by NFL hall-of-famer Peyton Manning, NBC’s “Capital One College Bowl” is a “battle of the brains” in which universities from across the country compete head-to-head for the chance to win not only bragging rights, but scholarship money. The show is a reboot of the original “College Quiz Bowl” which first aired on television in 1959. It’s returning for a second season on Friday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. In this five-round, multi-subject trivia tournament, teams compete for the chance to win $125,000 each in tuition assistance from Capital One. Every competitor receives some scholarship money for participating. This season, three students from the University of Georgia were chosen to represent the school against 15 other universities from all over the U.S., including last season’s reigning champion, Columbia University.
WSB-TV
22-year-old Georgia Tech student killed in weekend crash had dreams of being an engineer
By WSBTV.com News Staff
Family and friends are mourning the loss of a Georgia Tech student killed in a crash over the weekend. Alahna Smith, 22, was killed after her SUV plowed into a tractor-trailer on Marietta Boulevard early Sunday morning. Smith was pinned under the truck and pronounced dead at the scene. …According to an article on Georgia Tech’s website, she was part of the introductory 2018 cohort of the Georgia Tech Clark Scholars Program, which rewards student who display strong academic and leadership potential in engineering.
Athens CEO
Summer Program at UGA Empowers Foster Youth to Envision Future
Charlie Bauder
Fewer than 10 percent of youths who have experienced foster care end up with a postsecondary degree, significantly less than 45 percent in the general U.S. population who earn college degrees. A UGA summer program hopes to increase the numbers of former foster youth with degrees by helping them envision life after high school. Through a summer program at the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, 31 of those youths spent a week on the UGA campus in June, experiencing college life firsthand. During the 2022 Embark Summer Precollegiate Program the youth lived on campus in dorms, ate in dining halls; visited classrooms; learned about the admissions and financial aid; connected with college student mentors; and developed communication, decision making and team building skills.
Higher Education News:
The Hechinger Report
The unasked question about the student loan bailout: What’s colleges’ responsibility?
Schools that benefit from all that debt share almost no accountability for poor returns
by Jon Marcus
s an advocate for people struggling to repay their college loans, Claudio Martinez followed every step of the process that culminated with President Joe Biden declaring that a part of all that debt would be forgiven. This story also appeared in GBH News and National Public Radio
But there was one thing Martinez didn’t hear during the lead-up to Biden’s decision, under which taxpayers will assume an estimated $300 billion worth of student loan debt, or the debate that followed: any discussion of universities’ and colleges’ responsibility for the poor return that many borrowers got for their investment. “What I don’t see is a mention of who made money in the last 20 years out of this system,” said Martinez, executive director of Zero Debt Massachusetts, a grassroots organization of students, families and activists in that state. Colleges and universities have largely escaped scrutiny over why so many Americans have so much debt from educations that often took longer and cost more than expected, led to jobs that didn’t pay enough to cover their loans or never finished a degree at all.
Higher Ed Dive
Short-Term Pell didn’t make it into August’s CHIPS Act. Where does it go from here?
Several paths remain for expanding Pell Grants to programs as short as 8 weeks, but they’re unlikely, especially before November’s midterms.
By Lilah Burke
Students can use Pell Grant funding for programs as short as 15 weeks, but some education advocates want to see more flexibility from the subsidy program. In the past year, efforts to extend federal Pell Grant eligibility to short-term programs reached further than they ever had before. Though the effort in support of what’s called short-term Pell is largely bipartisan, there is disagreement about what sort of guardrails, if any, to place on the federal funds. “Even where there’s broad agreement on what you want to do, figuring out how to do it right is really the key thing,” said Jonathan Fansmith, assistant vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, the higher education sector’s top lobbying group. “That’s been the trouble with getting short-term Pell over the finish line.” Legislative experts say that the odds are long but not insurmountable. Here’s what they have to say about how it could move forward in the coming months.
Higher Ed Dive
How one nonprofit is looking beyond ‘generic tools’ to help HBCUs boost retention
The Partnership for Education Advancement’s CEO discusses working to boost technology at HBCUs and colleges that drive social mobility.
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
The Partnership for Education Advancement, a New York City-based nonprofit, is working to connect historically Black colleges and universities with technology companies so they can access specially tailored services like artificial intelligence to boost recruitment and retention. The organization, also known as Ed Advancement, aims to boost social mobility by supporting colleges that enroll low-income and first-generation students. Its CEO, James Runcie — former Federal Student Aid chief operating officer at the U.S. Department of Education — recently took some time to discuss the nonprofit’s work and where it’s headed.
Higher Ed Dive
ISA provider Better Future Forward strikes compliance plan with regulators at CFPB
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
Income-share agreement provider Better Future Forward has reached a final compliance plan with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and updated the disclosures it will make to students who enter ISAs to help pay for college. The CFPB gave “consistent input” into a new disclosure format, Better Future Forward said Wednesday — a year after the federal regulator took action against the Virginia-based nonprofit and branded ISAs as a form of credit. Better Future Forward said it will share the new disclosure format publicly, but it did not post a copy with its Wednesday announcement.
Inside Higher Ed
OPINION – University Boards: Divest From Uyghur Genocide
University governing boards should answer their students’ call and divest from Chinese companies complicit in genocide against Uyghurs, Keith Krach writes.
By Keith Krach
Dear university governing board members,
American institutions of higher learning are the envy of the world and have always stood for academic freedom and been invaluable advocates for human rights. More than a year ago, I wrote to you in my former capacity as undersecretary of state about the real and urgent threat to that ideal posed by the authoritarian influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This threat has broad implications for ensuring academic freedom, honoring human dignity, protecting university endowments and safeguarding intellectual property. I wrote that as a former board chairman of a major university, I recognized that, when addressing a strategic issue of this magnitude, the responsibility sits squarely on the shoulders of every board member and trustee. Also, as a former CEO of public companies and nonprofit organizations, I wrote a similar letter to the CEOs and boards of all American companies as well as one to the leaders of civil society groups urging them to divest from Chinese companies that are “involved or complicit with CCP’s human rights abuses, the surveillance state and military-civil fusion.”
Higher Ed Dive
A new University of Virginia board member once brought a eugenicist to campus. Students are angry.
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
Student leaders at the University of Virginia have condemned one of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s picks to the institution’s governing board, citing the appointee’s history of castigating diversity measures and a 2020 incident in which he mulled using a razor blade to cut down a campus sign he found offensive.
Bert Ellis, chief executive of an Atlanta-based investment firm, also leads The Jefferson Council, a UVA alumni network dedicated to preserving Thomas Jefferson’s legacy and “intellectual diversity.”
Ellis was recently the subject of a report by the university’s student newspaper, which revealed he worked to bring a prominent eugenicist to campus to speak when Ellis was an undergraduate in the 1970s. Ellis did not make a statement to the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, nor did he respond to a request for comment Wednesday from Higher Ed Dive.