Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern Receives $1.3M Federal TRIO Grant
Staff Report
Georgia Southern University has received $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education to continue the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program through 2027. The McNair Scholars Program is one of seven federal TRIO programs, targeted to serve and assist income-eligible students, first-generation college students and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.
SaportaReport
Georgia Tech’s expansion of Tech Square has been a relay, not a sprint
Maria Saporta
By Maria Saporta
Georgia Tech’s third phase of Tech Square is now underway. A ceremonial ground breaking was held Thursday afternoon on two new towers totaling 400,000 square feet and expected to cost about $200 million, according to Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. The two new towers will be built across from the historic Biltmore hotel on the block bordered by West Peachtree Street, Fifth Street, Spring Street and Biltmore Place. The three families of philanthropists who contributed to the towers were present for the ground breaking. The George Tower will be named after Penny and William “Bill” George. It will house the top-ranked H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering in addition to other programs. Milt and Carolyn Stewart were present, and their son, Jeb Stewart, made remarks. The second tower will be called the Scheller Tower, and it will house Georgia Tech’s graduate and executive education programs that are part of the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business. Ernie and Roberta Scheller also were in attendance.
WGAU Radio
UGA: record attendance for fall career fairs
By Clarke Schwabe, UGA Today
The University of Georgia Career Center hosted a record number of students and employers during its annual Fall Career & Internship Fair and Fall Engineering & Computer Science Career & Internship Fair held on Sept. 28 and 29. Over those two days, 526 employers and more than 3,900 students passed through the doors of The Classic Center in downtown Athens where the events were held. The day after the fairs concluded, more than 60 employers hosted individual interviews with 388 students.
Augusta CEO
Literacy Center Celebrates Ribbon-cutting at New HUB Location
Kevin Faigle
It was an important day for the Augusta University Literacy Center as the ribbon was cut on its new location at The HUB for Community Innovation on Tuesday, Oct. 19. For over 20 years, the Literacy Center has provided free instruction to students and adults, and now in a new home, the center is able to offer more opportunities to those looking to improve their reading skills. The ceremony featured many of those who made the new center a reality, including the Community Foundation for the CSRA, the Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA and the Medical College of Georgia Foundation. The community hub was made possible from a $10 million donation from Augusta National Golf Club and its partners AT&T, Bank of America and IBM, as well as other federal grants.
Art Daily
Georgia Museum of Art receives best in show design award
The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia has received both a gold in the magazines and newsletters category and a “Best in Show” award in the 2022 Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) Publication Design Competition for its quarterly newsletter, Facet. The competition showcases the best in the profession and provides benchmarks for regional publication efforts in southeastern museums. This is the third year in a row that the museum has won “Best in Show” for one of its publications.
Americus Times-Recorder
Smarr Smith Foundation gifts body armor to local law enforcement agencies
By Tracy K. Hall
Fueled by the community’s support, the Smarr Smith Foundation was able to purchase body armor for Georgia Southwestern’s Public Safety Department and the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The body armor, or “bullet proof vests,” can prove to be life saving for an officer. Body armor is but one request the supporters of the Smarr Smith Foundation have made possible. Scholarships, training, a drone, traffic calming devices such as stop sticks, uniforms and cameras are a sampling of what the foundation has provided to GSW Public Safety, Americus Police Department and Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
WSAV
Gallery: Georgia Southern University hosts annual Celebrate Together
by: Bunny Ware
Georgia Southern University held its annual Celebrate Together on Thursday. Check out a photo gallery below.
Patch
The United States Economic Development Administration (EDA) has named Georgia Southern University as one of 51 nationwide grant recipients of the 2022 Build to Scale program, which means the University will receive $600,000 in grant funding along with $600,000 in local match funds. The goal is to accelerate technology entrepreneurship by increasing inclusive access to entrepreneurial support and startup capital. The University’s proposal, the “Coastal Empire Regional Ecosystem Strategy (CERES),” was selected as a finalist through Build to Scale’s Venture Challenge, which awards organizations that focus on supporting entrepreneurs.
Augusta CEO
Augusta University MBA Program Prepares Students for Professional, Personal Growth
Paige Fowler
The Master of Business Administration program at Augusta University is the hallmark graduate program of the Hull College of Business. A flexible program focused on supporting working professionals, MBA enrollment has increased 31% since fall 2016 — and the program has even more room to grow. The program offers various tracks, including options for full-time students, part-time students and asynchronous online students. The program’s online offering, the Hull Online MBA, was recently ranked the most affordable online MBA in the nation, and is one of only seven MBA programs in the state included in the Georgia WebMBA initiative.
Furniture Today
IFDA’S Educational Foundation names 2022 professional grants
Vicky Jarrett, Managing Editor
The Educational Foundation of the International Furnishings and Design Assn. (IFDA) has announced the winners of five of its professional grants. This year, the funds awarded totaled $27,000, granted to professionals working in the interior design or furnishings-related fields. “Congratulations to the winners we are proud to have in our profession,” said Helen Wagner, chairman of the board of the Educational Foundation of IFDA. “Their skills and initiative in undertaking new challenges are impressive and each winner exemplified the goals of the award they were granted, whether research, universal design, professional development or the advancement of interior design programs.”
The five grants awarded are:
Irma Dobkin Universal Design Grant — $2,000
Dr. Christine Wacta, assistant professor in the college of Behavioral and Social Sciences, School of Human Ecology, Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
Times-Georgian
UWG’s ’82 national title team to be honored
By Dan Minish Dminish
UWG’s 1982 National Championship Team Celebrating 40th Anniversary
Forty years ago this fall the local area was ablaze with excitement as West Georgia College’s two-year-old intercollegiate football program was garnering headlines throughout the nation when the then nicknamed Braves rolled up staggering wins over long established grid programs in route to a an 11-0 record and an NCAA National Championship. This weekend, the University of West Georgia will welcome back many of the players and coaches from title team to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a three-month period of time that galvanized the student body, alumni, and community and caught the attention of state and national media. Activities will include a banquet tonight and special recognition on the field at Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against arch rival Valdosta State at UWG’s University Stadium.
Morgan County Citizen
UGA Presents a Day of the Dead Concert with the Villalobos Brothers
Special to the Citizen
The Day of the Dead is a festive Mexican holiday that celebrates departed loved ones and the joy of being alive. Few bands exemplify musical exuberance like the Villalobos Brothers, three singing and songwriting violinists from Veracruz, Mexico. They will make their UGA Presents debut on the Day of the Dead, Wed. Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at Hodgson Concert Hall.
WTOC
Georgia Southern history professor shares insight on British Prime Minister’s resignation
By WTOC Staff
British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursday. Truss is the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. WTOC sat down with a professor of history at Georgia Southern University to get a little more insight on what the U.S. can take from her actions.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Capitol Recap: Georgia voters get off to a fast start
By Jim Denery
Georgia voters set a record pace for a midterm on the first day of early voting, with more than 133,000 in-person voters casting ballots. For a sense of scale, about 71,000 Georgians showed up on the first day of early voting in the 2018 midterms. The hot pace means this year’s overall turnout will likely exceed the 3.9 million voters who cast ballots in 2018, although it will likely fall short of the 5 million Georgians who went to the polls for the 2020 presidential election. …That could put to test University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bulloch’s “29-29″ theory that, in order for a Democrat to win a statewide race in Georgia, Black voters must make up at least 29% of the turnout. Such a Democrat, the theory goes, would also have to draw 29% of the white vote. The formula used to be 30-30, but Bulloch recently wrote in The Washington Post that with the growing diversity of the state’s population, “29-29 suffices.”
WRBL
WRBL to host 2nd Congressional District Debate at CSU University Hall
by: Connor Hackling
WRBL will host a 2nd Congressional District Debate at Columbus State’s University Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 26th at 7:00 p.m. ET. The debate will feature incumbent Congressman Sanford Bishop (D) and challenger Chris West (R). The hour-long debate will air live on WRBL News 3 and will be livestreamed on WRBL.com. WRBL’s Teresa Whitaker and Phil Scoggins will be the debate moderators. The questions will come from a panel of WRBL journalists, along with a CSU representative.
Athens Banner-Herald
‘We need your impatience’: Raphael Warnock visits UGA Chapel, encourages students to vote
Nikolai Mather
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock paid a visit to the University of Georgia on Oct. 20 to campaign for his re-election. The Baptist minister turned senator held a rally with other local Democrats, including Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz, Athens Commissioner Tim Denson and state Sen. Jen Jordan at the UGA Chapel. Warnock, who drew a crowd of about 200 students, discussed his plans for re-election and the importance of the youth vote. Nowhere in Georgia is this race more keenly contested than on the UGA campus.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Panel Shares How Best to Support Undocumented Students
Jon Edelman
As the DACA program hangs by a thread, undocumented students represent an increasingly vulnerable population. On Wednesday, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a collective of higher education leaders focused on the impact of immigration practices on campuses, brought together a panel to discuss how best to support these students, who represent 2% of all attendees of American colleges and universities.
Inside Higher Ed
Conservative Students Win Injunction on Campus Flier Policy
By Sara Weissman
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to a group of conservative students at Clovis Community College in an ongoing lawsuit against the college’s president and other administrators after campus officials allegedly disallowed their fliers from campus bulletin boards last year, The Fresno Bee reported. The injunction, issued last week by district judge Jennifer Thurston in Fresno, temporarily prevents college officials from enforcing a policy that campus fliers must get formal preapproval and can’t have “offensive or inappropriate language or themes.” Thurston concurred with students that the policy as it currently stands is “overbroad and vague.” The students, who belong to a group called Young Americans for Freedom, argue in their lawsuit that Lori Bennett, the college president, cited this policy in November when she ordered their anticommunism fliers be taken down from bulletin boards after administrators received complaints. A month later, the students were allowed to post antiabortion fliers to an outdoor free speech kiosk rather than more frequently trafficked bulletin boards in academic buildings, according to the suit.
Inside Higher Ed
AAUP to Investigate Cuts at Emporia State
By Josh Moody
The American Association of University Professors announced Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into the cuts at Emporia State University last month, which saw 33 faculty members—including numerous tenured professors—dismissed due to financial issues. The move was made amid declining enrollment and a dour financial outlook through a workforce-management policy approved by the Kansas Board of Regents that allowed Emporia State to dismiss employees, including tenured professors. The policy grew out of financial concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to allow Kansas colleges to shed employees quickly. The AAUP argued in a press release that the terminations were made “without any meaningful faculty participation and without affording the affected faculty members academic due process.” The AAUP described the cuts as a “direct assault on tenure and academic freedom.”
Higher Ed Dive
Academics’ complaint seeks to push retirement manager TIAA to divest from fossil fuels
By Lilah Burke, Contributor
Dive Brief:
Almost 300 people who have accounts at the Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association, TIAA — nearly all of them professors, scientists and academics — have submitted a complaint against the retirement giant for its investments in fossil fuels and deforestation. The complaint, filed with the United Nations-sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment, calls on TIAA to issue a moratorium on new fossil fuel investments and divest from such holdings by 2025, along with other measures, or else be removed as a signatory from the PRI. Faculty members say they are emboldened to act against climate change and see the effort as connected to activism that’s unfolded across higher education at the institutional level.
Inside Higher Ed
Supreme Court Asked to Block Debt-Relief Plan
By Katherine Knott
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. The conservative legal organization filed an emergency application for an injunction Wednesday after a federal appeals court declined to overturn a judge’s order to dismiss the case. The institute sued the Biden administration on behalf of a group of taxpayers in Wisconsin who said forgiving up to $20,000 in federal student loans for eligible Americans would result in higher taxes and a less prosperous country. A federal judge quickly tossed the suit because the plaintiffs lacked standing. Now, two weeks after that order, the institute is the first of many lawsuits opposing the debt-relief plan to take its case to the Supreme Court.
Inside Higher Ed
How COVID Spurred Digital Innovation and Empathy
In the early pandemic, educators rallied to provide academic continuity in unprecedented ways. That spurred online teaching innovations, many of which are worth preserving and enhancing, a Stanford self-study says.
By Susan D’Agostino
By most accounts, the March 2020 switch to emergency remote teaching and learning was rough on students, faculty members and staff workers. Student mental health suffered, existing inequities were exacerbated and many missed a sense of community. Now, a Stanford University self-study released today provides evidence that, despite acknowledged hardships, college students, faculty members and staff rallied around the shared goal of academic continuity in unprecedented ways. In the process, they developed and refined online teaching practices and course design in ways that better serve the whole student. Moving forward, some of those digital innovations may be worth preserving and enhancing.
Inside Higher Ed
OPINION
The Politics of Higher Education
This isn’t the first time colleges and universities have become political foils.
By Steven Mintz (Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin)
Political interference in higher education, we are told, is increasing. The partisan divide in views on higher education, we hear, is deepening. Campuses “are driving political division.” The diploma divide lies “at the heart of this country’s many divisions.” Is it the case, as a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education seems to suggest, that colleges and universities were venerated in the past and that only since the 1960s they became punching bags or political cannon fodder, caught (to mix metaphors) in the crosshairs of conservative ideologues? Of course not.