WRDW
AU’s Master of Business Administration enrollment increases
By Staff
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, Master of Business Administration enrollment has increased by 31% since the fall of 2016 – and the program is expected to grow. The program’s online offering was recently ranked the most affordable online master of business administration in the nation.
Columbus CEO
Columbus State’s Broadway Ball Fundraiser to Support Dance Minor Scholarships
Staff Report
Columbus State University’s annual Broadway Ball, which benefits the university’s Dance Minor Program, will take place on Friday, Nov. 11, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Bibb Mill Event Center. The black-tie scholarship fundraiser will feature married Broadway stars Steve Boockvor and Denise Pence Boockvar. Guests will enjoy cocktails, entertainment, dinner and dancing, featuring the DNR Band. “The sixth annual Broadway Ball, being held on Veteran’s Day, will not only honor two outstanding Broadway performers, Denise and Steve Boockvor, but also honor the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center,” said Patty Taylor, chair of the Dance Minor Advisory Board. “This fundraiser for the CSU Dance Minor Program, along with Spring Swing held annually in April, is the sole support for our dance minor program. We are blessed to have both corporate and individual donor support because, without our donors and the people who support our events, Columbus State’s Dance Program would not exist.”
Grice Connect
Georgia Southern Miracle gathers donations to give towards children’s hospital
This organization put together ‘Spooktacular’ bags for sick and injured children who will spend their Halloween in the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
by Kirsten VanBeverhoudt
On Oct. 18, the Georgia Southern Miracle organization’s president rallied the executive board and all members to bring donations of candy and small objects to fill spooky treat bags, which will be delivered to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia for Halloween. “This is acting as a service for the Children’s Hospital of Georgia,” president of GS Miracle, Caroline Rossiter, said. “These bags are going to be distributed through the Child Life Department, and it’s just for the kids who don’t get to experience Halloween since they’re sick in the hospital being treated for different things.” …Miracle at GSU is a student organization at Georgia Southern that raises money throughout the year for the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.
WGAU Radio
UGA: new cohort of STEM leadership fellows
By UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The NSF INCLUDES Aspire Alliance, which engages a growing network of partners to support systemic change in the STEM higher education system, has announced the fourth cohort of 18 fellows in its IAspire Leadership Academy. The academy is designed to support STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds to ascend to leadership roles at colleges and universities. Led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the University of Georgia, the IAspire Leadership Academy provides professional development for academic leaders to succeed in leadership roles by equipping them with executive leadership skills and strategies for influencing institutional transformation.
yahoo!news
Mary Diallo among Carter Series lecturers
The Albany Herald, Ga.
Mary Diallo will be the featured lecturer on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center in a Carter Arts and Lecture Series presentation at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Bainbridge campus. The Carter Arts & Lecture Series is committed to enhancing the educational experience by bringing compelling speakers, distinguished authors, and performing arts to the ABAC Bainbridge campus. All events are designed to bring the campus and community together to educate, inspire and spark imagination. Diallo was one of the first three African American freshmen to enroll at the University of Georgia in 1962. She graduated in 1966 and continued her academic career until she earned a Ph.D. in French Literature from Emory University.
Athens CEO
Blue Key Awards Banquet Recognizes 2022 Award Recipients, Initiates
Irene Wright
Awardees and initiates were recognized at the university’s annual Tucker Dorsey Blue Key Alumni Banquet on Oct. 14 at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. The 2022 Blue Key Service Award was presented to D. Paul Chambers Jr., retired AT&T North Georgia regional director of external affairs; Yvette K. Daniels, deputy director of workforce management at the Georgia Department of Public Health and president of the UGA Alumni Association; and Judge William M. Ray II, United States District Court judge for the Northern District of Georgia. Jennifer L. Frum was awarded the 2022 Faculty Blue Key Service Award. Frum serves as UGA’s vice president for public service and outreach, the first woman in this role.
Big News Network
Harmless group of bacteria linked to higher death rates in kidney patients
A large group of bacteria present in our soil, water, and showerheads are generally harmless to most people, but a recent study suggested that they are linked to an elevated risk of death in people whose kidneys have failed. In what appears to be the first study of its kind, investigators at the Medical College of Georgia and Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta looked in the United States Renal Data System at patients with end-stage renal disease, or ESRD, who also had a diagnosis of infection with the nontuberculous mycobacteria, or NTM, group. They found a significant and independent increase in mortality with an NTM diagnosis in these patients, indicating that early diagnosis and treatment of an NTM infection may improve survival in ESRD patients, they report in the Journal of Investigative Medicine.
Griffin Daily News
Joro spider spotted at UGA Research and Education Garden
By Ashley Biles UGA Griffin
Just in time for Halloween, the University of Georgia Research and Education Garden has a new spooky visitor on the grounds — a Joro spider. Joro spiders are native to Japan and China, first appearing in Georgia in 2014 after making the trek overseas by hitching a ride in a shipping container. The palm-sized arachnid spotted on the UGA Griffin campus is thought to be the first documented sighting of the species in Spalding County.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Student Aid Eligibility Changes Under FAFSA Simplification
FAFSA simplification shouldn’t change student aid eligibility too much, but there are some situations colleges and universities should be aware of.
By Katherine Knott
A new Free Application for Federal Student Aid is less than a year away, and colleges and universities are already planning for the expected overhaul of federal student aid. To help with that effort, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators created a modeling tool and is planning to release a white paper this week with seven case studies that show how the changes affect student aid eligibility. For the most part, student aid eligibility is not expected to change that much, but the case studies show some of the instances in which eligibility would change.
Higher Ed Dive
5 enrollment trends to keep an eye on for fall 2022
Although undergraduate and graduate enrollment are both down, some types of institutions saw notable increases, including HBCUs and online colleges.
Natalie Schwartz, Editor
Enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions is down yet again, declining by 1.1% for fall 2022 from the year before. Decreases came across all types of institutions, including community colleges, public universities and for-profit schools. But the topline figure hides some interesting enrollment trends at play this fall. For instance, while community colleges still saw a slight decline, it’s much smaller than the double-digit decreases these institutions incurred in the pandemic’s early days. And some institutions — such as historically Black colleges and universities — actually saw enrollment gains this term.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Report: College Students Taking Fewer Credit Hours Than Before
Arrman Kyaw
College students are taking fewer credit hours than before and conscious course scheduling is becoming more relevant, according to a new report from higher education resource company Ad Astra. The company produced “Complicated Lives, Competing Priorities: Reimagining the Course Schedule for Today’s Student” using 687 responses from a 2022 survey of institutional leaders – 241 two-year public institutional leaders, 260 four-year public institutional leaders, and 158 four-year private institutional leaders. Among the report’s findings were that students took 14.6% fewer credits in Fall 2021 than they did two years earlier and that enrollment of full-time students decreased from 66.8% two years earlier to 64% in Fall 2021 at public four-year universities.
Inside Higher Ed
Higher Ed Employees Are Financially Literate but Indebted
Susan H. Greenberg
The vast majority of college and university employees—82 percent—carry some kind of debt, and just over half are debt-constrained in some way, according to a new report by the TIAA Institute and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). The debt is more heavily concentrated in younger higher ed employees; 88 percent of those under 40 are carrying debt—most of it in student loans—compared to 64 percent of workers over 60, who are mainly paying off mortgages. The report, “Financial Literacy and Financial Well-Being Among the Higher Education Workforce,” also found that higher ed professionals are slightly more financially literate than the general population.
Inside Higher Ed
Making Teaching a More Attractive Profession: Academic Minute
By Doug Lederman
Today on the Academic Minute: Henry Tran, associate professor in education leadership at the University of South Carolina, examines how we can develop more teachers.
Higher Ed Dive
Texas universities want to take back degrees for cheating. Can they?
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The Texas Supreme Court late last month heard oral arguments in a case that would allow two of the state’s public colleges to revoke doctorate degrees from students who allegedly cheated on their dissertations more than a decade ago. The lawsuit centers on former students from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University. After they both earned their doctorate degrees, accusations arose that they falsified data in their dissertations. The universities have attempted to rescind their degrees. UT-Austin and Texas State are arguing they have authority to invalidate credentials if they discover academic malfeasance after students graduate. This allows the universities to protect their reputations and the value of their degrees, they have said.
Inside Higher Ed
University of Florida to Enforce Ban on Indoor Protests
By Johanna Alonso
The University of Florida is planning to enforce an obscure regulation forbidding protests inside campus buildings during an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting, President Kent Fuchs said in a message Monday. At the meeting, trustees will consider U.S. senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, for the position of the university’s president; he is the sole finalist in the search. “We have not enforced this policy in recent years because in the rare cases that protesters entered buildings, they were respectful of others and their rights to speak and to hear,” Fuchs wrote in his message. The decision to enforce the regulation, which was originally established more than two decades ago, according to Fuchs’s message, comes after students interrupted a forum with Sasse during a visit to campus earlier this month. The protests caused the event to end early and forced Sasse’s next forum to go virtual.
Inside Higher Ed
Tackling Racism’s Legacy Through a Fight Song
Activists at the University of Alabama want a racist term removed from the fight song. Other students argue it’s not racist, it’s “tradition.” The administration has yet to respond.
By Johanna Alonso
Cassandra Simon, an associate professor of social work at the University of Alabama, has never attended a university football game in her 22 years working there. She was put off by the penultimate lyric in the university’s fight song: “You’re Dixie’s football pride.” The fight song, “Yea Alabama!” is largely associated with the Crimson Tide, one of the most successful football programs in NCAA history. But it isn’t exclusively played at football games; according to Alabama’s website, it plays “after every score at a sporting event.” …In March 2021, she, along with other members of the Black Faculty and Staff Association, officially requested that the university remove the word “Dixie” from the lyrics. The word refers to the antebellum South and is often seen as offensive for “evok[ing] a very nostalgic and romanticized view of slavery,” historian Tammy Ingram explained to CNN in 2020. Though its origins are disputed, it was used in minstrel shows beginning in the mid-1800s, solidifying its racist connotations, she said.
Higher Ed Dive
What colleges need to know about problems with student loan servicing
Watchdogs say administrators should consider the student loan landscape they’re asking students to enter. Here are key findings from a recent CFPB report.
By Lilah Burke, Contributor
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has turned a critical eye toward higher education’s monetary ecosystem recently. This month, it scrutinized the deals colleges strike with banks. But it’s been investigating other aspects of the sector as well. That follows a September publication about student loan servicers — companies that administer federal student loans. The document paints a picture of an industry where deceptive and abusive practices have been common, and where borrowers may not get the debt relief to which they’re entitled. Ben Kaufman, director of research and investigations at the Student Borrower Protection Center, said colleges should be aware of the findings and understand the lending landscape they are bringing students into when they encourage them to take out loans.
Inside Higher Ed
The State of Higher Ed Technology: A Survey of CIOs
By Doug Lederman
Cover of Inside Higher Ed’s 2022 Survey of Campus Chief Information/Technology Officers
Fewer than a quarter of college and university technology leaders are very confident that their institutions can prevent ransomware attacks. Most are struggling to hire and retain technology employees. And just four in 10 say they believe senior administrators at their institution have made digital transformation a high priority, even after the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the importance of agility and adaptability. Those are among the findings of Inside Higher Ed’s 2022 Survey of Campus Chief Technology/Information Officers, its first-ever such survey. The technology survey, conducted in partnership with Hanover Research and released in conjunction with the Educause annual conference that begins today, joins Inside Higher Ed’s studies of other key campus leaders, alongside those of presidents, provosts, chief academic officers and admissions directors. A copy of the report can be downloaded here.
Cybersecurity Dive
4 security predictions from Google’s cyber leaders
The hopeful forecasts aren’t exclusive to Google’s cybersecurity experts. Many believe the industry is poised to deliver on its mission with greater efficiency and effect.
Matt Kapko, Reporter
Google’s cybersecurity leaders are cautiously optimistic, despite the heady state of threats in the industry. Executives made some predictions during a Wednesday virtual discussion with journalists that, if realized, could significantly alter the state of readiness and defense at large. Encouraging advancements in identity authentication, inherent defenses in the cloud and a broader technological convergence could narrow pathways for attacks and upend how most organizations approach cyber defense today. Top executives, including Google Cloud CISO Phil Venables and Heather Adkins, VP of security engineering, said they expect these predictions to materialize during the next five to 10 years. These four predictions aren’t unique to those responsible for security at Google, but rather many cybersecurity professionals who believe the industry is poised to deliver on its mission with greater efficiency and effect.