Statesboro Herald
GA Southern graduate Bryce Leatherwood wins The Voice
Georgia Southern graduate Bryce Leatherwood was crowned the winner of the musical talent show The Voice Tuesday evening in Los Angeles. The 22nd season of the Voice saw Leatherwood selected by Country Music star Blake Shelton in the blind auditions and he quickly became a fan favorite.
…Leatherwood became the ninth winner selected by Blake Shelton as their coach.
Leatherwood graduated in May with a business degree from Georgia Southern. He spent much of his college days performing as a solo artist, but formed the Bryce Leatherwood band just over a year ago.
See also:
11Alive
Newscast Video
Georgia native Bryce Leatherwood wins NBC’s ‘The Voice’
The Georgia Virtue
Ga Southern graduate skips commencement to teach his students
A Bulloch County middle school surprised its newest teacher with a private graduation ceremony on Tuesday morning after he chose to remain with his students instead of walking in his college commencement. Wearing his Georgia Southern University Alumni sweatshirt, Zachary Barrow, a middle grades education major, walked into the William James Middle School Cafeteria to the sound of enthusiastic cheers. The entire sixth-grade faculty, staff and students, plus his principal, Dr. Scott Chapman, who was donned in graduation regalia, had secretly gathered to honor and congratulate him. … From a podium on the cafeteria’s stage, Dr. Chapman shared with the audience that Barrow had first joined his staff last spring as a college student. He was completing his pre-professional requirements to become a certified teacher by taking a Practicum II course prior to student teaching. … Working in collaboration with Georgia Southern and Bulloch County Schools’ Central Office administrators, Chapman ensured Barrow would have the professional learning support he needed at the school level to be successful as a new teacher and complete his university coursework. He hired Barrow as a sixth-grade social studies teacher with a provisional teaching certificate for fall semester, and the university credited his service over the past 18 weeks to his student teaching requirement.
Times-Georgian
University of West Georgia surprises all graduation attendees with free basketball tickets
By Colton Campbell
The University of West Georgia provides memorable experiences for those who attend one of the institution’s graduation ceremonies: from awarding honorary degrees to canine companions to students graduating remotely via robot. That tradition continued Saturday, as all attendees of one Commencement ceremony — more than 3,000 people — left with a free ticket to a UWG Men’s or Women’s basketball game of their choice during the remainder of the 2022-23 season. At the time of the Commencement ceremony, the men’s team was undefeated and the top-ranked team in the Gulf South Conference.
yahoo!news
ABAC to graduate 244 on Dec. 15 in commencement ceremonies at Gressette Gym
The Moultrie Observer, Ga.
Dr. Tracy Brundage will preside over her first fall commencement exercises as the president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on Dec. 15 when 244 graduates accept diplomas in two ceremonies. Campus Communications Coordinator Jordan Beard, who coordinates the ceremonies, said the 10 a.m. event will include graduates from the School of Nursing and Health Sciences and the School of Arts and Sciences. The 2 p.m. event includes graduates from the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Stafford School of Business. At the present time, a total of 136 graduates are scheduled to participate in the morning ceremony, and a total of 108 graduates are expected to be a part of the afternoon graduation.
Patch
Emma Williams will cross Georgia Southern University’s commencement stage on Dec. 13 as a graduate of the Honors College with dual degrees in political science and philosophy. Also an intelligence analyst for the Navy, Williams represents a number of firsts within her family. She’s the first to graduate from college. The first to join the Navy, and the first to dream of becoming a lawyer.
accessWDUN
UNG releases inaugural “20 Under 40” honorees list
By Logan Landers Anchor/Reporter
The University of North Georgia Alumni Association has announced the inaugural honorees for its “20 Under 40” program. The recognition is meant to honor members of the UNG family for extraordinary accomplishments, significant professional achievements, or who have been a service to others. “The ’20 Under 40′ program allows Alumni Relations the opportunity to highlight the quality of the outstanding graduates UNG is producing with every graduating class,” Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Wendi Huguley said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia House panel encourages salary increases for law enforcement officers
By Maya T. Prabhu
A panel of Georgia House members are encouraging colleagues to back bills next year to both help keep law enforcement agencies from losing officers and attract Georgians to the profession. The recommendation were made by the House Study Committee on State and Local Law Enforcement Salaries, which held a series of hearings this fall to examine the issue. Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, chairman of the study committee, said the panel was designed to shine light on the issues law enforcement officers face and encourage more people to join the force. …The panel also recommended the University System of Georgia create a degree in law enforcement and expand the number of schools that accept Georgia Public Safety Training Center coursework toward degree credit. They also want to create an optional statewide retirement system for public safety employees. The system would allow retirement plans to follow the employee as long as they continue to work in public safety in Georgia.
Savannah Business Journal
SAVANNAH STATE UNIVERSITY employees selected for USG Executive Leadership Institute
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
Two Savannah State University (SSU) employees are among the 35 faculty and staff members named to the 2022 – 2023 University System of Georgia’s (USG) Executive Leadership Institute (ELI). Kisha Aites, Ph.D., associate professor of Engineering Technology Education and interim chair of the College of Education, and Sheri Rouse-Mainor, executive director for the SSU Foundation, Inc., and University Advancement & Philanthropic Operations have been selected to participate. The ELI is a comprehensive six-month, 120-hour development program designed to enhance leadership skills and prepare participants for advanced and cabinet-level leadership positions within the University System of Georgia. The SSU team joins employees from 25 USG institutions and the University System Office.
Savannah CEO
TEDxSavannah 2023 Set for May 25th at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus
Staff Report
Tickets for TEDxSavannah are currently on sale at tedxsavannah.com. The 12th anniversary event will take place on Thursday, May 25, 2023 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Auditorium at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus, located at 11935 Abercorn St. “In 2023, we will be implementing some exciting changes, including a new location at the beautiful Georgia Southern University-Armstrong Campus and a condensed, half-day format,” said TEDxSavannah organizing committee member Lizann Roberts. “Our 2023 event will include all of the inspiring talks, networking opportunities and TEDxSavannah fun that attendees have come to expect at a more accessible ticket price.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zoo Atlanta veterinary facility due for $22 million expansion
By Bo Emerson
New animal care center, slated for 2024, to be 10 times size of current structure
Zoo Atlanta is building again. The nonprofit Grant Park attraction, seemingly never without a construction project, will be radically expanding its veterinary facilities. A $22 million fundraising campaign, already underway, will pay to expand the 1,600-square-foot facility to 10 times its size, and bring animal care at the zoo into the 21st century. …The zoo envisions the new veterinary care center as a teaching establishment as well as an animal care facility, capable of livestreaming procedures there to veterinary students at the University of Georgia.
WGAU Radio
UGA study: good retirement advice is hard to find
By Erica Techo, UGA Today
A new study from the University of Georgia found many states within the Southeast and West qualify as financial advice deserts—a new concept coined by researchers to describe a low proportion of financial planners or planning institutions where people are less likely to understand their financial options or save for the future. Researchers found that approximately 10% of Americans live in an area that constitutes a financial advice desert. As retirement cashflow continues to move away from company-paid pensions and more into the hands of individual workers, this planning grows in importance for individual and community financial health, said researcher Swarn Chatterjee.
Fox5 Atlanta
Lawsuit claims Georgia denies health benefits for transgender employees
By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Several state employees said they are suing Georgia because they were denied state health benefits. Micha Rich joins fellow state employee Benjamin Johnson and the unidentified dependent of another state employee as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Doctors diagnosed Rich, an accountant with the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and Johnson, a media clerk at an elementary school in Bibb County, with gender dysphoria. Rich said he is unable to access the healthcare he needs, and he’s had to pay out-of-pocket for treatment that doctors deem necessary. … David Brown, Legal Director for the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, called the state health benefits plan discriminatory. Brown said state insurers completely denied Rich healthcare coverage, not just for transgender-related healthcare. …Brown cited a lawsuit filed against Houston County, in which a federal court ruled an employer cannot exclude or deny coverage for transition-related medical treatments. The state also settled a lawsuit seeking to allow transgender-related healthcare in its Medicaid plan. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents settled a lawsuit excluding transgender-related healthcare from its plan.
Gainesville Times
UGA winning streak may upend this government body’s meeting time
Jeff Gill
The Georgia Bulldogs football team may disrupt Oakwood City Council’s meeting schedule. City Attorney Donnie Hunt called on the council Monday night to reconsider its Jan. 9 meeting if the Dawgs continue their winning ways. “In light of the fact that Georgia is going to beat Ohio State on Dec. 31, I assume we’ll be playing for a national championship on Jan. 9,” he said. “I think there needs to be some consideration of either moving our meeting to an earlier time … or we move (the meeting) to another night.”
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Veterans Affairs Delays Rollout of New Enrollment System
By Katherine Knott
The Department of Veterans Affairs is holding off on a new enrollment management system in a move to give colleges and universities more time to prepare for the transition. The American Council on Education and other higher education organizations raised concerns last week in a letter to VA secretary Denis R. McDonough about the department’s plans to roll out the new system, which will be used to certify GI Bill benefits, next month at a peak certification time for the spring semester. The letter urged the VA to wait until the summer.
Inside Higher Ed
Opinion
With students highly stressed even when they are studying less, educators need to understand how much homework is helpful, David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler write.
By David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler
With final exams again upon us, students across the country seem more stressed than ever, even as study after study has found they’re spending far less time on schoolwork than students once did. The details of our latest national debate about rigor are well-known by now: in a story that made national news, 82 of 350 students in a New York University organic chemistry class last spring signed a petition claiming the class was too hard. NYU officials offered to review the students’ grades, allowed them to withdraw from the course retroactively and refused to renew the professor’s contract. The professor, a distinguished chemist, argued that student performance started to decline 10 years ago and “fell off a cliff” during the pandemic, with “30 percent attendance in the lecture, silent students, empty office hours and plummeting grades on ever-easier exams.” He decried “a strong consensus among teachers that we continue to ask less and less of our students.” Some saw the NYU incident as part of a national “collapse in merit standards,” driven by a desire to placate “under-educated, easily offended and entitled” students. Others denounced the use of gateway courses to “weed out” less prepared students from difficult majors and demanded that colleges and universities do more to help them manage workload-related stress.
Inside Higher Ed
Perceived Campus Parking Problems and the Factors That Influence Them
Keeping parking areas maintained and safe are a few ways to positively sway overall student opinion of campus parking, as our infographic shows.
By Melissa Ezarik
While individual campuses and situations play a role in intensity of the problem, parking issues are a nearly universal frustration for students and others on campus. And it certainly doesn’t help that a popular best practice in creating walkable corridors involves placing parking at the edges of campus. Common parking complaints include inconvenient parking and a lack of enough parking, plus having to pay for it, particularly if lots and garages feel unsafe or are poorly maintained. As a respondent to a recent Student Voice survey on facilities, a student at a private university in Idaho, noted, “The parking on campus is my least favorite thing about going to school. I avoid going to campus to study because of this.” …The Student Voice survey of 2,000 students, conducted in mid-October by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan, reveals not just what students see as issues but also some instances where factors such as perceptions of safety and aesthetics are correlated with how students view adequacy and convenience of parking.
Inside Higher Ed
Florida Shops for New Accreditors
Education officials in Florida have been meeting with agencies as they seek a new accreditor for state colleges and universities. A lengthy and expensive process awaits.
By Josh Moody
The Florida Department of Education and the chancellor of the State University System of Florida gathered the leaders of nearly 40 state institutions in Tallahassee Dec. 7 for a closed-door meeting whose purpose remains unclear. Neither the state Department of Education nor the chancellor’s office responded to multiple requests for comment or for a meeting agenda, attendee list and other details. The Florida Board of Governors has provided only vague statements on the meeting.
Inside Higher Ed
Overhauling Income-Driven Repayment
The Biden administration’s other plan to change how people pay back their loans could be safe from legal challenges.
By Katherine Knott
While President Biden’s one-time student loan forgiveness plan remains tied up in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Education Department is working on a more far-reaching and costly plan to overhaul how people pay back their loans. The overhaul of the department’s income-driven repayment program, which bases monthly payments on an individual’s income and family size, would cut payments in half for undergraduates, with a cap of 5 percent on a borrower’s discretionary income. Those who take out $12,000 or less in loans would qualify for relief in 10 years, among other changes. Over all, experts say this plan has the potential to remake how higher education is financed in America—though that depends on whether borrowers take advantage of it.
Cybersecurity Dive
Fortinet urges customers to upgrade systems amid critical vulnerability
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability has been exploited in the wild and could allow an attacker to gain control of a system.
David Jones, Reporter
Fortinet is warning customers to apply security upgrades after a critical vulnerability was found in FortiOS SSL-VPN that could allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands and take control of a targeted system. A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability, CVE-2022-42475, could allow a remote attacker to take over an affected system, Fortinet said. There is at least one case where the vulnerability was exploited in the wild. A spokesperson for the company said Fortinet is “committed to the security of our customers,” who have been notified through the PSIRT advisory process to follow the guidance provided and continue to monitor the situation. Claire Tills, senior research engineer at Tenable, said that Fortinet SSL VPNs have been a target of threat actors for years. The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency put out advisories about these flaws in 2021, Tills said.
Cybersecurity Dive
California authorities confirm cyber intrusion, LockBit claims ransomware hit
Matt Kapko, Reporter
Dive Brief:
California’s Department of Finance was hit by a cyberattack and multiple state agencies are responding in coordination with the California Cybersecurity Integration Center. The state Office of Emergency Services is investigating the incident and is working to contain the impact and mitigate future vulnerabilities, according to a statement released Monday. The LockBit ransomware group listed the state’s finance department on its leak site Monday and claims it stole 76 GB of data from the department, including databases, financial documents, court filings and IT documents, according to Brett Callow, threat analyst at Emsisoft. California officials said the attack was proactively identified and “no state funds have been compromised,” but declined to provide further details.