The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cobb schools will pay for employees to earn advanced degrees
By Cassidy Alexander,
The Cobb County School District will pay for up to 500 employees to get advanced degrees through the University of West Georgia in a new effort to recruit and retain teachers. The new program is called Georgia’s BEST, which stands for “Building Educator Success Together.” District officials believe it to be the first such initiative in the state. The school board unanimously approved an initial $500,000 investment at a meeting Thursday afternoon. …The university will work with the Cobb school district to create curriculum relevant to Cobb schools.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern Receives More National Recognition for Student Support Programs
Staff Report
Georgia Southern’s work to support students in their college journey is once again receiving national recognition. The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Excellence Awards has included two of the University’s collaborative projects, The Eagle Experience and the Period Equity Movement, in its 2022-2023 list of winners. “It is a tremendous honor for Georgia Southern to be recognized in this way, highlighting these programs that impact our students,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Shay Little, Ph.D. “The collaborative partnerships across our institution that support the Period Equity Movement and The Eagle Experience are transforming the student experience.”
Patch
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded Georgia Southern University’s Dongyu Jia, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology, a federal grant totaling $426,000 to fill in the gaps of learning the steps of tumor formation at the beginning stages and what initially triggers their epithelial cell shape change before becoming invasive.
WGAU Radio
Ga Museum of Art marks 75th anniversary
By Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia’s Georgia Museum of Art is planning a long list of activities marking this year’s 75th anniversary of the opening of the museum in Athens.
From Hillary Brown, UGA Today…
Throughout 2023, the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will celebrate its 75th anniversary. The museum opened to the public on Nov. 8, 1948, following a gift from Alfred Heber Holbrook, a retired lawyer from New York. At the time, it was the largest gift of art to a Southern university ever, initially numbering 100 American paintings by artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer. Holbrook said, in a news story from 1945, “I see the museum of the future as an instrument for serving Georgia and the entire region.”
Forbes
A U.S. Vice President, Atmospheric Scientist, And Oceanographer – That’s Black History
Marshall Shepherd Senior Contributor (Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program)
It is Black History Month, and I always try to share a perspective on it from my lens as a scientist. While many people may roll their eyes at the notion of a “Black History Month,: it is important to understand that such a month is not a threat or minimization to anyone else. In fact, it is an opportunity for everyone to share in some history that may not have been a part of your experience. … Last week I had the honor of co-moderating, along with Professor Isaiah Bolden, a discussion about climate change with the Vice President of the United States. Only this week did the significance of that moment hit me. … The Vice President was sitting on a stage discussing climate change with a Black oceanographer and a Black atmospheric scientist. …Bolden, my co-moderator, is an oceanographer and biogeochemist at Georgia Tech.
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Americus Times-Recorder
Hurricane Hearts: How Two Students Found Love and a Life-Saving Community at GSW
By Rebekah McLeod
Many young college students dream of finding lasting love and lifelong friendships during their college years and that’s the story for Theo and Lakinia [Watts] Ramsey. The two had no intention of having a romantic relationship with one another at first. They were close friends, travel companions, and a source of transportation for each other to visit their respective families in Columbus and Desoto over the holidays. “It was me, Theo, and Rashid [Castle-Ali],” says Lakinia, “We were the Three Musketeers.” They did everything together including camping out for concerts and taking road trips.” The three friends met when they started at GSW in 1996, and Theo and Lakinia ended up in the same political science class. “Theo was involved in everything,” recalls Lakinia, “and he would drag me along saying, ‘sign up for this,’ and I would say, ‘but I don’t want to,’ and he would insist…so I signed up.” …“It was a supportive community, especially as a person of color,” says Theo, who forged deep bonds with many of the alumni and staff at GSW, including history professor, Dr. Harold Isaacs, whom he still calls his “godfather.”
Time
Plants Must Migrate to Survive Climate Change. But They Need Our Help
By Ciara Nugent
When we talk about climate migration, we don’t normally picture a seed blowing uphill in the wind, or landing in a cooler place among a pile of fox poop. Yet just like humans, plants around the world are being forced to find new homes because of shifting climate conditions in their original habitats. The problem is, according to two new studies, they don’t always make it where they need to go. The sheer speed of temperature increases in the climate crisis era, combined with the fragmentation of landscapes by human activity, is making it harder for trees and other plants to follow their preferred climate conditions. These changes are disrupting a millenia-old process of plant migration, and it could pose a major challenge to global efforts to protect wildlife and reforest land to fight climate change. Though we tend to think of plants as static, many of them have always had to move to survive. A study published Feb. 6 by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found that 75% of the dominant plant groups in North America, including trees like pines and oaks, have migrated across the region over the last 18,000 years to track the movement of their ideal growing conditions.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
College Endowment Returns Fall After Soaring High
Surging inflation and global disruptions undercut endowment returns for colleges and universities in the 2022 fiscal year, a reversal of fortunes from the previous year.
By Josh Moody
Soaring inflation put a squeeze on college endowments in the 2021–22 fiscal year, driving returns down, according to the annual report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers The report, released today, is a marked change from the booming returns of fiscal year 2021, when endowments soared. The average return for all college endowments in fiscal 2022 was negative 8 percent, falling far short of the 30.6 percent overall average return in 2021. NACUBO also found that colleges increased their endowment spending, with dollars increasingly flowing toward institutional operating budgets, largely focused on student financial aid. The survey, conducted by NACUBO and the financial service company TIAA, counted 678 participating colleges and universities with a total of $807 billion in assets.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
The Biden Administration Used the Pandemic to Justify Loan Forgiveness. Some Say It Didn’t Need To.
Jon Edelman
President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which cancels $10,000 of debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and offers $20,000 of relief to Pell Grant recipients, is scheduled to come before the U.S. Supreme Court later this month. The administration will argue that it has the authority to cancel student debt under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities For Students (HEROES) Act of 2003, which allows for the cancellation of loans for people who have suffered economic hardship due to national emergencies—namely, the COVID-19 pandemic. The court’s six-justice conservative majority is expected to strike the program down, unless it finds that the subjects of the case don’t have standing. However, there’s another authority for debt relief that some scholars and advocates believe is stronger than the HEROES Act—and that could be used to let the program continue even if the Supreme Court strikes it down.
Cybersecurity Dive
Cybersecurity jobs least likely to be impacted by economic uncertainty, (ISC)2 says
A series of high-profile and damaging cyberattacks has underscored the critical role cybersecurity teams play, and top brass are taking notice.
Matt Kapko, Reporter
Layoffs are imminent at organizations of all types and widely viewed as a necessity as economic difficulty looms, but cybersecurity professionals will be the least impacted, according to (ISC)2. Only 1 in 10 executives anticipate job cuts to cybersecurity teams this year, according to a survey released Thursday by the non-profit cybersecurity training and certification organization. “This is probably the most elevated importance that’s been placed on cybersecurity that we’ve ever seen,” (ISC)2 CEO Clar Rosso said. Professionals in HR, finance, operations, sales, marketing, IT and research and development are all expected to face steeper job cuts this year, the survey found. HR, operations and finance teams were tapped as the most likely to be impacted by layoffs.
Inside Higher Ed
Poll: Most of the Public Opposes Considering Race in Admissions
By Scott Jaschik
A new poll by Reuters/Ipsos found that 62 percent of Americans say race and ethnicity should not be considered at all in college admissions, Reuters reported. The public opinion poll, which surveyed 4,408 adults from Feb. 6 to 13, found that 73 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of Democrats said they are against race-conscious admissions, or affirmative action.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Community Colleges Build Workforce Through Partnership and Student Success
Liann Herder
Educational leaders discuss how to partner with businesses on the third day of the Dream Conference. Educational leaders discuss how to partner with businesses on the third day of the Dream Conference. Day three of the 2023 Dream Conference in Chicago kicked off with a heightened focus on building partnerships that strengthen students and fortify the community workforce. The Dream conference is hosted annually by Achieving the Dream (ATD), a reform network of over 300 community colleges working to equitize higher education.
Cybersecurity Dive
IT security budgets triple as businesses confront more cyberattacks across Europe, US
David Jones, Reporter
Dive Brief:
The cost of combating cyberthreats has soared the past five years, as median IT security budgets more than tripled to $5.3 million in 2022, compared with $1.4 million in 2018, according to a report by Hiscox.
More businesses are grappling with cyber incidents today compared to previous years. About half of all businesses suffered a breach or attack in 2022, versus 39% in 2020. The financial services and technology, media and telecom industries (TMT) suffered at least one attack per year for three consecutive years, the report found.
Inside Higher Ed
New Study: Lack of Sleep Hurts Students’ Grades
By Scott Jaschik
Every additional hour of average nightly sleep early in the semester is associated with an 0.07-point increase in end-of-term grade point average, according to study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was of 600 college freshmen at three private universities.
Inside Higher Ed
Michigan State Students Don’t Want to Go Back to Class
By Scott Jaschik
When a gunman killed three Michigan State University students and seriously injured five others on Monday night, the university announced that there would be no classes for the rest of this week. It turns out that many Michigan State students don’t think that’s enough. “Returning one week after a mass shooting has left many unsettled,” says a petition signed by nearly 15,000 as of Thursday afternoon. “This petition is a proposal to have hybrid or online options for students and parents who are uncomfortable with returning to campus with such haste.