Albany Herald
ABAC alumna named 2023 Georgia Mrs. United States Agriculture
From staff reports
Paula Lewis, an alumna of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, recently won the 2023 Georgia Mrs. United States Agriculture title. The goal of the Mrs. United States Agriculture pageant is “to truly advocate for agriculture by using the crown and sash as an avenue to start conversations,” according to the pageant’s website. The organization considers itself “a pageant with a purpose.” It was started in 2014.
InsiderAdvantage
The Truth about Training at the Medical College of Georgia
by David C. Hess
David C. Hess, MD is the dean of the Medical College of Georgia and executive vice president of Medical Affairs and Integration for Augusta University
A recent opinion piece published by InsiderAdvantage claims that the Medical College of Georgia is secretly indoctrinating and training our medical students to practice racial discrimination in their treatment of patients. As a faculty member at MCG since 1991, chair of neurology for 17 years and dean of the college for the past six years, I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. At issue is a presentation provided by one of our faculty members as part of the college’s Grand Rounds seminars, which like similar venues at medical schools around the world are open-invitation opportunities for faculty and students to hear from clinicians and others on a variety of topics across the medical disciplines. At MCG, Grand Rounds are not part of the curriculum nor are they required for students to graduate.
Cobb Business Journal
GREG TEAGUE: Driving Economic Development in Cobb County
Greg Teague, 2023 Cobb Chamber Chairman
Being involved with the Cobb Chamber of Commerce for more than 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing first-hand the economic growth the County has experienced. But this growth doesn’t happen without the hard work of many individuals and organizations, who work collaboratively, and often behind-the-scenes, to recruit new business, retain our existing industry, develop our workforce pipeline, and promote the assets and excellent quality of life found in our community. …The Cobb Chamber also leverages its partnerships with other regional chambers and organizations, such as Kennesaw State University, the University System of Georgia, Georgia Economic Development Association, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and the Japan America Society, to promote our county. A great example of collaboration is the recent Black Professionals Business Mixer, which leveraged partnerships with the Cobb NAACP and the Atlanta Black Chambers. T. Dallas Smith of T. Dallas Smith & Company, a prominent business leader in Atlanta, was the keynote speaker and approximately 150 company representatives attended.
AllOnGeorgia
USG: Dr. Stuart Rayfield Named President of Columbus State University
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) named Dr. Stuart Rayfield president of Columbus State University, effective July 1, 2023. Rayfield currently serves as USG’s vice chancellor for leadership and institutional development and previously spent more than 10 years at Columbus State as a faculty member and administrator.
WGAU Radio
UGA professor wins Regents teaching award
By Tim Bryant
An associate professor in the University of Georgia’s College of Education has received the Regents Award for online learning. The honor goes to UGA’s Jill Stefiniak.
From Wes Mayer, UGA Today…
Jill Stefaniak, associate professor in the department of workforce education and instructional technology within the Mary Frances Early College of Education, has been awarded the 2023 Regents’ Teaching Excellence Award for Online Teaching. Stefaniak is a nationally recognized leader in her field of instructional design and a respected instructor who creates meaningful online learning experiences.
Savannah Morning News
Irish minister: St. Patrick’s Day a time to celebrate bond between Savannah, Ireland
This commentary is written by Darragh O’Brien, Ireland’s minister for housing, local government and heritage. He will represent his country at this week’s Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
I am honoured to travel to Savannah to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I can think of no better place to celebrate the strength and endurance of Ireland’s ties in the United States. Each year St. Patrick’s Day offers us an opportunity to reconnect with our diaspora and the 70 million people worldwide of Irish background, tens of millions of whom call America home. …Last year, the signing of the Wexford-Savannah Partnership Agreement by the Chair of Wexford County Council, Barbara-Anne Murphy, and Mayor Van Johnson marked a significant milestone in this relationship. In addition, the Wexford campus of Georgia Southern University welcomed its first students last summer with another cohort due this year. This makes Georgia Southern the first public university in the United States to open a bricks-and-mortar campus in Ireland. A landmark achievement.
Athens CEO
UGA Partners with the Department of Defense to Build Resilience in the Southeast
Staff Report
For years, UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant has been helping coastal communities in low lying areas build resilience into planning efforts. Sitting adjacent to some of these communities are U.S. Department of Defense military installations that are just as vulnerable to coastal hazards. In 2019, the Department of Defense identified climate challenges facing military installations across the country in its “Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense.” Of the 79 installations included in the report, 53 were experiencing recurring flooding. Flooding and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, pose the greatest risk to installations in the Southeast coastal region. To help protect coastal installations and surrounding communities, UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant secured funding from the Department of Defense and the National Sea Grant College Program to hire Michelle Covi as the country’s first Coastal Resilience DOD Liaison in 2021.
Georgia Entertainment News
Columbus State University program helping with demand for audio engineers in Georgia
By Staff
As digital communication technologies evolve with new innovations in producing, mixing and mastering sound, so has the demand for audio engineers. Columbus State University’s Audio Technology Minor Program is preparing students for the growing workforce demands in this diverse and ever-changing field. The 18-hour Audio Technology Minor Program is offered through CSU’s Joyce and Henry Schwob School of Music. It provides students with classroom concepts and practical experiences with sound technology and engineering software through classes centered around mastering soundtracks, mixing sound in live performances, producing CDs and vinyls, creating sound effects for film, and more.
KSU economist ‘optimistic’ about banking sector stabilizing; local bankers unperturbed
By Hunter Riggall
A Kennesaw State University economist told businesspeople Tuesday that he’s optimistic that steps taken by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will stabilize the banking sector in the wake of two regional banks collapsing. In response to the failure of California-based Silicon Valley Bank and New York-based Signature Bank, authorities announced a new instrument through which banks whose balance sheets are hobbled by high interest rates will be able to access liquidity in the form of Fed loans against their affected assets.
WRBL
Columbus State University to honor 12 Diversity award winners
by: Mubashir Zaidi
Columbus State University (CSU) will honor a dozen students, employees, alumni and community leaders on March 29 with its annual Legacy Awards. They are selected for their dedicated work in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. Frank G. Lumpkin Jr. Center on CSU’s Main Campus will host the Legacy celebration dinner. Civil rights leader and broadcasting executive Xernona Clayton will deliver the keynote speech.
Albany Herald
UGA Precision Ag Conference addresses global issues
By David Mitchell UGA/CAES
The Integrative Precision Agriculture International Conference — Local Solutions Through Global Advances will be held May 18-19 at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel. Hosted by UGA’s Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture, the conference will feature speakers who solve problems around the globe and offer new perspectives on common challenges in the field. Crop and livestock farms throughout Georgia are in a perpetual exchange of ideas and innovations to solve challenges that have tangible impacts on the state’s — and the country’s — food supply.
WGAU Radio
UGA study: patient-friendly prescription labels improve medication adherence
By Henry Young, UGA Media Relations
As many as half of all Americans with chronic diseases like hypertension and depression don’t take their medications as prescribed. And more than 100,000 people die due to medication nonadherence each year, costing upward of $100 billion in preventable health care expenses. But new research from the University of Georgia suggests tweaking the labels on prescription medication bottles could help patients take their drugs the way their doctors intended. The study found prescription medication labels that list explicit instructions, for example when to take the medicine or whether the patient should avoid alcohol, can dramatically improve medication adherence to antihypertension medications, contraceptives and asthma controllers.
The Christian Index
Georgia Baptist Mission Board provides updates on key initiatives aimed at helping churches reach Georgia and the world for Christ
By Roger Alford
Anthony Wilson challenged Georgia Baptist leaders on Tuesday to help shape the destinies of people, even if it means taking extraordinary actions to get them to Jesus. “If we’re going to reach the many lost souls in this state, we can’t do it by conventional means,” said Wilson, pastor of Church 180 in Hampton and second vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention. “We can’t do it the way it was done before I was born. We have to do something unique. The message has to stay the same, but the methods must change.” …The Mission Board’s chief operating officer, David Melber updated committee members on a revolutionary deal with private investors to construct new BCM buildings on five state universities with the possibility to expand to additional campuses in the future. Under that deal, Georgia-based Covenant Capital Investors has leased BCM land at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, and the University of West Georgia in Carrollton where they will spend $100 million to construct multi-story buildings that will not only provide prime space to the BCMs but also for student housing, cafes, shops and gathering areas for students. The projects are being completed at no cost to Georgia Baptists.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed Dive
How colleges can keep donors happy and protect themselves from scandal
Good stewardship doesn’t mean being tied to a donor whose behavior is beyond the pale. These best practices can help.
By Lilah Burke, Contributor
For a lucky slice of universities, donations are the grease helping the wheels of the institution to turn. And lately, donations to American higher ed are up — rising about 12.5% from 2021 to 2022, to be precise. But sometimes the relationship between donor and institution can turn sour. A donor might be unhappy with how the gift has been used or might be bringing negative attention to a university. Here are a few ways experts suggest universities can form positive long-term bonds with donors and navigate these unique relationships.
Issues in Higher Ed
Education Department Will Tap Secret Shoppers
Advocates see the use of secret shoppers—or undercover agents—to go after colleges that may be lying as long overdue and a signal the Education Department is taking responsibility for its role as financial regulator.
By Katherine Knott
The Education Department is planning to use undercover agents—known as “secret shoppers”—to monitor colleges and universities that receive federal financial aid for potentially deceptive practices. The move, announced Tuesday, is the latest step in the Biden administration’s efforts to hold low-performing and predatory colleges accountable. Other efforts include revamping regulations for debt-relief programs, including borrower defense to repayment; re-establishing an enforcement office within the Office of Federal Student Aid; and issuing guidance on how the department will require private nonprofit and for-profit college executives to assume personal liability.
See also:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Arrman Kyaw
EAB has announced an upgrade to its flagship technology, Navigate, to help colleges recruit and retain students. The new Recruitment Management module improves Navigate’s customer relationship management capabilities and simplifies recruitment/retention for schools into one platform, allowing schools to implement coordinated communications strategies for prospective students. It was tested in partnership with select community colleges and now will become available to more schools.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Jon Edelman
When Congress voted in December 2020 to restore Pell Grants for incarcerated Americans after a 26-year ban, advocates hailed the move as an opportunity for 760,000 people in prison to achieve a better life through education. But now, as the July start date approaches, experts are warning that prison-imposed restrictions can prevent this expansion of Pell from reaching its full potential. There are often limits to the educational materials that incarcerated people are allowed to keep in their cells, according to Dr. Deborah Appleman, the Hollis L. Caswell professor and chair of educational studies at Carleton College, who has taught in prisons for sixteen years.
Higher Ed Dive
OPINION
Merger Watch: Mergers in higher education are about the students
Ricardo Azziz is surprised that stakeholders aren’t more willing to compromise in college mergers — especially because stakes are highest for students.
By Ricardo Azziz
Ricardo Azziz has held numerous executive positions in higher education and led the merger that resulted in Georgia Regents University, now Augusta University. He is principal at Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education Consulting Group.
He writes the regular Merger Watch opinion series on corporate restructuring in higher education.
There are generally three forms of major organizational and corporate transformation in higher education — what we often call “Big Scary Change.” They are mergers (which include what some may term “consolidations” or “acquisitions,” depending on point of view), closures, and corporate conversions (for-profit to nonprofit and vice versa). In a recent widely read op-ed, biology professor Jim Murphy asks the question: “Is a merger a closure by another name?” Murphy works at Bloomfield College, a small nonprofit in New Jersey that is merging with Montclair State University. …While all these statements are thoughtfully made, the real question should be, “Is it better to merge than to close?”
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Arrman Kyaw
Nearly 50 students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were hospitalized this past weekend after engaging in a drinking challenge popular on social media platform TikTok, CBS News reported. During their annual “Blarney Blowout,” an unsanctioned event related to St. Patrick’s Day,” the UMass Amherst students had taken part in the dangerous “borg” drinking challenge, resulting in 28 ambulances transporting students to the hospital – 46 students were hospitalized. All of them were later medically cleared, Amherst town manager Paul Bockelman said.
Cybersecurity Dive
Bank failure panic fuels moment of opportunity for threat actors
As regulators step in to operate Silicon Valley Bank, threat hunters and security executives warned organizations to look out for malicious activity.
Matt Kapko, Reporter
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, combined with spreading worries of a calamitous fallout, could create new hooks for a spree of news-driven social engineering attacks. Researchers at Proofpoint observed a phishing campaign designed to exploit the banking crisis with messages impersonating several cryptocurrencies. Threat hunters and cybersecurity professionals across multiple firms warned organizations to be on the lookout for malicious activity. Threat actors don’t just follow the news — they react to it and identify new ways to target potential victims during moments of heightened sensitivity. Phishing and business email compromise attacks are often tailored to take advantage of the fear and uncertainty surrounding major events.