The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp vetoes bill requiring lawmaker approval for college tuition hikes
By Vanessa McCray
Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday vetoed a bill passed last week that would require the Georgia General Assembly’s approval before state universities could raise tuition or fees by more than 3%. The move is Kemp’s first veto of his second term and the latest volley in an ongoing funding tussle between lawmakers and the University System of Georgia. On the final day of the legislative session, lawmakers tacked on the tuition control measure to an otherwise low-profile House Bill 319.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Legislators’ higher ed budget cuts will hurt college students
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
In a guest column, a Georgia college professor criticizes the $66 million state funding decrease in higher education spending approved by the 2023 General Assembly. Nicholas Barry Creel, an assistant professor of business law and ethics at Georgia College & State University, urges Gov. Brian Kemp to undo the Legislature’s action, which he says will set back the state’s respected higher education system and lead to larger class sizes for students. University System of Georgia Chancellor and former Gov. Sonny Perdue has also blasted the cuts, saying, “This is an incredibly disappointing outcome, given the work done over the years by our state leaders to elevate higher education and send Georgia on a path to ascension. It will have a significant impact on institutions and the services that students and families depend on to advance their prosperity and help Georgia succeed.”
By Nicholas Barry Creel
To call the current financial picture of Georgia’s public institutions of higher learning bleak would be an understatement. Without significant and rapid action by the governor, most of the 26 member schools of the University System of Georgia will soon be forced to rely on drastic measures that will leave our students worse off and our state less competitive.
Valdosta Today
VSU included in additional state budget cuts
Valdosta State University along with other University System of Georgia Institutions are apart of an additional $66M budget cut. The Fiscal Year 2024 budget passed Wednesday by the General Assembly includes an additional $66 million decrease in state funding, a cut that will impact teaching budgets, staff and students across the state. The decision comes as 20 of the University System of Georgia (USG)’s 26 public colleges and universities are already set to receive less money next fiscal year under the state’s funding formula due to enrollment declines. The budget impact on those 20 institutions under the funding formula means they already face a loss of $71.6 million in state funds for FY24.
The Blackshear Times
Jones hosts Chancellor Perdue at South GA State
Georgia University System Board of Regents member Patrick Jones of Pierce County assisted in hosting a town hall meeting at the Waycross Campus of South Georgia State College (SGSC) last week. Jones was joined by University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue and Interim SGSC president Dr. Greg Tanner. The town hall meeting allowed the trio to have conversations with students, faculty, staff and community leaders from Ware and Coffee Counties. Chancellor Perdue and Regent Jones shared their support for SGSC and its educational mission during the event. They discussed the college’s economic impact on the south Georgia region, and moderated a question and answer session with those in attendance.
Barnesville Dispatch
Board Of Trustees Member Continues Generous Support For Gordon State College
Gordon State College Board of Trustees member Dan White designated $100K of his $255K gift donation to the Constance H. Chinery Fine and Performing Arts endowment in support of the fine and performing arts program and its importance at GSC. From Yatesville, Georgia, White has been a GSC Foundation Trustee since 2015.
Douglas Now
SGSC RECEIVES FULL APPROVAL AS A GEORGIA EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROVIDER
Since fall semester of 2019, South Georgia State College has been offering a Bachelor of Science in Elementary and Special Education. This program was made possible through a partnership with the University of North Georgia (UNG). During this time, the partnership has provided SGSC the ability to graduate and produce 42 high quality new teachers for our local school systems. On March 9, 2023, the Professional Standards Commission granted SGSC’s Elementary and Special Education Program full approval as a Georgia Educator Preparation Provider (EPP). The PSC developmental review process concluded that SGSC’s Elementary and Special Education Program meets all Georgia Standards for teacher preparation with no comments or recommendations. This approval empowers SGSC to certify teacher candidates independent of the University of North Georgia, whose support was invaluable throughout the process.
Albany Herald
UGA’s agrileadHER launches online resource for women in agriculture
By Maria M. Lameiras UGA/CAES
The University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences recently launched a virtual agrileadHER community platform to offer a welcoming space for women in farming and other agricultural professions. The new platform is available for a $40 annual membership fee that includes access to monthly webinars on a wide array of topics, from production to stress management, and an online community for women farmers from across the country to network.
Times-Georgian
Bretch named UWG’s new assistant VP for advancement
By Special To The Times-Georgian
The University of West Georgia has announced the appointment of an alumna and dedicated staff member as its new assistant vice president for university advancement. In her elevated role, Allyson Bretch ’14 will be responsible for supervising the development and alumni and constituent engagement functions of the institution’s Division of University Advancement. With over a decade of committed service to UWG, Bretch has proven herself to be a well-respected leader both at the university and in the community.
KPVI
Center for Food Safety celebrates 30 years of research, collaboration
By Jennifer L Reynolds UGA/CAES
The University of Georgia Center for Food Safety is home to some of the world’s leading experts in food microbiology. This year, it celebrates 30 years of research that has helped to make the food supply safer for all. A linchpin of the center’s success is the relationship the center has built with public health officials and the food industry, including an annual forum for food safety professionals to meet and discuss the most pressing issues facing food safety science. CFS was established in 1993 as the Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement and has undergone many changes through the years, including a building expansion, a name change and a rebranding to focus more specifically on food microbiology.
Health Day
Pandemic Saw Rise in Opioid Prescriptions Given After Childbirth
Cara Murez
New mothers who gave birth early in the pandemic filled far more opioid prescriptions than American women did previously, raising concerns about the potential for narcotic misuse. About 38% of more than 460,000 women who gave birth from July 2018 through December 2020 were prescribed opioids for postpartum pain management, according to the University of Georgia study. But there was a nearly 3 percentage point increase in the number of opioid prescriptions filled after March 2020 — when a national emergency was declared in the United States — than before the health crisis began.
Douglas Now
COFFEE NATIVE HELPS GEORGIAN SOUTHERN SURVEYING TEAM WIN FIRST PLACE
Coffee County native and Georgia Southern student Zenan Merritt was part of the surveying crew that home first place at the Southeast Region ASCE UESI Surveying competitions. His participation was crucial in attaining first place. Each year, during this competition, students from the Southeast region compete against 19 different universities located in Florida, Georgia, and Puerto Rico. …During the competition, each team was tasked with a topographic mapping project with a presentation and four field tasks. Merritt will now go on to represent Georgia Southern University in the Society-Wide Competition Finals at the University of Wisconsin in Platteville, Wisconsin, during June 10-12. Merritt is studying surveying at Georgia Southern under the guidance of Dr. Roger Purcell and Dr. Gustavo Maldondo.
Business News
What is the ideal retirement age for your health?
by Harold Vazquez
In 1881, the conservative German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, plagued by the rise of socialist ideology, proposed a national retirement benefit to appease the left-wing public. He fixed the age of retirement at 70 years. Average life expectancy at that time? Almost 40 years. Von Bismarck resigned soon after the policy was passed, but his legacy lived on and Germany’s retirement benefits (which were reduced to age 65 in 1916) became the norm for many other countries. When President Roosevelt established the Social Security Act of 1935, 65 was similarly chosen as the national retirement age, despite the fact that fewer than 60 percent of American adults lived that long. …For people working in knowledge-based jobs, a retirement age in the 70s is also reasonable from a cognitive standpoint, said Lisa Renzi-Hammond, director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Georgia. “We are able to maintain our cognitive faculties, usually very well into our 70s,” she said. “If the retirement age is determined based on the abilities or potential of employees, there is absolutely no reason to have a retirement age in the 60s.”
Morningstar
Georgia College & State University delves into the secret lives of snakes
Humans think a snake’s life is simple. They slink. They slither. They bask. They bite. Georgia College & State University students use state-of-the-art technology to collect data on the secret behaviors of snakes. But a Georgia College & State University vertebrate biologist says we don’t really know much at all about what snakes do and why. Using the latest, state-of-the art technology, Dr. Dominic DeSantis and his students are keeping an eye on these coiling creatures—where they go, what they eat and how they interact—hoping to learn their serpentine secrets. This is important, as snake populations decline nationwide.
The Red & Black
UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art to celebrate seniors with exit show
Gianna Uvari
At the end of every semester, a class of students from the University of Georgia prepares to embark on their next journey into adulthood. For graduating seniors at UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, this milestone includes the annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Exit Show, an opportunity to showcase their work before earning their diplomas. This year’s art show, titled “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” will showcase work from 42 students, split up into two weeks of exhibitions in the Dodd Galleries. …“The show’s title, ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends,’ is important because it’s the end of our road here at UGA. And that’s something exciting because it starts a whole new set of possibilities,” said Wakefield Ausband, a show organizer and a senior showcasing work in the first week of exhibitions. “Some students dedicate their semester to working for this exit show specifically.”
Albany Herald
‘Listen to the Land’ multimedia project premieres at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Friday
From staff reports
The premiere for “Listen to the Land,” a student-run and -produced multimedia project, is scheduled for Friday, with a reception at the Gallery of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture. ABAC’s “Listen to the Land” launched in the fall semester of 2022 with funding from the Gail Dillard Faculty Enrichment Grant and the Georgia Pecan Growers Association. The project includes a podcast and a public art exhibit, which attendees will experience for the first time at the opening.
The Baldwin Bulletin
GCSU hosts Community Action Poverty Simulation
By Bailey Ballard
Georgia College & State University’s College of Health Sciences hosted a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) on March 24. CAPS is a virtual reality simulation designed by the Community Action Poverty Simulation in Missouri. Last Friday, approximately 62 GCSU students attended the simulation. During the simulation, students took on the identity of someone in poverty and worked together with their family or group to live a ‘month’ in poverty. …Throughout the course of four, 15-minute ‘weeks’ students face a range of stress and challenges based on stories of real life Community Action clients who live in poverty.
The Baldwin Bulletin
TEDxGeorgiaCollege promotes ideas
By Bailey Ballard
Georgia College & State University sold out their inaugural TEDxGeorgiaCollege event on March 24. TEDxGeorgiaCollege is an independent event organized in the spirit of TED’s mission to research, discover and share “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx events are operated under a license from the TED Foundation. This inaugural event was planned by TEDxGeorgiaCollege’s Board of Curators that is chaired by the director of Georgia College’s Leadership Programs, Harold Mock. Mock received the TED license in 2021 to be able to host the TEDx event and expressed that the process to obtain the license was strenuous.
Griffin Daily News
Gordon State College: Education Department hosts Socratic seminar for middle school students
By Karolina Philmon Gordon State College
Gordon State College Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Julie Little partnered with Lamar County Middle School recently to host a discussion on adolescent mental health in a Socratic seminar. A Socratic seminar is a method in understanding information by creating a dialectic class in regards to a specific text. Participants aren’t to assert their opinions or prove an argument but rather practice active listening, explore meaning and common ground while in conversation.
Ledger-Enquirer
‘A rich golf history.’ Three Columbus residents will play in this year’s Masters
By Mark Rice
Final, first and somewhere in the middle. That summarizes the significance of this year’s Masters for three golfers residing in Columbus. This will be Larry Mize’s 40th consecutive and last competitive appearance at the Masters, the major tournament in his native Augusta he won in 1987 with one of the most famous shots in golf history. Ben Carr, a former Columbus High School standout and a fifth-year senior at Georgia Southern University, qualified for his first Masters and U.S. Open by finishing second in last year’s U.S. Amateur. And then there’s Russell Henley, who will play in the Masters for the seventh time. Henley, a Macon native, won the 2010 Haskins Award, given to that year’s most outstanding collegiate golfer, while playing for the University of Georgia. The award is named in memory of Fred Haskins, who taught golf at the Country Club of Columbus.
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Inside Higher Ed
16 Institutions Unite to Help Rural Students Attend College
By Susan H. Greenberg
Sixteen U.S. colleges and universities have teamed up in a new effort to help students from rural and small communities attain an undergraduate degree. The Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network aims to build new pathways to college for students who might not otherwise recognize all their options. Only 59 percent of students from rural schools attend college immediately after high school, compared to 62 percent of those from urban schools and 67 percent of those from the suburbs, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse.
Inside Higher Ed
Advocates Urge White House to Stick to Title IX Timeline
Groups representing sexual assault survivors fear Biden administration will miss next month’s deadline for overhauling Title IX, leaving Trump-era rules in place as another academic year begins.
By Katherine Knott
The Biden administration is planning to release the final set of regulations for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 next month, and a coalition of more than 120 gender justice and survivor advocacy organizations are urging the department to stick to that timeline. They argue in a letter sent to the White House Tuesday that a delay in releasing the final regulations could hinder colleges’ and universities’ ability to carry out the new regulations before the next academic year or lead to another year with the current rules in place. Those rules, put in place during the Trump administration, have had “devastating impacts on student survivors,” the organizations wrote. Supporters of the Trump-era rules have urged the department to reverse course.
Inside Higher Ed
After DEI, Conservatives Attack ESG
Republican governors in 18 states vowed to go after the use of environmental, social and governance criteria in investing. Such legislation could impact college endowments.
By Josh Moody
Even as conservative lawmakers have ratcheted up attacks on DEI—diversity, equity and inclusion—in higher education, another acronym has begun to attract their attention: ESG. ESG refers to an investment strategy that takes into account not just standard financial considerations but also environmental, social and governance concerns. Commonplace among colleges, ESG investing strategy weighs company impacts on climate change and other environmental factors, labor practices and human rights, and issues of governance—including diversity among board members—as well as shareholder rights and company transparency.
Inside Higher Ed
2U Sues Education Department Over Outsourcing Guidance
By Doug Lederman
The online program management firm 2U sued the U.S. Education Department in federal court Tuesday over guidance it issued in February governing the relationships between colleges and third parties that perform key services for them. In its complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., 2U asserts that the department and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have overreached their authority by using subregulatory guidance to make substantive changes that should not have been made without going through the federal rule-making process.
Inside Higher Ed
Arizona Professor Receives Death Threat
Scott Jaschik
Faculty members at the University of Arizona learned Monday that one of them received a death threat in the last week, Tucson.com reported. “In the past week one of our outspoken senators received a death threat via text messages,” Lucy Ziurys, a professor and faculty senator, announced at a Faculty Senate meeting. “These text messages were very real, very scary and showed someone with a deranged mind.” The university’s president, Robert Robbins, was at the meeting and told the senators he had learned about the situation earlier in the day. “I met with the faculty member in question and their family,” he said. “We are mobilizing, taking these threats very, very seriously.”