University System News:
Associated Press
Savannah State leader resigning amid declining enrollment
By Jeff Amy
The president of Georgia’s oldest historically Black public university is resigning amid employee layoffs sparked by declining enrollment and a faculty revolt against a top administrator. Savannah State University President Kimberly Ballard-Washington announced Thursday that she would step down on June 30. The school on Friday announced it was laying off 27 employees on the same day, which is the last day of the state budget year.
WRBL
By Chuck Williams
Jordan Allen will be graduating from Columbus State University next week with dual degrees — finance and professional writing. In this edition of the Sunday Conversation with WRBL’s Chuck Williams, Allen talks candidly about his CSU helped him write his own story.
Atlanta Business ChronicleStartup founded by Georgia Tech alumni raises $3M
By Erin Schilling
An Atlanta-based website builder founded by a team of alumni from Georgia’s top colleges and universities has raised $3 million, according to a May 2 announcement. Makeswift CEO Alan Pledger says the funding will help the company achieve profitability next year. Since the constriction of venture capital in the last year, investors have reprioritized profitability when considering companies.
Yahoo!
Savannah River National Lab formalizes Augusta University partnership
By Matthew Christian
The Savannah River National Laboratory formalized a longstanding partnership with Augusta University on Monday morning at the Georgia Cyber Center in downtown Augusta. Tammy Taylor, associate director for global security, signed the agreement on the lab’s behalf. Neil MacKinnon, provost and executive president for academic affairs, signed on behalf of the school. Taylor said the lab was excited to grow its partnership with the school.
Georgia Trend
By Patty Rasmussen
For years, firms in the technology sector scooped up MBA graduates like happy kids playing in the sand at the beach. … However, those heady days could be a thing of the past. “We’re not seeing the hiring of 400 MBAs at a time,” says David Deiters, associate dean of MBA programs at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business and executive director of the Jones MBA Career Center. “All the big names shut that type of hiring down last fall. While we hope that type of hiring bounces back, hope is not a strategy.”
Dalton Daily Citizen
Dalton High students eager to attend Governor’s Honors
By Charles Oliver
For four weeks this summer, some of Georgia’s top students will attend Governor’s Honors, an intense college-level study of their chosen field. Two Dalton High School students will be among them. Francis Cuaresma, a junior, will go for Latin, and Ellis Stephens, a tenth-grader, will go for theater. Georgia’s is the longest continuously running Governor’s Honors Program in the nation and the largest on a single college campus (Georgia Southern University in Statesboro), according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Georgia is the only state that does not charge students or families to attend its summer camp.
Valdosta Daily Times
Tree Campus USA: VSU earns 11th arbor recognition
By Brittany Blake
Valdosta State University recently celebrated its 11th Arbor Day Foundation Tree Campus USA recognition. VSU hosted an on-campus Arbor Day ceremony Friday, April 28, by planting a Live Oak tree near the Fine Arts Building on Patterson Street. The tree was planted in memory of Keagan Kung-Korte, who died unexpectedly Monday, Oct. 12, 2020.
Valdosta Today
Westside Elementary wish inspires VSU mural painting class
Last year Beth Lind, principal of Westside Elementary School, issued a call for an artist to develop a mural that would foster creativity and imagination, enhance the prekindergarten through fifth grade learning environment, and offer her students and staff a bit of encouragement. When Evelyn Davis-Walker, an associate professor of graphic design, type, illustration, and web in VSU’s Department of Art and Design, learned about the proposed project, she reached out to her colleague, Taylor Shaw, a highly sought-after muralist.
The Brunswick News
College to host two spring commencement ceremonies
By Lauren McDonald
College of Coastal Georgia recently announced its plan to recognize the achievements of the spring Class of 2023 with two graduation ceremonies, both of which will take place Saturday at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. The decision to host two ceremonies comes in light of the expanding size of the college’s commencement event.
Gwinnett Daily Post
PHOTOS: Georgia Gwinnett College holds event for graduating students
More than 200 students attended Georgia Gwinnett College’s Senior Sendoff this past week. The event included information about graduation, a career fair, presentations by GGC alumni on personal finance, “Adulting after Graduation” and networking, as well as an art area where seniors could decorate their graduation caps.
Other News:
Savannah Morning News
St. Joseph’s/Candler secures funds for medical centers in Pooler, Bryan County
By Nancy Guan
Expansions to the St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital in Pooler are in the works. The micro-hospital sits on a 31-acre site off the I-16 in the midst of incoming growth and is slated for improvements and expansions over the next two decades. Approval of a $55.5 million bond this month will fund the final build-out of the hospital’s third floor, as well as two other major St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System projects in Bryan County. Details of what additional services will be added to the Pooler hospital are still in the planning phase, according to hospital officials.
Marietta Daily Journal
Georgians starting to get tax refund checks
By Dave Williams
Georgia taxpayers have begun receiving refunds for the second year in a row, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday. House Bill 162, which the General Assembly passed in March, uses part of Georgia’s revenue surplus of more than $6 billion to pay for a refund of state income taxes from 2021.
Atlanta Business ChroniclePower tool maker Makita to lay off Georgia workers
Power tool maker Makita U.S.A. Inc. will lay off hundreds of workers across the U.S., including dozens in Georgia. The cuts will impact 213 workers nationwide, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed in Georgia. That includes 22 workers employed at Makita’s distribution center and offices in Flowery Branch, Georgia. It also includes 36 employees who are based at the Flowery Branch location but reside in other states. The impacted jobs in Georgia include customer service and sales positions. The WARN document says the Flowery Branch location will not close.
Yahoo!NGHS, UnitedHealthcare contract expires
By Jeff Gill
UnitedHealthcare policyholders are now out of network in the Northeast Georgia Health System, as a contract between the two sides expired Sunday, April 30, without an extension agreement. One thing that kept going on Monday, May 1, was the war of words. “NGHS refused to move off its demands for a more than 20% price hike over the next three years, including a double-digit rate increase in the first year that would make its hospitals the most expensive in Georgia,” UHC said in a statement.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed DiveIdaho board bans diversity statements in 4-year public college hiring
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
The Idaho State Board of Education last week banned four-year public colleges from using diversity statements in their hiring processes. Diversity statements are relatively commonplace in higher education. But they’ve been targeted by policymakers, mostly conservative, who paint them as loyalty oaths that job seekers must sign to be considered.
Inside Higher Ed
Career exploration offers options for undeclared STEM students
By Ashley Mowreader
Illinois Institute of Technology will launch its Discover+ program this fall, enabling students who haven’t taken advanced-level math and science courses to explore STEM careers without losing time toward degree completion.
Higher Ed Dive
Office for Civil Rights fielded more Title IX complaints than any other kind in fiscal 2022
By Naaz Modan
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights received 18,804 complaints in fiscal year 2022 — the most in its history and 12% higher than the previous record high of 16,720 complaints in 2016, according to the office’s annual report released Monday.
Inside Higher Ed
Students rally to save Black professor
By Ryan Quinn
Loyola University of New Orleans students are protesting their university’s decision to not retain the director of its African and African American Studies program. Scott Heath, that program’s director and the Jesuit institution’s only Black tenure-track English professor, said his contract is set to expire at the end of this academic year. “No one has sat me down and said, ‘This is why we’re not going to reappoint you,’” Heath said. He said he’s hesitant to call anyone racist, but he said “it’s definitely racial” because of who he is, the program he leads and what he teaches.
Inside Higher Ed
Conservatives rail against ‘segregated graduations’
By Johanna Alonso
The latest target of the conservative attack on DEI is identity-based graduation ceremonies. Universities argue they give students an opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments with their communities.