The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s public university presidents to get raises, some more than others
By Vanessa McCray
Four leaders slated to approach or top $1 million for 2023-2024 school year
Many presidents leading Georgia’s 26 public universities will earn $2,000 more next school year, but a few leaders are in line to receive much bigger boosts. A review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that several presidents — including Ángel Cabrera at Georgia Tech, Jere Morehead at the University of Georgia and Neal Weaver at Georgia Southwestern State University — are set to receive many times more than the state’s cost-of-living raise for the upcoming year. Some leaders were singled out for additional pay “to meet market rates,” according to the University System of Georgia. The Georgia Board of Regents recently approved compensation amounts for the leaders.
The Tifton Gazette
ABAC student lands USDA internship
An Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College student has been selected for one of eight spots on a new U.S. Department of Agriculture internship program for students from migrant and farmworker backgrounds. The internship begins this summer at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., college representatives said in a statement. Jamileth Sanchez Guillen, an animal science major from Fort Valley, is one of eight students selected from across the United States. The program is in partnership with the National HEP/CAMP Association, comprised of universities, colleges and nonprofit organizations that administer a high school equivalency program and/or a College Assistance Migrant Program. The internship program is administered by USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement.
Victory Sports Network
Georgia Gwinnett’s Annalise Wood Named 2023 NAIA Softball National Pitcher of the Year
Georgia Gwinnett College sophomore Annalise Wood has been named the 2023 NAIA National Pitcher of the Year, becoming the first player in the program’s 11-year history to garner a national individual award by the association. Wood joins sophomore designated player Lindzie Owen as a first NAIA All-America team selection for the 2023 season. Senior catcher Sydney Pelaez rounded out the honorees as a second All-America team choice.
Statesboro Herald
East Georgia recognizes top students at ‘Honors Night’
From staff reports
East Georgia State College recently hosted their Annual Honors Night Ceremony in the Luck F. Gambrell Building Auditorium. Faculty, staff, students, and their families were invited to attend the celebration and recognize the work of East Georgia students.
Columbus CEO
Columbus State’s Taylor Selected for Ga. Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program
Staff Report
Dr. Kerri Shelton Taylor, an associate professor at Columbus State University, was among the 18 higher education faculty from throughout Georgia selected as a Governor’s Teaching Fellow for the May 2023 symposium. Participating in the symposium follows a highly competitive application and selection process. A faculty member in the College of Letters & Sciences’ Department of Chemistry since August 2016, Taylor’s academic and research focus is in organic chemistry—specifically the field of synthetic medicinal chemistry and material science. Her subject-matter expertise draws from multiple areas of chemistry, including organic synthesis, drug efficacy, art restoration and material science, all of which have led to strengthening her synthetic skills and increasing her chemical knowledge as an educator and researcher.
Albany Herald
UGA Food Safety Center director named Microbiology Academy fellow
By Jennifer L Reynolds UGA/CAES
Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, director of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety, has been elected as a fellow into the prestigious American Academy of Microbiology. Diez-Gonzalez was one of 65 new fellows admitted in the Class of 2023 out of a nomination pool of 148. The American Society for Microbiology seeks to advance microbial sciences and is one of the largest professional societies of life sciences. In the last 50 years, 2,600 scientists have been elected to its academy, which is an honorific leadership group and think tank.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Who chooses to stay close to family and who moves upon graduation?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Parents who only weeks ago packed up their newly minted college graduates from cottages in downtown Athens or apartment complexes in Kennesaw are now helping them load U-Haul trucks for career moves to Washington, D.C., or New York City. We’ve come to regard leaving hometowns and families as a rite of passage for young people on the path to success. A new study by a Georgia State University professor casts doubts on just how much of a rite that is for most Americans. “Our study challenges the notion that there is this breakdown of American families, a narrative that we hear a lot,” said GSU sociologist Amy Spring, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. “What surprised us in this study is how very common it is to stay near family. The narrative that families don’t matter or that people won’t hesitate to move across the country is not true for most people.”
Bollyinside
By Cassidy Donovan
Georgia Southern University has appointed David Owen, Ph.D., as the new Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (CAH). He will join the university on July 1. Owen is currently the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville. He has a wealth of knowledge and understanding in analytical and philosophical foundations that will benefit students. As interim dean, Owen oversaw a budget of $62 million, including $4.8 million in funded research grants and a fundraising campaign that raised $4.3 million in 2021-2022. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Georgia Southern University has announced that David Owen, Ph.D., will be the new Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (CAH) starting on July 1, 2023. This news comes after the University of Louisville’s interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences was chosen for the position.
Albany CEO
Callie Evans of ASU Talks About the Educational Talent Search Program
Callie Evans of Albany State University talks about the Educational Talent Search program. She discusses the specifics of the program including tutorial services, college entrance exams prep, mentoring and more.
Morning Agclips
Georgia growers riding high on cotton boom during 2022 season
Cotton ranks No. 1 in production value among row and forage crops in Georgia
Georgia cotton growers are starting the 2023 season with a boost from near-record-breaking yields last year. The United States Department of Agriculture released final yield data in late May, confirming the second-highest yields on record, as forecasted by University of Georgia cotton experts in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Our final number last year was 1,002 pounds per acre,” said Camp Hand, assistant professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and cotton specialist for UGA Cooperative Extension. “The record was set in 2012 with 1,091 pounds per acre, so it was a very close second.” Cotton ranks No. 1 in production value among row and forage crops in Georgia, and second in the nation according to the 2023 Ag Snapshots report produced by the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. On average, cotton contributes more than $1 billion to the state’s economy each year.
Specialty Crop Industry
UGA Scientist Identifies Needs in Precision Agriculture
By Clint Thompson
Precision agriculture innovations are required for sustainability to be a reality for specialty crop producers in the Southeast. That is why the International Conference of Integrative Precision Agriculture was held in Athens, Georgia in May. That is why growers presented their concerns to industry specialists like Ash Sial, University of Georgia (UGA) entomologist. He identified the main needs that technology needs to address. “As far as precision Ag, the No. 1 thing that we need are tools to predict things; predict weather if that is possible, as far as we can go; the farther the better. Sometimes weather, no matter what you do, weather can come in and change things for the worse. That’s what we need, No. 1, from a precision Ag standpoint,” Sial said. “Is there a way to develop technology to gather data, summarize it and present it in a way that farmers can use to be prepared on time for any disaster that is on the way?”
U.S. News & World Report
As Winter Warms, Farmers in Southern US Find Ways to Adapt
Climate change is driving warmer winters, and several cities in the U.S. South, including Tupelo, Atlanta and Houston, experienced one of their top five warmest meteorological winters this year
By Associated Press
When Pam Knox walked into the peach orchard at the University of Georgia horticulture farm this spring, there was nothing on the trees except leaves and a couple of brown fruits — the result of one of the state’s warmest winters ever followed by two nights of freezing weather in March. “It’s just really odd, because over the course of one night, they lost their entire crop and their entire production here,” said Knox, an agricultural climatologist with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, which shares research and expertise with farmers and others. Commercial peach farmers in the state lost as much as 95% of their yield, she estimated. Georgia, with its iconic peaches, isn’t the only place in the south where farmers have had to deal with changing conditions.
The Conversation
Peaches are a minor part of Georgia’s economy, but they’re central to its mythology
William Thomas Okie (Professor of History and History Education, Kennesaw State University)
The 2023 Georgia peach harvest is looking bad, although the details are sketchy. By some accounts, it’s the worst since 1955. Or maybe since 2017. There are estimates that a mild winter and late spring frost have cost Georgia growers 50% of their crop. Or perhaps 60%, or 85% to 95%. Consumers, say the growers, should expect less fruit, though what’s produced may be “fantastic and huge and sweet.” And they should expect to pay quite a bit more. As ominous as this may sound, the unpredictability of Georgia’s peach harvest has been predictable since the industry’s earliest days. So has public hand-wringing about it. It can be hard to say what a “normal” year is. In 1909, growers produced just over 826,000 bushels. In 1919, it was up to 3.5 million, then 4.4 million in 1924, then back down to 1 million in 1929. There may be plenty of peaches on Georgia license plates, but according to the University of Georgia’s 2021 Georgia Farm Gate Value Report, the state makes more money from pine straw, blueberries and deer-hunting leases.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Savannah Sicurella – Staff Reporter
The Atlanta Police Department does not intend to keep any space it leases in the city for training once its controversial public safety training center is completed. Early Tuesday morning, the Atlanta City Council approved a $90 million funding package to build a police and fire training center on 85 acres in DeKalb County’s South River Forest. The decision came despite hours of impassioned pleas from hundreds who oppose it. …APD previously housed its training facility at a former Atlanta Public School that was built in the 1950s. In 2021, APD moved to one floor in an academic building on the campus of Atlanta Metropolitan State College, which it continues to lease from the Georgia Board of Regents.
accessWDUN
UNG taking applications for second accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing track
By Hamilton Keener Anchor / Reporter
The University of North Georgia is now taking applications for its second cohort of the accelerated Bachelor of Science nursing program. The application period comes after the successful launch of the first cohort in January 2023. The application deadline is August 15. The University in partnership with Northeast Georgia Health System launched the track in response to the recent nursing shortage in North Georgia.
CBS News
U.S. looking to reclaim Arnold Palmer Cup in international competition at Laurel Valley Golf Club
By Mike Darnay
The 27th Arnold Palmer Cup is up for grabs this week as one of golf’s signature amateur events has arrived at Laurel Valley Golf Club. …The club, which was established in 1959 has hosted several prominent tournaments including the 1965 PGA Championship and the 1975 Ryder Cup, captained by none other than Arnold Palmer himself. The annual event, which was reformatted in 2016, pits the best men’s and women’s college golfers from the United States against those from around the rest of the world in a Ryder Cup-style format.
2023 Team Rosters
United States
Christo Lamprecht — Georgia Tech University …Mirabel Ting — Augusta University
Higher Education News:
accessWDUN
Biden vetoes bill to cancel student debt relief
By The Associated Press
President Joe Biden on Wednesday vetoed legislation that would have canceled his plan to forgive student debt. The measure had been pushed by Republicans, but it garnered a handful of Democratic votes in the Senate as well. “It is a shame for working families across the country that lawmakers continue to pursue this unprecedented attempt to deny critical relief to millions of their own constituents,” Biden said in a statement when announcing his veto. Despite the veto, Biden’s plan still isn’t secure.
Inside Higher Ed
‘Tough Choices’ Ahead on Federal Budget
Lawmakers voted to not spend more money on domestic programs in order to avert default. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room for appropriators to increase the Pell Grant or give more money to Federal Student Aid.
By Katherine Knott
Although federal spending on domestic programs will be flat in the upcoming fiscal year, advocates and higher education lobbyists say there’s still a chance to secure more money to increase the maximum Pell Grant award and to fund the Office of Federal Student Aid, among other priorities. Yet, more money for those areas will mean cuts in other areas of the budget, leading to “dire challenges and some really tough choices” for Congress and the Biden administration, said Jared Bass, senior director of higher education policy at the left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress. “The spending levels that were set present some really big challenges for what we’re able to do and how we’re able to invest in education and health care, and then childcare, and so many other social services and public goods that communities across the country really rely on.”
Inside Higher Ed
Student Suicides Prompt $38 Million Building Safeguards
By Jessica Blake
The University of Houston announced it will spend $38 million on new safety measures at Agnes Arnold Hall, a campus building closed since March following two student deaths by suicide in a matter of six weeks. University president Renu Khator shared the plans for building renovations and student mental health services, recommended by two separate task forces, with faculty and staff via email Tuesday, Houston Public Media reported. Initial safety measures will include temporary screens to cover the building’s open-air stairwells, top-floor balconies and sky bridges to a neighboring building. The university plans to reopen the building for the upcoming fall semester and complete the remaining phases of the project over the next four years.
Inside Higher Ed
Conn. Institutions and Lawmakers Reach Funding Deal
By Liam Knox
Connecticut governor Ned Lamont and leaders of the state’s higher education institutions reached a deal Monday to shore up higher education funding in the budget for fiscal year 2024. Under the new proposed budget, the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system would receive over $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2024, $50 million more than the budget put forth by the state appropriations committee in April; funding for FY25 would remain at roughly $910 million. The University of Connecticut—the state flagship, which is not part of CSCU—would receive $552 million for FY24, a boost of about $30 million over the appropriations proposal and $100 million over Lamont’s first proposal in February.