Athens CEO
UGA Three-year Fundraising Average Hits Record $235.1 Million
Donors have long been a powerful source of progress at the University of Georgia, and the past year was no exception. Private donations to UGA in fiscal year 2023 reached $242.8 million, the second-highest fundraising total in the university’s history. “I want to express my sincere thanks to each and every donor for helping us continue to elevate the University of Georgia to new heights,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “UGA would be a vastly different place without the generous support of our alumni, friends and the UGA Foundation. Private giving helps faculty members raise the bar in their fields, helps connect communities across Georgia to university resources, and helps students achieve things they never thought possible.” From July 2022 to June 2023, 71,223 donors contributed to UGA, resulting in the third consecutive year—and sixth year of the last seven—that donations have surpassed $200 million.
WGXA
by Jeff Cox
Middle Georgia State University (MGA) has been awarded a grant of $1.2 million from the Peyton Anderson Foundation to establish the Center for Middle Georgia Studies. This intellectual and creative center aims to tackle some of the most pressing challenges faced by the region, including poverty, workforce demands, and healthcare. By leveraging community assets and the expertise of MGA faculty and staff, the center will seek innovative solutions to improve the well-being of citizens and the broader community. Expressing gratitude for the foundation’s support, Dr. Christopher Blake, President of MGA, said, “We are ecstatic and extremely grateful to the Peyton Anderson Foundation for this major support of our vision to create a regional hub that coordinates efforts of multiple partners to improve the wellbeing of citizens and the community at large. The center’s services will be unique and unlike anything currently available in the region.” …The concept for the Center for Middle Georgia Studies has been developing at MGA for several years. Inspired by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the center will offer education, assistance, research, and policy analysis to help public officials, community-based organizations, non-profits, and businesses better serve the region’s citizens.
The Tifton Gazette
Deep South Kawasaki, ABAC partner on equipment
Students studying at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Beef Unit and J.G. Woodroof Farm were recently presented with a 2023 Kawasaki Mule to use for an entire year. The donation was made by Patricia Holtzclaw, dealer principal, and Tony Layfield, operations manager, of Thomasville’s Deep South Kawasaki and Tifton’s Honda of South Georgia. “Kawasaki Corporate actually supports and promotes Demo utility vehicles in local communities to allow partnering with local organizations,” Layfield said. “And Deep South Kawasaki is supported by Kawasaki Motor Company because they are a Team Green dealership serving all of South Georgia.” Layfield said the new model is a little different from the old one ABAC has been using.
KYMA
Hollywood strike’s impact on college internships
By CBS News, Dillon Fuhrman
July 14, 2023 marks the first time since 1960 that both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike at the same time. The actors formally joined screenwriters on picket lines outside studios and filming locations in a bid to get better terms from studios and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon. The national strike hits close to home as college students find themselves at a standstill when it comes to completing their degrees. “I just was sitting there thinking, ‘Well, when is my internship going to happen then?’ Because it’s the only thing keeping me from officially graduating,” said Elizabeth Nesbitt, a student at Columbus State University (CSU). With a halt on film and television production sets, internships are affected. CSU’s Communications Department is focused on supporting their student’s success despite the setback.
Albany Herald
Course teaches UGA students communication, engagement skills
By Amanda Budd UGA/CAES
Every spring semester, you will find University of Georgia students enrolled in “Culture-Centered Communication and Engagement” lending a hand at the Sparrow’s Nest, a local organization providing food and other services to those in need. As they serve, the students in the course develop their professional communication skills as they relate to community engagement. Abigail Borron, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication at the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, leads the course with the goal of expanding her students’ viewpoints and approaches to communication. Students think more deeply about storytelling, their community beyond UGA and how their service can impact others.
Government Technology
University of Georgia Advancing AI to Assess Creativity
Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Mary Frances Early College of Education are working on an AI system to more accurately rate open-ended responses on creativity assessments for children.
Brandon Paykamian
Researchers from the University of Georgia are developing an artificial intelligence system to more accurately assess creativity in elementary students. According to a news release on the university’s website, to help train this AI, a team led by associate professor of educational psychology Denis Dumas recently conducted a study of when human judges rate kids’ creativity differently on assessments. The study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and included collaborators from the University of Denver and the University of North Texas, analyzed more than 10,000 student responses to questions on a 30-minute creativity assessment. They found judges tended to disagree most when rating responses from younger or male students, on responses that were more elaborate or “less original,” on “highly original” responses from exceptionally gifted students, on responses from Latino students who were English-language learners, and on responses from Asian students who took a lot of time.
Athens CEO
Eight Programs Selected for UGA Leadership Initiative
Charlie Bauder
The University of Georgia will provide support to eight programs around the state through the fourth year of an annual leadership initiative. This week, the UGA J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development announced the eight recipients of the 2023 Innovations in Community Leadership Initiative. Launched in 2020 by the UGA Fanning Institute, the Innovations in Community Leadership Initiative provides technical expertise and resources to support communities and organizations in starting or enhancing leadership development programming.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA grad makes Major League Hacking Top 50 List, featuring world’s rising technologists
Mary Renfroe, Contributor
Alex Breazu, a recent mechanical engineering graduate at the University of Georgia, has been named to this year’s Top 50 list by Major League Hacking, an organization dedicated to supporting and empowering the hacking community. The list represents top new technologists in the MLH community with exceptional contributions and service within technology and STEM. “It is a high honor to be chosen as an MLH Top 50 recipient as each is selected from a pool of more than 150,000 active community members, comprising 1 in 3 new programmers in the United States (and even more abroad),” said MLH Chief Operating Officer Nick Quinlan in a news release.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed Dive
MOVEit mass exploit timeline: How the file-transfer service attacks entangled victims
The slow-moving disaster has ensnared some of the world’s largest enterprises. Cybersecurity experts expect further damage to come.
Matt Kapko, Reporter
The pain from the MOVEit file-transfer vulnerabilities keeps spreading for organizations that use the service and their customers. More than 300 organizations have been impacted by Clop’s mass exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability that Progress Software first disclosed in late May, according to threat analysts and researchers. Five additional vulnerabilities in the file-transfer service have subsequently been discovered. MOVEit is an approved and accredited file-transfer service that meets regulatory compliance requirements for multiple government agencies and highly regulated industries. These auditor and government-backed certifications made it a widely used service for organizations with sensitive data. … Cybersecurity experts expect further damage to come.
Higher Ed Dive
Should colleges use AI in admissions?
Companies are eager to help colleges use AI to streamline admissions, but the practice raises ethical concerns.
By Lilah Burke
In 2013, the computer science department at the University of Texas at Austin started using a homemade machine learning algorithm to help faculty make graduate admissions decisions. Seven years later the system was abandoned, attracting criticism that it shouldn’t have been used. The algorithm was based on previous admissions decisions and saved faculty members’ time. It used things like attendance at an “elite” university or letters of recommendation with the word “best” in them as predictive of admission. The university said the system never made admissions decisions on its own, as at least one faculty member would look over the recommendations. But detractors said that it encoded and legitimized any bias present in admissions decisions. Today, artificial intelligence is in the limelight.
Higher Ed Dive
With free college programs on the rise, students need support
College Promise put together a guide to helping different populations as programs gain popularity.
Natalie Schwartz, Editor
Dive Brief:
The U.S. has at least 425 free college programs, from statewide initiatives to individual institutions launching their own tuition-free offerings, according to the latest count from College Promise, a nonprofit advocating for free postsecondary education. That’s up from 53 programs the organization identified in 2015. Still, students face nontuition expenses, which many free college programs don’t cover. Colleges should combine their existing financial support to make the largest impact, the nonprofit suggested.
Institutions should also individually customize how they meet each student’s financial needs. To help colleges meet learners’ needs, College Promise identified 10 student groups, including student parents and students with disabilities, and the different types of support they need from their institutions to earn their degree.
Inside Higher Ed
College President as the ‘Toughest Job’? Military Hero Doubles Down
William McRaven reiterates his view about how hard it is to be a campus leader. But he warns that compromise is a feature, not a bug, of the job.
By Doug Lederman
Five years ago, as Admiral William H. McRaven was concluding his term as chancellor of the University of Texas system, his final appearance before the university’s Board of Regents included this memorable line: “The toughest job in the nation is the one of an academic or health institution president.” Coming from McRaven, best known for overseeing the nation’s special operations forces and for leading the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the statement might have seemed like a supportive nod to the 16 campus presidents whose work he oversaw as chancellor—a going-away gift of sorts. But five years later, McRaven stands by the statement. “It was not hyperbole—I stick by those words,” McRaven said in an interview Monday after a keynote speech at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers here.
Inside Higher Ed
Scammers have been targeting students for years, but some universities are reporting recent upticks as perpetrators develop workarounds to campus safeguards.
By Johanna Alonso
When Evan Fandrei got an email that appeared to be from a fellow California State University, Long Beach, student, he didn’t bat an eye. It wasn’t until he opened the message that he began to suspect it wasn’t as innocent as he’d initially assumed. “There were a couple things that threw me off—the way it was worded and the punctuation, spaces between commas and such. Really, really particular things,” said Fandrei, who has fallen victim to a phishing scam before, although not on his CSULB email account. The email—with the subject line “ATTENTION NEEDED!!!”—warned that someone had begun the process of shutting down Fandrei’s Office 365 account, through which CSULB students access their university email and file-hosting service.
Inside Higher Ed
Cal State Releases Full Title IX Review
By Liam Knox
The law firm Cozen O’Connor released its full external review of California State University’s Title IX and Discrimination, Retaliation and Harassment (DHR) procedures yesterday, recommending a slew of reporting and adjudication changes that it estimates will cost the system about $25 million a year. The firm detailed its preliminary findings in June, saying that while CSU had made efforts to improve and comply with the investigation, its Title IX complaint and adjudication processes were “insufficient” and “unreliable.” The full report—which is over 1,600 pages, including the 236-page systemwide report and reports for each of the 23 campuses—goes into more detail, noting that the subjects interviewed about their experience with the Title IX process consistently expressed feelings of “institutional betrayal and grave disappointment in response to these incidents.”
Inside Higher Ed
House Committee Seeks Information on Berkeley’s China Ties
By Scott Jaschik
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has requested extensive information about the Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, which was set up by the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014 with Tsinghua University and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, The New York Times reported. A letter requesting the information pointed to the institute’s research into certain “dual-use technologies” that are employed by both civilian and military institutions. The committee also questioned whether Berkeley had properly disclosed Chinese funding for the institute and cited its collaborations with Chinese universities and companies that have been the subjects of sanctions by the United States in recent years. The letter said that Berkeley faculty members serving at the institute had received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and other U.S. funding for the development of military applications, raising questions about Chinese access to those experts.
Inside Higher Ed
Florida to Investigate FAU President Search
By Josh Moody
The Florida Board of Governors is opening a formal investigation into alleged anomalies in the presidential search at Florida Atlantic University, raising suspicions from board members and critics that state officials are angling to install an ally of Republican governor Ron DeSantis. “The investigation will be thorough, fair, and a determination will not be reached in haste,” Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, wrote to the FAU board in a letter obtained by The Sun Sentinel. “The search process will remain suspended until the conclusion of our investigation. We look forward to your continued cooperation and engagement in this matter.” The search was suspended last week after three finalists were named. Rodrigues has claimed that the search process included improper questions related to the gender identity of applicants and that a straw poll of finalists by FAU’s Board of Trustees may have violated Florida laws.