AllOnGeorgia
USG Foundation Raises $827,000 for Need-Based Student Scholarships
The 19th annual Regents’ Scholarship Gala on Friday, Sept. 8, raised $827,000 from generous sponsors to support and provide need-based scholarships for University System of Georgia (USG) students across the state. The annual event hosted by the USG Foundation included Governor Brian P. Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp as well as more than 550 distinguished guests including donors, alumni, legislators, students, members of the Board of Regents and presidents from USG’s 26 public colleges and universities. The need-based scholarships funded through the gala will be awarded for the 2023-24 academic year.
Hydrogen Central
Hydrogen Economy – Hyundai, Georgia Tech Celebrate Partnership With Memorandum Signing
Georgia Tech and Hyundai leaders gathered to celebrate the newly forged partnership that will create innovative solutions to advance sustainable mobility, the hydrogen economy, and workforce development. In front of a standing-room-only crowd inside the John Lewis Student Center’s Atlantic Theater, global leaders from the Hyundai Motor Group and Georgia Tech signed a memorandum of understanding, creating a transformative partnership focused on sustainable mobility, the hydrogen economy, and workforce development. …University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue was on hand for Tuesday’s ceremony. Reflecting on his visits to the company’s global headquarters in South Korea prior to the construction of the West Point, Georgia, Kia plant, he praised the company’s values and world-class engineering ability. This is a relationship built on mutual trust and respect. It’s a company, a family atmosphere, and a culture that I respect and admire for the way they do business and honor progress, innovation, and creativity. That is why I am so excited about this partnership between the Hyundai Motor Group and the Georgia Institute of Technology because that will only enhance that,” Perdue said.
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Albany Herald
ABAC-Bainbridge student awarded pair of education scholarships
From staff reports
Two independent scholarships targeted at students pursuing a degree in education were presented to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College-Bainbridge student Macy Batchelor, a Seminole County native studying early childhood education. Beverly Pollock, representing the Fidelis Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta sorority, presented Batchelor the Julia P. White Alpha Kappa Delta scholarship, and Clair Dunlap, representing the Decatur County Retired Educators Association, presented her the Decatur County Retired Educators Association Scholarship.
WGAU Radio
UNG applicants can earn Georgia Military Service Scholarships
By Denise Ray, UNG
The Georgia Military Service Scholarship is open for applicants hoping to attend the University of North Georgia as a member of the Corps of Cadets. Worth over $85,000, the GMSS is offered by the state of Georgia for 42 high school seniors annually to attend UNG and commission as officers in the Georgia Army National Guard after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. “This scholarship provides ample opportunity to students seeking a top-level education at no cost to them,” Jordan Mund, Cadet Legacy Recruitment Network coordinator, said. “The GMSS is a wonderful way to propel our cadets into a wonderful service career, while also providing them a gateway to priceless education.” The scholarships cover tuition, books, uniforms, and room and board.
WJBF
Science Researcher at MCG to receive $90,000 grant to fix retinopathy of prematurity
by: Bria Smith
The Knights Templar Foundation gifted a nearly one hundred thousand- dollar grant to a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia for vision improvement among babies. They may not be knights in shining armor, but the Knights Templar do wear the armor of service for their dedication to improving vision research. “We support things that we think will benefit our foundation and these young men, like today we make this presentation, he’s planning on staying here and keep research…,” Command Treasurer, Knight Templar Eye Foundation Bobby Simmons said. The Medical College of Georgia has been a place where people like Dr. Syed Adeel H. Zaidi can work rigorously to find a cure for Retinopathy of Prematurity.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apartments seen as critical element of Georgia Tech’s bioscience park
280-unit complex will accompany 13-story lab and office building to kick off Science Square district
By Zachary Hansen
The first phase of an ambitious life sciences district by Georgia Tech will not only be home to cutting-edge lab equipment — it’ll house hundreds of people. Alongside a central lab and office tower, the first phase of the institute’s 18-acre Science Square innovation district will include a 280-unit apartment complex, both of which are on track to open early next year. The apartments, dubbed The Grace Residences, are seen a vital component of Science Square’s formula to spur growth for Atlanta’s life sciences industry and revitalize a disinvested corner of the city.
Atlanta Urbanize
Fresh concept emerges for Georgia Tech’s revised football stadium
Expansion of Bobby Dodd Stadium to lean more traditional, less glassy-modern, per new renderings
Josh Green
Like Georgia Tech’s newfound respectability on the gridiron, fresh renderings for Bobby Dodd Stadium’s forthcoming renovation have recently emerged with designs leaning more into the school’s rich history than a cutting-edge future. J Batt, Georgia Tech’s director of athletics, provided a recent update with artist renderings that show revised, brick-clad plans for the school’s new Student-Athlete Performance Center. The 115,000-square-foot expansion project would come at the northeast corner of the century-old stadium—now called Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field—in hopes of boosting Tech’s football program and other athletic teams. It will rise in the footprint of the current (and concrete) Edge/Rice Center, Tech’s athletics headquarters, with a modified design versus what was initially envisioned three years ago.
APLU
Eight New Public Research Universities Join APLU-Led Aspire Institutional Change Network
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)-led Aspire Alliance today announced a new cohort of eight public research universities are joining the institutional change effort to attract, retain, and support faculty as they work to advance their universities’ education, research, and engagement missions. The Aspire Alliance is part of the National Science Foundation Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Network. Amid a fiercely competitive landscape for talent, an institutional environment that attracts, develops, and supports high-performing faculty is essential to public research universities success. …The eight new universities in the cohort are: University of Colorado, Boulder; Fort Valley State University;
Farms.com Newsletters
1890s Institutions Charging Forth on Specialty Crop Projects through USDA Support
With last month’s announcement of the 2023 Specialty Crop Block Grant awards, the program has reached a milestone of over $1 billion invested into projects to support the U.S. specialty crop industry. Since the program’s inception in 2006, 1890s land-grant universities throughout the country have been using USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funding to address key specialty crop challenges in their states. SCBGP supports these historically Black colleges and universities, and others nationwide, by funding a variety of grant projects that enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. …Two other projects recently wrapped up their work and provided the knowledge base to boost production for in-demand crops in their states. In 2019, Fort Valley State University in Georgia received SCBGP funding to explore production of turmeric, a rapidly emerging new crop within the state. Through the project, over 500 people were educated on turmeric production and the growing consumer interest in the commodity.
11Alive
Construction to expand Collins Hill Road set to begin to ease traffic near downtown Lawrenceville
Author: Reeves Jackson
Drivers who have to pass through Lawrenceville every day will soon get some traffic relief after Gwinnett County announced a new road project. The road-widening project is expected to be completed by mid-2024 and drivers can expect delays in the area starting in late September. Beginning later this month, Collins Hill Road is set to undergo an expansion for a nearly one-mile stretch from University Center Lane to the Lendon Connector, according to a release from the county. The new project’s focal point is reducing traffic near downtown Lawrenceville and Georgia Gwinnett College, two hot spots for vehicle congestion in Gwinnett County. It is being fully funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, known as SPLOST. University Center Lane runs through the Georgia Gwinnett campus while the end of the project, Lendon Connector, is just two and a half miles from downtown Lawrenceville.
Stat News
Researchers use AI to measure recovery from treatment-resistant depression
Mohana Ravindranath
By Mohana Ravindranath
Researchers say they’ve been able to measure recovery from treatment-resistant depression through brain scans — a crucial step toward quantifying the impact of therapies on a condition whose progress is notoriously difficult to measure objectively. And that’s thanks to generative AI, they say. In a small study published Wednesday — just 10 people with severe, treatment-resistant depression receiving deep brain stimulation therapy — researchers used the electrodes to record brain activity and later fed the scans into a homegrown artificial intelligence system that analyzed them for patterns. They found that it was possible to track patients’ recovery through changes in brain cells’ electrical activity. …”We’d say, ‘Here’s a brain signal … what is it that has to change about a sick brain in order for it to start looking like a well brain?’” said Christopher Rozell, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Georgia Tech and a co-senior author on the study.
Albany Herald
Interest in regenerative ag drives new research
By Maria M. Lameiras UGA/CAES
Increasing populations and changing climate conditions will require both innovative and ancient growing methods to feed the world. Regenerative agriculture, a movement both burgeoning and broad, is underpinned by the public’s growing awareness of how land stewardship and agricultural production contribute to the fate of our planet. As a land-grant university, the University of Georgia, led by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is charged with providing readily available, research-based programs and educational resources to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities. While research has often driven innovations and changes in agricultural practice, societal change is, in part, driving research into regenerative agriculture.
NPR
Anheuser-Busch says it will no longer amputate the tails of Budweiser’s Clydesdales
Laurel Wamsley
Anheuser-Busch says it will end the practice of amputating the tails of its signature Budweiser Clydesdale horses, following a pressure campaign from the animal rights group PETA. The beer company said the practice of equine tail docking was discontinued earlier this year, according to a statement from an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson. …A tail is indeed important for a horse’s welfare, as it is its instrument for swatting away biting insects. “In just one day, a horse can lose a cup of blood to biting insects such as mosquitoes,” wrote David L. Hu, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biology at Georgia Institute of Technology, in a 2018 article in Scientific American. “Not only do the mosquitoes take blood, but they also give disease. Malaria, Zika virus, dengue fever are just a few of them. Keeping even a fraction of the mosquitoes away could have a big impact on a horse’s health.”
AllOnGeorgia
Teaming Up to Tackle Hunger: Food Lion Feeds Partners with Georgia Southern and Others
Sack to Give Back Program kicks off Hunger Action Month efforts; provides meals to those in need for every quarterback sack
Georgia Southern University is one of 36 colleges and universities, and the only one in Georgia, participating once again in this year’s Food Lion Feeds Sack to Give Back Program. The correlating food bank that will benefit from GSU’s efforts is America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia. The program will donate 1,000 meals for every quarterback sack made. The fifth season of Food Lion Feeds’ Sack to Give Back program will bring together a record 36 colleges and universities to help nourish neighbors experiencing hunger.
AllOnGeorgia
Patenting an invention and trademarking a product name can be challenging, yet protecting intellectual property is vital. To that end, Georgia Southern University Libraries will celebrate the grand opening of its Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) with ribbon-cutting events at the Armstrong Center in Savannah on Sept. 27 at 9 a.m. and at the Henderson Library in Statesboro on Sept. 28 at 10 a.m.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
N.C. Legislators Gain More Power Over Community Colleges
By Sara Weissman
The North Carolina state budget approved Friday prevents the governor from appointing members to the board that governs the state’s community colleges, The News & Observer reported. The move gives the Republican-led General Assembly more power over the 58-college system. The budget also allows state legislators to appoint the majority of the members on local trustee boards for the state’s community colleges and give final approval for future presidents of the system. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signaled he will allow the budget to become law without his signature.
Inside Higher Ed
2 Ontario Colleges Plan to Merge
By Doug Lederman
Two institutions in Ontario, Western University and Brescia University College, announced last week that they would merge by the end of the 2023–24 academic year. Brescia, a 104-year-old women’s college, has been operating as an affiliate of Western and two other universities in recent years, but it has more than 1,000 full- and part-time students of its own. Its leaders said in a news release that the institution would cease independent operation after the current academic year.
Inside Higher Ed
2 Proposed Academic Programs in Maryland Rejected
By Sara Weissman
The Maryland Higher Education Commission rejected proposals for physical therapy doctoral programs at Johns Hopkins University and Stevenson University after other universities objected and argued that the proposals duplicated existing programs. The commission issued decision letters regarding the proposals Thursday. The commission voted to overturn a previous decision by the commission’s acting secretary recommending the Johns Hopkins program move forward. The decision letter said the majority of the commission concluded the proposed program was “unreasonably duplicative” of programs at the University of Maryland Baltimore and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a historically Black institution.
Inside Higher Ed
Adding to academia’s AI embrace, the University of Texas at San Antonio is offering a medical degree paired with a master’s in artificial intelligence.
By Lauren Coffey
Beyond the bustle of med school classes and socializing, Aaron Fanous spent his free time reading up on artificial intelligence and computer science. Balancing it all was an undertaking, but in addition to medicine, he’s always had an interest in technology. “I saw how influential software was in the medical world, and a lot of context was missing from it,” Fanous said. “The reality is, technology will come into medicine—it will be in most fields—and knowing what can be done with it will open so many doors to improve the entire system as a whole. That’s too big to ignore.” Fanous is one of the first students enrolled in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s new dual-degree medical program, which launched last week. It is among the first in the nation to combine artificial intelligence with medicine.
Cybersecurity Dive
Average insider cyberthreat cost spikes 40% in 4 years
Outsmarting insiders is a “go-to tactic” for many cyberattackers looking to steal credentials and gain access to critical data, the Ponemon Institute found.
Alexei Alexis, Reporter
Dive Brief:
The average annual cost of insider cybersecurity threats increased to $16.2 million during the past 12 months, a 40% increase over four years, according to research conducted by the Ponemon Institute. The biggest costs associated with insider risks came after the incident had occurred, with containment and remediation representing the most expensive areas at $179,209 and $125,221 per incident, respectively, according to a report, released Wednesday. The average period of time it takes to contain an insider incident increased to 86 days. “The cost of an insider risk is the highest it’s ever been, as organizations spend more time than ever trying to contain insider incidents,” the report said.
Inside Higher Ed
Fired New England College Chancellor Files Lawsuit
By Marjorie Valbrun
Michele Perkins, who was fired as chancellor of New England College earlier this year, has sued the college and is alleging gender discrimination and emotional distress, according to NHPR.org, a New Hampshire public radio news service. Perkins was president of the New Hampshire college for 14 years before being named chancellor in 2022. She alleges that she was unexpectedly released in April during an online meeting “in a humiliating and crude manner,” according to her lawsuit. She also said her firing was the culmination of a campaign of misogyny and a culture of gender bias among certain top officials at the school she led for more than a decade.
Inside Higher Ed
Dispatch From a Post–Affirmative Action NACAC
College admissions counselors gathered at their annual conference last week, where the end of affirmative action loomed large among a host of other issues from a tumultuous year.
By Liam Knox
College admissions counselors from across the country gathered here last week for the National Association for College Admission Counseling’ annual conference, where the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down affirmative action—and the future of admissions without it—took center stage. More than 7,000 people attended the gathering, making it the third-largest conference in the organization’s nearly 100-year history. They brought with them a palpable sense of solidarity and a shared appetite for solutions to complicated problems arising from the tidal wave of changes—including exactly how admissions officers might overcome the potentially devastating effects of this summer’s Supreme Court ruling. Panels explored how to assess character and identity through admissions essays—a strategy that many colleges seemed to embrace in the immediate aftermath of the decision—as well as the legal dangers of using those essays to try to glean demographic information. Much discussion was devoted to the increasingly important role of race-neutral admissions practices, such as test-optional policies and contextual review to offset the lack of demographic data available to admissions offices.
Inside Higher Ed
Northeastern U Grad Workers Overwhelmingly Unionize
By Ryan Quinn
Graduate student workers at Northeastern University have voted 1,130 to 70 to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board says. There were 179 challenged ballots. Either side can challenge ballots in union elections, but the NLRB said those ballots “were not counted because they are not determinative to the outcome.” The vote to join a United Autoworkers–affiliated union took place Tuesday through Thursday in Boston. The union will represent grad workers who provide instruction or research at the Boston campus and two others in Massachusetts, in Burlington and Nahant.
Inside Higher Ed
Failed Presidential Hire Still on Maine Payroll
Michael Laliberte withdrew from a contract with the University of Maine at Augusta over search-process issues. He could still make $700,000 without working a day on the job.
By Josh Moody
Despite nearly three decades of higher education experience, Michael Laliberte hasn’t found a new job since he withdrew 16 months ago after being hired at the University of Maine at Augusta. But he’s still drawing a paycheck from the University of Maine system. Laliberte is contractually obligated to look for work, according to the terms of the settlement he reached with the system. His hire fell through when it was uncovered that system chancellor Dannel Malloy had withheld information during the search process about two votes of no confidence in Laliberte’s leadership at his prior job, as president of the State University of New York at Delhi. Almost as soon as his name became public for the Augusta job, Laliberte bowed out amid questions over the way the search was handled. As a result of the failed hire, Laliberte reached an agreement with the system to receive $235,000 a year for three years, with payments to cease as soon as he finds another position. So far, Laliberte has yet to land another job and collects nearly $20,000 a month from the University of Maine—all while providing free higher education consulting services elsewhere. And until Laliberte finds work, Maine is on the hook for a total of more than $700,000 in settlement payments.
Cybersecurity Dive
CISA urges use of memory safe code in software development
Unsafe programming languages, like C and C++, account for more than 70% of security vulnerabilities.
David Jones, Reporter
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is urging the software industry to embrace the use of memory safe programming languages as part of a wider effort to eliminate security vulnerabilities in code. CISA called for the changes alongside a push to embrace secure-by-design practices during the software development stage and to increase the security of open source software. The White House Office of the National Cyber Director in August issued a request for information on open source security, which sought input on the development of memory safe languages.