The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: State lawmakers talk funding formula; freshman class stats
By Vanessa McCray
Campuses are once again bustling with students, and lawmakers are diving into how the state funds public colleges…and Georgia State University is rolling out a new safety measure. We’ve got all that and more in this jampacked edition of AJC On Campus. Let’s talk about the funding formula …In January, Chancellor Sonny Perdue asked lawmakers to consider tweaking the formula to keep up with inflation, salary increases and other budget pressures. …An ad hoc Georgia House of Representatives committee met Aug. 30 to start the discussion about how the state provides money to the University System and the Technical College System of Georgia. …Welcome, freshmen …We’re learning a bit more about the thousands of new Georgia college students who recently moved into campuses across the state. …Don’t forget your ID …Georgia State University students now need their school-issued identification badge, also known as the PantherCard, to enter buildings on the Atlanta campus after 8 p.m. …Black college tour …Members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus are headed back to school. … Scheduled stops include Albany State University, Fort Valley State University, Savannah State University…Presidential housing change …The University System of Georgia will no longer require any of its college presidents to reside in university housing. … Art exhibition …One of Georgia’s most renowned self-taught artists transformed his home of Pasaquan into a must-see destination in Marion County, a spot owned and preserved by Columbus State University. …University System’s economic impact …$20.1 billion. That’s how much a recent study showed the University System of Georgia contributed to the state’s economy from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. …Mental health grant …A Georgia State University researcher was awarded a five-year, $3.6 million federal grant to expand school-based mental health services. …New scholarships …A new scholarship program will provide funding to Georgia Gwinnett College students whose parents do not have a four-year degree….
Albany Herald
Georgia Southwestern freshmen selected for Carter Leadership Program
From staff reports
Georgia Southwestern State University has named 22 freshmen to the President Jimmy Carter Leadership Program, established to honor the legacy of GSW alumnus and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. These students from Georgia, Florida and Alabama are the fifth group to enter the program since its creation in 2019. The newest cohort members were selected through an application and interview process. The group commits to program requirements that include a two-year residency, 240 service hours, a leadership certificate, and a senior research or service project.
The Red & Black
UGA professor James Marshall Shepherd wins Environmental Achievement Award
Katie Guenthner
The Environmental Law Institute, a research and education organization that promotes environmental protection through law and policy, recently awarded University of Georgia professor James Marshall Shepherd the 2023 Environmental Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to environmental protection and sustainability. Dr. Shepherd is the Director of the UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program, the Associate Director of Climate and Outreach for the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography. In the past, he served as president of the American Meteorological Society and has received numerous accolades for his work in the field of climate science. He is a nationally recognized expert regularly consulted by media and politicians due to his publications and research. He is also the host of The Weather Channel’s award-winning podcast “Weather Geeks”.
Statesboro Herald
Honey extraction party set for Thursday, Sept. 7 at East Georgia State College
Special to the Herald
East Georgia State College will host its honey extraction party Sept. 7. The event will be held in the Rotunda area in the Luck Flanders Gambrell Building from 4 until 6 p.m. Members of EGSC’s Beekeeping Club, students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to attend. Guests will get to learn about honey, how it is made by honeybees, and collected by beekeepers. East Georgia State College maintains an apiary on the Swainsboro EGSC campus. The major goal of the apiary is to increase awareness about honeybees and other pollinators, as well as their importance to the environment and how to protect both them and their habitats.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Downed trees, twisted cotton: Georgia farms hit hard by Idalia
Early reports indicate the state’s pecan crop sustained the most damage
By Drew Kann
While some farmers are breathing a sigh of relief after Hurricane Idalia’s pass through the state, others in deep South Georgia were left with fields of mangled cotton, hundreds of downed trees and the prospect of a years-long recovery. …Lenny Wells, a professor and pecan specialist at the University of Georgia’s Tifton campus, said he’d heard similar reports of severe damage in counties along the Florida-Georgia border. The storm carved a northeasterly path across the state, so areas around Waycross, Blackshear and as far west as Irwin County, near Tifton, were also hammered, Wells said. Wade Parker, a Southeast district area agronomy agent for UGA, said he’d also heard reports of cotton that was twisted by the powerful wind gusts in deep South Georgia, but was optimistic that most of it would survive.
The Tifton Gazette
Ford named ABAC Foundation chair
Jaclyn Dixon Ford has been named the chair of the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College board of trustees. Ford has served on the ABAC Foundation board of trustees since 2015 as a key member of the finance and investment committee, college representatives said in a statement. She attended ABAC before going on to the University of Georgia. Her father, Steve Dixon, was the recipient of the 2023 Master Agriculturalist Award from the ABAC Alumni Association. “As the 2023-2024 school year begins at ABAC, it is my honor to begin my tenure as the president of the ABAC Foundation,” Ford said. “It’s an exciting time to welcome new students and welcome back returning students to this great institution. ABAC is a special place.
Savannah Morning News
Fields to pancakes: Is Georgia the Peach State or the Blueberry State?
Jordan Powers University of Georgia
Georgia has long been referred to as the Peach State, yet the fleshy fruit that adorns souvenirs and license plates isn’t counted among the state’s top 10 commodities. Blueberries join that list. UGA blueberry breeder Scott NeSmith, professor emeritus in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Department of Horticulture, has released more than 40 varieties during his career at the university. “The UGA blueberry breeding program has been a key to the success of launching a significant commercial blueberry industry in Georgia in the 1980s and helping sustain it for four decades,” NeSmith said. “Dr. Tom Brightwell is the true pioneer of blueberry breeding and helped launch the blueberry industry in Georgia.”
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA study of shelter dogs shows growing instances of illnesses caused by ticks, mosquitoes
Leigh Beeson University of Georgia
Long the bane of pet owners’ existence, ticks and mosquitoes are expanding their geographic range due to warming temperatures, frequently bringing disease with them. A new study from the University of Georgia suggests shelter dogs in the Eastern U.S. may be bearing the brunt of that burden. The researchers analyzed blood samples from 3,750 dogs from animal shelters in 19 states across the Eastern U.S. to determine the prevalence of heartworm and three tick-borne bacteria. The study found more than one in 10 of the dogs were infected with heartworms. More than 8% of the dogs had been exposed to the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. An additional 10% were infected with bacteria that cause anaplasmosis or ehrlichiosis, which are less well-known diseases contracted from ticks.
U.S. News & World Report
A Georgia Trial Arguing Redistricting Harmed Black Voters Could Decide Control of a US House Seat
Democrats could gain a seat in the U.S. House and multiple seats in Georgia’s Legislature if a judge rules Republicans drew maps illegally weakening Black voters’ power
By Associated Press
Democrats could gain a seat in the U.S. House and multiple seats in Georgia’s Legislature if a judge rules Republicans drew maps illegally weakening Black voters’ power. The trial beginning Tuesday is part of a wave of litigation progressing after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting Alabama’s challenge to the law. …The trial yokes together three different cases, meaning Jones could rule for the challengers in some instances and not others. Jones already ruled in March 2022 that some parts of Georgia’s redistricting plans probably violate federal law. He allowed the new congressional and state legislative maps to be used for 2022’s elections, finding changes close to elections would have been too disruptive. Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist who studies redistricting, said he expects Jones to side with the plaintiffs.
Georgia Entertainment
Georgia Film Festival, set for Sept. 15-16, will includes 46 films over two days
The School of Communication, Film & Theatre (CFT) at the University of North Georgia (UNG) will present the 2023 Georgia Film Festival (GFF) Sept. 15-16 at the Gainesville Campus. The seventh annual edition of GFF includes 46 films over two days. The full schedule and tickets are available on the festival website. “We seek to showcase the best independent films made by filmmakers in Georgia and the Southeast, and this year’s lineup is our strongest ever,” Dr. Jeff Marker, CFT director and GFF co-executive director, said. “We received so many high-quality submissions, we were able to be very selective. It was painful to say no to some of the films we decided not to program, but we only have so much time. Those we selected are truly outstanding.”
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
College Admission Gets Personal
Between advancements in AI and the end of affirmative action, the traditional application process is more fraught than ever. Some colleges are trying a radical strategy: meeting students face-to-face.
By Liam Knox
As higher education contends with the end of affirmative action and a rapidly changing admissions landscape, St. John’s College is trying a novel approach to the application. Last month the private liberal arts institution in Annapolis, Md., announced a new “discussion-based” application option that students can select over the traditional process. Starting this fall, applicants can forgo submitting essays or test scores and instead choose to be evaluated almost entirely face-to-face, through interviews with admissions counselors and faculty, as well as participation in a college seminar.
Higher Ed Dive
Why colleges are using algorithms to determine financial aid levels
The practice can help colleges optimally distribute their limited resources, but it could also cause issues for students and even create legal risk.
By Lilah Burke
As technology has grown more sophisticated, algorithms have slowly crept into more and more operations on college campuses. Take admissions, where some colleges are using artificial intelligence to help them decide whether to admit a student. While that practice is still somewhat rare, four-year institutions are more commonly using algorithms to help with another admissions decision — how much aid to offer already admitted students. If an institution has limited resources, education experts say, an algorithm can help optimize how aid is distributed. Others say the practice could cause issues for students and even open institutions up to potential legal risk. But both skeptics and proponents agree that using an algorithm successfully — and fairly — depends on institutions and vendors being thoughtful.
Inside Higher Ed
A New Home for New College of Florida Émigrés
When conservative leaders took over Florida’s only public liberal arts institution, Hampshire College officials knew they had to help. Now they’re welcoming the first cohort of New College defectors.
By Johanna Alonso
Move-in day for new students at Hampshire College dawned sunny and cool, catching some arrivals from the New College of Florida by surprise. “My girlfriend’s mom set me up with a snow jacket. I had to put it on,” said Libby Harrity. Harrity is one of nearly three dozen New College students who accepted Hampshire’s offer of transfer this fall in the wake of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s move to transform the liberal arts college in Sarasota into a bastion of conservatism. With faculty fleeing New College in droves and students increasingly wary of the new leadership—which among other things axed the diversity, equity and inclusion office and eliminated the gender studies program—Hampshire’s offer of admission to any New College student in good standing quickly won notice and appreciation.
Higher Ed Dive
Criticisms against legacy preferences have escalated since the Supreme Court decision striking down race-conscious admissions.
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
A piece of paper details a college application.
Scrutiny on colleges’ legacy preferences has intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions practices in June. That’s because research shows legacy admissions — in which colleges give preference to applicants related to their alumni — tends to favor White and wealthy students. Wealthy legacies get an especially large boost. One recent study showed high-income legacy applicants had a fivefold higher admission rate to the Ivy League and other selective institutions than similarly qualified students. Below are three new developments on legacy admissions as institutions and policymakers alike decry the practice.
Inside Higher Ed
Fisk Students Protest New Payment Policy
By Sara Weissman
Fisk University students are protesting a policy that will drop students from the rolls after Sept. 8 if they have an outstanding balance of $1,500 or more and don’t get on a payment plan, WPLN, Nashville’s NPR station, reported. Students at the historically Black university in Tennessee held a sit-in at a campus building Thursday. Some are also boycotting the campus cafeteria and classes. An email sent to students by university officials says students who fail to comply by the deadline have to move out of their dorms two days later. Students told WPLN the payment plan option, which requires a 15 percent down payment and $60 fee, requires them to find a substantial amount of money on too tight a timeline.
Inside Higher Ed
University of Toronto to Return $450,000 Gift From Amazon
By Doug Lederman
The University of Toronto’s law school will return a $450,000 gift from Amazon amid criticism that the source of the gift wasn’t shared publicly and participants in events supported by the gift weren’t told who funded them, the law school said in a statement Friday. “The Faculty of Law upheld the University’s firm commitment to academic freedom, institutional autonomy and integrity,” the dean, Jutta Brunnée, wrote in the statement announcing the gift’s return. “Nonetheless, we acknowledge the important questions raised about the lack of full transparency pertaining to the gift, and the perception of external influence on our academic activities.”