WJBF
Video
Cyber, enrollment, and faculty recruitment: Dr. Brooks Keel updates us on Augusta University
by: Brad Means
He may be retiring in a few months, but he is staying very busy. Dr. Brooks Keel talks about all the goings-on on the campus of Augusta University. The AU president discusses the growth of the University, the prominence of Cyber curriculum, and the athletic programs. We hope you enjoy this interview with Dr. Keel.
The City Menus
The Central Educational Center (CEC) will host representatives from over 50 colleges, schools and universities during its College Probe Fair on Monday, October 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Probe Fair will be held at CEC’s campus at 160 Martin Luther King Drive in Newnan. The event is free and open to the public. Parents and students are invited to attend to obtain information about post-secondary options and speak directly to representatives from various institutions. Exhibiting educational institutions will offer information about their programs, courses of study and admissions. …The full list of institutions expected at the October 23 Probe Fair includes: Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Albany State University, Augusta University, Clayton State University, College of Coastal Georgia, Columbus State University, Dalton State College, Fort Valley State University, Georgia College & State University, Georgia Gwinnett College, Georgia Southern University, Georgia Southwestern State University, Georgia State University, Gordon State College, Kennesaw State University, Middle Georgia State University, Savannah State University, South Georgia State College, The University Systems of Georgia eCore, University of North Georgia, University of West Georgia, Valdosta State University.
WGAU Radio
US Comptroller General to deliver Ethics Week lecture at UGA
By Mike Wooten, UGA Today
Gene L. Dodaro, the comptroller general of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, will deliver the University of Georgia’s annual Ethics Week Lecture on Oct. 31. Sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs, the lecture is designated as one of the university’s Signature Lectures, which feature speakers noted for their broad, multidisciplinary appeal and compelling bodies of work. The lecture begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Chapel.
WGAU Radio
First Lithuanian cadets spend semester at UNG
By Tim Bryant
It’s a first for the University of North Georgia: UNG has two cadets from Lithuania on campus as members of the University’s Corps of Cadets.
From Denise Ray, UNG…
Two Lithuanian cadets are attending the University of North Georgia for the fall 2023 semester as members of the Corps of Cadets for the first time in UNG history. Juozas Barkauskas and Martynas Stravinskas arrived at the Dahlonega Campus in August and began the fall semester along with 184 new cadets. Both are pursuing a four-year degree in international relations at the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania.
The Augusta Chronicle
For this former UGA football player, Super Bowl & SEC lessons still pay off
Loran Smith, Columnist
…At the Nalley Toyota dealership in Roswell, the man who is most active in the dealership is the dealer himself, Arnold Harrison, who, if he chose to, could flash two Super Bowl rings from his four-year tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers. (He played a fifth year with the Cleveland Browns.) …He played for a highly regarded coach at Pittsburgh, Bill Cower, and enjoyed success at Georgia, where he won an SEC ring under Mark Richt in 2002. …When he was graduated from the University of Georgia, he would like to have played in the National Football League forever but understood that was not likely. This led him to prepare himself for life after football. Now that he is entrenched in the automobile industry, what he learned from competing in football serves him well in business.
Ledger-Enquirer
He was a ‘troubled kid.’ How he beat the odds to be Harris County’s Teacher of the Year
By Mark Rice
Hearing his name announced as the winner of the Harris County School District 2023 Teacher of the Year award, Jalin Murphy sensed the moment’s demographic significance. “I was just surprised because I seldom see people who look like me getting positions like this,” Murphy, in his fourth year as an English language arts teacher at Harris County Carver Middle School, told the Ledger-Enquirer. …Murphy graduated high school in 2016 in the top 10% of his class. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English language arts from Columbus State University and a master’s degree in teaching from CSU.
Savannah Morning News
ESPN First Take with Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe to broadcast at Savannah State
Dennis Knight
It looks like ESPN’s popular sports talk show “First Take” starring Stephen A. Smith and Savannah State alumnus and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe will broadcast a show from Savannah State on Nov. 6. Smith first broached the subject with Sharpe on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show” three weeks ago, and Sharp immediately agreed it would be a great way to show where he came from. “I’m not good with that, I’m great with that,” Sharpe to Smith on the podcast when he was asked if he’d like to do the show from SSU. “This might be the best news because it’s an opportunity for me, and an opportunity for everyone else to see where I matriculated at, where I earned my degree from — Savannah State University.” Sharpe named a few of his professors who had an impact on him and said he hoped they could make it to attend the broadcast.
The Moultrie Observer
Laura Perry-Johnson from the University of Georgia Extension addresses audience
Adelia Ladson
Associate Dean for Extension at the University Georgia, Laura Perry-Johnson, speaks on the college’s involvement with the mental health initiative for farmers.
Psychiatric Times
Investigating the Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in Patients With First-Episode Psychosis
Brian Miller, MD, PhD, MPH (Dr Miller is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at Augusta University in Georgia)
Sleep disorders are highly prevalent in patients with psychotic disorders. This comorbidity has a significant impact on the clinical course of illness, including worsening psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment, as well as poorer functioning and decreased quality of life. However, the nature of the relationship between psychosis and sleep disorders is unclear; it may be a primary component of the illness itself and/or a secondary consequence of behavioral or iatrogenic factors. …The authors concluded that there was a high prevalence of poor sleep quality and insomnia in patients with FEP. Study strengths included the longitudinal design and that participants had minimal antipsychotic exposure at baseline. The primary study limitation was the appreciable attrition of data on sleep at the 6-month follow-up. There is some evidence supporting sleep hygiene strategies and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in FEP. By contrast, there is limited evidence for using specific psychopharmacological agents for insomnia in this patient population.
Savannah Morning News
Savannah-Chatham Schools reveal 2025 Teacher of the Year finalists
Joseph Schwartzburt
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System Superintendent Denise Watts and school board President Moss presented certificates to all school-level Teachers of the Year on Tuesday. The school district’s announcement for 2025 Teacher of the Year Finalists took place at the new Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School Auditorium. …Meet the finalists
Teacher of the Year finalists came from schools across the district and a variety of grade levels. They are:
Zavonna Gould of Windsor Forest High School …Gould opened up about the recognition being a monumental achievement that she has reached. “Especially at an early point in my career,” she said. As a Savannah native as well as an alumna of both Savannah State University and Georgia Southern University, she feels the recognition is big for her students.
WABE
As pecan growers rebuild, some eye climate resilience
Emily Jones
Fall means pecan season in Georgia, but this year’s crop took a hit from Hurricane Idalia in late August. It’s just the latest disruption for the state’s produce after freezes devastated peaches and blueberries and threatened citrus in the last year. Some farmers and policymakers are trying to help growers prepare for a more volatile climate in the future. Some South Georgia pecan growers lost whole orchards to Hurricane Idalia’s strong winds. UGA horticulturalist Lenny Wells said the storm likely took around 10 to 15 million pounds from this year’s crop. That’s just a fraction of the total state crop, which surpassed 88 million pounds in 2021 and 125 million last year, but the impact will be long-lasting.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Coming Together Over the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
As the Mideast crisis deepens, some university officials are finding ways to foster dialogue and compassion among students on campus.
By Jessica Blake and Johanna Alonso
As a Muslim woman working in a Jewish center at a Catholic institution, Mehnaz Afridi, director of the Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, sees campus conflict over the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas through a different lens than most. …But in the nearly two weeks since the war began, it has become clear that many colleges are struggling to navigate campus tensions, let alone turn competing protests into any sort of constructive dialogue. Students, faculty and administrators on all sides of the conflict have faced serious backlash for sharing their stances, or for reacting too forcefully—or not forcefully enough. The tensions raise familiar questions about free speech versus hate speech on campus, including whether—and how—faculty and administrators can facilitate peaceful, open-minded discussions among students with impassioned but opposing views. While some universities seem content to let student groups engage on their own through dueling protests and social media posts, others are seeking to create platforms for students to come together in solidarity while still respecting their individual perspectives, grievances and beliefs.
Higher Ed Dive
Republican lawmakers skip raises for Wisconsin university employees in DEI fight
The state’s Legislature has waged a protracted battle against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at college campuses.
Laura Spitalniak, Associate Editor
Dive Brief:
Wisconsin lawmakers on Tuesday excluded Universities of Wisconsin workers from pay raise approvals for all state employees in a protracted battle over the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion spending. The state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations unanimously approved a plan to grant most state workers a 6% pay increase over two years. But the Republican committee leaders did not include system employees in the vote, using raises as a bargaining chip to gain approval of new university positions. In September, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he would block all pay raises for university employees until the system cuts diversity, equity and inclusion spending by $32 million. The move came after lawmakers cut the system’s budget by that same amount, which is how much they estimated would go toward DEI efforts over the next two years.
Inside Higher Ed
Opinion
Who Can Speak? Between Power, Silence and Complicity
As the Israel-Palestine conflict escalates, faculty members are fearful of speaking up, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and Johnny E. Williams write.
By Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and Johnny E. Williams
Who can speak these days? Do faculty members feel comfortable speaking and writing about controversial topics and societal oppressions on campus? As the world watches the death toll rise in Gaza and the escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, can faculty members speak about their positions? Faculty members regularly avoid speaking about anti-Blackness, anti-Black racism, white supremacy, whiteness, settler colonialism, sexism, sexual misconduct, xenophobia and corporatization of universities and austerity measures. Such avoidance, or even silencing, ensures professors do not engage in independent thought and inquiry as a public good but rather as a private interest. With corporatization, universities operate essentially as producers for the job market, forsaking their traditional mission of fostering creative independent inquiry, challenging perceived beliefs and exploring new horizons. Since the corporate university is dependent on private rather than state funding, professors are pressured to avoid saying or researching anything controversial because administrators and trustees believe their speech and work may threaten the university’s financial status. Consequently, most faculty members work in fear and worry about asking questions and speaking about systemic oppressions and state-sanctioned terror. This is why most colleagues choose to remain complicit or silent—or, worse, align with their administrations’ oppressive machinations. …Presidents of universities usually do not speak up about systemic oppressions. When they do (due to pressures from students and everyday people) their opinions are so muted or guarded that their words are meaningless and odious. Given that they are courtiers for oppressors, who are their funding source, they refuse to be standard bearers for academic freedom. And this brings us to an urgent question that is no longer avoidable: Can we as faculty members speak about the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict on our college and university campuses? Do university presidents have any obligation to present fair and balanced statements during times of national or international crisis?
Higher Ed Dive
US accounting degree graduates plunge 7.4%
Jim Tyson Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The number of students who graduated at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year with a degree in accounting plunged 7.4% compared with the prior period, accelerating a six-year trend of declining entrants into the profession. The number of graduates who received a bachelor’s degree fell 7.8% compared with the 2020-2021 period, while those earning a master’s degree declined 6.4%, according to a survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. At the conclusion of the 2020-2021 academic year, the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded fell 2.8% and 4.7%, respectively, compared with the prior period. “We’re still on a downward trajectory for accounting graduates, although it’s worthwhile to note that U.S. university enrollment and earned degrees collectively shrank during this period,” Jan Taylor, the AICPA’s academic in residence, said in a statement.
Inside Higher Ed
U.S. Universities Behind on Interdisciplinary Science
By Liam Knox
Universities in China, Hong Kong, India and Singapore are supporting interdisciplinary science better than higher education institutions in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, according to a new report from Schmidt Science Fellows and Times Higher Education. (Disclaimer: Times Higher Education owns Inside Higher Ed but has no editorial oversight.) The report highlights a gap between the interdisciplinary goals of many major scientific research institutions in the West and the actualization of those goals, which results in the continued siloing of major fields of scientific research.
Inside Higher Ed
A New Transfer Pathway From Prison to the CSU
Officials at the college in San Quentin State Prison are working with the California State University system on a guaranteed transfer pathway for incarcerated students once they’re released.
By Sara Weissman
Students incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison may soon have guaranteed admission to campuses in the California State University system upon release as a part of a new transfer program. The effort is a partnership with Mount Tamalpais College, a private two-year college based at San Quentin, the only accredited, independent liberal arts college in the country with its main campus based at a prison, according to college officials. The program, which is in the planning stages, will guarantee Mount Tamalpais students a spot at one of the system’s 23 campuses upon their release if they meet certain course requirements. System and college leaders signed a memorandum of understanding committing to the project in September.
Higher Ed Dive
Birmingham-Southern sues over denied application for $30M state loan
The college is asking a judge to order the state treasurer to disburse the funding. It will likely close without emergency relief, the lawsuit says.
Natalie Schwartz, Editor
Dive Brief:
Birmingham-Southern College sued Alabama’s state treasurer Wednesday for denying the private institution’s application for a $30 million loan — a lifeline it said it needed to stay open. Earlier this year, Alabama lawmakers set up a loan program for financially distressed higher education institutions, a response to Birmingham-Southern’s lobbying for state assistance. They earmarked $30 million, the amount the college requested from state lawmakers. However, the program required colleges to apply for the funding. Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer denied Birmingham-Southern’s application Friday — a “sudden and unwarranted” move, Daniel Coleman, the college’s president, said in a statement.
Higher Ed Dive
Inside HLC’s new effort to vet outside credential providers
The accreditor recently launched an initiative called the Credential Lab, which will implement an evaluation model for outside content providers.
Natalie Schwartz, Editor
Students looking to gain new skills have a staggering number of options they can pursue these days. About 1.1 million credentials are available in the U.S., and some three-fifths of those are from nonacademic providers, one recent tally found. Moreover, it can be easier to access credentials from nonacademic providers like LinkedIn and Microsoft than traditional providers, a group of authors argued in a 2022 white paper for the Higher Learning Commission, or HLC, an accrediting agency. In response, colleges have been exploring ways to embed alternative credentials into their existing programs by joining forces with outside groups. But it’s difficult for college leaders to assess whether these potential partners would provide value to their students.