USG e-clips for January 11, 2024

University System News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kemp proposes pay hikes for 300,000 Georgia teachers, state employees

Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday made it clear the state won’t be hitting the brakes on its recent record spending, promising 4% raises for many state workers, more money for law enforcement, education and mental health programs, and $500 million to prop up the employees pension system. … Under his budget plan — which he highlighted in his State of the State address — state law enforcement employees would get $3,000 raises, on top of the $6,000 increases approved last session. … Other rank-and-file workers would receive 4% increases — up to the first $70,000 in salary — and teachers $2,500 more. … Kemp’s spending plan would restore $66 million in spending cuts to the University System of Georgia — which he opposed when lawmakers made the reduction late in the 2023 session. His proposal would also include $11 million as part of a years-long plan to cut the size of pre-kindergarten classes to make it easier for teachers to help students.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Consultant plan outlines proposal for medical school at UGA

The University of Georgia could open its own medical school and enroll students as early as fall 2026, according to a feasibility study released by the university Wednesday. Hours earlier, Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled budget proposals to spend $50 million for a UGA medical school and $178 million for a dental school at Georgia Southern University. A Dec. 11 feasibility study prepared by the consulting firm Tripp Umbach on behalf of UGA provides more details on the ambitious medical school plan, intended to address Georgia’s need for more physicians. The Medical College of Georgia, which is part of Augusta University and has a campus in Athens, is currently the state’s only public medical school. … Numerous sign-offs, including budget approvals from the state Legislature and a thumbs-up from the Georgia Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia, would be needed to proceed. Sonny Perdue, the University System’s chancellor, said in a statement that he respects the legislative funding process and thanked Kemp “for his strong support in recognizing the importance of educating and training more highly qualified medical professionals in Georgia.”

Statesboro Herald

A dental school for Ga. Southern

During his annual speech to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp said he is proposing a dental school be built at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. In discussing healthcare initiatives to be included in his 2024-25 budget, Kemp said, “With that in mind, my budget proposal includes $178 million for the design and construction for a dental school at Georgia Southern University — the first school of its kind in our state since the moon landing in 1969.” In speaking to the business group at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kemp said he’ll propose $1.8 billion in additional spending on infrastructure and expand healthcare training for dentists and physicians.

WXGA

Middle Georgia State University receives invitation to join Peach Belt Conference in 2025

After a unanimous vote, the Peach Belt Conference Board of Directors have extended an invitation to Middle Georgia State University (MGA) to join the league. Pending the approval of MGA’s acceptance into the NCAA Division II provisional process, MGA would be expected to apply on Feb. 1, 2025, and would be able to join the league in Fall 2025. “This is a great addition for the Peach Belt Conference, and we could not be happier that Middle Georgia State has chosen us as their new home in NCAA Division II,” said PBC commissioner David Brunk. “Our great thanks go out to president Dr. Christopher Blake for his vision and leadership. MGA is poised and ready to enter the Division II ranks and will be a great fit in the Peach Belt.” The university currently serves over 8,000 students across its Macon, Cochran, Dublin, Eastman, and Warner Robins campuses, and is home to Georgia’s flagship School of Aviation.

Coastal Courier

GSU professors get grant for Andersonville research

Three Georgia Southern University faculty members were recently awarded a $190,000 contract to work with the National Park Service (NPS) for an Andersonville National Historic Site project. The contract will allow associate professors Heidi Altman, Ph.D., Jennifer Sweeney Tookes, Ph.D., and Ryan McNutt, Ph.D., with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences to perform an ethnographic overview and assessment of the cultural resources associated with the Andersonville National Historic Site. “Our project will add the Native American component to the interpretation of Andersonville, as well as bolstering existing information and interpretations of African American and Andersonville descendant communities,” Altman said. “Understanding the places, features and landscapes that are significant to people about this site will allow the NPS to manage the site most effectively.”

Grice Connect

Meet local artist Jessica Blanton

Born and raised in a small town just outside of Macon called Gray, GA, Jessica Blanton relocated to Statesboro to go to school and, like so many others who fall in love with our area, never left. “I went to Georgia Southern University. I got my bachelor’s Degree in English literature; then I went on to get my master’s in secondary education. Now I am working on my specialist degree in instructional technology. I will be done with my specialist in May,” Blanton says. Just as many people discovered a new talent or hobby during the quarantine days of 2020, Blanton was inspired to try something new. “I have always enjoyed being creative, but I have not always been an artist. Like most people I got pretty bored during the COVID shut down, and at that time we only had one kid. She kept me busy, but I needed something else to keep me busy,” Blanton explains. “I began drawing a friend’s new house and tried painting it. She loved it, and then shared my drawing on her Facebook page, and it really just took off from there.”

WSB Radio

63 years ago, these Black students changed the face of UGA for generations to come

It was 63 years ago when the first Black students enrolled at the University of Georgia. On. Jan. 9, 1961, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault walked up the stairs of the academic building and became the first Black students to enroll at the university. They became targets of harassment and many consider them trailblazers in the Civil Rights Movement. They stood calm and courageous in the face of grave danger. “I can still see in my mind’s eye, the events of January 1961, and the feelings I had about them,” Hunter-Gault told Channel 2 Action News. Their admission to UGA, following a court order, sparked riots by those opposed to desegregation. “Not even on the night of that riot did I permit myself to think any harm would come to me, not even after the brick came crashing through my dormitory window,” Hunter-Gault recalls.

The Union-Recorder

Local events planned to honor civil rights leader

With the 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday approaching, several local events are on tap to celebrate the man who was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Two events are on Friday with the third set for the day of the actual holiday, Monday, Jan. 15. Friday morning, Georgia College & State University will continue its tradition of hosting the MLK Jr. Community Breakfast. The paid event is scheduled for 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. inside the Magnolia Ballroom, which is located across from front campus on Hancock Street. Open to those on the GCSU campus as well as the community at-large, the breakfast hosts and honors winners of an essay competition administered annually in local schools. This year’s theme is, “Forget Us Not: A Path to Love.”

Higher Education News:

Higher Ed Dive

New York Gov. Hochul unveils direct admissions, mandatory FAFSA proposals

Dive Brief: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a wide-ranging slate of higher education initiatives Tuesday, continuing her effort to boost enrollment at the state’s public systems and increase college access. Under Hochul’s proposal, New York high school students who graduate in the top 10% of their class would receive automatic admissions offers to campuses within the State University of New York and the City University of New York systems. The governor also intends to propose legislation requiring the state’s high school seniors to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Hochul said during her State of the State address.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

$100M gift to UNCF to fund pooled endowment, including for 5 Georgia HBCUs

Five historically Black colleges and universities in Georgia will benefit from a new endowment fund fueled by a $100 million grant announced Thursday by the United Negro College Fund. The donation from Lilly Endowment Inc. is the largest unrestricted private grant in the UNCF’s 80-year history. With this gift, the UNCF has raised $550 million toward a $1 billion capital campaign that began with a silent phase in 2020. The UNCF plans to use the $100 million grant to create a pooled endowment fund that it wants to grow to $370 million through additional fundraising. The organization will manage the endowment, whose investment earnings will be shared equally by its 37 member schools. Those include four private HBCUs in Atlanta — Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse and Spelman colleges — and Paine College in Augusta.

Inside Higher Ed

House investigations of Harvard, others mark a ‘watershed moment’

When a congressional committee announced late last month that it wanted documents and emails that would reveal how Harvard University responded to accusations of plagiarism by its then-president Claudine Gay, the demand set off alarms in higher education circles. “The idea that the House of Representatives has the legal or moral authority to investigate the internal proceedings of a private university is outrageous,” said Ethan Ris, associate professor of higher education administration at the University of Nevada at Reno. In the same month, Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee launched investigations into antisemitism at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — inquiries that could grow in number and scope to include every aspect of an institution. Essentially, House Republicans have declared everything that happens on campuses fair game for oversight, as evidenced by the plagiarism review.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The long shadow of Ivy League disputes has engulfed the rest of higher ed, too

Colleges that have little in common with Harvard are feeling ripple effects from President Claudine Gay’s resignation last week and scrutiny of the Ivy League’s responses to the Israel-Hamas war. The Rev. Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University in St. Paul, told The Chronicle that a donor in rural Minnesota had warned he would not donate to the institution if its students were protesting the war in Gaza the way their peers had at some of the nation’s most high-profile colleges. No such protests had occurred, Friedrich assured him. Unlike Ivy League colleges, Concordia admits nearly 70 percent of those who apply for undergraduate admission, according to federal data, and nearly 40 percent of its students are low-income and eligible for Pell Grants. More than 60 percent receive federal student loans.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Florida’s public colleges are told to ease transfer for Jewish students

Florida’s 40 public colleges must now comply with an unusual mandate to ease the transfer process for students facing “religious persecution” — described by Gov. Ron DeSantis as a means to help Jewish students who are “fleeing antisemitic activities” in other states. A directive from DeSantis on Tuesday prompted an emergency order from the chancellor of the State University System of Florida. The order instructed each of the state’s 12 public universities to waive transfer-application deadlines and credit-hour requirements for students who demonstrate a “well-founded fear of antisemitic or other religious discrimination” at any out-of-state institutions. Individual colleges will have to determine whether students meet that standard.

Diverse Issues in Education

Higher ed leaders and scholars discuss promises and pitfalls of AI tool usage

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT can prove very valuable and promising in the realm of higher education but come with their own suite of issues that need to be considered, according to higher ed leaders and faculty who participated in a panel discussion on Wednesday. “Our use of AI in our teaching can be seen both as a threat to how students acquire foundational knowledge, but it can also be an enabler to enhance student learning,” said panelist Dr. Gilda A. Barabino, president of the Olin College of Engineering.

GHC Inform

GHC EMAIL DIGEST (FACULTY & STAFF)

USG e-clips for January 11, 2024