The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Georgia’s transfer student troubles, changes at Albany State
A roundup of news and happenings from Georgia colleges and universities
By Vanessa McCray
Students who enroll first at a two-year college and then transfer to a bigger university have long counted on that route as a more affordable, accessible path to a bachelor’s degree. But new research uncovered some big leaks in Georgia’s transfer student pipeline. Only 10% of Georgia students who start out at a two-year school end up transferring to a four-year school and earning a bachelor’s degree within six years. The national average is 16%. In this jampacked edition of AJC On Campus, we bring you more on that study and the latest legislative proposals that could impact Georgia colleges and families saving for college tuition. Plus, we’ve got news of a big change for Albany State University’s leadership, and programs coming to Georgia State and Kennesaw State universities.
Augusta Business Daily
$42 million to boost physician shortage challenges
Dana Lynn McIntyre
The good news is that Georgia is growing. The bad news is the state has a huge shortage of doctors. Dr. David Hess, Dean of the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) made that point clear in his annual State of the College address. He said Georgia currently ranks 40th in the country in the number of primary care physicians. … “I think we have an endowment now of over $42 million plus an expendable fund,” Hess said. “So, $42 million of scholarship money has been raised to pay the tuition of students who graduate in three years, agreeing to do their residency in Georgia and then practice in an underserved area, which is almost all Georgia, in one of those primary care specialties.”
WRDW
Ga. budget plan includes $10.7M for design of new MCG building
By Staff
The Georgia Senate on Tuesday released its budget for the next fiscal year, including $10.7 million to fund the design of a new “translational research” building for the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. This would allow the state’s flagship medical school to begin planning for a $146 million, 150,000-square-foot research building to house state-of-the-art labs and equipment for researchers and attract new physician-scientists and faculty to the state’s oldest and most prominent public medical school. Translational research is meant to translating results in basic research into direct benefits for humans.
WGAU Radio
UGA R&D expenditures again top one-half billion dollars
By Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia says it has, for a second straight year, topped the half-billion dollar mark in spending on research and development: UGA says R and D expenditures in 2023 totaled more than $570 million.
From David Mitchell, UGA Media Relations…
For the second consecutive year, the University of Georgia exceeded half a billion dollars in research and development expenditures. Its $570.9 million total in fiscal year 2023 represented another record high in R&D activity and marks the fifth consecutive year of growth for the university. …Researchers in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences were awarded over $10.2 million for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, which funds farmer-driven grants and grassroots education programs resulting in climate-smart solutions for farms and ranches. UGA leads a consortium of institutions, including Fort Valley State University and The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Oklahoma.
WGAU Radio
UGA awards newest round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants
By Olivia Randall, UGA Today
Ten university-wide projects devoted to advancing interdisciplinary research across multiple application areas have been awarded Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants as part of the 2023 cohort. The Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program was launched in 2017 and offered again in 2019 and 2021 through a partnership between the offices of Research and Public Service and Outreach. Its success is reflected by the value of external grants subsequently won by teams to pursue work initiated through these seed grants. These 10 awards were chosen from 70 proposals and reflect a commitment of $1 million from UGA President Jere W. Morehead.
BraseltonNews Today
Braselton’s Cifizzari named a Fulbright semifinalist
Sixteen University of North Georgia (UNG) students and alumni have been named semifinalists for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2024-25 academic year. Rae-Lynn Cifizzari, of Braselton, is one of this year’s semi-finalists. Semi-finalists will learn within the next three months whether they are selected for the competitive fellowship.
The Georgia Virtue
English Department’s Annie S. Mendenhall to receive 2024 Outstanding Book Award
In April, Georgia Southern University Associate Professor of English Annie S. Mendenhall, Ph.D., will be honored with the 2024 Outstanding Book Award in the Monograph category at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). The CCCC is a constituent organization within the National Council of Teachers of English that honors books within the field of composition and rhetoric.
Valdosta Today
DPH, ABAC to host health care, resources summit event
For the second year in a row, the Georgia Department of Public Health’s South Health District in conjunction with Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College are proud to host the Health Equity Summit. The event is scheduled for March 11 at the ABAC campus in Tifton and focuses on the importance of health equity for access to health care and health resources. The event will bring together experts in the field of public health, epidemiology and health policy and will focus on the importance of health equity and the steps communities and individuals can take to improve health equity.
Specialty Crop Grower
Pecan Producers Should Decrease Input Costs
Clint Thompson
By Clint Thompson
Pecan producers need to either decrease their costs of production or increase their yields to improve their sustainability. University of Georgia (UGA) Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells believes the best option for producers, especially in the short term, is to reduce costs. “We can increase yields. but that’s going to require having the varieties that have the yield potential to get there. Some orchards don’t have that right now, and it’s going to take a while to get there,” Wells said. “That leaves, in the short term, reducing costs.”
GPB
Georgia Today: Update for Savannah man charged with insurrection; ‘Right turn on red’; Paper ballots
By: Peter Biello and Jake Cook
Peter Biello: U.S. and international law enforcement agencies said today they have disrupted a ransomware group that targeted thousands of victims. The group LockBit claimed responsibility for an attack that crippled computer systems for Fulton County’s government a few weeks ago. Georgia Tech cyber security professor Peter Swire says today’s announcement could help Fulton County.
AP News
National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS Streaming Discussion Series Centers Black Americans
The National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, taking place March 3-9, will feature streaming discussions focusing on HIV/AIDS and Black Americans. “The Doctor and the Preacher” series is produced by The Balm In Gilead, Inc. and will be available live on Facebook and YouTube at 12pm Eastern Time Monday, March 4 through Wednesday, March 6. “In light of the fact that HIV and AIDS continue to have disproportionate and tragic impact on Black families and communities, our series will explore what individuals, congregations, and policymakers can do,” said Dr. Pernessa C. Seele, founder/CEO of The Balm In Gilead, Inc. …March 4: “The State of HIV in African American Communities” Speakers: Stacy W. Smallwood, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Community Health, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA.
WTOC
Georgia Southern continues Georgia Arbor Day celebrations on Armstrong campus
By WTOC Staff
Students at Georgia Southern University continued their celebration of Georgia Arbor Day by planting trees on the Armstrong campus on Tuesday. Students planted trees and added to the university’s collection of more than 250 species of trees, including rare ones like Vietnamese Cypress and Mexican Oak. It’s a tradition that the university’s president says keeps Southern’s campuses so beautiful. …Tuesday’s event was put on with the help of Sustain Southern and the student-led Armstrong EcoAdvocates.
Savannah Tribune
2024 Commemoration For The 165th Anniversary of The Weeping Time
The Weeping Time Commemoration Committee presents the 2024 activity schedule for the 165th anniversary of the 1859 sale of 429 enslaved humans in Savannah. The activities commemorating the Weeping Time will be held starting on Thursday, February 29th, and running through Sunday, March 3rd. All events are for families of all ages. Children and seniors are welcome. …Thursday, Feb. 29th: College Discussions with Students • 10 AM: Georgia Southern Armstrong Campus • 3 PM: Savannah State University Friday, March 1st:
WSAV
Full schedule: 2024 Savannah St. Patrick’s Day events
by: Molly Curley
We’re less than a month away from Savannah’s greenest day of the year. The Hostess City’s 200th St. Patrick’s Day parade is coming up on Saturday, March 16 starting at 10:15 a.m. Here are the other traditional events being held by the parade committee leading up to the big day:
Grand Marshal Public Investiture Sunday, March 3 from 2:45 to 5 p.m. Georgia Southern University (Abercorn Expressway)…
BVM Sports
Georgia Southern Athletics Receives Major Donation for Men’s Soccer Program from Alumnus Bo Pitts
By BVM Sportsdesk
Georgia Southern Athletics has received a seven-figure gift for the men’s soccer program from alumnus Charles “Bo” Pitts, earmarked for stadium upgrades to Eagle Field at Erk Russell Athletic Park and other soccer projects.
By the Numbers
Seven-figure gift received for men’s soccer program
Stadium upgrades and other soccer projects funded
State of Play
Stadium upgrades to Eagle Field at Erk Russell Athletic Park and other soccer projects funded by the gift; The field at Erk Russell Athletic Park will be re-named in honor of Charles “Bo” Pitts, pending USG approval; Enhancements to the interior and exterior of Eagle Field will improve the experience for men’s and women’s soccer student-athletes and fans
Savannah Morning News
“Art is Love:” Savannah State building marked in protest of arts program cuts
Joseph Schwartzburt
After Savannah State University students protested on campus on Monday against potential deactivations and cuts to its Visual and Performing Arts department, graffiti stating that “Art is freedom” and “Art is [heart-shape]” was spray painted on the exterior walls of Hill Hall. By the time the Savannah Morning News (SMN) arrived on campus Tuesday morning, however, SSU maintenance crews appeared to have applied a coat of paint over the statements, although their ghosts bled through. Students organized the Feb. 19 protest after word spread late last week that SSU administrators were planning to cut the university’s Visual and Performing Arts programs due to low graduation numbers and enrollment. …According to anonymous sources, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) David Marshall shared a list of programs that were on his list to watch due to low enrollment. The arts program was highlighted as needing an immediate decision. The move is a continuation of SSU recommending majors with low enrollment for deactivation, particularly within CLASS.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Does Higher Ed Lead to a Living Wage? It Depends.
A new analysis found that more than 1,000 colleges failed to meet a “generous” threshold for postgraduate earnings, raising concern about the return on investment for some students.
By Katherine Knott
Students who graduated from nearly one-fourth of America’s colleges and universities earned less than a $15 minimum wage 10 years later, a new report released Tuesday found. The analysis of federal data from the HEA Group, a research and consulting agency focused on college access and success, compared the earnings of about five million graduates of 3,887 institutions. It used four metrics—including whether the graduates earned more than the federal poverty line or more than a typical person whose highest level of education is a high school degree—to gauge the return on investment for students. Nearly all of the institutions cleared the poverty-line metric, but more than 1,000 failed the high school earnings test.
Inside Higher Ed
Adult Learners in Higher Education: Voices of Student Success
By Ashley Mowreader
Voices of Student Success, a six-episode series focused on student retention, engagement and graduation in higher education, takes over this week’s episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast. The episode features two higher education professionals, Mike Krause from the John M. Belk Endowment and Ashley Flood from Purdue Global, on adult learners. Krause and Flood talk about the needs of adult learners, how an institution can support their success and practical ways to assist students.
Higher Ed Dive
Employers don’t practice what they preach on skills-based hiring, report finds
Fewer than 1 in 700 new hires benefited from businesses dropping degree requirements, Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School estimated.
By Carolyn Crist
Skills-based hiring appears to be lagging behind well-meaning ambitions, with most companies not yet making changes to drop degree requirements or increase their share of workers without degrees, according to a Feb. 14 report from The Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School. Among companies that announced policy changes, about 45% appeared to make a change in name only and had no meaningful difference in hiring behavior, even after removing degree requirements from their postings. “The skills-based hiring movement has gained momentum, as more and more employers committed to stripping degree requirements from their postings, replacing the proxy of a college degree with actual evaluations of candidate skill,” the report reads. “An initial flurry of high-profile pronouncements by private-sector and government employers alike has become a blizzard. But do these proclamations result in a real increase in access for workers?”
Inside Higher Ed
Indiana Bill Threatens Faculty Members Who Don’t Provide ‘Intellectual Diversity’
One critic says a bill passed by the state Senate would mandate “a system of surveillance and political scrutiny.”
By Ryan Quinn
In an echo of last year, state lawmakers in different parts of the country are pushing bills that would diminish tenure protections and target diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Indiana’s Republican-dominated state Senate wants to do both at once. Earlier this month it passed a bill that takes aim at both tenure and DEI in public colleges and universities, tying them together with language that shifts focus from racial or other notions of diversity toward what it calls “intellectual diversity.” Senate Bill 202, now being debated in the majority-Republican state House of Representatives, defines that term as “multiple, divergent, and varied scholarly perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues.” The legislation would leave it to boards of trustees to determine what intellectual diversity means for individual faculty members’ disciplines, to gauge whether those faculty members have delivered it and to decide how much they should be punished if they fail to do so.
Higher Ed Dive
Idaho lawmakers push back on planned University of Phoenix acquisition
A proposed resolution would urge the state’s education board to reconsider greenlighting the deal and allow legislative leaders to take legal action.
Natalie Schwartz, Senior Editor
Dive Brief:
Idaho lawmakers are pushing back on the University of Idaho’s planned purchase of the University of Phoenix, including by threatening potential legal action. A resolution introduced last week seeks to have the Idaho State Board of Education reconsider its vote greenlighting the deal. Last May, board members approved the University of Idaho’s plans to create a nonprofit corporation to acquire the University of Phoenix’s assets for $550 million — a move that would affiliate the two institutions. If passed, the resolution would declare that Idaho’s education board infringed on the Legislature’s power. It would further call on lawmakers to review the deal and authorize the state’s legislative leaders to take “appropriate legal action.”
Higher Ed Dive
Wright State University to suspend admissions to 34 degrees
The public Ohio institution enrolls just 54 students across the affected programs and will give them up to four years to finish their studies.
Laura Spitalniak, Staff Reporter
Dive Brief:
Wright State University, in Ohio, immediately suspended enrollment into almost three dozen programs as part of its review of academic offerings. The public institution announced plans last week to deactivate the 34 associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, including those in art history, engineering physics and rehabilitation counseling. A majority of the degrees, 22, were already being wound down by their departments and colleges, the university said. The affected programs enroll 54 students, according to a university spokesperson. They will have the option to complete their degrees within the next four years.
Inside Higher Ed
Wheeling University Suspends President Immediately
By Doug Lederman
Wheeling University suspended its president Tuesday evening, with pay and effective immediately, according to local news reports. The Wheeling News-Register cited an emailed statement from the university saying that Ginny Favede, Wheeling’s president since 2019, had been suspended and relieved of her duties. “The Board of Trustees is working to ensure that all functions of the University continue without disruption,” the statement added.
Inside Higher Ed
Former UCSF Administrator Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling Tuition
By Sara Weissman
A former administrator at the University of California, San Francisco, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution for committing wire fraud. Her sentence was publicized in a news release Tuesday by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.