The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA murder suspect unlawfully entered US in 2022, ICE says
By David Aaro
The suspect charged in the alleged murder of nursing student Laken Hope Riley on the University of Georgia campus was arrested in 2022 after unlawfully entering the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Sunday. Police arrested Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, on Friday in Athens on multiple charges including malice murder after authorities discovered the 22-year-old nursing student’s body Thursday in a wooded area near UGA’s intramural fields. …UGA said Sunday that Diego Ibarra, the brother of the murder suspect, had worked briefly at the university. “Diego Ibarra presented a fake green card to the hiring unit to begin a temporary position as a dishwasher in Bolton Dining Hall at the University of Georgia on Feb. 6, 2024. He subsequently failed to submit further documentation required to keep the job and was never paid by the University. He has been fired,” said a UGA spokesperson in a written statement. UGA said Jose Antonio Ibarra had not worked at the university.
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Athens Banner-Herald
Vigil planned at UGA to remember life of slain Athens nursing student Laken Riley
Donnie Z. Fetter
To celebrate the life of an Athens nursing student recently killed while jogging on the University of Georgia’s intramural fields, UGA will play host to a vigil on Monday. The vigil takes place at 3 p.m. on the UGA campus at Tate Plaza to remember Laken Riley, 22, who attended UGA through the 2023 spring semester and then matriculated at the Augusta University College of Nursing campus in Athens, according to UGA Today, an online media outlet for the university. She was originally from Woodstock, Georgia. Classes resume on Monday at both schools, who each cancelled classes on Friday following the news of Riley’s murder.
Albany Herald
Albany State ranked among top HBCUs, public schools
From staff reports
Albany State University currently ranks at No. 100 among U.S. News and World Report’s annual Best Colleges among Regional Universities South. The influential annual ranking by the publication ranks colleges and universities in several categories. ASU also ranks No. 47 among historically black colleges and universities, 49th among public schools, 319th in nursing and 29th among top performers in Social Mobility.
Albany Herald
Albany State to add master’s-level program in athletic training
By Carlton Fletcher
On the day that Albany State University President Marion Fedrick announced her plans to leave the Albany HBCU to take a dual position at Georgia State University and with the University System of Georgia, she announced a new master’s degree program at the university. “We’re always looking to add programs that are relevant to our students’ future,” Fedrick said. “We’re excited to add a master’s degree program in athletic training. That’s an area many of our students are interested in pursuing.
Statesboro Herald
‘Topping out’ the Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center
Georgia Southern University and Whiting-Turner Contracting hosted a lunch and ceremony Friday to mark the “topping out” milestone at the Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center, located at Veterans Memorial Parkway and Lanier Drive. In construction, topping out signifies when the last beam is placed atop a structure. The 95,000-square-foot Hill Center will be the largest event venue between Savannah and Macon and is named in honor of the late Senator Jack Hill and his wife of 46 years, Ruth Ann Hill, who were both are Georgia Southern graduates.
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The Daily Campus
The Dodd Center for Human Rights opens the floor to talk about children’s rights
By Karla Perez
On Friday, Feb. 23, research partners Annie Watson from Middle Georgia State University and Elizabeth Kaletski from Ithaca College presented their research on how children’s rights are upheld and protected around the world at the University of Connecticut’s Dodd Center for Human Rights.
Atlanta News First
Georgia Tech researchers using AI to develop early diagnostic test for ovarian cancer
By Chelsea Beimfohr
It’s called the silent killer. Most women don’t know they have ovarian cancer until it’s too late. According to the CDC, in 2020, more than 18,000 new ovarian cancer cases were reported among American women. That same year, more than 13,000 women died of the disease. But now researchers at Georgia Tech are developing a diagnostic test that could save lives using artificial intelligence.
American AG Network
Ground Broke on New ARS Research Facility in Georgia
By Jesse Allen
USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the University of Georgia broke ground Wednesday on a new research facility on the UGA Tifton campus. The facility will house the Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory and the Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit. USDA says research at the facility will advance climate-smart agricultural research ranging from water resources to insect and pollinator management, and developing resilient and sustainable crop systems for the Southeastern United States.
Citrus Industry
Georgia Growers to Vote on Marketing Order to Fund Research
Georgia’s citrus industry started with the help of University of Georgia (UGA) Extension. Research assistance from UGA could help the industry flourish. Georgia citrus growers will have an opportunity to vote on a marketing order that will help fund potential research, explains Ken Corbett, chairman of the Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for Citrus Fruits and a producer at Corbett Brothers Farms in Lake Park, Georgia. …Research would assist trees that account for about 4,000 acres throughout South Georgia.
Albany Herald
Petition started to bring back call boxes at UGA after deaths
By Andy Pierrotti, WANF
University of Georgia (UGA) students, parents and supporters are wondering on social media why the campus doesn’t have blue light call boxes that allow people to request police with a single button. UGA was actually one of the first universities in the country to install emergency call boxes in 1988, but the school removed them in 2004 to save money after their limited use. …Today, UGA urges students to use an app called “LiveSafe,” saying most people have access to cell phones at all times. But some students and parents want the blue light call boxes returned. An online petition created hours after the student’s death demands “the lack of emergency blue lights has been an ongoing issue that can no longer be ignored.” The petition was created by a UGA student, and almost 10,000 people had signed by mid-Friday afternoon.
Middle Georgia CEO
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
The Cooperative Developmental Energy Program (CDEP) at Fort Valley State University (FVSU) will celebrate its 41st Annual Energy Career Day and Student Recruitment Conference on February 25-26, 2024. CDEP and its partnering institutions have awarded 461 bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics, Engineering, Chemistry, Geology/Geophysics, Biology, Health Physics, and Computer Science. The partnering institutions include Fort Valley State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Grand Valley State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and the University of Texas-Austin. The founder and director of CDEP is Dr. Isaac J. Crumbly.
GAB
Kim Gusby – GAB Hall of Fame 2024
By Hannah Osborne
Kim Gusby’s 34 years as a broadcaster were nearly spent as a child psychologist. “It was a chance encounter with someone I went to school with in Savannah,” says Gusby, who attended Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. “We ran into each other on campus, and she was majoring in broadcasting and she said, ‘You know I think you should take a television class, just take it as an elective.’ I did, and that was that.” Gusby graduated from Georgia Southern and went back to her hometown of Savannah. For almost four years she worked at the neighboring WJCL, before finding her eventual home at WSAV. Rather than explore different markets, Gusby stayed in her hometown to be close to her family, and her community.
Middle East Government Reporter
Gov. Kemp Announces 66 Appointments to State Boards, Authorities, and Commissions
Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced the appointment and re-appointment of the following 66 Georgians to various state boards, authorities, and commissions. …Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists …Deborah Sills is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and the MSW coordinator at Fort Valley State University.
Lanier County News
Listen to the Land multimedia project wins state museum award
“Listen to the Land,” a student-run and produced multimedia collaboration between the Gallery at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture and the ABAC School of Arts & Sciences, was named the recipient of the 2024 Multimedia Award by the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries. The Georgia Association of Museums and galleries is comprised of more than 250 members statewide including individuals, businesses, and art, history, natural history, and science museums. The award was announced during this year’s annual museums conference which took place on January 19 in Athens. The GAM Awards committee congratulated the “Listen to the Land” team for all that the project contributed to the Tifton community and to the museum field.
The Augusta Chronicle
Here are the improvements coming soon to Augusta University’s Christenberry Fieldhouse
Joe Hotchkiss
Bids are due Feb. 27 to perform an estimated $5 million in upgrades to Augusta University’s Christenberry Fieldhouse on Wrightsboro Road. Four-foot-high letters spelling “Augusta University” will sit atop the sports arena’s refurbished exterior as part of the facility’s first major redesign since it opened its doors in 1991, according to the site plan. …Also, the building’s mezzanines will be redone. The upper southside mezzanine will house the Alvin and Yvette Harris Sports Performance Center, named for longtime AU supporters. The center will provide training and conditioning, and will include fitness machines, free weights and other tools to help student-athletes boost performance. The project’s scope includes demolition of the existing exterior insulation finishing system, which is the fieldhouse’s multilayer synthetic-stucco covering, and replacing it with a new insulated metal panel exterior system. … AU’s government relations team helped secure $5 million in the state budget for the fieldhouse renovations during the 2021 session of the Georgia General Assembly.
WSB-TV
UGA researchers find ‘resilient’ alligator with rare jaw deformity
By WSBTV.com News Staff
University of Georgia researchers discovered an injury on a gator they said was out of the ordinary. The UGA Coastal Ecology Lab said it caught an alligator with a mouth deformity in the Okefenokee Swamp. This female alligator had her lower jaw protruding out of the left side of her face. Researchers said that this indicated she had her jaw broken, possibly by a bigger alligator and it did not heal properly. The alligator is still able to eat normally, despite this deformity, according to researchers. The lab said this is an example of how resilient the American alligator is.
WSB-TV
AT&T service restored after outage, Atlanta area customers frustrated even with phones working again
By Tom Regan, WSB-TV
After a national outage of AT&T phone service on Thursday, the network is back up and running. However, Atlanta customers speaking with Channel 2′s Tom Regan said they were frustrated by the at-times panic-inducing outage. The issues started just before 4 a.m., when users started getting SOS messages on their phones. … While AT&T didn’t specify the cause, some computer specialists like Georgia Tech’s Ahmed Saeed, told Channel 2 Action News it likely involved a glitch in their peer-to-peer network linkage, between AT&T and other network providers. “When there is an outage like this, it’s more likely that there’s something that went wrong with these conversations,” Saeed, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said. “When you make a software update, that affects all hardware and can potentially affect your whole network.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPDATE: Man, 21, killed in shooting near GSU campus, police say
By David Aaro
A 21-year-old man died Sunday after being shot near Georgia State University’s campus in downtown Atlanta, authorities said. Atlanta police were called just before 12:45 p.m. to 120 Piedmont Ave., an address listed for the Mix Apartments, an off-campus student housing center for GSU. After being dispatched, officers arrived within three minutes and found a man suffering from several gunshot wounds. The victim, who was not breathing, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His identity was not released, and it was unclear if he was a student. “At this time, it does not appear that this incident occurred on the GSU campus,” police said.
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Inside Higher Ed
The Future of Testing Is Anything but Standardized
Colleges are beginning to solidify their post-pandemic testing policies. Conclusions on the best path forward have been disparate and, at times, contradictory.
By Liam Knox
Last Thursday two highly selective institutions landed on opposite sides of the standardized testing debate. The University of Michigan formally adopted a test-optional policy, four years after resisting the test-optional wave in 2020 and instead allowing alternatives to the SAT and ACT. Meanwhile, Yale University, which had operated with a temporary test-optional policy during the pandemic, adopted its own test-flexible policy. The swap illuminates the complicated patchwork of disparate policies emerging as colleges reassess their pandemic-era testing strategies amid intensifying debates over the purpose and usefulness of standardized exams. Akil Bello, senior director of advocacy and advancement at FairTest and an outspoken critic of standardized testing, said he was pleasantly surprised by Michigan’s decision, considering its equivocation on test-optional policies at the start of the pandemic.
Higher Ed Dive
Pell Grant program faces a potential budget crisis, fiscal policy group says
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that the federal aid program could see a shortfall as high as $95 billion over the next decade.
By Lilah Burke
Dive Brief:
The federal Pell Grant program will see a significant funding shortfall over the next decade unless changes are made, according to an analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal policy think tank. Closing the shortfall will require increased federal spending, smaller awards, tighter eligibility rules or a combination of the three, researchers said. They predict benefits would need to be reduced by 10% or funding raised by 12% in order to close the budget gap under their best-case scenario, a $35 million shortfall over the next decade. Many higher education experts have championed expanding the Pell Grant program by doubling the maximum award or expanding eligibility to short-term programs. Although the latter policy is still before Congress, other expansions could be a difficult sell to lawmakers due to the predicted costs.
Higher Ed Dive
How do state appropriations impact graduation rates among underrepresented students?
Peer-reviewed research found that an increase in state money can lead to better outcomes, especially among Black and Latinx students.
By Lilah Burke
Dive Brief:
An increase in state appropriations can bolster graduation rates at public four-year colleges, especially among Black and Latinx students, concludes a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Education Finance. A 10% increase in state appropriations boosted overall six-year graduation rates by 0.59 percentage points, according to researchers’ models. Those higher appropriations yielded a 0.84 percentage point increase in Latinx students’ graduation rate and a 0.99 percentage point increase in Black students’ graduation rate. Researchers concluded that raising state appropriations can help boost graduation rates of underrepresented students and meet college attainment goals.
Higher Ed Dive
Some employers are wary of Gen Z workers. What can colleges do?
Experts suggested ways for higher education institutions to help students learn critical workplace skills, such as oral communication and empathy.
By Kate Rix
Call them power skills, durable skills or 21st century skills, but career development experts say it’s time to acknowledge that proficiency in empathy, critical thinking and collaboration are required to be successful in most jobs. And some younger employees aren’t cutting it. They say a less-than-perfect storm of events has left Gen Z, generally considered young adults born after 1997, lacking in competencies that, in some cases, have been expected of workers but not explicitly named. Competencies like using a more formal way of talking or writing an email, dressing appropriately for the office and showing up for work on time are in short supply among some young employees, the career experts contend. And employers are complaining. In a 2023 survey of managers, directors and executives, 38% said they avoid hiring recent graduates and prefer older workers. And 58% say recent graduates are unprepared for the workforce.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Report: Growing Number of College Grads Earn Less Than the Typical High School Graduate
Arrman Kyaw
While most colleges are producing graduates who go on to earn incomes higher than your typical high school graduate, a sizable portion of them are not, according to a new report from the HEA Group. “We know the number one reason why students attend college is for greater employability and to obtain a financially secure future,” said report author Michael Itzkowitz, founder and president of the HEA Group. “However, over the past several years, we’ve seen confidence in college declining. In fact, most Americans now doubt that college is even worth the cost of attendance.”
Inside Higher Ed
AAUP Sanctions New College of Fla., Spartanburg Comm. College
By Ryan Quinn
The American Association of University Professors’ Governing Council voted unanimously over the weekend to sanction New College of Florida and Spartanburg Community College in South Carolina. That means the AAUP concluded that each institution’s leadership is in “substantial noncompliance with widely accepted standards of academic government,” according to a news release from the group. In both cases, AAUP investigations found that college officials ignored faculty members’ input in making decisions that affected them.
Inside Higher Ed
2 Universities Sue Quebec Government Over Tuition Increases
By Doug Lederman
McGill and Concordia Universities sued the government of Quebec Friday over its decision last fall to significantly increase the tuition for English-speaking students at institutions in the Canadian province starting next fall, The Gazette of Montreal reported. Quebec instituted the policy as part of a larger strategy aimed at strengthening use of the French language in the province. In their separate but coordinated legal actions, the two English-focused institutions said that they supported the government’s efforts to support “francization” in the province, but they argued that the changes disproportionately and illegally affect them.
Inside Higher Ed
Judge Bars NCAA From Enforcing Rules on Name, Likeness
By Doug Lederman
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction siding with the states of Tennessee and Virginia in their lawsuit challenging the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s enforcement of its rules restricting the use of name, image and likeness payments to recruit athletes, the Associated Press reported. Attorneys general in the two states sued the NCAA after the association threatened to penalize the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for alleged rules violations. While the NCAA was forced to loosen its rules to allow athletes at its member colleges to receive compensation for use of their likenesses, it continues to be against NCAA rules for colleges themselves, including through booster groups, to use NIL incentives to recruit athletes.