University System News:
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech produces most talent in AI across country, per JLL report
Georgia Tech has more graduates working in artificial intelligence than any other school in the country, according JLL’s new Technology Top 5 report. Georgia Tech has produced 3.2% of all current AI talent. The Atlanta-based university beat out the University of California at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University and University of Southern California. The report details different positive aspects of Atlanta’s technology sector. Major companies and small startups point to that expand to Atlanta’s talent pool as a major reason for the city’s growing tech sector. Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Kennesaw State University, Georgia State University and Emory University combined to graduate thousands of students with degrees in tech in 2023, per the report. STEM graduates in metro Atlanta have increased by 54% in the last four years.
Athens Banner-Herald
High-paying jobs in Athens among potential benefits for new UGA medical school
It may be a bit premature to accurately assess the economic impact of a new medical school at the University of Georgia, a project approved in February by the University System Board of Regents. However, the 14-year presence of the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership in Athens provides some strong clues of a decidedly positive effect on the local economy. Beyond that, local officials say, a full-blown UGA medical school will dovetail nicely with the Athens-Clarke County government’s economic development strategy.
Athens Banner-Herald
Designers sought for 92,000-square-foot building to be centerpiece of new UGA medical school
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is moving quickly to establish a full-blown medical school at the University of Georgia. A new 92,000-square-foot education and research facility was revealed this month as the centerpiece of the initiative. The planned new facility is a critical component of the regents’ plan to double the current 60-student class size at the Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership, which has been providing physician education at UGA’s Health Sciences Campus since 2011. The overall size of the planned new medical school is just one of the details included in requests for qualifications and for proposals for design services for the new medical school issued earlier this month by the regents.
Valdosta Daily Times
Nashville student on UNG’s Geomatics Bowl team
Three University of North Georgia (UNG) students competed in the Geomatics Bowl at the Surveying and Mapping Society of Georgia’s Annual Technical Seminar, where they won two of their rounds. The Geomatics Bowl is a Jeopardy-style game with prompts from surveying, geospatial and related categories. Joshua Burgess, Sammy Hand and Jacob Jordan competed in four rounds of the bowl. The first was against Georgia Southern University in the college-level round and the team was able to pull out a win. This was followed by a win against the Young Surveyors team, who are new licensees. Hand, a senior, is from Nashville, Georgia. “I am proud of the students. I was excited to see our team, which was assembled kind of at the last minute, perform how they did,” UNG senior lecturer Steven Hooks said. “They won against a college team that has participated in other events together. Plus, they beat the new licensees.”
Grice Connect
Nick Dillon is a Warner Robins, Georgia, native who is anything but average. Dillon is on track to graduate magna cum laude from Georgia Southern University’s Honors College in May as a Goel Scholar with a degree in mechanical engineering. He won one of two prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Internal Combustion Engine Forward (ICEF) Conference undergraduate research awards from entries nationwide. Dillon’s research paper, “Investigations of Low-Reactivity X-98 Ethanol in Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition with High-Reactivity Jet-A for Performance and Emissions Improvement,” was presented at the conference.
People
5 University of Georgia sorority sisters save mom and kids from sinking car: ‘Absolutely admirable’
Five sorority sisters from the University of Georgia are being hailed as heroes for saving a mom and her two children after the woman’s SUV fell 135 feet into a creek and began to sink. The college students were en route from Athens, where the university is located, to Savannah for a girls’ weekend last Friday when they came across the accident in Burke County, according to Fox affiliate WAGA-TV. “We were kind of just driving down in this part of Georgia, a very rural area, and we were approaching this bridge that was probably about, like, two stories above the creek below,” Molly McCollum told the news station.
Middle Georgia CEO
VIDEO: Dr. Mary Wearn on art & design offerings at Middle Georgia State University
Dean of the School of Arts & Letters at Middle Georgia State University Dr. Mary Wearn talks about some of the programs offered in the School of Arts & Letters. She also discusses how MGA prepares its students for Georgia’s creative economy.
WSAV
Kim Gusby, broadcasting veterans inducted into GAB Hall of Fame
The Georgia Association of Broadcasters (GAB) inducted industry leaders into its Hall of Fame at a banquet on Friday, March 22, in Atlanta. WSAV News 3’s Kim Gusby was among this year’s inductees. … A native of the Hostess City, she’s a proud graduate of Herschel V. Jenkins High School, the Savannah State College (now University) Upward Bound Program and Georgia Southern University.
WTOC
Savannah State University introduces new police chief
It’s a new chapter of leadership at Savannah State University. WTOC sat down with SSU’s new police chief. Clarella Thomas has taken over the role for interim chief Frederick Denson who’s been in the position since 2003. Thomas spoke to us on what she’s looking forward to. “I’m looking forward to opportunities where we can share and have impactful conversations—sometimes hard conversations—but impactful conversations to support them as they journey into their perspective majors and careers.” Thomas has been in public safety since her start at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2001. She also says that her mother is an alumni of the university.
Grice Connect
Save the Date! Botanic Garden Spring Plant Sale takes place April 6-7
The 2024 Botanic Garden at Georgia Southern University Spring Plant Sale takes place on Saturday, April 6, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and Sunday, April 7, from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. The Botanic Garden at Georgia Southern University is located at 1503 Bland Avenue in Statesboro, and entry is free. … Their upcoming Spring Plant Sale will feature pollinator-friendly plants that support their efforts to enhance the butterfly and pollinator garden near Bland Cottage. You will be able to preview the sale (beginning March 29th) at http://tiny.cc/plantsale.
SooToday
Local swimming star making waves for U.S. college team
Swimming is a huge part of Logan Belanger’s life. The 20-year-old has successfully taken her love for the water to competitive heights. As a Georgia Southern University student, Belanger and her teammates won bronze for their school in the 200-yard freestyle relay competing against other U.S. colleges at the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championships held Feb. 14-17 in Orlando, Florida. … “Being on the podium was a feeling that is hard to put into words. We worked all season for that, and it was an amazing accomplishment for the team and myself,” the Sault native told SooToday in a recent interview. … Belanger was nominated last year for Newcomer of the Year for all athletics at Georgia Southern. “For swimming, I’d say my biggest accomplishment was transferring to Georgia Southern. It was very emotional for me, very difficult, very challenging, a lot of ‘what ifs?’ but I said to myself, ‘You can do it, Logan, you can go to another Division I program.’ I had a great freshman year, so I knew I’d get recruited to a different college. I came here and did what I do best. I put my head down and trained hard.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia running back arrested on DUI, reckless driving charges
Georgia’s Trevor Etienne was arrested and jailed overnight Sunday. The Bulldogs’ projected starting running back, a midyear transfer from Florida, is charged with driving under the influence (DUI), reckless driving, failure to maintain lane/improper and affixing materials that reduce visibility of windshield, according to the Athens-Clarke County Jail log. The traffic stop was made by Athens-Clarke County Police in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Etienne was booked into jail at 4:35 a.m. and released on bonds totaling $1,838 at 5:27 a.m.
Other News:
The Gazette
Ex-chief of USDA praises Iowan at ag celebration
Sonny Perdue, the former U.S. secretary of agriculture, had high praise for an Iowan when he spoke to 650 people this week at the 36th annual Celebration of Agriculture. Bill Northey, Iowa ag secretary from 2007 to 2018, “focused on problem-solving and how to make life better for farmers,” Perdue said at the Thursday dinner at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Convention Complex. Perdue said he recruited Northey to come to Washington, D.C., in 2018 as a USDA undersecretary, noting Northey often worked 12-hour days. … Perdue, a former Georgia governor and now chancellor of that state’s university system, recalled the night he was offered the nation’s top ag policy job. He was having dinner with a cousin, a member of Congress. Perdue’s phone rang. He was going to ignore the call since he didn’t recognize the number. His cousin did recognize it and advised him to answer. … Perdue said he later was told he got the job because he “looked like a farmer. I took that as a compliment.”
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
‘Another unforced error’ in the FAFSA fiasco
The notoriously rocky rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) keeps getting rockier. On Friday, the Education Department acknowledged that a calculation error by the office of Federal Student Aid led to inaccurate aid estimates on hundreds of thousands of Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, processed in the past few months. “The FAFSA Processing System (FPS) was not including all data fields needed to correctly calculate the Student Aid Index for dependent students who reported assets,” the department wrote in an announcement. “This issue resulted in inaccurate ISIRs for dependent students with assets delivered to [institutions] prior to March 21, 2024.”
Higher Ed Dive
FAFSA delays should put gainful employment on back burner, lawmakers say
Dive Brief: Senators from both sides of the aisle are pushing the U.S. Department of Education to delay implementation of its gainful employment rule amid a rocky release of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In a Thursday letter, the four legislators urged U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the July 1 deadline for colleges to submit student outcome and financial transparency data. They also asked the Education Department to further ease its verification requirements for colleges’ financial aid offices. This year’s updated FAFSA is intended to simplify the financial aid process, but the glitchy rollout has only made it more challenging, they wrote.
Higher Ed Dive
Half of graduates end up underemployed — what does that mean for colleges?
As the American public has lost confidence in higher education over the past few years, policymakers have begun talking more about return on investment. In the simplest terms, they say that graduates who invest time and money pursuing a college education should see an earnings bump from their degrees. In a recent report from the Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute, researchers have attempted to push the conversation beyond earnings by looking at the kinds of jobs graduates are getting. They issued a big finding: 52% of graduates with only a bachelor’s degree end up underemployed a year after getting their diploma — that is, they work in jobs that don’t typically require a college degree. Ten years on, that number only drops to 45%.
Inside Higher Ed
Arizona GOP bill would stifle faculty power in governance
Arizona lawmakers are close to passing a Republican bill that would downgrade faculty members’ role in shared governance of public universities while bolstering the clout of presidents and state regents. Currently under Arizona law, the faculty “shall participate in” or “share responsibility for” governing, academic and personnel decisions. Under the new bill, professors could only “consult with” university leaders on such decisions. The impetus for this change is a bit of a mystery: House Bill 2735’s prime sponsor, Republican representative Travis Grantham, has said it’s related to financial issues at the University of Arizona, but it’s unclear how. That financial crisis, brought on largely by the flagship university miscalculating its amount of cash on hand by millions, was caused by administrative issues—not by any problems with faculty power.