University System News:
Jurist Legal News and Research
Charles Gallmeyer
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held Wednesday that a policy of the Board of Regents for the University System of Georgia barring the enrollment of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients at Georgia’s most selective universities had a rational basis and was not superseded by federal law. Three DACA recipients, who would otherwise have been qualified to attend schools like the Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology if not for the policy, sued alleging Supremacy Clause and Equal Protection Clause violations.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia House tries to limit dual enrollment
By Ty Tagami
The runaway popularity, and growing cost, of Georgia’s dual enrollment program, which lets high school students earn college credit for free, led lawmakers in the House of Representatives to pass legislation Thursday that would limit access. Described as “guardrails” on the program, which has doubled in cost since 2016 to over $100 million a year, House Bill 444 would restrict students to 30 free credit hours while cutting out younger students. Anything over 30 credit hours would come out of students’ HOPE Scholarships. Freshmen would no longer be able to go to technical school and freshmen and sophomores would be barred from dual enrolling in other postsecondary institutions.
Carriage Trade PR
Sponsors Donate $51,000 to 2019 Leadership Southeast Georgia Program
By Carriage Trade
Sponsors Donate $51,000 to 2019 Leadership Southeast Georgia Program
(SOUTHEAST GA) Businesses from our 10-county region have donated $51,000 to Leadership Southeast Georgia for its five-month leadership development program in 2019. Sponsors include Evans General Contractors, Gulfstream Aerospace, Advanced Door Systems, The Sack Company, Georgia Power, Georgia Southern University, the Savannah Airport Commission, LS3P ASSOCIATES, LTD. and FirstPage Marketing. “These businesses make Leadership Southeast Georgia possible,” said LSEGA chairman Lee Beckmann. “The cost of each session and all the work that goes on year-round to support this annual program costs more than participant tuition alone can cover. Sponsorships like these are necessary to maximize the value and impact of the experience for each class.” …The annual five-month program is designed to develop the potential of its participants through education and networking events throughout the region. The class of 2019 has 25 members from the following counties: Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long, McIntosh and Screven.
Tifton Gazette
Colquitt Regional Medical Center invests in four ABAC students
Colquitt Regional Medical Center invested $10,000 in the annual An Evening for ABAC scholarship fundraiser at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 2018. That investment paid a huge dividend for ABAC students Jarod Henderson, Kaycee Goodman, Eva Portillo, and Taylor Kight. All four students earned ABAC Foundation scholarships due to the Colquitt Regional investment. Henderson is a sophomore nursing major from Ashburn, and Goodman is a junior nursing major from Chula. Portillo, a sophomore from Moultrie, and Kight, a junior from Moultrie, are also nursing majors.
India West
India-West Staff Reporter
Abha Rai and two other students from the University of Georgia have been named recipients of the Giving Voice to the Voiceless Fund. Funded by Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Ron Gault, the Giving Voice to the Voiceless Fund allows selected UGA students from all academic disciplines an opportunity to promote the welfare of voiceless communities within Athens and beyond, a university report said. Rai is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work. According to the report, she was inspired to submit a proposal regarding domestic violence in Indian American and larger South Asian communities. Her proposal, titled “Giving Voice to South Asian Immigrant Communities: Understanding Domestic Violence,” will allow her to make an intervention, which is why she needed the funding, the report said. “[The money] would be helpful in designing the project and collecting data,” Rai said in the report.
11Alive
She was being a Good Samaritan – but the act of kindness ended her life.
In an exclusive interview, Kayli Guthrie’s aunt said she was the 1 percent of people who would stop to help when she noticed an accident.
Author: Joe Henke
Kayli Guthrie spotted an accident Sunday around 1 a.m. on I-85. She stopped to help and then moments later was struck and killed. Since Sunday, Guthrie’s family has been receiving messages from the many people she impacted during the 20 years of her life. …Guthrie, a Dacula resident, was a sophomore at Georgia Gwinnett College, studying psychology and she planned to become a nurse after college. Her aunt believes it was her need to help which led to her stop on Sunday. Gwinnett County Police said the crash happened on I-85 north just south of Pleasant Hill Road. A 64-year-old man driving a Ford Explorer hit a median wall. After seeing that accident, Guthrie stopped her vehicle to check on the driver of the Explorer, police said. …At the same time, 27-year-old Jonathan Gresham was approaching the scene in a Ford Fusion. Gresham attempted to stop, but struck the rear of the Explorer and continued between it and the median wall, according to police. Guthrie was standing outside of her vehicle — directly in the path of the Fusion, police said. She was struck and killed.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How should colleges respond to cults of misinformation?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Matthew Boedy, an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, examines the role of higher education in the face of what he calls “cults of misinformation.”
As an example, Boedy cites this week’s U.S. Senate hearing on vaccinations and public health in which a teen testified about rejecting his parents’ anti-vaccination beliefs. After researching the importance of vaccines, the teen chose to catch on his missing inoculations. He told the Senate his mother’s opposition was fed by anti-vaccine groups online and on social media. She relied on them rather than on credible health sources.
WGAU Radio
UGA STUDENTS TAKE PART IN DISEASE SIMULATION
Do you ever wonder what would happen if a dangerous disease threatened our community? Who responds? What are the steps taken to contain it and protect the public’s health? Thirty-three students at the University of Georgia found out recently when they participated in Spillover: A One Health Infectious Disease Outbreak Simulation in February at the College of Veterinary Medicine on UGA’s South Campus. Designed and organized by Katherine Franc, a dual degree DVM-MPH student in the College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Public Health, and Anna Chocallo, an MPH student concentrating in disaster management in the College of Public Health, the daylong event brought together facilitators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as faculty from the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, to stage a simulated infectious disease outbreak in the Athens community.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Appointments, resignations, retirements, awards, deaths
Compiled by Julia Piper
…CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS
Appointments
- Jack Hu, vice president for research at the University of Michigan, will become senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia on July 1.
WTOC
Savannah State officially names Quinn head football coach
Thursday, Savannah State removed the interim tag from Shawn Quinn – naming him the 26th Tigers Head Coach in program history.
By Lyndsey Gough
Savannah State University has officially named its new head football coach, leading the program to a new era as they move back into FCS and Division-II. Thursday, Savannah State removed the interim tag from Shawn Quinn – naming him the 26th Tigers Head Coach in program history. Quinn was initially hired in February 2018 as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach – a defense that finished first in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in pass defense (138.5 yards per game). He has served as an assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach before at Tennessee Tech (2016-17), but this is his first go-around as the head man in charge.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Power, Georgia Tech partnering on ‘microgrid’ project
By Dave Williams – Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Power Co. and Georgia Tech have announced a new partnership to build a 1.4-megawatt “microgrid” in Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square. Microgrids are self-contained power systems located at the facilities they plan to serve. They include generation resources, storage systems and energy management systems. The microgrid at 5th and Spring streets will serve as a living laboratory for Tech professors and students. “The Tech Square Microgrid project will give us a better understanding of the resiliency, sustainability and cost of microgrids to help develop emerging energy solutions,” Paul Bowers, Georgia Power’s chairman, president and CEO, said Wednesday.
Athens CEO
Georgia Road Maps Designed though Vinson Institute Partnership with GDOT
Roger Nielsen
Motorists exploring Georgia’s travel treasures can unfold a colorful copy of the Official Highway and Transportation Map to find the easiest way to reach their exciting destinations. And for 20 years now, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government has helped the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) produce fresh editions of the map. The newest map was just published, after nearly a year of improvements and revisions by a team of Vinson Institute cartographers and GDOT graphic designers. Copies of the two-sided, large-print map go to welcome centers in quiet downtowns and along busy interstate highways, to GDOT’s seven district offices — and even online, so people everywhere can view an electronic version. GDOT printed nearly a million copies of the official state road map this year. The new edition includes blue shading that accurately represents coastal water depths, rendered by Vinson Institute cartographer Angela Wheeler, and artistic representations of state symbols created by Kiisa Wiegand, who oversees map production as a business analyst with GDOT’s Office of Transportation Data.
Business Insider
Mark Matousek
A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests autonomous driving systems may have more difficulty detecting pedestrians with dark skin than those with light skin. The researchers responsible for the study had eight image-detection systems analyze images of pedestrians. The people in the photos were separated into two groups based on how their skin tones aligned with the Fitzpatrick skin type scale, which divides skin tones into six categories. One group consisted of pedestrians who fell into one of the three lightest categories on the Fitzpatrick scale, while the other group consisted of pedestrians who fell into one of the three darkest categories on the Fitzpatrick scale.
AL
Georgia Tech researchers moving closer to Huntsville arsenal
By Lee Roop
Developers today announced the latest building and tenant in the large commercial park they are building just outside Redstone Arsenal’s gates in Huntsville. “Georgia Tech Research Institute will occupy half of the space” in a new building under construction at Redstone Gateway, developer Paul Adkins told a groundbreaking audience. The new building is one story with 76,000 square feet of office space. It’s scheduled to open in the fall, and developer Corporate Offices Properties Trust is in negotiations with another defense contractor for the remaining space.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
HBCU Leaders, Industry Partners Meet on Capitol Hill for HBCU STEAM Day of Action
by Tiffany Pennamon
WASHINGTON — Collective advocacy for greater resources and support for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and their students was the goal of this year’s HBCU STEAM Day of Action on Capitol Hill, a day hosted by the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus that brought together members of Congress, industry leaders and the presidents and administrators of the nation’s HBCUs. Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) said that more attention needs to be paid to the fact that some states are failing to match USDA funding to 1890 schools as stipulated.
Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C. Throughout the day, HBCU leaders made their case for sustained industry partnerships and significant federal investments in the historic institutions that contribute nearly $15 billion annually to the nation’s economy and produce 42 percent of Black engineers, among other competent and prepared graduates.
Inside Higher Ed
The Mood Brightens: A Survey of Presidents
By Doug Lederman
College presidents overwhelmingly agree that Harvard University is justified in defending its use of affirmative action in admissions — but far fewer believe it will prevail in its lawsuit. Campus leaders largely believe Obama administration rules on sexual assault paid too little attention to the rights of the accused — and that the Trump administration’s response would edge too far in the other direction. And presidents express more confidence in the 10-year financial stability of their campuses than they have at any point in the last six years — but nearly one in seven says his or her campus could close or merge within five years. Those are among the compelling and sometimes confounding findings of Inside Higher Ed’s 2019 Survey of College and University Presidents, conducted with Gallup and released today in connection with the American Council on Education’s annual meeting in Philadelphia. A copy of the survey report can be downloaded here. The survey — to which 784 chief executives of two- and four-year institutions responded — finds presidents expressing more confidence (sometimes ever so slightly more) on some key issues, even as significant worries remain.
Inside Higher Ed
12 Groups Oppose Trump Idea on Campus Speech
By Scott Jaschik
Twelve groups have issued a joint statement opposing President Trump’s pledge to issue an executive order to bar federal research funds from institutions that are determined not to support free speech. “There are and always will be individuals on campus and in society generally who wish to silence those with whom they disagree. But punitive and simplistic measures will only exacerbate the problems they may create,” says the joint statement.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Eric Hoover
On Thursday morning a high-school senior in Texas received a strange email. “You are now presented with a unique opportunity,” it said, “to purchase your entire admissions file.” The message appeared to have been sent by Grinnell College, to which the student had applied. But Grinnell hadn’t sent the message; apparently, someone outside the Iowa campus had. Whoever it was claimed to have accessed the college’s admissions database. As if to provide proof, the message included the applicant’s correct date of birth. The mysterious sender offered the student a chance to see his file, including comments by admissions officers, assigned ratings, interview notes, teacher recommendations, and a tentative decision. “Although the price tag is substantial,” the message said, “this offer presents a unique opportunity to look at yourself from the inside of Grinnell Admissions office absolutely unfiltered.” All he had to do was pay one Bitcoin, or about $3,900. That student wasn’t alone. Other applicants to Grinnell, as well as to Hamilton College, received the same message, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many. In a tweet on Thursday, Grinnell said it had learned that “some” prospective students had received the offer. The college urged recipients not to respond to the message, and said that it had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Grinnell and Hamilton have something in common: They both use Slate, a popular software system, to manage their vast troves of applicants’ information. The email offering to sell applicants hacked information said: “Let this message serve proof that Slate has indeed been breached.” Not so, according to Slate’s creator. “Slate remains secure, and Slate has not been accessed without legitimate user credentials,” Alexander Clark, chief executive officer of Technolutions Inc., wrote in an email to The Chronicle on Thursday. “We are aware of three colleges where an unauthorized party used the college’s password-reset system (hosted by the college, not by Technolutions/Slate) to reset a college staff member’s password and then used that legitimate user account to gain access to their Slate database and to other campus systems.” …Slate is used by more than 800 colleges worldwide. Last year the system transmitted 1.6 billion emails, seven million text messages, and 8.5 million new applications.