The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Construction begins on massive bio science park for Georgia Tech
By Zachary Hansen
The project is the university’s attempt to cultivate and support home-grown biology, medical and technology startups
Georgia Tech’s vision of an 18-acre innovation district for medical and technology startups is beginning to become a reality. The research university and its development partners held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning to christen Science Square, a long-planned development that aims to bolster Atlanta’s biotech sector. The project, which was formerly known as Technology Enterprise Park, will consist of five phases and will eventually include more than 2.3 million square feet of lab and office space spread across five buildings. The project is a medical technology counterpart to Georgia Tech’s famed Tech Square development in Midtown, which has spurred billions in spin off development from corporations clamoring to locate next to one of the nation’s top research institutions.
EurekAlert!
Georgia State University sets research funding record with more than $164 million in awards
Georgia State University faculty earned $164.2 million in research funding in fiscal year 2022, the highest total in university history. This is the eighth consecutive year research awards have topped $100 million. This year’s record surpasses the previous high of $150 million set in fiscal year 2020 and is $22 million higher than the previous year’s total. In the past three years, externally funded research activity at the university has climbed 9.5 percent. “This level of research activity is certainly a testament to our outstanding researchers at Georgia State,” said President M. Brian Blake. “The transformative work going on here continues to address the most complex problems of our time, and we continue to make significant breakthroughs that promise to collectively improve the lives of people from all backgrounds.”
WGAU Radio
First class of UGA film students graduates
By Sarah Freeman, UGA Today
They are trailblazers and creatives…and now they are graduates of the MFA Film, Television and Digital Media program at the University of Georgia. Elise Nation shows off one the hand-held production cameras at the beginning of the MFA Film program. Nation, who appreciates a variety of film genres including animated movies like “Mulan” says, “I want to be part of making those films that inspire little girls and boys of the next generation to be able to do anything.” (Photo: courtesy of Elise Nation) The program, which was approved in Spring 2020 and met for the first time behind masks that fall, held graduation ceremonies August 13, 2022. …The MFA Film program is a two-year intensive program teaching students directing, screenwriting, producing and other skills related to move into creative careers in Georgia’s lucrative film business, a $4.4 billion industry in fiscal year 2022. While the focus is on above-the-line industry positions, each student is educated in a variety of fundamentals, from sound design and lighting, to acting and camera work.
The City Menus
It runs in the family: Mother-daughter duo exemplify Go West spirit via scholarship
By Julie Lineback
How do you honor an educator who has spent her life teaching the importance of a multicultural and globally connected world? For the University of West Georgia’s Dr. Cecilia Lee, professor emerita of Spanish, the answer was simple. Although she retired in 2007, her former students, friends and family created a scholarship in her name, the Cecilia Castro Lee Scholarship, ensuring she will impact generations to come. “This legacy is not about the money or having it in my name, but it’s about what the students have in their hearts,” Lee shared. “It’s about their memories and how these courses they take will help them in their lives. I want it to open doors for the students to see their futures and opportunities.” … Lee’s daughter, UWG alumna Capt. Susana Lee, recently breathed new life into the merit-based scholarship, one Susana said matches Cecilia’s enduring nature.
11Alive
College program to help under-resourced students in Atlanta area
Video – A new college readiness program hopes to help under-resourced students in the Atlanta area.
Patch
In a constantly changing world with new mediums for communication, it’s critical for professionals to be adaptive to the latest communication strategies. Georgia Southern University is continuing to lead the country in this digital transformation by expanding its Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Professional Communication and Leadership to online platforms. The Master of Professional Communication and Leadership is designed to further professional development through coursework in written and verbal communications skills, critical thinking and leadership. The program is directed toward both traditional and nontraditional students who are either already in the workforce or are making the transition from an undergraduate degree to a professional setting. More information can be found here.
Athens CEO
Fifty Years Of Speakers Honored at the University Of Georgia School Of Law Now Available Online
Staff Report
The University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archive and Special Collections and the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) have made 50 years of UGA School of Law speaker and lecture materials available freely online. The presenters are well-known national and state political figures, influential legal leaders, and current and former School of Law students and professors. The collection features photographs of U.S. and Georgia political and legal figures during the latter part of the 20th century. Former President Jimmy Carter; U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas; and U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Dean Rusk are among the prominent national figures. Important legal leaders include Lawrence Lessig, Brooksley Born, and Sarah Weddington. Georgia politicians include former Governors Carl Sanders, Roy Barnes, and Zell Miller; U.S. Senators Max Cleland and Sam Nunn; among others.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Q&A: Economist marvels at successes, challenges around the planned Hyundai EV plant
By Adam Van Brimmer, Savannah Morning News
Hyundai will soon break ground on a $5 billion EV and battery manufacturing plant near Ellabell. All this week, Savannah Morning News journalists have explored the infrastructure needs and challenges for the factory site. The following is an excerpt from a “The Commute” podcast interview with Georgia Southern University economist Michael Toma regarding how Savannah and the region prepare for the facility, which is expected to employ 8,100 workers.
Tines-Georgian
UWG grad is shooting for the moon!
Special To The Times-Georgian
When the University of West Georgia last sat down to chat with alumnus Roger Lascorz in 2017, the physics grad said one of his career goals was to work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was a giant leap that would be the result of several steps for the Catalonia, Spain, native who moved to Carrollton, Georgia, as a 16-year-old international student at UWG’s Advanced Academy. Five years after our initial interview, we found Lascorz right where he predicted he’d be – NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Statesboro Herald
Robert Grant named VP at East Georgia State
From staff reports
Published: Aug 18, 2022, 6:12 PM
East Georgia State College announces that Robert Grant has been named the new vice president for Institutional Advancement and Grants. “We are so excited to have Robert join our team at East Georgia,” said Dr. David Schecter, president of EGSC. …In this role, Grant will provide leadership and strategic focus. He will work with the EGSC Foundation and its members to implement strategies to increase private funding for college programs and capital needs, as well as secure gifts and grants from private foundations and government sources.
Fox28 Savannah
Savannah Logistics Innovation Center starts accelerator program for startup companies
by Christian Felt
The Savannah Logistics Innovation Center has partnered with several organizations to provide an accelerator program for startups in the Hostess City. Executive director Bart Gobeil said the program is intended to stir development in logistics to strengthen supply chains, especially around Georgia’s ports. He said they’ve selected 12 startups for the first cohort of the program that will provide education, mentorship, and financing assistance. …Gobeil added that the accelerator program is the result of many partnerships with Savannah entities like Georgia Southern University and the Georgia Ports Authority.
13WMAZ
Milledgeville Professor captures Georgia through a lens
Video – Chris Greer has a new book called ‘Naturally Georgia’ that explores Georgia landscapes.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA professor: We must stop segregating children with disabilities
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Usree Bhattacharya is an associate professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia. In a guest column, Bhattacharya writes about sending her daughter Kalika to kindergarten this year and her concerns as a parent about the segregation of students with disabilities. Kalika has Rett syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that occurs almost exclusively in girls and leads to severe impairments, affecting nearly every aspect of the child’s life: their ability to speak, walk, eat, and breathe.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed Dive
Report: Despite high completion, FAFSA ‘remains confusing’ for students and families
Naaz Modan, Senior Reporter
The percentage of college-bound students applying for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has increased slightly, from 68% in 2020-21 to 70% in 2021-22, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos, an analytics company. However an even larger portion, 75%, were unaware the FAFSA application window starts in October. The report said FAFSA “remains confusing for students and families.” Just over half of families, or 54%, are aware all students are eligible to submit an application, while a quarter believed it’s only for students from low-income households, and 36% of families said their income was too high.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What Happened to Black Enrollment?
After more than a century of Black activists’ fight for college access, Black enrollment this past decade tumbled at an alarming rate.
By Oyin Adedoyin
For nearly half a century, the story of Black students in the United States was a story of success. Black enrollment grew from 282,000 in 1966 to more than 2.5 million in 2010, the result of, among other things, civil-rights activists’ efforts to dismantle Jim Crow laws, colleges’ adoption of affirmative-action policies, and the federal government’s subsidizing of low-income students’ tuition. But from 2010 to 2020, as overall college enrollments fell, the number of Black students on campuses fell even more sharply, to 1.9 million. The pressures affecting students in general — the escalating cost of college and skepticism about a degree’s payoff, for example — have been acute for Black students. And a confluence of entrenched factors, like the economic hardship in many Black communities, colleges’ admissions practices, and Black students’ not feeling welcome or represented on campuses, has further depressed Black enrollment. The pandemic has made conditions significantly worse, with a disproportionate number of Black people in the last two years disengaging from college to pursue jobs, even as some historically Black colleges have seen record enrollments.
NPR
HBCUs are building a new prison-to-college pipeline
Sequoia Carrillo
When he was 21, Stanley Andrisse hit rock bottom. “I was sitting in a courtroom facing 20 years to life and had this prosecutor telling me that I had no hope for changing,” Andrisse says. He was convicted on three felony counts and spent the next few years in a Missouri prison. He says his 21-year-old self could never have imagined his life today: Andrisse is now an endocrinologist, scientist and professor at Howard University’s College of Medicine. He has a Ph.D., an MBA, and a lab full of students who affectionately call him Dr. Stan. “So I didn’t quite live up to the expectations of the prosecutor those many, many years ago,” he says with a laugh. Andrisse credits his success to a mentor he had while he was incarcerated. They encouraged him to continue his education and helped him apply to higher education programs while he was still behind bars. His story is remarkable, but historically Black colleges and universities are trying to make it more common.
Inside Higher Ed
Poll: Class of 2025 Politically Divided
By Katherine Knott
Nearly half of incoming college sophomores don’t want to live with or date someone who voted differently from them in the 2020 election, a new NBC News/Generation Lab poll found. The Class of 2025 also is less optimistic about the country and world than they were a year ago, but they have a rosy outlook about their own futures, according to NBC News, which along with Generation Lab surveyed the same class of students a year ago as they were about to start college. More than two-thirds of respondents said they experienced anxiety in the past year, as well as 46 percent who said they’ve experienced depression. Nearly 90 percent said they were either extremely or quite concerned about the prices of gasoline, rent and food.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Professors, It’s Time to ‘Rate Your Campus Admin’
By Sarah Brown
Peruse RateYourCampusAdmin.com, and it’s not totally clear whether the website is supposed to be funny or serious. “You will have the power to evaluate the performance of the senior administrators on your campus,” the home page declares. Below that are claims that the site is “fueled by experts” with “years of user experiences with higher-education administrators, condensing a wealth of knowledge about their performance and future employability.” A banner prompts people to “add your administrators here!” Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra is the faculty member who’s behind it. He’s an associate professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego. Pardo-Guerra said the project started out as “a bit of a funny joke” and “a criticism of higher education.” But he’s open to the possibility that the website could actually serve a purpose.
Inside Higher Ed
University of Southern California Frats Go Rogue
Ten fraternities have disaffiliated from the university in what USC officials say is a show of rebellion over new rushing and party rules. The move is part of a national trend.
By Liam Knox
The University of Southern California is one of the top-ranked campuses for Greek life in the country: almost 30 percent of undergraduates—about 7,300 students—were members of a Greek organization in 2020. But as students begin arriving for the fall semester, they’ll find that many of USC’s Greek organizations are no longer subject to university governance. On Aug. 12, six of the university’s 14 interfraternity council member chapters disaffiliated from the university; as of Thursday, that number had grown to 10. Along with two other fraternities—including Lambda Chi Alpha, which was suspended in 2019 for four years following a hazing investigation—the group has formed an independent organization called the University Park Interfraternity Council (UPIFC), named after the south Los Angeles neighborhood where USC is located. The mass exodus comes almost a year after USC suspended all fraternity activities in response to a barrage of sexual assault and drugging allegations against members of the university’s Sigma Nu chapter, including chapter president Ryan Schiffilea. The university allowed parties and other activities to resume in March.
Inside Higher Ed
A New Look at College Affordability for Indigenous Students
By Sara Weissman
A group of scholarship providers for Native American students on Wednesday released a report detailing their first national study on college affordability for Indigenous students. Researchers surveyed 1,607 current and 1,182 former scholarship recipients in 2020 and conducted interviews and sharing circles with 96 current and former students in 2021 to gain a better understanding of their financial barriers. The study found that 72 percent of current students surveyed reported they had run out of money at least once in the last six months, and 67 percent said they were responsible for helping with family bills. Half of all participants reported choosing where to go to college based on overall cost of attendance.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Should Governing Boards Have More Say Over Athletic Decisions?
By Eric Kelderman
When the University of California at Los Angeles announced in late June that it would move from the Pac-12 athletic conference to the Big Ten it seemed like a done deal. But the University of California’s Board of Regents indicated Wednesday it may have the ability to prevent UCLA from making the move. “The Regents retain the authority to review decisions impacting the system, including the current agreement,” a statement from the board’s spokesperson said in part. During and after a board meeting, Wednesday, the regents raised questions about the financial impact on the athletic programs at other universities in the system, about the health and academic support of athletes, and about the board’s authority over such arrangements. Another concern of regents seemed to be that they had no input on such a major decision. In response, the regents announced they would consider enacting new policies at their September meeting to make it clear they would have oversight of significant decisions involving athletics.
Inside Higher Ed
Tumult Continues in College Football Land
As Big Ten announces $1-billion-a-year TV contract including its newest members, California system explores whether it can block UCLA from leaving Pac-10. And could big-time football powers leave the NCAA?
By Doug Lederman
The aftershocks of this summer’s decision by the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, to forgo the Pacific-12 Conference for the Big Ten Conference continue to reverberate across the college sports landscape—with even more disruptive changes in college football governance reportedly under consideration. The move by USC and UCLA, which is due to take effect in 2024, was the latest in a decade-long seismic shift in the landscape of big-time college football and men’s basketball that has obliterated historical geographic boundaries and rivalries in universities’ pursuit of greater revenues. This week brought two developments that laid bare both the financial windfall that attracted the West Coast powers to abandon their Pac-10 brethren and the extent of the unhappiness felt by those left behind.
Higher Ed Dive
Biden’s ‘Fresh Start’ student loan plan would help 7.5M borrowers in default
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The Biden administration intends to put 7.5 million student loan borrowers who are in default back into good standing through its Fresh Start initiative, which the U.S. Department of Education detailed Wednesday. Under the program, defaulted borrowers will have one year from the end of the federal government’s pandemic-driven student loan repayment pause to arrange payments on their debt. The repayment moratorium is set to expire at the end of this month, though it’s possible the White House will extend it. During that one-year period, borrowers with eligible loans will not be subject to collection efforts, like having their wages garnished or tax refunds revoked. Fresh Start applies to borrowers who defaulted on federal Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loans under the program known as FFEL, and Perkins Loans that the Education Department services.
Inside Higher Ed
Finding the Sweet Spot on Student Loan Forgiveness
President Biden has yet to deliver on his campaign promise to forgive at least some student loan debt. Doing so would be a big win for key voting blocs heading into the midterms, but some are hoping for more forgiveness than others.
By Meghan Brink
President Biden has yet to deliver what experts say could be a strong political catalyst among Democrats and young voters: widespread student debt relief. Biden said he would deliver a final decision on whether to cancel at least some of the $1.7 trillion currently owed to the federal government in student loan debt by the end of August but has yet to indicate a plan. In 12 days, the pause on federal student loan debt is set to lift and millions of borrowers will be sent back into repayment after an almost two-and-a-half-year break. The lack of action from Biden has many supporters of debt relief frustrated. With the midterm elections right around the corner in November, debt relief could give Biden and the Democratic Party an advantage among key voting blocs, especially young and minority voters.