Fox 5 Atlanta
University of Georgia generates all-time high $7.6B for 2022 Georgia economy, report says
By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
The University of Georgia proved to be a continuous moneymaker for the state of Georgia after a new study revealed the institution had a record-high economic impact of $7.6 billion in 2022. The study, led by UGA agricultural and applied economics professor Michael Adjemian, cited teaching, research and public service as the three main economic drivers. However, he said growth in the number of degrees conferred at the undergraduate and graduate levels also played a hand in what appeared to be a $200 million increase since last year.
WRDW
Student artist shows off new mural at Augusta University
By Staff
We previously told you about the growing interest in the animation program at Augusta University. Now a student in the program is showing off her artwork in a mural outside the new Roar store. Junior Emily Hogue designed the mural featuring drawings of trees surrounding the AU mascot, Augustus, in front of the entrance to the Summerville campus. She says her past experience helped her prepare for a design that has an impact on the future.
The Union-Recorder
Georgia College students hear from 89-year-old Holocaust survivor
Matthew Brown
Do you believe in miracles? Not the kind that leads to a major sports upset, but ones that mean the difference between living and not? Only a child, Manuela Bornstein, 89, lived through one of the darkest periods in world history. Not only did she live through it, but so did her nuclear family of four (mother, father, sister included). Not only did they all live through Nazi Germany’s attempt to take over all of Europe in the early 1940s and posed for some smiling group photos along the way, that family even grew by one baby brother. Miracles made the difference in Manuela Bornstein, who resides in Atlanta, appearing Tuesday at Georgia College & State University and not. Georgia College and Hillel, the campus’ Jewish organization, presented Evening with Manuela Bornstein: A Holocaust Survivor on Tuesday, Jan. 24. Also involved in bringing the program together was the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust represented by speaker escort Mike Weinroth. GC&SU hosted the program just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was observed Jan. 27.
Baptist Press
Georgia BCMs to get new facilities on 5 university campuses
By Roger Alford/Christian Index
The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has entered into a revolutionary ground lease deal with private investors to construct new facilities for Baptist Collegiate Ministries at five state universities with the possibility of expanding to additional campuses in the future. …Georgia-based Covenant Capital Investors would lease BCM land at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, and the University of West Georgia in Carrollton where they would spend $100 million to construct multi-story buildings that would also provide space for student housing, cafes, gathering areas, and more.
Macon Magazine
Make it a day in Milledgeville
By Rachelle Wilson
A series of articles exploring charming towns worth a day-trip. Read about more locales at maconmagazine.com.
It is time to hit the road again. This time, we are headed to Milledgeville, about 30 miles northeast of Macon. To begin with, my awareness of what this neighboring town has to offer was outdated. With a population under 20,000, it may be a bit surprising to know that the unassuming town served as Georgia’s capital for more than 60 years. The robust history of the town is obvious to anyone coming to visit. Being home to Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville finds its historic avenues bustling with youthful energy and trending commerce. Here are a few stops to add to your list of places to visit on your next trip to Milledgeville.
IndiaWest Journal
Dr. Shailendra And Rajkumari Palvia Gift Helps GA College Set Up Jain Studies Professorship
The Georgia College & State University here, has announced the establishment of the “S & R Palvia Endowed Veetraag Vigyaan Professorship in Jain Studies.” Thanks to a generous gift of $250,000 from Dr. Shailendra and Rajikumari Palvia, the endowed professorship will allow the Georgia College Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Liberal Studies (PALS), “to facilitate the infusion of Jain perspectives in courses like philosophy, religion, literature, history and art,” the university said. …The Endowed Professor will administer these funds to provide faculty development and student learning opportunities to faculty in PALS, the larger GCSU community and across the University System of Georgia.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU economist: Recession likely in 2023
Hunter Riggall
The U.S. economy has about a two-thirds chance of experiencing a recession before the end of this year, a Kennesaw State University economist told businessmen and women Wednesday. Roger Tutterow, an economics professor and director of the Econometric Center at KSU, said the economy would more than likely experience a “mild correction” in 2023 at Synovus bank’s annual economic forecast breakfast at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Tutterow displayed a graph with data from economic think tank The Conference Board that showed leading economic indicators on a downward trajectory. The index aggregates 10 series of data which “turn up before expansions and down before recessions,” in Tutterow’s words.
Athens Banner-Herald
Experts: Athens should fare better than state and nation in predicted 2023 recession
Wayne Ford
The U.S. economy is expected to enter a recession in 2023, but a leading financial expert from the University of Georgia predicted on Wednesday that Athens will fare better than the state or nation. “We don’t expect Athens to fully dodge the recession, but we do expect Athens to fare much better than the nation and the state,” said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the UGA Terry College of Business. The economy in Athens is expected to grow in 2023, he told a gathering of about 500 people attending the 40th Georgia Economic Outlook event held at The Classic Center in Athens.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU president speaks out after two students arrested for attacking another student
By Jake Busch
Kennesaw State University Kathy “Kat” Schwaig said in a statement Wednesday that the alleged beating of a Black student by two white students “goes against everything we stand for at KSU.” On Friday, Jan. 27, Kennesaw police named 20-year-olds Gauge Dakota Stanley of Chatsworth and Kole Zuba Reasoner of Flowery Branch as suspects in the Jan. 22 beating of Jalique Rosemond. According to police, the incident occurred at the West 22 apartment complex on Cherokee Street in Kennesaw, about a mile west of the KSU campus. Around midnight on Jan. 22, police allege, Reasoner and Stanley attacked Rosemond in the parking lot of West 22, punching and kicking him to the point of breaking his nose, according to arrest warrants for both men.
Marietta Daily Journal
VR Policing: VSU Police use tech for training
Brittanye Blake, The Valdosta Daily Times
University police department has developed a virtual reality simulator to train local officers. Valdosta State University Police Department has combined traditional and technological teaching tactics in the Use of Force Lab. VSU Police Chief Alan Rowe said, “In a single space, we have a matted floor for defensive tactics, a two-dimensional screen for marksmanship training and a virtual reality simulator to practice real-world responses to emergency situations, including active shooter events and de-escalation situations involving persons with mental illness.” The virtual reality simulator includes an off-site control room and a dispatch training facility, allowing the dispatcher to receive the same level of stress training as the officer in the scenario.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Georgia colleges should toss SAT/ACT requirement for good
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
In a guest column, Nicholas Barry Creel, an assistant professor of business law at Georgia College and State University, urges Georgia to permanently eliminate a requirement that public college applicants provide ACT or SAT scores for admission. In September, the University System of Georgia announced it would extend a temporary test score waiver at 24 of its 26 institutions for 2023-2024. The college admissions exams will only be required at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
For the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, first-year enrollment increased from the previous year—though it’s too soon to say if the trend will continue.
By Johanna Alonso
After more than two years of declining enrollment numbers, fall 2022 finally brought refreshing news: freshman enrollment, which represented the most significant deficits throughout the pandemic, is up from the previous year, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Nearly 2.34 million freshmen enrolled in a college or university last semester, a 4.3 percent increase over fall 2021 and a healthy jump from the 2.24 million who enrolled in fall 2020, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began. While the number still remains well below the 2.49 million freshmen who enrolled in 2019, “this is a very promising sign for higher education,” said Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director.
See also:
Higher Ed Dive
Undergraduate enrollment slips only 0.6%, showing signs of stabilizing
Higher Ed Dive
State support for higher ed set to jump 6.6% in 2023 before inflation
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
Dive Brief:
State spending on higher education is on track to rise 6.6% to $112.3 billion in fiscal 2023, according to an early look at state support for the sector.
The spending measure, from an annual survey called Grapevine, includes tax appropriations, nontax support like lottery revenue, nonappropriated support and returns from state-funded endowments for higher ed. Add in federal COVID-19 relief funding routed through the states, and support for higher education totaled $113.5 billion in 2023. That only represents a 5.3% increase from the prior year, as federal relief funding for higher ed is tapering off. Grapevine data isn’t adjusted for inflation, a notable caveat amid sharply rising costs. The Consumer Price Index spiked by 6.5% between December 2021 and December 2022. The Higher Education Price Index, a metric specifically designed to gauge cost increases that colleges face, similarly jumped 5.2% in fiscal 2022 — the first time it exceeded 5% since 2008.
Inside Higher Ed
Pandemic Higher Ed Relief Funds Kept Students Enrolled and Institutions Open
A new report from the Education Department details how the billions in COVID-19 emergency relief aid helped millions of students remain enrolled in college. Students received $1,507, on average, in emergency aid.
By Katherine Knott
More than 18 million college students received federal COVID-19 emergency funds in the last two years—money that helped them stay in college and cover the cost of basic needs, the Education Department found in a new report on the federal aid. Nearly 13 million college students divvied up $19.5 billion in federal COVID-19 emergency aid in 2021, and the Education Department estimated that 18 million total—80 percent of whom were Pell Grant recipients—received aid during the first two years of the Biden administration. Ninety-four percent of community colleges and 90 percent of institutions over all credited the emergency funds with helping to keep students at risk of dropping out enrolled. The money also helped institutions absorb the shock of enrollment declines, lost revenue and other financial stressors during the pandemic.
See also:
Higher Ed Dive
Colleges used $13B in pandemic aid in 2021 to recover lost revenue
Higher Ed Dive
Education Department ramping up Title IX enforcement on pregnancy issues
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
Troy University must change its policies to better accommodate pregnant students under a deal it struck with the U.S. Department of Education this month, resolving an agency investigation into whether the Alabama public institution violated federal civil rights law. University officials during the 2020-21 academic year failed to assist a pregnant student, even penalizing her for poor classroom attendance, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found. Legal experts say the department’s agreement with Troy highlights the agency’s recent push to ensure pregnant students are protected under Title IX, the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools. Colleges will need to account for this stricter oversight, they warn.
Higher Ed Dive
Advocates ask Education Department to collect new racial, legacy data in college admissions
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
More than 30 education and college access groups, lawmakers, and academics are asking the U.S. Department of Education to broaden the admissions data it collects from institutions annually to include new information, like racial breakdowns of applicants and admitted students. In a letter Wednesday to James Kvaal, the department’s top higher education official, the coalition requested the department start requiring colleges to send data on how many applicants and students they admit through legacy policies, which give admissions preference to family members of alumni. Advocates also want colleges to report how many early decision and early action applicants, admits and enrolled students they have. Applying early decision or early action allow prospective students to receive an admission decision sooner, though early decision binds them to attend a particular institution before they can weigh competing offers.
Colleges should disaggregate their legacy, early decision and early action applicant data by race and ethnicity, the coalition argues. Critics say these practices skew admissions in favor of wealthy and White applicants.
Inside Higher Ed
African American History (Revised)
College Board releases its new course. Many of the modern topics have been revised or are omitted.
By Scott Jaschik
The College Board released the “framework” for its new Advanced Placement course in African American studies on Tuesday—and unleashed a torrent of commentary. The course has been controversial since Florida’s Department of Education, which reports to Republican governor Ron DeSantis, said last month that it would not be permitted in Florida public schools. In the weeks between the Florida announcement and Tuesday, the College Board made a number of changes and kept some things the same:
Inside Higher Ed
Johns Hopkins Grad Students Successfully Unionize
By Ryan Quinn
Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. students have overwhelmingly voted to unionize. Monday and Tuesday’s vote was 2,053 to 67. The union is called the Teachers and Researchers United–United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers. “Approximately 3,200 student workers across JHU’s 65 Ph.D. programs will be represented by TRU-UE in collective bargaining with the university,” university provost Sunil Kumar announced in a statement. The union says it’s still awaiting National Labor Relations Board official certification.
Inside Higher Ed
Faculty: Repeated Threats Unheeded, Professor Murdered
University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner was shot to death in October, allegedly by an ousted student. A new faculty report says multiple departments were repeatedly warned about the student, but university administrators failed to act effectively.
By Ryan Quinn
Professor Thomas Meixner’s dying words, according to a University of Arizona faculty report on his murder, were “I knew you were going to do this!” The report argues that many at the university should have known Murad Dervish, an expelled graduate student, was dangerous—long before he allegedly shot Meixner, chairman of the Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences department (HAS), multiple times in his own workplace. Yet, the report says, multiple parts of the university repeatedly failed to effectively respond. It says the situation could have been even worse, because Dervish allegedly sought out four HAS faculty members that day, and police found two handguns and more ammunition in his vehicle.
Cybersecurity Dive
Microsoft disables phishing campaign after researchers flag OAuth app abuse
David Jones, Reporter
Dive Brief:
Microsoft disabled a consent phishing campaign after threat actors abused the company’s “verified publisher” status to steal email and other data from multiple organizations and users in the U.K. and Ireland, according to a Tuesday blog post. The threat actors had launched a campaign using malicious OAuth apps to infiltrate the cloud environments of certain organizations, according to research from Proofpoint released Tuesday. The threat actors were able to impersonate legitimate companies when enrolling in the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program — formerly known as the Microsoft Partner Network. They were able to trick users into granting permission to fraudulent applications.