WJBF
AU’s online Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program is ranked number one in the country
by: Bria Smith
Students part of AU’s online Pediatric Nursing program can call themselves number one after being ranked the top program by Nurse Practitioner Online. Five institutions from across the country are being recognized for their online Pediatric Nurse Practitioner programs. On top of all of them, is Augusta University. …The selection was made based on a series of requirements like the size of the university’s nursing program, graduation and completion rate, and more.
WALB
Georgia Southwestern State sees higher spring enrollment
By Fallon Howard
Americus is a town that has a lot going for it – charming downtown, historic homes, and now – a university that’s growing in popularity. Enrollment at Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) is up. GSW’s goal is to first recruit, then retain. The current numbers for this spring are up by 100 undergrad students. …Out of 2,775 students on campus, there has been an increase specifically with the freshman undergrad class enrolled for the spring semester.
WJBF
by: Hannah Litteer
The Georgia Cancer Center at the Medical College of Georgia at AU is receiving a big grant from the Department of Defense for a research project. The $1.1 million grant will help fund research linking prostate cancer to cardiovascular diseases for four years. One of the most common treatments for prostate cancer is androgen deprivation therapy, also known as hormone treatment, and it tends to cause men to age faster.
Jagwire
Written by Arionna Gantt
As the 25th year of the Impacting Student Learning (ISL) Conference approaches, the College of Education and Human Development is gearing up to provide local teachers with the necessary tools to be successful in the classroom. Ashley Oleszewski, College of Education and Human Development field experience coordinator, has come up with the tagline “for teachers, by teachers,” to describe the purpose of the conference. …The ISL Conference focuses on local, pre-service and induction-level teachers, offering up practical, relevant topics to enhance their teaching.
Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb Planning Commission denies Jewish student center near KSU
By Jake Busch
The Cobb Planning Commission unanimously denied the request from an organization affiliated with Kennesaw State University to open a Jewish student center in a residential area near KSU’s Kennesaw campus. The commission’s vote was 4-0, with Chairman Stephen Vault absent. At a December hearing, the commission tabled the request from Hillels of Georgia for a special land use permit to use a rented house at 3561 Frey Lake Road for a Jewish student center serving KSU students.
Athens Banner-Herald
What Georgia’s Foley Field project upgrades are expected to include for Bulldog baseball
Marc Weiszer
While designs on major upgrades to Foley Field are still being finalized, some of the features of the project are coming into clearer focus. Still in the plans are a player’s lounge, an indoor hitting cage, pitching lab, coaches’ offices, added premium seating and an extended canopy that will offer more shading to fans at the baseball stadium that currently seats 2,760. Athletic director Josh Brooks showed images to the UGA athletic board on Tuesday at its winter meeting at the Georgia Center.
WRDW
Augusta University donates jewelry sale proceeds to scholarships
By Maria Sellers
This week you can buy jewelry for a good cause at Augusta University. AU will be hosting a 6 dollar jewelry sale, donating all of the proceeds to help with scholarships and volunteer programs. Some of the proceeds from the sale benefit volunteer appreciation events. They also use the money for a scholarship for AU student volunteers.
WJBF
Augusta community establishes a standard for active shooter response
by: Tiffany Hobbs
What do you do in the case of an active shooter? Community leaders are working to establish a standard response to those cases and other emergencies. Augusta-area emergency services came together on Tuesday to collaborate on a year-long journey. Their goal? To make sure emergency workers know how to respond to an active shooter situation. The community commitment began with Augusta University, the mayor’s office, the Sheriff and fire chief. They are working to implement a national standard known as National Fire Protection Service 3000. Members from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were also in attendance.
EurekAlert!
Researchers focus AI on finding exoplanets
New research from the University of Georgia reveals that artificial intelligence can be used to find planets outside of our solar system. The recent study demonstrated that machine learning can be used to find exoplanets, information that could reshape how scientists detect and identify new planets very far from Earth. “One of the novel things about this is analyzing environments where planets are still forming,” said Jason Terry, doctoral student in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of physics and astronomy and lead author on the study. “Machine learning has rarely been applied to the type of data we’re using before, specifically for looking at systems that are still actively forming planets.”
The Georgia Virtue
UGA Extension helps farmers improve efficiency, save 100 million gallons of water
By Emily Cabrera
Over the last few decades, water use-related disagreements between Georgia and its surrounding states have held the spotlight in the Southeast. Legal battles have been fought, and although Georgia won the most recent lawsuit, the court’s decision stressed that Georgia shares the responsibility to conserve that most precious, non-renewable resource on which we all depend — water. “I work with farmers — it’s part of my job — and I can tell you they truly care about stewarding our natural resources,” said Jason Mallard, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension area water agent. “But it’s also my job to support them in learning new production methods as researchers find better, more efficient ways of farming.” One of those production methods involves integrating advanced technology with traditional irrigation management systems based on research College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Wesley Porter has conducted since 2014. As precision agriculture and irrigation specialist for UGA Extension, Porter focuses his research on the optimal water requirements of major row crops grown in Georgia. His research details how overwatering crops can be just as detrimental as underwatering and that hitting the “sweet spot” improves yields. Proper irrigation timing is more critical than the overall amount of water used.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA’s Josh Brooks & Jere Morehead on school review of crash that killed 2 from football
Marc Weiszer
Josh Brooks spoke in hushed tones at the start of his AD’s report at the Georgia athletic board’s winter meeting Tuesday afternoon. He was talking about the death of football player Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandlery LeCroy in a single-vehicle crash last month that injured two others from football program last month. “We are in the middle of an unspeakably sad time, but our commitment to each other is not wavering,” he said at the meeting in a conference room at the Georgia Center. He reiterated the university is conducting an ongoing internal review, in coordination with legal counsel, to look into the circumstances surrounding the crash and is cooperating with law enforcement. Brooks and UGA president Jere Morehead made their first public comments about the crash outside of statements released by Georgia athletics.
See also:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA president unsure if policy changes needed after fatal crash
11Alive
Guns on college campuses case to go before Georgia Supreme Court
A Fulton County court originally ruled against a group of professors on several grounds, including that they didn’t have standing.
Author: Jonathan Raymond
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments stemming from a 2017 law passed by the state legislature that allowed guns onto public colleges and universities where they had once been barred. The session starts at 10 a.m. and can be seen at a stream on the state Supreme Court’s website. According to a summary issued by the court, several professors in the University System of Georgia sued against the law after it was passed, saying it “effectively invalidated the Board of Regents’ previous policies restricting firearms on its campuses and violated the Board’s constitutional authority over the USG and its institutions.” A Fulton County court ruled against the professors on several grounds, including that they didn’t have standing and that their suit was barred by sovereign immunity. The court also found the lawsuit was moot because the Board of Regents later acknowledged the law and directed member institutions to follow it, a ruling the professors in their appeal argued is particularly flawed.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Making Sure a Degree Is Worth More Than a Diploma
In Colorado, falling enrollment and growing skepticism of higher ed’s worth prompted a proposal to measure the “economic value” of academic programs at public colleges. Some leaders are wary.
By Liam Knox
Amid faltering enrollment rates and increased national scrutiny of the price and worth of a college education, Colorado is weighing a new formula to measure the “economic value” of degree programs offered by the state’s public institutions of higher education. In its latest annual strategic plan, the Colorado Commission of Higher Education has proposed a way to calculate that value using not only the return on investment from expected income, but also a number of other variables—most notably, the “opportunity cost” incurred by attending college instead of working full-time. The goal, according to commission vice chair Josh Scott, is to ensure that every degree meets a “minimum threshold” of economic value—in other words, to guarantee that students who pursue a postsecondary degree are making “at least more than they would with just a high school diploma.”
Inside Higher Ed
Education Department Hints at Possible Delay of FAFSA
Overhauling the federal financial system and simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a significant undertaking for the Education Department. Although the agency is making progress on the project, officials said this week the application might not be ready by Oct. 1.
By Katherine Knott
The new version of the Free Application of Student Aid might not be ready by Oct. 1, Federal Student Aid officials said Tuesday, though the agency is planning to launch the application in the fourth quarter of this year. Melanie Storey, deputy director of policy implementation and oversight for the Office of Federal Student Aid, told attendees at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ leadership conference that the agency wouldn’t commit to a launch date this fall, though it is working aggressively toward an Oct. 1 launch. Tuesday’s conference was the first time officials publicly disclosed that the application might not open Oct. 1, as it has since 2016. Legally, the agency has until Jan. 1 to release the application.
The Lion
Kansas Board of Regents may drop algebra as a college graduation requirement
By David Hicks
One out of three college students in Kansas fails algebra, the vice president for academic affairs for the Kansas Board of Regents disclosed to the board at a recent meeting, and members are considering a proposal to remove the subject from graduation requirements. Dr. Daniel Archer told Regents that algebra, a freshman prerequisite, isn’t necessary for all students. Only 20% of majors require higher-level math than algebra, considered a foundation for calculus: “We’re sending the majority of students down the college algebra road, which is really not necessary. It’s not practical. It’s not really needed. And it’s not relevant for their fields.” Archer added that frustration with algebra, having to take the course multiple times before earning a passing grade, can delay graduation plans, (and) even lead to dropping out of school altogether. Archer recommended a “Math Pathways” alternative, which tailors a math course to match a student’s field of study; for instance, statistics for political science majors.