Inside Higher Ed
By Doug Lederman
Georj Lewis, president of Atlanta Metropolitan State College, in Georgia, has been appointed president of Clayton State University, also in Georgia.
Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, president of South Georgia State College, has been appointed president of Atlanta Metropolitan State College, also in Georgia.
Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, interim provost at Georgia State University, has been named provost and executive vice president for academic affairs there on a permanent basis.
WTOC
Higher prices impacting college students
By Camille Syed
Despite the inflation rate dropping, college students are cutting back because of high prices. Lenesha Cunningham isn’t a traditional college student. Instead, she travels from Hinesville where she lives with her husband and two kids. “I really want to be involved in the college experience because this is my first time at a four year university, but it is challenging because of gas prices,” Cunningham, a senior at Georgia Southern University, said. While those prices are slowly decreasing, the inflation rate is at about 6.4 percent. It’s getting better as the months pass but unfortunately an expert said we’ll never see those lower prices before the crisis comes back. “We’ll see more of an equalization sort of on the pay side as opposed to seeing prices come down,” Georgia Southern Economics Professor Michael Toma said.
Atlanta News First
Nationwide veterinarian shortage impacts pet care; how local vet schools help
Here is how local vet schools are helping
By Don Shipman
You may have noticed it’s hard to lock in a routine vet check for your pet. A nationwide shortage of veterinarians is to blame. So now, colleges like the University of Georgia are working to recruit more students into the field in an effort to stave off a trend they started noticing nearly four years ago. “I just want to have a vet that I can trust to take care of my animals,” said Jessica Taylor of Athens. Jessica Taylor met with veterinarians at UGA for a second opinion for her 6-year-old labradoodle Charlie. “So, I got him from the shelter, and they told me that he might need some kind of hip surgery,” said Taylor. While Taylor hasn’t had problems yet making an appointment for Charlie, many emergency vets, and clinics across the country, including in Georgia, have had to make the difficult decision to turn clients away. Dr. Michelle Henry Barton of the University of Georgia College of Veterinarian Medicine says there are several reasons for the nationwide vet shortage. More Americans have companion pets, 70 percent of U.S. households, or 90.5 million homes, have a dog or cat. Many of those new pets were adopted during the pandemic, while at the same time, the pandemic contributed to baby boomer generation veterinarians rethinking their work-life balance.
WRDW
Ga. grads worry about possible end of student debt relief
By Hayley Boland
President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program is facing a challenge in the Supreme Court. The program would forgive up to $10,000 for federal borrowers who make less than $125,000 and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant users. Some Republican-led states have filed a lawsuit stating that the president doesn’t have the power to do it putting a pause on the program. Some borrowers in Georgia say they’re confused about what’s next, while others who have paid off their debts say they’re feeling frustrated. “I have a full-time job as a scientist but still not enough to pay off my debt, unfortunately,” said Jasmine Lupi, who graduated in 2018. Graduates like Lupi, who’s facing about $19,000 worth of unpaid student loans, say they’re worried about what’s next if Biden’s debt relief program is ended by the Supreme Court. …Dr. Richard McGrath, an economics professor at Georgia Southern University, says relieving student debt, could create more economic opportunities for many.
The Bump
Expectant Parents Want to Know: What Will My Baby Look Like?
Genetics play a large role in determining what your little one will look like, but there’s no definitive way to predict their physical traits.
By Maggie Overfelt
One of the most common questions among soon-to-be parents: What will my baby look like? It’s normal to be curious. … How genetics influence baby’s appearance is a complicated matter to say the least. So what does the latest research say about how well we can predict what our babies will look like? We asked the experts to weigh in. …Baby will have two sets of genomes (one copy of DNA from each biological parent), so there’s a good chance they’ll resemble both sides of the family in some capacity. That said, given the numerous ways genes can influence each other, there’s no definitive way to predict exactly what baby will look like, says Dongyu Jia, an associate professor of biology at Georgia Southern University. “Each chromosome can have hundreds of genes that you inherit from your parents,” he says.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bird flu threatens bald eagles in Georgia and across North America
By Drew Kann
Fledging success rates in six coastal Georgia counties were 30% lower than normal last year
A highly contagious strain of bird flu that has ravaged wild bird populations globally is killing an unprecedented number of nesting bald eagles in coastal Georgia and Florida, according to a new study from UGA scientists and other researchers. The researchers say more monitoring is needed across North America to determine whether similar die-offs are occurring across the continent. But if the trend documented in the Southeast is confirmed elsewhere, it could threaten a decades-long conservation effort that successfully brought bald eagles back from the brink of extinction.
Albany Herald
Soil science crosses interdisciplinary boundaries
By Cheryth Youngmann
There’s a world of information under your feet. Just ask UGA assistant professor Matt Levi, who maps and models soil data for use across disciplines, from precision agriculture to fire prediction research. The River Basin Center affiliate and College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty has been with the college since November 2017. A pedologist by trade, an earnest respect for soil and its critical functions underlies his interdisciplinary work in predictive GIS mapping.
Ledger-Enquirer
CSU student directors take lead in new productions for first time in school history
By Mike Haskey
With the help of two talented students in their senior year, Columbus State University’s theater department has premiered an idea that one of those students hopes will become a new tradition. Two productions, “Circle Mirror Transformation” and “Dry Land,” have both had student directors at the helm. “It seemed like an opportune time to pump these up a bit and offer them as part of our season,” said Larry Dooley, professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Columbus State University. , .“That’s not something we have done before, but the timing was right.
WGAU Radio
UGA’s McCullick wins Athena Award
Alison Bracewell McCullick, the director of community relations for the University of Georgia, serves in a role that is as expansive as the university’s mission. Charged with building bridges between UGA and the Athens community, McCullick can find herself leading discussions to promote small business development, enhance transportation infrastructure, provide educational resources, and support health care offerings in Athens—all in a single day.
Valdosta Daily Times
Valwood places second in science contest
Valwood upper school students recently competed at the region Science Olympiad tournament at Georgia Southern University. Overall, Valwood placed second out of 12 teams, both public and private from all over the state of Georgia, school officials said in a statement. As region runners-up, Valwood received an invitation to the state tournament, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 15, at Georgia Tech.
WTOC
Georgia Southern hosts Comm Arts Inc. event on Armstrong campus
By Camille Syed
Students in the communication arts program at Georgia Southern’s Armstrong campus got a glimpse of what their future could look like. Students heard from several panelists, including WTOC’s Camille Syed, about their day-to-day in the media, theatre and communications industry. Communication Arts Chair Pamela Sears says this event helps students learn about internship opportunities and land a job in the years to come. “It allows students to both network with professionals in the industries but also start to visualize their futures and solidify their plans,” Sears said.
The Georgia Virtue
Georgia Southern Asking People to Lend a Voice Recording for Voice Bank
Georgia Southern University’s RiteCare Center for Communications Disorders is asking community members to lend their voices in an effort to help those who struggle with speech to improve their communication. The RiteCare Center’s third annual Voice Drive is happening now through May. Individuals are encouraged to collect voice recordings to submit to a human voicebank. Individuals with voice or speech loss from conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), apraxia, aphasia and Huntington’s disease, among others, can later access the recordings to help create a voice for themselves.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA closes Stegeman Coliseum indefinitely after ceiling piece fell
Marc Weiszer
The University of Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum is closed until further notice after a small piece of the ceiling fell on Wednesday, the school said late Thursday. Nobody was hurt, but Friday night’s gymnastics meet against Arkansas was moved to Gas South Arena in Duluth at 2 p.m. Sunday. The repairs required “immediate attention,” the school said.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Microcredentials Confuse Employers, Colleges and Learners
Three recent studies highlight confusion about alternative credentials. But all parties seek quality, verifiable, bite-size, low-priced online offerings targeting specific industries.
By Susan D’Agostino
Reskilling. Upskilling. Certificates. Certifications. Badges. Licenses. Microcredentials. Alternative credentials. Digital credentials. So many terms. So little agreement on what they mean, least of all in higher ed. “Employers say, ‘It’s great that this individual has these skills, but we’ll ask our own questions to verify the learner’s knowledge,’” Kyle Albert, assistant research professor at the George Washington University Institute of Public Policy, said. “It’s a trust-but-verify situation.” Nonetheless, demand in the large, growing microcredential market is strong, but learners also struggle to make sense of offerings. By one count, the United States is home to more than one million unique educational credentials, which represents a more than threefold increase since 2018. (Some are offered by nonacademic providers.)
Inside Higher Ed
A comptroller’s report outlines a lack of planning and poor decisions by Tennessee State University and calls for new leadership. The institution’s supporters blame decades of state underfunding for the problems.
By Jaime Adame
An enrollment surge at Tennessee State University combined with a lack of student housing led to a scathing comptroller’s report calling for a change in the historically Black university’s leadership. But the university’s longtime president, Glenda Glover, alumni and other supporters of the Nashville institution have argued against a proposal that would place the institution under the oversight of the Tennessee Board of Regents, the governing board for 37 technical and community colleges in the state.
Inside Higher Ed
Columbia U Goes Test Optional Permanently
By Scott Jaschik
Columbia University has become the first Ivy League institution to go test optional in admissions permanently for Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. A statement released this week said, “Our review is purposeful and nuanced—respecting varied backgrounds, voices and experiences—in order to best determine an applicant’s suitability for admission and ability to thrive in our curriculum and our community, and to advance access to our educational opportunities.