Archive for the ‘UGA’ Category

A repository of Georgia history, the Georgia State Archives in Morrow will now be closed to the public, a decision that noted historian James C. Cobb calls a grave mistake. (Georgia State Archives photo)

Here is an interesting opinion piece by historian James C. Cobb of the University of Georgia about the budget-driven decision last week to close the Georgia State Archives to the public.

The closing has upset researchers, genealogists and history buffs statewide, and a petition drive is under way to reverse the decision.

Former president of the Southern Historical Association and an oft-quoted expert on the American South, Cobb has written several books, including The Selling of The South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial Development, 1936-1990, and The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. His most recent book, Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity, was published in 2005.

By James C. Cobb

Two years ago at this …

Continue reading Is Georgia padlocking its past by closing its archives? »

Just in time to bask in its selection as one of the nation’s top college newspapers, the Red & Black appears to be back on track. The staff and board have resolved their differences over editorial control, and staffers who quit in the power struggle are returning.

And, in its top 20 list of college newspapers, Princeton Review awarded the Red & Black 10th place. (First place went to the Daily Collegian of Penn State University.)

According to the AJC:

The top two editors of the student newspaper covering the University of Georgia were reinstated Monday, five days after they and others walked out over a conflict with the editorial board.

“Members of the Red and Black board welcome the reinstatement of Editor-in-Chief Polina Marinova and Managing Editor Julia Carpenter,” said a statement emailed Monday evening to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We look forward to the editors and their staff resuming production of one of the nation’s top student news organizations.”

The …

Continue reading The Red & Black: Wins all around for UGA student newspaper »

Amid all the discussion this weekend about college rankings in light of the Emory scandal, here is one list where administrators hope for a low ranking: Top party schools in the country.

The University of Georgia ranks No. 5 on the annual Princeton Review list, which is informed by student surveys.

This list is essentially meaningless when you consider the size of the campuses involved. The top contenders are major universities with thousands of students. That Agnes Scott, a school with 880 students, ranks low on the partying count, and UGA, with 26,000 undergrads, ranks high should surprise or influence no one.

According to the AJC:

UGA comes in at No. 5 in rankings released Monday by the Princeton Review’s 2013 edition of “Best 377 Colleges,” the Associated Press reports, behind West Virginia University, the University of Iowa, Ohio University and the University of Illinois.

Georgia was No. 1 on the Princeton Review list in 2011 and No. 2 in 2012.

The rankings are based …

Continue reading UGA slips a bit on annual party list, but still in top 5 »

Michael F. Adams is president of the University of Georgia. This is a piece that he wrote about the Morrill Act

By Michael F. Adams

At the end of William Faulkner’s novel “Absalom, Absalom!,” Quentin Compson, scion of that once-great but now declining Mississippi family, a student at Harvard, is asked by his Canadian roommate, Shreve McCannon, “Why do you hate the South?”

“I don’t hate it,” he replies quickly. “I don’t hate it.” He repeats the mantra several times in his mind, as if trying to convince himself of its truth. The fact that Compson’s family had to send him north for a good education lies at the heart of the Morrill Act’s impact on Southern higher education and the South itself.

Prior to the Civil War the South was functionally non-industrial, rich in raw materials but utterly dependent on the northern states for production. It was an educational backwater, with a number of state universities established but operating with very low enrollments of a few hundred.

It …

Continue reading Land grant universities: Retracing the roots of UGA »

UPDATED THURSDAY MORNING:

The student staff of the Red and Black, the acclaimed University of Georgia student-run newspaper, walked out en masse Wednesday to protest what the student journalists consider intrusive oversight of what had been one of the nation’s most well known independent campus publications.

Expect a lot of news coverage as many Atlanta journalists worked at the Red & Black while students at UGA. Please keep in mind that the newspaper is an independent, non-profit enterprise that supports itself largely through ad sales. It is not under UGA or President Michael Adams and receives no direct university support. That independence has given it far greater freedom over the years to criticize the university and its policies.

The Red & Black publisher Harry Montevideo has responded to student charges that their role was being minimized and that the board was giving more powers to non journalists to dictate content and that the focus was shifting from “news” to “good …

Continue reading UGA Red & Black staff walks out today in protest. Is it now Red & Dead? »

Winning Toombs County Teacher of the Year was a family affair for Travis Ellington. (Toombs County Schools)

UGA professor Peter Smagorinsky has a second installment in his great teacher series. In this piece, he highlights Travis Ellington of Toombs County.

By Peter Smagorinsky

With almost all discussion and policy about teacher evaluation centered on students’ test scores, I’m writing a series of profiles of great Georgia teachers whose contributions are only partially measured (if at all) by their students’ performances on standardized tests. Today, I’m heading south, down to Toombs County High School, to feature Travis Ellington. I don’t know what they’re putting in those onions down in Vidalia these days, but if Travis is any indication, I hope they start passing them around in the Gold Dome the next time they legislate their next educational policy.

As you’ll see, Travis is no ordinary guy. A remarkably high achiever throughout his life, he’s perhaps doing his greatest …

Continue reading Teacher Travis Ellington: An exceptional teacher in Toombs for exceptional children »

In talking to parents of young children, I find many fear that the HOPE Scholarship will dwindle away to pennies by the time their kids reach college age.

The changes to HOPE by Gov. Nathan Deal and the Legislature link the merit scholarship to available lottery funds, so the amount  will now vary year to year. It will likely never pay 100 percent of tuition again, given the growing demand on lottery proceeds.

Did you see the AJC interview with the father of HOPE,former Gov. Zell Miller? In a rare press interview, an ailing Miller told my colleague Jim Galloway, “I don’t think they had any other choice. We knew back in the ‘90s that there would be adjustments. This came as no surprise.”

Galloway reports that Miller is not alarmed at the decision by state lottery officials to approve the sale of tickets through the Internet.

“I’m okay with that. In fact, we wrote the lottery law so you could do that,” he said. But as for that plan to create a casino with machines operated …

Continue reading Should we expand gambling in Georgia to bolster HOPE? »

An old pal stayed with me this weekend. She lives on the Georgia coast but was in town so her 17-year-old daughter could tour UGA and Georgia Tech. Her daughter is a top student who wants to stay in the South for college, so I suggested that she might add Emory, Duke and Davidson to her list.

But the teen told me that she was concentrating on Georgia public colleges where she would receive the HOPE Scholarship.

Increasingly, families nationwide are factoring cost into school decisions, both due to the exorbitant tab for private schools and the erosion of U.S. household incomes. According to a new survey released today, parents are spending less on their children’s higher education. The students are shouldering most of the costs.

I have to admit that I am talking up UGA and Tech to my twins, who are five years away from college. I had encouraged my older two children to look at other regions of the country.  The result is that I will need that five years to replenish the …

Continue reading Students spending more, parents spending less on college »

A recently formed group called GREATER — Georgia Researchers, Educators, and Advocates for Teacher Evaluation Reform — sent a letter to Gov. Nathan Deal, State Superintendent John Barge, and other educational leaders about concerns over teacher evaluations. But the letter writers have yet to get a reply.

Here is a recent statement from the group, which now counts nearly 50 Georgia educators among its supporters, including many university professors:

Recently the U.S .Department of Education placed Georgia at “high risk” of losing $33 million dollars in Race to the Top (RT3) funds because, in fear of legal issues, Georgia removed the student input portion of their new teacher evaluation.

Well, here’s a radical suggestion: Let the federal government have it all!

As a key component of receiving the federal Race to the Top grant, the state of Georgia has crafted a new system for evaluating teachers and principals called Teacher/Leader Keys. The system is to be implemented this …

Continue reading Education group: Let the feds take back Georgia’s Race to the Top millions »

Many colleges urge prospective students to make overnight visits to their campuses, even arranging for them to spend the night in the dorms. But a new survey finds that one in six high school students on such overnight visits reports drinking during their stay.

(This may explain why so many high school students have told me over the years that that they somehow missed the official college tour while visiting campuses.)

A survey by the Center for Adolescent Research and Education at Susquehanna University (CARE) and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) found that about 16 percent of surveyed teens who had been on an overnight visit reported drinking alcohol during the visit.

The results don’t surprise me as going to college parties is often a highlight of a campus overnight, especially during informal visits where two high school juniors bunk in the dorm room of an older sibling or cousin. I would love to see this survey extended to find out whether the teens drank …

Continue reading One in six high school students on overnight stays at prospective colleges drinks alcohol during the visit »