It’s been roughly four months since federal funding cuts began to send shock waves across American higher education. During that time, the University System of Georgia has largely remained silent.
In this edition of AJC On Campus, we share details about the USG’s conversations with a top White House official on the matter, a major honor for Jimmy Carter and plans for a star entertainer to speak at a graduation ceremony this week.
‘Be calm and carry on’
University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue revealed during the state Board of Regents meeting two weeks ago he has been in direct contact with the Trump administration, taking the “privilege of imposing on a personal relationship” he developed while serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during the first Trump term.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The relationship was with Russell Vought, director of the Office of Budget and Management, the powerful executive office that can effectively cut the funding universities get from federal agencies. Agencies like the National Institutes of Health have attempted to cap “indirect costs” at 15%, a dramatic reduction that would jeopardize funding for the utilities, laboratories and security vital to a university’s scientific and medical research.
“I told Russ, ‘Let’s treat this like tariffs. Fifty-four percent may not be the right number. I’m not sure if 15% is the right number either. So let’s get together and talk about what is the right percentage and partnership between the federal government and universities,” said Perdue.
While acknowledging that “there’s a lot of worry” over the financial uncertainty the federal changes have created for universities, Perdue declined to call the loss of research grants as cuts. “I want to say reduced, not cut out,” he said.
A long-standing partnership between the government and universities has produced a large return on investment, Perdue argued, saying its led to “crucial innovations” that are not something “the President or anyone else wants to do away with.”
“Imagine life without antibiotics or MRIs or GPS navigation, those things we use every day,” he said. “Guess where that came from? It came from research between universities sponsored by the federal government.”
It’s natural to feel anxious about changes, Perdue said, but he expects the decisions in Washington to “settle out in a little bit,” and added that the USG is scheduled to meet with Vought on June 1. “I believe we’re going to be fine. Just take a deep breath, be calm and carry on,” he said.
What’s a degree worth, anyway?
Even as some Americans are doubting the worth of higher education, Perdue maintained that a degree is still valuable. Just how valuable, however, may depend on a student’s economic background.
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students who come from high-income families obtain greater value from going to college than lower-income students who make the same choice, according to a working paper the National Bureau of Economic Research published last week.
Since the 1960s, according to the report, lower income students have seen a declining relative value of college that has “significantly disrupted (their) upward mobility.”
It attributes the decline, in part, to those students being disproportionately diverted into community and for-profit colleges. They’ve become less likely to enroll in a traditional four-year university and often major in the humanities. Meanwhile, their higher-income peers veer toward high-wage disciplines like computer science.
Even so, having a degree still results in students making more money than they would without one.
A new honor for Jimmy Carter
Georgia Tech is honoring one of its most famous students. Its school of public policy will be named after the late President Jimmy Carter and his wife. The naming of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy is the most recent honor he has received from the school he attended in 1942.
Last month the school also opened the Georgia Tech Atrium, a “first-of-its-kind academic and research innovation space” the school says will “foster hands-on student research, industry collaboration, and technology breakthroughs.”
Summertime STEM
Georgia State University will host a five-week program this summer in which high school students will study near-Earth asteroids and chart their orbit. Created by SSP International, the curriculum is designed to attract underrepresented students to science, technology, engineering and math. The organization provides financial aid to help make STEM education more accessible. The program starts on June 8.
Happy anniversary
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Earlier this month, Georgia Gwinnett College celebrated its 20th birthday. The school was brought into existence two decades ago when then-Gov. Perdue signed legislation to create the state’s first public college in over 100 years.
The search begins
Mercer University is looking for a new president.
After nearly two decades in the role, current president William D. Underwood informed the school on April 25 he will be vacating the position next year to return to full-time teaching at Mercer Law School. Last week, the university appointed a 12-member presidential search committee to find his replacement.
Triple threat
Remember the Kashlan triplets?
Six years after sharing valedictorian honors at West Forsyth High School and three years after graduating from Georgia Tech together, the brothers are continuing their academic journey.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
According to their father, Adam and Rommi are finishing their first year at the Emory School of Medicine. They spent the previous two years doing research at Harvard Medical School. Adam’s research focused on identifying non-opioid-based analgesics using a machine learning-driven data analysis pipeline. Rommi’s research focused on developing treatment options for depression and neuropsychological comorbidities in patients with HIV and COVID-19.
Zane, the third of the fraternal twins, was recently accepted to the University of Michigan Medical School. He did research at the Colón-Ramos Lab at Yale School of Medicine, where he investigated the cellular mechanisms of neural development and memory.
A showstopping commencement speaker
College commencement season is not over.
Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning musician Jon Batiste will give the commencement address this weekend at the Savannah College of Art & Design. Batiste will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the school, which has campuses in Savannah and Atlanta.
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
If you have any higher education tips or thoughts, email reporter Jason Armesto at jason.armesto@ajc.com.
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