Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made several major moves last week that will impact college students statewide in the coming months.
We outline some of these actions, such as a nagging fee he says is going away, along with some other important news for some student loan borrowers who may see refunds soon in this edition of AJC On Campus.
More money for Georgia colleges
Gov. Brian Kemp came forth with some post-holiday gifts for Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
Kemp, who is up for reelection this year, announced last week his proposed budget would restore $262 million in previous cuts to the higher education systems, which he said would allow goals such as the technical college system offering more programs in high-demand fields.
Acting University System of Georgia Chancellor Teresa MacCartney, a former state budget director, said during Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting “it is the strongest budget I’ve seen in higher education. It will have a significant, significant impact on our students and our parents moving forward.”
State lawmakers are scheduled to review the proposed budgets for Georgia’s higher education systems Wednesday afternoon.
Read more about Kemp’s proposed budget here.
Special fee likely to go away
Kemp also said the additional money in the budget means a costly, mandatory fee on University System students is going away.
The regents created a “special institutional fee” in 2009 to help them through several budget cuts imposed during the Great Recession. While that recession is in the rearview mirror, the fee never went away. It’s more than $500 a semester at Georgia Tech.
A state Senate committee looked at the fee last year and recommended it should be scrapped.
COVID-19 cases rise again on Georgia’s college campuses
MacCartney said Thursday that while the next two, three weeks will be “challenging for our campuses,” they must continue in-person learning amid the ongoing spike in COVID-19 cases.
“We have to be able to keep our campuses open,” she said.
MacCartney said she is working with university administrators to make sure campuses “stay calm.”
Some faculty members, though, are circulating a petition asking the system to allow them to teach remotely if they request to do so. MacCartney said universities may temporarily hold classes remotely if a faculty member tests positive for COVID-19.
The petition also calls for masks and vaccine mandates. System leaders have rebuffed mandates, instead encouraging students, faculty and employees to wear masks and get vaccinated. While MacCartney and University System staff wore masks at Thursday’s meeting, regents members did not.
Regent raises concern about speech rights violations
Several regents members said at Thursday’s meeting they’ve received calls from parents saying their children have been pressured by professors to rewrite papers and criticized for voicing differing viewpoints.
Regent Dr. C. Thomas Hopkins Jr., who started the discussion, said he’s also heard from a state lawmaker about the issue.
Republican state lawmakers have introduced legislation almost annually advocating for stronger speech rights on campuses, saying conservative students are often treated unfairly by professors or the universities.
MacCartney said the system has a hotline for people to address such complaints and it investigates them when they arise.
“We will work closely with our institutions to ensure that parents and students are aware of that process,” she told the board.
Two new regents members
The governor last week named new two members to the regents, replacing two veteran members whose terms expired this month.
Business leaders Richard “Tim” Evans and Jim Syfan replace Kessel Stelling Jr. and Philip Wilheit. Both men, like many regents members, have been generous donors to Kemp’s campaigns.
The appointments could jump-start the board’s yearlong process of selecting a new chancellor. Former two-term governor Sonny Perdue has expressed interest in the coveted job, and we’re told his chances for the position are still alive.
Read more here.
Navient reaches $1.85 billion settlement over loan practices
Navient, one of the largest student loan servicers in the country, last week reached a $1.85 billion settlement with Georgia and 38 other states over predatory student loan practices.
Georgia borrowers will receive more than $118 million, state Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement.
Carr’s office said Navient steered borrowers into “costly long-term forbearances instead of counseling them about the benefits of more affordable income-driven repayment plans.”
Navient must cancel over $113 million in private loan debt owed by 4,268 Georgia borrowers, Carr’s office said. The company must do a better job of informing borrowers of alternative payment options and explain the benefits of income-driven repayment plans before recommending forbearance plans.
Borrowers should receive a notice from Navient by July, along with refunds of any payments made on the canceled private loans after June 30, 2021, Carr said. Federal loan borrowers who are eligible for a restitution payment will receive a postcard in the mail from the settlement administrator later this spring.
College enrollment continues to lag nationwide
College enrollment typically increases during times of economic turmoil as people seek more education to enhance their job prospects.
Not so during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Undergraduate college enrollment dropped by more than 3% nationwide last fall, according to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
One of the largest declines is at four-year public colleges, where enrollment has declined by 3.8%. We reported during the fall that the University System’s enrollment dropped by a very slight 0.2%. Enrollment dropped at 21 of its 26 schools. The decline was less severe thanks in large part to Georgia Tech, where enrollment is up 10.3%. Georgia Tech’s enrollment growth is primarily due to more students in its online programs.
More young people are choosing jobs to support their families during the pandemic rather than higher education, many economists say. The decline, though, worries educators who say young people need skills from college for long-term career success.
Spelman College president joins voting rights hunger strike
Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell wrote a letter Saturday that she was joining a hunger strike “to protest the proliferation of voter suppression laws.”
“(W)e find ourselves fighting against a raging storm of resistance battering against the levee of our rights,” she said. “We cannot let the levees break.”
Campbell’s letter comes a few days after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Atlanta University Center, which includes Spelman, to demand the U.S. Senate eliminate the filibuster so that federal election bills can pass without any Republican support. Two key Senate Democrats said afterwards they would not support such a change.
Agnes Scott-Morehouse medical school partnership
Credit: Eric Stirgus
Credit: Eric Stirgus
Agnes Scott College and Morehouse School of Medicine have agreed on a partnership with the goal of helping more of the college’s students enroll at the medical school.
The partnership will allow qualified, third-year undergraduate students at Agnes Scott, a women’s college in Decatur, admission to the historically Black medical school, near downtown Atlanta.
Candidates will be selected based on factors that include their interest in working in underserved communities as well as a dedication to community service.
Morehouse School of Medicine President Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice said women have not been traditionally steered into careers in science and medicine, so pipelines like this are important.
“When students that have traditionally not been steered into medicine and science, such as women, have opportunities to learn more about the possibilities of such careers, we see a stronger and more diverse clinical workforce,” Rice said in a statement.
SCAD starts new school
The Savannah College of Art and Design is launching a School of Business Innovation, which will offer 15 graduate and undergraduate degrees in areas such as advertising and branding, business of beauty and fragrance, creative business leadership and social strategy and management.
Industry leaders will offer mentoring through master classes, portfolio reviews and guest lectures to help prepare students for success in their future creative careers.
SCAD’s Atlanta students will have access to all of the courses through SCADnow, the university’s online learning platform, officials said.
Georgia’s other sports success stories
So you might have heard the University of Georgia’s football team had a pretty big win last week.
University System officials and regents members were still celebrating the victory at Thursday’s board meeting. We counted at least a half-dozen references to the Dawgs.
MacCartney had some fun with new regents chair Harold Reynolds, a Georgia Tech graduate. She gave him a Georgia shirt.
Credit: Eric Stirgus
Credit: Eric Stirgus
The acting chancellor also noted other recent successes, such as Albany State’s 2021 SIAC Football Championship, Valdosta State’s national championship appearance in Division II football, Dalton State’s NAIA golf national championship in May, and Georgia Tech women’s volleyball team making the Elite 8.
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