ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia reported record enrollment for the fall semester Wednesday despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The fall enrollment of 341,485 students was up 2.4% over the fall 2019 semester, marking the seventh year in a row of growth in the system. Enrollment increased at 16 of the system’s 26 colleges and universities and declined at the other 10.
“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, students still seek education,” system Chancellor Steve Wrigley told members of the system’s Board of Regents.
While enrollment was on the rise in Georgia, university enrollment in the nation as a whole fell by 3% during the past year, said Angela Bell, the Georgia system’s vice chancellor of research and policy analysis.
Bell attributed Georgia outperforming the rest of the nation in enrollment to decisions by the regents to hold the line on tuition this fall and drop SAT and ACT scores from admission requirements for most institutions because the tests weren’t available last spring.
She also cited the regents’ decision to put in place a plan for resuming in-person instruction on campuses this fall, a policy that was publicized in plenty of time to give students certainty.
Fall enrollment increases weren’t uniform across the university system. Enrollment grew at the system’s four research universities: the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and Augusta University.
Fall enrollment also rose at the system’s comprehensive universities – including Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern universities – and at the state universities including Albany State and Savannah State universities.
But enrollment at Georgia’s two-year colleges declined by 7%, with only Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton reporting an increase.
“Our state colleges are a key part of our system as access institutions,” Wrigley said.
The chancellor said the decrease at the two-year colleges might be due to the recession touched off by the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected the low-income students who make up a large portion of their enrollment.
Dual enrollment in the university system has increased by 9.1% since fall 2019, primarily at the research and comprehensive universities. The General Assembly passed legislation this year to limit dual-enrollment classes largely to 11th and 12th graders in an effort to reduce the program’s soaring costs.
Among the demographic categories, the largest systemwide enrollment growth occurred among Hispanic and Asian students, both at 7.2%, while African American enrollment increased by 3.9%.
U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler speaks during a rally with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at the Cobb County Republican Party headquarters in Marietta on Nov. 11, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida campaigned with Sen. Kelly Loeffler Wednesday at a rally for the freshman senator’s runoff bid, the first of what will likely be many high-profile visits to Georgia ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman, is running alongside fellow Republican Sen. David Perdue in a pair of runoffs that are poised to settle the balance of power in the Senate.
Rubio aimed to energize a packed hundreds-strong crowd of supporters Wednesday at the Cobb County Republican Party headquarters in Marietta, where he railed against “radical elements” in the Democratic Party that could hold sway in the Senate if Loeffler and Perdue lose in January.
“This is literally the showdown of all showdowns in terms of politics and what it means,” Rubio said. “This is Georgia’s decision to make, but it’s America that will live with the consequences of that decision.”
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida energizes supporters during a rally for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler at the Cobb County Republican Party headquarters in Marietta on Nov. 11, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Perdue, a corporate executive from Sea Island, was in Washington, D.C., and did not attend Wednesday’s rally, his office said. His wife Bonnie appeared to speak in his stead.
The runoff races between Loeffler and Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock and between Perdue and Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff have thrust Georgia into the national political spotlight with control of the U.S. Senate potentially hanging in the balance.
Wins for both Ossoff and Warnock in the Jan. 5 runoffs would likely tip the Senate in the Democrats’ favor along with control of the U.S. House and the presidency, clearing the way for President-elect Joe Biden and Democratic lawmakers to enact their priorities with little resistance for at least the next two years.
Republican and Democratic leaders across the country are poised to pull out all the stops in Georgia with huge campaign donations and big-name backers like Rubio expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
Ossoff, an investigative journalist, kicked off his runoff campaign on Tuesday by rallying with several Georgia Democratic leaders and health-care advocates in support of the Affordable Care Act, which faces a legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, has put out a pair of new campaign ads that highlight his humble Savannah upbringing and urge voters to cut through attack ads from Loeffler that are set to roll out in the coming weeks.
Warnock and Ossoff are expected to team up frequently for campaign events ahead of Jan. 5, as are the two Republican senators. Already, Perdue and Loeffler jointly pressed this week for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to resign following the Nov. 3 presidential election, as state election officials continue brushing aside unproven claims of ballot fraud made by President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a hand recount of the nearly 5 million ballots cast in Georgia’s presidential election with Biden leading Trump by roughly 14,100 votes. The recount should wrap up by Nov. 20.
Early voting for the Senate runoff elections starts Dec. 14. The deadline for Georgia voters to register for the runoffs is Dec. 7.
Secretary of State Brad Raffenserger has ordered a hand recount of Georgia’s presidential election. (Photo by Beau Evans)
In an unprecedented move, Georgia will undertake a hand recount of the nearly 5 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election with roughly 14,000 votes separating President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday.
Several state and local runoff elections including a seat on the Public Service Commission will also be rescheduled from Dec. 1 to Jan. 5 for election workers to better prepare for another wave of voters, Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger formally called for the hand recount as part of a regular audit of the election results, which were poised to be done via an electronic sampling of ballots before Raffensperger revised the process under emergency powers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, all 159 county elections boards in Georgia will have until the certification deadline of Nov. 20 to count by hand every in-person, mail-in and provisional ballot cast in last week’s election, Raffensperger said at a news conference Wednesday.
A recount of this magnitude has not been conducted before in Georgia and follows record turnout in the Nov. 3 general election. Raffensperger said the hand count should instill confidence in the final election results amid growing – and unproven – accusations of voter fraud.
“We understand the significance of this for not just Georgia but for every single American,” Raffensperger said. “At the end of the day, when we do a hand count, then we can answer the question of exactly what was the final margin in this race.”
Biden led Trump by 14,108 votes in Georgia as of Wednesday afternoon, drawing intense focus to a state that a Democratic presidential nominee has not won since 1992 and which is set for two runoff elections on Jan. 5 that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
Democratic leaders in Georgia have dismissed claims of voter fraud and urged Trump to begin a smooth transition of power to Biden, who was declared winner of the election by a host of major news outlets analyzing the vote tallies on Saturday. No outlets have called the race in Georgia so far.
The voting rights group Fair Fight, founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, shortly after Raffensperger’s announcement Wednesday said that Trump “cannot overturn the will of Georgia voters.”
“Donald Trump is delaying the inevitable,” the group said on Twitter. “He lost, and he knows it.”
Republican allies of Trump hailed Raffensperger’s decision Wednesday, calling it a good first step in a push to weed out whether any ineligible ballots were cast. The president and his supporters have cried foul on the election results over the past week, alleging voter fraud without hard evidence in close-race states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, who is leading the Trump campaign’s recount activities in Georgia, said in a conference call Wednesday his team is looking at allegations of ballot harvesting and improperly signed ballots, as well as some alleged instances of dead Georgians voting.
“This is a victory for integrity,” Collins said of the recount. “This is a victory for transparency.”
Raffensperger and his staff have not discovered any evidence of substantial ballot-casting fraud yet but have pledged to investigate credible allegations that may arise.
“Anecdotes and stories don’t work,” Raffensperger said Wednesday. “We need something we can actually investigate.”
ATLANTA – Georgia House Democrats have chosen state Rep. James Beverly of Macon as minority leader.
When the General Assembly convenes in January, Beverly will succeed Rep. Bob Trammell, D-Luthersville, who lost his reelection bid last week.
Beverly previously served as minority caucus chairman, a role that now will be filled by Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain.
During a House Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday, Democrats also elected Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, to serve as minority whip. Rep. Debra Bazemore, D-South Fulton, will work with Wilkerson as chief deputy whip.
Rep. Erica Thomas, D-Austell, will work with Mitchell as caucus vice chair.
Democrats chose Rep. Mary Robichaux, D-Roswell, to serve as caucus treasurer, and Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, as secretary.
House Democrats scored a net gain of two seats in the legislature’s lower chamber in last week’s elections, well below the 16 seats Democrats needed to seize control from Republicans, who have held a majority in the House since 2005.
ATLANTA – A Georgia nonprofit is about to launch a fundraising campaign for a planned GRAMMY Museum in downtown Atlanta that would help train Georgia college students for careers in the music industry.
Georgia Music Accord, which is co-chaired by Atlanta-based musician Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and entertainment lawyer Joel Katz, is looking for a mix of private donations, corporate sponsorships and government funding to build the museum near existing downtown tourist attractions.
“We think this is something that’s going to have a tremendous economic impact in Georgia,” Brad Olecki, CEO of Georgia Music Accord, told members of a state Senate study committee Tuesday.
The Senate Study Committee on Music Workforce Development has been meeting this fall to look for ways to leverage Georgia’s rich musical heritage into building a thriving music industry in the Peach State modeled after the success of the film industry here.
Olecki said by highlighting Georgia’s musical heritage from James Brown to the Allman Brothers Band to R.E.M., the museum would raise awareness of the state’s huge contributions to American music.
“Most people in Georgia don’t understand how impactful the music industry is,” he said. “We don’t promote it enough ourselves.”
Besides the museum’s potential impact on tourism, the project also would include education and workforce development components.
Olecki said the museum plans to create an education curriculum for elementary and secondary students to stimulate interest in music careers, both for performers and non-performers.
“It’s not just about putting instruments in kids’ hands,” he said. “It’s about teaching these young people there is a job for them out in the music world without being able to play a single note.”
The museum would contribute to workforce development in Georgia by enhancing the offerings of the state’s colleges and universities, including plans to build a “scoring stage” that could be used for mixing music in films, TV production and video games.
“This way, scoring post-production won’t leave the state,” he said. “We need to keep these jobs and people here.”
Keith Perissi, director of the Joel A. Katz Music and Entertainment Business Program at Kennesaw State University, said 60% of the program’s graduates stay in Georgia to launch their careers. The program is affiliated with the GRAMMY Museum.
“It’s a wonderful pipeline … to our colleges and universities,” Perissi said.
An agreement between the Los Angeles-based GRAMMY Museum Foundation and Georgia Music Accord follows a $500,000 feasibility study underwritten by the state and Fulton County.
