ATLANTA – Georgia State University President Mark Becker will leave next June after 12 years in the post, Becker announced Tuesday.
Becker said he plans to take an educational leave to conduct research and write. The University System of Georgia will conduct a national search for a successor to take over next July.
Under Becker’s leadership, Georgia State has set records for enrollment, graduation rate and total graduates. Its consolidation with Georgia Perimeter College in 2016 made Georgia State the state’s largest university with 54,000 students as of this semester and one of the largest in the nation.
“President Mark Becker’s outstanding leadership has helped Georgia State University set the national standard for innovation in student success, resulting in dramatic increases in graduation rates for students of all backgrounds,” said Steve Wrigley, chancellor of the University System of Georgia.
“Georgia State has gained in quality and stature during Mark’s tenure, from record-setting research productivity to strong financial management.”
Georgia State also gained in stature on Becker’s watch with the arrival of Division I college football. The Panthers launched football a decade ago playing in the since-demolished Georgia Dome before moving to the former home of the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field, which was converted into a football stadium.
Becker was named one of America’s 10 most innovative university presidents by Washington Monthly in 2015. The university been ranked as one of the most innovative in the country by U.S. News & World Report ever since the innovation category was created.
Becker also has won accolades for promoting diversity. He won the Academic Leadership Award from the Carnegie Corporation three years ago for Georgia State’s achievements in “eliminating disparities in graduation rates based on race, ethnicity and first-generation status.”
As one of the most diverse universities in the nation, Georgia State is first in the country among nonprofit institutions in graduating African American students.
Becker also led a major building expansion of the university campus, becoming a major contributor to the redevelopment of the southern portion of downtown Atlanta.
University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley
ATLANTA – University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley Tuesday defended his decision to bring students back to the system’s 26 campuses this semester for in-person classes.
While some campuses – notably the University of Georgia – have reported large numbers of new coronavirus cases, most were mild or without symptoms, Wrigley told members of the system’s Board of Regents. Those new cases have started to come down in recent days, he said.
“We said all summer this would be different,” Wrigley said of reopening public university campuses across Georgia. “It is challenging … [but] we have become fluent in the language of the pandemic.”
Wrigley blamed the increase in new COVID-19 cases on large off-campus gatherings of students. A video of a packed gathering of University of North Georgia students in Dahlonega last month at a party the day before school started went viral.
Since the early days of the semester, students have shown great leadership tamping down those kinds of gatherings and following other safety guidelines including wearing masks, the chancellor said.
“We need to remain vigilant,” Wrigley said. “It’s a long semester. COVID-19 thrives on concentration and carelessness.”
Like the state’s K-12 school system, the university system shut down classrooms last March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Georgia. The schools completed the spring semester online.
The decision over the summer to resume in-person instruction drew widespread criticism from students and teachers worried about spreading COVID-19.
Wrigley reiterated Tuesday that the decision was based on the inherent advantages of the on-campus experience compared to virtual learning.
“We believe strongly in the richness it adds to education and overall student enrichment,” Wrigley said. “We will stay the course.”
In other business Tuesday, the regents adopted a request for $2.4 billion in state funding for the next fiscal year, which starts next July.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget told state agencies not to ask for more money next year, citing the pandemic’s impact on the state’s economy, said Tracey Cook, the system’s executive vice chancellor for strategy and fiscal affairs.
However, the university system was permitted to seek a net increase of $61.5 million, primarily to cover projected student enrollment growth, Cook said.
ATLANTA – Georgia voters still strongly support public charter schools eight years after ratifying a constitutional amendment letting the state create charter schools, according to a new poll.
The statewide survey of 640 likely Georgia voters commissioned by the Georgia Charter Schools Association found 67% expressed a favorable opinion of public charter schools. The poll was conducted Aug. 22 through Aug. 24 by Cygnal, a Virginia-based polling firm that works with center-right political and advocacy organizations.
The poll found support for public charter schools across the demographic and political spectrum, from Asian, Latino, Black and white voters, and among Republicans, Democrats and independents.
“These findings support what we have long known to be true in Georgia,” said Tony Roberts, president and CEO of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “Families in our state continue to believe that public charter schools put the needs of students first and positively contribute to Georgia’s overall public school system.”
In a nod to the COVID-19 era, the poll also found 52% of Georgia voters said they would be less likely to support a state legislator who votes to continue funding school districts at the same level if they’re not offering full-time in-person learning.
Also, 56% of voters surveyed supported the state fully funding the charter school grants it has already created.
Among parents interviewed, 52% said they want more free public-school options.
A higher percentage of voters polled – 64% – said taxpayer dollars should follow the student and do not belong solely to a school district.
Georgia voters ratified a constitutional amendment in 2012 allowing the state to create charter schools upon the request of local communities, despite objections from minority Democrats in the General Assembly earlier that year that charter schools take away funding from regular public schools.
The amendment carried at the polls by a 59% to 41% margin.
The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.87%.
ATLANTA – The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Atlanta-based film producer Ryan Felton and rapper and actor T.I., whose actual name is Clifford Harris Jr., in connection with two cryptocurrency-based investment schemes.
The SEC also charged FLiK and CoinSpark, two companies controlled by Felton that conducted what are known as initial coin offerings.
“Initial coin offerings can be used to fund innovative and exciting projects that might not otherwise be able to come to life through traditional funding sources,” said Byung J. “BJay” Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, which pursued a parallel complaint against Felton, 46, of Atlanta, that resulted in his indictment by a federal grand jury last week.
“[Felton] promised investors a stake in innovative ventures and allegedly spent investor funds lavishly on personal expenses,” Pak added.
The SEC complaint alleges that Felton promised to build a digital streaming platform for FLiK and a digital-asset trading platform for CoinSpark.
Instead, he allegedly transferred FLiK tokens to himself and sold them on the market for $2.2 million. He also allegedly engaged in manipulative trading to inflate the price of the SPARK tokens.
“The federal securities laws provide the same protections to investors in digital-asset securities as they do to investors in more traditional forms of securities,” said Carolyn M. Welshhans, associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “As alleged in the SEC’s complaint, Felton victimized investors through material misrepresentations, misappropriation of their funds and manipulative trading.”
Felton used the vast majority of the investor proceeds to fund an extravagant lifestyle, including all-cash purchases of a $1.5 million residence and a $180,000 red 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB Fioran Coupe. The government is seeking to forfeit the proceeds of his schemes and previously filed a civil forfeiture action, which is staying pending resolution of the criminal prosecution.
Three others were charged in the case: William Sparks Jr., T.I.’s social media manager; Chance White and Owen Smith, all of Atlanta.
Aside from Felton, all of the other defendants have agreed to settlements resolving the case against them.
Sparks, White and Smith each agreed to pay a penalty of $25,000 and to injunctions prohibiting them from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer or sale of any digital-asset security for five years.
The SEC’s order against T.I. requires him to pay a $75,000 civil penalty and not participate in offerings or sales of digital-asset securities for at least five years.
Georgia Tech is the eighth-best public university in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.
ATLANTA – Georgia is one of only three states with more than one public university in the nation’s Top 20, according to rankings released Monday by U.S. News & World Report.
Georgia Tech is ranked eighth-best among public universities, tied with the University of California at Irvine and the University of California at San Diego.
The magazine ranked the University of Georgia 15th, tied with the University of Illinois.
California had the most schools in the Top 20 with five, while Virginia placed two.
The annual U.S. News & World Report rankings take into account a number of factors. Graduation and retention rates comprise the largest percentage of the ranking criteria, accounting for 30% of an institution’s total score.
Faculty resources, such as class size and the student-to-faculty ratio account for 20% of the score, and peer assessments by university presidents, provosts and deans of admissions also count for 20%.
