Tags: General News

by Emaleigh Fleeman After graduating from the University of Georgia in 2022, Gabriel Smallwood joined GCAC to serve as a college adviser at Clarke Central High School in Athens. Building off the skills he learned in college, Gabriel has spent the school year creating trusting relationships with the seniors. To date, he has met with over 95% of the senior class to provide individualized college and career advising sessions. In addition to his one…

In fall 2022, as academic workers undertook strikes to improve their compensation and conditions, multiple media outlets tapped McBee Institute Professor Tim Cain’s expertise on unionization to better understand and convey the events. In interviews with radio, tv, print, and web-based media, Professor Cain discussed the implications of strikes at the University of California, New School University, and the University of Illinois, Chicago,…

by Jewel Caruso Karen Webber, professor emeritus, and Henry Zheng, vice provost of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning at Carnegie Mellon University, published an article on AIR called, "AI in Higher Education: Implications for Institutional Research." With the recent release of ChatGPT, OpenAI's generative pre-trained transformer, Webber and Zheng discuss what drives the development of AI and ML (machine learning), it's key factors,…

The American Educational Research Association’s Queer Studies Special Interest Group recognized the scholarship of Professor Timothy R. Cain and coauthor Michael S. Hevel (associate dean for research, strategy, and outreach at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions) with the SIS’s 2023 article of the year award. The winning article, “The queer student affairs career of Stephen Lenton, 1970-1980,” reflects…

by Jewel Caruso McBee Institute community members Gregory Wolniak and Matthew Gregory co-authored a study with Marjolein Muskens that appears in the March issue of The Review of Higher Education.  The research article, "The Relative Influence of Subjective and Objective Socioeconomic Status on the Noncognitive Development of First-Year College Students," explored associations between status, aspirations, and sense of belonging of first…

by Jewel Caruso Brian Garsh, current part-time doctoral student, has accepted a new job at Kennesaw State University as their director of student engagement and belonging. In this new role, he will oversee the new class-year identity program (FLIGHT), first-year student experience and connections, and support student development to enhance the overall student experience.  Garsh's goal is to help increase KSU student retention and graduation…

Brook Thompson, program director of the Georgia College Advising Corps, and Azariah Partridge, adviser at Cedar Shoals High School, provided an overview of the goals and successes of the advising program’s work at a special session for the McBee Institute faculty and students. GCAC is a nationally recognized outreach program that works in underserved high schools across Georgia to assist students through the postsecondary selection, admissions,…

Lisa Wolf-Wendel, the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor and associate dean for research and graduate studies at the University of Kansas School of Education and Human Sciences, assessed both the progress of women in the professional academy and the state of literature on gender differences in higher education during her talk on March 27, 2023. Using the meme "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss" as a starting point, Wolf-Wendel discussed the…

by Jewel Caruso Amy Stich, associate professor, and George Spencer, assistant professor, recently published an article in Research in Higher Education titled “College Choice Revisited: Socioeconomic Differences in College Transfer Destinations Among Four-Year College Entrants.” Stich and Spencer sought to gain more insight into the strategies and effects behind lateral transfer decisions among students  across socioeconomic groups. They…

by Jewel Caruso Alejandra “Ale” Sosa Pieroni, current student in the Executive EdD program, has been named the new executive vice president for enrollment management, marketing, and student success at Georgia Southern University. In a recent press release, Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero said, “Ale is a thought leader and higher education professional with 17 years of experience in enrollment management, specializing in marketing and…