Athens shooting: my amateur photography

As many have already reported, there was a triple homicide yesterday around noon in Athens, Ga. The suspected shooter has been identified as George Zinkhan, a University of Georgia marketing and distribution professor.

Three people died in the shooting at the Athens Community Theater. They were Marie Bruce, Tom Tanner and Ben Teague.

During the time of the incident, I was visiting a friend in Kennesaw and I received an urgent text message from The Red & Black's editor-in-chief calling all reporters to help. I was able to get back to Athens, but not in time to do much in the way of reporting that day.

Today, a group of Red & Black reporters gathered in the news room and discussed what our coverage of this event would look like for the rest of the week. My assignment was to write an obituary for Marie Bruce, George Zinkhan's wife. Accompanied by a few fellow staffers, I went to the neighborhood and spoke to her former neighbors.

Here is some of the amateur photos I took while on the scene:

Confusion cleared up: 12 credit hours constitute full-time status

My Wednesday article on the Board of Regents' decision to increase tuition to a new model where students are charged a flat 15-hour full-time rate created an uproar on campus.

Problems arose because of tricky wording, incomplete information and a myriad of misunderstanding between the high-ups. During my interviewing and analysis of Regents documents on Tuesday, it appeared that students would be required to register for 15 hours in the fall to be considered full-time students – a change from the traditional 12 credit hour requirement.

However, after many phone calls and even more confusion, I confirmed with several sources that the 12-hour requirement would remain the requirement for full-time status.

Click here to read my article explaining how the tuition changes (and credit hours) are affecting UGA students.

Regents approve changes to instruction schedule

At Wednesday's Board of Regents meeting an interesting change was made to the semester requirements for Georgia colleges and universities.

Before the meeting, semesters were required to be a minimum 15 weeks in length and must be at least 75 days long. The decision made by the Regents axed the day requirement, which seems odd since 15 five-day weeks equals 75 days.

I asked the Regents spokesman if this change could be to free up the possibility for faculty furloughs in the fall. He said that was not the case, but said he did not know why the change was made because he was not in the meeting where it was changed.

Click here to read about the happenings of Wednesday's Board of Regents meeting.

Board of Regents increases tuition, keeps $100 fee

The decision made Tuesday by the Board of Regents is going to have a lot of students upset.

Students not on the state's "Fixed for Four" tuition guarantee plan will be paying a hefty increase in tuition come fall. In-state students not on the plan will pay 25 percent more and out-of-state students will be paying 15 percent more.

This is because the Regents created a flat tuition model which charges students a flat rate for six or less hours and for more than six hours of class credit.

Click here to read more about the tuition changes made at Tuesday's Board of Regents meeting.

Lottery loss

I stressed myself out over nothing. Turns out this little story I pitched on comparing states with lottery funded tuition assistance scholarships turned out to be pretty good after all.

I went into it thinking I'd find that Georgia's neighboring states with similar programs – Tennessee and Florida – would be facing the same worries as we are. But I was wrong. And at first that scared me. My initial reaction was "Oh no! I don't have a story."

But, you see. That is the story.

And after fearing that a crucial interview would fall through (but luckily it did not) and worrying all day, I got it done – and on deadline too!

Click here to read about how three Southern lottery funded tuition scholarships are faring in the economic downturn.

Adams vetoes University Council's provost input

What was supposed to be just another Executive Committee meeting yesterday turned into an opportunity to push along a story about the provost search at UGA.

Last month the University Council passed a motion which would effectively give it a larger role in the provost hiring decision. UGA President Michael Adams immediately expressed that he did not agree with the decision, a four-part proposal with the final part calling for a recorded vote by the council on their pick for provost.

At the committee meeting yesterday, the chair read a letter dated April 1 from Adams stating that he had decided to veto the council's decision. Adams cited Georgia's "stringent open records law" as his main reason for vetoing the motion.

Click here to read my article on Adams's decision to veto the council's motion.

R&B receives best daily paper award

My article today serves as a much deserved pat on the back to The Red & Black for winning 14 Society of Professional Journalists awards. Eleven of the 14 were first place, making this the most first place awards the paper has received in at least four years.

Click here to read my article about the SPJ awards The Red & Black won over the weekend.

'Behind the Hedges' book evaluates former disputes at University

I must say that I am very pleased with the way this article came out. It was hard work to make sure I was able to get through the book while also keeping up with class, but I did it and I'm happy with the outcome.

Synthesizing such a complex book with so much information that spans across a 10-year period is not an easy task. I had to make sure to give enough background about any event so that it made sense, but as anyone who has worked in print knows, newshole is not unlimited.

Click here to read my review of "Behind the Hedges," by Rich Whitt.

No clear candidate yet as provost search persists

The University of Georgia's No. 2 administrator will be stepping down at the end of this calendar year. UGA President Michael Adams announced the retirement of Arnett Mace as provost in January and the search for a replacement has just begun.

I sat down the the chair of the search committee to find out how the search will be conducted and what types of people they are looking for to fill the position.

Click here to read my article about UGA's provost search.

For many who applied to UGA, the news was not good

The economy is doing some interesting things for different industries. It seems that it is making students in Georgia more interested in attending in-state schools. Most likely this is because of the HOPE scholarship, which offers free tuition to qualifying students who live in the state.

About 18,000 people applied for fall admission at UGA and there is only room for 5,000. So when final notification of acceptance or rejection went out Friday, many must have been disappointed.

Click here to read my article and find out what some high school students had to say about their college application experience.