About 50 members of the United Campus Workers of Georgia and others gathered at the Arch last week to protest the Elon Musk-led cuts to research projects at UGA and other institutions.
“These are not typical budget cuts,” said Keegan Brooks, who told the crowd that he lost his position as a lab tech due to the cuts. “These are cuts intended to destroy institutions and extract resources and siphon them to the world’s richest man.”
DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Musk, who has an estimated net worth of more than $300 billion—has slashed thousands of jobs at various government agencies, as well as research grants awarded to universities, targeting in particular anything that may be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or climate change. Many of them have been blocked by the courts, at least temporarily.
UGA received a record $255 million in federal research funding last year, including grants from the U.S. departments of defense, commerce, the interior, energy and agriculture, as well as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. It’s unclear how many of those grants have been cut or eliminated.
“This is not just an attack on our ability to pay for education, to pay for research. It’s an attack with a purpose. It’s an attack to silence. It’s an attack to intimidate… anyone who is falsely tagged as DEI or ‘woke,’” said Rob Tabackman, a graduate teaching assistant.
Speakers called on leaders like University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue and UGA President Jere Morehead to vocally oppose federal funding cuts. “We know our administrators say they have our backs,” union co-chair Bryant Barnes said. “We want them to show it.”
Barnes also called on the state to use its $10 billion budget surplus to boost its share of funding for higher education from 55% to 75%; for larger cost-of-living raises and extending those raises to part-time employees; and to make on-campus parking free for lower-wage workers. But he said administrators have not been responsive to those demands.
“We get crickets. We get platitudes. Sometimes we get socks,” he said, referring to annual “employee appreciation” gifts from the university.
Speakers also criticized the Trump administration for attempting to deport recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil—who has a green card and is married to an American citizen—and other Middle Eastern students who participated in campus pro-Palestine demonstrations after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Gaza invasion. Brooks called those deportation proceedings “a basic assault against the right to free speech and the right to protest.”
In addition, UCWGA members expressed solidarity with Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center maintenance employees who are attempting to unionize. During the UCWGA rally, Piedmont employees drove a truck around the block towing a trailer with a giant inflatable pig and fat cat symbolizing hospital administrators.
The maintenance workers voted 20–9 in August to join the International Union of Operating Engineers. Union organizers have since filed six unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against the hospital, according to Athens Politics Nerd. [Blake Aued]
CCSD Appoints Principals
Clarke County School District Superintendent Robbie Hooker has named permanent principals at two local middle schools—Angela Braswell at Coile and Derrick Maxwell at Clarke Middle. Both had served as interim principals at their respective schools since July.
“Mr. Maxwell and Ms. Braswell are both outstanding educators who have provided steady leadership during transition periods at their schools this school year, and have helped mold a positive school culture that is welcoming to students, staff and families,” Hooker said in a news release. “Both of these leaders have a great familiarity with CCSD and our community, and I look forward to them continuing to contribute their talents toward our aim of ensuring all students are in position to achieve academic success.”
Maxwell started his career as a teacher at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, where he was later an assistant principal, and has served as principal at Whit Davis Elementary School from 2012–2016, Commerce Middle School from 2016–2018, Cedar Shoals High from 2018–2019 and Winder-Barrow High School from 2019–2024. He has a son at Clarke Middle, which reopened in a new building last fall.
Braswell taught math at Cedar Shoals and in Walton County for 11 years before becoming an assistant principal at Coile in 2015 and principal at Whitehead Road Elementary in 2019.
The Board of Education approved both hiring decisions at its Mar. 13 meeting.
New Kiosks Renew Tags
Georgia residents can now renew their tags and driver’s licenses at kiosks located at 96 Kroger and Publix stores across the state.
The nearest MV Express kiosk for Athens residents is located at the Kroger on Epps Bridge Parkway. It is open from 6 a.m.–11 p.m. Users can renew their vehicle registration and print tag stickers in two minutes, but that particular kiosk does not support driver’s license renewals. More locations can be found at gamvexpress.com.
“We are excited to be a part of the Georgia MV Express kiosk program, which aligns with my commitment to providing Athens-Clarke County residents with more accessible, efficient and modern government services,” Athens-Clarke County Tax Commissioner JP Lemay said in a news release. “By partnering with MV Express, we are making it easier for everyone to access essential vehicle-related services without the burden of long waits and limited office hours.”
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