Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
Video Chronicles Unique SBU Class Project Tying AI to Nutrition
ST. BONAVENTURE, New York, June 25 -- St. Bonaventure University issued the following news release:
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Video chronicles unique SBU class project tying AI to nutrition
Students and faculty from three academic schools at St. Bonaventure University came together for a unique academic collaboration that blended nutrition science, communication, philosophy and emerging technology.
The fall semester project culminated in a 15-minute documentary that chronicles their work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, food insecurity and healthcare.
The project united students in HS 309: Nutrition, ... Show Full Article ST. BONAVENTURE, New York, June 25 -- St. Bonaventure University issued the following news release: * * * Video chronicles unique SBU class project tying AI to nutrition Students and faculty from three academic schools at St. Bonaventure University came together for a unique academic collaboration that blended nutrition science, communication, philosophy and emerging technology. The fall semester project culminated in a 15-minute documentary that chronicles their work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, food insecurity and healthcare. The project united students in HS 309: Nutrition,taught by Dr. Jeffrey Allen, assistant professor and chair of Public Health and Health Sciences in the School of Health Professions, with students in JMC 343: Field Production, taught by Danny Bush, senior multimedia producer at the university and an adjunct faculty member in the Jandoli School of Communication.
Dr. Heather McDivitt, assistant professor of Philosophy from the School of Arts & Sciences, contributed as a guest lecturer and academic collaborator.
The students in HS 309 included those majoring in Health Science, Public Health, Nursing and Sport Studies.
Funded by a $3,000 Keenan Grant supporting innovative uses of artificial intelligence, the project challenged nutrition students to explore both the promise and limitations of AI in healthcare-related nutrition counseling.
Student groups were tasked with creating AI-generated, seven-day meal plans for lower-income families, each scenario including a family member living with a chronic disease or health condition.
In an experiential twist, each group had to follow another group's AI-generated meal plan for a full week. Students documented their experiences navigating food access, cost, preparation and nutritional adequacy while relying on AI-informed guidance. Their reflections revealed both the efficiencies and shortcomings of AI tools when applied to real-world nutrition challenges.
"This project exposed students to the pitfalls and promise of AI use in healthcare-related nutrition counseling," Allen said. "By actually living with these meal plans, students confronted the realities of food insecurity and the ethical responsibilities that come with using AI in health professions."
While the nutrition students carried out the research and lived experience, Bush's Field Production students documented the semester-long collaboration. One of two major projects for the 15-student JMC 343 class, the documentary captures classroom discussions, meal preparation, focus groups and the public screening of the finished film on Dec. 10.
"Danny's students produced a 15-minute documentary about the semester, and it is beautifully done," Allen said. "It really tells a story about how we at St. Bonaventure set ourselves apart."
McDivitt's involvement added a philosophical and ethical dimension to the project, expanding it into a three-school collaboration. She led discussions on the values people use when selecting and buying food, reviewed student papers, visited a student group during a shared breakfast and participated in focus groups and the public viewing of the documentary.
"It was a fabulous experience," McDivitt said. "It was a terrific learning opportunity for the students and a great chance for me to work with colleagues outside of Arts and Sciences. Conversations about food, values and technology are essential as AI becomes more integrated into everyday decision-making."
The project exemplifies St. Bonaventure's Franciscan commitment to hands-on learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and ethical reflection.
By combining applied science, storytelling and philosophical inquiry, students gained a deeper understanding of how emerging technologies affect vulnerable populations and professional practice, Allen said.
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About the University: The nation's first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure is a community committed to transforming the lives of its students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a commitment to academic excellence and lifelong civic engagement. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #8 for value and #19 overall by U.S. News and World Report (2025).
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Original text here: https://www.sbu.edu/news/news-items/2026/06/24/video-chronicles-unique-sbu-class-project-tying-ai-to-nutrition
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Video chronicles unique SBU class project tying AI to nutrition
Students and faculty from three academic schools at St. Bonaventure University came together for a unique academic collaboration that blended nutrition science, communication, philosophy and emerging technology.
The fall semester project culminated in a 15-minute documentary that chronicles their work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, food insecurity and healthcare.
The project united students in HS 309: Nutrition, ... Show Full Article ST. BONAVENTURE, New York, June 25 -- St. Bonaventure University issued the following news release: * * * Video chronicles unique SBU class project tying AI to nutrition Students and faculty from three academic schools at St. Bonaventure University came together for a unique academic collaboration that blended nutrition science, communication, philosophy and emerging technology. The fall semester project culminated in a 15-minute documentary that chronicles their work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, food insecurity and healthcare. The project united students in HS 309: Nutrition,taught by Dr. Jeffrey Allen, assistant professor and chair of Public Health and Health Sciences in the School of Health Professions, with students in JMC 343: Field Production, taught by Danny Bush, senior multimedia producer at the university and an adjunct faculty member in the Jandoli School of Communication.
Dr. Heather McDivitt, assistant professor of Philosophy from the School of Arts & Sciences, contributed as a guest lecturer and academic collaborator.
The students in HS 309 included those majoring in Health Science, Public Health, Nursing and Sport Studies.
Funded by a $3,000 Keenan Grant supporting innovative uses of artificial intelligence, the project challenged nutrition students to explore both the promise and limitations of AI in healthcare-related nutrition counseling.
Student groups were tasked with creating AI-generated, seven-day meal plans for lower-income families, each scenario including a family member living with a chronic disease or health condition.
In an experiential twist, each group had to follow another group's AI-generated meal plan for a full week. Students documented their experiences navigating food access, cost, preparation and nutritional adequacy while relying on AI-informed guidance. Their reflections revealed both the efficiencies and shortcomings of AI tools when applied to real-world nutrition challenges.
"This project exposed students to the pitfalls and promise of AI use in healthcare-related nutrition counseling," Allen said. "By actually living with these meal plans, students confronted the realities of food insecurity and the ethical responsibilities that come with using AI in health professions."
While the nutrition students carried out the research and lived experience, Bush's Field Production students documented the semester-long collaboration. One of two major projects for the 15-student JMC 343 class, the documentary captures classroom discussions, meal preparation, focus groups and the public screening of the finished film on Dec. 10.
"Danny's students produced a 15-minute documentary about the semester, and it is beautifully done," Allen said. "It really tells a story about how we at St. Bonaventure set ourselves apart."
McDivitt's involvement added a philosophical and ethical dimension to the project, expanding it into a three-school collaboration. She led discussions on the values people use when selecting and buying food, reviewed student papers, visited a student group during a shared breakfast and participated in focus groups and the public viewing of the documentary.
"It was a fabulous experience," McDivitt said. "It was a terrific learning opportunity for the students and a great chance for me to work with colleagues outside of Arts and Sciences. Conversations about food, values and technology are essential as AI becomes more integrated into everyday decision-making."
The project exemplifies St. Bonaventure's Franciscan commitment to hands-on learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and ethical reflection.
By combining applied science, storytelling and philosophical inquiry, students gained a deeper understanding of how emerging technologies affect vulnerable populations and professional practice, Allen said.
* * *
About the University: The nation's first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure is a community committed to transforming the lives of its students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a commitment to academic excellence and lifelong civic engagement. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #8 for value and #19 overall by U.S. News and World Report (2025).
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Original text here: https://www.sbu.edu/news/news-items/2026/06/24/video-chronicles-unique-sbu-class-project-tying-ai-to-nutrition
University of Michigan: Immigrant Youths Feel Worlds Collide From Bicultural Stress
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 25 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news:
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Immigrant youths feel worlds collide from bicultural stress
As the number of adolescents from immigrant families continues to rise, researchers say a pressing question is coming into focus: What does it mean for young people's mental health to grow up navigating life between cultures?
A new review from University of Michigan and University of Louisville researchers points to one key piece of that puzzle: bicultural stress, the tension some young people feel as they try to meet the expectations ... Show Full Article ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 25 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news: * * * Immigrant youths feel worlds collide from bicultural stress As the number of adolescents from immigrant families continues to rise, researchers say a pressing question is coming into focus: What does it mean for young people's mental health to grow up navigating life between cultures? A new review from University of Michigan and University of Louisville researchers points to one key piece of that puzzle: bicultural stress, the tension some young people feel as they try to meet the expectationsof both their family's cultural traditions and the broader culture they live in.
Researchers found that this stress can affect emotional well-being during a critical stage of life, as adolescents develop their identities and prepare for adulthood.
"This research matters because it shows that the mental health challenges faced are shaped not only by individual experiences, but also by the pressure of navigating two cultures at once," said study co-author Alexander Wasserman, U-M psychology lecturer.
Key takeaways:
* Bicultural stress results from the strain of trying to balance the values and expected behaviors of both the overall U.S. culture and a family's heritage culture; this pressure can harm adolescents from immigrant families.
* Adolescents who experience more frequent bicultural stress have more problems with depression, anxiety, substance use, self-esteem and physical health outcomes.
* Policies that make immigrant families feel unsafe or fear detainment or deportation can worsen the negative effects of bicultural stress.
* Policies and community actions aimed at eliminating bicultural stress can promote better mental health and well-being outcomes in adolescents from immigrant families.
* Actions that prevent bicultural stress include implementing policies to protect access to education and healthcare and implementing culturally responsive school and community policies.
The findings suggest that supportive communities and thoughtful immigration-related policies could reduce that stress and help young people thrive during a critical stage of development.
The study appears in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Co-authors include Chelsie Temmen and Heba Aljumaily of the University of Louisville.
Study: Adolescents from immigrant families experience bicultural stress: Policies to promote youth mental health and well-being (DOI: 10.1177/23727322261459946)
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Original text here: https://news.umich.edu/immigrant-youths-feel-worlds-collide-from-bicultural-stress/
* * *
Immigrant youths feel worlds collide from bicultural stress
As the number of adolescents from immigrant families continues to rise, researchers say a pressing question is coming into focus: What does it mean for young people's mental health to grow up navigating life between cultures?
A new review from University of Michigan and University of Louisville researchers points to one key piece of that puzzle: bicultural stress, the tension some young people feel as they try to meet the expectations ... Show Full Article ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 25 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news: * * * Immigrant youths feel worlds collide from bicultural stress As the number of adolescents from immigrant families continues to rise, researchers say a pressing question is coming into focus: What does it mean for young people's mental health to grow up navigating life between cultures? A new review from University of Michigan and University of Louisville researchers points to one key piece of that puzzle: bicultural stress, the tension some young people feel as they try to meet the expectationsof both their family's cultural traditions and the broader culture they live in.
Researchers found that this stress can affect emotional well-being during a critical stage of life, as adolescents develop their identities and prepare for adulthood.
"This research matters because it shows that the mental health challenges faced are shaped not only by individual experiences, but also by the pressure of navigating two cultures at once," said study co-author Alexander Wasserman, U-M psychology lecturer.
Key takeaways:
* Bicultural stress results from the strain of trying to balance the values and expected behaviors of both the overall U.S. culture and a family's heritage culture; this pressure can harm adolescents from immigrant families.
* Adolescents who experience more frequent bicultural stress have more problems with depression, anxiety, substance use, self-esteem and physical health outcomes.
* Policies that make immigrant families feel unsafe or fear detainment or deportation can worsen the negative effects of bicultural stress.
* Policies and community actions aimed at eliminating bicultural stress can promote better mental health and well-being outcomes in adolescents from immigrant families.
* Actions that prevent bicultural stress include implementing policies to protect access to education and healthcare and implementing culturally responsive school and community policies.
The findings suggest that supportive communities and thoughtful immigration-related policies could reduce that stress and help young people thrive during a critical stage of development.
The study appears in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Co-authors include Chelsie Temmen and Heba Aljumaily of the University of Louisville.
Study: Adolescents from immigrant families experience bicultural stress: Policies to promote youth mental health and well-being (DOI: 10.1177/23727322261459946)
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Original text here: https://news.umich.edu/immigrant-youths-feel-worlds-collide-from-bicultural-stress/
SUNY Chancellor King Visits Onondaga Community College as Part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour
ALBANY, New York, June 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release:
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SUNY Chancellor King Visits Onondaga Community College as Part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour
Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect Provides Free Community College Tuition, Fees, Books, and Supplies for Eligible Adult Learners in High-Demand Fields
Visit Highlights Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology Programs
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Syracuse, NY - State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today visited Onondaga Community College as part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour. Chancellor ... Show Full Article ALBANY, New York, June 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release: * * * SUNY Chancellor King Visits Onondaga Community College as Part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect Provides Free Community College Tuition, Fees, Books, and Supplies for Eligible Adult Learners in High-Demand Fields Visit Highlights Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology Programs - Syracuse, NY - State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today visited Onondaga Community College as part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour. ChancellorKing has been visiting SUNY community colleges throughout the state to promote New York's free community college program for adult learners, which officially began at the start of Fall 2025. Under Governor Kathy Hochul's SUNY Reconnect initiative, New York State is providing free tuition, fees, books, and supplies for adults ages 25-55 who don't already have a college degree to pursue an associate degree in a high-demand field.
During his visit, Chancellor King emphasized Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology programs, which are eligible for SUNY Reconnect. SUNY Reconnect ensures that students receive enough financial aid and support services, including a single point of contact, extended hours, and prep courses, to complete their associate degree. To learn more about the SUNY Reconnect degree programs available at Onondaga Community College, visit https://www.sunyocc.edu/freecc.
"Onondaga Community College exemplifies SUNY's commitment to expanding upward mobility," said SUNY Chancellor King. "Thanks to the support of Governor Hochul and the SUNY Board of Trustees, we are able to remove barriers to higher education, help adult learners return to the classroom, and support students as they work to achieve their dreams."
The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "There is a place at SUNY for every New Yorker. We are proud to champion the SUNY Reconnect program and continuously provide support to adult learners across the state. Thank you to Governor Hochul for her unwavering support of opportunities for economic development and upward mobility."
During his visit, Chancellor King also toured Onondaga Community College's Micron Cleanroom Simulation Lab. The lab is used to train students for careers in the semiconductor and microelectronic industries, including students enrolled in the Electromechanical Technology program, which is also eligible for SUNY Reconnect.
Onondaga Community College President Warren M. Hilton said, "SUNY Reconnect is transforming lives at Onondaga Community College. Hundreds of adult learners are returning to the classroom, earning degrees, and preparing for careers in some of Central New York's most in-demand industries. The program is creating opportunities for students while helping employers build the workforce they need to thrive. We thank Governor Hochul, Chancellor King, and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their vision and steadfast support of this groundbreaking investment in New Yorkers and their future."
New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said, "SUNY Reconnect has been transformative not only for the New Yorkers pursuing degrees in high-demand fields like healthcare and education but also for the state's businesses that will benefit from this talent pipeline. I thank Governor Hochul for her investment in these initiatives that continue to make New York State an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family.
New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person said, "From healthcare to advanced technology, Onondaga Community College is showing how public higher education can connect opportunity with workforce needs. SUNY Reconnect and CUNY Reconnect are opening doors for adult learners who are ready to gain new skills, pursue meaningful careers, and contribute to New York's economy. We're thrilled that the state expanded the program this year, allowing even more New Yorkers to benefit from community college and access careers in fields where our state urgently needs skilled professionals."
State Senator Rachel May said, "SUNY Reconnect opens doors for adults who want to build a better future for themselves and their families. Removing financial barriers to degrees in high-demand fields is helping more New Yorkers develop skills employers need while also boosting the local economy. Thank you to Governor Hochul, Chancellor King, and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their commitment to making these opportunities available to more people across Central New York."
State Assemblymember Pamela J. Hunter said, "Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect initiative is exactly the kind of smart, people-centered investment New York should be making. By removing the financial barriers that too often keep adult learners from returning to school, we are opening doors to good-paying careers in high-demand fields like health care, applied technology, supply chain management, and fire protection. Onondaga Community College has long been a critical workforce partner for Central New York, and this program will help more residents gain the skills they need while strengthening the workforce our region depends on."
SUNY Reconnect funds degrees in high-demand fields including:
* Advanced Manufacturing
* Air Traffic Control and Aviation Management* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Artificial Intelligence
* Cybersecurity
* Engineering
* Emergency Management* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Supply Chain/Logistics* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Technology
* Nursing and Allied Health Fields
* Green and Renewable Energy
* Pathways to Teaching in Shortage Areas
At Onondaga Community College, two additional programs, Supply Chain Management and Fire Protection Technology, are eligible for SUNY Reconnect through the expansions included in the FY2026-27 Enacted Budget. In addition to Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect program opportunity expansions included in the FY2026-27 Enacted Budget, starting in Fall 2026, eligible adult learners will be able to return to college to pursue nursing even if they already have a prior degree. This is part of Governor Hochul's commitment to expand the New York State healthcare workforce.
To support the launch of SUNY Reconnect, SUNY has:
* Allocated $4 million to community colleges to support SUNY Reconnect programmatic implementation through advising, enrollment, outreach, award of credit for prior learning, and other student services, supports, and campus operations. Onondaga Community College received $160,000 which has been used to hire a full-time navigator dedicated to adult learner recruitment, enrollment, and retention support; create customized marketing and outreach campaigns; and support tailored adult learner enrollment efforts and student services including development and expansion of existing technology to build out specific adult onboarding materials and processes.
* Provided an additional $1 million to cover equipment, materials, supplies, and other one-time needs to increase student enrollment capacity in high-demand programs that are part of SUNY Reconnect. Onondaga Community College will allocate its $35,000 to expand capacity and add an additional section in the Automotive Technology program and deliver more advanced hybrid and electric vehicle coursework with updated equipment including but not limited to an engine training center and specialized EV batteries.
* Announced $1.1 million in grant funding for the SUNY Adult Learner Leadership Initiative to help community colleges increase access and ensure degree completion for adult learners. The campus received a $50,000 grant to participate in the Adult Learner Leadership initiative and has developed strategies including: recruitment of adult learners through CollegeApp to identify potential students for specific programs and sending tailored messaging that meets their specific situations; identifying a population of adults interested in a particular program of study and creating a schedule specific for them, including wrap around services and supports; creating a sense of belonging for adult learners by developing specific in-person and online orientation programs and success workshops for adult students; and supporting the development and expansion of online programming.
Since the May 2025 launch of Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect program for adult learners in New York State, Chancellor King visited SUNY community colleges to promote the program as part of the SUNY Reconnect tour. The tour, which kicked off in June 2025 at Dutchess Community College, has included visits to Tompkins Cortland Community College, SUNY Schenectady, Jefferson Community College, Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Niagara, SUNY Erie Community College, Jamestown Community College, Monroe Community College, SUNY Broome, SUNY Adirondack, Rockland Community College, Ulster Community College, Westchester Community College, Columbia-Greene Community College, Clinton Community College, Herkimer County Community College, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, North Country Community College, Finger Lakes Community College, Cayuga Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY Sullivan, SUNY Orange, SUNY Genesee, and Corning Community College.
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About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country's oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/6-26/6-24-26/occ.html
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SUNY Chancellor King Visits Onondaga Community College as Part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour
Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect Provides Free Community College Tuition, Fees, Books, and Supplies for Eligible Adult Learners in High-Demand Fields
Visit Highlights Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology Programs
-
Syracuse, NY - State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today visited Onondaga Community College as part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour. Chancellor ... Show Full Article ALBANY, New York, June 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release: * * * SUNY Chancellor King Visits Onondaga Community College as Part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect Provides Free Community College Tuition, Fees, Books, and Supplies for Eligible Adult Learners in High-Demand Fields Visit Highlights Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology Programs - Syracuse, NY - State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today visited Onondaga Community College as part of the SUNY Reconnect Tour. ChancellorKing has been visiting SUNY community colleges throughout the state to promote New York's free community college program for adult learners, which officially began at the start of Fall 2025. Under Governor Kathy Hochul's SUNY Reconnect initiative, New York State is providing free tuition, fees, books, and supplies for adults ages 25-55 who don't already have a college degree to pursue an associate degree in a high-demand field.
During his visit, Chancellor King emphasized Onondaga Community College's Health Care and Applied Technology programs, which are eligible for SUNY Reconnect. SUNY Reconnect ensures that students receive enough financial aid and support services, including a single point of contact, extended hours, and prep courses, to complete their associate degree. To learn more about the SUNY Reconnect degree programs available at Onondaga Community College, visit https://www.sunyocc.edu/freecc.
"Onondaga Community College exemplifies SUNY's commitment to expanding upward mobility," said SUNY Chancellor King. "Thanks to the support of Governor Hochul and the SUNY Board of Trustees, we are able to remove barriers to higher education, help adult learners return to the classroom, and support students as they work to achieve their dreams."
The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "There is a place at SUNY for every New Yorker. We are proud to champion the SUNY Reconnect program and continuously provide support to adult learners across the state. Thank you to Governor Hochul for her unwavering support of opportunities for economic development and upward mobility."
During his visit, Chancellor King also toured Onondaga Community College's Micron Cleanroom Simulation Lab. The lab is used to train students for careers in the semiconductor and microelectronic industries, including students enrolled in the Electromechanical Technology program, which is also eligible for SUNY Reconnect.
Onondaga Community College President Warren M. Hilton said, "SUNY Reconnect is transforming lives at Onondaga Community College. Hundreds of adult learners are returning to the classroom, earning degrees, and preparing for careers in some of Central New York's most in-demand industries. The program is creating opportunities for students while helping employers build the workforce they need to thrive. We thank Governor Hochul, Chancellor King, and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their vision and steadfast support of this groundbreaking investment in New Yorkers and their future."
New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said, "SUNY Reconnect has been transformative not only for the New Yorkers pursuing degrees in high-demand fields like healthcare and education but also for the state's businesses that will benefit from this talent pipeline. I thank Governor Hochul for her investment in these initiatives that continue to make New York State an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family.
New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person said, "From healthcare to advanced technology, Onondaga Community College is showing how public higher education can connect opportunity with workforce needs. SUNY Reconnect and CUNY Reconnect are opening doors for adult learners who are ready to gain new skills, pursue meaningful careers, and contribute to New York's economy. We're thrilled that the state expanded the program this year, allowing even more New Yorkers to benefit from community college and access careers in fields where our state urgently needs skilled professionals."
State Senator Rachel May said, "SUNY Reconnect opens doors for adults who want to build a better future for themselves and their families. Removing financial barriers to degrees in high-demand fields is helping more New Yorkers develop skills employers need while also boosting the local economy. Thank you to Governor Hochul, Chancellor King, and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their commitment to making these opportunities available to more people across Central New York."
State Assemblymember Pamela J. Hunter said, "Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect initiative is exactly the kind of smart, people-centered investment New York should be making. By removing the financial barriers that too often keep adult learners from returning to school, we are opening doors to good-paying careers in high-demand fields like health care, applied technology, supply chain management, and fire protection. Onondaga Community College has long been a critical workforce partner for Central New York, and this program will help more residents gain the skills they need while strengthening the workforce our region depends on."
SUNY Reconnect funds degrees in high-demand fields including:
* Advanced Manufacturing
* Air Traffic Control and Aviation Management* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Artificial Intelligence
* Cybersecurity
* Engineering
* Emergency Management* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Supply Chain/Logistics* (newly added for 2026-27 Academic Year)
* Technology
* Nursing and Allied Health Fields
* Green and Renewable Energy
* Pathways to Teaching in Shortage Areas
At Onondaga Community College, two additional programs, Supply Chain Management and Fire Protection Technology, are eligible for SUNY Reconnect through the expansions included in the FY2026-27 Enacted Budget. In addition to Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect program opportunity expansions included in the FY2026-27 Enacted Budget, starting in Fall 2026, eligible adult learners will be able to return to college to pursue nursing even if they already have a prior degree. This is part of Governor Hochul's commitment to expand the New York State healthcare workforce.
To support the launch of SUNY Reconnect, SUNY has:
* Allocated $4 million to community colleges to support SUNY Reconnect programmatic implementation through advising, enrollment, outreach, award of credit for prior learning, and other student services, supports, and campus operations. Onondaga Community College received $160,000 which has been used to hire a full-time navigator dedicated to adult learner recruitment, enrollment, and retention support; create customized marketing and outreach campaigns; and support tailored adult learner enrollment efforts and student services including development and expansion of existing technology to build out specific adult onboarding materials and processes.
* Provided an additional $1 million to cover equipment, materials, supplies, and other one-time needs to increase student enrollment capacity in high-demand programs that are part of SUNY Reconnect. Onondaga Community College will allocate its $35,000 to expand capacity and add an additional section in the Automotive Technology program and deliver more advanced hybrid and electric vehicle coursework with updated equipment including but not limited to an engine training center and specialized EV batteries.
* Announced $1.1 million in grant funding for the SUNY Adult Learner Leadership Initiative to help community colleges increase access and ensure degree completion for adult learners. The campus received a $50,000 grant to participate in the Adult Learner Leadership initiative and has developed strategies including: recruitment of adult learners through CollegeApp to identify potential students for specific programs and sending tailored messaging that meets their specific situations; identifying a population of adults interested in a particular program of study and creating a schedule specific for them, including wrap around services and supports; creating a sense of belonging for adult learners by developing specific in-person and online orientation programs and success workshops for adult students; and supporting the development and expansion of online programming.
Since the May 2025 launch of Governor Hochul's SUNY Reconnect program for adult learners in New York State, Chancellor King visited SUNY community colleges to promote the program as part of the SUNY Reconnect tour. The tour, which kicked off in June 2025 at Dutchess Community College, has included visits to Tompkins Cortland Community College, SUNY Schenectady, Jefferson Community College, Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Niagara, SUNY Erie Community College, Jamestown Community College, Monroe Community College, SUNY Broome, SUNY Adirondack, Rockland Community College, Ulster Community College, Westchester Community College, Columbia-Greene Community College, Clinton Community College, Herkimer County Community College, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, North Country Community College, Finger Lakes Community College, Cayuga Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY Sullivan, SUNY Orange, SUNY Genesee, and Corning Community College.
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About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country's oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/6-26/6-24-26/occ.html
New Jersey Institute of Technology: Data Scientists Say It's Not You, It's Google, In Flap Over AI-summarized Search Results
NEWARK, New Jersey, June 25 -- The New Jersey Institute of Technology issued the following news:
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Data Scientists Say It's Not You, It's Google, In Flap Over AI-summarized Search Results
Written by: Evan Koblentz
Content creators and ordinary Google users alike are harmed by artificial intelligence summaries of search queries, because the summaries are often inconsistent, presenting disreputable results and withholding information from better sources that restrict Gemini training bots, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology found.
Power users have suspected these concerns ... Show Full Article NEWARK, New Jersey, June 25 -- The New Jersey Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Data Scientists Say It's Not You, It's Google, In Flap Over AI-summarized Search Results Written by: Evan Koblentz Content creators and ordinary Google users alike are harmed by artificial intelligence summaries of search queries, because the summaries are often inconsistent, presenting disreputable results and withholding information from better sources that restrict Gemini training bots, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology found. Power users have suspected these concernsfor themselves, but now it's documented after examining more than 14,000 search results, explained Riley Grossman, a fourth-year doctoral student in business data science, whose paper How Generative AI Disrupts Search: An Empirical Study of Google Search, Gemini, and AI Overviews will be presented in Australia this summer at the ACM Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval.
The results come from research focused on understanding how the digital publishing industry responds to potential threats, Grossman said. His team, led by professors Yi Chen and Cristian Borcea in NJIT's management school and computing college, initially looked at online privacy regulations. They added an emphasis on digital search impacts after seeing publishing companies cite that newsroom layoffs were due to generative artificial intelligence taking away search clicks, just as online news itself decimated print journalism.
For publishers, generative AI "disrupts the way that users see information presented to them. It changes both the way that they get information from the web -- so now instead of clicking links, clicking sources, you might just read an AI summary of those sources -- and then secondarily it redirects you or refers you to a different list of sources," Grossman noted. "If you only look at the links in the AI overview, you're going to end up on very different websites than if you look at the links that are in the organic search results below the AI overview."
Summaries are conceptually good for users because they can save time and bring answers straight to the top -- if you trust Google's judgment on your behalf. "Some users are frustrated by it, some users feel it's very convenient, depending on the setting. I would say right now we're in a state where it's disrupting the search, which is impacting publishers, but the way that it's impacting publishers is still a little bit undetermined."
Reliable sources that opt out of Gemini training tend to also appear less often, or not at all, in Google AI overviews. "Those lists of sources for the same query are extremely different, to the point where there's almost no overlap." Opting out of Gemini results has been a bold and potentially risky power move for publishers like Nature and The New York Times because it leads to barely being included in Google's AI search overviews at all.
The reasons are unclear. "Google is notoriously not willing to play ball on some of those questions. When publishers say you're stealing our traffic, Google's response so far has been we're actually not stealing your traffic, we're still referring the same amount of traffic to publishers, and we think that we're actually providing you more engaged traffic ... Google's maybe in denial about some of this stuff," Grossman explained. "So asking them why it refers people to more niche content than to the mainstream publishers isn't going to be a viable strategy right now."
Meanwhile, de-emphasizing conventional sources and propping up niche ones can be good or bad, in providing searchers with wider perspectives but often based on wrong information. Other times it leads to AI hallucinations. The research described a query about an upcoming fight between Youtuber Jake Paul and professional fighter Anthony Joshua. The summary stated that Paul won the match "in a major upset" by unanimous judges' decision. When the fight actually happened, Joshua won in a knockout and broke Paul's jaw in two places.
Still, many people are satisfied with the overview answer and never click a link inside of the results, known as a zero-click search in Grossman's world. "This is just a complete erasure for the site traffic. It's completely removing that traffic from any website," he noted. Without clicks, legitimate news sources could reduce their writing staff or close entirely -- but without reliable sources, Google would lose its search dominance -- so the relationship is co-dependent.
Grossman said one potential path forward is licensing deals between search providers and media companies. For example, the Associated Press news service is already licensed by Google, he said. However, "The problem is that if they're only one-off deals and the AI company, without any sort of regulation to be backing these deals, really holds all the power because they're coming to the table saying, 'You can either take this deal or we can continue to scrape your content for free and use it for free, and the only thing you can do is enter a really long, arduous legal battle with us.' -- that's certainly my concern.
"I would say there needs to be some combination of a regulatory side or an industry framework that gets developed," Grossman concluded. "It would be open-source, everybody knows what everyone else is getting paid, and then they can demand a fair rate based on that. It becomes an actual market where you can leverage the competition you have with other publishers."
Co-author Cristian Borcea -- one of Grossman's advisers and a professor of computer science -- added that the research methods also apply to fields such as politics and healthcare. Most political searches resulted in AI overviews showing less-credible sources that have bias, such as whether immigration law should be reformed. In healthcare, Borcea said, the team has ongoing work showing that web traffic to government healthcare sites decreased significantly in the last 18 months, likely due to a combination of AI search overviews and established healthcare information being removed from the web.
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Original text here: https://news.njit.edu/data-scientists-say-its-not-you-its-google-flap-over-ai-summarized-search-results
* * *
Data Scientists Say It's Not You, It's Google, In Flap Over AI-summarized Search Results
Written by: Evan Koblentz
Content creators and ordinary Google users alike are harmed by artificial intelligence summaries of search queries, because the summaries are often inconsistent, presenting disreputable results and withholding information from better sources that restrict Gemini training bots, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology found.
Power users have suspected these concerns ... Show Full Article NEWARK, New Jersey, June 25 -- The New Jersey Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Data Scientists Say It's Not You, It's Google, In Flap Over AI-summarized Search Results Written by: Evan Koblentz Content creators and ordinary Google users alike are harmed by artificial intelligence summaries of search queries, because the summaries are often inconsistent, presenting disreputable results and withholding information from better sources that restrict Gemini training bots, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology found. Power users have suspected these concernsfor themselves, but now it's documented after examining more than 14,000 search results, explained Riley Grossman, a fourth-year doctoral student in business data science, whose paper How Generative AI Disrupts Search: An Empirical Study of Google Search, Gemini, and AI Overviews will be presented in Australia this summer at the ACM Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval.
The results come from research focused on understanding how the digital publishing industry responds to potential threats, Grossman said. His team, led by professors Yi Chen and Cristian Borcea in NJIT's management school and computing college, initially looked at online privacy regulations. They added an emphasis on digital search impacts after seeing publishing companies cite that newsroom layoffs were due to generative artificial intelligence taking away search clicks, just as online news itself decimated print journalism.
For publishers, generative AI "disrupts the way that users see information presented to them. It changes both the way that they get information from the web -- so now instead of clicking links, clicking sources, you might just read an AI summary of those sources -- and then secondarily it redirects you or refers you to a different list of sources," Grossman noted. "If you only look at the links in the AI overview, you're going to end up on very different websites than if you look at the links that are in the organic search results below the AI overview."
Summaries are conceptually good for users because they can save time and bring answers straight to the top -- if you trust Google's judgment on your behalf. "Some users are frustrated by it, some users feel it's very convenient, depending on the setting. I would say right now we're in a state where it's disrupting the search, which is impacting publishers, but the way that it's impacting publishers is still a little bit undetermined."
Reliable sources that opt out of Gemini training tend to also appear less often, or not at all, in Google AI overviews. "Those lists of sources for the same query are extremely different, to the point where there's almost no overlap." Opting out of Gemini results has been a bold and potentially risky power move for publishers like Nature and The New York Times because it leads to barely being included in Google's AI search overviews at all.
The reasons are unclear. "Google is notoriously not willing to play ball on some of those questions. When publishers say you're stealing our traffic, Google's response so far has been we're actually not stealing your traffic, we're still referring the same amount of traffic to publishers, and we think that we're actually providing you more engaged traffic ... Google's maybe in denial about some of this stuff," Grossman explained. "So asking them why it refers people to more niche content than to the mainstream publishers isn't going to be a viable strategy right now."
Meanwhile, de-emphasizing conventional sources and propping up niche ones can be good or bad, in providing searchers with wider perspectives but often based on wrong information. Other times it leads to AI hallucinations. The research described a query about an upcoming fight between Youtuber Jake Paul and professional fighter Anthony Joshua. The summary stated that Paul won the match "in a major upset" by unanimous judges' decision. When the fight actually happened, Joshua won in a knockout and broke Paul's jaw in two places.
Still, many people are satisfied with the overview answer and never click a link inside of the results, known as a zero-click search in Grossman's world. "This is just a complete erasure for the site traffic. It's completely removing that traffic from any website," he noted. Without clicks, legitimate news sources could reduce their writing staff or close entirely -- but without reliable sources, Google would lose its search dominance -- so the relationship is co-dependent.
Grossman said one potential path forward is licensing deals between search providers and media companies. For example, the Associated Press news service is already licensed by Google, he said. However, "The problem is that if they're only one-off deals and the AI company, without any sort of regulation to be backing these deals, really holds all the power because they're coming to the table saying, 'You can either take this deal or we can continue to scrape your content for free and use it for free, and the only thing you can do is enter a really long, arduous legal battle with us.' -- that's certainly my concern.
"I would say there needs to be some combination of a regulatory side or an industry framework that gets developed," Grossman concluded. "It would be open-source, everybody knows what everyone else is getting paid, and then they can demand a fair rate based on that. It becomes an actual market where you can leverage the competition you have with other publishers."
Co-author Cristian Borcea -- one of Grossman's advisers and a professor of computer science -- added that the research methods also apply to fields such as politics and healthcare. Most political searches resulted in AI overviews showing less-credible sources that have bias, such as whether immigration law should be reformed. In healthcare, Borcea said, the team has ongoing work showing that web traffic to government healthcare sites decreased significantly in the last 18 months, likely due to a combination of AI search overviews and established healthcare information being removed from the web.
* * *
Original text here: https://news.njit.edu/data-scientists-say-its-not-you-its-google-flap-over-ai-summarized-search-results
Mathematics education faculty named interim dean of College of Education, Health and Human Sciences
MOSCOW, Idaho, June 25 -- The University of Idaho issued the following news release:
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Mathematics education faculty named interim dean of College of Education, Health and Human Sciences
University of Idaho named Julie Amador interim dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Amador will transition into this role immediately.
Amador came to University of Idaho in 2012, after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. She currently serves as associate dean for research and faculty development in the college and as director of the Region 1 Idaho Regional ... Show Full Article MOSCOW, Idaho, June 25 -- The University of Idaho issued the following news release: * * * Mathematics education faculty named interim dean of College of Education, Health and Human Sciences University of Idaho named Julie Amador interim dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Amador will transition into this role immediately. Amador came to University of Idaho in 2012, after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. She currently serves as associate dean for research and faculty development in the college and as director of the Region 1 Idaho RegionalMathematics Center.
Amador will fill the position vacated by Brooke Blevins, who was appointed interim provost and executive vice president earlier this month.
"Julie is a respected scholar, a collaborative leader and a trusted colleague who cares deeply about our students, staff and faculty. Her understanding of EHHS, commitment to our mission and ability to bring people together make her exceptionally well suited to lead the college during this transition," Blevins said.
Amador earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from California State University, Fresno, a master's degree in educational leadership and a doctorate in curriculum, teaching and learning with an emphasis in mathematics education from the University of Nevada.
***
Original text here: https://www.uidaho.edu/newsroom/interim-dean
* * *
Mathematics education faculty named interim dean of College of Education, Health and Human Sciences
University of Idaho named Julie Amador interim dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Amador will transition into this role immediately.
Amador came to University of Idaho in 2012, after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. She currently serves as associate dean for research and faculty development in the college and as director of the Region 1 Idaho Regional ... Show Full Article MOSCOW, Idaho, June 25 -- The University of Idaho issued the following news release: * * * Mathematics education faculty named interim dean of College of Education, Health and Human Sciences University of Idaho named Julie Amador interim dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Amador will transition into this role immediately. Amador came to University of Idaho in 2012, after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. She currently serves as associate dean for research and faculty development in the college and as director of the Region 1 Idaho RegionalMathematics Center.
Amador will fill the position vacated by Brooke Blevins, who was appointed interim provost and executive vice president earlier this month.
"Julie is a respected scholar, a collaborative leader and a trusted colleague who cares deeply about our students, staff and faculty. Her understanding of EHHS, commitment to our mission and ability to bring people together make her exceptionally well suited to lead the college during this transition," Blevins said.
Amador earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from California State University, Fresno, a master's degree in educational leadership and a doctorate in curriculum, teaching and learning with an emphasis in mathematics education from the University of Nevada.
***
Original text here: https://www.uidaho.edu/newsroom/interim-dean
From Pitch to Lab: Georgia State Scientists are Tackling One of Soccer's Toughest Injuries
ATLANTA, Georgia, June 25 -- Georgia State University issued the following news:
* * *
From Pitch to Lab
Georgia State Scientists are Tackling One of Soccer's Toughest Injuries
University experts are unlocking new insights into injury prevention, recovery and long-term mobility.
Written by Jen Miller
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings the world's top soccer players to North America, with the sport taking center stage in Atlanta, some Georgia State University researchers are focused on a challenge familiar to athletes at every level: injuries to the ACL.
Anterior cruciate ligament injuries ... Show Full Article ATLANTA, Georgia, June 25 -- Georgia State University issued the following news: * * * From Pitch to Lab Georgia State Scientists are Tackling One of Soccer's Toughest Injuries University experts are unlocking new insights into injury prevention, recovery and long-term mobility. Written by Jen Miller As the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings the world's top soccer players to North America, with the sport taking center stage in Atlanta, some Georgia State University researchers are focused on a challenge familiar to athletes at every level: injuries to the ACL. Anterior cruciate ligament injuriesaffect athletes across sports and are one of soccer's most common setbacks. Behind every successful return to play is a growing body of biomechanics research that informs how injuries are prevented, diagnosed and treated, so players have the best possible recovery and a better outlook for both short- and long-term success.
"We are looking ahead and focusing on how to get you back to sport safely and quickly, but also on how to keep you active for a longer time," said Liang-Ching Tsai, a professor of physical therapy at Georgia State.
BETTER TREATMENT PROTOCOLS
Of particular focus in physical therapy are knees, which are tricky joints. If the muscles, bones, ligaments and cartilage aren't operating in harmony, it can lead to pain in the knee or up and down the leg.
One notably persistent problem, especially in soccer players, is tearing an ACL. When the load on the knee is too much -- whether from making a sharp turn or being involved in a collision -- the ligament can be damaged. ACL tears almost always require surgery and often end a player's season.
Despite how common ACL tears are -- studies have shown that 400,000 ACL reconstruction surgeries are done in the U.S. each year -- people are still not walking out of rehab perfectly healthy.
Research in the field has found that people who've torn an ACL have a 4-to-10-times-greater chance of developing osteoarthritis in that knee than if they hadn't been injured. They also have an increased risk of needing a knee replacement 15 years later.
Experts at Georgia State are trying to lower the rates of such long-term effects by studying how athletes are being rehabbed today, and what might work better. That work has been one focus of Tsai's research during his more than 10 years at Georgia State. Over the past decade, he has published more than 30 studies in physical therapy and rehabilitation science, including research on biomechanical injury mechanisms and rehabilitation strategies.
In one National Institutes of Health-funded study, Tsai and his team are looking at how knee rehabilitation, including rehab for ACL tears, can preserve long-term knee cartilage health.
"When you go see an orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist, it's not that they don't care about your long-term health, but they need to focus on your immediate, short-term recovery first," Tsai says. "They're not going to be paying too much attention to something that's going to happen five to 10 years down the road."
And while ACL patients will have physical therapy after surgery, they may not see another physician for this injury for some time unless the joint starts hurting again due to degeneration.
"This rehab window that we have immediately after the initial injury is key," he says.
He and other GSU scientists are looking at what approaches to rehab work best. Their work includes human studies into the implications of favoring one side or the other after an injury and of walking speed after surgery. Researchers are also looking at what factors may lead to re-injury.
This kind of work is possible because of Georgia State's Biomechanics and Motor Control Laboratory, a state-of-the-art research facility equipped with motion-capture technology, light sensors and biomechanical tools that can provide insight into injury, recovery and motion. In addition to studying ACL injury recovery, the lab is also doing research on people with cerebral palsy, knee osteoarthritis and other lower extremity disorders.
Tsai has conducted preclinical research to explore optimal rehab principles that can best preserve the knee joint following traumatic injuries.
"Once we have that information, our ultimate goal is to apply it to rehabilitation through clinical trials to see if any of those modifications would improve patient outcomes," he says.
This kind of data helps inform better rehabilitation methods that can directly translate to patient care.
KEEPING ATHLETES ON THE FIELD
While Tsai advances the science of injury prevention and rehabilitation through research, other Georgia State experts put that knowledge into practice, helping student-athletes stay healthy, recover from injuries and return to competition.
Jake Irwin is a clinical associate professor and physical therapist for GSU's Athletics Department, overseeing care for Georgia State University student-athletes. He says NCAA Division I athletes are like Formula 1 cars.
"One little piece moving wrong at the level they're competing at, and they're going to break down somewhere," he says.
He says his role is to "look for that little piece that might be missing" and correct it. That kind of specificity and focus is key for athletes at their peak performance level and for preventing injury before it happens. As part of his teaching, Irwin leads a course on how to work with elite athletes.
"Most people come into it thinking it's about lifting heavy and coming up with some crazy exercise someone's never seen before," he says.
But those athletes are going to be able to lift more weight than the general public. Instead, he wants his students to focus on the basics.
"It's a matter of how they move that weight, and is there some small link in the chain that's causing a breakdown? Usually, you can find a problem with a very simple fix, and when they put it into the whole chain, it makes everything function better with less chance of injury."
DEVELOPING FUTURE THERAPISTS
Deborah Ruiz, a second-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student at GSU who played soccer for Georgia Southern University, knows how important proper ACL rehab can be.
She tore her left knee ACL as a sophomore in high school, then tore the right knee ACL as a first-year student in college. She tore it a second time two weeks after getting cleared to play again.
She says she can tell the difference between her knees. When she was in high school, the rehab timeline was 6 to 9 months whereas now it's a year. Her high school treatment was also very conservative, with two to three sessions per week, and without a distinction made between "pain that's hurting you and doing actual damage, and pain of discomfort having just had surgery to build muscle back," she said.
In college, her rehab regimen consisted of seeing a trainer every day at the start and, over time, dropped to three times then to twice a week. On days she wasn't in physical therapy, she was seeing a strength-training coach. Today she has far fewer problems with her right knee than her left.
The experience led her to want to work as a physical therapist, and her personal journey is informing her skills. She knows exactly what kind of pain her patients are going through as well as the mental aspects of being hurt and itching to get back to their sport.
No matter what area of practice she lands in after getting her doctorate, she knows the time she's spent working with different kinds of athletes will help her improve the lives of the patient populations she serves.
"I have a huge passion for any sort of physical activity, and with any kind of injury that's holding people back physically, I really want to help them," Ruiz says.
That future could include working with high school athletes, college competitors like herself or professionals at the highest level. And as research at Georgia State University continues to advance the science of biomechanics and injury recovery, its impact is expected to reach athletes far beyond Atlanta -- including those competing on soccer's world stage for years to come.
* * *
Original text here: https://news.gsu.edu/research-magazine/from-pitch-to-lab
* * *
From Pitch to Lab
Georgia State Scientists are Tackling One of Soccer's Toughest Injuries
University experts are unlocking new insights into injury prevention, recovery and long-term mobility.
Written by Jen Miller
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings the world's top soccer players to North America, with the sport taking center stage in Atlanta, some Georgia State University researchers are focused on a challenge familiar to athletes at every level: injuries to the ACL.
Anterior cruciate ligament injuries ... Show Full Article ATLANTA, Georgia, June 25 -- Georgia State University issued the following news: * * * From Pitch to Lab Georgia State Scientists are Tackling One of Soccer's Toughest Injuries University experts are unlocking new insights into injury prevention, recovery and long-term mobility. Written by Jen Miller As the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings the world's top soccer players to North America, with the sport taking center stage in Atlanta, some Georgia State University researchers are focused on a challenge familiar to athletes at every level: injuries to the ACL. Anterior cruciate ligament injuriesaffect athletes across sports and are one of soccer's most common setbacks. Behind every successful return to play is a growing body of biomechanics research that informs how injuries are prevented, diagnosed and treated, so players have the best possible recovery and a better outlook for both short- and long-term success.
"We are looking ahead and focusing on how to get you back to sport safely and quickly, but also on how to keep you active for a longer time," said Liang-Ching Tsai, a professor of physical therapy at Georgia State.
BETTER TREATMENT PROTOCOLS
Of particular focus in physical therapy are knees, which are tricky joints. If the muscles, bones, ligaments and cartilage aren't operating in harmony, it can lead to pain in the knee or up and down the leg.
One notably persistent problem, especially in soccer players, is tearing an ACL. When the load on the knee is too much -- whether from making a sharp turn or being involved in a collision -- the ligament can be damaged. ACL tears almost always require surgery and often end a player's season.
Despite how common ACL tears are -- studies have shown that 400,000 ACL reconstruction surgeries are done in the U.S. each year -- people are still not walking out of rehab perfectly healthy.
Research in the field has found that people who've torn an ACL have a 4-to-10-times-greater chance of developing osteoarthritis in that knee than if they hadn't been injured. They also have an increased risk of needing a knee replacement 15 years later.
Experts at Georgia State are trying to lower the rates of such long-term effects by studying how athletes are being rehabbed today, and what might work better. That work has been one focus of Tsai's research during his more than 10 years at Georgia State. Over the past decade, he has published more than 30 studies in physical therapy and rehabilitation science, including research on biomechanical injury mechanisms and rehabilitation strategies.
In one National Institutes of Health-funded study, Tsai and his team are looking at how knee rehabilitation, including rehab for ACL tears, can preserve long-term knee cartilage health.
"When you go see an orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist, it's not that they don't care about your long-term health, but they need to focus on your immediate, short-term recovery first," Tsai says. "They're not going to be paying too much attention to something that's going to happen five to 10 years down the road."
And while ACL patients will have physical therapy after surgery, they may not see another physician for this injury for some time unless the joint starts hurting again due to degeneration.
"This rehab window that we have immediately after the initial injury is key," he says.
He and other GSU scientists are looking at what approaches to rehab work best. Their work includes human studies into the implications of favoring one side or the other after an injury and of walking speed after surgery. Researchers are also looking at what factors may lead to re-injury.
This kind of work is possible because of Georgia State's Biomechanics and Motor Control Laboratory, a state-of-the-art research facility equipped with motion-capture technology, light sensors and biomechanical tools that can provide insight into injury, recovery and motion. In addition to studying ACL injury recovery, the lab is also doing research on people with cerebral palsy, knee osteoarthritis and other lower extremity disorders.
Tsai has conducted preclinical research to explore optimal rehab principles that can best preserve the knee joint following traumatic injuries.
"Once we have that information, our ultimate goal is to apply it to rehabilitation through clinical trials to see if any of those modifications would improve patient outcomes," he says.
This kind of data helps inform better rehabilitation methods that can directly translate to patient care.
KEEPING ATHLETES ON THE FIELD
While Tsai advances the science of injury prevention and rehabilitation through research, other Georgia State experts put that knowledge into practice, helping student-athletes stay healthy, recover from injuries and return to competition.
Jake Irwin is a clinical associate professor and physical therapist for GSU's Athletics Department, overseeing care for Georgia State University student-athletes. He says NCAA Division I athletes are like Formula 1 cars.
"One little piece moving wrong at the level they're competing at, and they're going to break down somewhere," he says.
He says his role is to "look for that little piece that might be missing" and correct it. That kind of specificity and focus is key for athletes at their peak performance level and for preventing injury before it happens. As part of his teaching, Irwin leads a course on how to work with elite athletes.
"Most people come into it thinking it's about lifting heavy and coming up with some crazy exercise someone's never seen before," he says.
But those athletes are going to be able to lift more weight than the general public. Instead, he wants his students to focus on the basics.
"It's a matter of how they move that weight, and is there some small link in the chain that's causing a breakdown? Usually, you can find a problem with a very simple fix, and when they put it into the whole chain, it makes everything function better with less chance of injury."
DEVELOPING FUTURE THERAPISTS
Deborah Ruiz, a second-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student at GSU who played soccer for Georgia Southern University, knows how important proper ACL rehab can be.
She tore her left knee ACL as a sophomore in high school, then tore the right knee ACL as a first-year student in college. She tore it a second time two weeks after getting cleared to play again.
She says she can tell the difference between her knees. When she was in high school, the rehab timeline was 6 to 9 months whereas now it's a year. Her high school treatment was also very conservative, with two to three sessions per week, and without a distinction made between "pain that's hurting you and doing actual damage, and pain of discomfort having just had surgery to build muscle back," she said.
In college, her rehab regimen consisted of seeing a trainer every day at the start and, over time, dropped to three times then to twice a week. On days she wasn't in physical therapy, she was seeing a strength-training coach. Today she has far fewer problems with her right knee than her left.
The experience led her to want to work as a physical therapist, and her personal journey is informing her skills. She knows exactly what kind of pain her patients are going through as well as the mental aspects of being hurt and itching to get back to their sport.
No matter what area of practice she lands in after getting her doctorate, she knows the time she's spent working with different kinds of athletes will help her improve the lives of the patient populations she serves.
"I have a huge passion for any sort of physical activity, and with any kind of injury that's holding people back physically, I really want to help them," Ruiz says.
That future could include working with high school athletes, college competitors like herself or professionals at the highest level. And as research at Georgia State University continues to advance the science of biomechanics and injury recovery, its impact is expected to reach athletes far beyond Atlanta -- including those competing on soccer's world stage for years to come.
* * *
Original text here: https://news.gsu.edu/research-magazine/from-pitch-to-lab
CUNY Distinguished Professor Heads to Library of Congress
NEW YORK, June 25 -- The City University of New York Graduate Center posted the following news:
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Distinguished Professor Heads to Library of Congress
*
This fall, historian and Distinguished Professor Herman Bennett begins a prestigious, year-long fellowship at the Library of Congress, where he'll draw on the library's vast resources to study early histories and cultures of the Americas, and focus on early-modern sovereignty in the Iberian world.
"It's an intellectual gift," said Bennett (GC/ History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies, American Studies, Global Early Modern ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, June 25 -- The City University of New York Graduate Center posted the following news: * * * Distinguished Professor Heads to Library of Congress * This fall, historian and Distinguished Professor Herman Bennett begins a prestigious, year-long fellowship at the Library of Congress, where he'll draw on the library's vast resources to study early histories and cultures of the Americas, and focus on early-modern sovereignty in the Iberian world. "It's an intellectual gift," said Bennett (GC/ History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies, American Studies, Global Early ModernStudies ), director of the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean ( IRADAC ).
As the Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of History and Cultures of the Early Americas, the historian will explore questions surrounding dominion and sovereignty during the early modern period in the Americas.
Learn More About the Ph.D. Program in History
"The work that I'm doing is trying to identify the ways in which rule of law, property, and state formation all played a significant role in the narrative of colonialism, that colonialism was not simply a story of flattening, of dispossession, of displacement," Bennett said. "It included many of those things, but it also had a logic and a political rationale."
Bennett pointed to the Spanish monarchy, which began its conquest of the Americas in the late 15th century and ruled the colonies for another 400 years. It was during this time that Europe transitioned out of the medieval era and into the early modern period, he explained, and complex power dynamics were at play.
People everywhere tended to be organized into bodies, from informal collectives to structured institutions, Bennett noted.
"Those terms of the collective, which define the social and the political, are important in these encounters," he said. "But Europeans didn't acknowledge consistently that these individuals had dominion, had policies, had different forms of governance. And so, that becomes part of the story about why they could be conquered, why they could be colonized, and why there needed to be other people ruling over them."
Learn More About the Ph.D. and M.A. Programs in Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies
The power dynamics that took place in this period shaped concepts of freedom and liberty today, Bennett said.
"What this project examines are the histories that were foundational for the emergence of international law. The rule of law has a history that is, in some ways, mediated by the colonial period," he said. "Even in a moment in which there was conquest and colonization, that was nonetheless mediated by a range of rules and a political rationale."
This history is relevant as ever, the professor said, with the rule of law front and center of current political debates. "Can one sovereign power legitimately invade another sovereign power?" he asked. "We see the ways in which the international rule of law is predicated on earlier assumptions, and when we violate that, we're violating historical precedents that have been established by the international community on a global scale."
During the fellowship, Bennett will split his time evenly between the Library of Congress and the Graduate Center, which he described as a steady source of support in his academic career. "It has been completely supportive, nourishing, and sustaining," he said.
Bennett said the offer of the fellowship came as a "complete surprise," as he was nominated for the position by his peers. " When you realize that your colleagues value what you do, it's an important kind of affirmation," he said. "I feel very fortunate that I have colleagues, on a national and international scale, who value my work."
Bennett is currently working on a book, Bones of the Dead: Blood, Kinship, and Legitimacy in the Making of Early Modern Blackness, to be published by Duke University Press. Another book, The African Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction, is expected to be published by Oxford University Press in 2027.
Herman Bennett is the author of African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic, and Colonial Blackness: A History of Afro-Mexico, and Africans in Colonial Mexico: Absolutism, Christianity, and Afro-Creole Consciousness, 1570-1640.
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Original text here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/distinguished-professor-heads-library-congress
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Distinguished Professor Heads to Library of Congress
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This fall, historian and Distinguished Professor Herman Bennett begins a prestigious, year-long fellowship at the Library of Congress, where he'll draw on the library's vast resources to study early histories and cultures of the Americas, and focus on early-modern sovereignty in the Iberian world.
"It's an intellectual gift," said Bennett (GC/ History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies, American Studies, Global Early Modern ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, June 25 -- The City University of New York Graduate Center posted the following news: * * * Distinguished Professor Heads to Library of Congress * This fall, historian and Distinguished Professor Herman Bennett begins a prestigious, year-long fellowship at the Library of Congress, where he'll draw on the library's vast resources to study early histories and cultures of the Americas, and focus on early-modern sovereignty in the Iberian world. "It's an intellectual gift," said Bennett (GC/ History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies, American Studies, Global Early ModernStudies ), director of the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean ( IRADAC ).
As the Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of History and Cultures of the Early Americas, the historian will explore questions surrounding dominion and sovereignty during the early modern period in the Americas.
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"The work that I'm doing is trying to identify the ways in which rule of law, property, and state formation all played a significant role in the narrative of colonialism, that colonialism was not simply a story of flattening, of dispossession, of displacement," Bennett said. "It included many of those things, but it also had a logic and a political rationale."
Bennett pointed to the Spanish monarchy, which began its conquest of the Americas in the late 15th century and ruled the colonies for another 400 years. It was during this time that Europe transitioned out of the medieval era and into the early modern period, he explained, and complex power dynamics were at play.
People everywhere tended to be organized into bodies, from informal collectives to structured institutions, Bennett noted.
"Those terms of the collective, which define the social and the political, are important in these encounters," he said. "But Europeans didn't acknowledge consistently that these individuals had dominion, had policies, had different forms of governance. And so, that becomes part of the story about why they could be conquered, why they could be colonized, and why there needed to be other people ruling over them."
Learn More About the Ph.D. and M.A. Programs in Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies
The power dynamics that took place in this period shaped concepts of freedom and liberty today, Bennett said.
"What this project examines are the histories that were foundational for the emergence of international law. The rule of law has a history that is, in some ways, mediated by the colonial period," he said. "Even in a moment in which there was conquest and colonization, that was nonetheless mediated by a range of rules and a political rationale."
This history is relevant as ever, the professor said, with the rule of law front and center of current political debates. "Can one sovereign power legitimately invade another sovereign power?" he asked. "We see the ways in which the international rule of law is predicated on earlier assumptions, and when we violate that, we're violating historical precedents that have been established by the international community on a global scale."
During the fellowship, Bennett will split his time evenly between the Library of Congress and the Graduate Center, which he described as a steady source of support in his academic career. "It has been completely supportive, nourishing, and sustaining," he said.
Bennett said the offer of the fellowship came as a "complete surprise," as he was nominated for the position by his peers. " When you realize that your colleagues value what you do, it's an important kind of affirmation," he said. "I feel very fortunate that I have colleagues, on a national and international scale, who value my work."
Bennett is currently working on a book, Bones of the Dead: Blood, Kinship, and Legitimacy in the Making of Early Modern Blackness, to be published by Duke University Press. Another book, The African Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction, is expected to be published by Oxford University Press in 2027.
Herman Bennett is the author of African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic, and Colonial Blackness: A History of Afro-Mexico, and Africans in Colonial Mexico: Absolutism, Christianity, and Afro-Creole Consciousness, 1570-1640.
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Original text here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/distinguished-professor-heads-library-congress