Latest news with #KennesawStateUniversity
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
LA Times Today: Senators demand return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia prior to peace agreement
A bipartisan group of senators is calling for the return of thousands of Ukrainian children who were abducted by Russia. The senators introduced a resolution that demands their return before any peace agreement is finalized. Doctor Kristina Hook is an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University and an expert in the Ukraine-Russia war. She joined Lisa McRee from Ukraine.
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How To Motivate Gen Z, A Generation That Wants More Life Than Work
Music fans enjoy Lauren Spencer Smith's performance on the first day of the TRNSMT Festival 2024 on ... More July 12, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Roberto Ricciuti) Baby boomers (born in 1946 – 1963) are known for their strong work ethic. But along with their continuing exit from the labor market, so seems the value of hard work. Millennials (born in 1981 - 1995) now take up the largest share of the labor market, while Gen Z (born in 1996 - 2012) is gradually joining the workforce. Work-life balance is a key factor for Gen Z when choosing a job, and Millennials value family life more highly than previous generations. What does this mean for organizations? Should we brace ourselves for a workforce that views their job as a 'nice to have' pastime? Will employees do the bare minimum at work? New research suggests that the future is not so bleak. Millennials and Gen Z might want work-life balance, but they also care about meaningful work, learning, and making an impact. This gives avenues for designing jobs that work for organizations and employees. The importance Gen Z attaches to life outside of work is not new. Millennials already strive to combine work with family life, friends, and other nonwork goals. A recent study using data from the World Value Survey, using answers from 221,485 participants, shows a clear trend in the seven waves between 1981 and 2019. When asked if less focus on work in the future would be a bad thing, we see a downward line from 'yes' to 'no'. In other words, employees today prioritize work less and value leisure more than employees in previous decades. Besides wanting more life outside of work, what do Millennials and Gen Z want out of work? Professor Maloni from Kennesaw State University surveyed about 1,000 Gen Z and 500 Millennial students. Millennials value promotion, results, and learning most. Generation Z shares these values, seeking achievement and development opportunities in the workplace. Another value standing out is stability. Gen Z values job security and thinks about benefits and retirement. And the often-made claim that the younger two generations need lots of validation seemed confirmed. Both Millennials and Gen Z highly value feedback from supervisors. There were some striking differences between these two generations as well. Millennials are more comfortable with risk and teamwork, whereas Gen Z prefers to play it safe. While Gen Z is undoubtedly looking for friendship at work (maybe even more so than Millennials), they are okay with more individualistic tasks. Knowing what the new generations are looking for, organizations can strategically design appealing jobs. Here are some factors to consider. While some baby boomers may look contemptuously at a generation that works less, not wanting to work 60-hour workweeks does not mean you can't deliver high-quality work. It might be the opposite, with working long hours damaging your health and work performance. The first crucial change for organizations is to get rid of tenacious organizational cultures that glorify being always available for work. Spending time off work has clear benefits for work. Switching off from work helps employees stay healthy and motivated in the long run. Rewarding activities outside of work can also give employees energy or new skills – think of negotiating with a toddler or teenager –that they can use at work. Aside from company culture, flexible work arrangements are a must-have for Millennial and Gen Z job seekers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have let employees decide their work hours or allow remote work. Keeping this flexibility is essential if organizations want to attract and retain talent. If an organization is worried about poor communication or coordination between team members, it can help to set core work hours when everyone is available. The same can be done for remote work. Allowing employees to work at least two days per week gives them flexibility, while organizations keep the benefits of face-to-face communication. A third policy to support work-life balance is offering blank nonwork days that employees can use for life emergencies. These nonwork emergency days signal that organizations acknowledge employees have a life outside of work. This policy is also inclusive, as each employee decides what life emergencies to use days for. Parents might use those days to stay home with a sick child, while others might use a nonwork day to help a family member in need or take a pet to the vet. Generational work values are valuable input to designing jobs that Gen Z and Millennials want. These generations want to learn and see results. One idea is to assign projects where they can develop different skills and see clear outcomes within a reasonable time frame. Whereas teamwork appeals to millennials, Gen Z also values working independently. A mixture of team meetings and individually assigned tasks might therefore work well for Gen Z employees. This group highly values being connected with others. Regular team events or informal get-togethers can motivate this youngest generation. Gen Z and Millennials both fare well by receiving frequent feedback. Therefore, both generations appreciate an involved and positive leadership style. Now that millennials are moving into management positions, while more Gen Z employees enter, these two generations might gel well on this item. Millennials understand the desire for reassurance and will be open to giving encouraging feedback. A final strategy to attract and keep younger employees is offering transparent job security, salary, and retirement information. Generation Z errs on the safe side, and they will want to know the pathways to promotion, the salary levels associated with those promotions, and the retirement package an organization offers. Discussing the future with junior employees might be counterintuitive, but Gen Z has been labeled pragmatic. They want to be prepared, as they have seen their parents endure uncertain times. Whether or not you believe generational differences exist, there is clear evidence that employees today strive for work-life balance. Supporting employees in their search for balance attracts talent and creates a more sustainable workforce that is not chronically overworked. It is a quadruple win. Companies get talent and results; employees get jobs they enjoy and a chance to do more in life than work.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Flamingo physics shocks science world as birds form fish-catching tornadoes
Though flamingos often appear to feed serenely in shallow lakes, their hunting behavior is anything but passive. A new study reveals that these birds create swirling underwater vortexes to trap and consume live prey like brine shrimp, disproving their reputation as simple filter feeders. A research team at the University of California, Berkeley uncovered how flamingos use a coordinated sequence of footwork, head motion, and beak mechanics to engineer tiny underwater whirlpools that draw in their prey. 'Flamingos are actually predators, they are actively looking for animals that are moving in the water, and the problem they face is how to concentrate these animals, to pull them together and feed,' said Victor Ortega Jiménez. 'Think of spiders, which produce webs to trap insects. Flamingos are using vortices to trap animals, like brine shrimp.' In collaboration with Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State University, and the Nashville Zoo, the team studied Chilean flamingos both in captivity and through lab simulations. Using laser imaging and 3D-printed models of flamingo feet and beaks, they discovered that the birds stir up sediment with their webbed, floppy feet, generating spinning flows. Then, by pulling their heads upward through the water, the birds lift these whorls to the surface. While submerged upside down, the birds rapidly chatter their angled beaks—flattened and L-shaped—to create even finer vortexes that guide prey toward their mouths. Their beaks work like a pump, using these flows to suck in moving organisms and filter out unwanted particles. 'It seems like they are filtering just passive particles, but no, these animals are actually taking animals that are moving,' Jiménez said. At UC Berkeley, the researchers fitted a real flamingo beak to an actuator and used a small pump to simulate tongue action. 'The chattering actually is increasing seven times the number of brine shrimp passing through the tube,' he said. 'So it's clear that the chattering is enhancing the number of individuals that are captured by the beak.' 'We observed when we put a 3D printed model in a flume to mimic what we call skimming, they are producing symmetrical vortices on the sides of the beak that recirculate the particles in the water so they actually get into the beak,' Ortega Jiménez said. 'It's this trick of fluid dynamics.' This unique feeding strategy has potential applications beyond biology. The principles could help design better systems for filtering microplastics, self-cleaning filters based on vortex chattering, or locomotion techniques for robots in watery or muddy environments. 'Flamingos are super-specialized animals for filter feeding. It's not just the head, but the neck, their legs, their feet and all the behaviors they use just to effectively capture these tiny and agile organisms," Jiménez concluded. The findings have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kennesaw State students protest at regents offices over the end of Black studies, philosophy majors
KSU students and others protest outside the University System of Georgia offices in Atlanta over the end to majors including Black studies and philosophy. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Dozens of Kennesaw State University students and others gathered outside University System of Georgia offices in Atlanta Wednesday to ask the Board of Regents not to eliminate majors in Black studies, philosophy and technical communication. The university announced last month that it plans to eliminate the three majors, citing low enrollment numbers. Kennesaw State University spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said the programs did not meet the graduation standards required by all majors. 'Undergraduate programs are expected to maintain a three-year rolling average of at least 10 graduates per year. The Black Studies major has a three-year graduation average of 5.7 degrees per year, while Philosophy averages 6.3 and Technical Communications 7.7,' DeMel said. 'The programs underwent a multi-year remediation process, which included annual improvement plans focused on increasing enrollment,' she added. 'As the required benchmarks were not met, the University deactivated these programs.' DeMel said the school will ensure current students majoring in those subjects will have the opportunity to complete their degrees, and courses from those subjects will continue to be offered as minors or electives. That wasn't much comfort for students outside the offices Wednesday, some of whom disputed the university's numbers. Students characterized the move as preemptively folding to pressure from the state and federal governments. President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to investigate and withhold federal funding from universities that promote 'diversity, equity and inclusion.' Kennesaw State has been moving forward with plans to shut down resource centers for groups like LGBTQ students and students of color. The Georgia Senate passed a bill this year that would have banned DEI programs and policies from all state public schools and universities, but the measure did not get a vote in the House. Simran Mohanty, a third-year KSU student majoring in sociology on the pre-law track, said philosophy classes have prepared her to study law. 'Philosophy helps a lot with critical and analytical thinking,' she said. 'You typically have a lot of readings to do, so you have to be able to critically analyze the readings, which is really good for pre-law students who need to read legal briefs or long case documents such as that, and it also helps to have analytical thinking of being able to analyze those readings and apply it to real-world context, practical context. So philosophy has been monumental in my studies.' KSU student Jacob Waller, who is seeking a double major in philosophy and psychology, said he fears doing away with the majors would prevent students who want to dip their toes in the field from doing so. 'You're cutting institutional support to the major so that all of the rigor and the quality of the classes as it is currently – which is very incredible due to our four professors, we only have four people in the department but they're all incredible and work very hard to make sure that the sanctity of the space is preserved – the quality of those classes is going to diminish significantly by getting rid of the major because you're cutting most of the systemic support for it.' Stephan Sellers, a third-year mechatronics major who has taken philosophy and Black studies courses, said they have been some of the most important of his college career. 'Those courses teach us not only who we are, but the history of our diaspora from the African continent,' he said. 'And those studies also teach us that we have a voice, we have power, and so with these studies being taken away, I can see that some of the students coming in will miss out on very vital parts of their education.' The Georgia Board of Regents is set to meet Thursday, but a vote on the majors is not scheduled on the agenda. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kennesaw State students' outcry against removal of Black studies major
The Brief Some students at Kennesaw State University are speaking out after the university removed three majors, including Black Studies. KSU leadership says they're removing the programs due to low enrollment, but students believe the university is caving to political pressure. Students are urging others to also speak out and express their concerns to university leaders, as they worry this move by KSU will make it less welcoming to diverse students. KENNESAW, Ga. - For the first time, we're hearing from students at Kennesaw State University about the school's decision to get rid of several majors of study, including Black Studies. What they're saying "Being a Christian, Egyptian woman who just didn't have a box for her to fill in, I've always felt like I was kind of an outcast in a way," said Kennesaw State University junior Mariam Shafik. She's majoring in both Black Studies and Sociology. She says the Black Studies major has given her a safe space to explore her own culture and how it fits into African-American culture in the U.S. "Black Studies helped me discover the fact that there are people who feel the same way as me and that I can continue to learn more about it," Shafik said. But now KSU says it's doing away with the program. "I was angry. I was fuming. I was furious…also, I'm not going to lie. I did cry, I literally shut down for a minute. I was like, 'What is happening right now?'" Shafik said. Shafik says she immediately went into action trying to figure out how to voice her opposition to the move. "We need to fight for this, we can't just stay silent," she said. The backstory According to KSU's website, students in the Black Studies program examine the Black experience and cultural and historical relations between Africans and people in the Diaspora. The program has been at the university for 20 years. In a statement to FOX 5, a spokesperson for Kennesaw State University said the university made the decision to remove the majors "in accordance with the University System of Georgia's established thresholds." "While the Black Studies, Philosophy, and Technical Communication programs have all consistently fallen short in enrollment and degree output over at least the past 10 years, a two-year teach-out plan will still allow current students to complete their degrees," the statement read. "Faculty will also continue offering courses in these areas for minors, electives, and general education." Local perspective But some students claim low enrollment is not why the university is doing this. "It is absolutely connected to the anti-DEI discussions that are happening," said KSU student Simran Mohanty. Mohanty and fellow student Sebastian Wilson spent Friday urging recent graduates not to shake the university president's hand when they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. "A small act of protest to inform admin that we are dissenting against their changes," Mohanty said. These students claim the university is trying to curry favor with the Trump administration, which has gone after universities for DEI policies and programs. "This is kind of setting a precedent, a very dangerous precedent to put a lot of majors at risk that are all about critical thinking and about humanitarian rights," Mohanty said. FOX 5 reached out to KSU administration to ask for a response to this allegation, but they didn't respond. Shafik believes this decision to do away with her major and the others could make KSU less welcoming to students of all backgrounds. "You claim that you're a diverse school. You claim that you care about students' success…but it doesn't look like you are when you take out programs like this and take away programs that focus on diversity," Shafik said. The Source Information for this story was gathered from interviews with KSU students by FOX 5 reporter Eric Mock and from previous reporting by FOX 5 Atlanta.
