A second round of the CARES Act, now known as the Higher Education Relief Fund, was distributed to eligible students’ accounts on April 1. The HERF grant is $4.6 million and is meant to help students who have been financially impacted by COVID-19. Each eligible student received $100 in their student banner account automatically but can choose to apply for ...

There are numbers of VSU Alumni that, since graduating, have made their mark in the world. As current seniors graduate and move past this school they will become Alumni as well.  Kara Jones, marketing director at U.S. Press has worked with this company since she graduated from VSU in 2014. U.S. Press is a commercial printing company located in Valdosta.  ...

For the past year, The Spectator’s biggest obstacle has been COVID-19. Just like everything else in the world, as a staff we have had to adapt to changes. In-person interviews turned into virtual interviews, the news room turned into a social distanced bubble, and our stories became more complex with bigger issues than we could have ever imagined. But through ...

The Spectator won eight awards, including two first-place awards, at the Georgia College Press Association (GCPA) Better Newspaper contest held virtually on Feb. 19. The Spectator competes against 19 other newspapers including the largest colleges in the state: UGA, Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University. Notably, the Spectator won an award in all coverage categories. The staff receive ...

VSU police looked  into allegations of an attempted poisoning incident which occurred at the Oak Street Parking Deck Monday. Around 11:30 p.m. on Monday, March 1, two students were moving their cars from Oak parking deck when they noticed two people walking around. “My friend saw two sketchy people,” said one of the students, a visiting friend who said she ...

In the spring of 1963, Drewnell Thomas and Robert Pierce Jr. walked across a stage to receive their high school diplomas from Valdosta’s all-Black Pinevale High School. Then they walked right into the history books. Thomas and Pierce both graduated with honors from Pinevale, but another academic achievement managed to outshine that one: Thomas and Pierce were the first Black ...

This is a sincere “thank you” letter to professors who have truly worked tirelessly with their students over the past year to help students continue to be successful in such a stressful time period.  Last spring, students’ lives changed drastically America shut down and students were unable to return to campus. Forced to finish their last semester of school online, students were still in ...

The VSU Withdrawal Policy allows students five withdrawals from any class. After five withdrawals are used, an automatic F will show up on a student’s academic transcript for any subsequent withdrawals. The Student Government Association disagrees with the policy and is hoping to get it revised to allow students to use more than five withdrawals. SGA has been hosting town ...

Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour has long been  a controversial topic in politics. However, with the recent inauguration of Joe Biden, coupled with a Democratic majority in Congress, it’s possible that the proposed wage hike could become a reality. At CNN’s town hall on Tuesday, the president reiterated his support for the wage increase. “No one should ...

VSU’s withdrawal policy has been revised and argued about for quite some time now. The current policy states that students are allowed to use five withdrawals before an automatic F for a class appears on official transcripts. Some students have an opinion on the current Withdrawal policy. Isabella Webb, freshman music education major “The (current) withdrawal policy would not be ...