Arthur Blank Donates $50 million to Atlanta HBCUs
By Daniela Palatchi
On Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced a 10-year, $50 million investment to support Atlanta’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College and Spelman College. The funding will go towards various programs at each school, but, most notably, it will provide gap scholarship funding for about 10,000 students who are close to graduating but face financial gaps that could prevent them from completing their degree. Arthur Blank is a “renowned entrepreneur” and philanthropist best known for co-founding The Home Depot in 1978 in Atlanta, GA, with Bernie Marcus. Since signing The Giving Pledge in 2012, his family foundation has donated $1.5 billion dollars to date towards community projects. This donation is the foundation’s biggest yet towards Georgia’s HBCUs.
Brown University Rejects the Trump Administration’s Compact
By Akiva Bryant
On Oct. 15, Brown University rejected the Trump Administration’s compact, which was sent to nine universities on Oct.1. The “Compact For Academic Excellence in Higher Education” exchanges federal funding and benefits for adhering to guidelines set by the administration, which include: restricting DEI policies, capping the amount of undergraduate immigrant students to 15% and requiring standardized testing for undergraduate applicants, among others. Brown University is the second university to reject this compact, following the refusal of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) last week. Although Brown University and the administration already have an agreement set earlier this year, Brown University’s President, Christina Paxson, believes the compact restricts academic freedom and speech.
Diane Keaton Dead At 79
By Trey Voegtlin
On Oct. 11, 2025, Diane Keaton, known for her eccentric fashion choices and her iconic film roles (such as playing Kay Adams-Corleone in “The Godfather” series), passed away at 79 years old. In addition to film, Keaton dwelled in music, releasing her first single, “First Christmas,” in Nov. 2024. She released films up until her passing such as “Summer Camp” and “Book Club: The Next Chapter.” Countless celebrities took to social media to share their grief and condolences such as Octavia Spencer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Leonardo Dicaprio. To honor her five decade long career, people have created lists of her most essential movies.
Georgia Tech 6-0
By Shaw Gordon
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defeated Virginia Tech 35-20 on Saturday, Oct. 11, propelling their record to 6-0 for the first time since 2011. Georgia Tech is also ranked the highest it has been since 2014, coming in at number 12. You might ask what changed from last year? Quarterback Haynes King has played a crucial role in leading and shaping the team with 971 yards passing and 440 yards rushing. Georgia Tech is now ranked only 3 spots behind its state rival, the University of Georgia, which it will face off against on Saturday, Nov 28. In the meantime, the next game for Georgia Tech is an away game vs. Duke on Oct. 18 at 12:00 p.m.
Historic College Park Annual Yard Sale
By Riley Jones
This past Saturday, Oct. 11, Historic College Park had its annual yard sale. The Historic College Park Neighborhood Association organized the event from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Members of HCPNA had to pay $25 to register for the sale while non-members were charged $35. Participating members held yard sales featuring items such as clothing, jewelry, home decor, and books at affordable prices.
Nobel Prize Winners
By Brett Schlossberg
This year’s Nobel Prize awards were announced this week. The annual awards, founded by Alfred Nobel, are given to recognize intellectual achievement in the world. Awards are given in: physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature and economic sciences.
The Nobel Peace Prize is administered by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a council made up of 5 members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. To be nominated, one must fall under one of 10 categories listed on the nobelprize.org website, as well as be nominated by one of several governments, university chancellors and professors, past winners and past committee members invited by the committee to send a nomination. After consultation with experts and written reviews, the 5 members vote on the winner.
The Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics are chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The physics and chemistry awards each have their own committee to decide the winner, each with 5 members. These awards follow the same criteria as the Peace Prize.
The awards in physiology/medicine and economic sciences are picked by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute. Nominations are sent in by professors of medicine, previous winners and members of medicine and biology classes at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
For the Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy, the organization in charge of administering this award, invites nominations from the Swedish Academy, literature and linguistics professors, former winners and Presidents of various literary societies. The selection process involved choosing 5 nominees out of the many nominations sent in, before hearing readings from the nominees, followed by a selection by the committee.
The 2025 winners are below:
- Physics: John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit
- Chemistry: Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks
- Physiology/medicine: Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance
- Literature: László Krasznahorkai for his oeuvre that displays the power of art.
- Peace: María Corina Machado for promoting democratic rights for the Venezuelan people
Senior Movie Night
By Alex Piazza
Today, Friday Oct. 17, is the senior movie night on the green. The event will take place at 7 p.m. on the Football Practice Field. The movie “Coraline” will be screened, so make sure to wear Halloween pajamas and bring a blanket. Dinner will not be provided, so eat beforehand. This is a fun time for the Class of 2026 to spend time together before they leave for college.
SpaceX’s Launches
By Harper Scully
On Oct. 13, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, had two successful launches. The first launch was Starship’s 11th test flight, launching at the StarBase in South Texas. The flight tested reusable rockets for future space operations. Later that day, there was the Falcon 9 launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch’s goal was to deploy 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites, which will be used by Amazon to give customers fast and reliable internet. Through these launches, SpaceX’s goal is to complete development on the Starship Rocket to support NASA’s Artemis program and to get people to the moon by 2027. They are also focusing on Mars missions and the Starlink Satellite Constellation as well as the long-term goal of getting people living on Mars by 2050.
Supreme Court Could Overturn Ban on Conversion Therapy in Colorado
By Kaden Bruton
Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. The case was brought on behalf of evangelical Christian therapist Kaley Chiles. She asserts that the ban violates her First Amendment right of free speech by limiting her practice of talk therapy. Though disciplinary action hasn’t been taken against her or other therapists for violating the ban, Chiles claims that, due to the ban, she has begun “censoring herself” with her clients; still, it is unclear that Chiles’ practice would be a violation of the law at all. After reading excerpts of the law, Justice Samuel Alito stated that the law “looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination,” and some people argue that this law is harming children who have unwanted same sex attraction or gender dysphoria. Critics of conversion therapy have stated that the practice is associated with higher rates of suicide when compared to rates among heteronormative groups as well as an increased risk for homelessness, depression, anxiety and drug usage.
Tennessee Explosion
By Joy Ferguson
On Oct. 10, an explosion in Bucksnort, Tennessee, took place at a munition manufacturing plant. At first, 18 people were reported as unaccounted for, worrying their families as their belongings were still found at the plant. Later, two of the presumed victims were discovered to be elsewhere, off the property, in the city of McEwen, at the time of the explosion leaving 16 people as missing. On Saturday Oct. 11, authorities confirmed that those 16 people were dead inside the plant. On Oct. 13, law enforcement identified and released the names of the people who passed away in the explosion. While they have released the victims’ names, their remains have not yet been found. The cause of the blast still has not been identified, and Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft says they are dedicated to finding it. A little over 300 investigators, officers and agents from the National Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have been searching the plant since the explosion on Friday and are still hard at work. Videos from the explosion showed things still burning, vehicles affected by the explosion, and smoke rising in the air.
