University System News:
www.gpbnews.org
Gov. Nathan Deal Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Hurricane Florence
http://www.gpbnews.org/post/gov-nathan-deal-declares-state-emergency-ahead-hurricane-florence
By ROSS TERRELL, BRADLEY GEORGE & TAYLOR GANTT
The National Weather Service says Hurricane Florence should reach the state by late Sunday or early Monday. “The greatest impacts are going to be felt in the Savannah River valley and those far eastern counties,” said meteorologist Brian Lynn. Lynn says the storm could still track further south, which would bring heavy rain and damaging winds to central and northwest Georgia.
www.accesswdun.com
Pence cancels trip to Atlanta due to storm
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/9/712836/pence-cancels-trip-to-atlanta-due-to-storm
Vice President Mike Pence has canceled his stop in Georgia Thursday due to Hurricane Florence, CBS46 reports. Pence was expected to meet with Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp. He was also expected visit Delta TechOps and stop by the American Red Cross Disaster Field Supply Center in Atlanta, according to the television station.
Hurricane Florence’s path shifts southwestward by day four
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_c812a78e-12c8-5dbd-9213-de509a119e49.html
By Matthew Enfinger, The George-Anne staff
Update
12:47 p.m.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency for all of Georgia. …The projected path of Hurricane Florence has shifted southwestward near the coast of South Carolina, putting Georgia on the map for tropical storm force winds and rain. According to a 5 a.m. update by Bulloch County Public Safety/EMA, the National Hurricane Center’s track has been adjusted southward at days four and five. Bulloch County Public Safety/EMA said in a Facebook post that the model is a little north of the consensus of other models out of respect for continuity; however, most models, such as the GFS and the European model, show a path south of the NHC track forecast, and additional southward adjustment may be warranted in future advisories. …
University response
In a series of university weather announcements Monday, Jan Southern, strategic communications and marketing vice president, said the university has not made any determinations related to university closures. “Although there is currently no mandatory evacuation order that would affect our campuses, we understand that this order in South Carolina may impact some of our students, faculty and staff,” Southern said in an email. “The University will work with professors to make appropriate accommodations for students living in the affected areas. Faculty and staff should work with their supervisors to make arrangements as needed.” The university encourages everyone to monitor weather resources and make preparations as necessary.
Statewide Georgia FinTech Academy Sets Headquarters at Georgia State
https://hypepotamus.com/news/georgia-fintech-academy/
BY MURIEL VEGA
The Georgia FinTech Academy, a statewide talent development initiative in collaboration with the state’s fintech industry and the University System of Georgia, will host its physical presence at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business and the Buckhead Executive Center. Last September, Georgia State announced the opening one of the first university fintech labs in the country at the Buckhead Center. With more than 60 percent of payment processing companies based in Atlanta, the state’s transaction alley is home to major financial technology players including Kabbage, First Data, GreenSky and others. More than 40,000 Georgians are employed in fintech, which generates more than $72 billion in annual revenue. The Fintech Academy will provide in-person and virtual course offerings to fill the talent pipeline need in the growing industry.
The Center for Sustainability is making Georgia Southern more green
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_cfeb30c4-8e4c-532b-b7fa-cb66a8f76d48.html
By Rachel Adams, The George-Anne staff
For the past 10 years, the Center for Sustainability at Georgia Southern University has been both a resource for students wanting to learn more about sustainable living and an essential part of keeping GS’ campus green. …The CFS has brought a variety of eco-friendly improvements to campus: …The CFS is funded by student sustainability fees, something voted on by students with a 75 percent majority in 2012. “Each student pays a $10 fee each semester to support sustainability on our campus. So, our first role is to improve sustainability for our students, because the students are paying for it,” Lissa Leege, Ph.D., professor of biology and director of the Center for Sustainability, said. “We also have a grant program, whereby students, faculty, and staff can apply for funds from the Center for Sustainability to improve the campus sustainability environment,” Leege said. This program pays for projects like more efficient lighting in the parking lots on campus an electric car charging station at the Department for Parking and Transportation.
National recognition
The GS CFS has won the Climate Leadership award in 2017 and was named a Green Ribbon school by the United States Department of Education. The Climate Leadership award is given to individuals and organizations who are working to influence climate change by reducing carbon pollution and enacting green initiatives. The Green Ribbon award recognizes schools that work to make their campuses more energy and resource-efficient.
www.albanyherald.com
UGA-Tifton ambassadors are ‘face’ of college
11 ambassadors to host ShowCAES ’18 recruitment event
By Bryce Ethridge
The University of Georgia Tifton campus is in its first month of the academic year, but its student ambassadors say they can’t wait to tell South Georgia about their school. Their first opportunity will be on Tuesday when the campus hosts ShowCAES ’18, an annual recruitment event at the Campus Conference Center. “Our role is essentially to serve as the face of UGA-Tifton,” Clair Jordan, one of four returning ambassadors, said. “We show up, we host students and we welcome everyone.”
www.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Limiting the dreams of Latino students hurts them and Georgia
Today, 16 percent of the students enrolled in Georgia public schools are Latino. Blocking their access to college limits their future and the future of the state as well. In classrooms all over metro Atlanta and in areas far away, the growth in Latino population is fueling a seismic demographic shift across the state. Since 2000, Hispanic enrollment at Georgia public schools has more than quadrupled to 277,000, growing at a faster rate than for any other group in the state, according to the most recent data from the Georgia Department of Education. These data also reveal that an astonishing 16 percent of the 1.8 million students now enrolled in Georgia public schools are Latino.
www.eurekalert.org
Where Have All the Turtles Gone and Why Does It Matter?
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/uog-wha091218.php
About 61 percent of the world’s 356 turtle species are threatened or already extinct, and the decline could have ecological consequences. These findings are according to a new paper in Bioscience synthesizing the global status of turtles and their ecological roles by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, University of California, Davis, and the University of Georgia. “Our purpose is to inform the public of the many critical ecological roles turtles perform on a global scale and bring awareness to the plight of these emblematic animals whose ancestors walked with the dinosaurs,” said the study’s senior author, Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology.
www.redandblack.com
Healthcare hurdles: Insurance premiums decrease in price, Athens community responds
Ashley Soriano | News Editor
Health insurance rates tripled in cost for spouses of University of Georgia graduate students at the beginning of the semester, resulting in push back from professors, graduate students and spouses. After this community outcry, USG decreased the 2018-2019 price by nearly $2,000. A town hall was organized by UGA on Aug. 23, hosting representatives from USG to discuss the topic with those concerned about the price increase implemented at the beginning of the semester. Insurance rates for spouses of graduate students were set at $7,629 for this school year, a 338 percent increase compared to the 2017-2018 price. The price for the year is now $5,645 after the decrease, according to USG. “The decrease in health insurance premiums was made due to the concerns raised by UGA graduate students with dependents,” said Annette Ogletree-McDougal, executive director of communications for USG Board of Regents. No other USG institution or university has scheduled a town hall, Ogletree-McDougal said, but the price decrease was implemented at all 26 USG colleges and universities.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
For Coastal Colleges, Evacuation Means Far More Than Just Moving People
By Cailin Crowe
Flight instructors at Elizabeth City State University hopped into the aviation-science program’s six airplanes late Tuesday morning and flew about 35 miles south to a nearby airport to be stored in a bigger, more flood-proof hangar. The airplanes weren’t the only precious cargo the program evacuated. The university also moved a 40-foot mobile lab to higher ground to protect the equipment stored inside, which includes 3-D printers, mobile robots, wind-turbine models, and flight simulators.
www.washingtonpost.com
The Cult of Fragility on College Campuses
By George Will
Colleges and universities are increasingly susceptible to intellectual fads and political hysteria, partly because the institutions employ so many people whose talents, such as they are, are extraneous to the institutions’ core mission: scholarship. Writing in April in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Lyell Asher, professor of English at Lewis & Clark College, noted that “the kudzu-like growth of the administrative bureaucracy in higher education” is partly a response to two principles widely accepted on campuses: Anything that can be construed as bigotry and hatred should be so construed, and anything construed as such should be considered evidence of an epidemic.
Thetowntalk.com
Which States Have the Costliest Childcare?
Got $20,000? It could help pay for college tuition — or it can foot the bill for day-care expenses. That’s close to the annual child-care bill for Kathleen and Dustin Farhat, a couple in Bath, Michigan, according to a report in Bridge Magazine, published by state-policy think tank The Center for Michigan. Child care for the Farhats’ two children, a 5-month-old and a 3-year-old, will run $23,200 over the course of 50 weeks, the center found. In comparison, the typical middle-class family can expect to pay about $40,000 for four years of tuition, fees, books, room and board at the University of Michigan, if they are state residents, according to the center.
www.insidehighered.com
Limiting the Debate
The Trump administration, which has frequently criticized colleges for not doing enough to protect free speech on campus, introduces a more expansive definition of anti-Semitism on campus. Civil liberties groups say it will result in the stifling of free speech.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
The Trump administration, which has frequently criticized colleges for not doing enough to protect free speech on campus, introduces a more expansive definition of anti-Semitism on campus. Civil liberties groups say it will result in the stifling of free speech. Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned last year that college campuses were becoming echo chambers “of political correctness and homogenous thought.” But civil liberties groups have long warned that a new definition of anti-Semitism quietly adopted by the Education Department would stifle speech on campuses.