University System News:
Albany Herald
Gov. Kemp submits record $28.1B state budget plan
By Dave Williams Bureau Chief Capitol Beat News Service
Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled a $28.1 billion budget proposal Thursday that would set a new record for state spending in fiscal 2021 despite the air of fiscal uncertainty surrounding this year’s General Assembly session. While the spending plan would surpass the then-record $27.5 billion fiscal 2020 budget lawmakers passed last spring, the increase would be far less than the $1.3 billion spending hike the legislature adopted a year ago. Responding to several months of declining state tax collections, the governor ordered most state agencies last summer to reduce their spending during the current fiscal year by 4% and by 6% percent in fiscal 2021, which begins July 1.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp proposes $2,000 raise for Georgia teachers despite fiscal issues
By James Salzer
Gov. Brian Kemp moved Thursday to keep one of his most-talked-about campaign promises by proposing a $2,000 pay raise for teachers next year. Kemp called for the teacher raises despite months of pushing state agencies to cut their budgets, in part because of slow tax collections.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia governor honors Isakson with new Parkinson’s research program
By Greg Bluestein
Former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson received a hero’s welcome in the Georgia House on Thursday, where he was celebrated for his four decades of public service and honored with a new research program. After thanking Isakson for being a “statesman and a true patriot,” Gov. Brian Kemp said the University of Georgia will launch a professorship to develop treatments for the Parkinson’s disease that forced the three-term Republican to retire. Kemp said the professor recruited to the program will be directed to “develop better treatments for patients like Johnny – better medicine, and a better way of life.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: Lawmakers offered dueling studies of Georgia’s film and TV industry
By Jim Galloway. Greg Bluestein, and Tia Mitchell
One week ago, a pair of withering state audits declared that the economic impact of Georgia’s system of tax credits for film and TV production had been greatly exaggerated – specifically, the number of jobs created. Auditors estimated the film tax credit’s net economic impact at less than $3 billion and fewer than 10,000 jobs in 2016, the latest year they studied. Only last year, journalists were routinely told that the film and TV industry had an economic impact of $9.5 billion in 2018 and generated 92,000 jobs. The audits have attracted the attention of state lawmakers looking for ways to avoid budget cuts ordered by Gov. Brian Kemp.
U.S. News & World Report
Universities, Colleges Where Students Are Eager to Enroll
At least 50% of accepted applicants enrolled in these schools, U.S. News data shows.
By Josh Moody, Reporter
AS STUDENTS APPLY TO their dream schools, acceptance is almost too good to pass up. That’s reflected at a number of highly competitive colleges where the majority of admitted students enrolled in fall 2018. Yield, which refers to the percentage of accepted students who enroll, was at 80% or higher at a few of the nation’s top schools, according to U.S. News data. …The colleges and universities listed in the tables below reported a minimum yield of 50% for fall 2018. The rate can be affected by students’ early decision or early action options, since some of those programs bind students to attend if accepted. This data reflects first-time, first-year, degree-seeking students only.
National Universities Where Most Accepted Students Enroll: Kennesaw State University; Georgia Southern University
Inside Higher Ed
New Programs: Criminal Justice, Music Industry, Cybersecurity, Historic Preservation
By Scott Jaschik
Georgia Southern University is starting a bachelor of arts in music with an emphasis on music technology and music business.
Gainesville Times
UNG triumphs over Georgia Tech in national cybersecurity challenge; opportunities open for students
Kelsey Podo
The University of North Georgia claimed an irrefutable victory as the No. 1 cyber operations university team in the nation. A group of 184 UNG students spent 110 days competing in the 2019 National Security Codebreaker Challenge, which finished on Jan. 10. The university’s team accumulated 230,450 points, more than tripling Georgia Tech, who came in second place with 56,050 points.
WGAU
UGA student wins award for home design
By: Heather Skyler
There is no technical definition of a tiny house, but the working understanding is a home that is 400 square feet or smaller. So what is a “Kinda Tiny” home? Well, it’s a little bit bigger, but not much. The home design that won Athens’ first “Kinda Tiny” housing competition was 794 square feet and designed by UGA student Jacqueline Menke, who is currently finishing up a Master of Landscape Architecture at the College of Environment and Design.
SF GATE
Dr. Mitzi Morris Named 2020 Top Patient Rated Roswell Dentist by Find Local Doctors
Dr. Mitzi Morris has been selected as a 2020 Top Patient Rated Roswell Dentist by Find Local Doctors. This recognition is based on numerous five-star patient reviews across multiple reputable online sources. …Dr. Mitzi Morris is a 1993 graduate of the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry
SF GATE
Dr. Tejal Kakade Named 2019 Top Patient Rated Carrollton Dentist by Find Local Doctors
Well-respected dentist Dr. Tejal Kakade of Carrollton, Georgia, has been selected as a 2019 Top Patient Rated Carrollton Dentist by Find Local Doctors. This recognition is based on a high volume of outstanding five-star patient reviews across multiple online sources. …She graduated from the University of Georgia and obtained her dental degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
Albany Herald
ASU students honor Martin Luther King during Wednesday gathering
By Alan Mauldin
For Albany State University student Jaquan Riggins, learning about Albany’s role in the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s place in that history means that he came to the right place. On Wednesday, the Anniston, Ala., native played the role of King during a candlelight ceremony honoring the late civil rights leader. Riggins, who read an excerpt from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, said he was fascinated to learn that King spent time in Albany before later movement struggles that occurred in Birmingham and Montgomery.
WGAU
MLK Day events Friday, Saturday in Athens
By: Tim Bryant
The Martin Luther King Jr Holiday is Monday: an Athens MLK celebration is set for 6 o’clock this evening at Lay Park on Hoyt Street in Athens. And an MLK art exhibit will be on display 11 til 3 Saturday at the Lyndon House Arts Center, also on Hoyt Street. He was a Clarke County Superior Court Judge: Steve Jones(pictured above), now a federal judge in Atlanta, is the featured speaker at this morning’s Martin Luther King Junior Freedom Breakfast: it’s underway at 8 o’clock at the University of Georgia’s Tate Student Center.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Arts Series Stages Shakespeare Classic on January 28th
Staff Report
Shakespeare comes to Tifton on Jan. 28 when Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College presents the National Players’ production of “As You Like It” at 7 p.m. at the Tift County High School Performing Arts Center. With a 10-person ensemble, the National Players meld classic language with a contemporary staging of Shakespeare’s imaginative tale about city folk venturing into the woods. Research indicates that Shakespeare wrote “As You Like It” in 1599. The performance is a part of the ABAC Art Connection’s ABAC Presents! Performing Arts Series.
13WMAZ
‘You came to play!’: Macon professor competes on Jeopardy!
Dr. Laura Thomason, an English professor at Middle Georgia State University, competed on Jeopardy! Wednesday night.
Author: 13WMAZ Staff
A Macon professor made Central Georgia proud in her appearance on a popular CBS game show. Dr. Laura Thomason, an English professor at Middle Georgia State University, competed on Jeopardy! Wednesday night.
Gainesville Times
NGHS plans ‘neighborhood hospital’ for Lumpkin in 2021
Megan Reed
… NGHS has worked with Kevin Meek, executive vice president at SitePoint Healthcare Partners, to apply the neighborhood hospital model in Lumpkin. …The new hospital, which is scheduled to break ground this summer, will be at the intersection of Ga. 400 and Ga. 60 in Dahlonega. … NGHS has been operating a temporary location for NGMC Lumpkin at the former Chestatee Regional Hospital building on Mountain Drive since July 2019. Chestatee Regional closed in July 2018, leaving Lumpkin without a hospital for a year. The University of North Georgia has plans to use the former Chestatee Regional facility for its health sciences programs when NGHS relocates. NGHS is leasing the property from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
The Brunswick News
‘Bullish’ economy predicted for state, Golden Isles
By Gordon Jackson
The economic outlook for 2020 is a “good news forecast,” according to the state forecast by Ben Ayers, dean of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. Ayers was the keynote speaker Thursday at the Georgia Economic Outlook luncheon at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. The good news is Georgia’s economy is expected to expand this year, though not as much as 2019. Geopolitical risks could slow down the state’s growth, however.
GPB
Four Georgia Students Among Top 300 Finalists In Prestigious Science And Math Competition
Lauren Hester
Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy
Project Title: Inducing the Migration of Dying Non-Pathogenic Lymphoma Cells Towards Areas of High T-Cell Concentration with Chemoattractants In Vitro
“As a high school researcher of the Project ENGAGES program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I am currently working to develop a form of cancer therapy that can hopefully succeed in curing cancer through the regulation of metastasis.
Wired
What Atlanta Can Teach Tech About Cultivating Black Talent
The city is rich in opportunity for African Americans, who are largely underrepresented in the industry. It’s also poised to become a hotbed for AI innovation.
Inside the Gathering Spot, a posh members-only club in Atlanta that serves a diverse set of entrepreneurs and innovators, Travis and Troy Nunnally—better known as the Tech Twins—are holding court. After discovering a love of engineering by building soapbox derby racing cars as kids, the brothers have launched a few different companies in Atlanta. Holding two master’s and a doctorate from Georgia Tech between them, the twins are cofounders of Brain Rain Solutions, which builds augmented-reality, internet-of-things, and technology-based products for companies. Their most recent product, FaceMD+, uses dermatologist databases and machine learning to create a customized skin-care tracker—with algorithms providing customized data for each skin tone and type. …But as two black men on the forefront of the machine-learning revolution, they are also concerned about the readiness of black tech talent:
Augusta CEO
Augusta University Professor Receives More Funding for Pregnancy Care App
Staff Report
Georgia is in a maternal mortality crisis. Recent reports not only rank the state as one of the most dangerous places in America for maternal health, but also name Georgia among the highest in the developed world for maternal death. ..;Many of these deaths occur due to complications of pregnancy or childbirth, or within weeks after giving birth. To help counteract these statistics, Dr. Marlo Vernon, an assistant professor in Cancer Control, Prevention, and Population Health in the Georgia Cancer Center, is developing a new pregnancy care app to give health care providers a better way of monitoring their patients remotely. …Vernon’s app concept landed her first place in both the first and second phases of the Remote Pregnancy Monitoring Grand Challenge, an innovative technology-based competition conducted by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Her cash prizes totaled $35,000, and the earnings are being used to fund the app design. As part of the competition, Vernon has spent almost a year working with various health care agencies, including the East Central Health District, Hope House, and the Augusta University Medical Center, to develop and test the app’s prototype on new moms.
Savannah CEO
Staff Report
Georgia Tech-Savannah is set to host a “Learners and Leaders” breakfast series on Wednesday, February 19th to discuss how complex factors help determine the best way to execute evacuations. Pascal Van Hentenryck, a professor in the Georgia Tech H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial Systems Engineering, will lead this discussion.
CBS Boston
Researchers Find Salt Could Be Used To Treat Cancer
By Dr. Mallika Marshall
There may be a new weapon to attack cancer cells with less harm to the patient, and it you can probably find it right on your kitchen table. It’s salt, which is also called sodium chloride. Researchers at the University of Georgia used sodium chloride nano-particles as a so-called “Trojan Horse” to deliver cancer-killing sodium and chloride ions into cancer cells. But they say the treatment isn’t toxic because when the nano-particles degrade, they just turn into salt.
Science Magazine
Exosomes Promote Remarkable Recovery In Stroke
It’s been almost a quarter century since the first drug was approved for stroke. But what’s even more striking is that only a single drug remains approved today. …“It was eye opening and unexpected that you would see such a benefit after having had such a severe stroke,” said Steven Stice, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Perhaps the most formidable discovery was that one could recover and do so well after the exosome treatment.” Stice and his colleagues at UGA’s Regenerative Bioscience Center report the first observational evidence during a midline shift–when the brain is being pushed to one side– to suggest that a minimally invasive and non-operative exosome treatment can now influence the repair and damage that follow a severe stroke.
C4ISRNET
Where to store all this intelligence data? How about DNA?
By: Nathan Strout
Data is a massive problem for the intelligence community. From the satellite images produced by the National Reconnaissance Office to the bulk communications data swept up by the National Security Agency, the intelligence community is collecting more information than ever before. But where to store it? Data centers are massive warehouses and megawatts of power. The resource-intensive nature of these facilities makes them difficult to scale, and ultimately unprepared for a torrent of data. Now, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity—the organization charged with tackling some of the intelligence community’s most difficult problems—thinks it has a solution: synthetic DNA. On Jan. 15, IARPA officially launched the Molecular Information Storage (MIST) program, an effort to use synthetic DNA to store exabytes (one million terabytes) of data.
IARPA has awarded multi-phase contracts to two teams pursuing a solution: up to $23 million for the Molecular Encoding Consortium and up to $25 million for Georgia Tech Research Institute.
PCRM
Medical College of Georgia Defies Standards, Uses Live Animals To Train Doctors
Physicians Group Files Federal Complaint, Urges College To Follow Emory’s Lead
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a national nonprofit of more than 12,000 doctors—has objected to the use of live animals for training doctors in the Medical College of Georgia’s (MCG) emergency medicine and general surgery residency programs. The group has filed a federal complaint in which it finds the animal use to be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act and recommends using nonanimal methods employed by the majority of programs across the U.S. …Instead of animals, human-patient simulators, laparoscopic simulators, virtual reality simulators, task trainers, and human cadavers, which can be used to teach all surgical and emergency medicine procedures, are widely used. Medical simulators replicate human anatomy and can include layers of lifelike skin, fat, and muscle. MCG already has access to a state-of-the-art facility—Augusta University’s Interdisciplinary Simulation Center—which offers a range of training options that could replace the use of animals in these residency programs.
WFXG
Augusta University, FBI join forces with others to implement standardized active shooter plan
By Jasmine Anderson
… Augusta University’s spearheading a multi-agency effort, that includes the FBI. They are preparing the community to respond to emergencies using the National Fire Protection Association’s standard called NFPA 3000. For the first time, putting the public, hospitals and other emergency agencies on the same page, organizers say.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
House Votes to Overturn DeVos’ Restrictions on Student Loan Forgiveness
by Jessica Ruf
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution Thursday overturning U.S. Secretary of Education Nancy DeVos’ borrower defense rule created in August, which House Democrats say favors predatory universities while limiting student protections under the borrower defense policy. The resolution, H.J. Res. 76, passed with a 231-180 vote tally, with all dissenting votes coming from Republicans, who argue DeVos’ rule could save the federal government $11 million over the next decade.
Inside Higher Ed
Moody’s: Slow Student Loan Repayment Driving High Balances, Bringing Social, Credit Implications
By Rick Seltzer
Slow repayments have become the most important contributor to rising student loan balances, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report released Thursday. In the past, rising tuition and climbing college enrollments were the largest contributors to increasing student loan balances, according to the ratings agency. But the drivers shifted to slow repayment, which is likely to combine with continued elevated levels of borrowing to increase outstanding debt into the future.
Inside Higher Ed
S&P Issues Negative Outlook for Higher Ed
By Rick Seltzer
The U.S. higher education outlook is negative, with more potential disruptions to credit than favorable opportunities, S&P Global Ratings said Thursday. Top-tier institutions are thriving, with strong investment markets supporting endowment spending and fundraising, according to the ratings agency. State funding is also increasing. But many regional colleges and universities are staring at continuing challenges as they try to meet revenue and enrollment goals.
Inside Higher Ed
Warnings that Sci-Hub poses a cybersecurity threat to universities have intensified. But few institutions appear to be acting on them.
By Lindsay McKenzie
Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of the scholarly piracy website Sci-Hub, is suspected of working with Russian intelligence officials to steal confidential research and military secrets from American universities. According to The Washington Post, Elbakyan, nicknamed the Robin Hood of science, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected criminal acts and espionage. Elbakyan denies any wrongdoing, but scholarly publishers such as Elsevier have used news of her investigation to call on academic institutions to block access to Sci-Hub — not because the site is illegal, but because it poses a security threat.
Inside Higher Ed
Google Releases New IT Certificate
By Lilah Burke
Google’s professional certificate in IT automation with Python became available this week for enrollment. The company launched a previous certificate in IT support in 2018. The new certificate appears to be a similar structure but different subject matter. “Python is now the most in-demand programming language, and more than 530,000 U.S. jobs, including 75,000 entry-level jobs, require Python proficiency,” the company said in a news release. “With this new certificate, you can learn Python, Git and IT automation within six months.”
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Colleges and Universities Pause to Commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.
by Shailaja Neelakantan
Throughout this weekend and into the federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday, institutions of higher learning across the country will be celebrating the life and legacy of King, the noted civil rights leader. In 1983, President Reagan signed a bill to make the birthday of King a public holiday observed on the third Monday of January. Colleges and universities around the country are commemorating King with a variety of events highlighting King’s work toward racial equality and his commitment to desegregation.