University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Coronavirus cases top 5K in Georgia, 163 deaths reported
By Chelsea Prince, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s coronavirus cases surpassed 5,000 Thursday, and the number of deaths across the state continue to grow. The latest data from the Georgia Department of Public Health shows 5,348 confirmed cases, up about 13% from 4,748 cases Wednesday night. Nine more Georgians have died as a result of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, bringing the state’s total to 163.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia surpasses 150 coronavirus deaths, reaches 4,748 total cases
By Chelsea Prince and Zachary Hansen,
UPDATE [7 p.m.]: Georgia recorded 15 more coronavirus deaths since noon Wednesday, bringing the state’s toll to 154, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. The DPH also confirmed 110 more cases of COVID-19, which brings the state’s total to 4,748. Of those, 1,013 patients are hospitalized, which is about 21.3% of all cases. Dougherty County has suffered the most deaths with 29, followed by Fulton with 20 and Cobb with 15.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Georgia governor to order shelter in place to curb coronavirus
By Greg Bluestein
Kemp also orders K-12 schools closed for rest of academic year
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday said he is preparing a statewide shelter-in-place order across Georgia to try to curb the spread of a coronavirus pandemic that’s sickened thousands and is linked to the deaths of at least 139 residents. The new rules, which he will issue on Thursday, are set to run from Friday through April 13. He also said he would immediately sign an order that would close K-12 schools through the rest of the academic year. The Republican announced the decision after weeks of pressure from public health officials, local leaders and prominent politicians who warned that a failure to take drastic action could further strain Georgia’s healthcare network and lead to more deaths.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Kemp orders schools closed through end of school year
By Ty Tagami
People sensed it was coming but on Wednesday Gov. Brian Kemp made it official: he ordered schools closed for the rest of the academic year as Georgia hunkers down against the novel coronavirus. At a briefing Wednesday he announced he was considering a statewide shelter in place order. Also Wednesday, he signed an order closing school buildings past April 24, his previous mandate. School districts are still educating students remotely, but state officials have delayed the high-stakes testing that guides much of the instruction, and should soon have approval from the federal government to scrap the tests altogether.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In reversal, Kemp imposes tough limits amid dire new COVID projections
By Alan Judd and Greg Bluestein
Statewide shelter-at-home order in force until April 13
For weeks, Gov. Brian Kemp stood firm. Repeatedly, he said the coronavirus pandemic in Georgia didn’t warrant the extreme social-distancing measures that most other states were imposing. Kemp publicly supported a patchwork of shelter-at-home orders by Georgia cities and counties, even as his top aide chastised those local governments for “overreach.” On Wednesday, amid dire projections of a steep increase in illness and death in the coming weeks, Kemp changed course. He said he would issue an order Thursday requiring Georgians to remain in their homes for all but essential outings, such as to buy food or medicine, to work in critical jobs or to exercise in solitude outdoors. The new rules will be in force from Friday through at least April 13. Many details remain sketchy. But Kemp said state troopers would enforce his order, as would others he plans to “deputize” to prevent public gatherings.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Kemp issues shelter-in-place order for all of Georgia after initially resisting move
By Nick Wooten
Citing data that showed Georgia needs more time to prepare for a surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, Gov. Brian Kemp said he will issue a statewide shelter-in-place order during a press conference Wednesday. The order is set to take effect Friday and expire April 13. Kemp also closed all K-12 schools in the state for the remainder of the school year. Classes will continue to take place online. Exact details of the shelter order were not given during the press conference, but the order will be published online. During the Wednesday press conference, Kemp cited “game changer” information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that people, including those without symptoms, could spread coronavirus earlier than previously known.
MSN
GA University Labs Aim To Complete 3K Coronavirus Tests Daily
Kathleen Sturgeon
In an effort to increase the number of coronavirus tests in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday that the state will partner with the University System of Georgia to utilize its labs. Kemp said the laboratory surge capacity plan will quickly increase the availability of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for COVID-19 in Georgia. This initiative leverages the collective laboratory resources under the University System of Georgia, Georgia Public Health Laboratory, and Emory University. The ramp-up of laboratory testing surge capacity began Tuesday. Upon implementation, labs will process over 3,000 samples per day.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hospitals, state scramble to prepare for coronavirus surge
By Yamil Berard and Carrie Teegardin,
More space and supplies aren’t the only needs. Hospital workers are vital to meeting the demands for care.
Weeks before COVID-19 claimed its first Georgian, the state’s healthcare system was already showing signs of stress and crowding. Several metro area hospitals were planning significant expansions to handle spiking patient loads, while hospitals in rural areas continued to struggle under the strain of treating uninsured patients amid the closure of seven rural hospitals in recent years. In December, Atlanta hospitals faced an unexpected surge in patients from Grady Memorial Hospital after flooding from a broken water pipe forced the shutdown of three floors at the massive trauma center. Meanwhile, flu season was in full swing, pushing occupancy up at hospitals across the state. Then, COVID-19 attacked this vulnerable system. …In just three weeks, when the virus is expected to peak in Georgia, thousands of patients will likely need hospital care, and one projection says that the state will need more than double the ICU beds that it has. …On Monday, Georgia Tech said that Coca-Cola Co. brought 6,000 pounds of plastic sheeting to campus so that engineers could make 50,000 plastic surgical shields. Some rural Georgia businesses, responding to a plea from Gov. Brian Kemp, shifted to making hand sanitizers and face shields. The University System of Georgia said this week it would provide dozens of ventilators and hundreds of thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment from its 26 colleges and universities. …The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and Morehouse School of Medicine are among the colleges mapping out roles their students could take on.
WJBF
MCG medical students create Go Fund Me to make care packages for AUMC
By: Dawn Wise
A group of MCG medical students have put together a drive to raise money to organize the creation of care packages for Augusta University Medical Center (AUMC). They will be delivering these to multiple departments in the hospital (ED, ICUs, inpatient floor, etc.) next week. They’ve raised $3,200 so far, which is enough for the creation of the initial packages. But they would like to be able to restock them as well. They’ve created a Go Fund Me account and are asking for the public’s help to keep the drive going. The money raised is also going to a group of students and faculty members who are sewing masks and need funding to purchase fabric and other supplies.
Savannah Morning News
GSU-Armstrong among colleges that contributed medical supplies to DPH to fight COVID-19
By Barbara Augsdorfer
University System of Georgia schools have stepped up to redistribute medical supplies from their labs due to the campuses being closed to curtail the spread of COVID-19. The Armstrong campus of Georgia Southern University recently contributed 10 of 38 ventilators, among other much-needed medical supplies, to the state’s efforts to treat victims and contain the spread of COVID-19, according to a March 31 press release from the University System of Georgia. “I can confirm that 10 of those ventilators came from GSU-Armstrong,” wrote Aaron Diamant, vice chancellor of communications for the USG in an email. Public safety and emergency management personnel at all 26 USG institutions are coordinating with departments on each campus to inventory and collect these supplies, which are typically used for everything from research and campus maintenance to nursing programs and on-campus health clinics, the release stated.
WJBF
Augusta University hosts virtual town hall on COVID-19 Friday
Augusta University held a virtual town hall on Friday regarding COVID-19. You can watch a replay of the stream on this page.
WRDW
AU aims to run 1,000 COVID-19 tests daily with new equipment
By Ciara Cummings
Hundreds of Georgians come in their car to the coronavirus drive-thru testing sites, but no matter how many samples are collected in a day, only a portion run through testing daily. This week, Augusta University Health is aiming to run 1000 testing samples per day. Currently, the lab‘s limitation is chemically running roughly 70 collection samples per day, even with the testing drive-through. That limitation creates a backlog of samples needing to be tested.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia’s largest colleges and universities could see $180M in lost revenue due to coronavirus
By Grace Donnelly – Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle
See Correction/Clarification at end of article
Colleges and universities across the state are facing the unexpected cost of issuing refunds and credits to students, namely in the form of room and board fees for the spring semester. Campuses around Georgia closed and students returned home to finish their classes online to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in recent weeks. The University System of Georgia announced on March 19 that the 330,000 students within their network of 26 schools would be receiving partial refunds for room and board. Similar scenarios are unfolding throughout the state and are expected to cost schools upward of $180 million in lost revenue and refunds when all is said and done, according to Atlanta Business Chronicle research. An analysis by American City Business Journals, parent of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, of about 800 U.S. colleges and universities nationwide found that roughly a quarter of student-related revenue, about $44 billion in payments during the 2018 fiscal year, came from “auxiliary enterprises,” meaning goods and services sold to students and faculty. The majority of that revenue came from housing and food services for on-campus residents, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Education. (This research did not include Kennesaw State University nor the University of North Georgia.)
Medical Xpress
Research: Lockdowns need to last more than six weeks to contain COVID-19
by Imran Ghori, Matthew Simmons, University of California – Riverside
People around the world are wondering how long COVID-restrictions have to last in order to curtail the pandemic. A research study on 36 countries and 50 U.S. states has found that aggressive intervention to contain COVID-19 must be maintained for at least 44 days. The study is co-authored by Professor Gerard Tellis of USC Marshall School of Business, Professor Ashish Sood of UC Riverside’s A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management, and Nitish Sood, a student at Augusta University studying Cellular & Molecular Biology. The paper is published in the open sources journal SSRN and is titled, “How Long Must Social Distancing Last.” The authors identify two simple, intuitive, and generalizable metrics of the spread of disease: daily growth rate and time to double cumulative cases. Daily growth rate is the percentage increase in cumulative cases. Time to double, or doubling time, is the number of days for cumulative cases to double at the current growth rate. Time to double in disease spread is the opposite of half-life in drug metabolism.
Gainesville Times
This UNG professor created a tool to determine how COVID-19 spreads geographically
Nathan Berg
As data on the spread of COVID-19 continues to stream in from around the world, one thing has become abundantly clear: The virus has spread at different rates depending on location. Curves of infection rate have varied greatly from country to country, and University of North Georgia professor Ali Mehran is trying to figure out why. Mehran has developed a survey asking simple questions such as if participants have been adhering to social distancing guidelines and whether or not they have enough resources to make it through a two-week quarantine. The survey also asks respondents to provide their location, allowing Mehran to separate data out based on where people are. “Through this survey, I’m trying to address the geospatial aspect of the problem, and how residents of different places, knowing their social responsibility, have provided resiliency for their own community,” he said.
WABE
Jim Burress
As the nation grapples with exponential jumps in coronavirus cases, some are asking if governments are going too far in their restrictions. Should slowing the spread be left up to individuals to practice things like social distancing? While that debate continues, academia is looking at which approach is most effective — and why? Ali Mehran, an assistant professor of Earth and geospatial science at the University of North Georgia in Gainesville, spoke to WABE’s “All Things Considered” host Jim Burress about his research. Mehran has developed a short online survey that he believes will get to the heart of the question. It asks basic demographic questions. And a few personal ones like: Are you scared? Will your employer allow you to work remotely? Are you prepared?
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State athletics holds press conference on coronavirus shutdown
By Dennis Knight
Savannah State’s Opio Mashariki was settling into his job as athletic director with about 14 months under his belt when the coronavirus threw the world into a tailspin. SSU canceled sports through the rest of the school year on March 12, and Mashariki and his staff have been working on details of dealing with the situation ever since. On Wednesday, Mashariki held a videoconference with local media to talk about the plan Savannah State has going forward.
WGXA
University System of Georgia refunding students statewide for dorms, meal plans
by WGXA Digital News Staff
In March Governor Brian Kemp ordered that schools statewide close as the number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia began to rise. Weeks later, universities across the state are now offering classes remotely, and Monday marked the beginning for a new normal for many college students. And on Wednesday the University System of Georgia stated that in the past two weeks, nearly 40,000 sections of online courses have been created. “So, we moved to about 250,000 of unique logins on Monday and much the same on Tuesday, that’s over three quarter of a million logins dealing with schools today,” says Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Tristan Denley. Denley went on to add that no students seemed to be having any technical issues but that is something he and his team will be closely following. Officials have also addressed concerns about what will be happening with students’ money already paid for dorms and meal plans that are going unused.
Athens Banner-Herald
Chancellor: Georgia university system completes online switch
By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service
The University System of Georgia became fully online this week, with online courses substituting for in-person instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic, system Chancellor Steve Wrigley said Wednesday. Wrigley praised both the system’s IT staff for setting up the online system and university faculty for converting their courses to online. “In highly unusual circumstances, people have worked very hard not to just deal with them but to overcome them,” Wrigley told members of the university system Board of Regents during a special called meeting by telephone to discuss the system’s response to the public health crisis. Tristan Denley, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the system’s internet traffic nearly doubled on Monday when the online courses began. “With that significant increase in traffic, we have monitored it closely to make sure students didn’t have any difficulty getting into the system,” he said. “It was very smooth.”
Gainesville Times
How UNG is adjusting to online courses
Kelsey Podo
Transforming an entire college’s courses to online in two weeks isn’t the easiest of feats. Like other higher education institutions in the state, the University of North Georgia has quickly shifted gears and entered the virtual world. “The last two weeks has been an effort of everyone working together to get classes created online,” said Chaudron Gille, UNG’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “I am very proud of the faculty and staff of the university and how hard they’re working as we adapt.” Eugene Van Sickle, the university’s assistant vice president of student success initiatives, said UNG recently sent out a survey to better understand the challenges ahead with virtual learning. He said the data showed that around 42% of the institution’s students have never taken an online class.
accessWDUN
By Lauren Hunter Multimedia Journalist
Students and staff of the University of North Georgia returned Monday from a two-week hiatus to continue instruction. But instead of returning to the college campus, they are adjusting to a virtual classroom while the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Remote learning, as this new form of instruction is called, requires students to log into the university’s online learning management system, called eLearning@UNG or D2L, to access class material. University staff have created a separate webpage called Making the Transition to Remote Learning with tips and resources to help students during the transition. Although UNG offers online courses each semester through eCore, the need for a quick transition to a virtual format has resulted in some major differences between the usual online course and remote learning. One of these differences is the rigor of the courses; remote learning courses are less in-depth than the typical eCore classes. Dr. Chaudron Gille, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at UNG, explained that simplifying the remote learning classes helps accommodate learning for students who have less access to technology.
Athens CEO
Carl Vinson Institute of Government Rapidly Expanding Online Training Opportunities
Roger Nielsen
The Carl Vinson Institute of Government is responding to coronavirus-related postponements by increasing the number of online professional development courses that are available for state and local government officials. Institute faculty are quickly converting classroom courses to internet-based training sessions that provide the same high-quality content through engaging, easily accessible videoconferencing tools, according to Institute Director Laura Meadows. “We have a lot of experience with online learning, both standalone courses as well as a variety of webinars. What’s new is we’re now providing live online instruction for courses we have previously delivered face-to-face,” Meadows said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: This is not home schooling, distance learning or online schooling.
GET SCHOOLED BLOG
By Maureen Downey
Two University of Georgia professors say this is not business as usual and it’s unethical to act as if it could be
Stephanie Jones and Hilary Hughes are University of Georgia professors in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and co-directors of the Red Clay Writing Project. They say something today that needs to be repeated daily like a mantra: What is happening is not home schooling. It is not distance learning. It is not online schooling. In this guest column, Hughes and Jones explain what it really is that we are doing. By Hilary Hughes and Stephanie Jones Gov. Brian Kemp announced today that schools won’t re-open this year, marking a historic moment in time that none of us have experienced or imagined before, a time that will shape us all – and possibly education – moving forward. It’s a time to pause, take a collective breath, and learn to be in this new reality so our path forward is one that we can be proud of when we look back on it.
Gainesville Times
UNG students find online alternative to research conference
Nathan Berg
All of JJ Gilleland’s work was finally about to pay off. Gilleland, a University of North Georgia graduate assistant, was scheduled to present his research on queer international relations at UNG’s Annual Research Conference on Friday, March 13, as well as at other research conventions later this spring in Chicago, London and Tokyo. As each conference was canceled in response to the spread of COVID-19, Gilleland’s spirits fell. When the ARC was postponed as well, he worried that his research might never reach its intended audience. To accommodate Gilleland — and the many UNG students in the same situation — the school has rescheduled this year’s ARC to a virtual format on April 17. All oral presentations are set to be streamed online, and students who made posters for the event will have the opportunity to upload them for the research community’s viewing.
Statesboro Herald
Census follow-up delayed, but all can still respond and be counted
Student exodus raises concern for Statesboro and Bulloch population count, future funding
Al Hackle/Staff
Whether people responded before or respond after, Wednesday was Census Day 2020, the date on which everyone in the United States is supposed to be counted in the place where they live. Census questionnaires were mailed to homes March 12, and many households have since received a reminder card. The local Complete Count Committee is encouraging all households who have not completed the census online or mailed in a census form to do so. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau’s own efforts to follow up have been postponed and its timelines extended for weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A related unforeseen circumstance raises a special worry in Statesboro and other college towns across America. For example, the University System of Georgia switched almost all courses to online-only formats Monday, March 30, and Georgia Southern University helped students who reside on campus move out last week. The census questionnaire asks where individuals resided on April 1.
The Red & Black
SGA senate encourages UGA to implement pass/fail system for rest of semester
Megan Mittelhammer | Social Media Editor and Samantha Perez | Contributor
The University of Georgia Student Government Association met Tuesday over Zoom for its first senate meeting since instruction moved online for the remainder of the semester. Major legislation expressed support for an alternative to the canceled spring commencement ceremony, encouraged the adoption of an opt-in pass/fail grading system and encouraged expanding funding for students facing food insecurity. Eighty participants, including senators, joined the last senate meeting of the semester to hear officer updates and vote on legislation. Senators unanimously passed 10 pieces of legislation without debate. …Senators passed Resolution 32-16, encouraging UGA to create an opt-in pass/fail grading system. This system would allow students to choose whether they want to use the traditional A-F grading system or receive a pass/fail mark on their transcripts this semester.
Law.com
With Pass/Fail Now the Norm, Outlier Law Schools Face Student Backlash
Law students at Arizona State, University of Georgia and Georgia State are among those pushing campus administrators to adopt mandatory pass/fail grading.
By Karen Sloan
Arizona State University law dean Douglas Sylvester is well aware that he’s not the most popular guy on his (virtual) campus at the moment.
The school’s Student Bar Association on Monday issued an open letter denouncing the school’s handling of spring semester grading, saying students feel “betrayed” by the announced policy, which requires them to go through a formal accommodation process to request that their grades be reported as pass/fail. Students may choose to go that route immediately, or they may make that request after grades have been issued if their spring semester grade point average is lower than their cumulative GPA. Students have vented their frustrations on legal blogs and online forums such as Reddit, calling the scheme “heartless” and a “prisoner’s dilemma.” Sylvester is among a number of law deans and university administrators receiving backlash from students who are unhappy over the grading policies their schools have rolled out amid the coronavirus pandemic. The University of Georgia School of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, and Georgia State University College of Law also have seen pushback over grading, as have numerous other schools. Though students harbor an array of opinions over what grading system is best, the most vocal and organized among them are pushing for mandatory pass/fail grading.
11Alive
Stay mentally and physically well with these tips from Georgia Gwinnett College
GGC director of wellness and recreation gives tips to implement during COVID-19 lockdown
Author: Brittany Kleinpeter
The director of wellness and recreation at Georgia Gwinnett College, Carl Woods, is providing tips and tricks to cope with the new normal of staying at home during the coronavirus. “It’s a huge loss and almost depressing for some people when they can’t go to the gym every day,” said Woods. “But there are plenty of ways to stay active at home – and even people who don’t exercise regularly should set aside the time.” Woods points out that exercise is good for the mind as well as the body, and in a crisis like this keeping one’s mental health is as important as anything. “It’s really important to do the basic things – drink water, walk before and after meals, and watch your meal consumption because our bodies aren’t burning as many calories as they normally would going to our places of work and back each day. Doing the physical basics can set you on the path to holistic health.”
Coastal Courier
How a goat named Moonpie is helping students socialize
Moonpie may be small, but her impact is mighty. A Nigerian Dwarf goat, Moonpie was born premature and the runt of her litter. Her owner, Tonya Cooper, a special education instructor for the College of Education at Georgia Southern University, saw potential in her for a powerful new therapy venture. “She’s very calm, unlike my other two goats,” said Cooper. “I started noticing as I would take her places how well she interacted with people and how calm she remained.” …“For students, especially those with disabilities, goat therapy offers them the opportunity to interact without rejection or judgment,” said Cooper. “It’s hard to explain, but when Moonpie goes into schools to visit with the special-needs students, she thrives. She pushes for interaction with those who are hesitant to interact with her, and once she gets to know them, she will crawl into their laps and just want to be held.” Cooper explained that during one school visit, a student who is nonverbal was scared to interact with Moonpie at first and even ran from her. He continued to watch Moonpie from afar until he finally began to pet and interact with her. Cooper said before they left the school, the young man was walking Moonpie around on her leash showing her to the entire school. The student even allowed Moonpie to crawl into his lap, and he made noises to attempt to communicate with her.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Receives $9,130 Grant From the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety
Staff Report
Thanks to a $9,130 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will participate in the Georgia Young Adult Program. The GOHS Young Adult Program addresses young adult driver crashes, injuries and fatalities and partners with colleges and universities throughout the state to implement the GYAP. This program has proven to be successful using strategies such as peer education, providing educational speakers to schools, and encouraging schools to develop creative, innovative techniques to reduce young adult crashes, injuries and fatalities in their communities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[com]Lawsuit: Anti-abortion group at Georgia Tech denied funding to host MLK niece
By Maureen Downey
A lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday alleges that Georgia Tech allows the student government to withhold funding from groups with which it disagrees politically. The Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom says a student group at Tech opposed to abortion invited Alveda King to speak in September. An ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, King is an anti-abortion crusader, a Fox News contributor and the niece of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Students for Life sought $2,346 in funding for her appearance out of student fees but was denied, and subsequent appeals at the campus level for reimbursement have been rebuffed, according to the 46-page complaint. In a statement, Georgia Tech said, “We are just learning of this litigation and do not comment on pending litigation. Georgia Tech holds freedom of expression as an essential cornerstone to the advancement of knowledge.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Southern student from Decatur faces murder charge after shooting near campus
By Zachary Hansen
A Georgia Southern University student from Decatur was arrested Wednesday after being accused of a deadly shooting in Statesboro last week. Wanya Malik Anthony, 24, was arrested by U.S. marshals on four felonies, including murder, in the death of 49-year-old Kenneth Emanuel Smith, Statesboro police said in a news release. Just before noon last Friday, officers responded to a parking lot at The George apartments off Woodlands Drive and found Smith, who had been shot, the release said. The apartment complex is advertised exclusively to college students and is located near Georgia Southern’s campus. Smith died after being flown to a Savannah hospital.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Don’t Forget About Graduate Students
Our labor sustains colleges’ educational mission. Now it’s time for universities to sustain us.
By Nadirah Farah Foley
As the urgency and severity of the coronavirus pandemic have become apparent, universities have rapidly been thrust into troubled — and uncharted — waters. They have required students to evacuate their dormitories, faculty to move classes online, and staff to work remotely, all to prioritize safety while maintaining the educational mission. With the immediate crises of getting students home and classes online now largely behind us, colleges are now starting to focus on longer-term issues. Across the academy, research has come to a grinding halt. Access to archives, labs, libraries, and field-research sites has been disrupted. Research with human subjects faces new difficulties. In light of all this, dozens of universities have announced extensions of the tenure clock for tenure-track faculty. These extensions acknowledge a new reality: It’s not easy to produce scholarship during a pandemic.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Karin Fischer
Cameron Deptula is back home in Hawaii, but it’s no vacation. Since returning two weeks ago, Deptula, a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley, has self-isolated in his childhood bedroom, coming out only to get meals his mother prepares for him and to collect insects in the backyard for an entomology class. Deptula had already begun his isolation when the state government last Thursday mandated a 14-day quarantine for all visitors and returning residents. Though he felt healthy, and still does, he didn’t want to risk infecting his parents with the coronavirus — particularly his father, who is asthmatic and has high blood pressure. “Coming from an area with a high incidence of Covid-19,” Deptula said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus, “I am not so much worried about being exposed myself as that I could put my family and my community at risk.” When colleges ended in-person classes last month and told students to move off campus, they hoped to limit the spread of the coronavirus through highly trafficked dormitories and classrooms. Public-health experts agree that colleges reduced that risk by all but shutting down their campuses. But some fear students’ unpredictable behavior could increase the likelihood that they’d bring the virus home with them to communities where people have been social-distancing for days. Some students took a detour on their way home, to spring-break beaches or for one last blowout to celebrate the abrupt end of the semester. Already, there have been reports of students’ testing positive for Covid-19 after spring-break trips, including 28 students from the University of Texas at Austin who traveled to Mexico.
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges Can Help Win the War Against COVID-19
Higher education institutions are well positioned to lead efforts beyond campus borders, write S. Abu Turab Rizvi and Peter Eckel, who offer three suggestions for doing so.
By S. Abu Turab Rizvi and Peter Eckel
Richard Danzig and Marc Lipsitch recently wrote in an opinion piece that, as a nation, we have endured the COVID-19 surprise attack. Now we must make smart choices to win the war against it. Colleges and universities have arguably led the way in the nation’s response to COVID-19. Early on, they put aside their inclinations to continue normal operations and took tough steps to promote societal health and safety. They interrupted the transmission of the disease by sending most students and workers home and making an unaccustomed shift for most institutions to completely online instruction. They shifted the research effort of their faculty members to addressing and mitigating this global crisis and asked other faculty members to put their current research on hold. They postponed or canceled in-person commencement exercises for graduating seniors and athletic competitions, large and small. They took, and will continue to take, financial blows as they offer refunds to students, prepare for students not to return in equal numbers and clean and sanitize their facilities. These courageous decisions by leaders across U.S. higher education were matched by the herculean efforts of the faculty and staff at colleges and universities to continue the academic mission in the new circumstances.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A French Scientist Says He Can Cure Covid-19. Other Researchers Have Their Doubts.
By Tom Bartlett
Didier Raoult’s résumé speaks for itself. He is among the most highly cited microbiologists in the world. His lab employs a small army of researchers who churn out several hundred papers a year. He has done pioneering work on so-called giant viruses and pathogenic bacteria. A French newspaper once called him “the archetype of the prolific scientist: imaginative, enterprising by nature, persevering, and a bit lucky.” Other descriptions are less kind. In recent weeks, Raoult, who is a doctor and a professor of medicine at Aix-Marseille University, has been called “Trumpian” and “pathologically resistant to criticism,” while his studies have been dismissed as “misinformation” or simply “crap.” Raoult and a couple of dozen co-authors have published two observational studies on hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that’s already being used by some doctors, including Raoult himself, to treat Covid-19. In their most recent paper, released on March 27, they write that Covid-19 patients given the drug along with azithromycin, an antibiotic, had a reduction in detectable virus. They noted “clinical improvement” in nearly all of the 80 patients tested, with the exception, the researchers note, of a severely ill 86-year-old who died. They write that the results “confirm the efficacy” of the drug combination, and they implore fellow researchers to “urgently evaluate this therapeutic strategy both to avoid the spread of the disease and to treat patients.”
But other researchers are skeptical, and they wasted no time in pointing out why.
Inside Higher Ed
Preparing for a Fall Without In-Person Classes
If campuses are still off-limits to students come September, this spring’s version of remote learning won’t suffice. Some colleges are preparing (quietly) to deliver better online learning at scale if needed.
By Doug Lederman
Let’s give a full-throated shout-out to America’s colleges and universities, their professors and staff professionals, and their students. Collectively, they pulled off a remarkable transition this spring, shifting instruction they had previously been delivering predominantly in person for most students to an almost entirely remote experience for pretty much everybody. It may not have been seamless or pretty, and it certainly wasn’t painless — either for instructors having to deal with the anxiety of new tools or for students worrying about good internet access or where in their homes they could find a quiet place to study. But instruction continued to happen remotely, en masse. If you’d asked most people months ago whether a higher education enterprise that many write off (often unfairly) as hidebound and change-averse was capable of a wholesale pivot in a matter of days or weeks, they’d have laughed. And yet it happened. Amazing. So take a bow — and a deep breath. Because now comes the hard part. You read that right, I’m afraid. Depending on how things go — what the arc of COVID-19 is nationally or in certain regions of the country, whether physical distancing rules are still in place, etc. — college campuses may remain off-limits to students come September. Whether that’s a 5 percent likelihood, or 25 percent or 50 percent, I have no idea (I’m no Tony Fauci, and even he can’t say for sure). But it’s almost certainly not zero.
Inside Higher Ed
Scholars with expertise in Asian American studies, public health and other fields have a new urgent agenda for their teaching, research and outreach: confronting coronavirus-related racism.
By Elizabeth Redden
Jason Chang, an associate professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Connecticut, started putting together a crowdsourced document with resources on teaching about coronavirus-related racism back in January. Students, he said, are hungry for readings that help them put this current moment in perspective. “I’ve actually had students who are asking for more assignments to expose them to more material,” Chang said of students in his Asian American history class this spring. One of the assignments in the course asks students to create a zine connecting their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic with a broader theme in Asian American history “The way that I’ve begun to teach about this is to put the racist response to the pandemic in the context of an Asian American history of ‘yellow peril,'” Chang said. “I’m using a class on Asian American history to show how these cyclical patterns have echoes in our contemporary environment, giving them actual historical evidence about what things looked like to help them understand the consequences of historical narrative. I don’t always get that kind of punch in this course. I’m usually satisfied with students just acquiring new knowledge about Asian American history.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Bailout Is Just the Start: Why Higher Ed Needs to Build a Sustainable Model
By Richard Staisloff
This article is part of a series on the financial challenges facing colleges amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the need for proactive strategies. Please join a virtual discussion on Wednesday, April 8, at 2 p.m., EDT, to hear from experts about what colleges should not do during a recession. Every sector in the United States has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic. In higher education, the immediate needs seem clear: maximizing the safety of students, faculty, and staff; providing opportunities for remote learning; and adopting flexible policies for the duration of the crisis. At some point, however, colleges will have to turn their attention to a post-Covid-19 world — one where endowments will be decimated, enrollments will be hard to fill, and private and public money will be hard to come by. What then? Congress, as part of its $2-trillion stimulus bill, voted to give colleges $14 billion in emergency relief. That will certainly provide some relief, but it is much less than the $50 billion that higher-education leaders said they need. And it very likely won’t be enough to influence Moody’s Investors Service, which recently downgraded the financial outlook for the higher-education sector from stable to negative.
Inside Higher Ed
Is Canceling Student Debt the Right Approach?
Canceling student debt has become a cause among progressives. But behind the scenes, they had different views on including it in the stimulus package.
By Kery Murakami
Three Tuesdays ago, in a building on New York University’s campus, Robert Shireman, director of higher education excellence and senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, was supposed to be part of a debate over whether the government should cancel student debt. Shireman, a skeptic of the idea, was supposed to go up against one of the leading advocates of the idea, Alexis Goldstein, senior policy analyst at the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, as part of series of debates sponsored by NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. It was a simpler time, before social distancing and hospitals overflowing with coronavirus patients. In just the three weeks since, the world has changed. The subject of that night’s purely academic debate would reach the halls of Congress, with stakes much bigger than the bragging rights after a debate. Dozens of left-of-center advocates and higher education policy experts privately engaged in their own debate over debt cancellation, divided by such questions as whether a policy, in which wealthy college graduates would be among those who’d benefit, was a high priority right now. …“We met by phone because we’re all on lockdown,” said Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director at the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer group supportive of large-scale debt cancellation, who was involved in the conversation. Shireman and others interviewed said they wouldn’t describe the discussions as heated. “Nobody’s been fighting — it was more an acknowledgment that there’s a range of views among progressive organizations about how far to go in terms of student loan relief,” he said. Still, there are strong feelings on both sides.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How the Coronavirus Is Prompting Higher-Ed Grantmakers to Change Course
By Goldie Blumenstyk
How higher-ed grantmakers are changing course.
Grantmakers to higher education suddenly face a new reality. In less than a month, just about all of face-to-face higher education moved to remote operations. The American economy shifted from near full employment to a spiral that could end up exceeding the joblessness levels of the Great Depression. And of course our country — and most of the world — is still struggling to meet the growing medical needs of far too many. Even as the ground continues to move, several of the biggest philanthropic influencers are already shifting gears. This past week I spoke to leaders of six of the biggest higher-education grantmaking organizations, who collectively account for some $370 million annually in grants to hundreds of colleges, associations, and other organizations. Each had a slightly different take, which I share below, but these are three of the biggest priorities for giving across the board:
Inside Higher Ed
Scores of institutions announce faculty hiring freezes in response to the coronavirus.
By Colleen Flaherty
Higher education is COVID-19-positive. And in the parlance of triage, the patient needs emergent care. At many institutions, that means getting just enough instruction and support online to be able to operate tomorrow, and having enough money to do so. Everything else can wait, including faculty hiring. Already, scores of colleges and universities have announced hiring freezes for this year fiscal year and the next one. “Institutional leaders are trying to do the prudent thing and trying to take control of some of the aspects of the situation that they’re able to control, and that includes things like job actions and hiring freezes,” said Kevin McClure, assistant professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. “It’s about managing the situation now to minimize potential financial impacts later.” In other words, McClure said, “Many of us would prefer to do hiring freezes now and postpone [capital] projects if it means we can avoid layoffs later.”
Inside Higher Ed
Four prominent academics died last month from COVID-19. The toll is likely to grow as the coronavirus spreads and more Americans die, as predicted by public health authorities.
By Marjorie Valbrun
When Maurice Berger, the chief curator and research professor at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Maryland, died recently from complications of COVID-19, his shocked and heartbroken co-workers said they not only lost a dear friend and colleague but a brilliant thinker and collaborator whose scholarship and curated exhibits and projects crossed disciplines and challenged conventional thinking about race and representation in the visual arts. Fellow visual artists, university administrators and department heads at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where the center, commonly referred to as CADVC, is housed, took his death very personally. But the passing of Berger was also felt elsewhere around the country, by others in his field at other universities, museums and galleries, and particularly among academics who considered him not only a groundbreaking scholar-curator-art historian but a socially conscious public intellectual whose work greatly influenced how the visual arts are presented, viewed and taught. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as well-known and obscure Americans are being felled by the deadly disease and their lives publicly celebrated or quietly overlooked, Berger’s death is just the latest example that academe has not been spared in the public health crisis.
Other News:
Marietta Daily Journal
Local school officials react to governor’s school closure announcement
By Thomas Hartwell
On the heels of Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement Wednesday that K-12 public schools will remain closed through the end of the school year, school board chairs from Cobb and Marietta say they’re saddened by the news. Kemp made the announcements during a news conference outside the state Capitol, adding that online learning would continue. …Cobb school board Chairman Brad Wheeler sounded resigned as he spoke with the MDJ shortly after the governor’s briefing. The chairman said he felt sad for students, families, teachers and the community at large, and added that the action is “something we’ve never seen before.” “It is what it is,” Wheeler said. “We’re going to have to deal with it. … So we will. We’ll deal with it and go forward. Everybody, I think, was hoping for the best and, you know, it is what it is.” Cobb schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said in a time when the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases continue to balloon, staff and student safety must be the first priority. Ragsdale said the governor’s announcement shows safety is his top priority. “(The announcement) allows us to make the appropriate decisions for the remainder of this school year,” Ragsdale said. …Marietta school officials agreed with their Cobb counterparts. Marietta school board Chair Allison Gruehn said while she understands and trusts the governor’s decision, she’s heartbroken for the students and teachers who already miss each other and will now miss many more social and academic opportunities. …Echoing Ragsdale, Marietta schools Superintendent Grant Rivera said he is grateful the governor has prioritized safety of the state’s teachers, students and families.
Macon Telegraph
Georgia mayor orders, rescinds, then restores social distancing policy all in one day
By Tanasia Kenney
The mayor of Cumming, Georgia, is setting things straight after scrapping a city-wide social distancing order early Wednesday that he had put into effect just hours earlier. In an announcement posted to the city’s Facebook page, Mayor Troy Brumbalow said he was rescinding the policy meant to protect the public amid the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Brumbalow wrote that while the order was meant as a precaution, “it’s obvious that a large portion of our public does not want government mandating the recommendations of public health officials.” Part of the social distancing order residents were most upset with was the suggested appointment of as many as 100 special reserve officers to help enforce the new mandate. The directive, which was met with swift backlash, was set to take effect on April 1 before Brumbalow canceled it just around 3 a.m. Wednesday. …The mayor apologized to Cumming residents for the misunderstanding and concluded his post by stating “there is no longer a social distancing order in the city,” though he encouraged everyone to stay safe and wash their hands. By 1 p.m. Wednesday, Brumbalow had announced a new emergency order to replace the old one.
Savannah Morning News
Opinion
Editorial: Heed Savannah mayor’s tough talk on social distancing
This is an editorial from the Savannah Morning News and represents the opinion of our editorial board, which is made up of Market Leader Michael Traynor, Executive Editor Susan Catron and Editorial Page Editor Adam Van Brimmer.
No more Mayor Nice Guy. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is talking tough. The man who won over voters last year — and new fans since taking office — with his warmth and inclusiveness is showing a harder side. He’s put the city’s businesses and residents on notice. Continue to defy his shelter-in-place order, and there will be consequences. Fines. Park closures. Curfews. Good on him. Mayor Johnson voiced his disappointment in his neighbors during a Tuesday morning press briefing. The session is a must-watch and can be viewed at SavannahNow.com and at the city’s many social media channels. It’s 20-plus minutes of a normally unflappable man on the brink of a temper tantrum, and a warranted one at that.
Albany Herald
Dolly Parton donates $1 million toward coronavirus research
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN
Dolly Parton, no one can hold a candle to you. The legendary performer on Wednesday announced she was making a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University’s coronavirus research. “My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. Parton is one of many celebrities making sizable donations towards worthy causes amid the global pandemic. Rihanna’s The Clara Lionel Foundation and Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation each donated $1 million to coronavirus response efforts this week. Last week, Kylie Jenner donated $1 million to buy personal protective equipment for health-care workers, and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively gave $1 million to two food charities.
Albany Herald
Democratic National Convention pushed back to August
By Dan Merica and Kate Sullivan, CNN
The Democratic National Convention has been pushed back to the week of August 17 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Democratic National Convention Committee. The convention was scheduled to take place the week of July 13 and has been pushed back as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise across the United States. The global pandemic has led to changes in the US election process, including multiple states postponing primaries and a virtual halt of all in-person campaigning.
Griffin Daily News
Wimbledon canceled for 1st time since WWII because of virus
By Howard Fendrich
AP Tennis Writer
Wimbledon was canceled on Wednesday because of the coronavirus pandemic, the first time since World War II that the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament won’t be played. Britain imposed a nationwide lockdown just over a week ago, and the All England Club announced after a two-day emergency meeting that the event it refers to simply as The Championships is being scrapped for 2020. That hadn’t happened since 1945. Wimbledon was scheduled to be played on the club’s grass courts on the outskirts of London from June 29 to July 12. Instead, the next edition of the tournament will be June 28 to July 11, 2021.