University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Kemp extends shelter in place order in Georgia through April
By Greg Bluestein
Gov. Brian Kemp extended Georgia’s shelter in place order through the end of April and imposed new restrictions on senior care facilities Wednesday as he faced criticism from local officials who urged him to take more drastic steps to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The governor extended the stay at home orders hours after he renewed a public health emergency declaration that grants him unprecedented authority to curb the pandemic. He said it gives him the “tools we’re going to need” to combat the highly contagious disease.
Forsyth County News
State of emergency will be extended through May 13 in Georgia
Megan Reed
Georgia’s public health state of emergency will be extended another month, through May 13, Gov. Brian Kemp announced April 8. The state of emergency, which had been set to expire April 13, can be renewed by the governor under state law. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Speaker of the House David Ralston will not be requesting a special legislative session, which was tentatively scheduled for April 15. “This measure will allow us to continue to deploy resources to communities in need, lend support to frontline medical providers and keep preparing as we brace for potential patient surge in our health care facilities,” Kemp said in a statement. “We deeply appreciate the hard work of Georgians who are sheltering in place, using social distancing and helping us flatten the curve.”
WALB
USG encourages medical, public health professionals to join Medical Reserve Corps
By Kim McCullough
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, in partnership with the University System of Georgia (USG) and the Georgia National Guard, is encouraging medical and public health professionals, including those who work for the state’s 26 public colleges and universities, to volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The call for volunteers comes as Georgia has seen increased demand for medical professionals such as clinicians, doctors, nurses, dentists, dental techs and administrative staff, who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise to help Georgians during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Medical Reserve Corps is looking for medical and public health professionals to volunteer in Georgia, and the University System of Georgia is encouraging its clinicians, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to answer that call,” Kemp said. “I am extremely thankful for the university system’s continued efforts to help Georgia, and I would encourage others to also volunteer their time and expertise to help their neighbors and communities in this battle against COVID-19.”
WALB
Hospitals in rural communities get help from ABAC in fighting coronavirus battle
By Georgia McCarthur
A father and a daughter are working together to provide personal protective equipment to Tift Regional Medical Center. “ABAC has always been a community partner to those in need in the community and it’s certainly one of those times where we can help out Tift Regional Medical Center and Lord knows they have helped out in plenty of situations,” said Michael Chason, the director of Public Relations at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College (ABAC). Chason said he got a call from his daughter asking if the chemistry lab could donate personal protective equipment to the hospital. “Actually Tracy texted me and said here is an opportunity and through the help of David Bridges, Paul, we were able to put together some supplies from our chemistry. We were able to get some gloves, some aprons, and some mask, they were able to use on very short notice,” said Chason. Tracy Nolan, the first female general surgeon at Tift Regional, knew how urgent it was to get the equipment to the staff to help fight the coronavirus battle.
WRDW
I-TEAM: New research could bring answers about how COVID-19 spreads
By Meredith Anderson | Posted: Wed 6:59 PM, Apr 08, 2020 | Updated: Wed 7:39 PM, Apr 08, 2020
A new research could have world-wide implications. Augusta University researchers are starting a study that could be a game-changer when it comes to coronavirus testing. This new research could give doctors an idea of how the virus spreads, but it could also help makes tests more accurate. Our I-TEAM is uncovering new information that could mean big things for Augusta University. “So what we want to learn is what’s the best way to diagnose it,” Dr. Jose Vazquez said. And the infectious disease expert at AU Health just says nose swab tests — aren’t cutting it.
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State professors use 3D printing to battle COVID-19 pandemic
Aiding in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, two Savannah State University professors are using 3D printing to create masks. SSU professors Nicholas Silberg and Theo Plothe are using 3D printing technology to help create masks for first responders and frontline health care workers, according to a press release from the university. Silberg and Plothe are using a free 3D printing file from a Georgia dentist, who began the Fired by Corona movement, to make as many as eight masks per day. “Each mask takes about four hours to print, though multiple masks can be printed at the same time on the two 3D printers we have in our MakerSpace,” said Silberg. The completed masks will be delivered to a local dentist where they will be disinfected, sealed and fitted with filters to prepare for use in the field.
The Augusta Chronicle
3D printed face shields, medical masks aim to fill gap in protective gear in Augusta
By Tom Corwin
Creative people in the Augusta community and at Augusta University are using 3D printers to create new face shields and medical masks to help address a critical shortage of protective equipment. A bright white pool surrounded a column inside the orange cube, highlighted by a tiny, bright white light moving slowly across the base of the column. Inside this 3D printer in the Center for Instructional Innovation at Augusta University will eventually be eight headbands for reusable face shields that will help fill a gap in the critical supply of personal protective equipment at AU Health System. Elsewhere in Augusta, a gang of makers with 3D printers are looking to create a reusable filtering mask that could be used by first responders and others. As the supply of masks and other PPE grows scarce in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative people in Augusta are creating prototypes and tweaking them with feedback from health care workers and others to then manufacture solutions. After seeing an effort at Georgia Tech to use 3D printing technology to create 10,00 face shields, a group at AU with similar skills was tasked with creating and manufacturing their own version, said Lynsey Ekema, a medical illustrator and instructional designers in the center at AU.
WRDW
AU ‘cautiously optimistic’ about future of COVID-19 in CSRA
By Brady Trapnell
With Gov. Kemp extending his shelter-in-place order until the end of the month, Augusta University Health says they are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the CSRA’s COVID-19 situation. Officials say testing continues to expand, and even new treatment options are developing. AU is seeing progress on the frontlines. “I’m hopeful that we have bent the curve. It’s too early to tell. We don’t want to get overly optimistic,” Dr. Phillip Coule, Chief Medical Officer at AU, said. Dr. Coule is confident because AU’s machines are running more than a thousand tests a day now.
MedicalXpress
How long will the COVID-19 quarantine last? Business research provides insight
by University of Southern California
Amid the historic Covid-19 pandemic, questions about everything from medical supplies to the economy abound. But one question is uppermost in people’s minds: How long will stay-at-home restrictions need to continue in order to stop the disease’s spread? New research from USC Marshall suggests three to more than six weeks, depending on degree of control sought. Gerard Tellis, Neely Chair of American Enterprise, director of the Institute for Outlier Research in Business (iORB) and the Center of Global Innovation, and research partner Ashish Sood of UC Riverside, along with Nitish Sood, a cellular and molecular biology student at Augusta University, have released a paper that parses the possibilities. The study looks at 36 countries and all 50 U.S. states, and finds that the aggressive intervention to contain the coronavirus must be maintained for at least 44 days. They are extending the research to all countries and U.S. states.
WGAU
UGA researchers take on COVID projects
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, researchers at the University of Georgia are hard at work to find solutions to halt the virus. They join top researchers from across the globe in the critical effort to overcome the pandemic—and to do it quickly. Researchers are tackling the virus from multiple angles: creating treatments, providing effective testing, tracking the spread of the virus, and chronicling its effects on society and individuals.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You go, mom: Georgia Tech parent makes case for pass/fail amid pandemic
By Maureen Downey
She says students did not sign up to learn multivariable calculus via webcam
I am getting a lot of emails from unhappy college and grad students, mostly from Georgia Tech and the state’s public law schools. Those students are upset because the University System of Georgia has refused to offer a pass/fail option, as hundreds of colleges, including the most elite in the country, are doing. Grades are critical to law students because their class rankings influence their job opportunities. Grades are important to Georgia Tech because, well, it’s Georgia Tech. See my post about how the USG position on grading for the online courses now underway is at odds with many other places. Most colleges have acknowledged that not all students have returned to home situations that support distance learning. Many are giving their students the choice of a letter grade or pass/fail. Local Georgia Tech parent Cynthia Stuckey sent me a note about her concerns, which I asked if I could share here. She hits all the key points about why a pass/fail option is needed, and I hope USG will consider her persuasive arguments.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: We can’t expect every kid to shift to online learning without skipping a beat
By Maureen Downey
University of Georgia professor suggests ‘incomplete’ is acceptable grade amid pandemic
The top issues dominating my reader emails this week are online learning and grading. University of Georgia education professor and frequent AJC Get School contributor Peter Smagorinsky addresses both today. Among his awards, Smagorinsky earned the Horace Mann League’s 2020 Outstanding Public Educator award. The league gives the award to an educator who has supported public education throughout his or her career. By Peter Smagorinsky There has been a lot written and discussed about how to manage schools this spring. I am not writing today because I’ve discovered the answer. I’m just as perplexed by this brave new world as you are.
WUGA
UGA Libraries Provides Online Resources For Students and Athens Community
By Alexia Ridley
UGA will be providing Maymester and summer semester courses online. One of the components in helping to make that happen is the UGA librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham. “Our goal at the University of Georgia Libraries is to make sure that one of their challenges is not access to knowledge. In a virtual sense we are very much open for business and serving as the university’s gateway to knowledge.” Graham says they providing additional content with temporary emergency access nearly 2 million volumes of books, loans from other libraries and facilities. The facility is also providing access to content for members of the broader community.
Growing Georgia
COVID-19 Keeps Georgia Produce Farmers from Hiring Labor, Exporting Crops
By: Sharon Dowdy
Georgia produce farmers are used to fighting plant diseases on their crops, but planting resistant varieties or spraying pesticides won’t keep Coronavirus (COVID-19) away. This disease has shut down borders and reduced access to the markets where farmers sell their crops, is keeping essential farm labor out of the country, and prevents produce from being imported, too, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension experts. “The difference between Covid-19 and plant diseases, thrips, tariffs and hurricanes, is that, while the others affected the specialty crop industry directly, COVID-19 will indirectly affect the entire industry,” said Greg Fonsah, UGA Extension agricultural economist for vegetables, fruit and pecans. “Since COVID-19 became a pandemic, most countries including the United States have shut down their borders and imposed travel restrictions.” Georgia agriculture has a farm gate value of about $14 billion. Most of the state’s fruits and vegetables are handpicked by seasonal, migrant or immigrant labor.
Athens CEO
UGA, State Agencies Provide Assistance to Small Businesses Applying for Federal Aid
Kelly Simmons
Nearly 1,500 struggling small business owners from across Georgia logged in to UGA Small Business Development Center webinars Monday for guidance in applying for federal assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Webinars will continue Tuesday, April 7, and more may be added based on demand. At Gov. Brian Kemp’s direction, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs partnered to create a website to provide ongoing information to help small businesses. SBDC consultants made eight presentations Monday and will oversee eight more today in an attempt to reach as many small businesses as possible.
Valdosta Daily Times
Georgia film industry in limbo
By Riley Bunch
While demand for movies and television shows is at an all-time high with Georgians stuck at home, film production in the state is on pause. The industry that brings in nearly $10 billion worth of economic impact per year in revenue and jobs to Georgia is — like most all other sectors of the economy — on hold while the nation and the world grapple with a global health pandemic. Many film industry workers are among the thousands filing for unemployment. But state officials are optimistic and say workers should be prepared for a boom in the industry after the outbreak is over as production companies make up for lost time. Juliette Sicard has been working as a prop assistant for almost four years. She said some studios have offered to support their full-time staff, as a “day player,” hired on an as-needed basis, she’s had to fall back on her savings and file for unemployment.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Fewer Enrollments, Lost Income to Pressure Universities’ Finances: Moody’s
Lower student enrolments and lost income will pressure higher education institutions worldwide, due to the global coronavirus pandemic, said bond ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service. Public U.S. universities will be under more pressure because of potential government funding cuts and lower income from investments, said the agency. Decreased investment income is especially on the cards for those universities that rely heavily on endowments, which are, more often than not, linked to the financial markets.
Inside Higher Ed
Study finds that when states ban affirmative action, their numbers of underrepresented minority students go down, for the long run.
By Scott Jaschik
The states that have banned affirmative action have seen the share of underrepresented minority students admitted to and enrolling in public universities go down. The trends are especially notable in that demographic trends have added to the supply of underrepresented minority students in the states. These are the conclusions of a new study by Mark Long at the University of Washington and Nicole Bateman at the Brookings Institution, published Tuesday in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a journal of the American Educational Research Association. The study explores the long-term impacts of the bans, which started in the late 1990s and continue to this day. Early bans were adopted in California, Florida and Washington, and later bans were adopted by Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. (Idaho joined the group last month but is not in the study.) The study examined 19 public universities in the states that have banned affirmative action, and it examined enrollments through 2015.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
4 Colleges, 2 Weeks, One Choice: How Covid-19 Scattered U.S. Higher Education
As the pandemic spread, campus presidents came to grips with a reality that had once been unthinkable — and helped pave the way for the rest of the country to follow suit.
By Lindsay Ellis APRIL 8, 2020
Over 11 days, more than 100 institutions announced plans to take instruction online
There’s a story the president of Claremont McKenna College used to tell to describe what makes his college special. It goes like this: A prospective student chatted with her host student in the lobby of a campus building. In just 30 minutes, 17 people interrupted their conversation. The anecdote showcased the college’s warmth, its connectedness. A student is one point in an ever-growing web, with countless lines extending outward — to peers, to professors, to alumni, and beyond. But as the novel coronavirus took hold, the president, Hiram Chodosh, saw the story in a new light. Seventeen students in 30 minutes. Every two minutes, an interaction. Say one person tested positive for the virus. How fast might the disease work through the web? Chodosh responded to the pandemic by upending everything. He and hundreds of other college presidents pushed students away, shut down international travel, and scrambled classes. In effect, they stopped the heart of residential higher education: the serendipity and in-person connections that until March prevailed at Claremont McKenna and colleges from coast to coast.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Pandemic Is Already Hitting Sectors Unevenly, Never Mind the Hitches in Federal Relief
By Goldie Blumenstyk
The effects of the pandemic hit unevenly across higher ed.
College leaders spent the past month sending students home from campuses and overseeing a frantic pivot to remote learning. Now, before they’ve even taken a breath, new uncertainties loom: Can they reopen in the fall? Will students return? In what ways will colleges have to change? Will they survive at all? Answers to most of these top-of-mind questions are still unknown. Still, you know things are dire when even the most steadfast defender of the viability of small colleges — Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges — now acknowledges that “quite a lot of colleges are in jeopardy.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Quandary: Support for Sick Students, Plus Orientation in the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
How do you support a student who tests positive for Covid-19?
A student in your course tells you, “I have the coronavirus.” Now what? An abstract possibility has become a reality in your virtual classroom. But this isn’t the first college student to contract the virus, and it won’t be the last. Keep in mind that the virus affects people in different ways. Some may be bedridden for weeks, or hospitalized, while others will experience relatively mild symptoms and recover in a matter of days. Of course, the student’s health is the first priority. Consider each case on an individual basis, knowing that the circumstances could change quickly. Your student may still want to continue his or her coursework, and it’s your job to help however you can. If you have past experience in accommodating students with physical or mental-health challenges, consider what worked well, what didn’t, and what approaches might be appropriate to adapt. There is no uniform prescription for supporting a sick student. Every instance will be different, and that’s OK.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Coronavirus Brings Extra Uncertainty For DACA Students Awaiting a Supreme Court Decision
by Sara Weissman
Luz Chavez, a junior at Trinity Washington University, became her family’s only source of income after her mother lost her service job last month because of the coronavirus. A triple major in education, sociology and political science, Chavez works as a youth leader at United We Dream, an organization that advocates for immigrant rights. She’s also a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era policy that protects immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. It’s what allows students like Chavez to work in the country. “It’s been very overwhelming to say the least how much this pandemic has affected my mental health, how much it’s affected my personal family,” she said. “And struggling with all that knowing the Supreme Court can rule on DACA, it’s really nerve-wracking.” DACA students like Chavez have been in limbo for months, as the U.S. Supreme Court continues to deliberate on whether to uphold the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to end the DACA program. Now, amidst the coronavirus crisis, both DACA and undocumented students face even more questions about their future.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Before the coronavirus shuttered universities nationwide, it turned Seattle’s college leaders into early responders. Their decisions shaped a nation’s reaction.
By Nell Gluckman
Amy Morrison was at home when she got a call that made her heart sink. It was Saturday, February 29. Morrison watched on her TV as county and state public-health officials provided an alarming series of updates about the spread of the new coronavirus: A man from Kirkland, Wash., the Seattle suburb where Morrison and her family lived, had died after being infected. His was the first recorded death from the virus in the United States. Two people from a Kirkland nursing facility had tested positive, and many more had symptoms. Another 50 people who’d been at the facility would need to be tested. Workers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on their way to the region. Morrison, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology, a local community college, was horrified. ….But it was the call she got that afternoon that brought matters even closer to home. The college’s vice president for instruction told her that at least 16 students and two members of the faculty had been at the Kirkland nursing facility, the Life Care Center, that same week. …On February 29, the phrase “social distancing” was not yet a part of the general lexicon. The most disruptive advice many Americans had been given was to stop touching their faces. Colleges had not yet moved classes online, cities had not been shut down, national borders were still open. Morrison’s decisions in that moment could influence not only how many people got sick, but also how disruptive the virus would be for people who were not yet infected. Leaders of other colleges would be closely watching what Morrison did, and very likely using her decisions to calibrate their own. The president had a million questions. Should her students isolate themselves? For how long? Who else needed to be warned about possible exposure? What about students’ privacy?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why New Research Calls Some Flagships ‘Land-Grab Universities’
By Bennett Leckrone
Public universities across the United States got their start through the sale of vast amounts of land — property that researchers say was largely stolen from Native Americans. The Morrill Act of 1862 gave states thousands of acres of federal land to use for education funding. Large public universities across the country owe their existence to the countless parcels of land that were developed or auctioned off in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A new project reveals an uncomfortable truth about the origins of land-grant universities. But beneath the federal government’s seemingly generous donation to American higher education lies an uncomfortable truth: It was largely expropriated from indigenous peoples. Robert Lee, a lecturer in American history at the University of Cambridge and a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, spent years reconstructing the parcels that gave land-grant universities their start. He and other researchers published a lengthy, data-rich investigation last week in High Country News, rebranding the colleges as “land-grab” institutions.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FDA approves clinical trials for Emory’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment
By Eric Stirgus
Emory University has the green light to begin human clinical trials for a drug that researchers hope will treat the novel coronavirus, officials said Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an Investigational New Drug application for EIDD-2801, an antiviral compound, which can be taken orally. The drug was developed several years ago to battle a broad spectrum of viruses and has shown strong results in animal testing against influenza.
University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BREAKING: Kemp extends shelter in place order in Georgia through April
By Greg Bluestein
Gov. Brian Kemp extended Georgia’s shelter in place order through the end of April and imposed new restrictions on senior care facilities Wednesday as he faced criticism from local officials who urged him to take more drastic steps to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The governor extended the stay at home orders hours after he renewed a public health emergency declaration that grants him unprecedented authority to curb the pandemic. He said it gives him the “tools we’re going to need” to combat the highly contagious disease.
Forsyth County News
State of emergency will be extended through May 13 in Georgia
Megan Reed
Georgia’s public health state of emergency will be extended another month, through May 13, Gov. Brian Kemp announced April 8. The state of emergency, which had been set to expire April 13, can be renewed by the governor under state law. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Speaker of the House David Ralston will not be requesting a special legislative session, which was tentatively scheduled for April 15. “This measure will allow us to continue to deploy resources to communities in need, lend support to frontline medical providers and keep preparing as we brace for potential patient surge in our health care facilities,” Kemp said in a statement. “We deeply appreciate the hard work of Georgians who are sheltering in place, using social distancing and helping us flatten the curve.”
WALB
USG encourages medical, public health professionals to join Medical Reserve Corps
By Kim McCullough
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, in partnership with the University System of Georgia (USG) and the Georgia National Guard, is encouraging medical and public health professionals, including those who work for the state’s 26 public colleges and universities, to volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The call for volunteers comes as Georgia has seen increased demand for medical professionals such as clinicians, doctors, nurses, dentists, dental techs and administrative staff, who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise to help Georgians during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Medical Reserve Corps is looking for medical and public health professionals to volunteer in Georgia, and the University System of Georgia is encouraging its clinicians, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to answer that call,” Kemp said. “I am extremely thankful for the university system’s continued efforts to help Georgia, and I would encourage others to also volunteer their time and expertise to help their neighbors and communities in this battle against COVID-19.”
WALB
Hospitals in rural communities get help from ABAC in fighting coronavirus battle
By Georgia McCarthur
A father and a daughter are working together to provide personal protective equipment to Tift Regional Medical Center. “ABAC has always been a community partner to those in need in the community and it’s certainly one of those times where we can help out Tift Regional Medical Center and Lord knows they have helped out in plenty of situations,” said Michael Chason, the director of Public Relations at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College (ABAC). Chason said he got a call from his daughter asking if the chemistry lab could donate personal protective equipment to the hospital. “Actually Tracy texted me and said here is an opportunity and through the help of David Bridges, Paul, we were able to put together some supplies from our chemistry. We were able to get some gloves, some aprons, and some mask, they were able to use on very short notice,” said Chason. Tracy Nolan, the first female general surgeon at Tift Regional, knew how urgent it was to get the equipment to the staff to help fight the coronavirus battle.
WRDW
I-TEAM: New research could bring answers about how COVID-19 spreads
By Meredith Anderson | Posted: Wed 6:59 PM, Apr 08, 2020 | Updated: Wed 7:39 PM, Apr 08, 2020
A new research could have world-wide implications. Augusta University researchers are starting a study that could be a game-changer when it comes to coronavirus testing. This new research could give doctors an idea of how the virus spreads, but it could also help makes tests more accurate. Our I-TEAM is uncovering new information that could mean big things for Augusta University. “So what we want to learn is what’s the best way to diagnose it,” Dr. Jose Vazquez said. And the infectious disease expert at AU Health just says nose swab tests — aren’t cutting it.
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State professors use 3D printing to battle COVID-19 pandemic
Aiding in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, two Savannah State University professors are using 3D printing to create masks. SSU professors Nicholas Silberg and Theo Plothe are using 3D printing technology to help create masks for first responders and frontline health care workers, according to a press release from the university. Silberg and Plothe are using a free 3D printing file from a Georgia dentist, who began the Fired by Corona movement, to make as many as eight masks per day. “Each mask takes about four hours to print, though multiple masks can be printed at the same time on the two 3D printers we have in our MakerSpace,” said Silberg. The completed masks will be delivered to a local dentist where they will be disinfected, sealed and fitted with filters to prepare for use in the field.
The Augusta Chronicle
3D printed face shields, medical masks aim to fill gap in protective gear in Augusta
By Tom Corwin
Creative people in the Augusta community and at Augusta University are using 3D printers to create new face shields and medical masks to help address a critical shortage of protective equipment. A bright white pool surrounded a column inside the orange cube, highlighted by a tiny, bright white light moving slowly across the base of the column. Inside this 3D printer in the Center for Instructional Innovation at Augusta University will eventually be eight headbands for reusable face shields that will help fill a gap in the critical supply of personal protective equipment at AU Health System. Elsewhere in Augusta, a gang of makers with 3D printers are looking to create a reusable filtering mask that could be used by first responders and others. As the supply of masks and other PPE grows scarce in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative people in Augusta are creating prototypes and tweaking them with feedback from health care workers and others to then manufacture solutions. After seeing an effort at Georgia Tech to use 3D printing technology to create 10,00 face shields, a group at AU with similar skills was tasked with creating and manufacturing their own version, said Lynsey Ekema, a medical illustrator and instructional designers in the center at AU.
WRDW
AU ‘cautiously optimistic’ about future of COVID-19 in CSRA
By Brady Trapnell
With Gov. Kemp extending his shelter-in-place order until the end of the month, Augusta University Health says they are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the CSRA’s COVID-19 situation. Officials say testing continues to expand, and even new treatment options are developing. AU is seeing progress on the frontlines. “I’m hopeful that we have bent the curve. It’s too early to tell. We don’t want to get overly optimistic,” Dr. Phillip Coule, Chief Medical Officer at AU, said. Dr. Coule is confident because AU’s machines are running more than a thousand tests a day now.
MedicalXpress
How long will the COVID-19 quarantine last? Business research provides insight
by University of Southern California
Amid the historic Covid-19 pandemic, questions about everything from medical supplies to the economy abound. But one question is uppermost in people’s minds: How long will stay-at-home restrictions need to continue in order to stop the disease’s spread? New research from USC Marshall suggests three to more than six weeks, depending on degree of control sought. Gerard Tellis, Neely Chair of American Enterprise, director of the Institute for Outlier Research in Business (iORB) and the Center of Global Innovation, and research partner Ashish Sood of UC Riverside, along with Nitish Sood, a cellular and molecular biology student at Augusta University, have released a paper that parses the possibilities. The study looks at 36 countries and all 50 U.S. states, and finds that the aggressive intervention to contain the coronavirus must be maintained for at least 44 days. They are extending the research to all countries and U.S. states.
WGAU
UGA researchers take on COVID projects
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, researchers at the University of Georgia are hard at work to find solutions to halt the virus. They join top researchers from across the globe in the critical effort to overcome the pandemic—and to do it quickly. Researchers are tackling the virus from multiple angles: creating treatments, providing effective testing, tracking the spread of the virus, and chronicling its effects on society and individuals.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You go, mom: Georgia Tech parent makes case for pass/fail amid pandemic
By Maureen Downey
She says students did not sign up to learn multivariable calculus via webcam
I am getting a lot of emails from unhappy college and grad students, mostly from Georgia Tech and the state’s public law schools. Those students are upset because the University System of Georgia has refused to offer a pass/fail option, as hundreds of colleges, including the most elite in the country, are doing. Grades are critical to law students because their class rankings influence their job opportunities. Grades are important to Georgia Tech because, well, it’s Georgia Tech. See my post about how the USG position on grading for the online courses now underway is at odds with many other places. Most colleges have acknowledged that not all students have returned to home situations that support distance learning. Many are giving their students the choice of a letter grade or pass/fail. Local Georgia Tech parent Cynthia Stuckey sent me a note about her concerns, which I asked if I could share here. She hits all the key points about why a pass/fail option is needed, and I hope USG will consider her persuasive arguments.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: We can’t expect every kid to shift to online learning without skipping a beat
By Maureen Downey
University of Georgia professor suggests ‘incomplete’ is acceptable grade amid pandemic
The top issues dominating my reader emails this week are online learning and grading. University of Georgia education professor and frequent AJC Get School contributor Peter Smagorinsky addresses both today. Among his awards, Smagorinsky earned the Horace Mann League’s 2020 Outstanding Public Educator award. The league gives the award to an educator who has supported public education throughout his or her career. By Peter Smagorinsky There has been a lot written and discussed about how to manage schools this spring. I am not writing today because I’ve discovered the answer. I’m just as perplexed by this brave new world as you are.
WUGA
UGA Libraries Provides Online Resources For Students and Athens Community
By Alexia Ridley
UGA will be providing Maymester and summer semester courses online. One of the components in helping to make that happen is the UGA librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham. “Our goal at the University of Georgia Libraries is to make sure that one of their challenges is not access to knowledge. In a virtual sense we are very much open for business and serving as the university’s gateway to knowledge.” Graham says they providing additional content with temporary emergency access nearly 2 million volumes of books, loans from other libraries and facilities. The facility is also providing access to content for members of the broader community.
Growing Georgia
COVID-19 Keeps Georgia Produce Farmers from Hiring Labor, Exporting Crops
By: Sharon Dowdy
Georgia produce farmers are used to fighting plant diseases on their crops, but planting resistant varieties or spraying pesticides won’t keep Coronavirus (COVID-19) away. This disease has shut down borders and reduced access to the markets where farmers sell their crops, is keeping essential farm labor out of the country, and prevents produce from being imported, too, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension experts. “The difference between Covid-19 and plant diseases, thrips, tariffs and hurricanes, is that, while the others affected the specialty crop industry directly, COVID-19 will indirectly affect the entire industry,” said Greg Fonsah, UGA Extension agricultural economist for vegetables, fruit and pecans. “Since COVID-19 became a pandemic, most countries including the United States have shut down their borders and imposed travel restrictions.” Georgia agriculture has a farm gate value of about $14 billion. Most of the state’s fruits and vegetables are handpicked by seasonal, migrant or immigrant labor.
Athens CEO
UGA, State Agencies Provide Assistance to Small Businesses Applying for Federal Aid
Kelly Simmons
Nearly 1,500 struggling small business owners from across Georgia logged in to UGA Small Business Development Center webinars Monday for guidance in applying for federal assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Webinars will continue Tuesday, April 7, and more may be added based on demand. At Gov. Brian Kemp’s direction, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs partnered to create a website to provide ongoing information to help small businesses. SBDC consultants made eight presentations Monday and will oversee eight more today in an attempt to reach as many small businesses as possible.
Valdosta Daily Times
Georgia film industry in limbo
By Riley Bunch
While demand for movies and television shows is at an all-time high with Georgians stuck at home, film production in the state is on pause. The industry that brings in nearly $10 billion worth of economic impact per year in revenue and jobs to Georgia is — like most all other sectors of the economy — on hold while the nation and the world grapple with a global health pandemic. Many film industry workers are among the thousands filing for unemployment. But state officials are optimistic and say workers should be prepared for a boom in the industry after the outbreak is over as production companies make up for lost time. Juliette Sicard has been working as a prop assistant for almost four years. She said some studios have offered to support their full-time staff, as a “day player,” hired on an as-needed basis, she’s had to fall back on her savings and file for unemployment.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Fewer Enrollments, Lost Income to Pressure Universities’ Finances: Moody’s
Lower student enrolments and lost income will pressure higher education institutions worldwide, due to the global coronavirus pandemic, said bond ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service. Public U.S. universities will be under more pressure because of potential government funding cuts and lower income from investments, said the agency. Decreased investment income is especially on the cards for those universities that rely heavily on endowments, which are, more often than not, linked to the financial markets.
Inside Higher Ed
Study finds that when states ban affirmative action, their numbers of underrepresented minority students go down, for the long run.
By Scott Jaschik
The states that have banned affirmative action have seen the share of underrepresented minority students admitted to and enrolling in public universities go down. The trends are especially notable in that demographic trends have added to the supply of underrepresented minority students in the states. These are the conclusions of a new study by Mark Long at the University of Washington and Nicole Bateman at the Brookings Institution, published Tuesday in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a journal of the American Educational Research Association. The study explores the long-term impacts of the bans, which started in the late 1990s and continue to this day. Early bans were adopted in California, Florida and Washington, and later bans were adopted by Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. (Idaho joined the group last month but is not in the study.) The study examined 19 public universities in the states that have banned affirmative action, and it examined enrollments through 2015.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
4 Colleges, 2 Weeks, One Choice: How Covid-19 Scattered U.S. Higher Education
As the pandemic spread, campus presidents came to grips with a reality that had once been unthinkable — and helped pave the way for the rest of the country to follow suit.
By Lindsay Ellis APRIL 8, 2020
Over 11 days, more than 100 institutions announced plans to take instruction online
There’s a story the president of Claremont McKenna College used to tell to describe what makes his college special. It goes like this: A prospective student chatted with her host student in the lobby of a campus building. In just 30 minutes, 17 people interrupted their conversation. The anecdote showcased the college’s warmth, its connectedness. A student is one point in an ever-growing web, with countless lines extending outward — to peers, to professors, to alumni, and beyond. But as the novel coronavirus took hold, the president, Hiram Chodosh, saw the story in a new light. Seventeen students in 30 minutes. Every two minutes, an interaction. Say one person tested positive for the virus. How fast might the disease work through the web? Chodosh responded to the pandemic by upending everything. He and hundreds of other college presidents pushed students away, shut down international travel, and scrambled classes. In effect, they stopped the heart of residential higher education: the serendipity and in-person connections that until March prevailed at Claremont McKenna and colleges from coast to coast.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Pandemic Is Already Hitting Sectors Unevenly, Never Mind the Hitches in Federal Relief
By Goldie Blumenstyk
The effects of the pandemic hit unevenly across higher ed.
College leaders spent the past month sending students home from campuses and overseeing a frantic pivot to remote learning. Now, before they’ve even taken a breath, new uncertainties loom: Can they reopen in the fall? Will students return? In what ways will colleges have to change? Will they survive at all? Answers to most of these top-of-mind questions are still unknown. Still, you know things are dire when even the most steadfast defender of the viability of small colleges — Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges — now acknowledges that “quite a lot of colleges are in jeopardy.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Quandary: Support for Sick Students, Plus Orientation in the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
How do you support a student who tests positive for Covid-19?
A student in your course tells you, “I have the coronavirus.” Now what? An abstract possibility has become a reality in your virtual classroom. But this isn’t the first college student to contract the virus, and it won’t be the last. Keep in mind that the virus affects people in different ways. Some may be bedridden for weeks, or hospitalized, while others will experience relatively mild symptoms and recover in a matter of days. Of course, the student’s health is the first priority. Consider each case on an individual basis, knowing that the circumstances could change quickly. Your student may still want to continue his or her coursework, and it’s your job to help however you can. If you have past experience in accommodating students with physical or mental-health challenges, consider what worked well, what didn’t, and what approaches might be appropriate to adapt. There is no uniform prescription for supporting a sick student. Every instance will be different, and that’s OK.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Coronavirus Brings Extra Uncertainty For DACA Students Awaiting a Supreme Court Decision
by Sara Weissman
Luz Chavez, a junior at Trinity Washington University, became her family’s only source of income after her mother lost her service job last month because of the coronavirus. A triple major in education, sociology and political science, Chavez works as a youth leader at United We Dream, an organization that advocates for immigrant rights. She’s also a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era policy that protects immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. It’s what allows students like Chavez to work in the country. “It’s been very overwhelming to say the least how much this pandemic has affected my mental health, how much it’s affected my personal family,” she said. “And struggling with all that knowing the Supreme Court can rule on DACA, it’s really nerve-wracking.” DACA students like Chavez have been in limbo for months, as the U.S. Supreme Court continues to deliberate on whether to uphold the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to end the DACA program. Now, amidst the coronavirus crisis, both DACA and undocumented students face even more questions about their future.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Before the coronavirus shuttered universities nationwide, it turned Seattle’s college leaders into early responders. Their decisions shaped a nation’s reaction.
By Nell Gluckman
Amy Morrison was at home when she got a call that made her heart sink. It was Saturday, February 29. Morrison watched on her TV as county and state public-health officials provided an alarming series of updates about the spread of the new coronavirus: A man from Kirkland, Wash., the Seattle suburb where Morrison and her family lived, had died after being infected. His was the first recorded death from the virus in the United States. Two people from a Kirkland nursing facility had tested positive, and many more had symptoms. Another 50 people who’d been at the facility would need to be tested. Workers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on their way to the region. Morrison, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology, a local community college, was horrified. ….But it was the call she got that afternoon that brought matters even closer to home. The college’s vice president for instruction told her that at least 16 students and two members of the faculty had been at the Kirkland nursing facility, the Life Care Center, that same week. …On February 29, the phrase “social distancing” was not yet a part of the general lexicon. The most disruptive advice many Americans had been given was to stop touching their faces. Colleges had not yet moved classes online, cities had not been shut down, national borders were still open. Morrison’s decisions in that moment could influence not only how many people got sick, but also how disruptive the virus would be for people who were not yet infected. Leaders of other colleges would be closely watching what Morrison did, and very likely using her decisions to calibrate their own. The president had a million questions. Should her students isolate themselves? For how long? Who else needed to be warned about possible exposure? What about students’ privacy?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why New Research Calls Some Flagships ‘Land-Grab Universities’
By Bennett Leckrone
Public universities across the United States got their start through the sale of vast amounts of land — property that researchers say was largely stolen from Native Americans. The Morrill Act of 1862 gave states thousands of acres of federal land to use for education funding. Large public universities across the country owe their existence to the countless parcels of land that were developed or auctioned off in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A new project reveals an uncomfortable truth about the origins of land-grant universities. But beneath the federal government’s seemingly generous donation to American higher education lies an uncomfortable truth: It was largely expropriated from indigenous peoples. Robert Lee, a lecturer in American history at the University of Cambridge and a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, spent years reconstructing the parcels that gave land-grant universities their start. He and other researchers published a lengthy, data-rich investigation last week in High Country News, rebranding the colleges as “land-grab” institutions.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FDA approves clinical trials for Emory’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment
By Eric Stirgus
Emory University has the green light to begin human clinical trials for a drug that researchers hope will treat the novel coronavirus, officials said Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an Investigational New Drug application for EIDD-2801, an antiviral compound, which can be taken orally. The drug was developed several years ago to battle a broad spectrum of viruses and has shown strong results in animal testing against influenza.
WTOC
Savannah nurses head to work in New York
Healthcare workers are facing tremendous challenges from the pandemic all across the country — in some places worse than others. Two nurses from Savannah have gone to where it is worst. Megan Siddel and Elizabeth Landrum have traveled to New York City for an eight-week assignment at one of the city’s over-stressed hospitals.
The Dahlonega Nugget
After work in NYC, north Georgia nurse urges state to prepare
By News Staff
By Shane Scoggins / CNI Regional Staff
A mission of mercy to help New York City coronavirus patients has led a Franklin County native to come home with warnings for her state. “Hopefully with someone you know personally who has seen New York, a hot spot and war zone up close, you can listen and trust the words,” nurse Joanna Davis Malcom wrote on her Facebook page recently. “Georgia is potentially right behind and we need to take small action NOW so we will be prepared. Hopefully not, but let’s be prepared. Healthcare workers, as well as people at home. We need action amongst ourselves. Do not wait for leadership to tell you what to do. Decide to do the right thing for your household now.” Malcom returned last week from working in a New York hospital and seeing up-close the chaos the virus has caused in the city’s healthcare system.
“There were people dying all around you,” she said. “It was a literal war zone.” Malcom, who works at an outpatient surgery center in Athens, felt led to travel to New York City, which has been hit harder with the virus than any other part of the country.