University System News:
WGXA
MGSU to lend a helping hand against COVID-19
by Whitney Hines
The School of Aviation at Middle Georgia State University is lending a helping hand in the fight against COVID-19. Lyle Perry, assistant chief flight instructor, says that the school is partnering with Angel Flight of Georgia to deliver tests via plane to help decrease the turnaround time for test results. “As the state of Georgia and the nation moves forward with, you know, kind of ramping up the testing and trying to get the results back as quickly as possible, we are honored and humbled to really be a part of it,” Perry says. The team of Perry and another instructor will prepare for flight at the base in Eastman and fly to Macon Regional Airport where they will meet a courier with COVID-19 tests from Navicent Health. The tests will be flown to an airport in Monroe County, where the team will hand off the tests to be delivered to a laboratory near Charlotte, North Carolina. Perry says the tests will be secured in a cooler, and the team will have gloves and masks to avoid any contamination.
Valdosta Daily Times
Virtual Stage: VSU holds online graduation amidst pandemic
VSU holds online graduation amidst pandemic
By Amanda M. Usher
Valdosta State University graduates had their day. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several event cancellations, including the traditional VSU 229th spring commencement, but the university still wanted to honor its graduates. VSU planned to stream the virtual undergraduate and graduate ceremonies on its website Saturday night, but technical difficulties derailed the plan. Instead, the ceremonies both streamed on YouTube Live where families and friends filled the comment section with congratulatory remarks. Multiple supporters of the graduates expressed how proud they felt. On a separate site, “Pomp and Circumstance” played in the background as the names of students were called with their degree programs listed similar to the traditional commencement. Some slides were accompanied by photos of the students and comments from them. …The website included a video address from Gov. Brian Kemp, who mentioned the unexpected situation of seniors completing their college careers online. He said students will now be prepared to enter the workforce and face their next challenge. “Graduation may look a little different this year but know that Georgia is proud and cheering you on,” he said. “From my family to yours, congratulations to the Class of 2020.”
Albany Herald
UGA welcomes 7,324 new graduates, plans fall commencement
From staff reports
The University of Georgia welcomed its newest alumni recently as 5,958 undergraduates and 1,366 graduate students — a total of 7,324 — have met requirements to walk in the university’s spring commencement, tentatively scheduled for the fall if federal and state health officials deem it safe. The undergraduate ceremony is planned for Oct. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in Sanford Stadium. Forty-four students will be recognized as First Honor Graduates during the undergraduate exercises for maintaining a 4.0 cumulative GPA in all work completed at UGA, as well as all college-level transfer work done prior to or following enrollment at the university.
Athens CEO
UGA Scientist Leads Coronavirus Research on Griffin Campus
Sharon Dowdy
Back in January when she heard COVID-19 had been identified, Malak Esseili stopped taking her children along on trips to the grocery store. She also called her sisters and told them to begin wearing infinity scarfs they could easily use as makeshift masks while in public. As an assistant professor of food virology at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Esseili has been focused on studying the microbial ecology of human viral pathogens (such as human noroviruses), and now her work includes the emerging viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
Health 24
Why are certain people more at risk if infected with Covid-19? Scientists may have a clue
Statistics show that the elderly and those with co-morbidities appear to be in a high-risk category, if infected with Covid-19. But why is this?
From the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, health authorities have listed people older than 60 and those with chronic disease in the high-risk category for coronavirus. Now, investigators reported that a group of tiny RNA that would usually attack SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, as soon as it tries to infect the body, diminish with age and chronic health problems. … With ageing, and in the case of chronic disease, the levels of microRNAs that are responsible for so many regulations in your body are starting to dwindle, which also affects your ability to fight off various infections from bacteria and viruses, according to Dr Carlos M. Isales, co-director of the MCG Center for Healthy Aging and chief of the MCG Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
WCTV
Valdosta State developing potential treatment for COVID-19
By Emma Wheeler
College classes are still online, but some students and faculty at Valdosta State University are still hard at work in the lab. They’re working on developing an antiviral that could be used to treat COVID-19. University professor Dr. Thomas Manning says this development is a natural segue from several existing projects. Drug development has been going on at VSU for nearly two decades, mainly focuses on cancer treatment. The last dozen years, he says there has been a shift to look at antibiotics.
The Augusta Chronicle
AU study to look for long-term damage from COVID-19 to nerves, brain
By Tom Corwin
The virus that causes COVID-19 can enter the brain and infect brain cells and that and its ability to also generate clots could be leading to strokes and other problems like losing the sense of smell, said researchers at Augusta University. Neurologist Elizabeth Rutkowski opens the smell identification test and flips to a page. …The seemingly simple test could provide a clue about a common side effect of COVID-19 that might signal nerve damage or even more extensive damage to the brain that could haunt patients for years. It is another sign of how the coronavirus that causes it could not only be contributing to strokes and other problems but also behaving in ways ordinary respiratory viruses do not. “This is undoubtedly going into people’s brains,” said Dr. David Hess, the dean of the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. Rutkowski is heading up a research study at AU seeking hundreds of recovered COVID-19 patients to follow for at least a year and probably over multiple years to gauge the long-term effects of the infection.
Indian Express
New Research: Why does age make it more difficult to fight Covid-19?
A group of molecules that should be fighting the virus are diminished with age and chronic health problems, researchers report in the journal Aging and Disease.
Written by Kabir Firaque
Data across countries has shown that age and underlying health conditions make people more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A new study has now suggested a possible genetic explanation for this. A group of molecules that should be fighting the virus are diminished with age and chronic health problems, researchers report in the journal Aging and Disease. These molecules are tiny RNA, called microRNA, and are non-coding molecules, meaning that they do not translate into protein. MicroRNAs play a major role in our body in controlling the expression of genes, and more importantly in the context of Covid-19, they are part of our line of attack against a viral infection. They fight the virus by latching on to the virus’s genetic material (RNA) and cutting it. …In the study, the reporters identified what appear to be the key microRNAs involved in responding to this virus. Then they looked at existing literature on these microRNAs, specifically in the context of age and certain health conditions. “We identified these miRNA based on miRNA sequence and coronavirus RNA genome sequence. Then co-related with existing literature in aging and underlying conditions,” Dr Sadanand Fulzele, researcher on ageing at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, told The Indian Express by email.
Savannah Morning News
Q&A, Tech expert: Virus to forever change way we work, live
The following is an excerpt from a recent “The Commute” podcast discussion featuring Savannah-based tech expert Aleshia Howell. “The Commute” is presented by National Office Systems and features interviews and roundtable discussions on news and issues impacting Savannah.
Question: As if we needed a reminder of just how vital technology is to our lives, the coronavirus-related quarantines have us all embracing tech tools in order to work, educate, even to feed ourselves by ordering groceries and take-out online. Once the COVID-19 threat wanes, to what extent do we carry on with these tech solutions?
Howell: “Quite a lot, honestly, especially when it comes to working remotely. Of course, we know that Savannah is a place with a lot of remote workers. Even before the pandemic, a lot of people in Savannah were working for companies in California, in Texas, in New York. As people are now experiencing remote work perhaps for the first time, they are understanding that you don’t necessarily need to go into an office to get to get done what you need to get done every day. “This is as much as a personality thing as it is a technology thing. Some people need to be around people to feel productive. But I predict we will see more people start to stay home. And because of the need for distancing, we’ll start to see open-plan offices being less of a thing.”
Question: What about food take-out? Restaurants are probably in for a harder recovery than most any other industry. Does the fact that many adapted to this situation by offering curbside take-out bode well for them in the future?
Venture Beat
How universities can help save the startup model
Steven W. Mclaughlin
Amid the uncertain economic times of COVID-19, many startups are experiencing a stress test that may prove too challenging to overcome. A swath of entrepreneurial companies — small and large, new and established — are cutting jobs and pivoting their business models in the face of declining spending and funding. In fact, venture capital funding in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive quarters, according to CB Insights. But entrepreneurship doesn’t have to go on hold as the country slogs back toward normalcy. Universities can offer young entrepreneurs the funding, safety, and flexibility to dream big and create world-changing innovations. Entrepreneurial education has been flourishing at colleges and universities around the country; degrees and diplomas in entrepreneurship have grown by five times since 1975, according to the Kauffman Foundation. And you are more likely to find success as an entrepreneur if you start at one of the approximately 250 startup accelerator programs offered by U.S. universities. Notable programs exist at MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Georgia Tech, for example. According to a study of more than 150 university incubators and almost 900 companies, businesses created and cultivated at higher education institutions generated more jobs and more sales than those incubated elsewhere.
Inside Higher Ed
Risks and Rewards of Resuming Fall Football
Some college athletics officials are confidently moving ahead on plans to open the 2020 fall football season despite uncertainties about how to protect players from coronavirus infection.
By Greta Anderson
The message out of Texas A&M University is clear and confident: there will be Aggie football this fall. Whether or not the university is able to fill its 102,733-seat stadium to capacity, A&M wants to be a national and state symbol of the return to normalcy after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the College Station campus along with much of the country. … There’s pressure on these institutions to not only bring athletes back, but to put paying fans back in the stands and resume the important game-day rituals that bring in millions in yearly ticket sales and donation revenue for athletic departments, said Welch Suggs, associate director of the Grady Sports Media Initiative at the University of Georgia. Suggs noted the strong ties that exist in the South between college football and civic and business leaders in these states, including at Georgia, which, like A&M, is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I Southeastern Conference. “College football is where it’s at in the South,” Suggs said. “No other sport has the footprint that football does, in terms of the size and scope or where it fits in our psychology.” Some commenters on social media point to the low death rate due to COVID-19 reported among college-age individuals as a reason to have the fall season, but Suggs finds this logic unacceptable. Colleges are going to do their best to make the return to campus and sports as safe as possible, but the idea of students getting COVID-19 or dying of the illness is “what’s keeping everybody up at night,” he said.
SaportaReport
Georgia Tech president: Fostering global collaboration, local action in 21st century
David Pendered
Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera portrays a new e-learning program on sustainability as a result of the type of university-based global coalition needed to solve big problems in the 21st century. Cabrera cited vaccine research into COVID-19 as an example of a global response to a global challenge: Because researchers in China provided the world with the gene sequence early in the pandemic, in January, researchers throughout the world could turn immediately to developing an effective vaccine. This approach to problem solving is embodied in the new course. “Global collaboration is essential, as is local action,” Cabrera said. “This situation we’re in is teaching us that, to make a difference, we have to collaborate globally while acting locally to find new approaches that none of us, alone, could come up with.”
WGAU
UGA Science Fair went virtual because of coronavirus
By: Sue Myers Smith
The premier annual science and engineering competition for Georgia middle and high schoolers was quickly transitioned to an online judging format for 2020 because of growing concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Normally, the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair is held at the Classic Center in downtown Athens, with about 750 students and hundreds of judges and volunteers in attendance. Despite the major changes to the format of presentations and judging, 593 students from across the state participated in the online competition by recording videos of their projects and uploading their supporting materials. Spread out over several weeks, more than 200 judges evaluated the senior division projects in late March and junior division projects in early April. Finalists were judged in additional rounds, and 225 students were awarded nearly $25,000 in prizes. This year’s main event sponsor was Burns & McDonnell, with individual awards sponsored by a host of organizations.
Growing America
Willacoochee Student Receives Top Academic Award at ABAC
Abby Unger, a senior biology major from Willacoochee, has been selected as the top academic student at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. As ABAC’s J.G. Woodroof Scholar, Unger represented the college in Atlanta in February when the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia hosted the Academic Recognition Day students from each of the 26 colleges and universities in the USG at its meeting. Chancellor Steve Wrigley then honored the students at a luncheon, attended by ABAC President David Bridges and Unger’s family. The Woodroof Scholar Award is named for Dr. J.G. Woodroof, the first president of ABAC in 1933.
Other News:
Capitol-Beat
Furloughs, layoffs not yet clear for Georgia schools amid budget cuts
by Beau Evans
Georgia education officials got their first look Thursday at budget cuts ahead for public schools and programs amid coronavirus but did not dive into specifics on whether staff furloughs or layoffs may be needed. The Georgia Department of Education is facing across-the-board cuts of around $1.6 billion to all aspects of the agency, from state administrative offices in Atlanta to specialty programs like agricultural education to everyday basic classroom education. Those cuts come as part of 14% spending reductions that all state agencies must propose to state lawmakers by May 20, as business closures and social distancing spurred by coronavirus look to put state revenues in a $3 billion to $4 billion hole. The blow to some educational programs will be softened since the agency was already gearing up for 6% budget reductions Gov. Brian Kemp ordered last summer for the fiscal 2021 budget, officials said Thursday at a State Board of Education meeting.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Latest Atlanta coronavirus news: Georgia COVID-19 deaths pass 1,600
There are now 1,609 deaths from COVID-19 and 37,552 confirmed cases
Higher Education News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SCAD student sues school over coronavirus online learning plan
By Eric Stirgus
A Savannah College of Art & Design student has filed a class action lawsuit against the school over its switch to online learning after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the school to close its campuses to prevent the spread of the disease. SCAD is one of several colleges and universities across the nation being sued on claims that its online learning was poorly done or was not worth the thousands of dollars students paid for such instruction. An Emory University student filed a class action lawsuit against that school last week. The SCAD student, Makari Roehrkasse, says the university, among other things, breached its contract with students by not offering them refunds if they did not want to take online courses. The complaint says SCAD students need physical resources to complete their education, making online learning difficult.
NPR
Congress Gave Colleges A $14 Billion Lifeline. Here’s Where It’s Going
Elissa Nadworny
College dorms are closed; athletic events are canceled; classes have moved online. Like so many sectors of the U.S. economy, higher education is taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Congress set aside more than $14 billion to help colleges and universities weather the outbreak. Here’s where most of that money has gone, and why many colleges are holding out for more:
Inside Higher Ed
More State Cuts as Congress Splits on Local Aid
By Kery Murakami
As Democrats in the House were preparing to pass a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Friday that had already been rejected by the Republican Senate, news from Michigan illustrated the stakes for higher education in whether Congress will be able to reach an agreement on sending aid to states. A state senate revenue forecast said Michigan, bludgeoned by the coronavirus epidemic, will have to cut $2.6 billion from its current budget, which runs through September, The Detroit News reported. It will also have $3.3 billion less to spend in next year’s budget. Daniel Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities, told Inside Higher Ed in an interview that he’s concerned colleges will have their funding slashed in a state that already ranks 44th nationally in per-capita higher education funding. News of the coming state cuts to colleges, Hurley said, “is simultaneously unsurprising, yet surreal because of its magnitude.” Michigan became the latest state to announce it will have to make major budget cuts as it feels the effects of shuttered businesses, rising unemployment and additional health-care costs during the pandemic. “I think all eyes are on Congress,” Hurley said, to rescue the states.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
AP Tests During Covid-19: Heartbreak, Technical Glitches, and Anonymous Intrigue
By Eric Hoover
… All over the world, test takers encountered similar frustrations. Complaints from students and parents, high-school counselors and admissions officials, lit up the Twittersphere. Many described the same thing: technical glitches, an inability to submit answers, and roaring anger at the College Board, an organization that so often finds itself in the middle of controversy. How many students ran into problems? After the first day, the College Board announced that AP testing was “off to a great start,” with less than 1 percent of about 376,000 students experiencing technical difficulties. The next day, the organization said less than 1 percent of approximately 640,000 students had hit a problem. Day 3? Less than 1 percent, it said, of 456,000 students. If the College Board’s assertions were correct, that would still amount to tech trouble with nearly 15,000 exams.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Here’s What College Leaders Said in Their Covid-19 Call With the White House
By Lindsay Ellis
College presidents want to open their campuses in the fall, but they’re aware that lawsuits could follow no matter their course of action, a group of university leaders told White House officials this week. The group of 14 presidents spoke virtually with Vice President Mike Pence, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus-response coordinator, on Wednesday. The federal officials did not urge colleges to bring students back to campus next fall or to keep them away, according to two presidents in attendance. But Pence wrote afterward on Twitter that the college leaders are “stepping up” to return students to their campuses in the fall as higher education deals with the Covid-19 pandemic. The two presidents interviewed by The Chronicle confirmed that the group had discussed legal issues connected to the coronavirus and campus operations. The issue of liability could emerge in two main areas, said Heather Wilson, president of the University of Texas at El Paso, who was on the call. The first would be from students seeking tuition refunds for online classes in the form of lawsuits like the ones Drexel University and the University of Miami have seen this spring. The second would be if campuses resumed in-person operations, and people got sick upon returning.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Faculty Cuts Begin, With Warnings of More to Come
By Emma Pettit
The top brass’s message was clear: When talking about the instructors who won’t be reappointed, at least for now, department chairs at the University of Massachusetts at Boston should stick to the script. “Never slip and call this a layoff,” reads a Monday talking-points memo from the provost’s office, obtained by The Chronicle. Similarly, “do not speak of this notice as a kind of ‘pink slip.’” This week, letters were sent to an unknown number of instructors, telling them that they won’t be reappointed for the fall, with the caveat that things could change over the summer. “I am very sorry for the consternation I know this will cause you,” Emily A. McDermott, the interim provost, says in the form letter.
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges face a host of daunting considerations, beyond testing for coronavirus infection, when it comes to reopening.
By Elizabeth Redden
May 18, 2020
With all the focus on when colleges reopen, how they will do so has gotten less attention. As college administrators across the country continue announcing plans to reopen their institutions this fall, two important questions have been largely lost in the debates over those decisions. What will it take for colleges to reopen responsibly as long as there is no vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 — and how realistic is it that colleges can put measures in place by fall? Testing, contact tracing and isolation and quarantining of ill individuals are among the steps public health experts say will have to be taken. But myriad other measures will also have to adopted. A 20-page document from the American College Health Association outlines considerations for colleges to take into account, from local public health challenges to containment and surveillance capabilities of campuses to the need to space out students in residence and dining halls. The ideal, the guidance states, would be to have one resident per room and per bathroom, which is not how most college dormitories are currently set up.
Inside Higher Ed
Dropping the SAT and ACT — for Good
University of California plan could change the role of standardized testing in admissions — and not just for the UC system.
By Scott Jaschik
University of California president Janet Napolitano last week proposed a revision in the way the system admits students: a five-year plan to gradually reduce and eliminate the role of the SAT and ACT in admissions. They would be replaced by a new test to be developed by the system in what could be the greatest challenge to the SAT and ACT to date. These days, many colleges are going test optional, some because of the COVID-19 pandemic and only for a year or two. The University of California proposal is admittedly influenced in part by the pandemic, but work on the UC system plan started before coronavirus arrived in the United States, and it is designed to outlast the virus. As such, it could represent much more of a threat to the College Board and ACT than the temporary test-optional plans, because the University of California is so large and prestigious.