University System News:
The Newnan Times-Herald
USG students made academic progress despite COVID-19
University System of Georgia (USG) students continued to make successful academic progress despite the rapid shift to remote instruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Spirng 2020 grades remain at least as strong as those earned by students in previous spring semesters, according to a release from USG. A new systemiwide grading analysis of all 26 USG institutions shows significantly more “A” grades awarded this spring and lower rates of students failing or withdrawing from courses.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA students’ grades higher in pandemic-altered semester
By Lee Shearer
Students at the University of Georgia got more A’s this spring semester than in spring 2019, according to an analysis by the University System of Georgia, the state’s network of public colleges and universities. Students at Georgia’s 25 other public colleges and universities also got higher grades, the analysis revealed.
Emanuel County Live
By Whitley Clifton
Dear friends of East Georgia State College,
As each of you recalls vividly, in mid-March 2020 the University System of Georgia (USG) directed all 26 USG institutions to transition to fully online delivery of educational programs. This directive was given to protect the health and safety of faculty, staff and students as the COVID-19 pandemic intensified. EGSC carried out that transition successfully including a virtual Honors Night and Commencement. Since mid-March, most EGSC employees have been teleworking—teaching classes, processing applications for admission, registering students, and carrying out all of the other activities necessary to keep the college running smoothly. They have done an outstanding job! More recently, the USG directed all USG institutions to submit a plan for the initial summer 2020 return to campus of faculty and staff. EGSC submitted its plan.
The Times-Georgian
Melson society pays library fines of UWG spring grads
By Stephanie Allen
The Penelope Melson Society has paid the late fees for the seniors at the University of West Georgia who are graduating in Spring 2020. The society’s board recently voted to pay off the fines for spring graduates. Under ordinary circumstances, those seniors would have their diplomas withheld until they paid any overdue fines at the library.
Patch
Students At Georgia Highlands College Can Now Join The Rapidly Growing Film Industry In Georgia
The courses will be taught by Ingram as well as Assistant Professor of Humanities Amy Gandolfi.
Students will now have the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to work in one of the fastest growing film industries right here in Georgia with a new pathway offered at Georgia Highlands College. Starting this fall, GHC students in the new film pathway will choose between a Film Studies or a Film Production track putting them on the path to join any one of the hundreds of productions currently being filmed in Georgia for movies like Marvel’s “Avengers” series or Netflix shows like “Stranger Things.”
WGAU
UGA provides more specifics on plan to reopen campus
By: Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia says, the coronavirus campus closure notwithstanding, the University has seen record enrollment for its summer semester classes, with students taking their classes on-line: UGA is aiming to have its students back on campus when fall semester starts in August. There are also ongoing plans to have University employees begin their moves back to campus on June 15.
From UGA president Jere Morehead…
Last week we informed you that the University of Georgia would begin Phase I of our gradual reopening plan on Monday, June 15. Today we are providing you with the “Return to Campus Guidelines for Faculty and Staff.”
Town News
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College students will see fall changes
From staff reports
With in-person instruction already planned for the fall semester, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will take another bold step when fall classes begin on Aug. 12 by compressing the semester calendar so that ABAC students will get a longer break than usual between the fall and spring terms. “This new compressed semester calendar allows ABAC to complete a full fall semester of face to face instruction so that students can finish all their classes and final exams prior to Thanksgiving,” ABAC President David Bridges said. “When the students go home for the Thanksgiving break, they will not return to campus until the spring semester in January. “Students and their parents will save time and money, and since the students will not return to campus after Thanksgiving, the opportunity for a virus outbreak on campus in December will be eliminated.” Bridges said the extra days during December without students on campus also will give ABAC personnel more time to thoroughly clean residence halls, classrooms, laboratories, and the dining hall.
Business Insider
One big question on the mind of 2020 college grads — otherwise known as the “class of COVID-19” — is what they’ll do next….J. Celeste Walley-Jean, dean at Clayton State University’s School of Graduate Studies & Inclusive Engagement, noted that another indicator that the timing may be right to attend graduate school is cost. “To address the impact of COVID-19, many institutions, including Clayton State, have temporarily reduced or eliminated some fees, making some graduate programs more affordable,” Walley-Jean said.
New York Post
Questions to ask if you’re deliberating whether to attend college this fall
By Jillian Berman, Marketwatch
Whether you’re a freshman coming to college or a returning student, there isn’t much certainty about the fall semester. Individual colleges are periodically announcing plans — often subject to change — for courses that are fully online, largely in-person or some kind of hybrid. In addition, it’s hard to envision what the experience of attending college in the midst of a global pandemic and accompanying economic recession will look like — and whether it’s worth the hefty investment. But students and families can control how they react. The unknowns have some students considering taking a gap year, transferring to a different institution for a period or even changing their college choice overall. By gathering the right data, they can make an informed decision about their plans for the fall. …Jean Chin, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Georgia, who is also chairing the American College Health Association’s COVID-19 task force, said there are a whole slew of pandemic-specific questions, including: How are you going to support my physical and mental health? What will happen if the student gets sick in the residence halls? Does the school have its own health service? If not, where will they send students who need their health care needs met?” Parents and students should also try to get an understanding of how a college will handle a situation where one student is infringing on another’s health, Chin said.
WALB
New partnerships aim to connect military caregivers with support
By Emileigh Forrester
Loved ones of military members and veterans now have new ways to learn to take care of themselves. The Rosalynn Carter Institute (RCI) for Caregiving in Americus announced three new partnerships with organizations to help military caregivers. “People who haven’t served, regardless of their intentions, they don’t really know what happens when your loved one comes home from war,” said caregiver Deidre Blascyk, who also serves as a coach for fellow caregivers through the RCI’s program called “Operation Family Caregiver” (OFC). Blascyk described many struggles military caregivers face, including managing finances, appointments and medications for those veterans or military members they serve. “We are on call 24/7,” she explained. “If you can name it, it’s a job that we do as a caregiver.”
Athens CEO
UGA Professor Cesar Escalante Honored for Excellence in Mentoring
Maria M. Lameiras
University of Georgia Professor Cesar Escalante has been selected to receive the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Mentoring Award. Escalante joined the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2001 as an assistant professor after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was promoted to associate professor in 2007 and then to professor in July 2015. AAEA is the premier national academic and professional organization in the field of agricultural economics. Its mentoring award, new this year, recognizes association members who have systematically shown consistent, outstanding efforts in fostering junior, female and/or minority colleagues. …Escalante was recognized for his mentoring work with his minority graduate student advisees.
Flagstick
Canada’s Darcy Donaldson Named NCAA Division II Dave Williams National Golf Coach Of The Year
Scott MacLeod
Darcy Donaldson has earned yet another accolade for his collegiate golf coaching prowess. The Marathon, Ontario native was named as the winner of the Dave Williams National Coach of Year Award presented by Golf Pride Grips over the weekend by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). Donaldson, the Head Coach at Division II Georgia Southwestern (GSW), was recognized alongside five other coaches from their respective divisions. …Donaldson says it was tough finish to the season with it being shortened due to the Covid-19 pandemic but admits the attention from the award may be helpful in attracting future student athletes to the school in Americus, Georgia, and the Hurricane golf program.
11Alive
Georgia Tech police officer dies of COVID-19
Officer James Cornacchia was a husband and father to three young children.
Author: Jason Braverman
The Georgia Tech community is mourning the loss of one of their own. Officer James Cornacchia, of the Georgia Tech Police Department, lost his battle with COVID-19, the university announced today. Cornacchia, who was with the department for nearly 20 years, most recently worked with the department’s patrol unit.
Clayton Crescent
PODCAST: Dr. Eric Bridges on systemic racism
In Episode 22 of The Real Story with Robin Kemp, Dr. Eric Bridges, professor of psychology at Clayton State University, talks about systemic racism and its effect on African-Americans.
Athens CEO
UGA to Receive $475,000 Grant to Improve Crop Production
Staff Report
U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) announced the University of Georgia (UGA) will be receiving $475,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to improve crop production. The grant will allow UGA to study “blossom-end rot” in tomatoes.
WRDW
I-TEAM: AU expert says contact tracing may not help much with 2nd COVID-19 wave
By Meredith Anderson
Even before large groups started to gather for protests, experts warned of a possible second wave of coronavirus. But this time, both Georgia and South Carolina will be better prepared with contact tracers. But Augusta University’s chief of infectious diseases says it could be too little, too late.
Other News:
CBS46
Coronavirus cases may have grown again in Georgia
Tim Kephart
New data coming in shows Georgia may be heading for a jump in COVID-19 cases, even before all of the demonstrations and protests started. According to RT.live, a site that models and calculates the rate of how quickly a virus spread, Georgia is number two on the list of states with the fastest growing coronavirus spread in the United States. The Rt rate is defined here as the effective reproduction rate of the virus. Values over 1.0 mean the area should expect to see more cases and under 1.0 should yield fewer cases. Georgia’s current RT rate is 1.14, second only to North Carolina’s 1.38. Georgia and other southern states including Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina all have Rt rates above 1.0 which should show a growth in the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia’s number has been above 1.0 for at least the last two weeks.
Time
WHO Resumes Study of Hydroxychloroquine for Treating COVID-19
By Alice Park
n June 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) resumed a study looking into whether the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could be effective in treating COVID-19. Last week, the WHO temporarily stopped people from enrolling in the trial, part of a larger study called Solidarity that is investigating a number of different potential coronavirus therapies, over concerns about the hydroxychloroquine’s adverse effects on the heart. That followed the publication of a Lancet study on May 22, involving more than 96,000 people, which found that the drug did not improve survival among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and that these patients were more likely to develop heart rhythm abnormalities, a known risk factor of the drug, than those not given the medication. (After questions about how a data collection agency gathered the data, three of the authors decided to retract the study.) Other studies have similarly found that people taking hydroxychloroquine do not benefit; the results of one trial conducted in New York suggested that COVID-19 patients taking the drug were just as likely to need a ventilator and to die from the illness than those not receiving the drug.
The Washington Post
Researchers retract study that found big risks in using hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19
Study authors say they can’t vouch for the data they used.
By Laurie McGinley
Three of the authors of a study that found the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine was dangerous for hospitalized covid-19 patients retracted it Thursday, saying they could “no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.” The retraction notice was posted by the medical journal Lancet, which had published the study on May 22. The study, purportedly based on the health records of almost 100,000 patients around the world, found that hospitalized covid-19 patients treated with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine — a drug repeatedly touted by President Trump — had a sharply higher risk of death and heart problems compared to those who did not receive the drug. It also showed the drug didn’t provide a benefit. The study was “observational,” which is less rigorous than a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LATEST GEORGIA FIGURES (updated June 4, 3pm): Deaths: 2,147 | Confirmed cases: 49,847
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What Does Trauma-Informed Teaching Look Like?
By Beth McMurtrie
An Explainer on Trauma-Informed Teaching
While I was reporting my latest story about a possible return to campus this fall, I spoke to a number of teaching experts about what to anticipate when students and instructors gather, masked and distanced, in classrooms. If you thought going to the grocery store was stressful, picture spending two hours in a room with other people, trying to give a lecture or have a conversation. Aside from the logistics of being able to hear someone talk through a mask — or plexiglass — imagine how tense everyone will get if a student coughs. And what about all of the other challenges the people in that room face each day, as they wend their way across campus, worried that they might be exposing themselves to a dangerous virus? Add to that the political, social and economic turmoil of recent weeks and months, and what it has done to students’ finances, health, and sense of safety, and you’ve got a stressed-out classroom.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
College dreams for Atlanta students upended by pandemic uncertainty
By Vanessa McCray
The months just after high school graduation have long posed a problem for some teens who plan to start college in the fall. It’s during this precarious season that money woes, family emergencies and other obstacles pop up to prevent between 10% to 20% of recent graduates who had planned to go to college from actually enrolling. School counselors even have a name for it: Summer melt. Throw in a global pandemic and some fear a trickle could become a flood. “Kids are going to have real issues to contend with and navigate,” said Taylor Ramsey, executive director of OneGoal Metro Atlanta, a nonprofit working to improve college access. “There is a risk that a wide swath of kids get knocked off their college track. And it gets infinitely harder to get back on.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Did the Scramble to Remote Learning Work? Here’s What Higher Ed Thinks
By Audrey Williams June
This spring brought change on an unprecedented scale, as colleges of all types shifted to remote instruction. The abrupt pivot left institutions scrambling to provide continuity of learning, as faculty members grappled with the intricacies of learning-management systems, unfamiliar conferencing technologies, and new protocols for coursework and tests — often with scant instructional-support infrastructure. A Chronicle survey reveals just what faculty members and academic administrators think about their emergency efforts. They agree on one key metric: About 60 percent of faculty members, and a similar share of academic administrators, said spring’s courses were worse than face-to-face offerings. “I need a lot more experience/training to do it again,” said one respondent when asked about the most important lesson learned from teaching this spring.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
‘This Is an Existential Time for Higher Ed’: an Interview With Gordon Gee
By Scott Carlson and Paul N. Friga
At a moment of profound change for higher education, Gee talked to The Chronicle about what should change, and how college leaders might accomplish it. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. How do you think the Covid-19 crisis will affect higher ed? This is an existential time for higher education, without a doubt. When I became a university president in 1981, there was a public survey showing that 95 percent of people in this country thought higher education was important. It’s now fallen below 50 percent, even though higher education is the most important element in our culture and our economy right now. This is happening in part because change has not been part of higher education’s portfolio. Although we are viewing this as a dynamic moment, everyone wants the world to remain sort of the same that it was — and it will not. Universities are made up of two elements: talent and culture. Most universities have very talented people, but they have the culture wrong.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
As Racist Posts Circulate, Some Colleges Rescind Admissions Offers. Others Say Their Hands Are Tied.
By Sarah Brown
As protests and unrest roil the country following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, more than a dozen colleges have publicly responded to outrage over racist social-media posts by incoming students — and several, mostly private institutions, have swiftly rescinded admission offers. Marquette University and Xavier University (Ohio), and the University of Denver, are among the colleges that quickly kicked out incoming students when they learned the rising freshmen had used racist language in online posts or in videos about Floyd, a black man killed in police custody last week. Each institution released a statement that said, in effect: This student didn’t uphold our values and is not welcome on our campus. Admission offices have long received reports of bad behavior by incoming students, but consequences were carried out more slowly, said Marie Bigham, a former admissions officer and college counselor who founded the advocacy group Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today. Over the past week, many cases have played out publicly, where students have tagged or direct-messaged the university on social media, and action has been swift.
Inside Higher Ed
Students’ Hateful Speech Results in Rescinded Acceptance
Incoming and current college students are being reported to their universities for racist speech on social media related to national discussions on police brutality and racial injustice.
By Greta Anderson
At least two colleges have rescinded athletic and admissions offers to incoming freshmen who made racist comments about black people on social media in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man. Other colleges have begun investigations or said they will discipline students who also posted hateful and racially offensive messages. Heated debates about the controversy continue to take place on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.