University System News:
Gwinnett Daily Post
By Chamian Cruz
The two newest additions to the Rainbow Village Board of Directors have all the makings of a dynamic duo for the 29-year-old nonprofit in Duluth. President of Georgia Gwinnett College Dr. Jann Joseph and Senior Vice President of United Community Bank Jill Edwards will now be tasked with Rainbow Village’s mission to transform the lives of the families it serves in northeast metro Atlanta by helping to break the cycles of homelessness, poverty and domestic violence. A lifetime educator and relative newcomer to Georgia, Joseph has been at the helm of Georgia Gwinnett College since July 2019. Soon after, she joined the board for the Gwinnett Chamber, where she met Edwards.
Savannah Business Journal
Parker College of Business to offer new certificate in hospitality and tourism management
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
Students at Georgia Southern University will soon have the opportunity to earn a certificate in hospitality and tourism management to bolster their degrees and résumés. Beginning in the Fall 2020, the Parker College of Business will offer the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Hospitality and Tourism Management, which will foster cross-training between hospitality management and tourism students to better prepare students for success in their studies and in the industry.
Albany Herald
Albany cancer care providers awarded cancer prevention grant
From staff reports
Albany cancer care providers join the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education in being awarded a five-year grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the amount of $795,560 per year to provide colorectal screening, education, navigation and colonoscopies to 15,000 Georgians. Georgia CORE will provide administrative and fiscal oversight for the program, and the services will be provided by Augusta University and three cancer care providers in the Albany area: Albany Area Primary Care, Horizons Community Solutions, and Phoebe Putney Health System, as well as designated Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) throughout southeast and southwest Georgia
41NBC
How Middle Georgia colleges will hold classes in the fall
By Amanda Corna
Fall classes start on most college campuses next month. The COVID-19 pandemic has college administrators rethinking how students will attend class this year. When students return to Middle Georgia State University on August 12th, their classes will look different. “We’re going to utilize our conference center and have moved some of our classes into that space,” said Jennifer Stenander, Middle Georgia State University’s Vice President for Enrollment Management. “Each classroom, will look different, depending on the size. Where we may have had 40 students in a classroom it’s going to have a lot less because we will be social distancing,” said Stenander.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How many college buildings in Georgia carry names of racists and slave owners?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
With 3,000 campus buildings across state to review, new Naming Advisory Group will be busy
How complex is the question of memorials, statues and buildings honoring flawed men who shaped new nations and states yet owned slaves and believed in white supremacy? The University System of Georgia is about to find out, creating a review committee that met for the first time today to chart what will likely be a contentious and controversial path. During the 70-minute meeting via conference call, Albany State University President Marion Ross Fedrick, the chair of the new Naming Advisory Group, predicted difficult conversations ahead. Those conversations are already underway nationwide as America, prodded by recent police killings of black citizens and the protests that followed, faces up to its racist past and present. This reckoning is not sparing any historical figures, even long revered ones.
The Red & Black
USG naming advisory group discusses reviewing names of nearly 3,000 building, college names
Kyra Posey | Senior Digital Producer
The University System of Georgia’s advisory group to rename buildings, schools and colleges at USG schools met for the first time on Thursday. They discussed the criteria they will use to evaluate the renaming process, how they will research the history behind each building or school and how often they will meet. The board will review the names of all buildings and colleges at all 26 USG campuses and report to the Board of Regents, USG’s governing body, on the changes they recommend, USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley said. Wrigley also said that the board’s role is to review current names and recommend whether or not to remove them, rather than recommend a new name. If the board recommends a renaming, the university would have the responsibility of deciding its new name. Throughout the meeting, Fedrick reminded the group that the committee will address every building, college and school at each of the 26 USG institutions. …Most of the inaugural meeting was spent establishing how the board will begin to review names of buildings, colleges and schools. Fedrick recommended that the board look at USG’s research institutions first because they have the most land mass, colleges and buildings. This would include the University of Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State’s top professors: Public campuses need freedom to chart own course through pandemic
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Regents’ professors warn schools endangered by top-down policies that don’t account for local realities
This statement was signed by 58 Regents’ professors from Georgia’s research universities:
We are 58 Regents’ Professors at University System of Georgia research institutions, including the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Augusta University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The title of Regents’ Professor is the highest academic rank in our public college and university system, awarded to a few faculty members each year by the Board of Regents based on lifetime achievements and contributions in research and teaching. With this title comes both recognition from and responsibility to the USG and the citizens of Georgia. …Since then, under pressure from campus communities and press coverage, the USG has reversed its policy on masks. Although we support that change, to take relief in it misses a larger point: The USG never should have prohibited campuses from requiring masks in the first place. …Since then, under pressure from campus communities and press coverage, the USG has reversed its policy on masks. Although we support that change, to take relief in it misses a larger point: The USG never should have prohibited campuses from requiring masks in the first place.
WTOC
Georgia Southern University prepares for mask mandate
By Dal Cannady
Starting Wednesday, you’ll need to wear a mask on public college campuses in Georgia. That affects nearly 30,000 faculty, staff, and students of Georgia Southern University’s three campuses. The mandate goes into effect next week at Georgia Southern and universities across the state. Georgia Southern officials say they’ll implement this from the beginning in hopes it gets established when thousands more students, faculty, and staff return in the Fall. The walkways around the campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, and Hinesville will look different starting July 15 when masks become mandatory.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Four more Georgia Tech athletes test positive for COVID-19
By Ken Sugiura
Four additional Georgia Tech athletes had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday evening, an institute spokesman confirmed to the AJC. That makes a total of seven Yellow Jackets athletes who have been positive cases, following three as of July 2. The seven positive tests were out of a pool of about 170 athletes. About 75 athletes returned to campus June 15 for the initial phase of voluntary workouts, with the remaining 95 returning in ensuing phases. Tech’s freshman football players arrived on campus this past weekend.
WRDW
COVID-19 antibody tests prove virus infection rate is low locally
By Laura Pugliese
How many of you have thought back on a time recently that you felt sick, but didn’t get tested and assume it was probably the coronavirus? A lot of people. While cities across the country are finding that’s the case for a lot of people, we’re seeing a shocking trend here locally. The actual rate of infection is a lot lower than other places. For the first time, antibody testing is open to the public. All you have to do is donate blood, platelets or plasma. Ashley Whitaker, director of community resources, Shepeard Community Blood Center says they’ve been testing select people since May, but the results were not what they expected. …In a similar test launched by the Medical College of Georgia and AU Health, Columbia County teachers and first responders were tested for antibodies. Out of 989 county employees, only 2.83 percent had been infected with the coronavirus.
WJBF
Record high COVID-19 cases treated in-house at area hospitals
By Jenna Kelley
The nation is seeing an increase of COVID-19 numbers and our area hospitals are as well. The last report we received from University shows a record high of 64 coronavirus patients being treated in the hospital. Their last peak was in May with 52 patients. Despite these new high numbers, a spokesperson tells us they have enough ventilators for everyone being treated in the ICU. …As far as the other area hospitals are concerned – their in-house numbers are also going up. Doctors Hospital is currently treating 16 patients. Augusta University’s numbers have stayed around 30 for the past week or so.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
University of Georgia senior says she’s tired of Instagram group photos where no one is masked
Faith Settipani is a senior at the University of Georgia. In a guest column, Settipani targets peers who claim to support social justice causes, but fail to demonstrate socially responsible actions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Faith Settipani
Nothing has an effect quite like a global pandemic. While the world is focused on its dying citizens, the health effects of this virus without a cure, and the further dissipation of the lower and middle classes at its forefront, frat parties and haircuts are the main concern for those around me. And I’m pissed.
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State football season canceled this fall as SIAC suspends fall sports
By Dennis Knight
The Savannah State football team will not be competing this fall, and neither will the volleyball and women’s and men’s cross country squads. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Division II home of the Tigers, announced Thursday evening that it was extending the suspension of all sports through the fall of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement comes as a big blow to the SSU football team, which had its best showing since 1998 last year in Shawn Quinn’s first year as head coach. The Tigers went 7-3 overall and 5-0 in SIAC play, but weren’t eligible for the NCAA Division II playoffs in their first year moving down from the FCS level. …Winter and spring sports are scheduled to take place as usual, SSU announced. The announcement was a painful one, but not at all surprising.
Technology Org
Pandemic could make drug resistance epidemic worse
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, antibiotic resistance was turning minor infections into life-threatening emergencies. Stephen Trent, a University of Georgia researcher and antibiotic expert, said the pandemic could be adding fuel to the fire. The CDC calls antibiotic resistance one of its top public health concerns, killing tens of thousands in the U.S. and more than 700,000 people worldwide each year. Reports from the United Nations predict that by 2050, 10 million people will die from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections each year if nothing is done to stop the crisis.
KPVI
UGA helps produce growers with water quality calculations, education
By Josh Paine CAES News
An online tool developed by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is helping produce growers assess their water quality and prepare for increased testing requirements. Uttam Saha, a program coordinator at the UGA Agricultural and Environmental Services Labs, developed an online calculator and simulator to help educate farmers and extension agents with necessary actions related to the water quality component of the Produce Safety Rule in the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
ICE tells foreign students to go home if their college meets online only
by Patrick Filbin
Fredrik Ackander is a junior soccer player at Dalton State College. The 2019 conference soccer scholar-athlete of the year is from Vasteras, Sweden. He first came to the United States three years ago and played his first two seasons at Andrew College in southwest Georgia before transferring to Dalton. Before the coronavirus shut everything down, Ackander had a deal in place for the summer to play with the Chattanooga Red Wolves. Once everything shut down, flight prices skyrocketed above $2,000, so Ackander was stuck on campus while many of his teammates and classmates headed home. “I was also afraid of going home because I didn’t know if I’d be able to come back,” Ackander said. Now, the federal government says if college classes are online-only in the fall, Ackander and thousands of other international students will be forced to go back home.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated July 12, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 3,001 | County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated. CONFIRMED CASES: 116,926 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Albany Herald
COVID-19 numbers take frightening turn upward
By Andy Miller
If you haven’t been shocked by the COVID-19 numbers in Georgia, Friday’s figures may do it. The state easily broke its record for daily cases reported, with 4,484 new infections, more than 1,000 higher than the previous mark. The hospitalization number took an ominous leap, with 331 new admissions for COVID-19 reported Friday across the state. Many hospitals this week have already reported high numbers of virus patients.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia to reactivate makeshift hospital at Atlanta convention center
By Greg Bluestein
Georgia officials are racing to expand hospital capacity to cope with soaring numbers of coronavirus cases, unveiling plans Friday to reopen a makeshift medical facility at the sprawling convention center in Atlanta and other efforts to add more beds. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said the temporary hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center, which opened in April and shuttered a month later, will soon be reactivated to relieve healthcare systems struggling with rising numbers of coronavirus patients.
WSB-TV
MARTA says riders will be required to wear masks
With more cities in metro Atlanta mandating masks in public, MARTA plans to establish a mask policy. Riders on the bus and rail system will be required to wear a mask starting as soon as Monday, according to a news release. “MARTA plans to incorporate mask-wearing enforcement into our current Ride With Respect policy,” the agency said. “Customers will have every opportunity to comply but violators could be suspended from riding MARTA.”
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Unreleased CDC Document on Campus Reopening
By Kery Murakami
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t made public a document with information that could aid colleges and universities as they devise plans for reopening in the fall, The New York Times reported Friday. The 69-page document, obtained by the Times and marked “For Internal Use Only,” was intended for federal public health response teams as they are deployed to hot spots around the country. The revelation comes amid tensions between the White House and the CDC over how stringent the health-care agency’s guidelines should be for schools and colleges. The CDC issued a number of guidelines in May after, according to The Washington Post, the White House initially shelved them as being “too specific.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Beth McMurtrie
John Nolan likes running an active classroom. A lecturer in the college of business at the University of Nevada at Reno, he favors the Socratic method as he walks among his 150 or so business-law students.
So when the university announced that it will offer courses under a hybrid model known as HyFlex, in which professors teach simultaneously to students in the classroom and others beaming in remotely, Nolan wondered how that could possibly work. If he walks away from the podium, he moves out of sight of the camera. If a student in the back of class asks a question, those tuning in on their laptops might not hear. And how can he foster lively discussions, let alone group work, when half his students are masked, sitting six feet apart because of Covid-19 restrictions, and the others are virtual? “HyFlex doesn’t really do anybody any good,” he says. “It’s basically, you take the worst parts of in person and online teaching and mix it together.” Nolan’s skepticism is shared by a growing number of faculty members, as more colleges choose the HyFlex model for the fall. …But as colleges scramble to figure out how to re-open campuses, it’s easy to see why HyFlex holds appeal. It offers something to everyone: Students who can’t come to campus can still receive “live” teaching. Those who want a residential experience can have one. And classes are able to hew to social-distancing guidelines by following schedules in which on-campus students divide and rotate between in-person or online attendance.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How to Engage Students in a Hybrid Classroom
By Beth McMurtrie
…Teaching in a Hybrid Classroom
I’ve been working on a story about the growing popularity of the HyFlex model for the fall, in which professors teach simultaneously to students in their classroom and others beaming in remotely. This form of hybrid teaching, advocates say, provides options for students who can’t come to class for health or logistical reasons, and allows for socially distant classrooms by rotating students through on alternating days. Under one scenario, for example, one-third of students in a large lecture course might come to class on a given day, with the others tuning in via Zoom. Many instructors are dubious, to say the least, about how well this will work. They want to know how they can engage students who are spread all over the place. They worry about being forced to teach in a lecture format, in which active learning seems impossible. They don’t understand how they can keep track of questions and comments from all of their students without a teaching assistant to help. And, of course, they question how well the technology that underpins all of this will work. I asked a few teaching-and-learning experts what ideas and advice they would give to these instructors. I wasn’t able to get into a lot of those details in my story, so I want to share them here.
Inside Higher Ed
Pandemic Hurts Student Mental Health
A new survey found students had difficulty accessing mental health care and experienced higher rates of depression after the pandemic began, prompting calls for a broad response from colleges.
By Elizabeth Redden
Sixty percent of college students say the pandemic has made it harder to access mental health care, even as financial stresses and prevalence of depression increased among them, according to a new survey on the impact of COVID-19 on student well-being. The survey by the Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health and the American College Health Association garnered results from 18,764 students on 14 campuses. Researchers say much of what they found is more confirmatory than surprising, but having the hard data will help colleges make decisions about providing mental health and well-being services to students.
Inside Higher Ed
Pac-12 will only play other conference members. NESCAC cancels fall athletics. Carleton and U of Bridgeport won’t play sports this fall. Nor will California community colleges.
By Scott Jaschik
The Pacific-12 Conference announced Friday that it would only schedule in-conference athletic events this fall for football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. It also said it would delay the start of mandatory athletic activities “until a series of health and safety indicators, which have recently trended in a negative direction, provided sufficient positive data to enable a move to a second phase of return-to-play activities.” The decision follows a similar announcement by the Big Ten, a Power Five conference often aligned with the Pac-12, as colleges confront the difficulties of athletics during the pandemic.
Inside Higher Ed
Trump Threatens Tax Exemption of Colleges
By Paul Fain
President Trump in a tweet Friday said he was directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury to examine the tax-exempt status of nonprofit colleges and universities, alleging that too many “are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education.” The threat in some ways resembled a 2017 tweet in which Trump raised the possibility of cutting federal funding for the University of California, Berkeley, over his belief the university had improperly restricted the free speech of conservative speakers, specifically Milo Yiannopoulos, a pundit and provocateur who later largely fell out of the public eye after making statements that appeared to express support for pedophilia.