University System News:
WSB-TV
FULL LIST: How Georgia colleges and universities plan to return for the fall semester
Albany State University: On August 10, Albany State University will resume face-to-face classes for the fall 2020 semester. This is a change from our previous return date of August 17. It is imperative the campus community adheres to the social distancing and health and safety procedures provided. This memo provides further details on operational adjustments that will affect our faculty, staff and students in the fall. …
11Alive
Over $100,000 raised for college students in need during pandemic
Georgia Gwinnett College surpassed its goal to raise over $100,000 for its Student Emergency Fund
Author: Brittany Kleinpeter
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) surpassed its goal to raise over $100,000 for its Student Emergency Fund, which provides GGC students with food, gasoline, housing, rent and utilities. Christine Rosen, GGC’s executive director of Individual Engagement, said even when there’s not a pandemic, emergency situations often arise that can threaten to derail a student’s education. …According to Jennifer Hendrickson with Office of Advancement team at GGC, the fundraiser attracted 384 donors, surpassing its 300-donor goal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech to offer hundreds of classes remotely this fall
By Eric Stirgus
Georgia Tech plans to have courses in-person for the upcoming semester, but many will be taught online. Nearly 1,000 courses will be taught remotely, according to a list of class schedules released Monday by the school. More than 600 classes are scheduled to be taught in-person. Others will offered through a hybrid model of remote delivery and in-person, the school said. The school said on its website Monday that the majority of its courses will have some in-person attendance.
Capitol Beat
University System of Georgia presidents endorse return to in-person classes
by Dave Williams
Georgia’s public college and university presidents are fully onboard with plans to open campuses to in-person instruction during the upcoming fall semester. That’s the sentiment expressed in a recent letter to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents signed by the presidents of 24 of the system’s 26 campuses. “Resuming in-person classes this fall will be a difficult but important task, and it is one we are committed to achieving, as it serves the best interests of our students and the state of Georgia,” the letter stated. “The campus experience is an essential part of the educational growth that is critical for the overall success of our students.” The letter comes as some K-12 school systems in Georgia are choosing to stick with online classes only this fall as a way to discourage the spread of COVID-19.
WTOC
By Bria Bolden
Savannah State University has confirmed to WTOC they will be providing a mix of in-person and online instruction for the fall. However, a group that represents faculty on campus wants that to change. A member of SSU’s Faculty Senate told us they want the Board of Regents and University System to do more to ensure the safety of the campus community. Dr. Jordan Dominy is not comfortable with face to face classes at SSU this fall. The organization he represents, SSU’s Faculty Senate, isn’t either. The Faculty Senate is made up of elected faculty members from various departments and colleges. They sent a letter expressing concerns about classes and re-opening plans to the University of Georgia System Chancellor and Board of Regents.
Gwinnett Daily Post
Former Collins Hill volleyball player Kathryn Mullins dies at 20 in bizarre pontoon boat accident
By Will Hammock
A bizarre boating accident on Lake Murray, outside of Columbia, S.C., claimed the life of Kathryn Mullins, a former high school student at Collins Hill. Mullins, 20, was a passenger on a pontoon boat that was attempting to dock over the weekend when the engine cut off. As the driver tried to restart the engine, the boat drifted into a dead tree at the edge of the lake in an area known as Tom Drafts Point. The tree broke off and fell on Mullins … She passed away Monday afternoon, and the cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma, according to local media reports. …Mullins, a 2018 Collins Hill grad, was a student at Georgia Southern University. She also was an accomplished artist who sold her products in an online store at Redbubble.com.
Openpr
Augusta University Student Awarded $1000 National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Scholarship
The team at Platinum Educational Group understands the struggles and obstacles that are presented to students obtaining higher education in the healthcare industries. In 2015, Platinum Educational Group launched its inaugural scholarships program geared at Emergency Medical Services (EMS) students. In 2016, the company expanded its product line to include nursing and allied health fields. It only seemed fitting to expand its scholarships program to include the hardworking and dedicated students in those fields as well. The 2020 EMS scholarship was awarded to Augusta University student Jachua Polcyn from Augusta, Georgia.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU nursing grad ready for new adventures after a ‘hectic’ final year
A tumultuous school year will end in triumph for Cheyenne Murphy. The nursing major dealt with a global pandemic and all the resulting consequences — a postponed wedding, online classes, ground-zero work experience and the death of her grandmother because of COVID-19 — and has emerged one of the latest graduates of Kennesaw State University. Along with a nursing externship in the labor and delivery unit at Wellstar Cobb Hospital, Murphy still had coursework to complete, including clinical assessments, a clinical project, essays and weekly modules. While she and her classmates made the transition, she said they miss not only each other’s company but also the ability to practice nursing skills in a hands-on environment.
WMAZ
Fort Valley State University suspends homecoming due to COVID-19
The university released a letter saying homecoming will be rescheduled for next year.
Fort Valley State University released a letter suspending their homecoming due to COVID-19 on Monday. In the letter from the university, the school decided to suspend homecoming until next year based on feedback from public health officials. …In the letter, the school says they know students will be “disappointed” but that it’s in everyone’s best interest.
WSB
UGA president updates work of Race Task Force
University launches New Approaches to Diversity grant program
By Tim Bryant
University of Georgia president Jere Morehead releases his report on the Presidential Task Force on Race, Ethnicity, and Community: Morehead says the University is making plans to mark the 60th anniversary of campus desegregation in Athens. From UGA president Jere Morehead… Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students: I remain committed—along with the senior leaders of this University—to creating a UGA that is better tomorrow and stronger tomorrow than it is today. …Today I am excited to announce several new initiatives to advance this important work in the immediate and long-term future. The entire campus community needs to be united and focused on achieving success, and I am confident the Bulldog Nation will rise to the challenge before us.
Moultrie Observer
Country Store open at ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture
Staff Reports
Homemade cotton candy and hand-dipped Blue Bell ice cream in a variety of flavors are now available at the Country Store at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture. Closed in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Country Store is now open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Museum Director Garrett Boone said the main hall of the museum will also be open from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on a Tuesday through Saturday basis through July 31.
Forbes
Georgia Season Tickets Sold Out As College Football Fans Hold Out Hope For A Season
Ray Glier, Contributor
Bernie Mullin sells tickets to college football games. Fans are still buying those tickets at many schools, he said, even as the chances of a season happening this fall appear to be dwindling because of the surge in Covid-19 cases amid the pandemic. The fans are not buying in drips. The spigot is open. “The virus has not dampened the enthusiasm for the game,” said Mullin, the chairman and founder of the Aspire Group in Atlanta. “They would go to a game tomorrow.” The University of Georgia, according to a spokesman, has sold all 57,000 of its season tickets and all 2,000 tickets to suites at Sanford Stadium. Georgia Tech has sold approximately 25,000 season tickets for its 55,000-seat stadium.
MSN
Could COVID-19 keep you from enjoying your favorite foods?
Meredith Anderson
Doctors at Augusta University are studying something that seems so simple but could be hugely impacted by the coronavirus: swallowing food. And a local doctor says everyone needs to know the warning signs before it’s too late. Dysphagia, or the medical term for someone who struggles to swallow when they’re eating or drinking, affects about 590 million people worldwide. One local expert says coronavirus will likely only make this much worse.
The Augusta Chronicle
Rick Franza: Hull College is ‘practicing what we teach’
By Richard M. Franza, Ph.D., Guest Columnist
Hull College of Business Dean Rick Franza says the college is doing its best to stay true to its “value proposition” during the pandemic. I shared my thoughts with the faculty of the James M. Hull College of Business at Augusta University for the first time as its Dean in February 2017. The primary message was that in order for us to be successful, we had to practice what we taught. To be successful as a business school, I said, we had to think and act like a business. Therefore, we had to understand our “customers,” our competitors, our “environment,” and ourselves. In order to grow our enrollment, we needed to provide a compelling reason for students to come to Hull. One of the things I asked my colleagues to realize was that a business school has two sets of customers with complementary needs. One set of customers is the businesses that will hire our students; the other set is the students themselves, who are looking for an education to prepare them for long-term careers in business. Therefore, we can concurrently meet the needs of both by providing students with learning experiences that make them valuable to potential employers. Ultimately, this was how we created our Hull College of Business value proposition.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia signs deal to expand coronavirus test processing
The state of Georgia on Monday announced a partnership with a North Carolina company to help alleviate a testing logjam that’s led to prolonged waits for coronavirus test results. The dramatic surge in coronavirus infections over the past month in Georgia has led to long waits for appointments and long lines at testing centers. Further complicating matters, Georgia residents have complained of waits of one to two weeks to get results from labs overwhelmed by demand. The local surge echoes a national increase in testing demand that has strained major commercial labs such as Quest and LabCorp. On Friday, Gov. Brian Kemp described the situation as “unacceptable” and said the state was seeking a new vendor to ease the test processing bottleneck.
governing.com
Some States Quicker on Long Road to COVID Recovery: Report
A recent study of unemployment numbers ranked all U.S. states in their recovery from COVID-19. States have made progress, but the nation will need months, if not years, to fully recover from this economic crisis.
Zoe Manzanetti, Staff Writer
As coronavirus cases surge across the nation, some states are having to slow down or pause their economic recovery while others continue reopening their workforce. The number of new unemployment claims has decreased from the pandemic’s peak in mid-March, but the nation still has a long way to go before it is fully recovered from COVID-19’s economic impact. In a recent study, the personal finance company WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in three metrics of unemployment to find which states’ workforces are recovering most quickly from the economic devastation of the pandemic. …As recent coronavirus surge numbers have suggested, Florida and Georgia were the states with the worst rankings in both categories; Florida was the least recovered state from last week and Georgia the least recovered since the beginning of the pandemic. In unemployment insurance initial claims since the beginning of the pandemic as compared to last year, Georgia has seen a 3,718 percent increase. Florida has seen an increase of 1,578 percent last week as compared to 2019.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated July 20, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 3,176 | Deaths have been confirmed in 143 counties. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 145,575 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Dem Bill Seeks to Prevent Tying Federal Funds to Reopening
By Kery Murakami
Though the focus is on the Trump administration’s threats to cut off funding to K-12 schools that choose not to reopen this fall, a spokeswoman for Senator Mark Warner said a bill being introduced by the Democrat from Virginia would also make it “crystal clear” funding cannot be taken away from higher education institutions that do not resume in-person classes. “Decisions about school openings should be made by local health officials, parents and teachers — not Betsy DeVos or Donald Trump,” Warner tweeted last week. “I’ll be introducing a bill to make it crystal clear that they don’t have the authority to cut off funding for local schools during COVID-19.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges Hoped for an In-Person Fall. Now the Dream Is Crumbling.
By Lindsay Ellis
Several prominent campuses on Monday announced reversals of prior fall reopening plans as Covid-19 case counts surge across the country. Coming after months of expressed optimism about the possibility of in-person operations, the announcements signal a retreat from those projections that may grow to a wave. The University of California at Berkeley’s chancellor, Carol A. Christ, announced at a Chronicle event on Monday that Berkeley — which had planned to have some students on campus and to hold some classes in-person — will begin its fall semester online. The news came alongside Monday actions by Morehouse, Grinnell, and Spelman Colleges, in addition to Clark Atlanta University. Also Monday, the president of Miami Dade College, one of the largest institutions of higher education in the country, announced it would begin the fall in a remote format on September 1, and maintain that model at least until September 28. Last week, Occidental College, Emory University, and Dickinson College, among other institutions, announced more virtual operations than previously planned. Such announcements have been widely predicted, even as some presidents declared that they planned to bring students back for fall classes. … But in the face of rising cases nationally, and as faculty and students raise safety concerns, colleges have said they can’t pull it off.
Inside Higher Ed
What’s Next for Remote Learning?
Colleges spent millions of dollars facilitating the pivot from face-to-face to remote instruction last spring. Administrators who oversee online learning don’t want that investment to go to waste.
By Lindsay McKenzie
Given the skepticism voiced by many students, administrators who oversee online learning share a surprisingly sunny outlook on how well their institution handled the pivot to remote learning this spring, according to new survey data. The Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, published today, is the fifth in a series of annual surveys on online learning conducted by Quality Matters and Eduventures. This report, however, focuses specifically on the pivot to remote teaching that occurred this past spring. The report includes responses from 308 chief online officers at two- and four-year public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions.
Inside Higher Ed
Some Students Couldn’t Take ACT Exam
By Scott Jaschik
Some students showed up to take the ACT on Saturday and found that their testing centers were closed. An ACT statement called it “an unfortunate situation” and said ACT was investigating. “We are truly sorry that this happened, and we will do everything we can to provide solutions to students affected by this situation, including offering a makeup test date where we can.
Inside Higher Ed
Amid concerns the recession has made it harder for students to save for college, advocacy groups are calling for doubling the size of Pell Grants.
By Kery Murakami
When researchers at the National College Attainment Network this month looked at data showing how many people with student loans were reapplying to get money to return for another year of college, they were alarmed. After dipping in the spring at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the numbers over all had gone back to around what they were at this time last year. But not for the lowest-income students. The number of those with incomes less than $25,000 who were trying to get loans to go back to school was down about 5 percent. The numbers on reapplying for financial aid tend to be an indicator of whether students are coming back in the fall. Some higher education advocates are worried it’s a sign that as the pandemic has closed bars, restaurants and other businesses, where many students work to save money to make up the growing gap in how much of tuition Pell Grants will cover, many students aren’t able to afford to go back to classes. That’s made it more urgent to raise, and even double, the maximum $6,345 students can receive through a Pell Grant, said NCAN’s executive director, Kim Cook.