University System News:
Albany Herald
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College expects nearly 4,000 students on first day of classes
From staff reports
Here they come. Some with masks. Some attending classes for the first time since early spring. Others getting a taste of college life as true freshmen. The students are back at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College for the opening day of the fall semester on Wednesday. “There’s nothing like the excitement of the first day of fall classes,” David Bridges, opening his record-setting 15th fall term as the ABAC president, said. “Seeing the seniors, some of them only months away from graduation, and watching the freshmen as they find their way around campus. I love having the students back.”
MSN
AU uses ‘pooling’ method to differentiate positive and negative COVID-19 samples
Celeste Springer
Brazil court says indigenous communities should be protected from Covid-19…
Researchers at Augusta University have developed a plan that could save tens of millions of dollars, and also help save lives. It’s called pooling — where samples are combined and tested in batches instead of tested individually. “If you’re looking at it as a testing strategy, instead of 1,000 individual samples, we are testing 150 samples, so we are having a savings of 85 percent cost.”
13WMAZ
Georgia College gets ready for students to move in
The university spread out the process over two weekends to enforce COVID-19 safety guidelines
Author: Pepper Baker
Georgia College students are moving in this weekend before classes start back on Wednesday. Freshman Aner Gendellman is bracing herself for move in day during COVID-19. “Making this transition into being a college student with the pandemic and all going on is really terrifying, but I feel like it’ll all be okay,” she said. Junior Kaylee Brower isn’t new to this process, but it was different for her. “In the past they’ve had student volunteers to help people moving in, carrying the stuff up to their room, which obviously this year it wouldn’t be a safe option to have that, so there’s a lot less people moving in at once,” Brower said. University Housing Director Larry Christenson will monitor all move-in safety guidelines, starting with their check-in process.
The Times-Georgian
UWG students return to campus today
By Jay Luzardo
Students begin their return to the University of West Georgia today, with more expected to arrive in the following days. As they do, many will be moving into dormitories on campus. A traditional Move-In day has been part of campus tradition for decades.
WUGA
UGA Plans to Begin Surveillance Testing for COVID-19 Monday
By Savannah Sicurella
The University of Georgia’s Health Center will begin its goal of testing 24,000 asymptomatic faculty, staff and students for COVID-19 on Monday. The health center’s voluntary surveillance testing program is designed to identify asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers ahead of the return to campus in late August. UHC will reach out to specific groups for testing and are in the process of establishing a website to allow individuals to volunteer. Individuals experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 are asked to not participate, though students can still receive testing at the health center with an appointment.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia college students have mixed emotions about returning to classrooms
By Eric Stirgus
Georgia’s public college system is set to begin the academic year at its institutions with in-person instruction. The coronavirus pandemic has upended many of the traditional college experiences. Classes and campuses will look different this year with students and staff wearing masks, class sizes reduced to allow for social distancing, and some classes and activities conducted online in efforts to stave off COVID-19 cases. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked four students their thoughts on how their schools are preparing for the fall semester. Here’s what they said.
Marietta Daily Journal
Coronavirus-wary Georgia college students, teachers worried about return to in-person classes
By Dave Williams Bureau Chief Capitol Beat News Service
Students at more than half of the University System of Georgia’s 26 colleges and universities will return to classes this week with one eye on their studies and another on a widening global pandemic. As the number of deaths from coronavirus in Georgia surpassed 4,000 last week and the number of confirmed cases passed 200,000, students and teachers worried a decision by the system’s Board of Regents to press ahead with in-person instruction this semester could have grave consequences. That concern was dramatized last Thursday when about four dozen students and teachers held a “die-in” demonstration at the University of Georgia’s main campus in Athens.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s colleges prepare for a vastly different semester
By Eric Stirgus
The campuses of Georgia’s 26 public colleges and universities look significantly different since the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close in March. The president’s suite that overlooks Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium has been reconfigured as a classroom. There are about 140 plexiglass sheets between classroom lecterns and other spaces at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville. Bus routes are shorter at the University of Georgia. Kennesaw State University has increased outdoor seating areas on both campuses. The changes are to protect students, faculty and staff from COVID-19 for the fall semester. Administrators believe they’re well-prepared for the return, but no one knows for sure. The best precautions, they say, only work if everyone follows rules such as wearing face coverings in classrooms. Despite those requirements, there are many worried students and faculty members who are pushing for more safeguards or a return solely to online learning.
The Times-Georgian
UWG offers new master’s degree
By Jay Luzardo
The University of West Georgia announced the inception of a new master’s program in physical education on Thursday. The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved the Master of Education in Physical Education degree for the College of Education’s (COE) Department of Sport Management, Wellness, and Physical Education.
WALB
ABAC becomes nation’s first to launch ag education program
By Jamie Worsley
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) will be the first college in the nation to launch an elementary agriculture education program. According to a release from the school, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission recently approved the program. It’s designed to certify ABAC students to teach agriculture classes in pre-k through fifth grades. Dr. Andrew Thoron, Associate Professor and Department Head for the Agricultural Education and Communication program, says courses are set to begin by this time next year.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Recognizes Top Faculty and Staff as Prelude to Fall Semester
Staff Report
Dr. Erin Porter, an Associate Professor of Agricultural Engineering, received the top award presented to a faculty member at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College when she recently received the W. Bruce and Rosalyn Ray Donaldson Award for Teaching Excellence. Other award recipients honored included Clayton Riehle, Administrative Assistant in the Office of Technology Services, who received the Roy R. Jackson, Sr., Award for Staff Excellence, and Dr. Deidre Martin, Chief Development Officer, who received the E. Lanier Carson Award for College Administrators.
The Augusta Chronicle
Georgia Southern professor who died of COVID-19 remembered as witty, outstanding educator
By Katie Nussbaum
An outstanding educator, an intelligent, wise and gentle man. That’s how Bill Kresse remembers his friend, Timothy Pearson. Pearson, 63, the Director of the School of Accountancy and Professor of Accounting at Georgia Southern University, died on July 28 from COVID-19 complications, according to an obituary that recently ran in the Savannah Morning News. …“Tim was an outstanding educator. An intelligent, wise and gentle man. And in an academic discipline that can often be dreary, Tim was a wellspring of joy,” Kresse said. Pearson had worked as a Professor of Accounting and in college administration for more than 30 years.
Marietta Daily Journal
Kennesaw State football program put on hiatus
By John Bednarowski
Kennesaw State’s football team was supposed to open its preseason camp Friday. Instead, the university’s fall sports programs are playing a waiting game. Kennesaw State athletic director Milton Overton said in a statement that preparations for the football, cross country, soccer and volleyball programs would be delayed until further notice. “The start of Kennesaw State football fall camp, and voluntary activities for all sports, have been delayed to ensure we are in compliance with the NCAA Resocialization of Collegiate Sports protocols updated on Aug. 5,” Overton said. “We expect to resume athletic related activities once we have confirmed compliance with the new protocols. The health and safety our student-athletes will always be our No. 1 priority.” Included is the new protocols include testing for the coronavirus — and a lot of it — which comes at significant expense.
The Red & Black
Dania Kalaji | Contributor
The faculty senates of the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Mary Frances Early College of Education submitted a resolution to UGA administration reflecting their concerns about returning to school amid COVID-19. In a July 28 letter, the presidents of the faculty senates from both colleges addressed University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley and UGA President Jere Morehead about the resolution, which was unanimously adopted at a special called session of the Franklin College faculty senate on July 27. A special University Council meeting has been called in response to the letter. The meeting will be Aug. 12 at 3:30 p.m. Morehead and Wrigley both posted responses to the resolution on the Franklin website.
Inside Higher Ed
Georgia System Issues New Statement on Housing Decision-Making
By Rick Seltzer
The University System of Georgia issued a new statement Saturday evening reiterating that a private developer with which it contracts for student housing services did not influence fall reopening plans and detailing key dates in planning to return students to campuses. That statement came a day after Inside Higher Ed reporting described the developer, Rhode Island-based Corvias, pressing institutions this spring in at least two states to consider fall reopening plans’ effects on housing fee revenue. May 29 letters from the company argued universities do not have the “unilateral right” to implement policies that would limit the number of students who can occupy certain student housing or to reduce housing fees under contractual agreements.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Housing company pressured Ga. system to reopen campuses, critics say
By Eric Stirgus
A letter recently posted online is raising questions about whether the University System of Georgia’s reopening plans for the fall semester, which starts Monday on some campuses, is being steered by finances and not the health and safety of its students and employees. The May 29 letter from a vice president at Corvias, a Rhode Island-based company in a public-private partnership with the state system since 2014, urges Georgia officials not to set limits on how many students can live in some campus housing and points out its financial investment in the arrangement. “(W)hile the CDC may be of the belief that reducing density in student housing may lower the possibility of infection, we do not believe that requires a reduction in the number of roommates that would typically be permitted in the Phase 1 Student Housing or the number of students that can be housed in a given building,” wrote Chris Wilson. Wilson reminded the University System in the letter that the company secured $548 million to build approximately 6,500 new beds and renovate about 3,500 beds across nine campuses.
GPB
Georgia College Staff, Students Say Dorm Memo Shows Safety Secondary
By: Ross Williams
As students and teachers anxiously prepare to return to college campuses during a pandemic, some of them are buzzing about a letter a private dorm operator wrote to the state Board of Regents calling on Georgia State University and other schools not to limit the number of students staying in dormitories this fall due to the coronavirus. The May 29 letter from Corvias Property Management and a resulting memo from state university officials was made public after a records request from Georgia Tech student Kelly ONeal, who shared it on social media. ONeal said she asked for the records in late June to learn whether plans to reopen during the spread of COVID-19 were driven by the school, the state, or some other party. She got a response that included the Corvias exchange in late July. In the letter, Corvias Vice President of Campus Living Chris Wilson said the company objected to potential plans that would limit the numbers of students staying in dormitories, especially at Georgia State University, where Corvias manages nearly 3,500 beds, according to its website.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OPINION: Don’t cross Georgians. They can openly carry … coronavirus
By Bill Torpy
I was slated to head to Chicago this week to help my sister, a preschool teacher, get back to work. She takes care of our mother, who has dementia, and my visit would have given her some breathing room as she set up her classroom and returned to class. However, late last week she called and told me to stay home because coming from Georgia poses a problem. She said I would have to quarantine for 14 days because I would be coming from a “hot” state. And if I stayed in her house it would mean the same restrictions for her — thus, no school. She was bummed out because she needs the help. But she needs her job even more. Americans have been precluded from traveling to many places on the globe because of our inability to control the spread of COVID-19. We, in essence, have become a pariah country. And Georgia now is a pariah’s pariah.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Aug. 9, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 4,199 | Deaths have been confirmed in 153 counties. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 216,596 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Nervous Freshmen, Nervous Colleges
Survey finds that 40 percent of incoming freshmen at four-year colleges are likely or highly likely not to attend. Data are even worse for minority students.
By Scott Jaschik
Colleges that have been struggling to get their yield rate equivalent (or at least close) to last year’s may be in for a rude awakening. SimpsonScarborough is releasing a survey tomorrow of incoming freshmen who aspired to attend a four-year residential college that finds that 40 percent of them say they are likely or highly likely to not attend any four-year college this fall. Further, 28 percent of returning students who have the option to return to their campus say they are not going back or haven’t decided yet. (Some of both groups of students may be interested in attending a community college.) Students planning to attend private institutions were more likely than those at public institutions to change their minds about attending. …One of the issues is that students don’t trust their colleges. Only 25 percent of returning students strongly agree that their institutions would take the necessary steps to keep students safe. The figures are twice as high at colleges that have abandoned plans for in-person instruction in the fall as for colleges that expect students back.
Inside Higher Ed
At Home, Workers Seek Alternative Credentials
Interest in alternative online credentials spiked after people started working remotely this spring. Will the surge continue long-term?
By Lindsay McKenzie
When COVID-19 closed down school and college campuses in March, many children and young people were forced to start studying remotely. At the same time, interest in online training and certificate programs soared. Several leading massive open online course providers, coding bootcamps and business schools offering non-degree credentials reported manyfold increases in web traffic, inquiries and enrollments. Though big surges took place in April and May, they quickly started to flatten for most providers. They did not, however, return to their original baseline. …These new online learners are a mixture of recent college graduates looking to boost their résumés, current or prospective college students trying to get ahead, furloughed or laid-off workers looking to pivot to new careers, and people with stable jobs who are now working from home. Many are taking courses related to business, technology, and public health.