University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Students return; USG sets degrees record
By Eric Stirgus
The fall semester began on some college campuses in Georgia this week as the nation struggles to determine safe practices to educate students amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some folks aren’t happy with the return plans and are making last-minute appeals for adjustments, or a return to online learning. Here’s the latest about this and some additional developments in our latest edition of AJC On Campus: University System of Georgia sets student degrees record …
WALB
ABAC welcomes students back for face-to-face classes
By Jamie Worsley
“It’s a different fall semester than ever before, and we hope it’s one that never comes again,” said Dr. David Bridges, President of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. For Bridges, this fall semester has been a long time coming. “Well, we spent the last five months preparing for today, literally. Like many other things in this pandemic world we live in, there are not a lot of answers, but we are doing the best we can,” said Bridges. ABAC implemented several COVID-19 protocols ahead of students’ return to campus.
Marietta Daily Journal
First wave of students move in at Kennesaw State
Ryan Kolakowski
Thousands of students are moving into campus residence halls at Kennesaw State University this week, marking the first time dorm rooms will be at full capacity since the coronavirus forced students to move out in March. On Wednesday, KSU residence halls welcomed the first round of students who are moving in to live on campus for the academic year. To enforce social distancing and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, students signed up for move-in times. First year student Matthew Bailey said he had no trouble moving in.
WGAU
UNG cadets begin campus move-ins
Other students to return tomorrow
By Tim Bryant
The University of North Georgia says students are moving in to dorms and residence halls at the UNG campus in Dahlonega, doing so on a staggered basis an anticipation of the start of fall semester classes.
From Clark Leonard, UNG…
This week continues the staggered move-in of students on the University of North Georgia’s (UNG) Dahlonega Campus. Cadets began a phased move-in Aug. 1 to limit the number of cadets arriving each day. Fewer than 105 cadets moved in per day, and a medical screening was the first stop on campus for each.
Clayton Crescent
A gift of note: $5M music ed endowment to Clayton State
by Robin Kemp
Clayton State University says it has received a $5 million gift from the late Lon Melton Carnes, Jr. to establish a music education endowment. The donation makes possible four $24,000 four-year scholarships for music performance and music education majors. In recognition of the gift, the university will name its music education building the Carnes Hall for Music. 40 students are enrolled in Clayton State’s music programs, according to the university. Visual and Performing Arts Chair Dr. Terre Johnson said, “As a result of the generous bequest that has created the Carnes Scholarship Fund, Clayton State will be able to offer enhanced musical study to a larger group of deserving students at little or no cost to them. The future of music study at Clayton State will be bright for future generations, thanks to this unprecedented gift.”
Columbus CEO
CSU Receives $15,000 Grant for Student Diversity Program
Staff Report
Columbus State University recently received a $15,000 grant from the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative. The grant, which will be matched by CSU, will be used to support CSU’s Men About Change Program. With a total of 50 participating students, CSU’s Men About Change Program provides participants with opportunities to enrich their academic skills, receive support, engage in adult and peer mentoring, and develop leadership skills.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Judge thanks and sentences acclaimed GA Tech coronavirus researcher
By Bill Rankin
For months, top U.S. health officials have relied upon Georgia Tech professor Eva Lee’s computer modeling prowess in trying to bring the coronavirus under control and prepare for the best way to distribute an eventual vaccine. But during an emotional hearing on Wednesday, Lee officially became a convicted felon for making false statements regarding a National Science Foundation grant. As he imposed her sentence, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones took the exceptional step of thanking Lee for her service to the nation and urged her to continue her important work. “We need you in America for the next few months and the rest of your life to help us,” Jones told Lee. “… From what I’ve read and seen, you’ll play a major part in how America will come out of this coronavirus.”
Inside Higher Ed
Without mitigation strategies, one model projected about 75 COVID-19 deaths at Georgia Tech — highlighting the stakes as students move back to a campus putting several such strategies in place.
By Rick Seltzer
In mid-July, Joshua S. Weitz presented a fall risk assessment to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Academic Restart Committee. Weitz, a professor of biological sciences at Georgia Tech and founding director of the quantitative biosciences Ph.D. program there, recommended several strategies for mitigating COVID-19’s spread: enforce mask-wearing requirements, test those on campus for the virus, reduce gathering sizes whenever possible and make online teaching the default until infection risks decline. The ramifications of failing to mitigate the virus’s spread were stark. Should campus reopen at full capacity and half of everyone on it be infected, Georgia Tech could expect about 75 fatalities. Approximately 10 students could be expected to die, along with 30 staff members, 25 or so faculty members and 10 or so affiliates — such as contractors who aren’t necessarily Georgia Tech employees but who have access to campus. Older faculty and staff members would suffer the most losses.
Times-Georgian
GSC postpones UWG football, other fall sports
By Jay Luzardo
There will be no football, soccer, or volleyball this fall at the University of West Georgia — as well as a delay to basketball. Competition in these sports have been postponed until at least Jan. 1 in a decision the university made Wednesday in partnership with the Gulf South Conference (GSC).
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Georgia Republicans: Let’s play college football this season
By Greg Bluestein
Georgia’s top Republicans have a message for the South’s premier college football conferences: Don’t cancel the season. Gov. Brian Kemp and House Speaker David Ralston each said they’re confident that sports officials and college administrators have drafted a plan to allow games to go forward this year. The Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences have already called off their football seasons, but the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences have developed plans to play.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia records two days of 100-plus virus deaths
By J. Scott Trubey
Coronavirus surge puts Georgia among top states per capita in deaths, cases
Georgia reported more than 100 newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday for the second straight day, a death toll that has accelerated following the persistent surge in new coronavirus cases seen since May. On Tuesday, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) reported a record of 122 net new confirmed deaths, followed by the second-highest daily total Wednesday of 105. To date, 4,456 deaths in Georgia have been attributed to COVID-19. Georgia also has set weekly records for reported deaths in each of the past three weeks topping out at 361 for the seven days that ended Saturday. Medical and infectious disease experts told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the rising wave of deaths is likely to continue.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Aug. 12, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 4,456 | Deaths have been confirmed in 155 counties. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 226,153 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
A New Paper Series Recommends Ways to Simplify the FAFSA
by Sara Weissman
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) recently came out with a series of ten papers on ways to streamline the notoriously complicated FAFSA, the application for student financial aid. With grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last summer, the organization created an updated version of its 2015 proposal for simplifying the FAFSA and called on a slew of experts to assess the work and contribute research of their own. The FAFSA can be an onerous process for low-income students under ordinary circumstances, said Karen McCarthy, NASFAA’s director of policy analysis, but the release of these papers feels “particularly timely” during the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has swiftly changed people’s enrollment plans as some choose to go back to school or switch institution
Inside Higher Ed
Divide Deepens as More Leagues Postpone Fall Sports
By Doug Lederman
The rift that emerged Tuesday as two of the Power Five football conferences said they would not play sports this fall and the other three planned to continue widened Wednesday as several other sports leagues joined the overwhelming majority that will keep players sidelined this fall. The Big East Conference, which plays Division I sports except for football, said it had reached its decision not to play fall sports after an “exhaustive review” that revealed “many unknowns surrounding testing availability, turnaround time and travel restrictions in our 11 locales,” Commissioner Val Ackerman said. Ackerman said plans for men’s and women’s basketball — the league’s marquee sports — remain “unaffected.” Several other leagues, including the Gulf South Conference, the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the Big South Conference, said they would not play this fall. The Big South’s decision means that 10 of the 13 leagues that play in the Football Championship Series division, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s second-highest level, are still on track to play this fall.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How Racist Are Universities, Really?
Hyperbolic accusations do more harm than good
By Randall Kennedy
It is no surprise that universities have become targets of the activism erupting in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. University police forces have been implicated in racist malfeasance. Universities oversee labor forces which reflect the class and racial divisions partitioning society at large. Universities are the site of cultural battles over iconography (Calhoun College at Yale, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, Washington and Lee), and the propriety of taking race into account in admissions. At a time when racial reckonings have visited the NFL and Nascar, The New York Times and Vogue, Minneapolis and Mississippi, it was inevitable that they would visit campuses, too. And they have. Recently, chairs of African American studies departments at Georgetown, Notre Dame, Fordham, and other Catholic universities and colleges asserted that “systemic racism and white supremacy are problems” at their campuses.