University System News:
WGXA
Gordon State College celebrates reopening of Academic Building
by Whitney Hines
Gordon State College celebrated the reopening and ribbon cutting for their Academic Building in a dedication ceremony on August 31. The nearly 30,000 square foot building on the east side of the GSC campus is the home of the Department of Humanities, President Kirk A. Nooks welcomed the socially-distanced students, alumni, faculty, and staff, as well as the University System of Georgia Board of Regents member Cade Joiner to celebrate the completion of the 14-month long renovation project.
Columbus CEO
CSU Announces Winners of Annual Business Plan Competition
Staff Report
Columbus State University announced today the winners of its annual business plan competition. For the first year in the competition’s nine year history, the judges were so impressed with two candidates that they unanimously decided to split the winning prize of $3,000 and issue a tie. Co-winners were Suhyoon and Daniel Wood of Beejou Craft Kombucha and Shannon Eshman of Able-Fi.
WTVM
Columbus’ Change Agents International launches new project to flatten the spread of COVID-19
By Nailah Spencer | August 30, 2020 at 10:41 AM EDT – Updated August 30 at 10:41 AM
A non-profit organization called Change Agents International in Georgia is launching their new project, Making A Difference “M.A.D.” It’s a program designed to inform people about coronavirus and give them the knowledge they need to help flatten the curve. “The focal point is to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We’re trying to find for vaccine,” said George Sotade, Chief Operation Officer of Change Agents International. “What we need to have is what we need not to contract it.” Since some students and educators are returning to school in-person, the organization created ambassador roles for students in the Columbus area to encourage their peers to take the virus seriously. One Northside High School student explains why he joined. …The organization isn’t limited to high school students. They also have students from University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State. One college sophomore said it’s important for people in her age group to protect themselves from contracting COVID-19, so they can protect others too.
Savannah Morning News
‘It’s not worth it’: Savannah State student warns others after testing positive for COVID-19
By Asha Gilbert
Savannah State University student Johnae Evans has tested positive for COVID-19 after attending what she describes as an Airbnb party that was “packed, humid and no social distancing whatsoever.” Evans, a sophomore at SSU, said she flew in from her hometown of Minneapolis the Thursday before school started on Aug. 13. She initially roomed with a friend on campus because of communication issues with Savannah State’s financial aid department that had put her housing assignment in limbo. …On the Saturday before classes were to resume, Evans and several friends attended an Airbnb party promoted on social media. “Inside the Airbnb was packed. It was humid, hot, and some people inside did not have masks,” Evans said. …Evans began experiencing a cough Aug. 24 after going to one of the parties. She initially blamed the cough on the humidity until it became bad enough that her friends questioned her about it. She said one of her friends was also struggling with a cough. …While in quarantine at the hotel, Evans plans to continue her courses at SSU virtually and focus on getting healthier. “I wanted to party when I got on campus and have fun and make it as normal as possible, but it’s not worth it,” she said. “I wore my mask and still got sick. Your symptoms could be worse than mine, and I wish I would have taken it more serious like some of my other friends.”
Atlanta Magazine
How Georgia State University delivers opportunity for all
An excerpt from Won’t Lose This Dream and Q&A with author Andrew Gumbel
By Betsy Riley
Much has been written about how Georgia State University has increased its graduation rate by 74 percent in the last 15 years while building one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. Since 2011, the number of Black students graduating is up 47 percent, the number of students eligible for federal Pell grants earning a degree is up 46 percent, and the number of Latinx graduates is up 89 percent. Such increases were no accidents. They were the result of systematic institutional reform. In Won’t Lose This Dream, investigative journalist Andrew Gumbel explores the turf battles, educational experiments, student successes and failures, and leaps of faith that made GSU into what the New York Times recently called an “engine of social mobility.”
Authority Magazine
Parveen Panwar
As part of our series about ‘5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society’, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Abdullah the Vice President of Student Affairs at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia. He’s worked in higher education for more than 20 years and most of his work has been related to diversity and inclusion. He has worked at a number of institutions, including Auburn University, The University of Minnesota and The Ohio State University.
…Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. The United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This is of course a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on how this crisis inexorably evolved to the boiling point that it’s at now? …Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us? I’ve been working in diversity and inclusion for the past 20 years and have been involved in recruiting diverse students, researching theory and practices related to diversity and inclusion, teaching courses on diversity and inclusion, and facilitating training related to diversity and inclusion.
Growing Georgia
Worsley Leverages ABAC Degree into Broadcasting Career
Lights, Camera, Action! During her days as a student at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Jamie Worsley always hoped to hear those words in her working career. As it turns out, that dream turned into reality. Worsley is a television reporter for WALB-TV in Albany. A native of Arlington, Ga., Worsley knew after her first step on campus that ABAC was the place for her. She was awarded the 2017 Presidential Scholarship to attend ABAC and started her freshman year not sure of what the future would hold. “I came into ABAC as an undecided major,” Worsley said. “I had considered Biology and History and Government (Pre-Law), but I wasn’t 100 percent decided. So, I took a few classes to help me choose a career path.” It wasn’t until she took the “Introduction to Broadcasting” course with Dr. Thomas Grant that she realized her interest and talents leaned toward a career in television.
Statesboro Herald
Most of 500+ Georgia Southern COVID-19 cases concentrated on Statesboro campus
508 cases ‘university-confirmed’ or ‘self-reported’ in second week of classes
Georgia Southern University saw 508 COVID-19 cases reported among students and university employees the second week of fall semester, including 129 “university-confirmed” cases and 379 “self-reported” cases. Those are the seven-day totals from Aug. 24 through Aug. 30 included on the university’s “COVID-19 Exposure and Health Alerts” page here. Unlike the report from the first week of school, Aug. 17-23, when an overall total of 71 cases was included on the spreadsheet, adding together 33 university-confirmed and 38 self-reported cases, Monday’s update kept those two categories separate. However, the Statesboro Herald obtained assurance from GS Director of Communications Jennifer Wise that the university-confirmed and self-reported cases should not overlap. In other words, there is no process for self-reported cases to become university-confirmed.
WSB-TV
Georgia colleges see rise in COVID-19 cases, students urged to get tested frequently
By Tom Regan
As campuses reopen, we’re seeing what we all expected: a spike in COVID-19 cases. At Georgia’s Tech campus, positive cases have more than doubled in just over a week and other colleges in Georgia are also reporting more cases. Georgia Tech’s president told Channel 2 Action News they’re doing everything they can to keep the campus open. Overall, in the state, experts say cases are trending in the right direction. …But reports show only around 170 new cases in August on UNG’s three major campuses. At the University of Georgia, reports show 35 new COVID-19 cases, that’s on top of the nearly 500 reported from March to early August. Georgia College in Milledgeville reported 570 COVID-19 cases, since mid-June
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
College and COVID: Do students quarantine on campus or at home?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
As students test positive for virus or are exposed to it, parents ponder next step
My son and I had the talk this weekend. Not the birds and the bees. The one about the cough and the sneeze and what happens if he, as a college student, tests positive for COVID-19 or is exposed to someone who has. The quandary for parents whose children are infected or exposed: Do you worry from afar or start driving to pick them up? Parents must determine if it’s wiser for their children to quarantine at school or return home to hide out in their bedrooms or basements. Out-of-state parents are debating on social media if they ought to dash down to Georgia in two cars so their COVID-positive daughters or sons can drive home alone in one of the vehicles rather than risk having them in the back seat for the 13 hours to New York. These are not theoretical questions; thousands of college students have already tested positive in the last two weeks. Across the country, college students either arrived at school with the virus or contracted it from social gatherings and dorms, some even before their first class.
The George-Anne
Two employees die from COVID-19, two similar statements released
Andy Cole
Just four days apart, two University System of Georgia (USG) employees, Tim Pearson, Ed.D., professor of accounting at Georgia Southern, and Ana Cabrera, a housing staffer at the University of Georgia (UGA), died from complications of COVID-19. Following their deaths, GS and UGA released statements to the media about the deaths. Janet Frick, Ph.D., associate professor at UGA, pointed out to The George-Anne and The Red & Black (UGA’s student newspaper) that those statements were incredibly similar.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a member of the Georgia Southern University family. Our sympathy goes out to the individual’s loved ones. Out of respect for the family and friends of the deceased, we will not comment further,” wrote Melanie Simon, public relations manager at GS, in an email to The George-Anne.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a member of the University of Georgia community. Our sympathy goes out to our co-worker’s family and friends. Out of respect for them, we will not comment further,” said Greg Trevor, executive director for media communications at UGA, to the Classic City News.
The George-Anne reached out to Aaron Diamant, vice chancellor of communications at the USG, for comment on the statements and asked if the USG prepared ‘talking points’ for the institutions. Diamant responded Monday via email, “USG institutions draft their own media statements.”
Best Life
10 College Towns Where COVID-19 Cases Are Surging
THE RETURN OF STUDENTS FOR IN-PERSON EDUCATION HAS SPARKED MAJOR COVID SURGES IN THESE COLLEGE TOWNS.
By COLBY HALL
As college students return to campuses throughout the U.S. for in-person learning, universities are working on their feet to navigate the ongoing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. In many college towns, there is growing concern that some traditional college activities—from drinking to partying to cheering at sporting events—could potentially lead to a surge in COVID-19 infections. As it turns out, those concerns are entirely justified: The New York Times recently listed the metropolitan areas with the most significant number of new COVID cases, relative to their population, in the last two weeks—and 1o of the top 11 locales seeing coronavirus surges are well-known college towns. Read on to discover which college towns have recently become coronavirus hotspots. And for more on the intersection of higher learning and coronavirus, These 5 Colleges Had the Biggest COVID Outbreaks. … 5. Statesboro, Georgia …4. Milledgeville, Georgia
Albany Herald
College communities in Georgia, U.S. emerge as COVID hot spots
By Andy Miller Georgia Health News
The top 10 metro areas in the nation for the highest rates of COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks are all college towns. Atop the list, as compiled Monday by the New York Times, is Ames, Iowa, the home of Iowa State University. No. 10 is Grand Forks, N.D., where the University of North Dakota is located. Two others on the list are Auburn/Opelika, Ala., (Auburn University) and Oxford, Miss. (Ole Miss). Others include two Georgia college towns: Milledgeville, where Georgia College is located, which is No. 5. It’s followed at No. 6 by Statesboro, the home of Georgia Southern University. The Times lists the metro areas by number of new infections per population.
Forbes
Every Campus Is Different. In A Pandemic, That’s A Strength.
Emily Chamlee-Wright, Contributor
After only two weeks of classes, almost 500 students at Georgia College have tested positive for Covid-19, according to Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Michael Vasquez. Georgia College, Georgia’s public liberal arts university, has a population of 6,800. It’s situated in the small rural town of Milledgeville, Georgia, population 18,000. What happens to Georgia College, happens to Milledgeville. And people are worried. Since June, Vasquez has been reporting on the University System of Georgia’s mismanaged Covid-19 response, which appears to have left its campuses ill-prepared to handle the crisis. Instead of allowing individual institutions to develop their own plans—tailor-made to their campus, surrounding community, and employee and student needs—the Georgia University System opted to centrally direct Covid policy for all of its 26 universities and colleges. When campus leaders tried to prepare their own policies on face masks and employee leave, the System Office overrode them.
Rockdale Citizen
Most conservative colleges in America
Frederick Reese
There is an increasing number of students who feel that the current college experience does not respect conservative ideology. A solution around this may be conservative colleges. Stacker has compiled a list of the 50 most conservative colleges in America. …Regardless of how they define conservatism, these schools are among the most conservative-friendly institutions around. Stacker examined the nation’s colleges and universities and compiled a list of the 50 most conservative colleges in the United States. For this list, we consulted the research website Niche, which ranked schools’ conservatism based on students’ reviews of the schools’ campus communities. These reviews weigh the political leanings of the reviewer, if the reviewer attends or has attended the school, and the reviewer’s opinion of it. Details on Niche’s methodology explain the site’s rankings, and survey data are accurate as of 2019. Read on to find out which colleges are the most conservative in the country. …#21. University of North Georgia
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp extends virus restrictions as Ga. gains ground in pandemic fight
By Greg Bluestein
Gov. Brian Kemp extended a sweep of coronavirus restrictions Monday that chart out how businesses can operate during the pandemic as Georgia’s fight to contain the disease showed new signs of progress. Kemp’s 49-page order continues to ban gatherings of more than 50 people unless social distancing is in force, and it requires Georgians in long-term care facilities or those deemed “medically fragile” to shelter in place. It renews rules that empower local governments and school districts to impose mask requirements, though Kemp has opposed a statewide mandate for face coverings. The new order expires Sept. 15.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CDC: 94% of coronavirus-related deaths have underlying medical conditions
By Tim Darnell
Only 6% of coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. have COVID-19 listed as the only cause of death, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, 94% of COVID-19-related deaths had other underlying medical conditions, called comorbidities, listed, such as influenza, hypertensive disease, diabetes and cardiac arrest. Comorbidities, according to the agency, are defined as “more than one disease or condition is present in the same person at the same time. Conditions described as comorbidities are often chronic or long-term conditions.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Aug. 31, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 5,632 | Deaths have been confirmed in 157 counties. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 270,471 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Summer Enrollment Numbers Are In, and the Patterns Are Confounding
By Audrey Williams June
Many close observers of the fiscal health of higher education in the Covid-19 era have been focused on colleges’ fall enrollments. And while initial signals about the fall have been emerging, newly released figures on summer enrollments offer insights on changes that are already happening. Some of what the numbers say is surprising. A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center on enrollment in the summer of 2020 reveals that attendance by students in certain demographic groups and at certain types of institutions was down from the previous summer. The organization’s data counts 7 million students enrolled in summer sessions at 2,300 colleges.
Inside Higher Ed
College enrollments declined sharply this summer among Black undergraduates and men, and at community colleges and rural institutions, raising worries about the fall and worsening equity gaps.
By Paul Fain
As some experts feared, the biggest college enrollment declines this summer were among vulnerable student populations, potentially widening equity gaps in college access for Black students, students who attend community colleges and for-profits, and men. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center today released its latest report on U.S. college enrollments, finding steep declines this summer among those and other groups of students. The findings are a stark contrast to countercyclical enrollment gains of previous recessions, as the pandemic continues to defy precedent. The overall enrollment picture was more mixed, as largely flat undergraduate enrollment (down 0.9 percent compared to last summer) was offset by a spike in graduate enrollments (up 3.8 percent). The result was a 0.2 percent increase in total enrollment, up from a 0.4 percent decrease last summer. Yet big decreases in associate degree program enrollments (5 percent) raise the stakes for the community college sector, which appears to be struggling with further drops for the fall term, while awaiting potentially severe cuts to state and local government funding. Rural four-year institutions also saw big enrollment declines.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
For These Small Colleges, No Sports Could Mean Game Over
By Eric Kelderman
As administrators at Tabor College deliberated over plans for the fall semester, the question of whether it would compete in football and other fall sports proved difficult. “It’s just a matter of, honestly, survival,” said Rusty Allen, executive vice president for operations at the Mennonite college, in Hillsboro, Kan., which enrolls nearly 600 undergraduates. Campus officials wanted to keep students and employees safe from the coronavirus but also had to consider the financial impact of canceling athletic contests. “If we don’t have sports, our enrollment is probably going to decrease by about 50 percent,” Allen said. If athletics is the proverbial “front porch” at major NCAA programs, it’s more like the foundation at places like Tabor, which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. More than a third of the men enrolled there are members of the football team. That’s among the highest such percentages in the country, according to figures compiled by Willis Jones, an associate professor of higher education at the University of South Florida. Without the lure of sports, many colleges fear that athletes among their applicants will choose a different college, one that continues to compete in sports or, perhaps, one that is less expensive, even though they would be denied varsity sports. “The financial pressure to continue football is the same as pressure to be in-person,” said John J. Cheslock, an associate professor of education policy at Pennsylvania State University. “You’re concerned about losing students if you don’t offer it.”