University System News:
MSN
AU sees successful first day of COVID-19 saliva testing
Brady Trapnell
Getting tested for COVID-19 is becoming a lot less uncomfortable as Augusta University Health started saliva testing at its drive-thru testing site downtown. That means fewer nasal swab tests and that’s an important switch. If you go to the AU Health downtown testing site, you’ll see the line wraps around the building, but you start the test immediately when you pull in. Drivers spit in a cup and then pull around where a nurse uses a syringe to put the saliva in a tube. It doesn’t look much different from the line itself, but saliva testing is changing the approach to COVID-19 in Augusta. …But AU is the first in Georgia to process saliva tests, and one of only a few in the country to do it this way. Kolhe says after saliva testing, the innovation won’t stop. …For now, they’ll be turning around saliva tests to patients as quickly as they can. In some cases, even quicker than 24 hours.
Effingham Herald
East Georgia State College establishes Jack and Ruth Hill Scholarship Fund
East Georgia State College, along with the family of the late Jack and Ruth Ann Hill, has established a scholarship fund to honor the couple who passed away earlier this year. The Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Scholarship will award recipients up to $1,000 beginning in the fall of 2021. The scholarship will be available to students from Bulloch, Candler, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans and Tattnall counties — the same counties Hill represented in the Senate.
Jackson Progress-Argus
Gordon State College adds four faculty to Chancellor’s Learning Scholars
Katheryne Fields
Dr. Cristina Fermin-Ennis, Melissa Harrison, Dr. Brent Johnson and Dr. Scott Shubitz were named to Gordon State College Cohort Three of Chancellor’s Learning Scholars (CLS). The Chancellor’s Learning Scholars program has included more than 240 scholars and 1,400 faculty learning community members, representing every institution in the University System of Georgia (USG).
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
University of Georgia grapples with student discrimination complaints
By Eric Stirgus
The University of Georgia has faced criticism in recent days from Black and Hispanic student leaders and organizations that it has not adequately responded to discrimination complaints. The complaints stem from incidents involving crude images, sexist language and racial slurs, the students say. They want leadership at the state’s flagship university to enact measures that result in a better learning environment for students of color. Similar situations are occurring at several colleges and universities as experts say more students are willing to report their accusations, sparked by the ongoing demonstrations on racial injustice in many parts of the country.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern Students Logged More than 48K Hours of Community Service Last Year
Staff Report
From July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020, students at Georgia Southern University logged 48,457 hours of community service, a 4.4% increase compared to the year before. According to the Federal Agency for Service and Volunteering, the hours are equal to more than a $1 million value. Around 36% of the service hours logged were completed through the Georgia Southern Office of Leadership and Community Engagement (OLCE). Community Engagement Coordinator Jordan Wilburn said the hours logged helps both the students and organizations that receive the service.
Savannah Morning News
Junior Achievement Discovery Center to open on Savannah’s southside
By Katie Nussbaum
Hundreds of local middle school students will soon get some real world experience, such as running a business, balancing a budget and applying for a loan, thanks to a new collaboration between Junior Achievement of Georgia (JA) and Georgia Southern University (GS), which will bring a new JA Discovery Center to the Armstrong Campus on Savannah’s southside. Leaders with JA and GS made the announcement on Friday during the monthly JA board meeting, which was held on the Armstrong campus at the former student recreation center, which will become the new Discovery Center. The Savannah Discovery Center will be the fifth location in the state.
Times-Georgian
Archbishop of Atlanta to attend dedication ceremony of UWG’s Catholic Center on Saturday
By Michael O’hearn
After opening its doors last month, leaders at the Catholic Center on the campus of UWG are hosting a dedication ceremony this Saturday, with the archbishop of Atlanta scheduled to attend. The dedication event and blessing of the center will be held on Oct. 3, 11 a.m., at the Catholic Center, 1406 Maple St. The Most Rev. Gregory Hartmayer, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, will attend, church officials say.
News Break
Diabetes can dramatically reduce the kidney’s ability clean itself
The kidneys often become bulky and dysfunctional in diabetes. In a new study, researchers found that one path to this damage dramatically reduces the kidney’s ability to clean up after itself. The natural cleanup is called autophagy, which literally means “self-eating,” and it’s a constant throughout our bodies as debris, like misfolded proteins and damaged cell powerhouses called mitochondria, get packaged into a double-membrane sack, then destroyed by enzymes to help keep cells and organs functioning at a premium. Autophagy tends to increase in the face of disease challenges like diabetes, but scientists have found a pathway that then quickly decreases autophagy in both animal models and humans with varying stages of this chronic condition, leaving the kidneys more vulnerable. …The research was conducted by a team at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia improves in coronavirus cases in latest White House report
By J. Scott Trubey
Georgia is finally out of the COVID-19 red zone. Citing decreasing cases and a lower test positivity rate, President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force moved Georgia out of its most severe category in its latest report dated Sunday. Georgia reported the 23rd highest rate of case growth in the United States from Sept. 19 to Sept. 25, according to the White House Coronavirus Task Force. It’s a marked improvement from mid-August, when Georgia reported the highest rate of new cases in the nation.
WSB-TV
State says it doesn’t have to give COVID-19 info for metro schools, colleges
By: Tyisha Fernandes
It could get more difficult for parents to make a decision about schools during the coronavirus pandemic. The state health department says it doesn’t legally have to give parents the number of cases in their schools. It’s information that many are using to gauge whether to send their kids back or not. Georgia Tech, along with many other schools, told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes that they are going to remain transparent and tell people how many infections they have on campus.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 28)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 6,961 | Deaths have been confirmed in all counties but one (Taliaferro). County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 315,281 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges: Financial Toll of Coronavirus Worse Than Anticipated
By Kery Murakami
The coronavirus pandemic has taken an even deeper financial toll on colleges and universities than expected, said associations representing two- and four-year institutions. In a letter to House of Representatives leaders, the groups nearly tripled the amount of help they say is needed from Congress in another aid package, to at least $120 billion. The letter sent by the American Council on Education and 45 other higher education groups to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy comes as House Democrats are planning to vote, possibly this week, on another bid to try to dislodge the stalemate over additional aid.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
More Doctoral Programs Suspend Admissions. That Could Have Lasting Effects on Graduate Education.
By Megan Zahneis
More than 50 doctoral programs in the humanities and social sciences won’t be admitting new students in the fall of 2021 — a response to the pandemic and ensuing economic turmoil. It’s a sort of financial triage to help the programs devote funding to their current students, many of whom will be delayed in completing their degrees because of the disruptions. Suspending admissions for a year, some administrators say, will also allow them to reimagine their doctoral curricula to account for the flagging Ph.D. job market.
Inside Higher Ed
A Perception Problem About Free Speech
A new report finds a majority of students feel they can’t express their opinions on campus, especially when they are in the ideological minority and even if they believe their college fosters a climate that supports free speech.
By Greta Anderson
A large survey about free speech and expression on college campuses found that students, especially those in the political minority at an institution, are censoring or editing what they say and are uncomfortable and reluctant to challenge peers and professors on controversial topics. Sixty percent of students have at one point felt they couldn’t express an opinion on campus because they feared how other students, professors or college administrators would respond, according to a survey report published Tuesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, a campus civil liberties watchdog group, and RealClearEducation, an online news service. The survey of 19,969 undergraduate students from 55 colleges and universities was administered from April to May by College Pulse, a research company.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Katherine Mangan
Race, abortion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are among the most uncomfortable topics for college students to discuss, according to a report on a survey of nearly 20,000 full-time undergraduate students at 55 four-year colleges and universities. The report, “2020 College Free Speech Rankings: What’s the Climate for Free Speech on America’s College Campuses?,” released on Tuesday, says that about six out of 10 students said they had censored themselves on these and other thorny issues out of fear of how others would react. The survey was administered between April 1 and May 28 by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, College Pulse, and RealClearEducation. FIRE described the report, which was underwritten by the Charles Koch Institute, as the largest-ever free-speech survey of college students and the first ranking of free-speech climates at dozens of leading colleges. The report highlighted how students of different political affiliations, genders, races, and religions viewed freedom of speech on their campuses.