University System News:
Statesboro Herald
Report sees weekly case count fall 145 to 363
From staff reports
After reporting 508 COVID-19 cases among students and staff for the week of Aug. 24–30, Georgia Southern University saw the total number of cases reported last week fall about 29% to 363. The cases are separated by Georgia Southern into two categories, university confirmed and self-reported, and now total 942 — 654 self-reported and 288 university confirmed — since the university resumed in-person classes on Aug. 17. Of the 942 cases, 899 are on the Statesboro campus, 42 are on the Armstrong campus, and the Hinesville campus recorded its first case last week. The Aug. 31–Sept. 6 numbers were made available to the public Monday on the University’s “COVID-19 Exposure and Health Alerts” web page. The page may be accessed here: https://www.georgiasouthern.edu/covid-19-information/exposure-health/.
WSB-TV
As Georgia universities deal with COVID-19 cases, parents group fights to keep campuses open
By Tony Thomas
Across the state, college parents are organizing to keep their kids at school. A Facebook group called “Keep Georgia Universities Open” has more than 5,100 members. Many are parents who say they want to protect their child’s health and that means them staying on campus. As students returned to campus in August, the number of COVID-19 cases rose.
Douglas Now
SOUTH GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE AWARDS RECORD NUMBER OF DEGREES IN 2020
South Georgia State College awarded a record high 413 degrees for the 2019-2020 academic year, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. At the 2020 virtual spring commencement ceremony, 69 students earned a bachelor’s degree in either nursing, biological sciences or management with the remainder receiving associate of science and associate of arts degrees. “This accomplishment is attributed to the resiliency and ability to adapt to an ever-changing landscape by faculty and students alike. Everything our faculty and staff members do for our students, both fall and spring semesters, are reflected in their success,” said SGSC President Dr. Ingrid Thompson-Sellers. “The numbers were proof of their hard work and determination to move forward during such an unprecedented academic year.” According to a University System of Georgia (USG) release, a record 70,879 degrees were awarded in fiscal year 2020 – the most in the system’s 89-year history.
Patch
6 Georgia Colleges Make Princeton Review’s 2021 ‘Best’ List
The annual Princeton Review Best list includes 386 colleges from across the country. See which Georgia schools made the list.
By Deb Belt
The Princeton Review recently released its annual list of the country’s best colleges. This year’s list, which features 386 schools, includes six in Georgia. The 2021 Best 386 Colleges were selected based on “our high opinion of their academics,” the Princeton Review said in announcing its newest list. The organization said it monitors colleges “continuously and annually” to collect data on more than 2,000 schools. In determining the “best,” The Princeton Review said it also visits schools and communicates with hundreds of college administrators in compiling its assessment. … Here are the Georgia colleges named among the country’s best by Princeton Review: University of Georgia in Athens, 29,848 full-time enrollment; Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, 16,159 enrollment
Yahoo Finance
The Best Colleges With Tuition Under $20K
Alexandria Bova
The class of 2019 was the last of the millennial generation to graduate from college. And while that is something to celebrate, many members of this age group are now saddled with insurmountable student loan debt. Historically, tuition costs have risen 3% every school year; after the Great Recession, state budget cuts caused tuition and fees to skyrocket. State funding in 2018 for two- and four-year colleges was more than $6.6 billion below the 2008 funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. These ever-rising costs make it considerably difficult for students to even enroll in college, let alone graduate. The cost of attending university has grown significantly faster than the average income. Prospective and current students have to rely heavily on financial aid and student loans to shoulder the price. Thankfully, quite a few colleges offer annual in-state tuition at a more reasonable price.
GOBankingRates analyzed U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 Best National University Rankings to identify the 52 highest-ranking colleges and universities with 2019-2020 in-state tuition costs below $20,000. …5. Georgia Tech …15. University of Georgia
Middle Georgia CEO
President of Gordon State Dr. Kirk Nooks, Strategic Plan Supported by ‘The Power of We’
President of Gordon State College Dr. Kirk Nooks gives details on their strategic plan and the three Strategic Imperatives that will drive the plan.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fearing COVID-19, educators go up against colleges to teach remotely
By Eric Stirgus
Crystal Robinson and Vanessa Williams aren’t teaching at Athens Technical College this semester because of a dispute that highlights the ongoing battle in Georgia and other states between educators and administrators over allowances for employees who are worried about being infected with COVID-19 to work remotely. Both instructors submitted letters several months ago from their physicians saying they had medical conditions that could increase their chances of being infected with the disease if they were on campus. The college says the instructors were slow or didn’t respond to information they asked for to review their requests. Many educators believe Georgia’s public college systems should approve any requests to teach remotely without the need for any documentation amid the pandemic since COVID-19 has no known cure. The University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia, which oversees operations at Athens Tech, allow faculty to teach remotely, but may require documentation before approval. Neither system said they have data documenting how many requests have been denied.
Athens CEO
UGA Nears $500M in R&D Expenditures in Record-breaking Year
Michael Terrazas
The University of Georgia once again posted new highs in research and development expenditures, nearly topping the $500 million mark and exceeding last year’s R&D total by almost 4%, illustrating the rapidly growing research enterprise at UGA. Fueled by new advancements in infectious diseases, plant sciences, behavioral research, animal health, informatics, and many other disciplines, UGA posted $495 million in R&D expenditures in fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30. For six of the past seven years, the university has reported annual increases in R&D, which has grown by 41% during that time. UGA has focused strategically on growing its research enterprise through faculty hiring initiatives, capital projects dedicated to research (such as the ongoing effort to modernize and expand Science Hill, including the I-STEM Research Building currently under construction), and enhanced administrative support to faculty seeking external research funding.
The Red & Black
UGA StudyAway program plans to resume in spring amid COVID-19 uncertainty
Christopher Waller | Contributor
International destinations are slowly beginning to welcome tourists and travelers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still says that traveling increases the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, but the University of Georgia’s StudyAway program is moving forward with its plans to send students abroad for the spring 2021 semester. Study abroad programs were suspended by the university in March due to the pandemic, which ultimately forced UGA to suspend in-person learning and close campus. Before airlines suspended travel, students who had already begun their trip overseas were called back to the United States and urged to quarantine. Students awaiting departures to foreign destinations in the upcoming months were informed of the cancellation shortly before the shutdown. While the university’s study abroad programs remain open to the chances of executing the spring 2021 start date, Director of Global Education for UGA, Yana A. Cornish, believes students should proceed on the side of caution.
Raw Story
Colleges are defying the Trump administration’s COVID-19 guidelines — with disastrous results
By Brad Reed
Even though the White House Coronavirus Task Force is telling colleges to keep students who contract the novel coronavirus quarantined on campus, many colleges are sending the students back home anyway. The Daily Beast reports that many colleges are ordering their COVID-infected students to go home even though experts say doing so is likely to accelerate community spread. In one particularly disastrous example, Georgia Southern University last week ordered infected students to vacate the campus during their quarantine periods, even going so far as to kick them out of off-campus housing. “That lack of containment has had severe consequences,” writes The Daily Beast. “Statesboro, the small town where Georgia Southern is located, registered more than 700 positive coronavirus cases during the last two weeks in August.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The U. of Georgia Trained Students as Contact Tracers. But It Didn’t Hire Them.
By Michael Vasquez
The University of Georgia spent the summer training more than two dozen students to be Covid-19 contact tracers — equipping them with a unique skill set that is in high demand. An assistant dean in the college of public health created the eight-week, online course, and students loved it. One pre-law student told The Chronicle she was shocked by how much she suddenly cared about contact tracing. But university leaders collectively shrugged. The university did not hire any of the 28 students who completed the course. In fact, the University of Georgia doesn’t hire contact tracers at all, even though the rate of new infections in the surrounding Athens-Clarke County community is now among the highest in the state. The job of contact tracing, the university contends, belongs solely to the state.
Gwinnett Daily Post
By Ken Scar Special to the Daily Post
A lot of things have changed or been put on hold since the onset of COVID-19. This past weekend more than two dozen Georgia Gwinnett College students and faculty members gathered to fix up one of those things on campus. The volunteers gathered on a green, grassy plot of land in the center of the Lawrenceville campus Aug. 29 to bring life back to the school’s microfarm, which had been neglected in the months since the pandemic forced the college to move to online instruction during the middle of the spring semester and to a hybrid format for fall semester. The volunteers rolled up their sleeves to pull weeds, clear debris, mow the tall grass and replant eight raised gardens that, if all goes well over the next few months, will overflow with fresh, healthy produce that will be donated to local families in need. Nury Castro said the microfarm is a great volunteer opportunity for the campus community.
Forbes
What We Know About The 20 Universities With The Most Coronavirus Cases
Michael T. Nietzel, Senior Contributor
Public health concerns continue to grow about the spikes in the coronavirus now occurring at American colleges and universities. The New York Times is maintaining a database that tracks the number and rate of new Covid-19 cases at more than 1,500 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution, every private college competing in N.C.A.A. sports, plus many others that have reported cases. The Times tracker comes with a number of limitations and caveats, but it’s still the most comprehensive tabulation of campus cases currently available. According to the Times, as of September 3, there have been at least 51,000 cases and 60 deaths reported at these institutions since the pandemic began, and more than 100 universities have reported at least 100 cases since the outset of the pandemic. In counties where college students constitute at least 10% of the population, rates of the virus are surging, compared to all other counties where the rates are declining on average. … In order to learn a little more about those campuses with the most severe Covid-19 spikes, consider the top 20 schools for total number of cases on the Times list as of September 3. …University of Georgia 698; Georgia Southern University 638 …What do these hot-spot institutions have in common?
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 7, 3 p.m.)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 6,044 | Deaths have been confirmed all counties but one (Taliaferro). County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 283,807 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Fox 5
Georgia lawmaker hopes to eliminate SAT/ACT requirement from HOPE, students stuck
By Claire Simms
They are already on campus, but many college freshmen across Georgia hope they will get a chance to retake the SAT or ACT this fall. The college admissions exams are only offered on select dates throughout the year and since March, many of them have been canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. …December 30 is the new deadline set by the Georgia Student Finance Commission board for students who hope to earn the top tier of the HOPE Scholarship. To qualify for HOPE, students must earn a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) during high school. The requirements are much more stringent, however, for the Zell Miller Scholarship. Students need a 3.7 GPA and at least a 1200 on the SAT or a 26 on the ACT. Zell Miller pays 100% of a student’s tuition at any public college or university in Georgia, while HOPE pays only a percentage.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Health Experts Warn Colleges Not to Send Students Home. But What if Quarantine Spaces Run Out?
By Katherine Mangan
During the first week of classes, officials at James Madison University watched warily as the numbers of Covid-19 cases on campus ticked up and the number of beds set aside to isolate infected or exposed students dwindled. Knowing that each infected student could potentially spread the virus that causes Covid-19 to dozens more, the university decided on September 1, after consulting with the Virginia Department of Health, that the safest bet would be to send students home for at least four weeks. That would give JMU time to work with local health officials to build up its capacity to contain the spread. The following day, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declared that sending students home amid Covid-19 outbreaks is “the worst thing you could do.”