University System News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

AJC College COVID Tracker: UGA cases hold steady

By Eric Stirgus

Officials urge more students to get tested

University of Georgia officials released data Wednesday that shows new COVID-19 cases have remained relatively low in comparison to the start of the semester, but administrators want students to take additional measures they believe will reduce exposure on campus. UGA reported 66 new positive COVID-19 cases in a recent seven-day stretch from Sept. 28 through Sunday. The university reported 65 positive cases from Sept. 21 through Sept. 27. UGA conducts COVID-19 testing Monday through Friday and its health center pharmacy is open with limited hours on Sunday. The most recent report was completed a day after UGA’s first home football game Saturday against the Auburn Tigers, a nationally-televised contest that showed large numbers of spectators not wearing face masks, sparking criticism on many sports websites and on social media. University leaders asked students to follow social distance guidelines at this Saturday’s game against the Tennessee Volunteers. There are also plans to better divide students among three designated sections.

Inside Higher Ed

How Transparent Is Your College’s COVID Dashboard?

Many colleges created dashboards showing their COVID-19 infection and testing data. But a lack of standards for testing and reporting has made for varying levels of transparency.

By Elizabeth Redden

Absent a national standard for how higher education institutions should report COVID-19 cases on their campuses, many colleges have taken to publishing information on cases on online dashboards. But observers say the dashboards vary greatly in terms of completeness and transparency. A lack of transparency or completeness can deprive students, employees and families of crucial contextual information they need to make decisions about their safety and make it hard to make comparisons across institutions. … Other systems have left it to individual campuses to create their own dashboards. A spokesman for the University System of Georgia, Lance Wallace, said for example that system administrators instructed universities to “provide information they feel is most appropriate for their campus community … With 26 institutions, ranging in size from a couple thousand students to more than 53,000, it makes sense for each to tailor its reporting approaches to their specific circumstances.” Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition and president of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, has tracked case numbers across Georgia colleges and universities. He said that while he believes every institution is publicly sharing at least some data, the level of detail varies greatly. For example, Georgia’s Kennesaw State University, a research university that enrolls more than 40,000 students, only includes aggregate information on total weekly case numbers within a FAQ section on its website: “During the week of September 26 to October 2, there were 49 reported cases of COVID-19,” the website stated when accessed Wednesday. “Please note that this number includes individuals working or studying remotely.”

Money

The 10 Best Business Colleges in the U.S.

By Giulia Pines

Business has been one of the most popular undergraduate degrees for years, and even the pandemic hasn’t changed that. Sure, we may all be working from home, but students with big ideas still dream of becoming entrepreneurs or startup scions, while those with a knack for crunching numbers still want to learn accounting or data analysis. …But now that the world has changed, should students reconsider what to look for in potential business programs? According to Huss, “the big three areas of knowledge, delivery, and community” are still all-important when it comes to making a choice, even if their parameters may have shifted a bit this year. … Based on affordability, average salaries for business majors, and the number of students studying business topics, these colleges have some of the strongest business offerings in our Best Colleges ranking this year. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10, including what students can expect to pay for a degree and earn afterwards, and what they should be looking for in a business program, especially in these uncertain times. See the full list of best business colleges here. 10. University of Georgia – Estimated price with average grant: $16,200; Average student debt: $18,750; Early career earnings of business majors: $57,100

11Alive

Marietta 12-year-old’s college journey goes viral

We first introduced you to Caleb Anderson two weeks ago. He joined MENSA at the age of five and now at 12-years-old, is in college.

Author: La’Tasha Givens

When 11Alive first introduced you to Caleb Anderson two weeks ago, his family didn’t realize that his story would be heard about around the world. The 12-year-old from Marietta just began his sophomore year at Chattahoochee Technical College, majoring in aerospace engineering.  The Anderson’s knew Caleb was special when he could sign over 250 words at just 9-months old. And by two he was reading the constitution. …“I am grateful I videotaped Caleb when he was young because I don’t think people would have believed us that a 2-year-old was reading the United States Constitution,” Claire said. Caleb’s story caught the eyes of administrators at his dream school, Georgia Tech. The chairman of the aerospace engineering program has a meet-and-greet set up for later this week, they said. “When Georgia Tech reached out to us,  it was a dream come true,” Kobi said.

Middle Georgia CEO

MGA Freshman’s “You Matter” Project Helped Him Earn Southeast Military Youth of the Year Honors

Staff Report

Last year, after losing a friend to suicide, Marlon Grant wondered if he could have done more to help him.  “You just feel confused,” said Grant, 18, a Middle Georgia State University (MGA) freshman from St. Marys, Ga. “You start to wonder, ‘Could I have predicted this? Should I have reached out more?’” Around the same time, another friend of Grant attempted suicide. That incident was part of a rash of suicides and suicide attempts in the community that took place within a relatively short time period.  Grant decided he needed to do something. “It popped in my head that people need to be told they matter,” he said. “You Matter” is the name of the simple yet powerful initiative Grant came up with.  He, with the help of friends, created a series of positive messages and attached them with yellow ribbons to things like new pencils, lollipops, and tubes of blow bubbles. They began distributing the messages by the hundreds to people at schools, in churches, at local festivals and parades, and other events.

Flagpole

The Grady College and UGA Buildings Honoring Racists Could Get New Names

by Ross Williams

With the need for making amends for racial injustices old and new getting a public reckoning, a group responsible for reviewing the origin of names of Georgia’s college buildings is preparing to recommend changes early next year. A group of historians led by Civil War author Lisa Tendrich Frank is going through a list of names of buildings and colleges around the state to find out more about their namesakes. The researchers are poring over old books, alumni magazines and obituaries to get a sense of the people honored with the buildings’ names. “A lot of the buildings are named after Georgia politicians or prominent families. Those are very easy to get information on,” Frank said at a call-in meeting of the University System of Georgia’s Naming Advisory Group. “When they named it after a professor—I’ve been doing a lot of the Georgia Tech ones today—some of the ones named after math professors or chemistry professors, that requires more digging.”

Georgia Entertainment News

Georgia Film Academy announces new Savannah program

The Georgia Film Academy (GFA) has begun teaching students in Georgia’s second most-filmed city, the academy announced Wednesday. At Georgia Tech’s Savannah campus, the GFA said it has opened a new collaborative production training hub, where they are teaching students from Georgia Southern University. The program is open to all Georgians enrolled in universities and technical colleges. GFA expects students from several additional institutions in the Savannah region to register for courses at the hub over the next year.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

You can apply now for college financial aid with FAFSA

By Eric Stirgus

COVID-19 may complicate process for 2021 students

Federal education officials this month opened the annual application process for students to apply for financial aid to help pay for their college education next school year. Experts say filling out the form, known as the FAFSA, may present problems for some students whose financial situations have changed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The problem: Financial aid for the 2021-22 school year will be based on the student’s or the family’s 2019 income tax returns. The 2019 tax information may not reflect financial changes due to the pandemic, such as a job loss. The solution: Students and their families can add updated information after sending the 2019 income tax returns that more accurately reflects their pandemic financial situation. It’s an option that many students do not know exists, said Veronica Leyva, a counselor at Collegewise, a company that helps students with the college admissions process. U.S. Department of Education officials say students should contact the school they plan to attend to discuss how their financial situation has changed. James Blackburn, head of financial aid at Georgia State University, said officials there can use documents that show an income reduction when determining how much financial help a student needs.

WABE

Georgia Tech Creates New School Of Cybersecurity And Privacy

Grace Walker

Millions of Americans have been working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts say more companies conducting business online has led to a rise in cyberattacks. On the first day of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month last week, the United States Treasury Department issued two warnings against cybercrime. Here in Atlanta, the Georgia Institute of Technology recently announced plans to launch a new school dedicated to training the next generation of cybersecurity experts. On Monday’s edition of “Closer Look,” host Rose Scott spoke with the interim chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, Richard DeMillo, about this new program and the rise in cybercrime amid the pandemic.

Other News:

News4Jax

Georgia’s Gov. Kemp touts progress against COVID-19

Gov. Brian Kemp is touting “great progress” in easing Georgia’s COVID-19 epidemic, with newly reported cases and the number of hospitalized patients falling to levels last seen in June. But some numbers could look different in coming days as Georgia begins daily publication of results of rapid antigen tests, and the state remains on track, at least for now, to record 10,000 deaths this year from the respiratory illness. The Republican governor spoke Wednesday to reporters at the Capitol, urging people to keep up their vigilance against infections, which have been confirmed in more than 326,000 patients in the state. “We’ve been able to keep businesses open, most kids have been able to return to schools, and people have been able to go about their lives, in a smart responsible way. But that is only sustainable if we continue to do our part moving forward,” Kemp said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 7)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

DEATHS: 7,259 | 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: 326,142 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.

Higher Education News:

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Is Your Test-Optional Policy Confusing Applicants?

By Eric Hoover

Covid-19 shredded the standardized-testing process. Colleges are still adjusting to the implications. Here’s a big one: An unprecedented number of applicants probably won’t submit an ACT or SAT score this year. And “unprecedented” could end up meaning “most.” That’s one takeaway from new findings by EAB, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that works with colleges. Recently, it analyzed nearly 42,000 applications at 57 test-optional institutions: Just 45 percent of students had sent a test score. That surprised Michael Koppenheffer, vice president for marketing programs at EAB. Sure, he knew that more than two-thirds of four-year colleges have suspended their ACT and SAT requirements (at least for this admissions cycle), and that many high-school seniors, including his daughter, still haven’t taken an exam because of cancellations caused by Covid-19.

Inside Higher Ed

College Promise Programs Wrestle With Pandemic Realities

As states begin slashing budgets, some free college programs are feeling the sting.

By Madeline St. Amour

College promise programs have increased in popularity in recent years. Now, amid a pandemic and a recession, they might be on the chopping block. Higher education groups are asking for at least $120 billion in future COVID-19 relief packages from Congress. Some states are making, or at least predicting, budget cuts in the billions, some of which will have to come from higher education systems. Some experts predict that college promise programs, which commit to helping students cover the cost of college, will likely be OK. Student financial aid funding tends to not get hit as hard as state appropriations for higher education during recessions, and also tends to recover more quickly, said Robert Kelchen, associate professor of higher education at Seton Hall University. While this funding tends to be more resilient during economic downturns, this is a different situation than the Great Recession, said Jennifer Mishory, senior fellow at the Century Foundation. Some programs have already received cuts.