University System News
AccessWDUN
University of North Georgia increasing face-to-face instruction, eliminating spring break for next semester
By Lauren Hunter
Leadership for the University of North Georgia are making several adjustments for classes for the spring 2021 semester, including increasing the amount of face-to-face instruction in one of its class models and removing the traditional week-long spring break. According to a news release posted on the university’s website, classes labeled Hybrid 1 will meet in-person at least once a week. An example is for a class that is scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, students will be divided into three groups and each group will meet in class on one of those days. The website states that this increase in face-to-face instruction is up 50 percent from this school year. Last semester, hybrid courses met in person 25 to 50 percent of the time.
13 WMAZ
Robins Air Force Base, Fort Valley State University sign new education partnership
By Bre’onna Richardson
Robins Air Force Base and Fort Valley State University signed an Educational Partnership Agreement Nov. 13. Fort Valley State University is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) to partner with the base. This partnership will have an emphasis on computer science. The partnership will bring hands-on learning and mentorship opportunities to computer science students.
The Augusta Chronicle
Georgia Cancer Center offers skin cancer screenings through mobile device
By Tom Corwin
Dr. Loretta Davis takes the device attached to her iPhone and presses it against a sunspot on the wrist of Dr. Jorge Cortes, the director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University. After glancing at the sharp image it sends to her screen, the chair of the AU Department of Dermatology tells him it is “pretty boring, which is a good thing.” The images the mobile dermatoscope can take and send, which Davis said are as good as the device she uses in a clinic, are at the heart of a new effort by the cancer center to create links with 15 medical centers in 14 rural communities, mostly in southwest and central Georgia, to provide skin cancer screening and education. The project is funded by $576,035 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants program.
Tifton Gazette
ABAC installs media studio
Staff Report
Students who are interested in television broadcasting, radio or producing will now have access to a new state-of-the-art media studio at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Chris Daniels, manager of instructional technology, said the buildout to complete the studio will take several weeks. Installation of the set, lighting grids and practice tests are still underway. “We are excited about the new studio and want to provide opportunities for students to be involved from the ground floor,” Daniels said. The 1,100-square-foot studio in the recently renovated Carlton Center will be accompanied by an ultra-modern control room with stations for students to run lighting, audio and graphics.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two metro Atlantans named Rhodes Scholars
By Rosalind Bentley
Two university students from metro Atlanta have been selected as Rhodes Scholars for 2021, the Rhodes Trust announced on Saturday. Phaidra Buchanan, a University of Georgia student from Tyrone, and Samuel E. Patterson III, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County student from Marietta, are among 32 U.S. students named scholars-elect by the selection committee. They will pursue degrees in their chosen fields of study at Oxford University in England beginning in October.
Albany Herald
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College only University System State College with enrollment increase
Staff Report
Enrollment at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College increased to 3,990 students during the 2020 fall semester, the second-largest enrollment in the history of ABAC. Enrollment increased by 1.6% over the 3,927 students enrolled during the 2019 fall term. ABAC was the only one of the nine institutions in the State College sector of the 26-member University System of Georgia to experience an enrollment increase. ABAC recorded an all-time record enrollment of 4,291 students during the 2018 fall term.
WTVM
Miracle Riders partner with CSU to raise funds for pediatric nursing program
By Olivia Gunn
After years of helping local medical causes, the Miracle Riders are partnering with a local university. Scott Ressmeyer and the Miracle Riders are teaming up with Columbus State University with the goal of raising money to help the university’s pediatric nursing program. Organizers announced their partnership Friday. They are trying to raise funds for three new interactive pediatric simulators. The Miracle Riders have raised nearly $2 million over the past 11 years to benefit local services and organizations for children.
The Red & Black
UGA adds mandatory Zoom waiting room for non-UGA emails to reduce Zoombombing
By Julia Walkup
The University of Georgia will implement a change to all UGA Zoom accounts that requires a waiting room for all attendees without a UGA email address starting Nov. 30, according to a Nov. 23 ArchNews email. The change will be made in order to decrease Zoombombing incidents. The decision was made with the recommendations of a team of professionals from UGA’s colleges, schools, and administration, according to the email. The update will be automatic, and students, faculty and staff do not need to do anything to make the change.
Other News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Nov. 23)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 8,644 | 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: 406,220 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
White House panel pushes Georgia for stronger action on coronavirus
By J. Scott Trubey
President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force warned Georgia is “in the early stages of full resurgence” of the virus and urged state leaders to take aggressive new steps to mitigate spread of the epidemic. In its latest report, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said the state should ensure universal mask use and significantly reduce capacity or close public places — such as bars and restaurants — where face covering isn’t possible. “Georgia has seen an increase in new cases and stability in test positivity and is in the early stages of full resurgence,” the report dated Sunday said. “This is the moment to dramatically increase mitigation.”
Savannah Morning News
Sen. Kelly Loeffler returning to Georgia Senate campaign trail after second negative COVID test
By Zach Dennis
After briefly self-isolating, Sen. Kelly Loeffler will return to the campaign trail following a second negative COVID-19 test, her campaign announced on Monday. Loeffler is currently in a runoff for retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat with Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock. Loeffler had self-isolated after getting mixed test results — two negative rapid tests, followed by a both a positive test and another polymerase chain reaction screening that was “inconclusive.” Loeffler has campaigned heavily ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff against Warnock. Her last campaign appearances were Friday, where she appeared at rallies with Vice President Mike Pence and fellow Republican Senator, David Perdue.
Higher Education News
The Chronicle of Higher Education
‘One of Us’: A President’s Message Stuns Faculty After Their Colleague Dies of Covid-19
By Emma Pettit
The news arrived on Friday, nested deep in an email that landed during a Faculty Council Zoom meeting. Only after someone had reached the 22nd paragraph did professors learn what had happened, and when they did, a few began to cry. “To date, we are aware of one Collin College student who has passed away from complications from Covid-19 and, as of last week, one faculty member,” H. Neil Matkin, president of the community-college district in Texas, wrote. The student’s death had been reported in late October, but the announcement that a colleague had died came as a fresh blow. In the same paragraph, near the bottom of the email, Matkin also disclosed that a staff member was hospitalized. All of it appeared in an email beneath the subject line “College Update & Happy Thanksgiving!”
Korea IT Times
SK Innovation donates $30,000 to Georgia educational institution
By Lee Jun-sung
SK Innovation announced on Nov. 22 that it donated $30,000 (about 33 million won) to the Empower College & Career Center (EC3), an educational institution based in Georgia, the U.S., which is building a battery production plant. SK Innovation signed an “investment memorandum of understanding” with the Georgia State government in January last year, promising to donate a total of $60,000 over two years to EC3.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Will Covid-19 Revive Faculty Power?
By Emma Pettit
In March, leaders had to make unprecedented decisions by the hour. In April, Hopkins announced that salaries would be frozen and retirement contributions would be suspended for the next fiscal year. The president “regrettably expected” layoffs and furloughs in some units. Hundreds of professors objected, saying the decisions had been made unilaterally. Historically, there’d been this bargain at Hopkins, one professor says, that the administration would govern with a light touch so that faculty members didn’t have to bother with governance themselves. Now, the touch was not so light. Faculty members wrote a letter to university leaders, raised funds for an independent financial analysis, and started reimagining their role at the famously decentralized institution. It was a level of collaboration among instructors that some say they’d never seen at Hopkins before.
Inside Higher Ed
A College Professor as First Lady
By Kery Murakami
Sometime next year, after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, a community college student — quite possibly an immigrant or a single mother, but no doubt someone whose life hadn’t been guided by bloodline to Harvard or Yale University, or who might not believe anyone at the White House will care about them — will have their English paper graded by a professor. The student and the others who will have their papers graded by the same person will be in many ways similar to those the professor’s grandmother taught in a single-room schoolhouse. It’s true that in these crazy pandemic times, college instructors are reading their students’ papers in strange places. But this paper could be read in the stolen moments before the professor greets a prime minister at a gala at the White House. Or on Air Force One. Or in the office of the nation’s first lady.