University System News:
Patch
Kennesaw State To Hold Ethics Awareness Week Nov. 9-13
Kennesaw State will celebrate the university’s ethical culture and emphasize the importance of professional conduct.
Kennesaw State will celebrate the university’s ethical culture and emphasize the importance of professional conduct during its annual Ethics Awareness Week, Nov. 9-13. The Rev. Harris T. Travis, a retired pastor, author, engineer and educator, will present the keynote address to the KSU community in a virtual format on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. Ethics Awareness Week is part of the University System of Georgia’s (USG) Ethics and Compliance Program, which includes an ethics policy and code of conduct that promotes professional conduct and compliance with university laws, regulations and policies. Travis is a humanitarian, author and pastor emeritus who also served as a higher education leader and engineer during his professional career. He was vice president of academics at Southern Polytechnic State University from 1982 until his retirement in 1998, …
Patch
Celebrating The First-Generation Experience At Ga. Southern
Dionna Williams is a newlywed, a soon-to-be mom and a first-generation student. The second oldest of six children, the Savannah resident graduated high school in 2018 and had no college plans until she realized how limited her options were. “I did not want to work as a warehouse worker anymore,” Williams said. “I decided this was not for me.” So last year, Williams made two big decisions. She joined the Air National Guard and enrolled at Georgia Southern University, becoming the first in her family to pursue a higher education degree. She chose Georgia Southern, she said, for its affordable tuition and academic reputation. Williams, who is expecting her first child in December, was honorably discharged from the military this fall and grants are helping her pay her college costs.
Times-Georgian
Tritt Scholarship rewards working UWG students
By Sam Gentry Special to the Times-Georgian
Anthony “Tony” Tritt has always had a strong work ethic and an admiration for others with the same drive. Now, through a scholarship at the University of West Georgia, Tritt seeks to reward students who are excelling academically while also holding a job. The scholarship, funded officially by the Tritt Family Foundation, Inc., is a renewable UWG general scholarship for students who maintain a 3.75 grade point average and work 20 hours or more per week.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech is also counting this week: Total enrollment reaches almost 40,000
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Increase was powered by Tech’s much-touted online master’s program
This is the week for counting and tallying, and Georgia Tech has come up with some strong totals. The midtown school announced today its fall enrollment rose to nearly 40,000 students despite COVID-19. Overall enrollment is now at 39,772, a 9% increase over last year. That increase was powered by Tech’s acclaimed online master’s program. Tech now enrolls 23,210 grad students, a 14% jump over last year. More than half of them, 15,664, are in online programs; 10,580 in computer science; 4,252 in analytics; and 832 in cybersecurity. Undergraduate numbers edged up a bit 16,562 to students, including 10,322 from Georgia.
WGAU
UGA touts new Master of Social Work degree
Online degree program marks its first year
By Laurie Anderson
In its first year, the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work Online MSW program has nearly doubled its expected enrollment. The creators of the online program, launched in 2019, hoped to increase access to advanced degrees in social work practice and address service shortages in rural and medically underserved areas in Georgia.
Middle Georgia CEO
Dr. Christopher Blake on Continued Growth at Middle Georgia State University
President of Middle Georgia State University Dr. Christopher Blake talks about their economic impact and helping support rural areas of Georgia.
Tifton CEO
J.G. Woodroof Farm Sets ABAC Apart from Other Colleges
Staff Report
For Dr. Mark Kistler, there’s education and then there is the “real” education that students receive in the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He gives the J.G. Woodroof Farm at ABAC a lot of credit for making that happen. …Spread over 400 acres of sun-splashed South Georgia countryside, the Woodroof Farm is named for the first president of ABAC, Dr. J.G. Woodroof, who stayed in the job only one year from 1933-34 before returning to his first love of agricultural research. The enrollment at the time was 99 students. Today, there are nearly 4,000 students at ABAC and a record 1,371 of that total are enrolled in the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Athens CEO
Participation in Surveillance Testing at UGA Hits Record High
Greg Trevor
Participation in COVID-19 surveillance testing at the University of Georgia set a new record last week, even though the last day of the workweek constituted Fall Break for students. A total of 2,108 individuals volunteered for asymptomatic testing by the University, and of those, 33 tested positive for a positivity rate of 1.57%. Overall, 79 positive tests were reported through the University’s DawgCheck system for October 26 – November 1, comprising 57 students, 20 staff and two faculty members.
WSAV
by: Ashley Williams
The challenges impacting many affected by the ongoing pandemic have inspired a Georgia Southern University student to ask everyone the question, “What can you live without?” Fine arts student Lann Le posed the question in her interactive senior thesis exhibition, which is titled, “Good Without.” The unique project will go on display next week as part of a larger student exhibition called “Merkari,” which will feature the work of four other Georgia Southern seniors. Le’s exhibition explores the items that people say they can live without — a choice many people have had to make due to COVID-19-related life changes.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Federal payments keep Georgia farms afloat
By Christopher Quinn
…Right now, Georgia’s agricultural heartland is just four plagues short of the 10 that brought Egypt to its knees in the biblical Book of Exodus. Without financial bailouts from the federal government, many Georgia farmers would have been in deep trouble this year. About 36% of U.S. farm income in 2020 will be from federal payments, according to an estimate by the University of Missouri. That includes money for the losses caused by President Donald Trump’s Chinese trade war, weather disasters and the pandemic, on top of the usual subsidies. Georgia farmers will collect $341 million from tariff relief payments alone, the University of Georgia estimates. A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report noted that Georgia farmers got the highest bailout payments in the U.S. per individual in the nation — an average of $42,545. “Without the government, we would be in a lot of trouble,” Webb said.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. breaks single-day COVID case record twice in week
By Tim Darnell
One day after breaking its single-day record of confirmed coronavirus cases, the U.S. broke that record Thursday. According to data compiled by The New York Times, the nation recorded more than 121,000 new cases, breaking Wednesday’s number of 100,000. The resurgence is not confined to any one part of the country, as 23 states have recorded more cases in the past week than in any other seven-day stretch. On Tuesday, Georgia passed 8,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began. On Thursday, the state Department of Public Health said 368,368 people have been hospitalized. The state now has 8,126 confirmed coronavirus deaths, as of Friday morning.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Nov. 5)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 8,126 | 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: 368,368 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Communicating Through a Crisis
Research in crisis communications and management suggests college and university leaders might need a different approach to COVID-19 than other crises.
By Lilah Burke
Most research in crisis communications and management is retrospective, looking at how things unfolded, said Brooke Fisher Liu, a professor of communications and associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Maryland at College Park. Most research in the field also focuses on corporations and governments, rather than other institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on higher education offered a team of researchers an opportunity to further explore crisis communications practices in real time and study colleges and universities as they were responding to a crisis. …Initial conclusions from their interviews with 37 college presidents, provosts and other leaders suggest that how crises are planned for may need to be reconsidered. Leaders could expand both collaboration with people inside their institution and communication with their students, while focusing on mental and community health. The study confirmed what many observers in higher education have suggested — that university leadership was not prepared for a situation like COVID-19, despite the fact that they had crisis plans for infectious disease outbreaks.
Inside Higher Ed
COVID-19 Roundup: Rising Cases Curtail Campus Activity
More colleges shift immediately to remote learning as case counts rise on campuses and nearby. Others abandon plans for in-person learning after the Thanksgiving break.
By Doug Lederman
With coronavirus infections spiking nationally and in many regions of the U.S., it’d be a wonder if colleges around the country weren’t also seeing outbreaks. And, in fact, they are, in some cases just two to three weeks before they were planning to largely shut down physically for the Thanksgiving holiday. In the last 48 hours, several colleges and universities announced plans to shift to remote learning as cases mount.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Pandemic Is Dragging On. Professors Are Burning Out.
Overwhelmed and undersupported, instructors see no end in sight
By Beth McMurtrie
… Legions of professors are hitting the wall in their own ways. For some, like Rutuku, the problem has been a crushing workload combined with child-care challenges. For others, it’s a feeling that their institution expects them to be counselors and ed-tech experts on top of their regular responsibilities, even if it means working seven days a week. Black and Latino professors are bearing additional burdens, supporting students of color and contributing to the national debate on racism. Meanwhile, adjuncts are barely hanging on, hoping that budget cuts don’t end their careers. For professors of all types, their responsibilities as teachers are causing many of them to feel pressed to meet the needs of the moment. Like many instructors, Rutuku prides herself on her teaching. And she believes that her students, most of whom are lower-income and trying to get a leg up in life, need to know how to write effectively. She couldn’t cut back, she feels, or they would be shortchanged.