University System News:
The Brunswick News
Regents reflects on decision to reopen Georgia’s colleges
By Lauren McDonald
Public colleges and universities in Georgia reopened for in-person learning this fall at a time when many learning institutions across the country remained hesitant to make that move because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made in part because of the need to reenergize the important economic role public higher education plays for the state, said Don Waters, a member of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, during a presentation Tuesday to the St. Simons Island Rotary Club. Waters represents the First District on the board, which oversees the public colleges and universities that orbit the University System of Georgia and has oversight of the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Public Library Service.
WRBL
Columbus State University plans to increase student engagement for spring semester
By: Sakura Gray
Columbus State University is looking toward the spring semester with the goal of increasing engagement with students through various academic and student life experiences. The university will move toward increased in-person instruction through hybrid and “extended classroom” classes. Hybrid courses combine in-person instruction with web-based online learning. Extended classroom instruction consists of splitting classes into smaller groups to rotate between in-person and virtual learning. The changes will be accompanied by a continued emphasis on following relevant public health guidelines.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Welcomes Prospective Students for Stallion Day on Nov. 14th
Staff Report
With COVID-19 guidelines in place, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is inviting prospective students to campus on Nov. 14 for Stallion Day. Check-in will begin at 12:30 p.m. on the front of the campus at Tift Hall. The event will be limited to high school seniors and transfer students accompanied by two guests. Face coverings will be required for all participants, faculty, staff, and current ABAC students. Brooke Jernigan, Assistant Director of Enrollment Management, is excited to be hosting an in-person Stallion Day this year.
Flagpole
UGA Moves Fall Commencement Ceremony Online
The University of Georgia’s fall commencement ceremony for undergraduates will take place virtually on Friday, Dec. 18. A separate virtual graduate commencement ceremony for both fall and spring 2020 master’s and doctoral degree candidates will occur on the same day. Eligible participants will receive a mailed gift, according to a UGA press release. According to the press release, the “difficult decision was made after extensive dialogue with faculty leaders and public health officials to address concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 in winter months.” While UGA’s spring commencement takes place outdoors in Sanford Stadium, fall commencement takes place inside Stegeman Coliseum.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
College and the coronavirus: The first semester student
By Eric Stirgus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is following the lives of faculty and students like Yara Manasrah at various colleges and universities in Georgia throughout the first full academic year since the coronavirus pandemic began. We will publish periodic reports about them. This is the second of these articles.
ATHENS ― Yara Manasrah needed to have an important talk with her parents. She was accepted to her first college choice, the University of Georgia, but wondered if she should go. The 18-year-old was born with an iron deficiency that makes it tougher to overcome a cold. She worried about staying healthy in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She also worried about burdening her parents financially. Go, they said reassuringly. Manasrah recalled the conversation on a recent Friday, hours before the university celebrated its spring 2020 commencement that was delayed by five months because of the pandemic. The first-year student was astonished by the number of people on campus for the ceremony.
The Signal
Perimeter students can no longer dine on campus
By Mary A. Brassfield
Due to a decrease in face-to-face classes and on-campus activities, Perimeter dining halls saw a considerable decline in business. As a result, Perimeter campus dining halls have closed for the remainder of the fall 2020 semester. Executive Director of Dining and Sustainability Lenore Musick said this change in sales and not meeting business expenses were the leading causes for the campus cafeterias closing. The reopening of the cafes has yet to be determined by the executives at Georgia State, including all Starbucks cafes.
WRBL
Local artists address racial and social injustice through images
By: Anjelicia Bruton
Columbus State University is partnering with local groups to use public spaces to address social and racial injustice around the country. 14 art pieces are displayed on the Riverwalk. The photos depict some of 2020’s life-changing events like the passing of civil rights icon John Lewis and the Black Lives Matter marches. Vinh Huynh says the issues are not just black and white, but they impact everyone. He moved here a few years ago from Vietnam. He says the American dream is more complicated than he imagined. …This exhibit is called We Cannot Walk Alone. It is located near Hotel Indigo. This is just the first of many projects the artists say they plan to do.
Other News:
11Alive
As Georgia cases increase, so is the number of patients seeking hospital care for COVID-19
There are now more than 1,400 people hospitalized with the virus – bringing the state’s number of patients up by more than 100 week-by-week.
Georgia’s number of COVID-19 hospitalizations are increasing as the number of cases also continues to rise. In the past week, the number of COVID patients who are so sick, they needed to be treated in the hospital, jumped by more than 7%. There are now more than 1,400 people hospitalized with the virus – bringing the state’s number of patients up by more than 100 week-by-week. That’s still just about half of what the state was dealing with in April.
CBS46
COVID-19 infections rising more rapidly in Georgia
Melissa Stern
Georgia has risen back above 100 weekly cases per 100,000 people. COVID-19 infections are rising more rapidly in Georgia, in line with a national trend of increasing cases. One local elementary school, Hembree Springs Elementary School, is shut down for 72-hours for contact tracing and to clean the facilities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 27)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 7,844 | 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: 353,372 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Political Divide Over Colleges’ Fall Reopenings
By Doug Lederman
The American public is divided over just about everything — so why wouldn’t it be divided over whether colleges and universities should have brought students back to their physical campuses this fall? A survey released by the Pew Research Center this week finds Americans split down the middle on the question of whether colleges that are providing “in-person instruction did/did not make the right decision bringing students back to campus this fall.”
Inside Higher Ed
How Are Interim College Presidents Handling This Year?
Like permanent campus leaders, interim presidents take on the pandemic, financial uncertainty and calls for systemic change — but with little time to prepare.
By Emma Whitford
It’s a tough time to be a president in higher education, experts and onlookers said last spring when the COVID-19 pandemic sent colleges spiraling. The job is even tougher this fall, as colleges work to keep students, faculty and staff healthy; sort out rocky finances; prepare for a divisive election; and address structural racism at their institutions. Amid all of this, some colleges are also in the middle of leadership turnover. With little warning and no time to prepare, interim presidents have stepped in to lead numerous colleges through one of higher education’s most difficult years.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Report: Faculty Getting More Comfortable With Digital Tools. They’re Still Worried About Equity
by Sara Weissman
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, faculty are increasingly becoming comfortable with new digital tools in ways that could have lasting impacts on higher education. But even as they embrace online teaching, instructors are worried about equity gaps for their students, according to a study by the nonprofit Every Learner Everywhere and the education consulting firm Tyton Partners. Faculty are “warming up to digital and online instruction in ways that they haven’t previously,” said Dr. Jessica Rowland Williams, director of Every Learner Everywhere. “We’re much further ahead in terms of how faculty are thinking about integrating technology in the classroom than we would have been under normal circumstances. I think, however, there is still a great deal of skepticism. There’s still work to be done.” The report is the second in a series of faculty surveys on their attitudes toward and adoption of new technology during the pandemic; the first was conducted in May and the second in August. About 3,641 faculty who are teaching this fall from 1,532 higher education institutions nationwide participated.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Live Coronavirus Updates: Here’s the Latest
The fall semester is underway, and Covid-19 is wreaking havoc on many campuses. The Chronicle is tracking developments across higher ed here. Read on for daily live updates and information.
…Amid Pandemic, Tuition and Fee Increases Are Smaller
A new report from the College Board suggests that colleges responded to the likelihood that students would be more price-sensitive to tuition than usual during the pandemic. According to the report, released on Monday, average tuition rose again this academic year, but the increases at both public and private nonprofit four-year colleges are the lowest since the early 1990s. The data show that, for full-time undergraduates, the average published tuition and fees (before adjusting for inflation) for 2020-21 increased by:
Inside Higher Ed
Teacher education programs were facing major problems even before the pandemic, but are they dying of natural causes or being killed off? Either way, what’s lost when they go away for good?
By Colleen Flaherty
The University of South Florida shocked faculty members with its recent decision to close its College of Education, which has a large undergraduate population, and retain only a graduate program. The University of California, Davis’s teacher education program staved off a planned suspension due only to widespread outcry. Experts say that education programs — long devalued on and off many campuses — are under even greater threat in an era of COVID-19-related budget cuts. “Education programs have been at risk for a while, and COVID exacerbates the risk … It’s another cut in a death by a thousand cuts,” said Francyne Huckaby, professor of curriculum studies at Texas Christian University and president of the Society of Professors of Education.
Inside Higher Ed
Report: Students With Disabilities Face More Pandemic Hardships
By Greta Anderson
Students with disabilities are more likely to experience financial hardships, mental health challenges and food and housing insecurity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent survey report published by the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU, Consortium. Students who self-identified as having a range of disabilities — physical, learning and neurodevelopmental or cognitive (such as autism or attention deficit disorder) — were twice as likely to have lost their off-campus job during the pandemic than students without disabilities, said the report, which is the latest in a series of policy briefings by the SERU Consortium. The reports are based on a survey of nearly 30,000 undergraduate students who attend large public research institutions that was administered from May to July to assess how students are faring during the health and economic crisis.