University System News:
The Augusta Chronicle
Medical College of Georgia lab refines COVID-19 testing, secures supplies
By Tom Corwin
The main COVID-19 testing facility for Medical College of Georgia and AU Health System continues to refine its techniques as cases skyrocket elsewhere and supplies are scarce. Even as it processes around 1,000 tests a day, the big COVID-19 testing facility for the Medical College of Georgia and AU Health System continues to refine techniques and work to secure ever-dwindling supplies. The Georgia Esoteric and Molecular Lab at MCG and AU Health might have hit on a new method for saliva testing collection that should help correct a major problem, Director Ravindra Kolhe said. Patients are asked not to eat or drink anything, and not to smoke or chew gum, for at least 60 minutes before showing up for testing, but that doesn’t always happen, he said.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Schedules Three Fall Commencement Ceremonies for December 3th
By Staff Report
To allow for proper social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has scheduled three in-person fall commencement ceremonies for Dec. 3.
In a video to ABAC students, ABAC President David Bridges announced on Wednesday that two ceremonies will be held in Tifton inside Gressette Gymnasium at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and another ceremony will be held in Bainbridge at 6 p.m. at the Kirbo Center.
“Social distancing will be observed at all three ceremonies, and masks will be required,” Bridges said. “These ceremonies will focus on providing opportunities for fall graduates to celebrate their time at ABAC with friends and family.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Anika Chaturvedi
The University of Georgia is the latest Georgia college to cancel spring break for 2021 as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. The cancellation was announced in a campus message Thursday. UGA is adding three “instructional break” days, with one break day per month in February, March and April. Another change to the spring semester calendar includes pushing the start date back two days from Jan. 11 to Jan. 13, but the week of final exams will remain as May 5-11. UGA joins other University System of Georgia schools in canceling the break. Georgia Tech already announced the cancellation of its weeklong spring break, and added two break days in March.
The story also appeared in The Athens Banner-Herald: UGA cancels 2021 spring break, citing COVID risks
ScienMag
Researcher Develops App To Reach Black Community With COVID-19 Information
By Staff Reports
A University of Cincinnati cardiologist is partnering with researchers in St. Louis and rural Georgia to develop a smartphone app that will deliver COVID-19 information and education that is targeted toward Black communities. “What we know across the country is that COVID has disproportionately affected the African American community and it is unmasking underlying disease,” says Donald Lynch, MD, assistant professor of cardiovascular health and disease at UC and a UC Health cardiologist… Lynch is working with public health researchers, Tilicia Mayo-Gamble, PhD, at Georgia Southern University, and Kelly Harris, PhD, at Washington University in St. Louis, to conduct a yearlong study in which the smartphone app is designed based on conversations with focus groups in Cincinnati, St. Louis and Princeton, Georgia.
The Red & Black
UGA incentives for COVID-19 tests spark jump in surveillance testing
By Stroud Payne
Before the start of the 2020 fall semester, the University of Georgia faced criticism from concerned members of the university community for its decision to conduct only 300 COVID-19 surveillance tests per day on asymptomatic student, faculty and staff volunteers. Since then, however, the university has had some success in increasing its daily testing average. The university has expanded its surveillance testing capacity to 500 tests per day. In addition, the university has invested in incentives and making getting tested easier.
WGAU
UGA grad students adapt to COVID protocols in lab work
By Ashley Crain
With new protocols in place to safeguard against COVID-19, most University of Georgia graduate students have safely returned to their work in labs and field settings. Continuing their important research has been a positive development, but the changes have required adjustments. Those adaptations have varied immensely, depending on the students’ areas of study. Hannah Kemelmakher studies regenerative medicine and immunology in horses and other large animals at UGA. The pandemic has made her lab work challenging, but there has been a silver lining: “My downtime at home has allowed me to rewrite, organize and consolidate my project in a way that has made me more efficient,” she said.
Athens CEO
UGA’s Hospitality Program Thriving in the ‘New Normal’
By Josh Paine
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis on the hospitality industry, the University of Georgia’s Hospitality and Food Industry Management program is operating under full steam. With enrollment numbers ahead of projections, the program is preparing to graduate its first class of students in 2021 after opening the program in fall 2019 to first-year and transfer students. There are about 50 students in the major, according to John Salazar, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. With an extensive background in the hospitality industry around the U.S., Salazar came to lead the program at UGA shortly before it launched.
WTOC
Students Share More of Savannah’s History
By Sarah Stone
Every year, tourists from around the world visit Savannah to learn more about its history. Now, students at Georgia Southern University are working to make sure both tourists and locals are exposed to even more of the Hostess City’s story. Four graduate history students researched topics they believe are missing from the current historical and tourism offerings. Then, they applied those findings to create “Savannah History Remix” a collection of historic walking tours. “We wanted to give people stories that would make them think of Savannah as a city made up of common people who are making history all the time,” Assistant Professor of History Alena Pirok said. Because of the pandemic, the walking tours have moved to a virtually self-guided format, and only two are being offered. Graduate student Lauren Hartke was inspired to create a tour called “A Seat at the Table: A Social History of Savannah Foodways.”
The New York Times
Have a Creepy, Crawly Halloween
By Judy Mandell
The fear of snakes has plagued Sydney Masters as long as she can remember. Ms. Masters, a New York public relations executive, experiences an overwhelming panic-attack type of fear — shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat — whenever she’s near anything that slithers. Several years ago, while she was walking in Washington Square Park, a man pulled out a gun, shooting in the air. At that same moment, she spotted another man carrying a boa constrictor wrapped around his body. “My big worry was not the gunman,” Ms. Masters said. “It was the boa.”… A 2018 study from scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with the pest control company Orkin found that pests seen in a home elicit a neurological reaction of “strong disgust.”
GPB
Digitized Funeral Programs Document Black History
By Leah Fleming
Funeral programs are more than brochures passed around during a funeral service. They are a snapshot of the deceased’s life, and for several Black families, also serve as a genealogical piece of ancestry and heritage. A new digitized archive of African American funeral programs in Georgia traces programs from Atlanta, Augusta, Henry County and Thomas County. The programs contain clues that help reveal who a person was and how they lived… Tamika Strong from the African-American Genealogical Historical Society said some people don’t think of it that way. “For some, they just look at it as a piece of paper,” she said. But Strong is among a group of local librarians and genealogists that said these Black funeral programs are indeed artifacts. Angela Stanley from the Georgia Public Library Service has the opportunity to talk about the programs’ historical impact. “That’s something we get to talk to our patrons about all the time,” she said. The free archive of funeral programs can be accessed through the Digital Library of Georgia.
Other News:
WSB-TV
Governor Kemp extends COVID-19 emergency order into December
By News Staff
Gov. Brian Kemp extended the state’s Public Health Emergency order once again, this time through Dec. 9. The order also extends the current COVID-19 restrictions with “minimal changes to the sections on Healthcare and Governments.” Residents are encouraged to remain home, but if they go out in public they should wear masks. The governor’s latest order allows counties and states to allow mask mandates in public. Residents who are over 65 years old are no longer ordered to shelter in place unless they live in a nursing home or long care facility or are medically fragile.
The Augusta Chronicle
Oct. 29: Georgia seeing steady rise in COVID-19 cases, deaths
By Tom Corwin
Georgia is seeing a steady rise in new cases of COVID-19 and new deaths, including two in Augusta, while cases were elevated in South Carolina but deaths remained low. Georgia added 1,823 new cases in a steady rise all week to reach 356,848 with 47 new deaths for 7,923, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported. Richmond County saw 48 new cases for 8,012 and Columbia County had 29 for 4,415. All other counties had four new cases or less: three in Burke for 896, one in Jefferson for 857, four in McDuffie for 689, three in Jenkins for 472, three in Wilkes for 303, two in Warren for 167, one in Glascock for 50 and two in Taliaferro for 30. Unchanged were Screven County at 450 and Lincoln County at 235.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 29)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 7,923 | 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: 356,848 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Moody’s Forecasts Widespread Drop in Tuition Revenue. Here’s Why That Matters.
By Lee Gardner
People looking for clues about higher education’s future fiscal health saw reasons for worry in a new report by Moody’s Investors Service. The bond-rating agency announced on Wednesday that, for the first time in the 12-year history of its annual tuition survey, both private and public colleges are likely to lose net tuition revenue in the 2021 fiscal year. Private institutions are expected to experience a median 3-percent decrease in net tuition revenue, while public institutions are expected to see a median 1-percent decrease. Last year’s report projected slight, softening growth for both sectors, due to tough competition for students in an increasingly challenging environment. This year’s report is comparatively bearish. So what does this mean? Why do such small changes in this nerdy-sounding number make a critical difference for colleges, and bode ill for higher-ed finances for years to come?
Inside Higher Ed
By Lilah Burke
While college administrators and decision makers have stressed that they are taking the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant health and safety concerns very seriously, there has been an underlying assumption: students — if they catch the disease — will be fine. “At least 80 percent of our population is made up of young people, say, 35 and under. All data to date tell us that the COVID-19 virus, while it transmits rapidly in this age group, poses close to zero lethal threat to them,” Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, said in a letter to campus in April, expressing an intent to reopen. “Literally, our students pose a far greater danger to others than the virus poses to them.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
How Colleges Can Prevent Covid-19 Spread When Students Leave for Thanksgiving
By Katherine Mangan
Colleges should urge students to be tested for Covid-19 before they leave for Thanksgiving, be ready to quarantine and isolate students over the holiday break, and make sure that no one travels home while sick, the American College Health Association recommended in guidance issued on Thursday. Campuses that plan to resume in-person classes after Thanksgiving should strongly discourage students from traveling and instead promote the idea of celebrating virtually with their families, the association said. In addition, “institutions should plan to provide on-campus meals and encourage staying in place for ‘Friendsgiving.’”
Law.com
More Law Schools Nix Classes on Election Day
By Karen Sloan
Hundreds of law students won’t be heading to campus Nov. 3 or logging into classes via Zoom. A growing number of law schools across the country have canceled classes on Election Day in order to facilitate voting and give students the opportunity to do election-related volunteer work. At least two dozen schools won’t be holding classes Nov. 3, and for many it’s the first time that they have made Election Day an official holiday. Just a handful of school canceled classes on Election Day in 2016. Stanford Law School this year adopted a new policy of not holding classes on Election Day in even-numbered years. This year, dozens of students are volunteering with the Healthy Elections Project, which is a nonpartisan joint venture between Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that aims to ensure the 2020 election is both safe and fair.