University System News
The Augusta Chronicle
“Just like getting a flu shot”: AU Health vaccinates front-line caregivers against COVID-19
By Tom Corwin
Registered Respiratory Therapist Angie James was among 10 front-line workers who got the first shots of the vaccine after it arrived Thursday morning at AU Health System. AU President Brooks Keel declared it an “extraordinary” moment. The vaccines are part of the initial wave of 84,825 doses Georgia expected to get from Pfizer and part of the 60,000 that are being distributed to hospitals in the latter part of the week, the Georgia Department of Public Health said.
WJLC 22
Promise kept: SSU Spring Graduates to get in-person graduation Saturday
Staff reports
The largest graduating class in the history of Savannah State University has had to wait for a while, but it’s finally their time to shine. The spring Class of 2020, with 415 graduates, will finally have their in-person graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 12th at T.A. Wright Stadium. The traditional May ceremony was postponed due to COVID-19, when the university held a virtual ceremony instead. “When we postponed in-person commencement in May, we promised the graduates we would schedule a time for the class to return to campus and participate in the full commencement ceremony,” said Kimberly Ballard-Washington, interim president of Savannah State University. “For a variety of reasons, many of the students who graduated at that time may not be able to attend on Saturday, but we are pleased to celebrate with the graduates who will be in attendance.”
WSB-Radio
UGA’s pomp and circumstance is, because of COVID, virtual
By Tim Bryant
Today is commencement day for the University of Georgia’s fall semester class of 2020. Because of concerns about coronavirus, the graduation exercises will be virtual, on-line at 9:30 this morning for undergrads and 2:30 this afternoon for the University’s graduate students. Graduates and their families, friends and Bulldogs worldwide are invited to gather online to welcome the University of Georgia’s newest alumni on Dec. 18 as 1,874 undergraduates and 2,526 graduate students—a total of 4,400—have met requirements to graduate.
CBS 46
Georgia SOS and UGA researchers reviewing state’s absentee ballot system
By Catherine Catoura
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made the announcement that his office and the University of Georgia would be teaming up in an effort to review the state’s signature matching system. With this new oversight, Georgians can have more confidence in the state’s absentee ballot system for elections in the future.
Rockdale Citizen
UGA to offer high school students paid research internships this summer through Young Scholars Program
By Ashley Biles
Do you know a high school student who is interested in science and craves a hands-on learning environment? Then check out the University of Georgia’s Young Scholars Internship Program (YSP). YSP began on the UGA Griffin Campus in 1989. It is a prestigious internship program for Georgia high school students interested in agricultural, food and environmental sciences. Selected participants conduct hands-on research with world-renowned scientists through the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. YSP is a paid six-week summer internship where students are actively engaged in research under the guidance of a faculty mentor at UGA-Athens, UGA-Griffin, or UGA-Tifton. While in the program, students are assigned to work with a researcher and their staff on campus for 30 hours per week, typically Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
WGXA News
Baldwin County Schools awarded $224,000 Food & Agriculture Learning Grant
By Haley Garrett
The Baldwin County School District was awarded a grant by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The school in partnership with Fort Valley State University Cooperative Services announce that it has been awarded a $224,000 Food & Agriculture Service-Learning Program. Fort Valley State University Cooperative Extension Services is partnering with the Baldwin County School District to increase the capacity of the Baldwin Grows Farm to School Program focused on fostering innovative strategies to provide multiple benefits related to student nutrition, health, social and emotional skills, academic achievement and school engagement. Baldwin County is one of only five districts in the United States to receive this grant.
GrowingGeorgia
ABAC Students Photograph Rare Eastern Indigo Snake
Staff reports
Two Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College students recently photographed a rare six-foot long Eastern Indigo snake while preparing capstone project research for their bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management at ABAC. “This is a really noteworthy observation and of significant conservation value,” Dr. Vanessa Lane, ABAC Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management and a Certified Wildlife Biologist, said. “The sighting of this federally threatened species has already been reported to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and a biologist will be conducting formal surveys sometime this month.” ABAC students Morgan Pierce from Hartwell and Scott Herkel from Norwood were using trail cameras to monitor gopher tortoise burrows on private property for their undergraduate research project.
Cobb County Courier
KSU Union Raises Over $2,000 To Help Workers Fired From University
Posted by Arielle Robinson
Kennesaw State University’s chapter of the United Campus Workers of Georgia has raised money to help workers pay for everyday expenses after the KSU fired them. The union chapter’s GoFundMe has raised $2,180 so far to go toward the 24 employees who were permanently fired from KSU in October this year. The fundraiser was launched on October 27th and is ongoing. On August 10, 2020, KSU initially made the 24 workers who were fired aware that they were being permanently fired within 60 days, open records show. The workers were permanently fired, what the university calls a “reduction in force,” on Oct. 10, 2020.
Other News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Dec. 17)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
DEATHS: 9,358 | 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: 494,173 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Albany Herald
Former President Jimmy Carter to receive coronavirus vaccine ‘when it is available to him’
By Ben Tinker and Caroline Kelly, CNN
Former President Jimmy Carter’s foundation announced Thursday that the 39th President is planning to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. The news comes after fellow former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton said earlier this month that they would get Covid-19 vaccines publicly to prove it’s safe.
AJC
As Ga. hospitals begin vaccinations, state learns it will get fewer doses
By Ariel Hart and Greg Bluestein
Georgia was among several states Thursday to report that their expected allotments of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for the coming weeks have been cut by 40%, amid conflicting explanations and denials from the federal vaccination operation and Pfizer. Hospitals in several Georgia locations are overflowing with patients but short on nurses to care for them. And the state Thursday recorded an all-time record of net new COVID-19 confirmed and probable cases, at 7,777.
Higher Education News
GPB
‘Losing A Generation’: Fall College Enrollment Plummets For 1st-Year Students
By Elissa Nadworny
Researchers say the pandemic is largely to blame for this year’s drastic enrollment declines, but college-going has also been on a decade-long downward trend. New data is showing that the pandemic is having a profound impact on college enrollment. Turns out a lot of students and their families didn’t want to shell out big money for college tuition exclusively for online classes. But NPR’s Elissa Nadworny says this downward trend was visible even before COVID-19 upended everything. Elissa joins us this morning.
Gwinnett Daily Post
Teaching continues at PCOM Georgia through tele-simulation
By Barbara Myers
Each Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon, second year Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine students at PCOM Georgia use their deductive reasoning skills to diagnose a “patient” presented in the campus’ Simulation Center. Using tele-simulation, which involves multiple cameras and a virtual meeting platform, three physician faculty members present case scenarios to students who use a rotating team leader, a scribe and the chat room to narrow the field of possibilities. In the era of escape rooms and employing the same skills used by Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Lieutenant Columbo, and even Gregory House, MD, the students work together to logically eliminate diagnoses.
Diverse: Issues In Higher Education
Universities Allege Increase in Academic Dishonesty Amid Pandemic
By Jessica Ruf
With exams being held online, Texas A&M University faculty have reported heightened concerns of student cheating “on a very large scale,” reports The Texas Tribune. According to faculty, some students have answered online test questions faster than they can possibly read them and other faculty had discovered entire exams posted to the textbook rental and “homework help” website, Chegg. Though Chegg is meant to be used as a learning resource, it is instead gaining a reputation as a cheating tool among students, who, for a monthly fee, can submit questions to the site and receive an answer within a few hours. Early this month, university officials asked that guilty students self-report themselves by 5 p.m. on Dec. 8, or else they may be found in violation of the academic honor code, potentially facing suspension or expulsion.
Chronicle of Higher Education
His University Celebrated His Success. Then It Fired Him.
By Megan Zahneis
A prominent faculty member at the University of Mississippi found himself at the center of a firestorm this week, after news of his unexpected termination spread on social media. Garrett Felber, an assistant professor in his fourth year at the institution, got a letter from his department chair on December 10, informing him that she had recommended he be terminated. The reason that Noell Howell Wilson gave was that Felber had failed to properly communicate with her and had refused to meet by phone or Zoom, according to a copy of his termination letter obtained by The Chronicle. But to Felber and a growing list of supporters, that rationale rings hollow — and is, they say, unprecedented. Felber has a history of activism and has been an outspoken critic of the administration at Mississippi, a background that has led supporters to conclude that something deeper motivated the decision.
Inside Higher Ed
The Crisis Higher Education Needs
By Steven Mintz
The pandemic, the financial crisis and the reckoning over race have precipitated a crisis that higher education needs to have. By exposing and intensifying long-standing problems involving access, affordability, equity and quality, the current emergency is forcing colleges and universities to confront problems that higher education has evaded and responsibilities that it has shirked. Sometimes, institutions need a crisis. Often, it’s only a crisis that can jolt an institution out of its lethargy and complacency, alter existing mind-sets, and make stakeholders demand meaningful change.