University System News:
AllOnGeorgia
The University of West Georgia’s College of Education (COE) was again praised for its efforts in advancing the health and wellness of UWG’s campus community and the west Georgia region at large. Only 166 universities and colleges are honored by the American College of Sports Medicine. Of those, only 77 receive a gold level of designation. UWG has achieved both honors for the fifth consecutive year. UWG’s Exercise Is Medicine (EIM) program helps promote physical activity as a vital sign to healthy living in addition to encouraging faculty, staff and students to work together to improve health on campus. The goal is to provide resources and knowledge needed to engage in physical activity.
Rockdale Newton Citizen
Georgia Southwestern State University and Georgia Piedmont Technical College have signed a new articulation agreement designed to ensure a smooth transition from associate degree programs at GPTC to GSW’s Long-Term Care Management program. “We are excited to partner with Georgia Piedmont Technical College in educating the caregivers our aging and disabled communities desperately need,” said GSW President Neal Weaver. “We hope that in simplifying the transition from institution to institution, more students are encouraged to pursue long-term care as a career.”
Growing Georgia
Students Awarded Campus Sustainability Grants
A University of Georgia student-led project hopes to produce fruitful results with an edible landscape near Lake Herrick. One of 13 annual Campus Sustainability Grants recently awarded to UGA students by the Office of Sustainability, the UGA Edible Landscape Project — led by College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) student Abbie Dillon — will install regionally appropriate fruiting trees and shrubs near Lake Herrick to provide experiential learning, on-site education and long-term fruit foraging opportunities for students and visitors.
Gwinnett Daily Post
University of Georgia names Josh Brooks as new athletic director
Josh Brooks has been named the athletic director at the University of Georgia, the school announced Wednesday afternoon. Brooks, who served recently as interim athletic director, will become the Bulldogs’ 12th athletic director, following the retirement of Greg McGarity, who held the position for 10 years.
Statesboro Herald
COVID vaccination clinic scheduled to open up in Bulloch
Georgia expands group now eligible for shots
From staff reports
Local colleges (5th article down)
Georgia Southern recorded 20 new cases for the week of Dec. 27–Jan. 3. Seventeen of the new cases were on the Statesboro campus. Georgia Southern will report again on Monday, Jan. 1.
East Georgia State College reported two new cases on its Swainsboro campus Sunday. The college has had a total of 107 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Discover Magazine
Some countries shifted their cultures after pandemics to embrace mask-wearing in public. Will the same thing happen to the U.S.?
By Leslie Nemo
For some people, the idea of going to the store without a mask right now is so shocking, they’re having stress dreams about it. But once the need to wear a face-covering every time we go shopping is over, our instinct to reach for our masks might not disappear entirely in the U.S. Living through the worst epidemic Americans have seen in a century might shift attitudes about long-term mask use, in part because what many people experienced during the pandemic is uniquely traumatic, says Isaac Fung, an epidemiologist at Georgia Southern University. …Part of why it’s possible that masks could become a more long-term fixture in the U.S. is because elsewhere in the world, previous pandemics had the same effect. In 2003, the SARS outbreaks in parts of Asia, including China, Taiwan and South Korea, required mask-wearing.
Rockdale Newton Citizen
Conyers-Rockdale to unveil new economic development strategy
Rockdale County, the City of Conyers, and the Conyers-Rockdale Economic Development Council are inviting the public to learn about the community’s new Advancing Rockdale Economic Development Strategy in a virtual event on Jan. 20 from 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Over the past 12 months, the county, city and Economic Development Council have partnered, with the support of the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, to develop a new economic development strategy for the community. Throughout 2020 a steering committee comprised of local business, education, government, and community leaders has worked to craft a new vision and strategy for economic development in Rockdale County and Conyers through labor market and economic data analysis, stakeholder input, and a review of existing economic efforts.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Jan. 6)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 10,035 | Deaths have been confirmed in all counties but one (Taliaferro). This figure does not include additional cases that the DPH reports as suspected COVID-19-related deaths. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
CONFIRMED CASES: 602,796 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia COVID death toll officially tops 10,000
By Tim Darnell
Georgia’s confirmed coronavirus death toll passed 10,000 on Wednesday, when the state Department of Public Health reported 10,035 deaths since the pandemic began. According to the Jan. 6 figures, Georgia’s confirmed coronavirus cases stood at 602,796; 43,629 hospitalizations; and 7,605 ICU admissions. The state Department of Public Health’s final Dec. 31, 2020, report had recorded 9,872 COVID deaths, along with 566,676 confirmed cases. Georgia reported 9,889 confirmed deaths on Jan. 1.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
‘The Worst Day for American Democracy in My Lifetime’
College presidents called the violent unrest at the U.S. Capitol building shocking, frightening and a “clear attempt to hijack the very foundation of our democracy.”
By Emma Whitford
College and university leaders across the country responded to the violent chaos at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday using unusually strong terms for higher education leaders. Many college presidents said they were saddened and frightened by the sight of supporters of President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol and condemned the rioters’ actions on Twitter and in statements or emails to students and employees. “I want to be clear: the storming of the Capitol complex is not merely a brazen act by a relatively small group of instigators. It is the direct result of a campaign to sow mistrust in our democracy and to overturn an election that was by all reasonable accounts conducted freely and fairly,” Vincent Price, president of Duke University in Durham, N.C., said in an email to the campus. …“In Congress I was told ‘If you enter the Capitol and don’t feel awe and reverence, it’s time to retire,’” he tweeted. “I never lost that feeling. I left when I lost a U.S. Senate race. The electorate spoke. I listened. The disrespect being shown to the temple of our democracy is heartbreaking.” Several college presidents called the riots an attempted coup d’état.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Riots at U.S. Capitol Prompt Strong Response from Higher Ed Leaders
An insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon dominated the national headlines and prompted a forceful rebuke from politicians, law enforcement officials and higher education leaders from coast to coast. Several hundred Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, as legislators were going through the process of certifying the Electoral College votes ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. “We are deeply horrified and saddened by the assault on the U.S. Capitol, an attack on the very fabric of our democracy,” said Dr. Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education (ACE). “America is better than this.” Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), denounced the violence.
Issue in Higher Ed
Even seasoned historians and political scientists struggled to digest Wednesday’s siege on the Capitol — then offered scathing critiques of Trump and his extremist supporters and “enablers.”
By Colleen Flaherty
“It’s watching one of those terrible historical moments in real time.” That’s how political historian Julian E. Zelizer, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, described his reaction to Wednesday’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But was Zelizer surprised? “At one level, it’s just horrible to watch our democracy be in this place,” he said as the 6 p.m. curfew approached and pro-Trump extremists began to disperse amid a growing police presence. “At another level, it’s hard not to see how this is the culmination of what has been happening in the last four years — in fact in the last four decades,” since the rise of what Zelizer has called the new Republican Party. Other scholars of U.S. history and politics had similar reactions to Wednesday’s events when asked to help put them in perspective. The country they study seemed at once foreign and familiar. They shared feelings of disbelief — and of having their expectations of President Trump’s final days in office fulfilled. And they warned against seeing the siege as an isolated event but also described it as unique and grave in its implications. …Bigger picture, Grossman said the fact that 74 million Americans recently voted for Trump, who encouraged crowds earlier in the day to “never concede,” is testimony to a “failure of our systems of public education.”