University System News:
Fox5
Georgia Gwinnett College officer’s quick thinking saves woman’s life
By FOX 5 Digital Team
A Georgia Gwinnett College police officer is being called a hero after saving an unconscious woman’s life with her quick thinking and medical training. Ashley Still was working out at the Winder Barrow Brad Akins YMCA when an employee rushed up to her. The employee knew that Still was a first responder and told her that a woman had collapsed near the swimming pool. As soon as she saw the woman, Still says she knew immediately that she had suffered a full cardiac arrest. …Using the club’s Automated External Defibrillator, Still began to lead the effort to resuscitate the woman with CPR. …After one shock with the defibrillator, the woman’s heart began beating again. Still have saved her life.
Griffin Daily News
Gordon State president gives state of the college address
By Staff Reports
Gordon State College president Dr. Kirk A. Nooks delivered the institution’s Second Annual State of the College address last month, a program which also included the introduction of the GSC Scholarship recipient Elijah Clemmons and the introduction of President Nooks by Presidential Fellow Harrison Bishton, a Coweta County resident and veteran who was part of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command.
WSAV
Savannah State, Red Cross host blood drive in honor of 13-year-old sickle cell patient
by: Ashley Williams
Savannah State University and the American Red Cross teamed up to host a campus blood drive on Thursday in honor of a 13-year-old boy battling sickle cell disease. Jay Gandia, who lives in Hinesville, was diagnosed with the blood disorder at 6 months old and has been hospitalized several times since his diagnosis. “This is the reason that we’re all here today,” Maria Center, executive director for the Red Cross of Georgia’s southeast chapter, told WSAV NOW. …Joining students and staff in participating were some of the historically Black university’s leaders, including vice president of marketing and communications Annette Ogletree-McDougal and interim president Kimberly Ballard-Washington.
Augusta Chronicle
Georgia Cyber Center looking to help close the broadband gap in Georgia
Tom Corwin
The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the digital divide in Georgia between those who have good internet access and the more than 500,000 homes and businesses that do not, leaders and advocates said. But getting that service to sparsely populated and rural areas is still a problem and one the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta is eager to dive into. According to the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative, 507,341 locations in Georgia lack access to even minimal levels of internet service, about 70% in rural areas. Nearly a third of rural Georgia lacks good access, including 26 counties where more than 50% of homes and businesses don’t have broadband. During the pandemic last year, as schools closed and people tried to work from home, “it became even clearer how critical access to broadband internet is in our communities,” particularly in rural areas, Gov. Brian Kemp said. The internet “is the interstate of today’s world,” Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said. “High-quality internet is more important than ever to each and every one of us.” That hit home with Chris Apsey, director of the Cyber Range at Georgia Cyber Center.
Metro Atlanta CEO
A new agreement between Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) and Clayton State University (CSU) will pave the way for GGC’s business school graduates to further their education in a growing and well-paying field. The agreement, signed today, by GGC president, Dr. Jann L. Joseph and CSU president, Dr. Thomas J. Hynes, Jr., will offer a seamless transition for GGC Bachelor of Business Administration graduates to enter CSU’s Master of Science in supply chain analytics program. …CSU president Thomas J. Hynes Jr. and GGC president Jann L. Joseph signed the articulation agreement in an online ceremony.
yahoo!news
Atlanta area gets a 5G incubator courtesy of T-Mobile and Georgia Tech
Jonathan Shieber
The Atlanta area is getting a new incubator for startups working with 5G technology courtesy of T-Mobile and Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the companies announced today. It’s an expansion of the T-Mobile Accelerator program and part of the big carrier’s efforts to boost 5G innovation. Located in the Atlanta-adjacent exurb of Peachtree Corners’ technology development park, which is already equipped with T-Mobile’s 5G services, the incubator will help developers build and test 5G use cases including autonomous vehicles, robotics, industrial drone applications, mixed reality training and entertainment, remote medical care and personal health, the company said. Startups working with the 5G Connected Future program will work directly with folks at T-Mobile’s accelerator, Georgia Tech and Curiosity Lab, an initiative in the Peachtree Corners campus.
The Augusta Chronicle
Moroccan fungus shows promise in Augusta University cancer research
Tom Corwin
Dr. Ahmed Chadli literally went back to his roots to find a promising therapy that could potentially fight breast cancer and help harness the immune system to do it. Chadli, an associate professor of medicine at Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, recently got a $1.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to look at a compound that is derived from a fungus found on the roots of some plants in his native Morocco.
CNBC
Texas blackouts show how vulnerable power grid is to climate change
Emma Newburger
The major winter storm that’s swept across the South this week and knocked out power for more than 3 million people in Texas has raised concerns over the vulnerability of the country’s power grid to extreme weather events made worse by climate change. …In Texas, which has the worst outages, power prices surged as electricity demand rose. The higher demand for electricity and heat overwhelmed the state’s grid, with failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems responsible for most of the outages, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Emily Grubert, an engineer and professor at Georgia Tech, said that more extreme weather events will continue to push electricity grids to perform beyond their design capabilities and that states must prepare for system failures.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A Georgia Lawmaker Asked How Colleges Teach ‘Privilege’ and ‘Oppression.’ Here’s How They Responded.
By Lindsay Ellis
When a state lawmaker asked the University System of Georgia about how it teaches “oppression” and “privilege,” it set off searches through course catalogues and syllabi, conversations with deans, department chairs, and faculty members — and a 102-page response. In January, Georgia Rep. Emory Dunahoo, Republican of Gillsville, asked campuses if any classes fell into three categories: Do they teach students that “possessing certain characteristics inherently designates them as either being ‘privileged’ or ‘oppressed’?” Do any classes instruct on “what constitutes ‘privilege’ and ‘oppression’?” Are there classes that characterize white, male, heterosexual, or Christian students as “intrinsically privileged and oppressive, which is defined as ‘malicious or unjust’ and ‘wrong’?” In their responses, few campus leaders gave much context or explained how such instruction might meet colleges’ missions. Instead, they cited accreditation requirements, denied teaching about “privilege,” or, in one case, promised that discussions of these topics were conducted “in an objective, non-biased manner.” But it was clear that the searches — which resulted in more than 900 listed classes across 26 institutions — required immense effort.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Senate passes bill that clarifies who can give COVID-19 vaccines
By Maya T. Prabhu,
When states got word last year that COVID-19 vaccines would likely be making their way to the states, Gov. Brian Kemp passed an executive order that allows more medical professionals such as pharmacists, nurses and medics to administer them. On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed legislation that would make the practice a law going forward, whether or not we were in a health emergency. Senate Bill 46 now goes to the House for its consideration. “The theory behind that is we’re probably never coming out of the need for COVID vaccine,” said bill sponsor state Sen. Dean Burke, a Bainbridge Republican and physician. “We’re going to be giving that probably for years. Hopefully it won’t be in a pandemic situation, but (the need will) be there. This allows those people to continue to provide access.” The legislation also outlined the way in which it would report information to the federal government about who received the COVID-19 vaccine.
accessWDUN
Georgia opening up four mass vaccination sites for COVID-19
By The Associated Press
Georgia is opening up four mass vaccination sites to inoculate people against COVID-19, with locations chosen to try to increase the lagging share of Black and Latino residents who are getting the shots. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said at a news conference Thursday the sites will be up and running on Monday. They will be in Albany, Macon, Habersham County and at the Delta Flight Museum near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Power Poll: Ga. leaders say ‘normal’ will return, eventually
By Bert Roughton Jr.
Metro Atlanta leaders generally believe life will be back to some semblance of normal beginning in September and most expect that normal will return by mid-2022, a new survey found. A small number – about 4 percent of those polled – said they expected that things would never be the same in the wake of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. The Atlanta Power Poll is part of a nationwide survey that solicits community leaders’ opinions on important issues. It does not have the precision of a scientific poll but is meant to provide some insight into the thinking of metro Atlanta, and Georgia, leaders.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 18)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 14,358 | Deaths have been confirmed in every county. 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: 798,785 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why Would Iowa Want to Kill Tenure?
By Eric Kelderman
Not long after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Mary Sue Coleman’s family moved from Georgia to Iowa. Lawmakers in Georgia were considering eliminating public schools to avoid racial integration. That prompted Coleman’s father, who taught chemistry at Georgia Teachers College, which is now Georgia Southern University, to take a job at the Iowa State Teachers College, in Cedar Falls, which is now the University of Northern Iowa. At the time, Iowa’s public schools and colleges had a great reputation, said Coleman, who pursued a long career as a scientist and higher-education administrator. She served as president at the University of Iowa from 1995 to 2002. Nearly 70 years later, Coleman and others are concerned that the three public universities in Iowa are under threat of losing the very good name that has attracted students and scholars for decades. Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature is considering a bill to eliminate tenure at the state’s three public universities — Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa. The bill is nothing new; similar versions have been introduced for several years running, never to advance further than that. But this year, the bill passed a full committee vote for the first time. …The elected officials leading this effort misunderstand the purpose and protections of tenure, said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. In eliminating it, she said, lawmakers are undermining the very freedom of speech that they seek to protect. “If you can lose your job for taking a political stance that’s different from the majority of the legislature that would have a chilling effect.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia asks Biden White House for school standardized test waiver
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Gov. Brian Kemp and state school Superintendent Richard Woods Thursday resubmitted Georgia’s request for a waiver of standardized testing and accountability requirements to the U.S. Department of Education. “Only three months from now, Georgia’s schools will start closing out the 2020-21 school year. The close of the second semester also brings about federally required standardized testing. But the middle of a global pandemic is no time for high-stakes tests – especially high-stakes tests that must be administered in person,” said Woods. Students are taking the Milestones exams this year as former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told Georgia and other states not to expect a reprieve from the federal requirement for annual high-stakes exams.