University System News:

The Red & Black

ANALYSIS: UGA reports 181 COVID-19 cases over past week

Simran Kaur Malhotra | Health Data Reporter

The University of Georgia reported 181 COVID-19 cases over the week of Jan. 25 to Jan. 31, a decrease from the 201 cases a week before. Since the start of 2021, the university has reported 961 positive cases. Since the start of the pandemic, UGA has reported 6,265 positive cases. Of the 181 cases reported this week, 64 were from UGA’s surveillance testing program for volunteers without symptoms, 37 were from the University Health Center’s testing program primarily for students with symptoms, 23 were from Athens testing sites and the remaining 57 were from the “other” category, which includes positive tests both inside and outside of Athens. In total, 133 students and 48 employees tested positive. Of those who tested positive, about 73.5% were students, while about 26.5% were faculty and staff.

WGAU

UGA med students to help with vaccine distribution

Partnership with Athens Free Clinic

By Tim Bryant

Medical students at the Augusta University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership are set to help administer the COVID 19 vaccine as part of an arrangement with the Clarke County Board of Health. The UGA med students will deliver vaccines through the Athens Free Clinic.

From Lindsey Derrick, UGA Media Relations…

The medical students will be working at Department of Public Health COVID-19 testing sites administering the vaccines and monitoring patients for vaccine reactions. They will also be assisting in other areas such as recruiting patients for vaccines and completing clerical work.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

No ‘Social Justice’ in the Classroom: Statehouses Renew Scrutiny of Speech at Public Colleges

By Lindsay Ellis

Blocking professors from teaching social-justice issues. Asking universities how they talk about privilege. Analyzing students’ freedom of expression through regular reports. Meet the new campus-speech issues emerging in Republican-led statehouses across the country, indicating potential new frontiers for politicians to shape campus affairs. This flurry of activity, in states like Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Iowa, shows lawmakers’ intense focus on campus culture wars amid broader national clashes over how America’s history is taught and remembered. …A Georgia politician also pushed colleges on issues of privilege. At the request of a state Republican lawmaker, the Ledger-Enquirer reported, the public-university system circulated questions to universities, asking whether professors teach “what constitutes ‘privilege’ and oppression,” and if any classes teach that “students who identify as white, male, heterosexual, or Christian are intrinsically privileged and oppressive.” A spokesman for the system did not respond to a request for comment but told the Ledger-Enquirer that it complied with the lawmaker’s request because the system is a state agency.

Savannah CEO

Parker College of Business Students, Faculty Excel in Virtual Global Competition

Sales students in the Parker College of Business spent the fall semester communicating and making deals with a robot through the virtual RNMKRS College Sales Skills Competition.  The students, who placed in the top 1% of more than 2,200 participants, learned and practiced selling a product by speaking virtually with Alex, a consumer bot who listens, adapts and responds as students used voice activation on their mobile phones. …Georgia Southern was among the 59 schools that competed. Georgia Southern had the most students overall with scores in the top 30% and the eighth-highest percentage of students with scores in the top 30%.

Georgia Trend

Celebrating Black Americans’ groundbreaking achievements

Mary Ann DeMuth

February is Black History Month, the annual recognition of African Americans’ achievements and their role in U.S. history. The celebration dates back to 1915, 50 years after the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery. That year the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), as it is known today, was formed to research and promote achievements by Black Americans. In 1926, the group sponsored Negro History Week the second week of February, coinciding with Abraham Lincoln’s and Frederick Douglass’s birthdays. Schools and communities nationwide were encouraged to organize local celebrations. …Cities and towns across Georgia are holding special events this month in celebration of Black Americans’ achievements, although due to the pandemic many will be held virtually. An exhibit at the University of Georgia’s (UGA’s) Main Library is an especially significant look at desegregation in the state. Georgia Trailblazers: Honoring the 60th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA opened last month and chronicles the historic events of 1961 when Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (now Hunter-Gault) became the first Black students admitted to the university.

WJBF

Georgia Cyber Center planning for third campus building

by: Mary Calkins

Georgia Cyber Center plans to construct a third building that may affect Augusta’s economy and skyline. The campus currently has two buildings. The Hull McKnight building for academia and innovation, and the Shaffer MacCartney building, a hub for technology startups and co-location with government and industry groups. The two buildings consist of a combined 330-thousand square feet. Now they’re looking toward expansion. The University System of Georgia owns the lot that will be home to building number three, and it’s next door to the existing structures. Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences will be an anchor tenant, using the space for research.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

OPINION: Strengthening teacher pipeline won’t matter if destination is a sewer

Get Schooled with Maureen Downey

Education professor: Governor’s efforts to increase teacher supply must begin with making schools vibrant and humane workplaces

Veteran educator and college professor Peter Smagorinsky read the governor’s guest column that appeared here Tuesday on new efforts to recruit and retain teachers in Georgia. After a long career as a teacher and a professor in a college of education, Smagorinsky did not agree with the central themes of Brian Kemp’s plan to increase teacher supply. Smagorinsky is a Distinguished Research Professor of English Education, Emeritus, Department of Language and Literacy Education (English Education).

By Peter Smagorinsky

Gov. Brian Kemp published an essay recently in Get Schooled entitled “We must strengthen teacher pipeline.” I’ll begin by saying I’m glad to see Gov. Kemp making a high-quality K-12 school system a priority. Good schools are associated with many societal benefits. They attract industry and other sources of jobs. They raise real estate values. They help reduce “brain drain” to other states. Good schools are good for a state’s business, along with the quality of community life.

Other News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More contagious COVID-19 strain ‘probably widespread’ in Georgia

By Helena Oliviero, Eric Stirgus and Yamil Berard

Pressure grows to ramp up vaccinations but doses are still in short supply

With COVID-19 deaths in Georgia at their highest point in the pandemic and a worrisome variant “probably widespread” throughout the state, health authorities are in a desperate race against time to vaccinate as many people as possible. But Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday the state is still short of doses and won’t be able to expand vaccine eligibility to include teachers and other essential workers for at least two to three weeks. It could even be longer unless more COVID-19 vaccine doses become available.

WABE

Kemp Frustrated By Tight Supplies Of Vaccine In Georgia

ASSOCIATED PRESS

As he toured a new mass vaccination site in Atlanta’s suburbs, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday expressed frustration with tight vaccine supplies. Georgia could set up more mass vaccination centers and offer more shots — if it had the supply to do so, he said. “It’s frustrating for us,” he said as he toured the facility at a large park in Marietta where the North Georgia State Fair is held. “If we had more, we could certainly do it,” he said. “We have a plan right now to do sites just like this all over the state. The problem is, we just don’t have the doses to do it, but we’re getting there.” The Marietta center includes multiple lanes for cars and trucks to drive through, and people can get vaccinated without leaving their vehicles. At a briefing on the virus after Kemp’s tour, he noted one lane behind him that was not being used at the moment.

MSN

As public vaccinations open up, local hospitals see reason for hope

Brady Trapnell

Vaccinations from AU Health ended just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, but Augusta University Health says it was a huge success. We saw very few lines and many smiling faces. All were thankful for the new hope of a vaccine. It’s a line many would give a lot to wait in.

MSN

Augusta National announces initiative to create COVID-19 vaccination site

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced on Wednesday a partnership with  Augusta University Health to help expand its ability to administer COVID-19 vaccinations throughout the community. Augusta National Golf Club will provide property in the nearby Washington Square shopping center to serve as a central vaccination site, as operated by AU Health. The space will open on Feb. 8 and stay accessible as long as needed. Augusta National also announced that it and the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area also will provide matching $1 million contributions to help facilitate operations at the Washington Square location and allow the opening of pop-up clinics in underserved communities, including the Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighborhoods. The contribution also will fund the launch of AU Health’s first mobile vaccination unit.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 3)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 12,907 | 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: 759,228 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.

Higher Education News:

Inside Higher Ed

Biden’s Higher Ed Team Takes Shape

The president’s nominees for Education Department have records of advocating for student borrowers and close ties to progressive senators Warren and Sanders.

By Kery Murakami

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a slew of appointments to the Education Department, including well-known higher ed advocates, people who have worked on behalf of student loan borrowers, and several former aides to progressive Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Among those named was Michelle Asha Cooper, a longtime advocate for education equity.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Fighting Against Historic Distrust and Misinformation To Save African American Patients

by Autumn A. Arnett

A few hours after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), says she was “feeling great.” Rice, who says she has “a history of participating in clinical trials,” received her first dose of the vaccine on December 18 with CNN anchor Sanjay Gupta to raise awareness and public trust in the vaccine. Rice and MSM are part of a group of higher ed professionals, doctors and public health experts known as the Black Coalition Against COVID, which is working to address community concerns and dispel misconceptions about the disease and the vaccine and to inspire trust in the medical community around these issues to hopefully save Black lives.

Inside Higher Ed

Affirmative Action Suit Against Yale Is Dropped

Justice Department wanted out of the case. But private group vows to sue the university.

By Scott Jaschik

The Justice Department on Wednesday withdrew a lawsuit it filed in October charging that Yale University discriminates against Asian and white applicants. The suit was one of several in the courts on the issue of affirmative action. But unlike the litigation against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Yale case was brought by the Justice Department, not a private group. So a change in the administration — from President Trump to President Biden — can lead to the case’s demise. Students for Fair Admissions, the group suing Harvard and UNC, said it would sue Yale for the same reasons.

Inside Higher Ed

Grand Canyon University Files Lawsuit Against Ed Dept.

By Lindsay McKenzie

The legal battle between the U.S. Department of Education and Grand Canyon University has officially advanced. In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Arizona, the university alleges the Department of Education acted without justification, reflecting “disparate treatment of GCU,” when it rejected a nonprofit conversion bid and continued to classify Grand Canyon as a for-profit institution. The university also argues the department has impeded GCU’s “constitutionally-protected right to call itself a nonprofit institution, in violation of the First Amendment.” GCU’s nonprofit status is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service, the Higher Learning Commission and the state of Arizona. But the U.S. Department of Education published an 18-page letter laying out reasoning for rejecting Grand Canyon’s nonprofit bid in November 2019.