University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Statue honoring former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller wins approval
By Mark Niesse
A statue of former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller is coming to the state Capitol, according to a bill the General Assembly approved Wednesday. The state House voted 172-1 on Wednesday to place a monument to Miller either within the Capitol or on its grounds. The legislation, Senate Bill 140, previously passed the state Senate and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. Miller, a former two-term Democratic governor and U.S. senator who gave birth to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship, died in 2018.
MSN
Georgia Gov. Kemp visits Augusta University for COVID-19 roundtable
Brady Trapnell
Georgia governor Brian Kemp visited Augusta today, getting an update on Augusta University’s progress with vaccinations. This was one of the many trips the governor has made here to AU Health during the pandemic. He says because of efforts across the state, we’re now on the offensive against this virus. “What you’re doing is working,” he said. Leaders from AU Health, the Department of Public Health, and even Augusta National Golf Club working together with the state. “The partnership that you all have here is getting it done,” Kemp said. “I wake up every day knowing that we can be on the offensive with this vaccine and put an end to this pandemic.” Kemp chose not to put one of the state’s mass vaccine clinics here, because of the success of our healthcare community. He plans to encourage the rest of the state to use churches and community groups to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The Red & Black
Freshmen reflect on their first year of college during a pandemic
Jessica Gratigny | Staff Photographer
The University of Georgia’s Class of 2024 experienced a first year like none ever before. With new obstacles in place affecting students’ learning, mental health, campus involvement and friendships, first year students have adapted on their own and found a way to transition from high school to college. …The Red & Black connected with five freshmen to reflect on how the coronavirus pandemic impacted their first year experience at the UGA.
WALB
Phoebe invests $750k in new education partnership with Albany State
By Kim McCullough
On Wednesday, Phoebe and Albany State University (ASU) officials announced they are launching a new partnership created to encourage interest in healthcare careers among high school students across the region and significantly expand ASU’s nursing and emergency medical technician (EMT) programs to accommodate more students. This initiative is the latest in a series of investments Phoebe has made with regional educational partner institutions to address the critical nursing need, according to a press release.
AllOnGeorgia
Georgia boasts the second-most HBCUs in the country with 10 institutions throughout the state.
Sen. Sonya Halpern (D – Atlanta), along with Gov. Brian Kemp, hosted the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Heritage Day at the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday, March 16th. Georgia boasts the second-most HBCUs in the country with 10 institutions throughout the state. …Presidents from several of Georgia’s HBCUs, including Clark Atlanta University, Fort Valley State University and Savannah State University attended the event and were honored for the work their schools are doing to support Black students in higher education, especially in STEM fields. Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan spoke at the event as well, commending HBCUs for the important role they play in Georgia’s economy and culture.
Griffin Daily News
Gordon State College begins vaccinations
Staff Reports
Gordon State College is pleased to announce that it has begun the process of vaccinating certain individuals on its campus to protect against the COVID-19 virus. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine will be offered to those individuals who meet the current criteria to receive the vaccine – including faculty and staff who are 55+ years of age, anyone with developmental disabilities, or faculty and staff who are age 16 years or older with underlying conditions. Approximately 70 faculty and staff who met the criteria were vaccinated on the first day eligible.
Fox5 Atlanta
As vaccinations expand, finding COVID-19 testing might be becoming harder
By Beth Galvin
Across the US, mass COVID-19 testing sites have become mass vaccinations sites. It is a shift in priorities Arizona State University professor and Rockefeller Foundation advisor Mara Aspinall says makes sense. “The key word here is balance,” Aspinall says. “We clearly need to get shots into arms. But, at the same time, we cannot let up on testing.” …The challenge, Medical College of Georgia Vice Chairman of Pathology Dr. Ravindra Kolhe says, is that the US has limited resources to fight the pandemic. “And, the exact same resources are being used to do both vaccinations and testing, especially on the front end,” Kolhe says. Once a significant number of Americans have been vaccinated, Kolhe believes how and where we screen for the virus will change.
AllOnGeorgia
A collection of historical documents was gifted last fall to the Center for Irish Research and Teaching at Georgia Southern University. Students and faculty will be able to utilize the documents in their research about the history of the Irish in Georgia. This year marks 100 years since the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which eventually would establish Ireland as a republic, and Georgia Southern University undergraduate student Caitlyn Hudson is getting a first-hand look at some historical documents that chronicle U.S. efforts to help establish Ireland’s freedom from British rule.
WGAU Radio
New panel to work on diversity issues at UGA
DEI Student Advisory Board
By Stan Jackson, UGA Today
At the recommendation of the Presidential Task Force on Race, Ethnicity, and Community, the University of Georgia has launched a new student advisory board to share information, build community through conversation, and receive student response regarding the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The university formed the DEI Student Advisory Board in order to increase transparency of institutional policy discussions with students. The board will consist of representatives from DEI-focused groups and organizations across the university.
Forbes
To Prevent Future Pandemics, The U.S. Should Invest In ‘Real-Time Research’
John Drake Contributor, I’m a professor at the University of Georgia.
The first twenty years of the 21st century saw the emergence of more new infectious diseases of global concern than in any comparable period of history. The reasons for this are complex, but ultimately relate to the accelerated globalization of the twentieth century. Reversing this trend will be extremely difficult. For the foreseeable future, it looks like the problem will only continue to get worse. Scientific progress during the Covid-19 pandemic has been nothing short of amazing. The development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has been lightning fast. Research on the pathology, immunology, evolution, epidemiology, sociology and psychology of Covid-19 has been similarly remarkable. Of course, the challenge is unprecedented. Prior to Covid-19 there were many projects aimed at understanding the conditions under which new diseases arise and preventing future pandemics, like the USAID-funded PREDICT project, which has so far identified 949 novel viruses in animals throughout the world. But clearly, the world was caught off guard by Covid-19, despite ample warnings from experts and some near misses (like the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic). And the pace of science has not been sufficient to abate the crisis, notwithstanding the accelerated pace of discovery since the pandemic began. To address both these failures, one of the things that needs to be done differently from now on is what I think of as “real-time research.”
Athens CEO
Economic Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic
It’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic turned the ways we work and play upside down. For many Georgians, it’s been a year of lost wages, working from home and remote learning. But for all the change and anxiety there were bright spots too, said economists at the University of Georgia. Three economic experts from the Terry College of Business (Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise William Lastrapes, Selig Center for Economic Growth Director Jeff Humphreys and labor economist Ian Schmutte) share what went right, what went wrong and what we learned from a year of the COVID economy.
Other News:
Valdosta Daily Times
Georgia nears 16,000 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday
Bryce Ethridge
Georgia topped 838,000 COVID-19 cases Wednesday and neared 16,000 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic a year ago, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Georgia reported 838,570 cases since the start of the pandemic, a case increase of 1,127 from the previous day. The state has reported 15,997 deaths – with an increase of 69 from the number of deaths reported Wednesday, with 2,362 probable deaths related to the virus. Georgia has reported 199,980 antigen cases — an increase of 917 antigen cases from the previous day — since the start of the pandemic. Antigen cases show results from rapid virus tests. More than 57,000 people have been hospitalized across the state due to COVID-19, according to the report, with 9,424 admitted to an ICU.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NEA: Nearly half of educators got at least one COVID-19 shot
GET SCHOOLED BLOG
By Maureen Downey
New survey by the nation’s largest union shows rise in teachers who have been vaccinated
About half of educators, 49%, have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to a new survey by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union representing nearly 3 million members. In a NEA survey of members a month earlier, only one in five had been vaccinated against COVID-19, so the new results show a significant jump. As with the last survey, black NEA members still lag whites and Latinos in their vaccine rate. While 51% of whites and 49% of Latinos reported at least one COVID vaccine dose, only 35% of Blacks did.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus in Georgia: COVID-19 Dashboard
Q: What is the latest on coronavirus deaths in Georgia?
15,997 TOTAL CONFIRMED* DEATHS
18,359 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE** DEATHS
Q: What is the latest on coronavirus deaths in Georgia?
15,997 TOTAL CONFIRMED DEATHS
18,359 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE** DEATHS
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why This Popular College Guide Will Stop Publishing ACT and SAT Score Ranges
By Eric Hoover
A best-selling college guide is going test-blind. The Fiske Guide to Colleges, a widely used source of information for applicants and parents, will stop publishing ACT and SAT score ranges for all 325 institutions listed in its pages. In an email to The Chronicle on Wednesday, Edward B. Fiske, the guide’s creator and editor, said the change was “simply the right thing to do in the current context.” The current context is this: Circumstances have shredded the status quo, complicating the very meaning of test scores and all that they supposedly tell us.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Good Grades, Stressed Students
They struggled with online learning last fall, but not always in the ways you might expect.
By Beth McMurtrie
As the first full academic year under Covid-19 restrictions grinds on, fall grades are in for colleges around the country. So how are students doing? The picture is mixed. First, the good news. Undergraduate grades held steady, or even improved, at a number of universities that offered most courses remotely. And that held true even for students in higher-risk groups. That steadiness in grades heartened academic leaders who had tried to lessen the strains of living under a pandemic and the challenges of online learning by investing in faculty-training and technology. But grades tell only part of the story. A solid GPA can paper over a semester of isolation. Students aren’t just missing the parties and late-night talk sessions that make up college life. They’ve also put on pause the co-curricular experiences that can deepen learning, like working alongside a professor in a lab, studying abroad, or engaging in service work.
Inside Higher Ed
Student Financial Need Greater in Second Year of Pandemic
By Greta Anderson
Twenty-eight percent of college students experienced job loss and nearly one-quarter are receiving unemployment benefits as the coronavirus pandemic continues to damage their financial security, according to a new survey of about 11,000 students published today by Course Hero, a course material sharing website. More than 60 percent of the students surveyed in mid-February said food and rent were their top two financial needs, according to an overview of the survey results. This finding represents an increase from Course Hero’s COVID-19 impact survey last year, which found that nearly 50 percent of students were in need of money for food and rent.
Inside Higher Ed
FBI Warns of Increased Ransomware Attacks Targeting Colleges
By Lindsay McKenzie
A group of cybercriminals is increasingly targeting colleges, schools and seminaries and attempting to extort them, the FBI’s Cyber Division has warned. In an advisory to cybersecurity professionals and system administrators published Tuesday, the FBI said that criminals are leveraging software called PYSA ransomware to access IT networks, block access to vital information and systems through encryption, and demand payment to restore access. In a double-extortion tactic that has also been employed by criminals using other types of ransomware, the criminals are not only requesting payment in exchange for making encrypted data accessible again. They are also threatening to sell sensitive information such as Social Security numbers on the dark web if institutions or affected individuals do not meet demands.
Inside Higher Ed
New Fund Aims to Help Colleges Pay for Merger Explorations
By Rick Seltzer
A new fund will attempt to assist colleges and universities seeking collaborations, partnerships and mergers. The Transformational Partnerships Fund launched Wednesday with a $2.5 million budget, enough to assist an estimated 20 pairs of institutions over three years. To qualify for support from the fund, at least one institution exploring a partnership must serve a student body that is at least a quarter people of color or where at least 40 percent of students are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, which is widely considered a proxy for low-income status. A potential partnership also needs to be able to produce “materially better academic outcomes” for students.