University System News:
The Gainesville Times
UNG to host cybersecurity summer camp for local teachers and students
Gabriela Miranda
The University of North Georgia will host two summer camp programs for teachers and students interested in cybersecurity and operations, skills experts say are in high demand. 2021 marks the first year UNG is opening the training to educators. The cybersecurity educational opportunities are funded by a grant of $169,113 from the National Security Agency GenCyber Program, according to a UNG news release.
WJBF
Veterans, Georgia Southern students find friendships in ‘portal pals’
by: Chloe Salsameda
The last year has been lonely for veterans living at the Augusta VA. Steven Opelc, an army veteran, has not hugged his family members since the COVID-19 pandemic began. “With the virus going around, they don’t allow anyone in here [the VA],” he says. “Visitors aren’t allowed.” But, Opelc has made some new friends, including Kylee Colby. She is a recreational therapy intern at the VA. It was her idea to connect veterans with students at Georgia Southern University. “It really warms my heart,” Colby says. Students and veterans use Facebook Portals to video chat every week. It gives them a chance to share stories and learn about each other.
accessWDUN
University of North Georgia earns urban forest management award
By Lauren Hunter Multimedia Journalist
For the fifth year in a row, the University of North Georgia has been awarded a Tree Campus Higher Education recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation. This distinction recognizes the university’s commitment to effective urban forest management, according to a news release posted this week on the university’s website.
WRDW
How COVID has changed residency programs for Medical College of Georgia grads
By Sydney Heiberger
It’s one of the most exciting days of a med student’s journey, but like most things, COVID turned it upside down. Friday marked a year since medical education slowed down due to COVID, and it was also match day at the Medical College of Georgia. Out of MCG’s graduating med school class, 99 percent matched with residencies this year and of those, 31 percent will stay in Georgia. But COVID completely changed the way this process works, and actually permanently eliminated some of the criteria our future doctors need to get into residency programs. “The thing that was most relevant to today’s program is that the process of selecting residency programs and interviewing and matching has also changed,” said Dr. Douglas Miller, vice dean for academic affairs at MCG. Interviews and tours of residency programs were all virtual.
WSAV
Hundreds show up for new Savannah mass vaccination site; free rides available
by: Jessica Coombs
A new mass vaccination site opened in Savannah Wednesday morning. The location on Gulfstream Aerospace’s campus joined four other sites opening. Georgia now has nine state-run distribution locations. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) operates the sites and plans to give up to 2,000 vaccines each day at the Savannah location alone. …The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah State University, Chatham Area Transit, Isle of Hope United Methodist Church, Compassion Christian Church, White Bluff United Methodist Church, ConneXion Church and the Salvation Army are providing transportation assets and staff and volunteers to make the rides possible. …Gov. Brian Kemp said the state plans to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults in Georgia starting in the first part of April.
Patch
University Of Georgia: AU/UGA Medical Partnership Holds Eighth Match Day
Lindsey Derrick
Students at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership participated in a “Virtual Match Day” at noon on March 19 to receive their post-graduation assignments for residency programs. This marks the second year that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the usual Match Day plans—in past years, students, faculty and staff gathered in George Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus to celebrate with family and friends. The Class of 2021 opted to have their own private celebrations with family and friends instead of a socially distanced event on campus. This year, students also had to interview virtually with most residency programs because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic. An annual event, Match Day takes place after students participate in interviews and visits to residency programs in Georgia and across the country.
GrowingGorgia
ABAC’s Bernice Hughes Selected as PTK Distinguished College Administrator
Bernice Hughes, the Dean of Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, has been selected as a 2021 Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished College Administrator. “Dean Hughes was selected because of her outstanding support for the Omega Delta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at ABAC,” Dr. Charlotte Klesman, advisor to ABAC’s PTK chapter, said. Klesman said Hughes will be honored at the PTK Catalyst 2021 Live on April 9 at 6 p.m. Because of the pandemic, the annual convention will be presented in a virtual format this year. Over 10,000 virtual attendees from across the nation and the world are expected to view the presentation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Study looks at Black participation in clinical trials
A study being conducted in three Southern states is part of an effort to determine why more Black people aren’t involved in clinical trials involving lung cancer research
A study being conducted in three Southern states is part of an effort to determine why more Black people aren’t involved in clinical trials involving lung cancer research. The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, working with Augusta University in Georgia and Vanderbilt University’s medical center in Tennessee, will be part of a study to examine factors that prevent more Black people from participating in such programs.
WJBF
Unite in the Fight Against Cancer series: Lung cancer
By: Kim Vickers
Today, we begin our week long series on the Georgia Cancer Center’s Unite in the Fight Against Cancer fundraiser. Each day we will be talking about one of the cancers the hospital is highlighting for the day. Today, we are talking about lung cancer. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer of men and women in the United States every year. An estimated 236,000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021. Lung Cancer has a high mortality rate. An estimated 132,000 will die from it in 2021. One local expert said that vigilance is key for those with high risk factors for the disease. Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim is a Medical Oncologist and Lung Cancer Specialist at the Georgia Cancer Center.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Archives to host virtual symposium in April
By Kenneth H. Thomas Jr.
The Georgia Archives will host a free virtual symposium — “From Field to Mill Town: Cotton and Textile Culture in Georgia” — on April 3. No registration is required for the event, which is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. The presentations will be: …“Legacies of Cotton Industrialization in Georgia: Architecture and Transportation,” with two lectures: “Folk Architecture in Whittier Mills Village (of Atlanta),” by Heather Meadows (graduate student at Georgia State University), …“The West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail,” which includes three lectures: “Establishing the West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail,” by Keri Adams and Dr. Ann McCleary (both with the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia (UWG); “Interpreting the Textile Industry,” by Jarrett Craft (the Textile Trail Curator at UWG) and James Bynum;
Grassroots Motorsports
How University of Georgia Students Turn STEM Classes Into Racing Reality
By Staff Writer
Story by Tristen T. Webb
Deep within the Driftmier Engineering Center at the University of Georgia, past the classrooms and offices, beyond the student study rooms, and behind the metalworking, woodworking and machine shops sits a garage with two cars and a whole lot of stuff. This is home to the University of Georgia’s ChampCar team. In collaboration with the UGA Formula SAE team, they make up UGA Motorsports. And this club is pretty new on campus. UGA Motorsports started in 2014 as a group of automotive enthusiasts who wanted to make it official. Student Sam Hepburn reached out to a professor, and several other students came forward with interest. Dr. John Mativo, associate professor in workforce education, stepped in as their faculty sponsor, and they officially formed the Society of Automotive Engineers at UGA.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Latest stats and the news on the coronavirus outbreak
Q: What is the latest on confirmed and probable coronavirus cases in Georgia?
843,141 TOTAL CONFIRMED* CASES
1,045,638 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE** CASES
Q: What is the latest on coronavirus deaths in Georgia?
16,145 TOTAL CONFIRMED* DEATHS
18,530 TOTAL INCLUDING PROBABLE** DEATHS
11Alive
Mercedes-Benz Stadium vaccine site to give as many as 42,000 shots a week | How to get one
Starting Wednesday, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Defense will bring additional resources to expand the operations at the stadium.
Author: Jason Braverman
Fulton County received 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and is ready to administer as many as 42,000 shots each week, they said. The Mercedes-Benz Community Vaccination Center has added thousands of appointments that are now available to those eligible to receive one. Starting Wednesday, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Defense will bring additional resources to expand the operations at the stadium. Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency and the Fulton County Board of Health had been running the vaccination site since it opened.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COVID-19 reinfection more common in people 65 and older, study finds
By Nancy Clanton, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Natural protection cannot be relied on,’ researchers wrote
Surviving COVID-19 is not a guarantee you won’t get it again, scientists say, and the chance of reinfection is much higher if you’re age 65 and older. In a population level observational study, researchers in Denmark collected data from the Danish Microbiology Database and analyzed infection rates during the country’s second surge of the COVID-19 epidemic, which was September 1 through December 31. The scientists then compared those findings to infection rates during the first surge, which was March-May 2020. The study found that of the 11, 068 people who tested positive for COVID-19 during the first surge, only 72 were positive during the second surge.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Institutions are set to get a lot of money from the latest stimulus. What are they going to spend it on?
By Lilah Burke
With the ink now dry on Congress’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, some colleges and universities have begun making plans for the money they’re slated to get. Many of those plans include covering budget shortfalls from last year or expected ones this year. The nation’s nonprofit institutions are set to get about $36 billion from the package. The text of the legislation stipulates that colleges and universities must spend at least half the money they receive on emergency aid to students. However, some institutions are considering allocating more than that to students.
Inside Higher Ed
Pandemic-Fueled Confidence for College Presidents
By Doug Lederman
You don’t have to look far to find troubling signs for colleges and universities. In the last week, Mills College became the latest small private college to say it will close, COVID-19 continued to threaten completion of the spring semester in person at institutions such as Duke and Syracuse Universities, and several other four-year and two-year colleges announced significant layoffs or discontinued programs. All of which makes the results of Inside Higher Ed’s 2021 Survey of College and University Presidents, published today, more than a little surprising, in that they find the country’s campus leaders more upbeat as they emerge from a year dominated by COVID-19 than they were before the pandemic hit. Nearly eight in 10 college and university presidents say they are confident their institution will be financially stable over the next 10 years, and more than a quarter strongly agree. Presidents of public doctoral universities and of private four-year institutions agree in even greater numbers, but even three-quarters of two-year-college presidents agree. By comparison, just 57 percent of college presidents agreed with that statement in a survey conducted in early 2020, before the pandemic hit.