University System News:
WGXA
Georgia College & State University to get new president in Fall
by Haley Garrett
Georgia College & State University President Steve Dorman will leave as president on September 1, 2021. “President Dorman’s strong leadership over the last nine years has set a path for Georgia College & State University to become a preeminent national public liberal arts university, while also helping the university system strengthen its own academic foundation,” USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley said. “Steve deeply understands why the Liberal Arts are important to a 21st-century education, as companies look for graduates who have a broad set of skills and the ability to analyze information and communicate effectively. He championed student success in these efforts, and led systemwide initiatives including development of our College 2025 academic plan. He served our students and our system ably, and we will miss him.” The search and screening of candidates is the responsibility of the campus-based Presidential Search and Screen Committee and will guide the first stage of the search.
Athens CEO
UGA Graduate Programs Earn Several Top 10 U.S. News Rankings
Sam Fahmy
Several graduate programs in the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs, Mary Frances Early College of Education, and Institute of Higher Education have earned top 10 rankings in the 2022 edition of the U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools.
Tifton CEO
ABAC Provides Certification Program to Combat Agriculture Teacher Shortage
The Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is providing opportunities to combat the shortage of agricultural educators in Georgia. ABAC and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GPSC) have collaborated to provide a one-year teaching certification program for agricultural education. Dr. Frank Flanders, coordinator of the agricultural education program at ABAC, said the post baccalaureate teacher certification program is targeted toward students who have completed or are in the process of completing a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in any area of agriculture.
11Alive
Georgia Tech student’s invention to help Atlanta’s homeless population earns her awards
Her time at Tech taught her that making a difference for millions of people can be one idea away.
Author: Cheryl Preheim
What was once Georgia School of Technology first opened in 1888 with 84 students. Now, nearly 16,000 students are part of what Aya Ayoubi calls a “making atmosphere.” “They encourage us to do prototyping, developing, and creating,” Ayoubi listed “It’s honestly one of the things I love most about Georgia Tech.” It compelled her to combine that inspiration to create, with her personal experience. …Ayoubi, who is from Jordan, wanted to make something to help a growing need she saw among the homeless population in Atlanta. She also wanted to fulfill a need she saw around her as a child. … The result: a jacket that’s inflatable to rest on and a coat that adapts to weather changes. …The Delta Jacket’s design uses materials and technology that emulates the way penguins puff up to retain heat. It’s designed to be waterproof, wind-breaking, and can raise body temperature with a lining made from a thermal blanket. It is also easy to clean and can be rolled up and put in a small bag so it’s easy to carry. It won Ayoubi a prestigious award: Georgia Tech’s InVenture 1st prize, along with the People’s choice award. It’s $20,000 dollars and a free U.S. patent filing by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing.
Clayton News-Daily
New UGA center to combat global human trafficking
By Johnathan Mcginty
Each year, an estimated 800,000 people are trafficked globally, though the true number may be higher. In a quest to arm officials and stakeholders around the globe with more accurate and trusted data to better understand and address this global problem, the University of Georgia has established a new interdisciplinary center to combat human trafficking through research, programming and policy development. The Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach will be housed in the School of Social Work, and David Okech, an associate professor at the school, will serve as the center’s first director. This collaborative effort aims to identify better ways to measure the prevalence of trafficking while crafting real-world solutions to best equip nongovernmental organizations and policymakers with the tools and information they need to combat trafficking.
Griffin Daily News
Plantation museums can provide a misleading understanding of the stories of enslaved individuals based on the perspective of the docent, according to Clayton State University English professor Dr. Sara Harwood. In her essay entitled, “Bulloch Hall and the Movement Toward a Well-Rounder Interpretation of Antebellum Life in Roswell, Georgia,” Harwood’s research focuses on Bulloch Hall, an antebellum house museum and childhood home of Mittie Bulloch, the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt, located in Roswell, Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clayton State to vaccinate 500 students, staff against COVID-19 Friday
By Leon Stafford
Clayton State University will have a mass vaccination of students and staff from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday at the south metro Atlanta school. The university has set up the inoculation in a drive-thru vaccination effort in the parking lot of Spivey Hall. The vaccination is for students, staff and their families. After months of offering the vaccine to targeted age groups, healthcare workers and people with “high risk” medical conditions, Gov. Brian Kemp agreed to allow anyone 16 and older to receive a COVID-19 shot. Adding college students to the ranks of the vaccinated could help avoid the spread of deadlier variants of the disease, researchers believe.
WRDW
AU Health seeking volunteers as it sets sights on ambitious vaccination goal
By Staff
With Georgia opening COVID-19 vaccination eligibility to everyone 16 and older, Augusta University Health aims to continue delivering thousands of doses each week through its community clinics. AU Health plans to provide nearly 12,000 vaccines in the 10 days leading up to Masters Week, according to Dr. Joshua Wyche, Assistant Vice President, Strategic Planning & Pharmacy. …He said the AU Health staff and Augusta University students and employees have stepped up and volunteered their time to keep the clinics running at full speed.
WJBF
AU holding “Year of Healing” T-shirt design contest
by: Amy Thorne
Augusta University Health needs your help designing its next T-shirt. The contest comes ahead of Hospital Week. The theme is the “Year of Healing.” The top three designs will receive prizes of $250 for first place, $150 for second place and $100 for third place. Everyone submitting a concept or design will be entered into three random drawings for $50 each.
WILX
Many choosing to skip second dose of vaccine
Health officials say the numbers put herd immunity in jeopardy.
By Krystle Holleman
While there is a huge push to get Americans vaccinated, many are choosing to skip out on their second dose. In Augusta, Georgia, a vaccination coordinator there says about 5% of their patients are not returning for the second dose. That is about 2,000 people. A nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found around 3.5% or 4 million people do not get their second dose. “Getting people vaccinated with that first vaccine is really important because they get to some level of protection. Somewhere in that 50 -70% with Pfizer and Moderna,” said Dr. Joshua Wyche of Augusta University. But 50 -70% is not enough. Health officials say those numbers put herd immunity in jeopardy.
Inside Higher Ed
Academic Minute: Pyramid Model
By Doug Lederman
Today on the Academic Minute, part of University of West Georgia Week: Chelsea T. Morris, assistant professor of early childhood special education, describes the pyramid model and how it can help preschool classrooms.
Patch
National title captured
…Earlier this month, a virtual award ceremony was held where it was announced that the team placed FIRST and are National Champions in the Lab/Design Challenge. “The Design Challenge is a physical design challenge to solve a specific space-related issue,” says Team Sponsor Teacher Carolyn Rethwisch. “Teams submit a typed research/design proposal several weeks before the Finals competition and present their solution, including a prototype model to the judges.” This year, the SCELA team had to come up with a design to help mitigate the effects of microgravity in the ISS (or long space missions) on astronauts’ lungs in space. …The team was coached by SCELA 8th Grade Science Teacher Carolyn Rethwisch and Dr. Barbara Serianni, an Associate Professor at Georgia Southern University;
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated April 1)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 16,664 | 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: 853,273 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Number of Graduate Students Hit Record in 2019
By Doug Lederman
The number of graduate students pursuing degrees in science, engineering and health fields hit a record high in 2019, as did the representation of Latinx Americans among them, while the proportion of women reached its highest level in more than a decade, according to new data from the National Science Foundation. The foundation’s Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2019, published this week, showed increases in the number of doctoral students (to 281,899), master’s students (to 408,228) and postdoctoral appointees (to 66,247).
Inside Higher Ed
How Can State Funding Models Incentivize Equity?
A better set of outcomes-based state funding metrics can encourage institutions to focus on low-income and minority students’ success, a new report argues.
By Emma Whitford
Funding public colleges and universities based on outcome or performance metrics has its share of critics who think the policies are ineffective or harmful — especially for institutions that serve a large number of minority and low-income students. But experts at one equity-focused think tank say outcome-based funding models are worth trying to redeem. More than 30 states currently use outcome- or performance-based funding models to tie at least some public higher education funding to institutional performance metrics like enrollment, retention and graduation rates. Years of research have shown that these models often fail to achieve their goals. A recent report looking at two decades’ worth of performance-based funding model studies revealed that most models result in null or modest improvements to institutional outcomes. A pair of academic research papers published in 2017 found that outcomes-based funding models result in a slew of unintended consequences, including that minority-serving institutions lose significant funding compared with other institutions.
Inside Higher Ed
Course Hero, Meet CourseVillain
Embry-Riddle researchers create a search engine to help professors identify whether course content has been “compromised” on Course Hero, producing ripe conditions for student cheating.
By Elizabeth Redden
Zachary Dixon and Kelly George, both professors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, were at a faculty meeting and commiserating about Course Hero, a website students use to upload and share documents related to their courses, when an idea came to them. What if they could come up with an automated way to help professors identify content from their courses that had been shared on the site, and request its removal? Professors have long been concerned about the risk of student cheating posed by students sharing copyrighted course documents, including tests and quizzes, on Course Hero, which bills itself as “an online learning platform of course-specific study resources.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Covid-19 could lead to lasting change in international learning.
By Karin Fischer
The pandemic has grounded study abroad. In a typical year, American colleges send tens of thousands of students overseas — 347,099 in the 2018-19 academic year, to be exact — to learn about other countries and other cultures. Covid-19 halted travel and closed borders. Rather than expanding their horizons, the coronavirus has shrunk many students’ worlds to close pods of friends and family. Though the pandemic has affected just about every aspect of college, and of daily life, its impact on education abroad was existential: What, after all, is study abroad without the abroad?
Inside Higher Ed
Survey: Athletic Directors Opposed to Revenue Sharing With Athletes
By Greta Anderson
Nearly 70 percent of athletic directors at institutions in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association “strongly oppose” being required to share college sports revenue with athletes, according to a new survey by the Associated Press. The survey of athletic directors addressed their concerns about proposed legislation in the U.S. Senate — the College Athlete Bill of Rights — that would require colleges to share 50 percent of earnings from profitable sports with athletes, among other stipulations.