University System News:
MSN
Here are the details on Augusta University’s commencement this week
Staff
Augusta University will hold its spring commencement Thursday to celebrate more than 1,200 graduates from 10 colleges. …There will be two sessions to accommodate social distancing.
The Augusta Chronicle
Students sign to become future educators
Enoch Autry
May 4 served as signing day at Screven County High School for students who planned to embark on careers as future teachers. With the pandemic derailing last year’s plans, SCHS students from the Class of 2021 as well as Class of 2020 participated in Georgia Future Educators Signing Day at the outdoor classroom for teacher Wynn Pollock. …Sylvania resident Chris Thompson, the Georgia Southern University College of Education educator preparation coordinator for the Statesboro campus, said teaching prepares people for many aspects of life including being a good parent and a quality neighbor. Thompson’s role at Georgia Southern provides support for initial educator preparation programs including recruitment, progression and graduation; undergraduate scholarships; and special initiatives and field and clinical experiences for grades 1-12 partners.
Tifton Gazette
ABAC Upward Bound registration open
Registration is available for the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Upward Bound Summer Residential and Summer Bridge Components. Sonya Alexander, Tiftarea Association director, said current Upward Bound students can participate based on their grade level once they conclude their high school academic year. “The ABAC Upward Bound Summer Program is the highlight of the year,” Alexander said. “The summer program is designed to help prepare the students for the new academic school year while providing a college-like experience. “It is a chance for our students to immerse themselves in the ABAC environment. Nothing can prepare a student better for going to college than to go to college.”
WABE
Lashawn Hudson
Multiple reports suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified already existing disparities or inequities in health care systems across the country. A new literature paper published in the “Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness” unveils that people with intellectual disabilities may face discrimination when seeking COVID-19 treatment due to unconscious biases in the health care system. Curt Harris, the director of the Institute for Disaster Management in the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health, was a guest on Monday’s edition of “Closer Look.” Harris talked with show host Rose Scott about his students’ contributions to gathering data for the “Discrimination and Bias in State Triage Protocols Towards Populations with Intellectual Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Athens CEO
Rowen Foundation Announces Partnership with the UGA CAES
The Rowen Foundation announced a partnership with the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design to evaluate the physical and cultural assets of the land that will eventually be occupied by Rowen, a knowledge community that will bring together entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators at in Eastern Gwinnett County. This collaboration will ensure the preservation and optimization of the landscape’s historical features during Rowen’s planning phase. According to Rowen’s leaders, the partnership with the College of Environment and Design is a vital step in caring for the site by achieving a deeper understanding of its natural and cultural history in line with two of the community’s values: stewardship and sustainability.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern SARC Researching Salt Marsh Habitat Loss with New Aquaponics Garden
Salt marshes in south Georgia are in constant need of restoration due to rising sea levels. Georgia Southern University graduate student Alexander Gregory is leading a project on the Armstrong Campus to address the loss of marsh habitats by researching Spartina alterniflora, the dominant plant in Georgia salt marshes. Gregory, along with Sustainable Aquaponics Research Center (SARC) Senior Scientist Heather Joesting, Ph.D., is building an aquaponics garden to research the ideal growth conditions of Spartina in order to eventually become the first producer of locally grown Spartina for Georgia marsh restoration projects.
MSN
Here is where you can donate blood this week in the CSRA
Staff
The Shepeard Community Blood Center is always in need of more blood donations. We’ve got you covered with a complete list of upcoming blood drives taking place locally this week. Augusta University Nursing and Shared Governance is partnering at the Ronald McDonald House for a drive today until 6 p.m.
MedicalXpress
Cell reprogramming could aid spinal cord injury recovery
Cells called astrocytes normally support our neurons, and now scientists are working to reprogram the star-shaped cells into neurons that help reconnect the brain and body after a spinal cord injury. “We are at the stage of optimization. We know this reprogramming is feasible and we can do it,” says Dr. Hedong Li, molecular neuroscientist in the Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. …Li is principal investigator on a two-year, $423,000 R21 Exploratory/Development Research grant (RNS119732A) from the National Institutes of Health that is enabling his team to use a construct he has engineered to aid repair of an injured spinal cord by making new neurons available.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Mandate vaccines for Georgia students and staff on public campuses
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia Tech professor warns unvaccinated individuals raise chances of clustered outbreaks on campus
Joshua S. Weitz is a professor of biological sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology and founding director of the Quantitative Biosciences Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech. In this guest column, Weitz urges the Board of Regents to safeguard the state’s public campuses and universities by requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for those work and attend classes there. Weitz co-wrote a widely circulated column for AJC Get Schooled that used a mathematical model to illustrate why banning large events helps reduce spread in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated May 10)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 17,702 | 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: 886,723 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp signs $27.2 billion budget for coming year with extra money for schools, health care
By James Salzer
Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday signed a $27.2 billion budget for the coming fiscal year that includes additional money for schools, health care, road building and pay raises for some front-line employees. Kemp will hold press conferences in Atlanta, Columbus, Valdosta and Augusta Tuesday to discuss the spending plan for fiscal 2022, which begins July 1. The budget broadly followed Kemp’s proposal — released in January — to backfill spending cuts that lawmakers made in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Study Sheds Light on COVID ‘Supercarriers’ on Campus
By Elizabeth Redden
Scientists who analyzed viral loads for individuals tested through the University of Colorado at Boulder’s asymptomatic COVID-19 screening program found that “just two percent of infected individuals carry ninety percent of the virions circulating within communities, serving as viral ‘supercarriers’ and likely also superspreaders.” The CU Boulder-based researchers also found that, regardless of symptomatic status, approximately 50 percent of individuals who test positive “seem to be in noninfectious phases of the disease, based on having low viral loads in a range from which live virus has rarely been isolated.”
Inside Higher Ed
Academic Minute: COVID-19’s Impact on Immigrant Communities
By Doug Lederman
Today on the Academic Minute: Elizabeth Kiester, associate professor of sociology at Albright College, examines why the pandemic has hit immigrant communities so hard.