University System News:
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta business leaders help fund long COVID study at MCG
Tom Corwin
Augusta businessman T.R. Reddy was reading a magazine story about a study on long-term symptoms of COVID-19 at Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and noticed that its funding was nearly up. He decided, “Let me check in and piggyback (on the funding) and add a few dollars to this,” Reddy said Wednesday. The T.R. Reddy Family Foundation did a little more than that. With contributions from businessman Ronnie Powell and his family and University System of Georgia Regent Jim Hull of Augusta, they presented the study leaders with a check for $300,000. The study, called COVID-19 Neurological and Molecular Prospective Cohort Study in Georgia or CONGA, is following people in the Augusta area and in Georgia who were infected with COVID-19 and checking them for lingering symptoms and problems. It was initially funded with a converted $200,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for its first year, said MCG Dean David Hess, a co-principal investigator on the study. They have applied to NIH to fund the next four years but are still waiting to hear back, he said.
WGAU Radio
UGA’s Hu named among “twenty most influential”
Honor focuses on manufacturing
By Sam Fahmy, UGA Today
University of Georgia Provost S. Jack Hu has been named among the 20 most influential academics in smart manufacturing by SME, a nonprofit association committed to promoting and supporting the manufacturing industry. The faculty members, who represent a diverse range of disciplines and institutions in North America and Asia, were selected with the help of industry peers and manufacturing experts. In addition to serving as the university’s chief academic officer, Hu is a UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering.
Savannah Morning News
Alice Gerber at 90 is still firing on all cylinders
Jane Fishman
No one wants to be defined by age. Or race, or weight, or religion. It’s insulting. There are so many other important things. It begs the question: what am I, chopped liver? Still, that’s what comes to mind when I see Alice Gerber at the weekly Tybee Island Farmers Market. …And there’s Alice, ensconced in a beach chair under a black hat, in front of two fans, behind her art work, cheerful, lighthearted, high spirited, signing every piece she sells. Every dollar she takes in goes to helping people with Parkinson’s. …Last year she raised $10,000 for Michael Cohen’s Get Excited and Move program (bit.ly/SavGEM). Alice helped start a precursor program when her husband Marx was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He died 26 years ago. But first, at age 73, she went back to school at Georgia Southern University to get her facts straight, to do her research. In the process she got a doctorate in leadership and administration.
Savannah Morning News
Researchers still tracking exotic lizards in Georgia, looking for landowners to help
Mary Landers
Researchers are looking for a little help to remove an invasive lizard from south Georgia before it’s too late. Argentine black and white tegus can reach 4 feet long and weigh 10 pounds or more. Adaptable and hungry, are a significant threat to native wildlife, from gopher tortoises to ground-nesting birds such as bobwhite quail, wild turkeys and whip-poor-wills. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Southern University and the U.S. Geological Survey have been working since 2018 to assess and remove what is considered a wild population of Argentine black and white tegus in Tattnall and Toombs counties. Last year seven of the nine tegus captured in Georgia came from these two south Georgia counties.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Georgia Teacher of the Year: Debate over critical race theory is heartbreaking
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
It’s possible to love America and acknowledge mistakes in our past, he says
Casey Bethel, Georgia’s 2017 Teacher of the Year, has been examining the angry assertions of parents and community members in Cherokee and Forsyth counties that schools are teaching critical race theory. An orchestrated campaign has led to similar protests in many states, including Ohio, Virginia, Idaho, and Oklahoma. Now, the issue has erupted in Georgia where it was also raised at school board meetings in Cobb and Gwinnett in the last two weeks. The K-12 science coordinator in a local school system, Bethel writes in a guest column today that some critics showing at these meetings are misunderstanding why race is critical to teaching our nation’s history. By Casey Bethel So much ado about critical race theory in schools. I can’t promise to provide all of the answers, but what I can offer is the perspective of one teacher leader in this state who is heartbroken over the conversation.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated June 2)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,085 | 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: 896,622 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia state education board to consider rules on race
By Ty Tagami
The state education board will hold a special meeting Thursday to consider a resolution that sets guardrails around classroom discussions of race. The meeting comes on the heels of Gov. Brian Kemp’s call to ensure critical race theory is not taught in Georgia schools. The 5-page draft resolution says in part that the board, which is appointed by governors, “believes” that schools should not teach that “an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex … .” This was among the sentiments voiced by primarily white speakers at metro Atlanta area school board meetings last month. Many said they didn’t want students to feel like they were oppressors simply because they are white. The resolution says the board believes no federal grants should be sought if the funding requires or encourages such concepts or practices and calls on the board to create formal rules around the stated education board beliefs.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Rethinking the 16-Week Semester: Is a Shorter Semester More Equitable? And for Whom?
by Jessica Ruf
COVID-19’s impact on student success and mental health forced institutions to reexamine the efficacy of academic structures that had long been considered status quo. For some schools, that included rethinking the 16-week semester. Roughly 95% of institutions operate on a traditional semester timeline, in which students arrive on campus in mid-to-late August and take four to six classes for 15 or 16 weeks before leaving for winter break. Some schools, however, — particularly community colleges — have pursued an alternative option, in which students take two to three classes for eight weeks.
Inside Higher Ed
Intensive English Enrollments Fell by Half in 2020
By Elizabeth Redden
The number of international students enrolled in intensive English programs in the U.S. fell by about 50 percent in the 2020 calendar year compared to the year before, according to new survey data from the Institute of International Education presented Wednesday during the virtual NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference. Julie Baer, a research specialist for IIE, said this decline is similar to or smaller than drops reported in intensive English enrollment in other leading destinations for English language study, including Australia, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A Pandemic Silver Lining? More People Are Talking About Teaching
By Beckie Supiano
When classes moved online in the spring of 2020, instructors quickly realized that the plans and policies listed in their syllabi would no longer work. They would have to remake their courses on the fly. For many professors, that meant reconsidering aspects of their teaching they hadn’t thought about in years — if ever. And that led to deeper questions: What, in the end, is this course meant to accomplish? Which pieces of it are really required to achieve that goal? More than a year later, as they look back on this era of teaching in a pandemic and through social turmoil, many faculty members have remade their teaching in small and large ways, which could have profound implications even after campuses reopen.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
At These Colleges, Professors Are Being Told Not to Ask Students if They’re Vaccinated
By Tom Bartlett
More than 400 colleges now require Covid vaccinations, a total that’s nearly doubled over the last month. Some require only that students get inoculated; others insist that employees do as well. Many of the rest “strongly encourage” vaccination and, in some cases, offer hefty incentives (Purdue is giving away 10 one-year scholarships). Mandate or no, the message is clear: Get the jab. At the same time, a number of colleges are also discouraging discussion of vaccination status. For instance, at the University of Iowa, which doesn’t require the shot, a recent memo sent to faculty and staff members in the liberal-arts college spells out formal “guidance” — rules, really — regarding vaccination conversations. After reading it, you might conclude that any mention of the vaccine at all is verboten.
Inside Higher Ed
Education Department Ends Recognition of ACICS
By Alexis Gravely
The Department of Education terminated federal recognition of the controversial Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools Wednesday, stripping it of its powers to accredit colleges and universities. The decision comes after several recommendations made this year to withdraw recognition — first in January by department staff and then in March by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity. The department said ACICS breached compliance of federal recognition criteria by failing to properly oversee institutions and having inadequate administrative capability.