University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia chancellor search process slowed by confusion, split over Perdue
By Eric Stirgus, Greg Bluestein
Georgia officials this week began Act II of their quest to find the next leader of the state’s public university system when they hired their second firm to lead the search. Records show the process has been slowed by internal confusion and friction among the powerful board charged with making the selection. …The 19-member board paused the search in late April amid a push by some members to select former Gov. Sonny Perdue as the University System’s chancellor. Perdue most recently ran the U.S. Department of Agriculture under then-President Donald Trump. Chancellor Steve Wrigley is retiring at the end of June. Perdue told the AJC on Thursday in his first public remarks about the search, he’s talked to Gov. Brian Kemp about the position and is willing to serve if approved by the Regents. To date, Perdue has not mustered enough support on the board to get the job, the AJC has reported.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5 things to know about the University System of Georgia chancellor job
By Eric Stirgus
Being chancellor of the University System of Georgia is one of the most influential jobs in state government. …The current chancellor, Steve Wrigley, is retiring at the end of June after 36 years in state government. The Regents announced this week a new firm will conduct the search process. So what does the chancellor do? Here are five things to know about the job and its duties. 1. It’s a big job.
Georgia Trend
Muscogee County | Columbus: Partnerships Drive Success
Filmmaking, outdoor recreation and healthcare
Haisten Willis
…Columbus owed its strength originally to its founding atop the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River, which led to its prominence as a mill town and today as a magnet for tourists looking for recreation and eager to experience the world’s longest urban whitewater course. And the city’s leaders are much more interested in building the future than in rehashing the past. As the film industry continues growing in Georgia, Columbus aims to get in on the act in a major way. Flat Rock Studio, a partnership between Columbus State University (CSU) and W.C. Bradley Co., is a repurposing of an old industrial building that now provides a full 180,000 square feet of film production space. It’s part of a nearly 80-acre campus with state-of-the-art facilities absent noise or traffic and yet located just over an hour’s drive from the Atlanta airport. Multiple film projects are already underway at Flat Rock. Even more important, the future is under construction thanks to CSU’s new nexus degree in film and production, which graduated its first two students into the workforce in December.
Tifton Gazette
ABAC receives $2.1M CAMP grant
The United States Department of Education recently awarded Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College a $2.1 million College Assistance Migrant Program grant from the Office of Migrant Education. Scott Pierce, director of sponsored programs at ABAC, said the five-year CAMP grant is federally funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is designed to provide support to first-year college students of migrant and seasonal workers within the area of agriculture. The CAMP grant is dedicated to meeting the academic, social, emotional and financial needs of its students, college officials said in a statement. The program pays for tuition, room and board, books and a small stipend for student participants.
Albany Herald
UGA Weather Network marks 30 years
By Pam Knox CAES News
On June 1, 1991, the first agricultural weather station operated by the University of Georgia began transmitting data from Griffin. Since then, the UGA Weather Network has grown to include 87 stations scattered across the state, providing weather data to a variety of users. On June 1 this year, this 30-year record of continuous weather data makes the UGA Weather Network one of the oldest state weather networks in the country.
The Albany Herald
Young Writers Conference at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College offers $15,000 in scholarships
From staff reports
High school seniors and currently enrolled ABAC students will be eligible for $15,000 in scholarship money when they participate in the Young Writers Conference on July 17 at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. There is no charge to attend the conference, which will be held via Zoom on July 17 from 9 a.m.-noon. High school students in grades 9-12 can participate in the YWC as well as current ABAC students. Only high school seniors and ABAC students will be eligible for the scholarship funds. The YWC is sponsored by the ABAC Department of English and Communication. Wendy Harrison, who chairs that department, said the theme of this year’s conference is “Fantastic Stories and Where to Find Them.”
Patch
Georgia Museum of Art Book Wins National Award
“Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18th-Century Italian Works on Paper” received an honorable mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards.
The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia has received an honorable mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards in the art category for its exhibition catalogue “Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18th-Century Italian Works on Paper.” This fully illustrated publication of important works of Italian art was also shortlisted for the Hoffer’s grand prize and is a finalist in the Foreword INDIES for art books. It was designed by the Brooklyn-based firm Morcos Key.
Technique
Mask mandate lifted across USG campuses
Maya Torres
Tech students throughout the past year had to establish slightly different routines as they have prepared for their in-person lectures or study sessions in the library. They had to grab all of the quintessential items: a pen, a laptop, a notebook and most importantly, a mask, to be allowed inside all academic buildings. As of May 20, this key part of their routine may not be as necessary. The Institute Operations Update made a key announcement following a guidance update from the University System of Georgia (USG). The USG update on May 17 was brief: “Fully vaccinated individuals can resume campus classes and other activities without wearing a mask. Unvaccinated individuals are strongly encouraged to continue wearing a face covering while inside campus facilities.”
WTOC
Savannah supports, celebrates LGBTQ
By Sarah Winkelmann
This week marks the first full week of Pride Month, a time to celebrate and honor members of the LGBTQ community. Pride Month stems from the uprising at Stonewall Inn back in June of 1969, a pivotal turning point for equal rights. …Even though the big festival isn’t happening until October due to the heat, there will still be plenty going on this month at the First City Pride Center. During the pandemic, the center had to move many of its services online, so they are excited to start offering some of their services back in the building. They offer HIV testing at the center and have partnered with Georgia Southern University to offer counseling services to the LGBTQ community.
TrialSite News
TrialSite Staff
Researcher Christina Andrews, an associate professor of health services policy and management at the University of South Carolina, teams with a University of Georgia associate professor who just received a four-year, $2.57 million R01 grant to investigate the effectiveness of Medicaid-covered alcohol use disorder treatment. That’s Amanda Abraham, an associate professor of public administration and policy, and her study takes on a real growing crisis as “Alcohol-related morbidity and mortality are on the rise in the United States.
LabRoots
What Elephant Trunks Teach Science about Suction
Written By: Anne Medina
The elephant’s dexterous trunk has inspired numerous human technologies, from continuum robots to search and rescue technologies that delivery water and air to people trapped under debris. According to new research, we’ve got another lesson to learn from elephants—how to suck better. A study published June 2 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface presents the first evidence that elephants can use suction to pick up small objects as well as hoover up water. In collaboration with a veterinarian from Zoo Atlanta, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology offered a 34-year-old African elephant a variety of food items to observe how she used her trunk to manipulate them. …Researchers observed that the elephant gripped the rutabaga cubes with her trunk when there were fewer than 10 items, regardless of size. But for large groups of the smaller cubes, she resorted to suction—hoovering up as many as 40 at a time with what the study authors described as “a loud vacuuming sound.” The elephant always used suction to snag the tortilla chip, either by “using suction to levitate a tortilla chip into its grip” or pressing her trunk directly against its surface.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated June 6)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,189 | 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: 897,663 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News:
Griffin Daily News
Georgia baby born in 2021 to win $5,529 college savings contribution
By Griffin Daily News Staff
The state of Georgia’s Path2College 529 Plan is once again giving Georgia families that welcome a new baby the opportunity to kick-off their newborn’s college savings with $5,529 through its Newborn Sweepstakes. The hospital where the Newborn Sweepstakes winner is born will also win $1,529.
Inside Higher Ed
Education Department Releases COVID-19 Handbook for Higher Ed
By Alexis Gravely
The Department of Education has released a COVID-19 resource guide to provide information for higher education institutions about how to safely reopen for in-person instruction. The 54-page handbook is meant to address priority areas specific to higher education, including strategies for implementing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on campuses, ways they can support their communities’ response and recovery from the pandemic, and how institutions can use funding from the American Rescue Plan to best support students. It addresses the most pressing questions the Education Department heard from colleges, students, families and educators during 15 listening sessions held by the department.
Inside Higher Ed
Higher ed vaccine mandates are a hot topic for college students. Here’s what they think about requirements and related communication.
By Melissa Ezarik
Heads were turning on campuses across the country this spring, as students and community members spotted the hot new thing launching seemingly overnight. It was the kind of place to be seen, but not in the traditional collegiate sense. To many, signs for COVID-19 vaccination clinics represented a light at the end of the long, dark pandemic tunnel. …That is a popular sentiment. In a new Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan, 69 percent of college students expressed that they support (somewhat or strongly) COVID vaccine requirements for in-person learners this fall. And 85 percent of respondents had either gotten at least one dose of the COVID vaccine or planned to when the five-day survey of 2,002 students closed on May 2. While more U.S. colleges and universities announce such mandates just about daily, and the American College Health Association officially supports this new vaccine requirement (with exceptions for certain individuals), leaders at some institutions have decided they won’t follow suit.
Inside Higher Ed
Community College Ends ‘Pause’ for Course on Race
By Scott Jaschik
Oklahoma City Community College has ended a “pause” on a summer course on race and ethnicity but has added courses so that no one has to take it to fulfill a requirement. The pause was to check if offering the course — which has been offered several times before — would violate a new state law banning the requiring of courses on critical race theory.
Inside Higher Ed
The Questions We Can’t Afford to Ignore
The pandemic has thrust a far deeper and existential set of them upon us that we in higher education must confront more directly, writes John C. Cavanaugh.
By John C. Cavanaugh
Since the first lockdowns prompted by COVID-19, hundreds of articles have opined on the key issues about which we in higher education need to be concerned and the lessons we should have learned thus far. They go on about how colleges and universities will or not, and should or not, turn these issues and lessons into standard practice when we arrive in the actual post-pandemic world — whenever that turns out to be. The ideas have been both impressive and creative, proving once again that there’s nothing like a crisis to fire up the crucible of innovation. Much of the focus has been on the mental health impacts of the pandemic — and rightly so.