University System News:
GrowingGeorgia
ABAC Tops Southeast in Ag Ed Graduates for Third Straight Year
For the third consecutive year, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College produced more graduates with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education than any other college or university east of the Mississippi River. Forty agricultural education students graduated from ABAC at the recent commencement ceremony.
The Brunswick News
Expanding Your Horizons program goes virtual this year
By Lauren McDonald
Dr. Courtenay Miller, who has for many years led the Expanding Your Horizons program offered through College of Coastal Georgia, began planning for this year’s program during the summer of 2020. Miller, an associate professor of mathematics at CCGA, knew that the pandemic would require a new and creative approach to the annual event, which would normally bring girls in fifth- through eighth-grade to the college’s campus for a day of educational activities centered on STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The COVID-19 pandemic, Miller knew, would limit the in-person learning opportunities, so she and her team at the college spent months preparing a new virtual version of Expanding Your Horizons this year, which launched in the spring semester for Glynn County Schools students.
13WMAZ
‘It set me back’: Middle Georgia State students’ flight hours affected by pandemic
When the pandemic hit, the aviation school shut down for three months. Students are working through summer to get their required hours completed before graduation.
Author: Pepper Baker
It’s pretty much impossible to socially distance inside the cockpit of an airplane, so when colleges went virtual, aviation students who needed flight hours were stuck. Students at Middle Georgia State’s campus are working to make up for lost time. Rising senior Kristi Cook has a clear path through aviation school. …Director of Flight, Adam Holloway, says being able to resume flight instruction midway into summer softened the blow from the pandemic setback.
WGAU Radio
UNG boosts efforts at internationalization
Working with American Council on Education
By Clark Leonard
The University of North Georgia has completed a 20-month stint as part of the American Council on Education’s 17th Internationalization Laboratory cohort, and the university is taking steps to put the recommendations into practice. The lab is a collaborative learning community led by a team of internationalization experts that supports institutions in formulating strategies to give students a broader view of the world. The main recommendations include: incorporate more global learning opportunities for students on UNG’s campuses; create and implement professional development for faculty and staff; and focus on fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in all Center for Global Engagement programming and services. …Schulte and Dr. Steven Lloyd, vice provost, co-chaired the ACE Internationalization Lab for UNG. Both noted the more than 40 UNG lab participants agreed that gaining international perspective cannot be limited to students who study abroad.
Middle Georgia CEO
MGA’s Capital Projects Carry On, Enhancing Campuses & Academic Programs
Staff Report
Even during the pandemic, Middle Georgia State University continued work on several capital projects that are now completed or nearly so. In addition, a generous donation from the Charles H. Jones Foundation allowed MGA to purchase new aircraft for the aviation program. Here is a roundup of the various projects:
WRDW
Georgia Cyber Center launches new cybersecurity workforce program
By Brady Trapnell
We know the job market is a huge stressor these days. But one sector in-need of millions of workers is cybersecurity. That’s why the Georgia Cyber Center is launching a new program to train and connect people with good jobs. “A couple years ago I was living in Nashville homeless,” said Matt Weber, a trainee. Matt Weber’s life has been a journey. He’s a military veteran looking for his next step. “I just needed something to progress in life with and get into something that I’ve always had a hidden interest in,” he said. It took a suggestion from Forces United, but he’s now in the Georgia Cyber Center’s Workforce Program. To be trained and earn certification in cyber all for free. …He’s one of dozens now getting cyber training. An $8 million grant from the Department of Labor helped start the effort.
MedicalXpress
Methods to increase cancer screening awareness in disparate populations
by Jenni Ho, University of Kentucky
A study headed by Lovoria B. Williams, Ph.D., associate professor in the UK College of Nursing and assistant director for cancer health equity at the Markey Cancer Center, highlights the benefits of utilizing community health workers in educating racial minority populations in lung cancer screening. The study was done in collaboration with researchers from Augusta University and was published in Cancer Nursing. The team of researchers collaborated to assess the benefit of using community health workers to promote lung cancer screening knowledge in a semiurban city in east-central Georgia, where the community is predominantly African American (57%) and almost a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line.
News Medical Life Sciences
Experts in camouflage breaking can accurately detect target in less than a second,
Reviewed by Emily Henderson
After looking for just one-twentieth of a second, experts in camouflage breaking can accurately detect not only that something is hidden in a scene, but precisely identify the camouflaged target, a skill set that can mean the difference between life and death in warfare and the wild, investigators report. They can actually identify a camouflaged target as fast and as well as individuals identifying far more obvious “pop-out” targets, similar to the concept used at a shooting range, but in this case using easy-to-spot scenarios like a black O-shaped target among a crowd of black C shapes. In fact, the relatively rapid method for training civilian novices to become expert camouflage breakers developed by Medical College of Georgia neuroscientist Dr. Jay Hegdé and his colleagues, also enabled the camouflage breakers to sense that something was amiss even when there was no specific target to identify.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated June 8)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,214 | 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: 898,115 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COVID variant identified in India now detected in Georgia
By Ariel Hart
Health officials say race is on to vaccinate more people before delta variant proliferates here
The highly contagious coronavirus variant first seen in India and now overrunning Great Britain has been detected in Georgia, a potential threat to progress the state has made unless more people get vaccinated, health officials say. The Georgia news came on the same day that the White House raised the alarm for the U.S. about the variant, designated B.1.617.2 and now called the “delta” variant. White House leaders including Dr. Anthony Fauci publicly urged people to get vaccinated ahead of the spread. The vaccines do work against the delta variant, Dr. David Kessler, the White House’s Chief Science Officer on COVID-19, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the U.S., vaccines for youngest are expected this fall
By Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times
Coronavirus vaccines may be available in the fall for U.S. children as young as 6 months, drugmakers say. Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines in children younger than 12 years old, and are expected to have results in hand for children ages 5-11 by September. Compared with adults, children are much less likely to develop severe illness following infection with the coronavirus. But nearly 4 million children in the United States have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Faculty Evaluation After the Pandemic
In our post-Covid personnel landscape, one-size-fits-all tenure and promotion policies are destined to fall short.
By Kevin Gannon
On what is hopefully the downhill side of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a lot of discussion across higher education about “getting back to normal” or “navigating a new normal.” But “back to normal” is an airy fantasy, not a strategic plan. As the playwright Tom Stoppard once observed, it’s impossible to stir things apart. Likewise, “the new normal” is a slippery concept that usually means repackaging as much of our pre-pandemic operations as possible. Academe stands at an inflection point. Decisions made now will echo not only in academic 2021-22 but for years to come, shaping much of what becomes “normal” in the higher-education landscape. Faculty members who find themselves somewhere in the contract-renewal and/or tenure-and-promotion pipeline understand this truth in a visceral way. The “usual” stress of higher education’s in-or-out employment system has been magnified by the pandemic in multiple ways:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside One University’s Hybrid-Work Decision
By Lindsay Ellis
What issues does a hybrid workplace raise at the University of Utah? Parking capacity. Home-office spending. Cybersecurity. Employee retention. College leaders there have seen that firsthand. Campuses across the country are revising their remote-work policies for fall 2021 and beyond, but Utah has a tighter deadline to work through the big question of where and how its employees work. A state executive order by Gov. Spencer J. Cox requires state agencies, including public colleges, to try to create remote jobs, in an effort to bolster employment in rural areas of the state. They have until July 1 to evaluate each position and determine whether it can be held by a remote employee. The university’s decision-making process and priorities as it begins a two-year pilot for new telecommuting rules, then, can serve as a guide for other colleges making this transition.
Inside Higher Ed
Senate Passes Bill Funding Technology Research Through NSF
By Alexis Gravely
The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would authorize billions of dollars in funding for technology research in the United States, much of which would be available for institutions of higher education. If the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act — intended to help the U.S. better compete with China — passes the House as is, the National Science Foundation would receive $81 billion over five years, beginning in fiscal year 2022. The bill is largely centered around “key technology focus areas,” which include artificial intelligence, advanced computing, robotics and automation, natural disaster prevention or mitigation, biotechnology and data storage and management.
Inside Higher Ed
Legislating Against Critical Race Theory
More than a dozen states considered or passed legislation targeting critical race theory this year. How has this academic concept become so politicized?
By Colleen Flaherty
Lawmakers in 16 states have introduced or passed legislation this year seeking to limit the teaching of critical race theory within public institutions. These bills all resemble former President Trump’s now-defunct executive order prohibiting federally funded institutions from teaching “divisive concepts” about race and gender. But whereas Trump’s order was widely interpreted to apply to diversity training, and lacked serious bite with the 2020 election fast approaching, these new state-level bills are already impacting the college curriculum. Many faculty members see this as censorship, by design.