University System News:

Athens CEO

USG’s Critical Role in Georgia’s Economic Recovery

Cindy Morley

The University System of Georgia (USG) served as a source of stability for the state’s economy in FY 2020, and played a critical role in the state’s recovery coming out of the pandemic with an $18.6 billion statewide economic impact. This reflects a 0.6 percent growth over the previous year. USG also directly and indirectly generated 155,010 jobs over the past year.

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta has highest growth of tech graduates, report shows

By Erin Schilling  –  Technology Reporter/ Atlanta Inno

The number of graduates earning technology-related degrees in Atlanta is growing faster than anywhere else in the U.S, a new report shows. “We’re in a transformation,” said Christian Devlin, senior vice president at commercial real estate firm CBRE, who is based in Atlanta. “We’re going from a high-growth tech market to a mature tech market.” Atlanta is ranked No. 8 in tech talent overall, according to CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent report. CBRE uses 13 metrics related to job creation and innovation to score each market’s talent. Talent concentration is the biggest factor in the scores. The city has jumped two rankings since 2015. …Between 2015-2019, Atlanta tech degree completions increased by 90.5%, the highest growth rate out of the top 50 tech hubs. That growth pushes Atlanta to No. 7 in number of tech degrees completed in 2019 at about 8,300. New York has the highest at 20,500. Devlin credits Georgia Tech with much of this growth. More than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate engineers graduated from Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering in 2020, according to the college. “Georgia Tech is the highest tech talent degree-producing university in North America,” Devlin said.

The Gainesville Times

‘This is a godsend’ – How University of North Georgia renovations are preparing it for future

Ben Anderson

After three years of design and construction, the University of North Georgia cut the ribbon on the massive renovations to its Gainesville campus Wednesday, July 21. “I am always excited to be on this campus, and I hope that if you haven’t been lately, you take some time to stroll through campus,” said UNG president Bonita Jacobs during the opening ceremony. “It is a very serene campus and at the same time filled with energy.” Totaling $18.9 million, the project was funded by state obligation bonds, said Gainesville campus vice president Richard Oates in an interview. The renovations were a “huge” part of UNG Gainesville’s 10-year master facilities plan, he said.

See also:

accessWDUN

Renovations complete on former Lanier Tech buildings for UNG – Gainesville classes

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kennesaw State student to run for Cobb school board seat

By Kristal Dixon

A Kennesaw State University student will challenge one of three Cobb County school board members up for reelection. Austin Heller, a Democrat, said he will run for the Post 4 seat held by incumbent Republican David Chastain. The Post 4 seat represents parts of north-central Cobb County and includes the Kell and Sprayberry high school clusters and KSU’s main campus. Heller, a senior studying political science and minoring in legal studies, said he is running for the seat “because I see a desperate need for our county and our board to lead with empathy and pass equitable policies that uplift all our students.”

Augusta CEO

Bank of America to Present $250,000 Check to Augusta University

Denise Parrish

Bank of America will present a $250,000 check to Augusta University to help fund the nearly complete Science and Mathematics Building on the Health Sciences Campus. The Bank of America gift supports institutions and initiatives that “anchor” the local community and enable economic mobility, workforce development and education, and community revitalization. Move-in has begun on the new building, and a grand opening event is being planned for Sept. 30.

WRDW

Augusta University scientists study COVID antibodies

By Sloane O’Cone

Augusta University scientists are studying how long antibodies last for COVID-19 in different scenarios with different strains. The goal is to make the vaccines better and find out when we all need to start getting booster shots. With the Delta variant causing a spike in cases we went to find out what they’ve found so far. It’s called the Sparta Study and their original goal was to find out how long antibodies stay in your system. But now that the virus is mutating the Sparta Study is looking to answer more questions.

News Medical Life Sciences

MCG scientists find copper transporter as potential therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases

Reviewed by Emily Henderson

An internal transporter that enables us to use the copper we consume in foods like shellfish and nuts to enable a host of vital body functions also has the essential role of protecting the receptor that enables us to grow new blood vessels when ours become diseased, Medical College of Georgia scientists report. The findings published in the journal Nature Communications point toward the copper transporter ATP7A as a potential new therapeutic target in treating cardiovascular diseases like heart attack, peripheral artery disease and stroke.

Scoop

An experimental brain implant has just helped a man with paralysis turn his thoughts into words

A team of researchers has successfully given a man with paralysis the ability to communicate at a speed of 15 words per minute.

By Chandni Ganesh

Researchers reported earlier this week that they had successfully implanted an experimental device in a man’s brain, giving him the ability to generate words and sentences on a computer using only his thoughts. The man, diagnosed with paralysis, is otherwise unable to move or speak. The procedure was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, where researchers explained that the device decodes signals in the man’s brain that once controlled his vocal tract. …”This tells us that it’s possible,” Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, stated in an interview with the news outlet. “I think there’s a huge runway to make this better over time.” Chethan Pandarinath, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech, added that the experimental device, in comparison to assistive devices currently available to those who could not communicate using brain circuits previously used for speech, would be of greater benefit. This is because such devices would be “more natural, and hopefully effortless.”

Science Magazine

A New, Inexpensive Way To Heal Chronic Wounds

Tens of millions of patients around the world suffer from persistent and potentially life-threatening wounds. These chronic wounds, which are also a leading cause of amputation, have treatments, but the cost of existing wound dressings can prevent them from reaching people in need. Now, a Michigan State University researcher is leading an international team of scientists to develop a low-cost, practical biopolymer dressing that helps heal these wounds. …More than 20 researchers joined Mahmoudi on this project, representing about 15 different research institutions, including Harvard Medical School; Emory University; Georgia Tech;

WTOC (video)

University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography assists in nanosatellite research

UGA Launches Nanosatellite ‘Seahawk 1’ Used to analyze ocean health

The Herald

Heriot-Watt scientists say bridge vibrations could be used to improve safety

By Caroline Wilson

Senior Reporter

For more than 100 years engineers have been trying to solve the problem of movement on rail and road bridges. Traffic and wind regularly cause low frequency vibrations to ripple through bridge building materials such as steel and concrete. Now, a team of Scots engineers are hoping the oscillations caused by heavy traffic at peak times could actually be used to improve the safety of structures including the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing. The energy created during vibrations would normally travel away from its source before dissipating. Academics at Heriot-Watt University alongside US colleagues are hoping to develop the first device of its kind that could harness this energy to power wireless sensors that can monitor the structural integrity of a bridges. …The university has received almost £1million in funding in the UK and the United States to develop and trial the device, alongside academics from Georgia State and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.

The Red & Black

Leaders of The Linnentown Project send letter to Jere Morehead

Lucinda Warnke

On Monday, Hattie Thomas Whitehead, chairperson of The Linnentown Project, wrote a letter to University of Georgia President Jere Morehead inviting him to join the Athens-Clarke County Justice and Memory Project Committee. The letter also criticized UGA’s past responses to the organization’s efforts to recognize Linnentown. Linnentown was a Black neighborhood located along Baxter Street. It was destroyed in 1962 when UGA and Athens used eminent domain laws to seize the land as part of an urban renewal project. Cresswell Hall, Russell Hall and Brumby Hall now stand on the neighborhood’s former site. …Morehead responded to the letter in a statement on Tuesday, saying the city of Athens used eminent domain to remove Linnentown, and the University System of Georgia, not UGA, was responsible for purchasing the land. Because of this, Morehead wrote, the chancellor of the USG should be invited to the committee, not the president of UGA.

Other News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated July 21)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,644 | 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: 914,984

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. COVID cases triple over last 2 weeks

By Tim Darnell

COVID-19 cases have tripled in the U.S. over the last two weeks. Across the U.S., the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose over the past two weeks to more than 37,000 on Tuesday, up from less than 13,700 on July 6, according to Johns Hopkins University. Health officials, according to the Associated Press, are blaming the delta variant and slowing vaccination rates.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

White House may revise mask guidelines amid delta surge: report

By Tim Darnell

Top White House health officials are discussing revising mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans as cases of the highly contagious COVID delta variant continue surging across the nation. The Washington Post first reported the renewed mask discussions. During a CNN town hall Wednesday night, President Joe Biden expressed frustration over the nation’s slowing COVID-19 vaccination rate and said it’s “gigantically important” for Americans to get inoculated. …Anonymous sources quoted by CNN said that under discussion is what messages on masking the White House offer and what guidance the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should issue. White House officials have repeatedly said it will be up to the CDC whether to change its official recommendations.

Higher Education News:

Inside Higher Ed

Students Favor Free College, Oppose Admissions Preferences

Survey reveals what education policy makers working on behalf of students need to know about solutions that students support for making college more affordable and equitable.

By Melissa Ezarik

Politicians often purport to represent the interests of students when they propose education policies. So do college leaders and associations when they take stands in response. But do they truly know what students want and need? Perhaps not. Pervasive paternalism exists at many colleges and universities, with officials thinking they “understand the student experience better than students do,” says Mark Huelsman, a policy fellow at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Results of the latest Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan, show how passionate students are about a variety of state and federal policies, particularly those related to paying for college. Ninety percent of 2,035 respondents representing 113 colleges and universities are in support of free community college, even though only 250 students in the sample actually attend community colleges, for example.

Forbes

Student Loans Bill Of Rights May Be Coming To Your State

Zack Friedman, Contributor

A student loan borrower bill of rights may be coming to your state. Here’s what you need to know — and what it means for your student loans.

Student Loans

While student loan borrowers await the prospect of wide-scale student loan cancellation, there’s a growing trend that could help provide student loan relief. It’s called a student loan borrower bill of rights. States including California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington have implemented policies to help student loan borrowers. This may be especially important to student loan borrowers, since federal student loan payments are scheduled to resume starting October 1. Here’s how they work and what they mean for your student loans:

The Chronicle of Higher Education

6 Things to Know About the New Title IX Guidance

By Sarah Brown

The Education Department on Tuesday issued new guidance for how colleges should investigate sexual misconduct under Title IX, the federal gender-equity law. The department released a question-and-answer document interpreting the Trump administration’s Title IX regulations, which took effect a year ago. The guidance is a stopgap measure, indicating how federal officials will enforce Title IX while the department goes through the lengthy process of reviewing and revising the regulations. The Title IX rules, championed by the former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, added protections for students accused of sexual misconduct, like mandatory live hearings with cross-examination. They have been criticized by victim advocates who say they let colleges off the hook for not taking sexual misconduct seriously. President Biden, who led a crusade against campus rape as vice president, said during his presidential campaign that he wanted to overhaul the regulations. Here are a few highlights from the department’s new Title IX guidance.

Harvard Business Review

What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education

by Vijay Govindarajan, Anup Srivastava, and Luminita Enache

In a recently announced transaction, 2U will acquire all edX assets, including the brand, about 3,500 digital courses, and the website — with its 50 million learners. This development should serve as a wakeup call for other colleges and universities, which must start thinking about how to unbundle the value chain and outsource areas where others possess superior core competencies By partnering and controlling significant parts of value chain instead of resisting them, universities can gain a significant portion of revenues that would steadily migrate toward EdTech companies. Those additional revenues can provide seed capital to universities to drive their own EdTech initiatives. Right now, they’re mere spectators in the game.