University System News:
Douglas Now
SOUTH GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE HAS $65.1 MILLION ECONOMIC IMPACT
South Georgia State College (SGSC) has long been a center of instruction leading to opportunity for the residents in its region. While SGSC’s primary objective is to educate, it also carries a direct economic benefit for the citizens of the College’s service area. During fiscal year 2020, SGSC contributed $65.1 million to the regional economy and was responsible for more than 720 jobs locally, SGSC’s President Dr. Ingrid Thompson-Sellers announced recently….Dr. Thompson-Sellers emphasized that with the recent addition of the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology (BSMET) program beginning in the fall of 2021, SGSC is continuing to increase its number of baccalaureate degrees in order to develop academic programs to meet the needs of local businesses and industries.
WGAU Radio
UGA encourages COVID vaccinations
Fall classes begin August 18
By Tim Bryant
We are today twenty days away from the August 18 start of fall semester classes at the University of Georgia. UGA says it is making plans for more normal operations this year, with last year’s fall semester and spring semester 2021 at the University disrupted by COVID. UGA VP for Student Affairs Victor Wilson has written a note to all incoming students, encouraging coronavirus vaccinations.
From the University of Georgia website…
TO: Incoming UGA Students
New America
At the Nexus of Industry and Liberal Arts
By Yun Zhao
In 2018, the University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents approved Columbus State University (CSU) and Albany State University to begin offering a new type of degree. Not quite associate degrees and not bachelor’s degrees, these new nexus degree programs are designed to support people at a variety of points in their career and give them what they need to move forward, regardless of previous education. With the credit load of the degree being similar to an associate at 60 credit hours but including upper division classes, industry-specific credentials, and experiential learning, the nexus degree seemed a flexible and practical alternative to a bachelor’s that could prepare its graduates to address industry demands directly. The USG nexus degrees involve the academic preparation of a liberal arts degree by requiring 42 credit hours of general education. The remaining 18 credit hours, however, are spent on highly-specialized, industry-specific coursework that often result in an industry-standard certificate, with 6 credit hours in the form of an internship or apprenticeship. Another key feature of the nexus degree is stackability; that is, the credits a student completes to earn the nexus degree may count toward a longer degree, like a bachelor’s or graduate degree.
Grice Connect
3D art students create collaborative public project for College of Education
By Eden Hodges
Following more than a year of preparation for an interactive art display based on Georgia Southern University’s bald eagle mascot, “Birds of a Feather” is now on display in the College of Education’s (COE) classroom building on the Statesboro Campus. …Collaborating with the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art (BFSDoArt), the artwork came to life under the leadership and guidance of Kimberly Riner, adjunct professor of art.
WABE
Adron McCann
In the realm of film and TV, Georgia’s industry has never been stronger. Productions are booming throughout the state, with 49 films and TV shows currently in the making. Now, the University of Georgia will keep the tide high by connecting students to the industry with a new MFA program in Film, Television, and Digital Media, through the University’s Grady College. Students will even live on-site in production studios as part of the curriculum. Dr. Jeff Springston, the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the Grady College joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes along with Frank Patterson from Trilith Studios, formerly Pinewood, and Kyle Hamlin, a UGA student pursuing the new MFA. They discussed what the program will entail and how it will enrich students aspiring to have careers in Georgia’s robust media industry.
Savannah Morning News
Harlem Globetrotters to bring their world to Savannah State’s business college
Nathan Dominitz
Since 1926, the Harlem Globetrotters have lived up to their name, traveling the world and building legions of fans with their unique brand of basketball and entertainment. People in 124 countries on six continents have enjoyed the experience, including here in the Coastal Empire, where on Wednesday night the Globetrotters’ road show stopped in Savannah at the Martin Luther King Jr. Arena. “When the Harlem Globetrotters come to town — I’ve seen throughout the years — they’ve left communities better than when they came,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said earlier Wednesday. Ahead of their visit, Malik Boyd, an executive with the Globetrotters, had a Zoom meeting with Shalonda K. Mullgrav, the interim dean of Savannah State University’s College of Business Administration. They talked about spreading the impact of the game beyond basketball, beyond a one-day tour stop.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated July 28)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 926,707
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,691 | 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.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Is Your Degree Program Too Complicated?
Poor design and needless bloat are derailing students.
By Beth McMurtrie
Getting undergraduates through college in four years has long been a challenge, particularly for universities that enroll an economically diverse student body. Students from lower-income communities might struggle with inadequate academic preparation, limited finances, or the difficulties of being a first-generation student trying to figure out how to “do” college. Many programs have sprung up over the past decade or so to provide support through learning communities, enhanced advising, co-curricular activities, and financial aid. But one area has remained largely untouched: the major. Student-success efforts often leave degree requirements out of the equation, in large part because those are considered the faculty’s purview, both sacrosanct and unknowable to anyone outside their discipline.
Inside Higher Ed
Pelosi: Biden Doesn’t Have Authority to Cancel Debt
By Alexis Gravely
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, said Wednesday during a press briefing that President Biden doesn’t have the authority to broadly cancel student loan debt. “He can postpone,” Pelosi said. “He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.” Members of her own party have disagreed with that in the past, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, stating the president does have the authority to cancel debt via executive action. Schumer said Biden could do it “with the flick of a pen.” Biden directed the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to explore his legal authority to cancel debt, but they have yet to release any conclusion.
Inside Higher Ed
Some colleges are expanding vaccine requirements or reimposing mask mandates in response to spread of Delta variant and new CDC guidance. Other institutions are finding their authority to mandate mitigation measures limited.
By Elizabeth Redden
The surge in coronavirus cases fueled by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant and low vaccination rates is leading some colleges to expand vaccine mandates or reinstate face-masking requirements, even as public colleges in a number of Republican-controlled states continue to be constrained by executive order or law from taking such steps. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance Tuesday recommending that all individuals regardless of vaccination status wear a mask while in public indoors if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission — a characterization that currently applies to broad swaths of the U.S., including much of the South and Midwest. The change reflects a reversal from earlier CDC guidance in May that said individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 did not need to wear masks in most indoor and outdoor settings.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges Envisioned a Near-Normal Fall Semester. Then Came the Delta Variant.
A month out from the new term, some colleges are responding to a Covid surge by changing strategy.
By Nell Gluckman and Francie Diep
…With transmission at a trickle in the spring, and millions of Americans getting vaccinated every week, it looked then like colleges would realize a best-case scenario for the fall: a near-normal semester. But over the past few weeks, that prospect has begun to change. The more-transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus, plus relatively low vaccination rates in some states, have pushed new national cases higher than they’ve been in months. Reports that even vaccinated individuals may get and transmit the coronavirus, when they’re exposed to enough of it, have undermined the security that vaccinated people may feel around unvaccinated colleagues and neighbors, even though “breakthrough” infections, as cases among vaccinated people are known, are less likely to be severe or passed on to others. In response, several colleges have made late announcements that they’ll require their students, staff, and faculty to be vaccinated. The largest four-year public system in the country, California State University, announced this week it would enact such a mandate even though it had previously said it would wait for the Food and Drug Administration to fully approve the vaccines.