University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Sonny Perdue’s deal; mourning KSU’s Ladarius Clardy
By Eric Stirgus
Former two-term governor and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue currently has no official role on a Georgia college or university campus, but he remains the top topic of conversation among many in higher education. The AJC was the first to report the interest of some state Board of Regents members of naming Perdue to lead the University System of Georgia as its chancellor. The prior chancellor, Steve Wrigley, retired last week. A land deal Perdue reportedly made during his Trump administration days raised some eyebrows among many paying close attention to the chancellor search. Here’s the latest on the deal, some new support for Perdue and other happenings in this edition of AJC On Campus. Students for Sonny …Mourning Ladarius Clardy
Kennesaw State University students held a vigil Monday night in memory of 18-year-old Ladarius Clardy, who was found shot to death in a car near Pensacola, his hometown, early Thursday morning. Clardy played quarterback on the football team and appeared in two games in the COVID-19 interrupted 2020 season. …More Georgians enroll in 529 college savings plan …UGA’s Morehead named SEC president …Maria Taylor on returning to UGA to get her business degree
Growing America
Bridges Begins 16th Year as ABAC President
When Dr. David Bridges became the 10th president in the history of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on July 1, 2006, he had two main goals in mind. “I knew we had to find a way to ensure the viability of the institution for the next 100 years, and we had to promote a sense of excellence across the curriculum,” Bridges, who began his 16th year at ABAC on July 1, said. “Bachelor’s degrees were the key to both of those goals.”
Atlanta Inno
A look inside Georgia Tech’s newest startup incubator, Encore
By Erin Schilling – Technology Reporter/ Atlanta Inno
Startups can now lease space in Georgia Tech’s new incubator in West Midtown, an area booming with new investment. Encore, a 50,000-square-foot space, is part of The Interlock, a budding mixed-use development at the corner of Howell Mill and 14th Street. Encore is meant to be the next step for startups graduating from the Advanced Technology Development Center, a long-running incubator sponsored by the state and hosted in Tech Square, an innovation district in the heart of Midtown.
Albany Herald
UGA to hold drive-thru vaccination drive in Tifton
From staff reports
The University of Georgia will hold a free COVID-19 vaccination drive-through clinic at the Tifton Campus Conference Center on Friday from 8 a.m. until noon. The vaccine event is open to all UGA and U.S. Department of Agriculture faculty, staff, students and family members ages 18 and over, as well as to community members at large. Pharmacists from the local Wal-Mart Marketplace will be administering the Moderna vaccine, approved by the FDA for those ages 18 and over. There will be free UGA gifts, ice cream and drawings for $100 Walmart gift cards for participants.
WFXG
Health experts encourage COVID-19 vaccines to avoid potential surge
By Hannah Cotter
Health experts are continuing their push to get people vaccinated with COVID-19 variants like Delta on the rise nationwide. Dr. Rodger MacArthur with AU Health says a massive COVID-19 surge in our area is unlikely because there’s not a lot of the Delta variant in Georgia, but says there is potential in neighboring states like Florida. “We are in a race: a race between getting more folks vaccinated and a more rapidly spreading variant such as the Delta variant,” he says. “I’m hoping now that the holiday is behind us, vaccination rates will start going up again.” Dr. MacArthur says though many people celebrated the holiday weekend outside, there is still a risk of transmission in areas where COVID-19 vaccination rates are low. “The vaccination rates in Richmond County are not where they need to be,” he says. “They’re only at about 30-percent of fully vaccinated, compared to many of the counties around Atlanta that are up at 45%, almost 50%.”
Savannah Morning News
Tropical Storm Elsa: Here are Savannah, Chatham County businesses closed on Wednesday
Barbara Augsdorfer
Due to inclement weather from Tropical Storm Elsa, the following businesses and organizations have reported they are closing Wednesday, July 7, and should reopen on Thursday. …
• All Georgia Southern University campuses are closed and face-to-face classes will move online as of 3 p.m. Wednesday. Normal business operations and class schedules will resume on Thursday, July 8. If normal business operations cannot resume as planned, the university community will be notified.
WGAU Radio
UGA program works with CCSD students
InnovateU program
By Charlie Bauder, UGA Media Relations
Clarke Central High School student Kayleigh Sims wants to be a veterinarian and open her own practice. A University of Georgia program is helping her learn the leadership, entrepreneurship and problem-solving skills she will need to be a success. Sims, a rising junior, is one of 21 high school students from the Clarke County School District to participate in UGA’s inaugural InnovateU program. InnovateU is part of UGA’s ongoing efforts to partner with CCSD, and its primary goal is to empower youth to solve real business challenges through leadership and innovative problem solving with the help of peers and local business professionals.
Augusta CEO
MCG’s Dr. McIndoe to Lead $6.2M Innovative Research Initiative
Toni Baker
Dr. Richard A. McIndoe, bioinformatics expert and associate director of the Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, is leading a dynamic new $6.2 million federally funded initiative to support highly innovative research ideas in three areas with tremendous impact on health. This Innovative Science Accelerator, or ISAC, program establishes an expedited but still extensive review process that will enable scientists to pursue some of their most innovative research ideas in diseases of the kidneys; the urinary tract in both sexes as well as the male reproductive organs; and the blood and bone marrow.
Athens CEO
UGA Academic, Outreach Faculty Team Up on Rural Issues
Eight individual or teams of University of Georgia academic faculty members were awarded seed grants to conduct research in rural communities alongside faculty from Public Service and Outreach and Cooperative Extension. The faculty members were among 20 that attended the inaugural Rural Engagement Faculty Workshop, which kicked off its first of four sessions in January. The goal of the workshop was to encourage academic faculty to identify a challenging issue in rural Georgia and find UGA outreach faculty members to partner with on solutions to that challenge. Through a competitive process, participants were eligible to apply for $5,000 seed grants funded by the Provost’s Office to support initial research that can be used to apply for external funding.
Statesboro Herald
First-ever Youth Connect summer program graduates 17 teenagers
City initiative provided $7.25 hourly stipend, soft skills classes, on-the-job experiences
Al Hackle
Seventeen high school students ages 14-17 have now completed five weeks of core job skills training and internship-like experiences with Statesboro’s city government and cooperating agencies in the inaugural Statesboro Youth Connect summer program. It provided a mix of classroom and on-the-job training totaling 30 hours a week while students received a $7.25 hourly stipend, equivalent to the federal minimum wage. This was authorized for 20 participants, and 82 teenagers initially applied, but after 20 were chosen, 19 started the program and 17 completed it. After an introductory week, each student was assigned to work 18 hours of each week for the remaining month with a single agency: either the city’s central services, engineering, planning and development, finance, public utilities or human resources department or the city clerk’s office, the Statesboro Fire Department, Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful, the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Public Defender’s Office or Georgia Southern University’s Business Innovation Group.
Beef Magazine
Study: Traditional methods not finding some harmful bacteria in cattle
Leigh Beeson, University of Georgia
Growing resistance to our go-to antibiotics is one of the biggest threats the world faces. As common bacteria like strep and salmonella become resistant to medications, what used to be easily treatable infections can now pose difficult medical challenges. New research from the University of Georgia shows there may be more antimicrobial-resistant salmonella in our food animals than scientists previously thought.
MEDPAGE TODAY
The Mental Health Toll of Not Matching
— Reports of suicides and unprecedented social media dialogue have turned a spotlight on the issue
by Kara Grant, Enterprise & Investigative Writer
There are no data as to how many medical students and graduates have died by suicide after going unmatched. Most accounts are understandably kept private by family members or discussed informally between peers. In recent years, however, there have been several confirmed reports of suicide deaths in the weeks and months following each match day. This year alone, there have been at least three reports of suicides by those who went unmatched in the 2021 cycle.
…The Tipping Point
In the most severe cases, not matching — especially after several years, or in conjunction with other serious life events — can be the final trigger for a suicide attempt. That was the case in 2020, when 35-year-old Leigh Sundem, MD, died by suicide after her third year of not matching into residency. In her last wishes, she noted that she wanted her reasons for her suicide to be understood, not veiled in vague language. During her late teens and early 20s, as she described publicly in front of members of Congress in 2010, Sundem struggled with substance use disorder and moved through the criminal justice system. She later began her recovery and graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Southern University in 2012. According to the Georgia Southern’s Leigh Sundem Memorial Scholarship site, Sundem went on to score in the 99th percentile on her MCAT and received a number of scholarship awards and prizes during her tenure as a medical student at the University of Rochester Medical School in New York. Despite her successes, Sundem did not match into any residency programs year after year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
$10K reward offered in Florida shooting that killed KSU quarterback
By Asia Simone Burns
Investigators in Florida are now offering a $10,000 reward for information that will help lead them to the person who killed a Kennesaw State University quarterback. In a statement, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said it hopes the reward will encourage someone to come forward and identify the suspects in the death of 18-year-old Ladarius Clardy. The sheriff’s office also said it is seeking details about a car that was used in the fatal shooting and the people who were inside it at the time. Kennesaw State students held a vigil Monday night in memory of the sophomore, who was found shot to death in a car near his hometown of Pensacola early Thursday morning.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated July 7)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,541 | 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: 905,494
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Fitch Rates Higher Ed ‘Stable’
By Doug Lederman
Fitch Ratings changed its outlook for the higher education sector to “stable,” saying in a report Wednesday that the return to predominantly in-person instruction and the huge influx of federal stimulus dollars would help the industry regain its footing for the rest of the calendar year.
Inside Higher Ed
Student Persistence Fell During Pandemic
The rate at which students stayed enrolled at a postsecondary institution dropped by two percentage points last fall, yet more evidence of the impact of the pandemic and recession.
By Doug Lederman
College and university leaders have been understandably obsessed with student enrollment figures in the 16 months since the coronavirus pandemic upended higher education. The regular reports from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center have revealed overall drops in enrollment, particularly for first-time students and for those from various groups already underrepresented in American colleges. New enrollments are only a piece of the puzzle, though, and most colleges in recent years have begun paying increasing attention to their ability to ensure that students stay enrolled (retention, from the institution’s standpoint, and persistence from the student perspective). Which makes a new report today from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center all the more important — and troubling
Inside Higher Ed
Report Linking Institutions to Sex Trafficking Prompts Congressional Investigation
By Alexis Gravely
The Department of Education has been asked to share its policies and procedures for protecting against sex trafficking in postsecondary education following a report linking vocational schools to prostitution or human trafficking. A report by the Selden/Haring-Smith Foundation described an investigation into a for-profit institution in Minnesota, formerly called the American Academy of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (AAAOM), that found fraud and suspicious behavior within the institution’s massage therapy program, such as application irregularities and internship site supervisors who lacked massage licenses or had connections to prostitution. The foundation also discovered 17 other institutions in five states that were disciplined or closed for engaging in behaviors that could indicate sex trafficking.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Education Department Relaxes TEACH Grant Program Guidelines
by Arrman Kyaw
Aspiring teachers can breathe a bit easier in their educational and career pursuits as the U.S. Department of Education relaxed its rules for the federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program and the Biden-Harris administration proposes boosts to the program via the American Families Plan (AFP). The Department of Education changes – first introduced in the summer of 2020 by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – aims to remove hurdles involved in the TEACH program, which have often saddled grant recipients with burdensome loans – converted from grants due to paperwork issues. The program gives grants of up to $4,000 annually to students majoring or planning to major in education for a teaching career. In exchange, recipients have to teach in a high-need discipline and in an underserved school for four years with an eight-year deadline. If recipients did not complete the required four years or submit proper documentation, the grant was subsequently converted into a Direct Unsubsidized Loan.