University System News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What’s new on metro Atlanta’s college campuses?
By Eric Stirgus
Several Atlanta-area colleges and universities will open their doors this week to begin the fall semester. So what’s new on these campuses? The big news is there should be more students in classrooms and dorms. A few schools allowed a limited number of students on campus last school year. This year, those schools are allowing more students in their classrooms, cafeterias, and dorms, but they must receive a COVID-19 vaccination or have an approved exemption. Others are strongly encouraging, but not requiring, students, faculty and employees to be vaccinated.
The Tifton Gazette
ABAC expects 4,000-plus students
More than 4,000 students are expected to strap on their backpacks and hike to class when Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College opens the 2021 fall semester Aug. 10, marking the second straight fall term that ABAC has experienced an enrollment increase, college officials said in a statement. For ABAC President David Bridges, it is a return to the way college life ought to be. “We want to make this fall semester as close to normal as we can,” said Bridges, who approaches his record-setting 16th fall semester as the ABAC president. “With the pandemic, there was nothing normal about last year.
Patch
Kennesaw State Showcases Newly Renovated Residence Hall In Open House Event
More than 56 years after first opening its doors to students, Kennesaw State University’s
newly renovated Howell Hall was unveiled this week in an open house event. The 288-bed residence hall, located on the Marietta Campus, reopens this fall to first-year students.
Columbus CEO
Dr. Deborah Kidder Joins Columbus State faculty as New Business Dean
By Staff Reports
Columbus State University has appointed Dr. Deborah L. Kidder as its next dean of the D. Abbott Turner College of Business. She succeeds Dr. Linda Hadley, who in March 2021 announced her plans to retire as the college’s dean after 30 years on the CSU faculty. Kidder will begin her tenure at Columbus State on Monday, Aug. 9. “I am very happy to be joining the D. Abbott Turner College of Business at Columbus State University as its next dean,” Kidder said. “Everyone has been very helpful and welcoming. I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue the Turner College’s success.” Kidder comes to Columbus State by way of the University of Hartford (Connecticut) Barney School of Business, where she has been on the faculty since 2012.
Growing America
Harley Langdale Jr. Foundation Extends Support to Destination Ag at ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture
By Staff Reports
The Harley Langdale Jr. Foundation, Inc., will extend its support of Destination Ag for three more years at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture. Donnie Warren, Executive Director of the Harley Langdale Jr. Foundation, Inc., made the announcement during a recent visit to the Museum in Tifton. “The Harley Langdale Jr. Foundation is very pleased to continue our partnership with ABAC’s Destination Ag,” Warren said. “We believe it is vitally important to educate our youth about the importance of agriculture and natural resources in their daily lives.”
GPB
Medical College Of Georgia Program Seeks To Inspire Doctors For The Elderly As Population Ages
By Ellen Eldridge
Organizers at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta hope a new summer program on aging research will inspire the next generation of doctors who specialize in treatment of the elderly. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more. A dozen medical students at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta are learning from researchers and physicians about health issues related to aging. That includes osteoporosis, arthritis and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Many future doctors simply haven’t been exposed to geriatric medicine in school, said Wendy Bollag, a cell physiologist with MCG.
yahoo!News
Blackouts related to severe weather are increasing in the US
In the last six years, blackouts due to extreme weather more than doubled, according to a new study — and the number of blackouts in the Pacific Northwest this summer serve as a prime example. Brian Stone, a professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the researchers that worked on the study were able to simulate the way a heat wave in Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix would impact the temperatures both inside and outside structures. They found that the number of blackout events in the United States that lasted for at least one hour and impacted at least 50,000 utility customers increased by more than 60% from the previous five-year reporting period. According to Stone, the researchers also found “temperature thresholds that were consistent with either heat exhaustion or heatstroke for 70 percent or more of the population in each city.”
Tifton Gazette
Spinks scholarship honors longtime residents
By Staff Reports
With the recent naming of the Ford B. Spinks Exhibit Hall at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture, a renewed emphasis has been placed on the Ford and Ruby Lee Spinks Scholarship at ABAC. “This scholarship honors the memory of these two wonderful folks, and it will provide support for students with financial need at ABAC for years to come,” Dr. Deidre Martin, chief development officer at ABAC, said. “Our goal is to endow the scholarship at $25,000.
Savannah Morning News
$61 million purchase of Bryan County megasite finalized, marking largest project in GA history
By Nancy Guan
The sale of a Bryan County megasite announced in May officially closed on July 27, marking the largest strategic purchase in Georgia history. A total of $61 million went into the purchase and was made possible by the state reinvesting proceeds from the sale of a Chatham County Economic Development Site to Amazon. Bryan and Chatham County also contributed $9 million each and will be reimbursed later… According to a state press release, there is a skilled workforce of more than 453,000 within a 60-mile radius of the site, fueled in part by Georgia Southern University, nearby Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, and other colleges, universities, and industry sectors, such as aerospace.
Inside Higher Ed
By Sara Weissman
Colleges and universities are increasingly using federal COVID-19 relief funds to pay off unpaid balances owed to them by students. After a year of financial strain and rampant job loss due to the pandemic, the payoffs are a welcome relief for many students and their families. They are also a point of pride for the colleges which have been publicizing their generosity in celebratory press releases about relieving student debt and bold pronouncements during commencement ceremonies and other public events… Fort Valley State University, a historically Black public land grant university in Georgia, wiped away the debts of 200 students, a total of about $250,000 in outstanding balances. Georgia Southwestern University announced last Thursday that it cleared overdue balances totaling more than $110,000 for 82 students enrolled between spring 2020 and spring 2021.
Georgia Recorder
Georgia college students, mask conflict, heading back to campus
By Ross Williams
College students across Georgia are saying goodbye to mom and dad, hauling furniture up to their dorm rooms and making last-minute changes to their class schedules. A new semester started Monday at Dalton State College and Georgia Gwinnett College, and the rest of the University System of Georgia’s 26 institutions will be heading back to class in the coming days and weeks.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students, faculty urge Georgia university system to mandate masks, vaccinations
By Eric Stirgus
With classes starting at some of its schools this week, many students and faculty of Georgia’s public university system are urging administrators and the state’s Board of Regents to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, the wearing of masks or both measures to prevent the spread of the disease on campuses.
The United Campus Workers of Georgia, Local 3265, is planning a rally before Tuesday’s Regents meeting. The union and the Regents Advisory Council for Biological Sciences have both started petitions in the last week urging enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols. “As centers of research and learning, Georgia colleges and universities bear a responsibility to take the lead in educating and protecting the public — beginning with our own campuses. Instead, the opposite has been happening,” the campus workers wrote in its petition. More than 1,500 students and faculty members signed the council’s petition as of Monday afternoon.
Statesboro Herald
COVID cases see increase at Georgia Southern, OTC
By Jim Healy
On Monday, Georgia Southern University reported the most weekly COVID-19 cases since February, Bulloch County public schools said there were 67 cases recorded in the first week of the new school year, and Bulloch County added 78 new cases over the weekend. COVID cases have seen a significant rise across the nation and state in the past five weeks, and Bulloch County is following the same trend. The Georgia Department of Public Health said in addition to Bulloch recording 192 new cases in the past week, two residents likely died as a result of COVID since last Tuesday. Georgia confirmed 10,006 new cases over the weekend, and the state is now averaging 3,850 new cases a day. Across the nation, the average number of new cases is more than 110,000 per day and deaths have passed 500 per day, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Times Higher Education
Unions concerned as Georgia pushes post-tenure review
At partisan moment, governing regents pursue new processes allowing for firing of tenured faculty
By Paul Basken
Georgia’s state university system is moving towards the adoption of a uniform and tougher post-tenure review system, in what some faculty experts regarded as yet another attempt at political interference in US higher education. Georgia’s 26-campus system already allows for some evaluation of faculty after they’ve gained tenure, although with historically few instances of professors experiencing any major repercussions. The system’s governing board is now taking steps to impose a more mandatory set of processes that make clear the possibility of firing tenured faculty who fail to meet standards set by statewide system leaders. The intent wasn’t fully clear, said leaders of the American Association of University Professors. But it seemed to be part of a pattern spreading across the US in recent years, said Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, and president of Georgia’s statewide AAUP conference.
Other News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated August 9)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is keeping track of reported coronavirus deaths and cases across Georgia according to the Department of Public Health. See details in the map below. See the DPH’s guide to their data for more information about definitions.
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 18,856 | 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: 963,802 | Cases have been confirmed in every county.
Higher Education News
Inside Higher Ed
State Higher Ed Funding Looks Positive
By Emma Whitford
For the first time in years, Sophia Laderman, senior policy analyst for the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), is feeling hopeful about the state funding outlook for higher education in fiscal year 2022, thanks to the rebounding national economy. “I tend to not be optimistic about state funding for higher education,” she said. “But it sounds like a lot of states are actually expecting increases.” After the pandemic ripped through state budgets and smothered their revenue streams, some lawmakers opted to cut higher education funding during fiscal year 2021, when uncertainty about the pandemic’s economic impact peaked. Last fiscal year, 13 states reduced higher education appropriations by a net total of $417.5 million, according to a report from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). As the pandemic raged on, experts feared that the higher education sector would once again see declines in state support for fiscal year 2022, which began in July. Every state except for Vermont is required by law to balance their budgets, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures(NCSL). Higher education is often one of the first budget items to see cuts during periods of economic decline.
Inside Higher Ed
Community Support for First-Generation Graduate Students
By Arnaldo Diaz Vazquez and Natalie Lundsteen
We cannot assume that just because they successfully navigated their undergraduate years they will smoothly sail through graduate training, write Arnaldo Diaz Vazquez and Natalie Lundsteen. First-generation graduate students, the first in their family to attend college and then go on to graduate school, can lack understanding about the whole process of obtaining a Ph.D. and how to navigate the research environment experience — from the application and admission process through to career transitions and alumni status. The experiences of first-generation grad students can mirror the challenges that first-generation undergrads face, but graduate school certainly opens up new obstacles and unknowns.
Inside Higher Ed
What We Have Learned from Each Other
By Doug Lankford and Gregory P. Crawford
Retiring Native American mascots can create new relationships between colleges and Tribal Nations, write Doug Lankford, chief of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, and Gregory P. Crawford, president of Miami University. The New York Times has reported that about 1,900 athletics teams in the United States, including many at higher education institutions, still carry derogatory or racist Native American names. At a time when those institutions and their sports teams are being asked to reconsider their Native mascot — or, better yet, have decided to remove them on their own accord — Miami University is an example of how this hard decision can actually serve as an opportunity to create or strengthen relationships between colleges and Tribal Nations.