University System News:
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Dramatic upswing in 2021 job market for new graduates
By Randy Southerland – Contributing Writer
The worker shortage rocking business and industry following the pandemic has been particularity good for new college graduates. Those in business, analytics and other high-demand fields are fielding multiple offers and enriched pay and benefit packages. Taron Ragan is one of those recent business grads who made the most of the surging employment environment. The Kennesaw State University accounting major racked up three job offers. After graduating in May, he took a position as an incoming audit associate with Deloitte’s Atlanta office. “There’s always opportunity,” Ragan said. “Candidates who get those opportunities are the ones who are doing the networking and putting their faces out there for people to get to know. Networking can even help in a pandemic or decline in the job market.” Other graduates, students and career counselors agree. It’s a dramatic turnaround from 2020, when companies began delaying or even rescinding job offers during the pandemic.
The Red & Black
UGA pledges $1 million for need-based scholarship
Nathalee Simoneau
University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead expressed optimism about the future of the need-based Georgia Commitment Scholarship in an Aug. 21 press release. The UGA Foundation Board of Trustees voted in June 2021 to give an additional $1 million to encourage further private support of the Georgia Commitment Scholarship, a 2017 initiative awarded to in-state freshmen. “I know that UGA supporters will be eager to take advantage of this opportunity to create more scholarships for Georgia students,” Morehead said in the release. The Georgia Commitment Scholarship was created to support students with financial need even after receiving the HOPE Scholarship, the Zell Miller Scholarship or the Pell Grant. More than 500 current UGA students received the Georgia Commitment Scholarship.
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Savannah State University Offering a New Degree Program in Information Technology and Logistics
Historically Black Savannah State University in Georgia is now offering a new degree program in computer information systems/logistics and supply chain program to support the growing community need for professionals with technical skills in logistics and supply chain management. Designed to introduce students to cutting-edge technology including a variety of systems, programming languages, financial technology approaches, as well as, data analytics tools and methodologies, the new program within the university’s College of Business Administration will prepare students for industry professions and future careers
Griffin Daily News
Rotary learns about Georgia Archives
Anthony Rhoads
Georgia Archives Education Specialist Penny Cliff spoke at Thursday’s Rotary Club of Griffin meeting. Cliff, who has been at the Georgia Archives for four years, spoke about researching records at the Georgia Archives. After the program, Rotary President John White presented Cliff with a set of Griffin-made 1888 Mills towels.
Statesboro Herald
Market on Main showcases GS student entrepreneurs Friday
Square One and DSDA team up for 6-9:30 p.m. festival, also featuring food trucks, live music
From staff reports
Student entrepreneurs from Georgia Southern University will be showcasing and selling their products to the public in the first Market on Main festival, also billed as Statesboro’s Student Makers Market, 6 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27, on East Main Street.
The Brunswick News
CCGA student hopes to help parents escape Afghanistan amid Taliban takeover
By Lauren McDonald
In a phone call with her mother this week, Fahima Rastagar made an urgent request. She asked her mother to, please, not go to the airport. Watching the news unfold from her home on St. Simons, Rastagar witnessed from afar the Taliban’s tightening control on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, where her parents live. Despite Rastagar’s pleas, though, her mother insisted on making the dangerous trip to the city’s international airport. …Rastagar’s parents were amid the chaos, and they stayed for more than 30 consecutive hours at the airport this week without food or water before being told they had to leave. “The Taliban have control over the airport, and they’re very bad people, and I told her that they’re terrible,” Rastagar said. “I said, ’Please, don’t go,’ and she said, ‘Fahima, that’s exactly why I need to go to the airport.’” Rastagar, who is a full-time nursing student at CCGA and an employee at the Starbucks on St. Simons, previously served an interpreter for the U.S. military in Kabul. She worries that will put her family at greater risk. …Rastagar has reached out to a variety of contacts she has in the United States who may be able to organize aid for her parents that will help them leave Afghanistan. She’s also had help from staff at College of Coastal Georgia. Michelle Johnston, the college’s president, said she has reached out to the office of Sen. Raphael Warnock and to former Sen. David Perdue. U.S. Congressman Buddy Carter has also been contacted on Rastagar’s behalf. “We’ve been in contact about making sure the information is shared at the (U.S.) State Department,” Johnston said. A lot of the communication, though, has been one-way. Information about Rastagar’s family and their situation is sent, but little feedback is given.
The City Menus
Finding her calling: UWG psychology student volunteers time at university’s pre-K
By Julie Lineback
One simple assignment at the University of West Georgia led Nyah Jordan toward her future career. The UWG sophomore, a psychology major, was tasked with observing children and their interactions at playgrounds. She knew UWG’s College of Education just happened to operate a state-of-the-art site committed to such research on campus, so she contacted Dr. Chelsea Morris, faculty director of the Early Learning Center. …Today, Jordan’s volunteer opportunity has evolved into a federal work-study program at the Early Learning Center. In addition to assisting the teachers, Jordan helps put together different projects and activities for the children.
The Red & Black
UGA student to hold art auction to benefit sexual assault victims
Jules Washburn
Caroline Fitzgerald never thought she would become a sexual assault statistic. As a woman who always felt empowered, she was worried the feeling would vanish once she became a survivor over the summer. Instead, she decided to allow the instance to further empower her and other victims by taking a stand against it. Fitzgerald will host a virtual non-profit art auction called Art for Change from Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. to Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. All proceeds made by the pieces will be donated directly to organizations affiliated with sexual violence prevention and victim support resources.
The City Menus
Featured on Jeopardy: UWG alum’s quest for knowledge crosses generations
By Julie Lineback
Answer: This educational nonprofit in Atlanta – led by a University of West Georgia alumnus – recently received more than $200,000 in donations while featured on “Jeopardy!” Question: What is Odyssey Atlanta? When Ronald Bastien ’17 ’19 first arrived at UWG, he admittedly wasn’t the most prepared student. But today, through his role as Odyssey’s senior program director and director of daily operations, he helps ensure future generations are instilled with a quest for knowledge on a journey toward higher education. Odyssey Atlanta is a six-week summer enrichment program – think of a cross between summer camp and summer school – that serves first- through 12th-grade students. Its purpose is to close the gap between resources and opportunities with students in communities across Atlanta.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle
Businesses benefit from helping individuals with disabilities via transition-to-work program
By GCDD
Project SEARCH was developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, a research environment that fosters visionary thinking and innovation. It began in 1996, when Erin Riehle was director of Cincinnati Children’s Emergency Department. Riehle felt that because the hospital served individuals with developmental disabilities as patients, it made sense that they should commit to hiring people in this group. She wondered if it would be possible to train people with developmental disabilities to fill some of the high-turnover, entry-level positions in her department. These jobs involved complex and systematic tasks, such as stocking supply cabinets. …Project SEARCH has grown from one original program site at Cincinnati Children’s to over 600 programs across 47 states and ten countries. Some of our Georgia business partners include Cartersville Medical Center, Emory Midtown Hospital, Navicent Health Macon, Northeast Georgia Health System, Shaw Industries Dalton, TSYS, Middle Georgia State University, Armstrong State University, University of West Georgia and the Chico’s Distribution Center.
Coastal Courier
GSU expands veteran student success program with U.S. Department of Education grant
Georgia Southern University’s long-term commitment to veteran student success has a boost thanks to a U.S. Department of Education grant. The grant, totaling almost $459,000, is to establish a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS) on all three of Georgia Southern University’s campuses, located in Savannah, Statesboro and Hinesville. The CEVSS goal is to increase enrollment and retention of the University’s veteran students. The awarded amount will be paid out over three years.
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta University studies pressure cuff therapy as a way to lower vascular dementia risk
Tom Corwin
…Grossman has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease that likely has some vascular dementia contributing to it due to his high blood pressure. He just completed a clinical trial of an unusual but potentially beneficial therapy at Medical College of Georgia for people at high risk of vascular dementia. It’s called remote ischemic conditioning, and it involves inflating a cuff similar to a blood pressure cuff on the arm for five minutes at different intervals, usually in cycles of four or five. Principal Investigator Dr. Askiel Bruno, a neurologist at MCG at Augusta University, is studying the differences in dose now, whether it works better to do that every other day, every day, or some other combination.
News Medical Life Sciences
‘Humanized’ mouse model beats current approaches for finding the best organ donor
Reviewed by Emily Henderson
A “humanized” mouse model equipped with the immune system of a patient who needs an organ transplant beats current measures for identifying the best potential living donor, scientists report. They call the new approach an “immunobiological algorithm” that provides a comprehensive prospective on how a patient’s immune system will react to tissue from each potential living donor, says Dr. Anatolij Horuzsko, immunologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center.
WJCL
Vaccination numbers soaring for Georgia Southern Eagles
Football team now 85% vaccinated for COVID-19
Frank Sulkowski, Anchor/Reporter
The number of vaccinated Eagles is soaring as kickoff to the college football season nears. Georgia Southern Athletics telling WJCL 22 News that currently over 85% of Georgia Southern football players have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. The Eagles have seen a steady increase in vaccinated players in the span of two weeks.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Faculty member who quit: State policy ‘literally becomes teachers die trying’
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Dr. Meridith Styer says system shows callous disregard for safety amid COVID surge
When Dr. Meridith Styer asked a communications class at Georgia College & State University to wear masks because she had a family member for whom COVID could be fatal, she said one student balked, left and complained to the dean that he had been kicked out class. Unlike Emory University, Morehouse, Spelman and Agnes Scott colleges, the University System of Georgia does not require masks in classrooms, which has angered staff and faculty across the state who feel their health and that of their students are being sacrificed to a political agenda. Every day, the AJC is hearing from unhappy faculty, across USG institutions, about what they deem unsafe and dangerous conditions at their campuses. Styer, who holds a doctorate in rhetoric and political culture, resigned last week over her institution’s response to the incident.
Gainesville Times
UNG Faculty Senate to vote Friday on mask resolution
Ben Anderson
After two University of North Georgia lecturers resigned over concerns about a lack of masks in the classroom, the school’s Faculty Senate will vote on Friday, Aug. 27, on whether to urge the president of the school to mandate masks indoors at all of its campuses. The resolution “calls on the President of UNG (Dr. Bonita Jacobs) to issue an executive order mandating adherence to the CDC guidelines, requiring all persons occupying indoor spaces on UNG campuses to wear a face-covering consistent with CDC guidelines.” By not following CDC guidelines, the “health and safety” of all members of the UNG community are “put at high risk,” the resolution states.
WGAU Radio
UGA research: symptomatic COVID patients are more contagious
University of Ga study published in JAMA
By Lauren Baggett, UGA Today
Individuals with COVID-19 are most likely to spread the virus to close contacts two days before the onset of symptoms to three days after symptoms appear, and the risk of transmission is highest when patients had mild or moderate disease severity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia. The study, which was published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, supports the idea that if a person with COVID-19 is sicker, they are more contagious compared to asymptomatic cases.
The Augusta Chronicle
CEO: University Hospital staff ‘weary’ of COVID but wary of vaccine mandate
Tom Corwin
University Hospital is seeing its beds fill with COVID-19 patients but the hospital is not considering a mandate for employees to get vaccinated at this time, CEO Jim Davis said. At its hospital board meeting Thursday, Davis said the hospital had 128 COVID-19 inpatients, four more just since that morning. It is already well beyond where it was a year ago when there was a summer surge, he said. Last week, the hospital had 100 admissions from COVID-19, compared to 90 a week at the peak of last summer, Davis said.
Other News:
Forbes
Airborne Transmission Of SARS-CoV-2 Is Evolving
John Drake, Contributor, Science
It’s long been clear that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, can be transmitted through the air through small droplets and aerosols. The difference between droplets and aerosols is that aerosols are really small (less than 5 μm), small enough to travel over long distances and deposit in the lower respiratory tract. Although the indirect evidence for airborne transmission is overwhelming, direct evidence has been more difficult to obtain. In a new preprint, NIH scientist Vincent Munster and his colleagues report on a new and ingenious experiment that provides direct evidence.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Aug. 26)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,056,788
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 19,451 | 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:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Report: Racially Inequitable Funding at Public Four-Year Colleges and Universities
Rebecca Kelliher
More Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) than ever before are enrolling in public colleges and universities. Yet long-term disinvestment in these institutions is continuing to hurt BIPOC students disproportionately, according to a new report from The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). “A college degree is more essential than ever for upward social mobility and economic stability,” said Oliver Schak, the report’s author and the research director at TICAS. “But we are seeing an alarming trend with how resources are unevenly distributed.”
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
New Survey Indicates Over 25% of Student Athletes Experience Sexual Abuse on Campus
Liann Herder
In a survey conducted by Lauren’s Kids, a nonprofit that educates parents and children about sexual violence, more than one quarter of current or former student athletes reported experiencing sexual assault of harassment perpetrated by someone in a position of power on their campus. This means that athletes are 2.5 times as likely to survive abuse on campus, and that coaches were more often the perpetrators of the abuse.