University System News:
The George-Anne
President Marrero optimistic after last week’s dip in positive COVID-19 cases
Eden Hodges, Editor-in-Chief
Last week’s 157-count dip in positive COVID-19 cases could point towards Georgia Southern being on a downward trend in cases, University President Kyle Marrero told the George-Anne Monday. “I’m not predicting we’re through it, but we’re certainly seeing signs from our peak, 434, to last week, 277, and this week looks like it’ll lower again,” said University President Kyle Marrero. Georgia Southern has reported 842 cases since the first day of classes. This Monday’s weekly COVID-19 report showed GS’ first break from rising case numbers this semester, with a decrease from the week before of 157 cases.
The Brunswick News
CCGA, Georgia College partner for new pathway
By Lauren McDonald
College of Coastal Georgia has entered into a new partnership with Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville to create new opportunities for students in South Georgia. CCGA President Michelle Johnston signed last week a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Georgia College President Steve Dorman that affirmed an agreement to create the Pathways to Georgia College program. The program establishes a way for students in several South Georgia counties to attend CCGA in preparation for transfer to Georgia College to complete their bachelor’s degrees.
The Red & Black
UGA School of Law boosts scholarship to help legally underserved communities
Lucinda Warnke
The University of Georgia School of Law has created a fund to support students who have overcome significant obstacles and intend to help rural or legally underserved communities, according to a UGA news release. The fund, named the Justice Robert Benham Scholars Program Fund in honor of the law school’s second Black graduate, seeks to address law school preparation, recruitment, academic support and career planning. The program was originally piloted in 2018 with help from the New Approaches in Diversity and Inclusion initiative and has benefited 12 students so far. Recently, it received an additional $500,000 pledge from The Hart Family Foundation Inc. with assistance from E. David Hart Jr., a UGA alum.
KPVI
Mentor/protegee relationship important to UGA students’ studies
By Maria M. Lameiras CAES News
As a plant science and biotechnology major at Fort Valley State University, Makayla Mitchell knew she wanted to get research experience outside of her home institution. She found that opportunity in the University of Georgia’s Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates program in Crop Genetics and Genomics at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Thanks in part to participation in the program, Mitchell is now a graduate student in Professor Melissa Mitchum’s lab in UGA’s Department of Plant Pathology.
Times-Georgian
UWG students grow skills alongside faculty mentorships
By Julie Lineback UWG
UWG students grow skills alongside faculty mentorships
The University of West Georgia recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its Newnan campus to celebrate a new sculpture and mural designed by art students Trinity Dendy and Ariana Culver. The projects — commissioned by UWG’s School of the Arts (SOTA) with generous support from the Hollis Trust — are prime examples of the university’s strategic plan in progress. “To remain relevant to our students and communities — and competitive in the higher education marketplace — we must continuously elevate our spaces,” UWG President Dr. Brendan Kelly said. “This includes making contributions to Newnan’s art and culture landscape with projects like this sculpture and mural, which are the result of students engaging in a few weeks of intensive experiential learning and maintaining a relationship with community partners, namely the Hollis Trust.”
Daily Report
Law school names rotunda after first Black graduate
The University of Georgia School of Law has named its iconic rotunda after its first Black graduate, Chester C. Davenport. A portrait of Davenport is being commissioned and will eventually hang in the space located at the main entrance to the law school. Davenport, who passed away in August 2020, was a monumental figure in the School of Law’s history. He was the law school’s first Black student and remained its only Black student during his law school career. He earned his law degree in 1966, finishing in the top 5% of his class and serving as a founding member of the editorial board of the Georgia Law Review.
Athens CEO
In 2015, Pulaski County’s Hospital Faced Bankruptcy. Then UGA Stepped In.
Baker Owens
Without assistance from the University of Georgia, Taylor Regional Hospital in Hawkinsville might have closed six years ago. Instead, earlier this month, community leaders broke ground on a project to include emergency room expansion, a new lobby and state of the art equipment. …As a UGA Archway Partnership community, Pulaski County had full access to the university’s vast resources. Two PhD students in UGA’s College of Public Health took on the assessment, conducting focus groups and administering survey to members of the community to gauge their use of the facility. Not only did the CHNA show the hospital was needed, it also showed the community would benefit from an outpatient clinic to treat injuries and illnesses that would otherwise turn up in the emergency room. Taylor Express Care opened in 2016, cutting ER visits by 23 percent, from 6,000 a year to 4,600. Faculty and students from UGA’s College of Public Health and College of Pharmacy have continued helping Taylor Regional complete its CHNA since that first one in 2015.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alpharetta man among 2 charged after South Georgia girl found in Maryland
By Henri Hollis
Two men, one from metro Atlanta and one from Maryland, were charged with multiple trafficking and sex crimes related to a 14-year-old South Georgia girl who went missing more than a year ago.
Nicholas Fernandez, 23, of Alpharetta, was arrested in Athens on Monday on multiple charges related to the girl’s disappearance, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in a news release. Fernandez had previously been arrested in Cook County, where the girl is from, on July 21, Miles said. In Cook, Fernandez has been charged with counts of sex trafficking of a minor and enticing a minor. In Athens-Clarke County, he has been charged with sex trafficking of a minor, aggravated child molestation, child molestation, statutory rape and kidnapping.
See also:
accessWDUN
UGA student arrested on charges of kidnapping and sex trafficking
The Denver Channel
A college town reckons with reparations to right wrongs of ‘urban renewal’
By: Matt Pearl
From the edge of the city, you can see the outline of the campus. The city of Athens, Georgia, would hardly exist without the University of Georgia. The largest school in the state holds nearly 40,000 students. It is an institution. Around town are reminders of what institutions can bring … and what they can take. “You cannot come by here without associating what could have been,” said Hattie Whitehead, as she stares across Baxter Street at three dorms. “This could have been a Black, middle-class community if it was left alone.” Whitehead and dozens of other families grew up where a series of dorms now stand. They knew it as Linnentown. …It was safe, until the early 1960s. That’s when the University of Georgia and the city of Athens targeted Linnentown for urban renewal. They used eminent domain to purchase residents’ land for cheap, literally paving the way for the dorms that stand there now. …A study by the University of Richmond estimates the federal government gave at least $13 billion from 1950 to 1965 to fund urban renewal projects. …But this story isn’t just about an event six decades in the past. It’s about the ripple effects that continue to the present. … This past June, Athens passed a budget that includes fare-free transit and a $15/hour minimum wage for all city employees. And four months earlier, Mayor Girtz read aloud a proclamation passed by the city that honored Linnentown and promised to provide reparations for its descendants – the first act of reparations in the state.
The Globe
Incoming president plans for 7 major objectives at Point Park
Written By Amanda Andrews, Jake Dabkowski, Editor-in-Chief, Editor Elect
On April 12, 2021, the Board of Trustees announced in an email to the campus community that their months-long search for a new president had ended. Donald Green, the then-president of Georgia Highlands College, would be assuming the presidency at Point Park — a position the Board of Trustees had been seeking to fill after Paul Hennigan announced his retirement on Oct. 5, 2020. …At his most recent institution, Georgia Highlands College in Rome, Georgia, Green increased overall enrollment by 7% between 2014 and 2015 and Latino enrollment by 24% within that same span of time, according to an article from the Rome-News Tribune published in 2015. Georgia Highlands College is one of 26 higher education institutions within the University System of Georgia. “President Green’s outstanding work has emphasized student success both in the classroom and in the workforce, helping GHC expand its degree programs and carry out its mission as an access point to higher education,” University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Steve Wrigley said in a statement. “Don has been an excellent leader who helped GHC positively impact the communities it serves and set an example that will benefit the college and students for years to come. I will miss him as a colleague and am grateful for his service to the system and Georgia.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC COVID-19 college tracker: Cases rising on campuses as classes begin
By Eric Stirgus
The number of students, faculty and employees who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 has increased rapidly in the last week at Georgia’s largest colleges and universities, according to data on their websites. The University of Georgia posted its weekly report online Wednesday morning, which showed positive cases nearly doubled in a recent seven-day stretch. Emory University, the state’s largest, private university, on Tuesday had its highest number of student cases since the fall semester began last week. The universities note many positive cases are self-reported and some people weren’t on campus when they tested positive. …Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening at some of Georgia’s largest colleges and universities, according to their online COVID-19 dashboards:
Fox28
Georgia Southern ramps up vaccination effort with incentive program
by Isabel Litterst
In the early stages of the school year, Savannah-area universities are figuring out how to keep COVID-19 off their campuses. Representatives from Savannah State University said the school is not requiring vaccines, but they are hosting vaccination clinics and highly recommending mask-wearing on campus. SCAD announced this week that it will be requiring students and staff to either show proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test results when school starts this month. John Lester, a spokesman for Georgia Southern University said school officials are responding with a major push for vaccinations with students back on campus.
Newsweek
Students Repeatedly Ignore Georgia Professor’s Pleas for Them to Wear Masks in Class
By Jack Beresford
A Georgia academic says he will “never be able to look at this job the same way” after his personal plea to students to wear masks went ignored. Matthew LeHew is an assistant professor of Communication and Faculty Fellow for the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Dalton State College. According to official Dalton State College guidelines, “Masks are strongly encouraged, especially for those who are not fully vaccinated, but they are no longer required in most places on campus.” Despite these relaxed guidelines, LeHew was eager for students to wear face coverings during his classes, so formulated a plan to appeal to them on a personal level. …LeHew’s experience came to light a day after a professor at Georgia College & State University resigned from her post after a student refused to wear a mask in her class. Meridith Styer, who taught rhetoric at Georgia College & State University, took aim at the school’s policy on masks as she left, describing it as being “in opposition to all science and reason.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regents reject mask mandates on campus, but not always in their workplaces
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Citing safety concerns, at least three Regents require masks in workplaces and facilities
The Board of Regents has refused to require masks on Georgia’s public campuses, endangering students and staff and forcing professors to beg students to wear masks to protect their young children, their pregnant spouses or their elderly parents from the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19. Many faculty — including a father-to-be at Dalton State College who begins every class with an ultrasound picture of his baby due next month — report only a handful of students comply. A few of the Regents are not as callous with their own workplaces and staffs. Consider these prominently displayed policies at the workplaces of Regents C. Thomas Hopkins Jr., an orthopedic surgeon, Samuel Holmes, chairman of the commercial real estate services firm CBRE Inc., and Neil L. Pruitt Jr., chairman and CEO of PruittHealth. Hopkins’ medical practice proclaims, “OrthoGeorgia is following the CDC recommended best practices to provide you and our employees with a safe environment: All patients and employees are required to wear face masks inside OrthoGeorgia facilities.” Pruitt’s health care facilities require masks for all visitors and patients and the web site shows masked employees. CBRE’s playbook on reopening says, “CBRE is following CDC guidelines and more stringent mask guidance — including requiring employees to wear masks when they are moving through the office and not at a socially distanced workstation.” Yet, the Regents have chosen to ignore the CDC’s recommendations for masks on campuses, putting more faith in Gov. Brian Kemp’s undergraduate degree in agriculture than the nation’s physicians and virus researchers.
Ledger Enquirer
Protest planned at Columbus State after 150+ faculty petition for more COVID protocols
By Brittany Mcgee
Columbus State University professors and students will hold a demonstration Friday protesting what they call unsafe working and learning conditions after faculty and staff petitioned the University System of Georgia asking for more COVID-19 protocols. According to the petition, sent on Aug. 3, 173 signers believe that the current COVID-19 guidelines create unsafe conditions on campus. Out of that group, 163 members are faculty and 10 are staff members, Dr. Lydia Ray, executive officer for the CSU faculty executive committee, said.
The Augusta Chronicle
Condition critical: COVID deepens Georgia’s nursing crisis
Joe Hotchkiss
How many nurses live and work in Georgia? Not enough. While the state’s dire nursing shortage stretches back years, that burden has become even more crushing amid the waves of patients crowding hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only are there not enough nurses, health care veterans say there aren’t enough teachers to help mold the next generation of nurses. …In Richmond and Columbia counties, there are 6,778 licensed nurses, according to the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce. Statewide, there are more than 141,000. …The University System of Georgia is trying to find the time. For example, through a collaboration between Columbus State University and the system’s eCampus initiative, working registered nurses without bachelor’s degrees can earn the degree in as little as 12 months through classes online. Augusta University’s nursing program is the largest in the University System.
GBPI
How Federal Higher Education Proposals Affect Georgia
By Jennifer Lee
Federal policymakers are considering several strategies to make a college degree more affordable and attainable for students. Two funding strategies exist to support both affordability and completion: direct funding to students, as grants or loans, and direct funding to colleges and universities, which can use resources to provide better services to students. Most federal funding to support higher education flows to students as financial aid, with very little flowing directly to schools. Though Georgia funds a large state financial aid program, the aid is not targeted to students with financial need. …Below are several federal proposals and how they would affect Georgians.
Increased Pell Grants Would Benefit More than 280,000 Georgians
Federal policymakers face multiple opportunities to increase funding for Pell Grants, the country’s primary need-based financial aid program. Congress can boost Pell Grants through the budget and appropriations processes, which would begin increases in Fall 2022, and by passing the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act, which would start phased-in increases in Fall 2023. Georgia’s college students rely on federal need-based aid as the state is one of only two states that lacks state need-based grants. The need for Pell has grown as state budgets failed to keep up with the growth in students pursuing higher education and the increasing financial need among these students. Today, 85 percent more students qualify for Pell Grants in the University System of Georgia than 15 years ago. …A budget boost would benefit the more than 280,000 Georgia students in public and private colleges and universities who depend on Pell Grants to help pay for college costs. Pell Grant recipients reflect the state’s racial and ethnic diversity. In the University System of Georgia, 4 in 10 students receive Pell Grants. Half are white, and half are Black, Hispanic/Latinx or Asian.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 1)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,097,709
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 19,806 | 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.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Our Opinion: Get vaccinated. Save lives
THE EDITORIAL BOARD’S VIEW
Editor’s note: This editorial appears on the front page of the Wednesday, Sept. 1 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The misguided who refuse to be vaccinated are costing fellow Georgians their lives, plain and simple. Yes, there are some with legitimate medical or religious reasons for not receiving the inoculation. But the growing tally of the dead or sick is heavily weighted with names of the unvaccinated who paid an irrevocable price for their decision. We all know who they are. The co-worker who willingly accepts fiction over fact. The parishioner who believes social media over science. The neighbor who displays an utter disregard for their own well-being – and the well-being of those around them. Their foolish decisions affect us all. Nine of 10 people now hospitalized with coronavirus had not been vaccinated. That means the responsible among us who may need care are at greater risk.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Vaccines are not the only solution. It’s time for bold higher education leadership in the face of COVID-19, writes Tim Collins.
By Tim Collins, president of Walsh University.
Ever since the Nuremberg Code of 1947 that formed the ethical basis of all research and treatments today, the very first principle articulated, accepted and applied is the principle of voluntary participation. During the initial stages of the ongoing pandemic, it was reasonable to accept greater treatment risks as we fought the virus and sought support from all corners to protect the most vulnerable. And we have done that quite well, both individually and as a society demonstrating a commitment to seeking the common good. As we learn more about COVID-19, we must remember that we have never been able to create an effective vaccine against any coronavirus — ever. The scientific communities from around the globe marshaled their efforts and, thankfully, produced a vaccination that continues to show it is safe and effective meeting an immediate need. I looked at a significant amount of data, discussed the common good with many and then decided personally that the risk was manageable for my medical condition — so I was willingly vaccinated. …Now is the time for bold leadership to ask the critical questions that further prevention and treatment recommendations. How do we in higher education integrate the interdisciplinary knowledge of our business, education, medical and public health scholars with our 20 months of experiential knowledge to create for an exhaustive list of intervention strategies that are easily understood and implemented to manage and mitigate a pandemic? …Last, do we need to create new collaborations to develop new tools that might accelerate the understanding of the long-term effects of the vaccine on an individual? Higher education is a vital part of the solution to our global pandemic. We hold a special place in society as a trusted resource that must be leveraged to align our public policy with the common good — thus meeting the long-term needs of our nation. Let’s lead, rather than follow, in making vital contributions in this historic moment doing what we do best: model critical thinking.
Inside Higher Ed
A New Playbook for Serving Adult Learners
By Sara Weissman
Education Strategy Group, an education consulting firm, has released a new playbook focused on ways colleges and universities can better serve adult learners. The playbook, released this week, includes a self-assessment for state and institutional leaders to determine what strategies they already have in place to support adults and what policy shifts they should prioritize. It also features an “action guide” with a series of steps for improvement in five different categories: increasing accessibility, changing the structure of courses and programs, creating easy-to-navigate advising and administrative systems, collecting relevant data, and building industry and community partnerships. The report emphasizes removing barriers to financial aid for older students, launching campaigns to re-enroll them and designing programs to be flexible for adults juggling other responsibilities, such as work and childcare, among other suggestions.
Inside Higher Ed
ABA Approves First Fully Online Law School
By Marjorie Valbrun
The American Bar Association has approved the first fully online law school in the country, according to AbovetheLaw.com. The approval was granted to St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio in May, and the institution’s leaders are now working to launch the newly accredited online-only J.D. program, AbovetheLaw.com reported.