USG e-clips for September 29, 2021

University System News:

Athens CEO

ABAC & UGA Awarded Grant to Direct More Veterinarians to Rural South Georgia

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has been awarded a three-year $297,000 collaborative grant with the University of Georgia (UGA) Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory (TVDIL) to encourage more veterinary medicine students to practice in rural South Georgia. Activities will center around student recruitment, retention, and experiential learning at the UGA diagnostic lab aimed at increasing the overall number of underrepresented and rural undergraduate students qualified to apply to veterinary medicine programs. Dr. Matthew Anderson, Dean of the ABAC School of Arts and Sciences, serves as the director for the project.

Columbus CEO

CSU’s Bova Earns High Praise at Knoxville Film Festival

The latest feature film from Columbus State University’s Adam Bova was recently honored at the Knoxville Film Festival. Bova, who served as assistant director and a producer for A Place Called Home, is an assistant professor in CSU’s Department of Communication. The film tells the story of a grieving husband learning to raise his two young children alone after the death of his wife. After being forced to borrow money from a ruthless loan shark, Levi must fight to save his family and his home. A Place Called Home won Audience Favorite in the Narrative Feature category and won second place overall in the Narrative Feature Film category at the festival. The film was also a finalist in the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and was in the final round for the Dances with Film Festival.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia State University preparing a home for 10 million photographs

By Bo Emerson

An amateur’s snapshot of a tragic Eastern Airlines plane crash in the Clayton County woods; a journalist’s image of John Kennedy’s stump speech on an Atlanta stage; a commercial photographer’s black and white portrait of the inside of the 1950s Varsity, wall-to-wall with hungry customers. The visual history of Atlanta is packed into boxes and stored in three different locations at Georgia State University, an archive of 10 million photographs, slides, negatives, videotape and movie film.

Savannah CEO

Georgia Southern celebrates ‘40 Under 40’ Class of 2021

The Georgia Southern University Alumni Association “40 Under 40” Class of 2021 was recognized at a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 24, at the JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District. The annual honor recognizes young alumni who have made significant strides in business, leadership, community, educational or philanthropic endeavors. Retired Army Lt. Gen. and alumnus Leslie Smith (‘85) first welcomed the group.

The Augusta Chronicle

National faculty organization expresses concern about proposed tenure changes by USG

Abraham Kenmore

A threat to tenure and academic freedom – that’s what the national faculty organization American Association of University Professors called the proposed changes to post-tenure review put forward by the regents of the University System of Georgia. On Friday, the AAUP made their concerns formal by sending a letter to Matthew Boedy, president of the Georgia AAUP, and an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia. The proposed changes to post-tenure review, included in the minutes of the Sept. 9 meeting of the Board of Regents and up for consideration during the October meeting, caused an outcry by faculty. Across USG, tenured faculty already go through a review process every five years, where they are evaluated on their teaching, research and service. Those who do not pass are put on improvement plans and can, ultimately, be dismissed if they fail it.

WTOC

Georgia Southern professor says not all faculty want mask mandate

By Dal Cannady

There were protests on college campuses across Georgia, including on Georgia Southern’s Statesboro and Armstrong campuses, as many professors want mask requirements. But another group of faculties say those colleagues don’t speak for them. In the wake of professors statewide protesting and demanding a mask mandate on campuses, one educator said she speaks for another segment of the faculty who want things to stay the same. She said it’s less about masks and more about mandates. …Christina Lemon says she and a different portion of faculty don’t want a mandate. She believes people should be able to choose.

WRBL

Columbus DPH coalition going into the community with survey on vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19

by: Maxsim Ealy

Columbus Department of Public Health (DPH), Columbus State University, and the City of Columbus are partnering to do a community survey on the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine hesitancy. Volunteers will be going door to door in ZIP codes 31903 and 31907 from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 and 30 with 20 question surveys. The goal is to check in on community members that may have bought into myths about vaccines, understanding the remaining issues around vaccine hesitancy, and answering any questions people may have around the pandemic and vaccine.

Inside Higher Ed

Live Updates: Latest News on COVID-19 and Higher Education

By IHE Staff

Acting Georgia Chancellor Defends Policies

Sept. 10, 6:25 a.m. The acting chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Teresa MacCartney, on Thursday defended policies that have been sharply criticized by faculty members, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The system is barring mandates on face masks in classrooms and also vaccine mandates. The system has talked about punishing professors who attempt to enforce a mask mandate in their classroom.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia State professors: Stop treating faculty as collateral damage in COVID

Get Schooled with Maureen Downey

GSU faculty warn failure to mandate masks damages University System’s reputation

Faculty at public colleges across Georgia are speaking out against the refusal by the Board of Regents to require masks. The 19 Regents, who are political appointees, align with Gov. Brian Kemp, who encourages students to mask, but opposes any requirement that they do so. This statement about the Regents’ policy is from the American Association of University Professors at Georgia State University. The GSU chapter of the organization, a nonprofit membership association of faculty and other academic professionals, has 37 members. The GSU chapter writes: As the delta variant fuels the fourth and most virulent surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, those 18 to 29 years old are for the first time being hit hard.

hypepotamus

Gt Biomedical Engineering Grad Launches First Consumer Product During World Contraception Day

by Maija Ehlinger

Sammie Hasen’s passion for entrepreneurship and consumer products started well before joining Georgia Tech’s accelerator Create-X. As an “idea maker,” Hasen said she dabbled in entrepreneurship with a t-shirt brand early in her early teens before heading to Georgia Tech to study biomedical engineering.  While at tech, Hasen found her passion for feminine technology, menstrual products, and sexual wellness products but recognized one critical flaw: The space lacked women and ‘uterus owners’ in decision-making positions. “I was frustrated to see that the people designing these products had absolutely zero chance of ever using them…they didn’t know these characteristic design flaws that any user would know, and they were just building products that weren’t working,” Hasen told Hypepotamus. She launched Medsur as a college sophomore and started working on its first consumer-facing product, BCase, in May of 2020.

Daily Mail

Aussies claim silver at ‘Robot Olympics’

By Australian Associated Press

A technically brilliant team led by Australia’s national science agency has kicked NASA’s butt in a global challenge deep inside the bowels of the Earth. The CSIRO-led team has claimed silver at an event participants think of as the ‘Robot Olympics’, an epic three-year competition that has just concluded in a vast old limestone mine in the US state of Kentucky. The Subterranean Challenge asks robotics experts to come up with novel approaches to map, navigate and search underground environments hostile to humans. Alongside the glory, there was $US1 million ($AUD1.37 million) in prize money. …The team involved experts from the CSIRO, its spin-out robotics company, Emesent, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Georgia Virtue

New Breed Of Spiders Wash Over Northern Georgia

By Collin Elder, Class of 2023

The wide mountains of the lower Appalachia teem with insects and arthropods of a wide variety. Lately, however, a new breed of spider has invaded the forests and lawns of the Georgian north. Jorō spiders, a species of orb weaver spider that hailed from Asiatic countries like China and Japan, now dominates the homes of Georgians. But what are these new components of the ecosystem? Christopher Brown, Ph.D. and professor of biology at Georgia Gwinnett College, weighs in with the facts. Brown specializes in both zoology and animal behavior and offers a solid voice on the topic. When asked about the dangers of Jorō spiders, Brown states these simple but important facts. “All spiders are venomous, it’s how they paralyze their prey and dissolve their insides, letting them feed,” he explained.  “But Jorō venom isn’t harmful to people.

Sports Illustrated

Georgia Southern Player Apologizes After Chugging Beer on Top of Team Bus

NICK SELBE

In the words of EDM duo LMFAO, sorry for party rocking. That’s the tone that Georgia Southern defensive lineman Gavin Adcock took on Monday when he apologized for his pre-game actions prior to Saturday’s 28-20 loss to Louisiana. Before the game, Adcock could be seen standing atop the team bus as it maneuvered its way through fans near the Allen E. Paulson Stadium. One fan throws Adcock a beer, and he proceeds to chug it much to the approval of the onlooking crowd. The day after the loss, Georgia Southern athletic director Jared Benko announced the firing of head coach Chad Lunsford. On Monday, Benko announced that Adcock had been suspended indefinitely for his actions, prompting an apology from Adcock on Twitter. …”I want to reach out and express my deepest apology for my foolish actions on the bus this past Saturday,” Adcock’s statement read. “…What I did was very selfish and is not what we are about here at Georgia Southern.

WJCL

Police: Victim reports rape at Georgia Southern University’s Paulson Stadium

According to the police report, the incident took place in the stadium parking lot.

Graham Cawthon, Digital Media Manager

Police at Georgia Southern University say a rape was reported at Paulson Stadium. The incident was reported to police the evening of September 20. According to the police report, the incident reportedly took place in the stadium parking lot.

Other News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Sept. 28)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

CONFIRMED CASES: 1,216,039

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 22,228 | 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

Atlanta-area school districts continue to report decreases in COVID cases

By Susan Hogan

The number of COVID-19 cases recorded by metro Atlanta school continues to drop — in some cases for the fifth consecutive week, according to the latest data reports. The state’s two largest school districts recorded the highest totals in the metro area last week. Gwinnett County Public Schools documented 548 cases while the Cobb County School District recorded 394. But those numbers were more than 50% lower than case counts reached in late August.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett parents argue against school mask mandate in court

By Alia Malik

A Gwinnett County Superior Court judge will rule in about a month at the earliest on four parents’ request for an injunction to void the mask mandate in Georgia’s largest school system. Justin and Meghann Verrier, Margaret Rudnick, and Holly Terei filed Aug. 30 in Gwinnett County Superior Court. The defendants are Gwinnett County Public Schools and Superintendent Calvin Watts.

Higher Education News:

Albany Herald

Policy analysts differ on outlook of Georgia’s education funding

By Nyamekye Daniel | The Center Square

A group of policy analysts says Georgia has fallen short of funding students’ needs across the state, while others say the state’s schools have more than they need. A recent report by the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI) said Georgia has not fully funded schools despite budget increases. The GBPI estimated the state owes school districts $1.1 billion. “Though state funding might have increased year-to-year and schools were provided federal relief money, schools have not been given what they need to provide students a world-class education – nor to keep children safe during an ever-changing worldwide pandemic,” GBPI Senior Policy Analyst Stephen Owens said. Gov. Brian Kemp instructed all state government offices to reduce spending by 4% during the amended fiscal year 2020 budget process and 10% from the fiscal year 2021 budget. However, during the 2021 amended fiscal year budget process, the state restored 60% of its cuts to education.

The Washington Post

The post-pandemic future of college? It’s on campus and online.

Students are back, but their classes are a remarkable mix of in person and virtual

By Nick Anderson

Wearing a mask and Birkenstocks as he roved the classroom one afternoon, associate professor John Delacruz sought to rev up his students for an assignment in advertising design. They were each to create a poster defining an artist’s brand through color, font and other elements of text. …He broke them up into small groups to talk it over. But some weren’t physically there. They were tuning in from afar through Zoom. That is the new reality at San José State University and elsewhere in higher education a year and a half after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered campuses across America. …Despite the hoopla this fall over the return to campus, what was considered a normal academic routine at many colleges and universities is gone. In its place is emerging a remarkable blend of teaching methods that are face-to-face, online or a hybrid of the two. This trend, born of necessity earlier in the pandemic, may outlast it.

Forbes

Student Loan Forgiveness Won’t Be Available To These Borrowers

Zack Friedman, Senior Contributor

Student loan forgiveness won’t be available to these student loan borrowers. Here’s what you need to know.

Student Loans

If there is more student loan forgiveness, it’s clear who it will help. Democrats in Congress and President Joe Biden agree that there should be wide-scale student loan forgiveness. However, they disagree on at least two points on student loan cancellation. First, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) want up to $50,000 of student loans cancelled, Biden wants up to $10,000 of student loans forgiven. Second, Warren and Schumer want Biden to issue an executive order for student loan forgiveness. However, Biden says Congress must cancel student loans because he doesn’t believe he has the legal authority to cancel student loan debt for every student loan borrower. Despite these differences, if there is any student loan forgiveness, Congress and Biden could agree that the following student loan borrowers won’t qualify for student loan cancellation. Here’s who could be excluded from wide-scale student loan forgiveness: