University System News:
Savannah CEO
USG Foundation Raises More than $625,000 for Need-Based Scholarships
Staff Report
The 17th annual Regents’ Scholarship Gala on Wednesday evening raised more than $625,000 from generous sponsors and a live auction to support and provide need-based scholarships for University System of Georgia (USG) students across the state. Hosted by the USG Foundation, the annual event included Governor Brian P. Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp as well as supporters, donors, alumni, legislators, members of the Board of Regents and presidents from USG’s 26 public colleges and universities. The need-based scholarships funded through the gala will be awarded for the 2021-22 academic year. Each institution’s president selects scholarship recipients at their respective campuses. Over the 17 years it has held this annual event, the USG Foundation has awarded more than $17 million to support the scholarship program, faculty recognition and key USG initiatives.
Gainesville Times
University System of Georgia passes these controversial tenure changes
Ben Anderson
The Times
The University System of Georgia approved changes to its tenure policy Wednesday, and professors all across the state are worried that it weakens due process protections for tenured faculty. The new policy, critics say, nullifies a fundamental principle of tenure: peer review. Now, administrators wield more power to decide the fate of tenured professors.
See also:
Forbes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Highlands College to close Douglas County campus next year
By Eric Stirgus
Georgia Highlands College will close its Douglas County campus at the end of the spring semester, citing an enrollment decline that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The college has worked out a partnership with the University of West Georgia for students interested in continuing their studies and completing their degrees at its campus in Douglasville. The two campuses are about 7 miles from each other and officials from both schools said they offer many similar courses. “It’s important for our students to know that we are going to take care of them,” Georgia Highlands College interim President Dana Nichols said in a joint interview with West Georgia’s president, Brendan Kelly.
Columbus CEO
Columbus State Expands RiverPark Campus with New Welcome Center
Columbus State University unveiled on Thursday its newest space on the RiverPark Campus, the Welcome Center. The space provides an official front door for future Cougars and their families to begin exploring the various academic and co-curricular opportunities the university offers. The newly designed center creates a welcoming space for prospective CSU students to learn more about the university, speak with admissions counselors and begin their tours of uptown-based RiverPark campus.
Americus Times Recorder
GSW voted #1 “Best Place to Work” in Sumter County
By Ken Gustafson
Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) was recently named the “Best Place to Work” in the Americus Times-Recorder’s Best of Sumter 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards after being voted on by the community. …Georgia Southwestern employs just over 375 full-time and part-time faculty and staff. It remains one of the largest employers in Americus, falling behind the Sumter County School System, Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and Magnolia Manor.
Middle Georgia CEO
Two MGA Faculty Accepted Into AASCU’s Global Civic Literacy Initiative
Dr. Laura Thomason, Middle Georgia State University’s provost fellow for international programs, and Dr. Julie Lester, political science professor, have applied and been accepted into the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Global Civic Literacy initiative. The grant-funded initiative aims to increase students’ knowledge of global society and help them understand how global issues influence the lives of everyday citizens. Using the Council on Foreign Relations’ “World 101” curriculum, the Global Civic Literacy project will offer curricular and co-curricular programming to build global literacy at Middle Georgia State (MGA).
Albany Herald
UGA geneticist to receive 2022 McClintock Prize
By Maria M. Lameiras CAES News
University of Georgia plant geneticist Robin Buell has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 McClintock Prize by the Maize Genetics Cooperation Advocacy Committee for her groundbreaking work in plant genome structure, function and evolution.
Augusta CEO
Augusta University: Cyber Attacks are Rising to the Top of American Concerns
Michael Nowatkowski
With the rising occurrence of cyber-attacks across America, institutions, banks, government agencies and top-tier companies are now either falling victim or feeling vulnerable to attack from online enemies abroad. It’s a topic that is now front and center that has most leaders regardless of political party in agreement – and media across the country are starting to cover with more depth and seriousness. …”I am really interested in the security of our critical infrastructure systems,” said Dr. Michael Nowatkowski. “If an attacker were able to shut those systems down, great harm would result. This is a national security issue.” …
Dr. Michael Nowatkowski is an Associate Professor with the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. He also serves as the Head of the Cyber Program of Study.
WGAU Radio
UGA professor weighs in on film workers work stoppage
Strike could begin Monday
By WSB TV
More than 60,000 film and television crew members, including thousands in Georgia, are set to begin a nationwide strike on Monday if a deal isn’t reached for fair and safer working conditions. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees International President Matthew Loeb said Wednesday that the strike would begin at 12:01 a.m. Monday. IATSE union voted last week to allow Loeb to authorize a strike. The union wants an agreement to be reached on rest and meal periods and pay for its lowest-paid workers. Loeb cited a lack of urgency in the pace of negotiations for setting Monday’s strike date. …The strike would shut down production not only in Hollywood but on every TV show and movie filming in Georgia right now. … A metro Atlanta film worker agreed to speak with Channel 2′s Justin Wilfon but requested his name remain anonymous. He says the workers want to get paid more and not be forced to work excessive hours anymore. …Wilfon also spoke with Kate Fortmueller, who is a UGA assistant professor of entertainment and media studies. She said film crews often work 12-to-14 hour days.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton, UGA to host free fruit tree workshop
By Ben Brasch
It’s just about fruit tree planting season in Georgia, and those interested in bearing fruit can register for a Saturday event. Fulton County government along with the University of Georgia extension will help host a workshop at GROWL Garden at Camp Truitt, 4300 Herschel Road in College Park. Instructors at the 11 a.m. event will show participants how to install their own orchard. They’ll review varieties of orchard fruits, basic care and how to get the most out of your harvest, according to a Facebook post from the UGA extension.
Athens Banner-Herald
Where Georgia football coach Kirby Smart ranks in pay nationally and in SEC
Marc Weiszer
Georgia’s Kirby Smart is the head coach of the top-ranked football team, but ranks just fifth among SEC coaches in pay and eighth overall nationally, according to USA Today’s annual salary survey. Smart’s total pay is $7.13 million, up from $6.93 million last year. Alabama’s Nick Saban is the country’s highest paid head coach at $9.75 million followed by LSU’s Ed Orgeron at $9.0 million. The other SEC coaches paid more than Smart are Florida’s Dan Mullen at $7.57 million and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher at $7.5 million. All but Mullen have won national titles as head coaches.
Newswise
Plant-based jet fuel could reduce emissions by 68%
Replacing petroleum-based aviation fuel with sustainable aviation fuel derived from a type of mustard plant can reduce carbon emissions by up to 68%, according to new research from University of Georgia scientist Puneet Dwivedi. Dwivedi led a team that estimated the break-even price and life cycle carbon emissions of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) derived from oil obtained from Brassica carinata, a non-edible oilseed crop. The study was published in GCB Bioenergy.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fully vaccinated UGA student dies from COVID-19 complications
By Eric Stirgus
University of Georgia students and faculty are mourning the death of a student who died this week from an apparent breakthrough COVID-19 case. Shawn Kuhn, 21, a stellar student who loved to play soccer and run cross-country, died Monday after battling pneumonia for six weeks. He had been fully vaccinated, said his older sister, Sharla Brook Kuhn, according to a report Thursday by The Red & Black, UGA’s student newspaper. As of Wednesday, Georgia had 63,298 breakthrough COVID-19 cases reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health. There have been 6,617 deaths nationally among those with a COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection, according to federal data. Nearly 719,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After worst of the pandemic, hospitals breathe sigh of relief
By Yamil Berard and Willoughby Mariano
Hospitalizations are down in nearly every corner of the state but clinicians remain watchful of a winter surge
Amid the brutal late summer surge of the coronavirus, Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Augusta University Medical Center, too many times had to do the unthinkable — turn away a patient. Like most other clinicians around the state, he didn’t have enough room at his hospital. Then, he got the call: An adolescent COVID-19 patient at a rural hospital was on the verge of death. Coule used telemedicine to get to the boy’s bedside and direct advanced care until a bed opened up in Augusta. “That resulted in us being able to save a life,” he said. Hospitals around the state spent harrowing weeks in crisis mode, turning conference rooms into ICUs, postponing some surgeries and calling on frontline workers to take on extra shifts. Now, though, the number of COVID-19 patients in Georgia hospitals has plunged 66%, down to 2,046 Thursday from a record high of 6,040 on Sept. 7. Over the next few weeks, that trend is likely to continue, according to the U.S. Centers for Prevention and Disease Control. That will make it less likely that hospitals will have to turn away patients in need.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 14)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,249,205
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 23,680 | 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:
Inside Higher Ed
Colleges With Federal Contracts Consider Biden Vaccine Order
Penn State may be among the first institutions to announce it will require COVID-19 vaccination for employees due to Biden administration order requiring vaccination for federal contractors.
By Elizabeth Redden
Pennsylvania State University announced this week that it would require all employees at its flagship University Park campus to submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 vaccination by Dec. 8 to comply with President Joe Biden’s order mandating vaccination for federal contractors. More than 700 universities have already announced vaccine mandates for employees, according to a tracker maintained by The Chronicle of Higher Education. But Penn State — which previously had resisted mandating COVID-19 vaccination for employees or students — may be among the first institutions to link an employee vaccination mandate to Biden’s Sept. 9 order requiring vaccination for federal contractors. The requirement for federal contractors, which allows for exemptions on medical or religious grounds, has expansive implications for universities that hold contracts with the U.S. government. Peter McDonough, vice president and general counsel for the American Council on Education and lead author of an issue brief on this topic, said it “potentially affects all corners of campus even if somebody working in a particular office or building wouldn’t themselves ever be thought of as supporting federal contract work on that campus. The guidance is intended to essentially say, ‘If there’s any chance whatsoever that someone on campus can come into contact with someone who is working directly or indirectly on a federal contract, that person needs to be vaccinated as well.’”
See also:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Penn State and Delaware Will Require Covid Vaccines for Staff Under Biden Rule. Could More Be Next?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Way We Classify Colleges Is All Wrong
It’s time to do away with obsolete categories like ‘R1.’
By Michael M. Crow and Jeffrey J. Selingo
We talk a lot about “college” in the United States, but we struggle to agree on what exactly the word even means. This isn’t a new problem. As enrollments exploded in the 1960s, Clark Kerr, then president of the University of California system, wanted a better way to define colleges. Describing them as public or private, two-year or four-year, religious or nonsectarian, Kerr believed, was insufficient because it grouped together institutions that had little in common. So in the early 1970s, Kerr, as director of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, developed a classification system to better define the thousands of colleges and universities across the country. It was an attempt to take into account what he saw as the key point: All colleges are not the same. That is exactly right. And it’s not because some colleges are inherently better or worse than others; it’s because they have different goals and play different roles — or at least they should. Unfortunately, the system we’ve used for almost half a century to categorize colleges creates perverse incentives for institutions to chase prestige and mimic what other institutions are doing. This stifles innovation and leads to high costs that must be paid by students and taxpayers.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Fewer College Presidents Are Hired With Faculty Input. Here’s Why That Matters.
By Megan Zahneis
In the latest blow to shared governance, faculty participation in presidential searches has dropped for the first time in 100 years, according to a survey by the American Association of University Professors. Eighty-eight percent of institutions whose faculty leaders were surveyed this year by the AAUP had faculty members serve on the most recent presidential-search committee. That’s down from 93 percent in 2001, when the AAUP conducted its last governance survey. That’s not a staggering drop, but it’s a “sobering” one, said Hans-Joerg Tiede, the author of a report on the new survey, considering that faculty representation — understood as a “universal feature” of a presidential-search committee — had climbed each time since the AAUP first measured it, in 1920. “This may well be the beginning of a retreat for faculty participating in presidential searches,” he said.