University System News:
Times-Georgian
Dan Minish
University of West Georgia President Brendan Kelly applauds as local state governmental officials, community leaders, alumni, members of the family of the Roy Richards Sr., and friends of the university gathered outside the new Roy Richards College of Business on Friday afternoon to dedicate Richards Hall.
Valdosta Daily Times
By Terry Richards
A college fair is coming to Valdosta High School Tuesday, Oct. 26. The Probe College Fair allows students and their parents to meet representatives of many colleges and universities. It is part of the Probe College Fair Tour, which sponsors similar events around Georgia, according to a statement from Probe. The program is managed by the Georgia Education Articulation Committee, which encourages students to pursue higher education, according to the Probe website. …Colleges and universities planning to take part at the VHS fair include: 22 of our institutions
WALB
20 GSW freshmen selected for Pres. Jimmy Carter Leadership Program
By Kim McCullough
Twenty freshmen from Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) has been selected to participate in the President Jimmy Carter Leadership Program. The program was established to honor the legacy of GSW alumnus and former US President Jimmy Carter. The students are from Georgia, Alabama, and, Florida and are the third group to enter the program since it started in 2019.
WRDW
More local med students interested in studying public health
By Will Volk
Since the start of the pandemic, the Medical College of Georgia has seen more students interested in studying public health. A survey of MCG students shows close to 60% have a stronger interest in public health. Dr. Rodger MacArthur has been teaching and studying infectious diseases for more than thirty years. …He says COVID is making more students at the Medical College of Georgia interested in this.
NewsBreak
SRNS engineers share expertise with educators, college students
The Post and Courier
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions engineers are volunteers in Augusta University’s WORCshop@AU program, an effort to recruit new students into nuclear science programs and eventually into the nuclear workforce. The program is funded through the Workforce Opportunities in Regional Careers (WORC) II grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration and…
Patch
The campaign was a collaboration between Georgia State University Perimeter College and honors students at the high school, and was supported by statewide initiative called College-Adopt-A-School, funded through a $117, 500 grant from the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the opioid authority in Georgia. As part of the grant, Georgia State Newton Campus students mentored the high school students to develop a drug awareness program at the school. The program was aimed at making them more comfortable about talking about the dangers of opioid abuse.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As Georgia faces labor shortage, lawmakers consider solutions from immigrant advocates
By Lautaro Grinspan
A bipartisan group of lawmakers studies barriers holding immigrants back from labor force
In Georgia and throughout the country, the pace of the post-COVID economic recovery has been slowed by a persistent challenge: labor shortages. Earlier this month, the state’s labor commissioner told the AJC the situation is unprecedented: “We have never had this many jobs sitting open.” As those shortages drag on, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been meeting to learn about ways Georgia immigrants could be part of the solution, and more fully contribute to the state’s economy. The Georgia House Study Committee on Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent — led by chairman Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock — was greenlighted by a unanimous vote during the 2021 legislative session. …
Barriers and solutions
Among the recommendations lawmakers repeatedly heard was the need to expand immigrants’ access to education in public colleges. Advocates said this could be achieved by urging the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia to be more flexible in its recognition of education credentials earned abroad, and move away from requirements to present diplomas or original copies of transcripts, which some immigrants and refugees don’t have ready access to.
New Atlas
More-effective vaccination tech is built around a barbecue lighter
By Ben Coxworth
Although a technology known as electroporation is very effective at delivering DNA-based vaccines, the required equipment tends to be bulky, complex and expensive. Now, however, scientists have shown that a converted barbecue lighter is capable of doing the job. In a nutshell, electroporation involves delivering an electrical current to the vaccine injection site on a patient’s body, causing the cell walls in that area to temporarily destabilize and become more permeable. This allows a greater number of DNA molecules to pass into the cells than would be possible via hypodermic injection alone, producing much more of an immune response. Unfortunately, though, the procedure is typically performed using machines that are relatively hefty and costly, limiting how widely it can be performed. Seeking a cheaper and more portable alternative, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia’s Emory University looked to the humble barbecue lighter.
Savannah Morning News
Black gill parasite causes fall harvest declines in Georgia White Shrimp
Laura Nwogu
From September to December every year, Coastal Georgia shrimpers head to waters for Georgia White Shrimp season. This year, though, there is cause for concern. Even as the autumn leaves are falling, so are their shrimp harvests. The source: black gill, a parasitic infection that reduces half their hauls. “We’re losing somewhere around, statewide, one to two million pounds of shrimp to black gill in the late summer, early fall,” said Mike Sullivan, a shrimper for more than 50 years who has served on the Coastal Advisory Council. “There’s basically nothing that can be done about it.” …“We’re losing somewhere around, statewide, one to two million pounds of shrimp to black gill in the late summer, early fall,” said Mike Sullivan, a shrimper for more than 50 years who has served on the Coastal Advisory Council. “There’s basically nothing that can be done about it.”
What is black gill?
Black gill is a condition that, as the name suggests, blackens the gills of shrimp. The melanization of the tissue is the shrimp’s immune response to an offending invader or toxin. …Although black gill is not detrimental to humans, it can be fatal to shrimp. A damaged gill means less oxygen for the shrimp and less energy, leading the shrimp to be easy prey for predators, which leads to declining shrimp harvests. Researcher Marc Frischer, a University of Georgia Skidaway Institute professor, said it took six years of research to discover that the offending invader is a ciliate, or single-celled organism, that has been named Hyalophysa lynni and attacks the shrimp’s ability to make oxygen.
The News & Observer
‘Ugly’ mud may hold key to saving vital ecosystems off Georgia, Carolinas coastlines
By Sammy Fretwell
Seen from above, the salt marsh on the backside of Jekyll Island looks healthy, green and vibrant, its spartina grass rippling in the Georgia breeze. But a closer look reveals a nasty scar covering a section of once-thriving marsh. The federal government smothered five acres of the tideland in 2019 when it pumped black muck from a nearby dredging project onto the watery savanna. …In this case, key unanswered questions are how fast marsh grasses that were buried when mud was pumped on top of them will grow back at the higher elevation — if at all — and whether animals important to the food chain will return. …This year, scientists from the University of South Carolina, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Southern University have been monitoring the five acres of Jekyll Island salt marsh to see if there are signs of recovery since the marsh was coated with mud two years ago.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former DeKalb DA turned professor: College degree only as good as faculty backing it.
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
J. Tom Morgan warns Georgia Board of Regents may drive off top faculty
DeKalb County’s district attorney for 12 years, J. Tom Morgan is now a criminal law professor at Western Carolina University. Morgan led the 2002 prosecution and conviction of ex DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey for the assassination of Derwin Brown, a reform-minded law challenger who defeated Dorsey in an election two years earlier for the sheriff’s job. In this guest column on the Board of Regents, the appointed body that oversees Georgia’s public campuses, Morgan draws on earlier achievements in his life. As a student, Morgan served as student body president of two colleges in the University System of Georgia. including the University of Georgia. Those roles brought him into close contact with the Regents and involved him in the campaign to attract and keep top professors in Georgia. Morgan now fears those efforts are being undone by the current Board of Regents in its response to COVID-19 on campuses and its attack on tenure.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In campus COVID battles, veteran professors lead the charge
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Politicization of COVID could damage standing of Georgia’s public colleges
In most wars, the young are dispatched to the front lines. That’s not the case in the battle between state leadership and public college faculty over COVID-19 safety measures in Georgia. Those risking their careers to fight for stronger protections tend to be veteran professors. Shielded in part by tenure, their ability to find work elsewhere and their academic firepower, established professors are leading the charge against irresponsible and politically driven COVID-19 safety policies of the Board of Regents and University System of Georgia. The USG does not allow its institutions to enact mask or vaccine mandates but encourages vaccinations and the wearing of masks indoors. Georgia’s masking laxity isolates it from neighboring states, most of which are Republican led. The flagship universities in Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina require masks in classrooms. Among the more than 1,000 U.S. campuses with some mandatory vaccine policy are Emory University, Agnes Scott College, Oglethorpe University, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College.
13WMAZ
1 dead, 7 injured in mass shooting at off-campus party near FVSU
Fort Valley State says its homecoming parade, which was scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, has been canceled.
One person is dead and seven others are injured after an overnight shooting in Fort Valley. The GBI says it happened at an off-campus party near Fort Valley State University at 603 Carver Drive — about two blocks off campus. Peach County Coroner Kerry Rooks says 27-year-old Tyler French died around 3 a.m. Saturday. The GBI says French did not attend Fort Valley State, but the university says some students attended the party. None of them have life-threatening injuries.
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
Shooting at Fort Valley State Homecoming Party Kills 1, Wounds 7
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 22)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,257,310
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 24,357 | 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
Studies Estimate Vaccine Refusal Rates Among Students
By Elizabeth Redden
Two new literature reviews estimating COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rates among college students globally find that about 18.9 percent of students and trainees studying in health-care fields, and 22 percent of students studying non-health-care-related fields, resist vaccination.
Inside Higher Ed
To Thank or Not to Thank: Students in Divestment Fight
Experts say crediting students for their climate advocacy is wise. But institutions tend to minimize the role campus activists may have played in helping them decide to divest from fossil fuels.
By Emma Whitford
When Vassar College announced earlier this month that its investment policy will now consider environmental, social and governance factors, the private institution in New York made clear that it does not hold any direct investments in fossil fuels and will not make such investments in the future. …Vassar is one of many institutions that have pulled away from fossil fuels in recent months. In 2021 alone, dozens of institutions have taken the plunge to divest from the industry, often following years of student and employee activism. These investment decisions are typically trumpeted via a letter from the president or board chairman, and many thank the institutional leaders and committees that created the policies. While many voices and factors contribute to an institution’s decision to divest, one group is seldom credited as the catalyst: student activists.