University System News:
Georgia Trend
Georgia State University receives grant for brain research
Mary Ann DeMuth
The National Science Foundation’s Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program has awarded Georgia State University a five-year, $5 million grant. The Atlanta-based university will use the funds to establish the Center for Dynamic Multiscale and Multimodal Brain Mapping Over the Lifespan (D-MAP) that will focus on brain development, structure and connectivity from childhood to late life. D-MAP is one of only five CREST centers funded across the nation this year. The investment recognizes the university’s strength in brain research and its minority-serving capabilities. The new center will engage K-12 students from diverse backgrounds with short courses and research internships while providing research opportunities for undergraduate students at Georgia State, Morehouse College and Spelman College. Students will gain the skills needed for the future science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce from faculty members in 10 Georgia State departments.
yahoo!news
Dalton State College students gain grad school knowledge during fair
Ryan Anderson, The Daily Citizen
After Dalton State College’s graduate and professional school fair was held virtually last year due to COVID-19, attendees were grateful for the face-to-face interactions Wednesday as the fair returned to in-person on campus. “I can learn virtually, but I’m a very face-to-face person, and having (this event) face to face made a big difference,” said psychology major Esther James. “I was able to talk on a personal level” with representatives from universities located throughout the Southeast, and “it was a lot more personal” than a virtual conference. …Dalton State’s Career and Professional Development department holds this fair annually, and it’s open both to current Roadrunners and alumni, said Mallory Safely, assistant director for Career and Professional Development.
CR80News
North Georgia sees cost savings from new copy/print system
By: Andrew Hudson
The University of North Georgia is seeing the financial benefit from moving to a new, managed copy/print system. In the few short months since launch, the university has reported saving more than $1,200 and the equivalent of 1.6 trees worth of unclaimed print jobs since making the switch in August. According to an official university release, the new managed print system is saving UNG money by changing the way students call up print jobs. With the managed copy/print system, students now send their print job to the printing queue, and then swipe their Nighthawk ID card or enter their network login and password to select their job from the queue.
Gainesville Times
3 takeaways on the state of education from Hall, Gainesville school and university leaders
Ben Anderson
Local education leaders spoke during a panel discussion Monday about the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growing America
Jobs Available for ABAC Writing & Communication Graduates
The demand for employees with good media and communication skills will grow faster than average during this decade, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, produced by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Dr. Wendy Harrison, Chair of the Department of English and Communication at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, said this is great news for the graduates of the ABAC bachelor’s degree in Writing and Communication.
WSB-TV
Missing former Georgia Southern standout located after hours of running from police
A former Georgia Southern football standout who disappeared days ago has been found. John Wesley Kennedy’s family reported him missing to Savannah police and Garden City police around 1:30 p.m. Sunday. …Officials reported Tuesday night that officers spotted Kennedy in the Savannah landfill off of Dean Forest Road around 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday. When they tried to help him, Kennedy ran off into the woods. He was located a second time by a Garden City police officer at 9:00 p.m. at Dean Forest Road and Sunshine Avenue in Garden City.
Patch
Savannah Area Chamber: UGA Small Business Development Center Receives Grant From Truist Foundation
The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center received a $42,000 grant from the Truist Foundation to establish an entrepreneurship academy. The Truist Entrepreneurship Academy will be a two-year training and development program designed to support small business owners and entrepreneurs. Through a series of eight modules, participants will be guided through topics necessary to grow a successful business.
EurekAlert!
UC professor provides insight on disaster preparedness
Research aims to offer cost-effective solutions, reduce suffering
With hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic and more, the world has seen a multitude of natural disasters recently. Research by University of Cincinnati professor Michael J. Fry that published in the Annals of Operations Research has provided insight into how the government and relief organizations could best prepare to respond to disasters, providing aid in an efficient and cost-effective manner while reducing human suffering. …Fry has worked alongside Muer Yang and Sameer Kumar from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and Xinfang Wang from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia, for several years on research into “robust optimization” — how you think about decision making under uncertain circumstances. Prior to looking at disaster preparedness, they applied their research to voting applications.
The Augusta Chronicle
Top Augusta University researcher resigns amid allegations, denies wrongdoing
Tom Corwin
A top Augusta University researcher has resigned after allegations of misusing university property for his own gain, which he denies, according to documents obtained by The Augusta Chronicle. Dr. Jin-Xiong She resigned his position as director of the Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine effective Sept. 30 as part of a settlement with the university in which he admitted to no wrongdoing, according to a copy obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act. She also terminated the agreement between his company, Jinfiniti Precision Medicine Inc., and the university and agreed to move out of incubator space in the Interdisciplinary Research Building no later than the end of this month, documents showed. In the settlement agreement dated Aug. 24, the university said it had “become aware of information that may support allegations of violations of multiple policies and guidelines of AU by the Employee, to include but not limited to the policies governing use of AU and state property for personal gain, misuse and false statements with regard to outside professional activity and work commitment obligations, dishonesty, undisclosed conflicts of interest” and other allegations “all of which are denied by the employee.”
Article also appeared in:
MSN
Top Augusta University researcher resigns amid allegations, denies wrongdoing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Black professor in ‘The Chair’ is woke. And that awakens her students
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia State professor: To reach everyone, whiteness can’t be center of everything
Dr. Jessie L. Adolph is an associate professor of English at Georgia State University-Perimeter College. In this guest column, Adolph addresses the teaching of critical race theory, which has become a hot-button issue in America and in Georgia. As a media literacy specialist and researcher, Adolph has focused on inner-city marginalized dads and the mainstream narrative of African-American fatherhood. Today, Adolph explains how professors of color are using elements of the theory to reach marginalized students, including at the fictitious campus depicted in the popular Netflix series “The Chair.”
By Jessie L. Adolph
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 19)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,254,261
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 24,053 | 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:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What’s a College Degree Worth?
The imperfect science and contested methods of measuring the return on investment of college.
By Scott Carlson
Higher education’s data crunchers have increasingly been training their sights on the postgraduation career path. It’s an often-unpredictable trajectory shaped by students’ aspirations, talents, and backgrounds, by economic conditions, and by institutions’ effectiveness as launching pads. What can earnings data tell us, about which institutions, which disciplines, and which individual academic programs give students the best chances of earning money? No shortage of organizations have been trying to figure that out, many of them drawing on data submitted for the College Scorecard, a tool that was developed by the Obama administration and that, two years ago, started including earnings for individual academic departments. That data collection offers transparency to college students and their families, advocates argue, and many hope it will hold colleges accountable for the performance of their graduates.
Inside Higher Ed
Education Dept. Releases Resource on Student Mental Health
By Alexis Gravely
The U.S. Department of Education released a new resource Tuesday for educators and practitioners on supporting students’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, including seven specific recommendations. The recommendations apply across education settings, though evidence on their impacts in higher education is still limited, the department noted.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Domestic Graduate Enrollment Increases, International Students Decline
Lois Elfman
Domestic demand for U.S. graduate schools has not diminished due to the pandemic. According to a Council of Graduate Schools report released last week, also sponsored by the Graduate Record Examinations Board, graduate applications increased 7.3% from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and first-time graduate enrollment increased by 1.8%. While international graduate first-time enrollment declined 37.4%, domestic enrollment grew 12.9%, partly driven by students in traditionally underrepresented populations. First-time, part-time graduate enrollment increased 13.5%.