University System News:
WGAU Radio
UGA Honors College named for Morehead
Ribbon cutting on Herty Field
By Tim Bryant
There’s been a ribbon cutting at the University of Georgia, where a building that bears the name of UGA president Jere Morehead has been dedicated: the Jere Morehead Honors College is on Herty Field. It’s named for the president who was, from 1999 through 2004, the director of the University’s Honors Program.
From UGA Today…
The dedication of the University of Georgia’s Jere W. Morehead Honors College was celebrated on Thursday, September 30, with a ribbon-cutting on the steps of Moore Hall, facing Herty Field. The event was attended by current and emeriti trustees of the UGA Foundation, as well as the acting chancellor, former chancellor and several members of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
11Alive
GA Tech lectures helping Hispanic students grow STEM career (Video)
Georgia Tech is running a lecture series to guide Latino and Hispanic students on growing their careers in STEM.
Valdosta Daily Times
Social work students intern in criminal justice system
Public defender offers opportunity to VSU students
by Brittanye Blake
Unlike public defenders offices in counties throughout the state, counties in the Southern Judicial Circuit do not have the budget to employ social workers. Wade Krueger, circuit public defender for Southern Judicial Circuit, developed the idea to connect with Valdosta State University’s master of social work program to ensure clients can meet basic needs and receive essential services. Krueger presented the idea to Dr. Josephine Chaumba, master of social work program director, earlier this year. Fall 2021, the public defender’s office began serving as a placement for master of social work students to meet the field practicum requirement.
WGAU Radio
UGA’s Native American Institute gets gift
Will fund scholarships for Native American students at the University
By Alan Flurry, UGA Today and Alan Flurry, UGA Today
The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Institute for Native American Studies has received a gift to recruit and support scholarships for Native American students at the university. The gift by UGA alumnus Chris Goeckel is designed to bring graduate students from across the United States to study at UGA and to promote the importance of the Native American Studies curriculum for the campus community. The UGA Institute of Native American Studies (INAS) is one of few such programs in the Southeast. The program allows students to add a certificate demonstrating expertise in Native American Studies alongside tradition disciplines and majors. The UGA campus, located in proximity to the Oconee National Forest, the Chattahoochee River, and the Qualla Boundary – the federally recognized home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is well-situated to educate students about the old homelands of Southeastern Native peoples.
Atlanta In town Paper
Visa to open new Midtown office, add nearly 1,000 new jobs
by Collin Kelley
Credit card and financial services company Visa will open a new office in Midtown creating almost 1,000 new jobs. Visa will take over the old Norfolk Southern space at 1200 Peachtree St. with the office concentrating on technology and client services teams. Several global and regional company leaders will be re-locate to Atlanta to support its employee base, according to a press release. …Visa said it was committed to investing in skills development and training for local talent and technical experts by partnering with the Georgia Fintech Academy and other regional colleges and universities on student engagement, early-career recruiting, education and mentorship programs. Visa will also collaborate with the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech to support entrepreneurs creating solutions for payments, financial services, and commerce.
Gwinnett Daily Post
Congressional Agricultural Fellowships at UGA create leaders
By Caroline Hinton CAES News
For more than 20 years, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has encouraged students to explore an important, yet often overlooked, side of Georgia’s leading industry. Since its creation in 1997, the Congressional Agricultural Fellowship has offered 123 students a first-hand look into the world of agricultural policy by placing them in legislative offices located in the nation’s capital. Each summer, a handful of CAES students moves to Delta Hall in Washington, D.C., to represent the college and serve as agricultural liaisons in Georgia’s congressional offices. Regardless of when these students served as Ag Fellows, there is a universal agreement among them: The experience is instrumental to personal and professional growth.
Gwinnett Daily Post
Student diversity at UGA extends to campus life
By Maria M. Lameiras CAES News
Recruiting a diverse student body is a focus throughout the University of Georgia, but keeping students engaged and successful once they are on campus is a whole different mission, Lakecia Pettway, director of the Office of Diversity Affairs at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said. Pettway leads the college’s efforts to identify, develop and implement resources to enhance the college’s efforts to create a climate of diversity and inclusion. The Office of Diversity Affairs focuses on the student experience in the college, specifically retaining diverse students through tailored programming and support services.
Tifton Gazette
Prof digs into past for ABAC lecture
By Davis Cobb
As the opener for its new Jess Usher Lecture Series, Dr. Sandra Giles, professor of English and communication, will delve into the life of one of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s most well-known presidents. The lecture is scheduled for 7 p.m., Oct. 7, in ABAC’s Howard Auditorium. The lecture, titled “Mr. Pete and the Baldwin Story,” takes a look at the tenure of George P. Donaldson, from his start as one of ABAC’s professors of English in 1933 to his presidency in 1947 and his retirement in 1961. Giles, a faculty member of ABAC since 1997, has a connection to the college that goes further back than her time as a professor or student and believes this lecture is a great way to remember the history of the school.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech-based researchers working to develop detection, treatment tools for ovarian cancer
(Video)
The Daily Mail
By Pat Hagan
…Researchers at Georgia Southern University in the US recruited 145 students and split them into two groups. Both were given plates of cheese crackers to nibble but half were told to stop and take a picture first. Immediately after eating them, volunteers were asked to rate how much they liked them and whether they wanted more. The results, published in the journal Appetite, showed those taking snaps of the crackers scored higher in terms of enjoyment and wanting seconds. Picture-taking, researchers said, seems to change the way the brain perceives food and increases the craving for more calories. They wrote: ‘Memories of food and the act of recording consumption can affect how much we eat. ‘Our results indicate picture-taking leads to greater wanting of the food following consumption.’ The effects were most noticeable in volunteers given smaller portions – six crackers instead of 12. Researchers warned: ‘Those seeking to eat smaller portions, especially of tempting foods that they want to cut back on, should avoid taking pictures of what they are eating.’
Medical Xpress
Glycerin is safe, effective in psoriasis model
Patients with psoriasis have reported that glycerin, an inexpensive, harmless, slightly sweet liquid high on the list of ingredients in many skin lotions, is effective at combatting their psoriasis and now scientists have objective evidence to support their reports. They found that whether applied topically or ingested in drinking water, glycerin, or glycerol, helps calm the classic scaly, red, raised and itchy patches in their psoriasis model, Dr. Wendy Bollag, cell physiologist and skin researcher at the Medical College of Georgia and Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and her colleagues report in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The studies also provide more evidence of the different ways glycerin enables the healthy maturation of skin cells through four stages that result in a smooth, protective skin layer. Psoriasis is an immune-mediated problem that typically surfaces in young adults in which skin cells instead multiply rapidly, piling up into inflamed patches.
Inside Higher Ed
Tenure Under Threat in Georgia
Professors within the University System of Georgia say the Board of Regents’ policy proposals seek to centralize power and end, not update, tenure.
By Colleen Flaherty
Professors within the University System of Georgia continue to fight for stricter COVID-19 prevention policies, but another, perhaps longer-term struggle is brewing: the system’s Board of Regents is poised to change the terms of tenure, in ways that gut the concept, professors say. The system is “seeking to obliterate tenure,” said Janet Murray, Ivan Allen College Dean’s Professor in literature, media and communication at Georgia Institute of Technology and one of many faculty members opposed to the changes. “The agenda of USG is clear — to create a short-cut to firing tenured professors outside of the established and totally adequate processes, which are more deliberative, and in the control of local institutions. USG wants to take power away from its constituent colleges and exercise it themselves.” The proposed revisions, which would apply to every public four-year college in Georgia, were introduced just hours before the board’s September meeting, with the note that they’ll be considered for approval at the board’s Oct.12-13 meeting. Faculty members were taken off guard.
The Augusta Chronicle
Mask-wearing politics don’t have to kill
John Hayes
I’m a history professor, in my eleventh year at Augusta University. I did my Ph.D. at the oldest USG institution, the University of Georgia. I was born and raised in Atlanta, with family roots in Georgia that stretch back to the early 19th century. I’ve lived in Georgia for 36 of my 48 years. I’m personally very invested in the state, and I care about its future. We had a variety of teaching configurations last school year. I taught hybrid classes, and split my sections into subsections due to social distancing requirements and class capacity restrictions. I was in the classroom every day, and though I’m a Ph.D. and not an MD, I can say unambiguously that I saw the grim ebb and flow of COVID statistics play out in the classroom with student absences, infections, weeks of sickness and the deaths of family members. The toll the pandemic took on students and their families was impossible to miss, especially in mid-winter when things were at their worst. …Acting like everything’s back to normal. Full capacity classrooms. No mask mandate – indeed, explicit prohibitions on any USG institution president from issuing a mask mandate. This makes no sense. It’s a complete failure of leadership. It’s a disservice to the state and its young adults.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Oct. 1)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,225,670
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 22,626 | 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
Dr. Fauci says U.S. is turning corner on COVID surge
By Max Reyes, Bloomberg News (TNS)
The U.S. is turning the corner on the most recent surge in COVID-19 cases and more people need to get vaccinated to keep infections on a declining trend, infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci said. Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said that while the full vaccination rate has reached 55%, the key risk is the 70 million eligible people in the U.S. who haven’t gotten a shot. “We certainly are turning the corner on this particular surge,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “The way to keep it down, to make that turnaround continue to go down, is to do what we mentioned: get vaccinated.”
AP News
COVID-19 deaths eclipse 700,000 in US as delta variant rages
By Tammy Webber and Heather Hollingsworth
It’s a milestone that by all accounts didn’t have to happen this soon. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 700,000 late Friday — a number greater than the population of Boston. The last 100,000 deaths occurred during a time when vaccines — which overwhelmingly prevent deaths, hospitalizations and serious illness — were available to any American over the age of 12. The milestone is deeply frustrating to doctors, public health officials and the American public, who watched a pandemic that had been easing earlier in the summer take a dark turn. Tens of millions of Americans have refused to get vaccinated, allowing the highly contagious delta variant to tear through the country and send the death toll from 600,000 to 700,000 in 3 1/2 months.
Higher Education News:
Today
How important are class grades in college admissions? Experts weigh in
The answer is simple… well, kind of.
By Allison Slater Tate
To parents and high school students, the question of how to get into college might seem increasingly complicated, but experts in the field say the answer remains simple: Get good grades. …Furda pointed out that in the 2019 National Association for College Admissions Counseling published “State of College Admissions” survey report, the college application factors ranked highest in importance in decisions by more than 70% of the participating college admissions offices were “grades in all courses” and “grades in college prep courses.” “Academic performance in high school has been the most important consideration in freshman admission decisions for decades,” the report asserted. But the answer is not quite as simple as getting report cards full of As. Just as important as the grades themselves, Furda noted, was “gauging the strength of curriculum” on a student’s transcript.
Forbes
More Than Half Of Unvaccinated College Students Admit Lying About Being Vaccinated
Michael T. Nietzel, Senior Contributor
A new survey reveals that more than half of unvaccinated students attending colleges that have mandated vaccinations have lied about their vaccine status. Intelligent.com, a privately funded website that provides information about college rankings and other higher education topics, commissioned the survey, which was conducted by Pollfish, an online survey platform, on July 16, 2021. A screening question identified students who were unvaccinated, and they were asked follow-up questions about their vaccination status. A report of the findings, based on 1,250 respondents, can be found here. The biggest takeaway is this: 55% of unvaccinated students attending colleges that have imposed a Covid-19 vaccination requirement reported that they’ve lied about being vaccinated. The most common way that students deceived their institutions was to create or purchase a fake vaccination card.
Inside Higher Ed
Can Young Alumni Get Colleges to Drop Legacy Admissions?
More than 500 people have pledged not to give to colleges that favor alumni children in admissions.
By Scott Jaschik
Viet Nguyen has a plan. A 2017 Brown University graduate, he’s held a Fulbright fellowship in South Korea, worked in nonprofit consulting and spent some time in Vietnam, from which his family emigrated to the United States. Now he’s enrolled in a joint M.B.A. from Harvard University and master’s degree in public policy from Stanford University. As he’s moved among universities that are hard to get into, Nguyen has wondered about their admissions policies. But he’s found outstanding professors and close friends along the way. But one thing has bothered him: the tradition of elite colleges and universities giving some preference to alumni children in admissions. …So Nguyen came up with a plan. He would create Leave Your Legacy in which young alumni and students would pledge not to give anything to colleges “until they get rid of legacy admissions, a system designed to exacerbate inequity for higher education.” So far, 578 people have signed up.
The Washington Post
By Jon Marcus
It was the personalized emails that got Jadyn Turner to consider Catholic University when she was choosing a college. …Those and other inducements lured her to an open house at the business school, where she’s now majoring in entrepreneurship. Even though marketing played a central role in her decision, Turner was surprised to learn the university is spending $5 million on a marketing and branding campaign and hiring five new marketing employees. …In fact, the sum is small compared with what other colleges and universities are investing in advertising, marketing and promotion, a number that has been steadily rising and is on track this year to be nearly double what it was last year. Among the reasons are a steep ongoing decline in enrollment made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and increasing competition from online education programs and others.
Inside Higher Ed
Remote Learning and the Politics of Refusal
Going online during the pandemic has revealed how struggles for justice, inclusion and equity necessitate that faculty women of color reimagine the spatial organization of institutional power, write Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Patti Duncan and Marie Lo.
Throughout the pandemic, various articles have explored the many challenges women of color faculty have encountered, including the amplification of structural inequalities, particularly for women faculty with caregiving responsibilities; barriers to publishing; and the extra labor of resisting racism and other forms of systemic exclusions. But we’ve also seen essays that highlight new possibilities that the pandemic has engendered, including rethinking academic leadership and teaching toward social justice. In this piece, we’ve followed the thread of new possibilities, examining what we are learning during these difficult months and how it may fundamentally change the relationships that women of color faculty have with the academy.