University System News:
The Brunswick News
College unveils new Center for Entrepreneurship
By Lauren McDonald
College of Coastal Georgia announced the establishment of a new center that will support entrepreneurship in the Golden Isles. The college hosted an event Thursday to celebrate the unveiling of the new Art and Lindee Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship. “This is a day that we’ve been waiting for some time,” said Michelle Johnston, president of the college. “And the College of Coastal Georgia is the incredible institution that we all know and love in large part due to caring and generous people who believe in our mission, who see the excellence of our faculty and our staff, who care about our students and who deeply understand the role of the college in the community.” She noted that CCGA has made an economic impact of about $500 million in the last five years, and hundreds of service-learning and research projects have benefited the community as well.
Albany Herald
PHOTOS: Albany State University International Education Week
Photos contributed by Reginald Christian
Albany State University celebrated International Education Week this past week, November 15-19, 2021. IEW is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. Check put photos from this past week’s events:
Infosecurity Magazine
NSA Grants Boost University’s Cyber Academy
Sarah Coble News Writer
The University of North Georgia (UNG) has grown its cybersecurity training program after receiving funding from the National Security Agency (NSA). UNG, which has campuses in Blue Ridge, Cumming, Dahlonega, Gainesville, and Oconee, was awarded two grants totaling $265,000 by the NSA. The university will use the money to provide free cybersecurity instruction through two different avenues: the GenCyber Warrior Academy and the Advancing GenCyber Education for North Georgia Teachers (AGENTs) of Change camp. Both training programs are in-person learning opportunities in the Pennington Military Leadership Center on UNG’s Dahlonega Campus. The first initiative provides cybersecurity instruction to high school students, while the second delivers cybersecurity training to middle or high school teachers.
Albany Herald
Wildlife grant leads to boardwalk at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College Nature Study Area
From staff reports
The Nature Study Area at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College recently received a facelift from a new boardwalk constructed by students majoring in the ABAC bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management. A Wildlife Viewing Grant for $2,097 from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to the ABAC Foundation along with financial support from the ABAC administration funded the boardwalk materials and construction.
The Dahlonega Nugget
UNG observatory mural blends realism and abstract
By Jennifer Ramsay
The new University of North Georgia Astronomical Observatory is getting a paint job, provided by its own students. The Special Topics Art class, in conjunction with Physics professors, have been…
The George-Anne
Kaz Thomas, Campus Reporter
Finals are right around the corner for Georgia Southern University students, and with increasing deadlines comes more stress. From back to back studying to project preparations, finals can leave students cramped inside their rooms for days on end. There are several local ways to reduce stress here in Statesboro and stay active as well. Here are our top picks in Statesboro for your de-stressing needs. GSU Botanical Garden; Mill Creek Regional Park; Blind Willie Mctell Trail; Blackwater Preserve; Serenity Day Spa
Albany CEO
PCOM South Georgia Fast-Tracks Students to Med School
Staff Report
PCOM South Georgia has partnered with Georgia Southern University, Valdosta State University and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College to provide students the opportunity to complete medical school a year early through new articulation agreements. Articulation agreements provide opportunities for qualified students to begin their professional education at an accelerated rate. Qualified students can attend their institution through their junior year, then transfer to the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program at PCOM South Georgia and take medical school courses a year early. For each academic program and successful completion of four years of medical education at PCOM South Georgia, students receive their undergraduate degree as well as their DO degree.
Albany Herald
UGA Trial Gardens reward ‘flower power’
By Leslie Matos CAES News
The Trial Gardens at the University of Georgia have announced the 2021 Classic City Award winners from the hundreds of varieties tested over the long, hot summer. Each year breeders send plants to the UGA Trial Gardens for evaluation throughout the summer to see how they will perform. The Trial Gardens are known as the “go-to research trial garden to test plants for the combination of heat and humidity,” John Ruter, director of the Trial Gardens and 2021 UGA Inventor of the Year, said. “If they want to test them for heat and humidity, they send them to us.”
National Geographic
How to have a COVID-safe Thanksgiving gathering
There’s still a risk of transmitting the COVID-19 virus, but experts say tracking local transmission, getting vaccinated, and testing guests can minimize the odds.
By Emily Sohn
The classic American Thanksgiving has always carried some risk: driving to Grandma’s house, engaging in political conversations with family members, eating undercooked turkey. But in the COVID-19 era, people have also had to face serious concerns about gathering during a global pandemic. As the country’s second COVID-19 Thanksgiving approaches, experts say the landscape of risk has changed. New variants have emerged, and tens of thousands of new infections are still occurring every day in the United States. Vaccines are available for everyone age 5 and older, but only 59 percent of people in the U.S. are currently fully vaccinated, and some populations remain at risk due to underlying conditions or compromised immune systems. Data also suggest that bringing people together in groups does indeed raise the chances of passing along the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the United States last winter, Thanksgiving and Christmas coincided with a COVID-19 wave, says Joshua Weitz, the founding director of the Quantitative Biosciences Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, who currently has an appointment at the Institute of Biology at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Case rates varied by state, but the data show an accompanying nationwide peak in fatalities from about three weeks after Thanksgiving until February.
GPB
A UGA study shows why you may want a COVID-19 booster shot
By: Ellen Eldridge
The FDA and CDC could approve booster shots this week for anyone 18 or older. But a new study from the University of Georgia says the shots are still most vital for those in high-risk groups. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge reports. People vaccinated against COVID-19 have a more robust immune response than those who contracted the disease and recovered, according to a study from the University of Georgia. The vaccines are still working very well, preventing hospitalization and severe disease, said Ted Ross with UGA’s Center for Vaccines and Immunology. Even as antibodies begin to wane, the immune responses that protect us are still quite good. Whether or not someone needs a booster shot depends on that individual’s situation, Ross said.
Springfield News-Leader
What is my risk of getting COVID-19 at a family Thanksgiving celebration in Missouri?
Gregory J. Holman
The safety outlook for family celebrations like Thanksgiving and Christmas this year is pretty different than last year. That’s due to the availability of multiple vaccines proven safe and effective at reducing the risk of getting COVID-19. In 2020, public health officials recommended keeping holiday-season celebrations limited to immediate family. This year, the Centers for Disease Control acknowledged that “holiday traditions are important for families and children” and offered a series of tips on making celebrations like Thanksgiving safer.
Top Thanksgiving tip: Get vaccinated
The top recommendation from federal and local health officials is to get one of the COVID-19 vaccines now approved for adults and children as young as 5 years old, said Whitney Mann, head of outreach for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. …The CDC isn’t the only outfit making risk predictions. As the News-Leader reported earlier, scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology developed a COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool last year.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Nov. 18)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,276,919
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 25,511 | 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
Booster shots already being delivered in Georgia
By Staff reports
As the number of new COVID-19 cases in Georgia starts to tick upward ahead of Thanksgiving, The Food and Drug Administration has authorized booster vaccines for all adults. Georgia families packing up to travel to Thanksgiving gatherings or preparing to host a dinner are currently enjoying relatively low case numbers of the virus, but a booster shot for those already vaccinated may be one tool to keep those numbers low through the December holidays. While overall COVID-19 cases in Georgia are down sharply from the summer surge, new infections have been climbing upward over the past week.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Historically Black Colleges Are Top Drivers of Social Mobility, Report Says
By Oyin Adedoyin
Historically Black colleges and universities are better vehicles for social mobility than are other institutions, according to a new report by the United Negro College Fund’s Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute. The report, “HBCUs Transforming Generations: Social Mobility Outcomes for HBCU Alumni,” says that the colleges predominantly serve low-income Black students and enable them to move up the socioeconomic ladder upon graduation. The report denounces the preconception that elite institutions are the only pathways for social mobility.
National Review
Is American Higher Education Going to Become More Consumer Friendly?
By GEORGE LEEF
Back in the days before the federal government decided to heavily subsidize higher education, it was pretty consumer friendly — affordable and efficient. Then, thanks mainly to LBJ, federal money began a long process of bloating and politicizing it. Will anything reverse that trend? In their recent book The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt argue that the same marketplace changes that brought dramatic change in the music, film, and newspaper industries are at work in higher education. It will become more consumer friendly (which means, no longer dominated by the sellers of college credentials), unbundled, and affordable.
Inside Higher Ed
Higher Ed’s Future of Flexible Work: The Key Podcast
By Doug Lederman
The era of flexible work in higher education has begun. This week’s episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, examines how different administrative, staff and faculty jobs are likely to look going forward. Officials at two institutions that are ahead of the pack in confronting that question head-on discuss their approaches: Natalie McKnight, dean of the College of General Studies at Boston University and co-chair of its Committee on the Future of Staff Work, and Bryan Garey, vice president for human resources at Virginia Tech, explain the journeys their universities are undertaking to understand the academic workplace of tomorrow—starting now.