University System News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Have We Gotten Student Success Completely Backward?
By Aaron Basko
Between 2003 and 2014, in collaboration with the consulting firm EAB, Georgia State University led a revolution in student success. Through a series of pilot programs that grew into a sweeping campus-culture shift, Georgia State raised its six-year graduation rate to 54 percent from 32 percent while simultaneously nearly doubling its percentage of Pell-eligible students. The institution’s website calls it a “national model for student success,” and the story was told triumphantly last year in a book titled Won’t Lose This Dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System. And indeed, many of the practices Georgia State created or put in place (such as freshman learning communities, supplemental instruction, and retention grants) have become common at colleges across the country. Ten years ago, such tactics were groundbreaking.
Albany Herald
UGA faculty members receive national teaching awards
By Claire Sanders
Two University of Georgia faculty members in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences were honored with national teaching awards recognizing their outstanding teaching and student engagement from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Nick Fuhrman, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication, received the USDA Excellence in College and University Teaching Award for Food and Agricultural Science, and James C. Anderson II, an associate professor in ALEC, was awarded a National Teaching and Student Engagement Award.
Tifton Gazette
Donors can help ABAC on Giving Tuesday
Staff reports
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has put several families and people into financial straits, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is looking to give back to the community and help people in need. Nov. 30 marks the college’s 10th Giving Tuesday, an event where members of the community – ABAC staff, students, alumni and others – cooperate with millions to donate and help support others in need, college officials said in a statement. “Because of COVID-19, many students and their families are facing financial hardships,” said Dr. Deidre Martin, ABAC chief advancement officer. “It has been inspiring to see the generosity of ABAC alumni and the members of our community as they have come together to meet the unprecedented needs of our students.”
Columbus CEO
CSU Libraries receives USG Archival Excellence Award
Staff reports
The Columbus State University Archives and Special Collections was recently awarded the Excellence in Archival Program Development Award from the Georgia Archives and the University System of Georgia. The award honors an agency’s or institution’s actions to appropriately care for and manage archival records. Specific areas of excellence at CSU include facility improvements, outreach, and the robust internship program available to students. “We are incredibly honored to receive this award. We have come a long way over the past several years in our efforts to establish ourselves as a leading archival repository in the state, and we are so pleased to be recognized for all of our hard work,” said David Owings, head of Archives and Special Collections. Owings has been at CSU since 2013 and was recently appointed chair for the Society of American Archivists Committee on Archival Facility Guidelines, a professional association that is a recognized leader for archivists around the world.
Middle Georgia CEO
MGA Foundation Presents Legacy of Leadership and Outstanding Alumnus Awards for 2021
Staff reports
The Middle Georgia State University (MGA) Foundation has awarded Malcolm Burgess, chairman of Burgess Pigment Company, the Legacy of Leadership award for 2021, while Marvin Riggins, retired chief of the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department, was named Outstanding Alumnus. The awards were presented at the University President’s Gala on the evening of November 5. Burgess is chairman of his family’s kaolin business that his father founded in Sandersville in 1948. He is a longtime supporter of Middle Georgia State University. A few years ago he established a scholarship to help MGA students with financial need majoring in health sciences, business, or the arts. More recently, he made a major gift to help fund the construction of the Peyton T. Anderson Enrollment Center on the Macon Campus.
The Moultrie Observer
Two commencement ceremonies at ABAC on Dec. 2
Staff Reports
A total of 222 students are expected to participate when two fall commencement ceremonies take place at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on Dec. 2 in Gressette Gymnasium. The 10 a.m. ceremony will include the graduates from the School of Nursing and Health Sciences and the School of Arts and Sciences. The 2 p.m. ceremony will include graduates from the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Stafford School of Business. ABAC President David Bridges will open the ceremonies, which will feature the presentation of the prestigious George P. Donaldson and ABAC Alumni Association awards. The Donaldson goes to the top associate degree graduate who is a part of the ceremonies, and the Alumni Association award goes to the top bachelor’s degree graduate participating in the ceremonies.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia colleges teach new course on C.T. Vivian’s civil rights legacy
By Eric Stirgus
At the beginning of the semester, Michael Hester’s students at the University of West Georgia knew the familiar names of the civil rights movement, such the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. But they were unfamiliar with the work of the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient from Atlanta whom King called “the greatest preacher to ever live.” That’s changed this semester. Eight colleges and universities — including one in Louisiana — are offering courses this fall about Vivian’s confrontational, yet nonviolent approach. Those involved in creating the curriculum hope by next year to have at least 50 schools nationwide offering their own courses on the teachings of Vivian, who died last year at the age of 95… First-year University of West Georgia students Tre Mason and Gabriel Kanife hadn’t heard of the term until asked about it during an interview. They say the course about Vivian, who helped lead many of the most important civil rights battles during the 1960s, is their favorite… The classroom discussions are often uncomfortable. Several students in Seneca Vaught’s class at Kennesaw State University winced one September day as they watched a black-and white video of Jim Clark, the sheriff of Selma, Alabama, punch Vivian in the face.
WJBF
MCG physiologist researching causes of hypertension
By Chloe Salsameda
Untreated hypertension, or extremely high blood pressure, can be fatal. It can lead to heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. Dr. Mykola Mamenko, a physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia, is researching how people become hypertensive. He has received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to learn how the causes differ for men and women. “We need to identify the groups of people that have some common traits or reasons behind their hypertension and then treat them selectively so you don’t go to the doctor and just keep trying until something works, but you are able to do some blood tests or other types of analysis and receive a therapy that’s going to be effective,” Mamenko explained.
accessWDUN
UNG professor explains supply chain issue
By Caleb Hutchins
As the United States economy continues to deal with a supply chain dilemma, the effects may be felt by Christmas shoppers this holiday season. Zuoming Liu, a professor at the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia, said on not only are some products harder to come by, but prices are going up as well. “The pandemic led to our supply chain disruptions and meanwhile, our demand stayed the same because we work from home and we still have our incomes,” Ziu said. “Lower supply and higher demand are the two basic conditions for inflation.”
Fox 5
Global supply chain impacting metro Atlanta businesses
By Brian Hill
The supply chain disruption continues to be a problem for shoppers and business owners this holiday season. Right now, many people have been waiting weeks, even months for items to be shipped. The delay has impacted everything from groceries to household supplies to Christmas decorations… The pandemic, labor shortages, and increased demand for goods have strained the supply chain. “Labor needs to be getting to normal,” University of North Georgia Professor LU Xu told us. “Right now, we have labor shortage for moving products from this place to consumers.” Xu’s said this situation impacts almost every aspect of our daily life – from groceries to electronics to household supplies and often causes prices to go up.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Campus housing causing health concerns, Georgia students, parents say
By Eric Stirgus
The University of Georgia student came to campus this semester with everything she was told she’d need for her first semester of college, including an air purifier. The student, who lives in Hill Hall, and many others say they’re often sick inside their dorms. They believe the illnesses — intense coughing, severe sore throat, congestion — are a result of substandard housing conditions from rooms that are improperly ventilated or old. They also complained the school was slow in replacing air filters. One Facebook page created by a UGA parent includes multiple complaints from parents of mold and dirty air filters. Some students said they are taking antibiotics. Air purifiers have somewhat helped the student and others.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Nov. 24)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 25,650 | 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.
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,281,495
Forbes
What We Know About The Omicron Variant
By John Drake
Last week, the WHO announced that a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, known as lineage B.1.1.529, was a variant of concern and would henceforth be known as Omicron. The response was dramatic. Financial markets dipped. Governments began closing borders. Anthony Fauci explicitly acknowledged what many people immediately suspected: Omicron is almost certainly already circulating in other places around the world. The list of countries with known or suspected cases of Omicron includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the UK, although most known or suspected cases are people arriving from Africa. So, what do we know about this variant? The truth is we don’t currently know much that is clinically or epidemiologically relevant. What we do know comes primarily from having sequenced the variant’s genome, and it is interesting. The evolutionary phylogeny currently estimated by the Nextstrain project suggests that Omicron is not related to any of the currently widespread strains, including Delta, or the previously widespread Alpha variant. Omicron has a large number of mutations that distinguish it both from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other widely circulating strains.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
By Scott Jaschik
It’s still early, but data released last week by the Common Application suggest that the 2021–22 admissions year could be much better for many colleges than the last year was. For instance, in 2020–21, many colleges reported “delayed application activity in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.” But the Common App’s examination of the data for 2021–22 “revealed large increases over both the sluggish start to 2020–21 and the more typical start to 2019–20,” according to a report by the Common App on applications through mid-November. “Through November 16, 2021, 780,024 distinct applicants had applied to 853 returning members [colleges], an increase of 13 percent over 2019–20 (687,812). Application volume through November 16, 2021, rose 22 percent from 2019–20 (2,534,127) to 2021–22 (3,089,107), following a slow start in 2020–21 (2,630,879).”
Inside Higher Ed
Preserving Tenure: A Term Tenure Proposal
By Herman Berliner
I was awarded tenure at a time when the mandatory retirement age was 65, and I was happily looking forward to a 35-year career as a tenured faculty member. In 1982, 70 became the age for mandatory retirement. Then, beginning in 1994, there was no longer any mandatory retirement age for faculty at all. My wonderful 35-year opportunity had become even more wonderful! Standing for tenure, as every faculty member knows, is stressful. It typically entails a detailed assessment and evaluation of a faculty member’s teaching, scholarship and service within the context of the long-term needs of the university involved—criteria often only tangentially under control of the faculty member standing for tenure. Those criteria center on the demand for faculty in the discipline involved, especially full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty members. How large is the supply of these faculty? What are the needs in the other disciplines? What does enrollment look like in each discipline and over all? What are the priorities of the college or university? Much of this is both objective and subjective, and open to interpretation.
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