University System News:
Americus Times-Recorder
GSW to hold two in-person graduation ceremonies on Friday, December 17
By Ken Gustafson
On Friday, Dec. 17, Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) will recognize approximately 480 summer and fall graduates for their academic achievements across two in-person commencement ceremonies. Jaha Dukureh, women’s rights activist and GSW alumna, will deliver the keynote address for both ceremonies. The ceremonies will be held inside the Convocation Hall of the Student Success Center, also known as the Storm Dome.
WGAU
It’s only a drill: police activity today at UGA
Emergency responder training exercise
By Tim Bryant
The police activity you will see outside the University of Georgia’s Animal Health Research Center is only a drill: an emergency responder training exercise is set to start at 8:30 and end around 11 at the facility on Carlton Street in Athens.
WGAU
UGA researchers: childhood trauma increases risk of opioid abuse
Study published in Journal of American College Health
By Lauren Baggett, UGA Today
Young adults who experienced trauma in childhood are more at risk for misusing prescription opioids, according to new research from the University of Georgia. The study, which was recently published in the Journal of American College Health, supports arguments to expand opioid risk screeners to include adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences describe a range of stressors, some more severe than others, that can lead to negative health outcomes as an adult. These can range from having divorced parents to experiencing domestic violence or food insecurity.
Washington Blade
Georgia settles wrongful-death suit by family of Trans inmate
She is calling for a criminal investigation into the death. She believes her daughter was neglected by the guards because she was transgender.
By Brody Levesque
The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a 25-year-old Trans female inmate who committed suicide at Valdosta State Prison December 6, 2017, hanging herself in her cell. The prison system had agreed this week to pay a $2.2 million settlement to her parents. The four defendants who were named in the lawsuit are the GDC, the warden at the time, Don Blakely, a correctional officer at the time, James Igou, and the Georgia Board of Regents. The regents board is named because it manages Augusta University’s program called Georgia Correctional Healthcare, which provides health care for inmates, including mental health care.
GPB
Researchers suggest severe COVID-19 infection could reduce male fertility
By: Ellen Eldridge
A new study from the University of Georgia explores the potential effects of the coronavirus on male fertility. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more. Researchers at the University of Georgia are studying and suggesting further clinical experimentation to understand the effects of COVID-19 on major organs of the body.
Atlanta Magazine
How the Board of Regents pulls the strings at Georgia’s colleges and universities
Who controls Georgia colleges and universities? It’s not the university presidents. The buck stops with the Board of Regents.
By Michele Cohen Marill
When professors protested over lax Covid-19 precautions on Georgia campuses this fall, they called out a group of policymakers, not university presidents. The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents oversees the state’s 26 colleges and universities and is ultimately responsible for decisions such as prohibiting professors from requiring masks in their classrooms. Recent board changes to tenure rules have also drawn protests and even national rebuke.
Article also appeared in:
Eminetra
How the Board of Regents pulls the strings at Georgia’s colleges and universities – Atlanta, Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Georgia’s university leaders don’t appear to value teachers
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Concerns mount that COVID-19 and tenure policies endanger prestige of campuses
Georgia leaders insist they value education yet increasingly they don’t seem to value educators. That disconnect was clear in the state’s response to COVID-19. The governor declined to mandate masks in schools. The University System of Georgia ordered professors, even those with compromised health, back into classrooms without the option to require masks. The most recent flashpoint is the dilution of due process for university and college faculty. The Board of Regents voted in October to change its post-tenure review process. Teresa MacCartney, the acting chancellor, insists the board’s changes did not weaken tenure. But a searing new report by the American Association of University Professors disagrees.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Dec. 9)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,293,370
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 25,874 | 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
Third omicron case found in Georgia
By Ariel Hart
With no recent travel history, the latest patient could signal community spread of the new variant
A third Georgian has tested positive for COVID-19 with the omicron variant, the state Department of Public Health announced Thursday. The patient is an unvaccinated metro Atlanta resident with no recent international travel history, indicating the omicron variant of the virus may be spreading in Georgia.
The Augusta Chronicle
Biden administration asks court to lift temporary injunction against vaccination
Sandy Hodson
The Biden administration will appeal a ruling this week by a federal judge in Georgia that bans the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, and it requests an immediate lifting of the temporary injunction. Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker granted Georgia and other states a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts enforcement of President Biden’s executive order requiring all federal contractors to have their employees vaccinated. The lawsuit seeking temporary and permanent injunctions was filed Oct. 29 in Augusta’s federal courthouse by the states of Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia. It claims the enforcement of the mandate will cause great expense and effort and risk a substantial reduction in workforces if employees chose to quit rather than accept vaccination against COVID-19,
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Warning for Colleges on COVID-Based Phishing Attacks
By Suzanne Smalley
Phishing emails targeting U.S. universities are leveraging the pandemic by enticing users to enter their log-in credentials for fabricated COVID testing registration requests, according to researchers with the security company Proofpoint. Hackers began sending thousands of messages mimicking legitimate log-in portals to dozens of North American colleges in October, company representatives said in a blog post published this week. The post noted that Proofpoint’s researchers have “observed COVID-19 themes impacting education institutions throughout the pandemic, but consistent, targeted credential theft campaigns using such lures targeting universities began in October 2021.” Brett Callow, a threat analyst with the cybersecurity company Emsisoft, said cybercriminals habitually leverage news events to trick their victims.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Group of 12 academics takes on the controversial issue of freedom of expression on campus
By Hilary Burns – Editor, The National Observer Higher Education,
In a poor attempt to grab his students’ attention during a lecture, English professor Bill Dobson portrayed a Nazi salute during the pilot episode of the new Netflix series “The Chair.” The act went viral on social media after students captured the moment on video, leading to Dobson’s suspension from the fictional Pembroke University. While it’s purely entertainment, the episode underscores a phenomenon that has become a thorn in the side of campus cultures across the country. Students and professors increasingly report feeling that they have to self-censor what they say and how they act out of fear of being ostracized, or “canceled,” as many have put it. In addition to being fodder for the Netflix series, the breakdown of freedom of expression and academic freedom on college campuses across the country has prompted a group of academics to launch the University of Austin, which says on its website that its founders are “alarmed by the illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in America’s most prestigious universities.”
Inside Higher Ed
American Council on Education Releases Blockchain Findings
By Suzanne Smalley
The American Council on Education, a membership organization focused on public policy and fostering good practice in higher education, released a report Thursday on an 18-month initiative to find new ways to help college students assert greater control over their digital identities, among other technology-related issues. ACE’s Education Blockchain Initiative also examined how to broaden opportunities for employment and diversify modes for lifelong learning through distributed ledger technologies. Funding for the effort was provided by the U.S. Department of Education, which selected four projects that used blockchain technology to help students better control their educational records or nurture new ideas for more economic equity. The ACE report argued that as colleges develop blockchain solutions, they “must prioritize using learning and employment records (LERs), verifiable credentials, and decentralized digital identities” and create designs that include interoperability.
Inside Higher Ed
How Retention, Not Just Recruitment, Hinders STEM Diversity
By Colleen Flaherty
A new study in PLOS One says that retention is a major factor in why certain ethnic groups remain underrepresented in the natural sciences, technology, engineering and math. Using National Science Foundation data and controlling for recruitment of diverse scholars, the authors found that “failed retention contributes to mis-representation across academia and that the stages responsible for the largest disparities differ by race and ethnicity.”
Inside Higher Ed
Following a week of controversy, Jim Malatras announced he will step down in January after less than two years leading the 64-institution state system.
By Emma Whitford
Jim Malatras, chancellor of the State University of New York system, submitted his resignation Thursday following a week of controversy over his allegedly “toxic management style” and old text messages that showed Malatras mocking a former colleague. …The board accepted Malatras’s resignation, effective Jan. 14, on Thursday. …Malatras’s short tenure at the 64-institution state system was punctuated by controversy. The Board of Trustees selected Malatras in August 2020 without a national search process, prompting a vote of no confidence in the board from system faculty members. Critics of the appointment complained that Malatras had little higher education experience and that his close relationship with then New York governor Andrew Cuomo would cede too much influence to the administration.