USG e-clips for December 7, 2021

University System News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia college students want ‘temporary’ fee to go away

By Eric Stirgus

For students taking courses at any of Georgia’s 26 public universities, there’s one cost they can’t avoid that has long irritated them, parents and several elected officials. The “special institutional fee” — approved by the state’s Board of Regents in 2009 to help the schools wade through the Great Recession — ranges from $200 a semester at some Atlanta-area schools, to more than $500 this fall at Georgia Tech. And it’s mandatory. A committee led by state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, recently released a nine-page report reviewing all of the University System of Georgia’s student fees, which pay for things such as health care, use of the student center and transportation. The report includes a recommendation to eliminate the special institutional fee.

The Brunswick News

College to host first traditional commencement since pandemic began

By Lauren McDonald

College of Coastal Georgia will host this weekend a traditional fall commencement, but safety will be a top priority during the event, the college announced Monday. The commencement will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. The spring commencement was held in a modified format this past May due to COVID-19, with five separate ceremonies taking place throughout the day to allow for social distancing among graduates and their friends and family. Students were limited to inviting four guests. Students will graduate Saturday in one place and at one time with unlimited guests, like in years past. There will be enough room for students and their guests to socially distance.

Gwinnett Forum

Overcoming doubt, Filipino native among new GGC grads

Le Quang Greatzel Unabia, 26, of Norcross, grew up in Digos City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. She was raised in a home of women – just her and her mother, grandmother and aunt – so she didn’t have to look far to see first-hand how strong a woman can be. Unabia will join more than 600 of her classmates at Georgia Gwinnett College’s fall commencement, scheduled for 10 a.m., December 7 (today) at the Gas South Arena.

11 Alive

Georgia Army veteran, former high school dropout set to graduate college

The 31-year-old mother who previously served in Afghanistan graduates Tuesday. She’ll start her next chapter as a researcher in a pathogen laboratory at UGA.

Author: Thais Ackerman

Once a high school dropout, a Georgia Army veteran is now celebrating becoming a college graduate. After leaving grade school at just 16, serving in Afghanistan, and having a child, Morgan George has now set to accomplish a milestone achievement. A statement from Georgia Gwinnett College said the 31-year-old mother is graduating from the school on Tuesday. …After graduation Morgan will start her next chapter as a researcher in a pathogen laboratory at the University of Georgia.

Middle Georgia CEO

Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business is Now Systemwide Home for the Georgia Fintech Academy

The Georgia Fintech Academy, a collaboration between the state’s fintech industry and the University System of Georgia (USG), has transitioned to Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Robinson was selected as the Fintech Academy’s institutional home after an incubation period with the USG. “This move positions the academy to make an even greater impact,” said Tommy Marshall, Georgia Fintech Academy executive director. “Being part of a world-class business school increases our ability to connect more directly with fintech partners and other university collaborators across Georgia.” …The Robinson College has played a leading role in the Fintech Academy since its inception, including curriculum development and teaching, career placement services, and providing academy offices on Georgia State’s downtown campus.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Student film documentary about Dalton, Georgia wins big at international film festival

By Kelcey Caulder, For the AJC

A team of high school and college students with STEP Studio win an award for best documentary on the history of Dalton, GA.

A documentary all about the history and resilience of Dalton, Georgia, has won an award for best long documentary at the American Golden Picture International Film Festival in Jacksonville, Florida. Founder and president of STEP Studio Jacob Poag called the win a “huge victory” during a phone call with the Times Free Press and said he was particularly proud of “Dalton: A Story of Survival” because everyone involved with the filmmaking process at STEP Studio is either a high school or college-age student interested in film work. …As of Wednesday, Poag and his collaborators in Dalton had not yet started work on a new film project. Instead, they are focused on expanding STEP Studio to college and university campuses across the state. Their ultimate goal, he said, is to see independent student films take off in Georgia and to turn STEP Studio into a nonprofit production company that supports that goal.  Students at Oglethorpe University and the University of North Georgia have already started putting together film teams.

Times-Georgian

UWG alumni services and employs UWG students

By Taylor Jackson

Nikkita Gordon, owner of East Albany Hair Salon, officially opened her shop two months ago with the goal of employing UWG students. East Albany Salon is a newly opened loc’s, braids, and natural hair salon that primarily caters to men.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

University of Georgia to clean dorms amid student health complaints

By Eric Stirgus

The University of Georgia said Monday crews will soon conduct deep cleanings and make some repairs to several student housing complexes after a recent groundswell of parent complaints about their children getting sick on campus. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week reported many students — primarily in their first year on campus — are complaining of intense coughing, severe sore throat, congestion and other health conditions. They say it’s because rooms are improperly ventilated, old, need air filter replacements or have mold. The university said the repair work will begin during winter break. It will include replacing air filters, removing some older air conditioning units, changing toilet valves in one hall and cleaning fan coil units in two halls.

Jackson Progress-Argus

Georgia 4-H’ers explore higher education pathways at the University of Georgia

By Larry Stanford

High school students from more than 30 counties explored pathways to higher education at a statewide gathering of Senior 4-H’ers in Athens on Nov. 13-14. This special event is known as Weekend in the Classic City and provides a comprehensive picture of diverse collegiate options in Georgia. ..It began in 2001 when Collegiate 4-H Club members from the University of Georgia invited high school students to campus as part of a class project. The initiative has grown to include nearly 100 students each year from widely varied backgrounds who enjoy a day at the birthplace of higher education. …Learning was joined by fun as 4-H’ers experienced a taste of traditional college life by touring campus, eating in a dining hall, visiting a dorm room, and exploring the student activity center. They also heard from UGA experts in financial aid, admissions, and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

WJCL

Rite Care Center at Georgia Southern accepting shoe donations

Shoes will help the more than 300 million people who go without

Dave Williams

Time is running out for you to donate your new or gently worn shoes to a good cause. The Rite Care Center at Georgia Southern University is accepting donations through Friday. The shoes are being collected and then will be distributed to small business owners in third world countries who sell the shoes to help support their families. “There’s over 300 million people who may not have shoes,” said Dr. Tory Candea of Rite Care Center at Georgia Southern University. “And also provides funds for the graduate students in the Communications, Sciences and Disorders Program at Georgia Southern University.”

Statesboro Herald

Omicron variant arrives in Georgia

New COVID cases in Bulloch remain stable

Jim Healy/staff

The first case of the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus was reported in Georgia over the weekend, as the newest strain of the coronavirus has now been found in more than a dozen states. …While the average number of daily cases in Georgia and across the nation is up 20 percent in the past two weeks, newly reported cases in Bulloch County have remained fairly stable. According to the DPH, Bulloch County saw 25 new cases in the past week. …

Georgia Southern

Returning from Thanksgiving break, Georgia Southern University reported three confirmed new COVID cases and 19 self-reported across the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses for the week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5.

True Viral News

New Covid Pills Offer Hope as Omicron Looms

Mike Letterman

Drug developers have some good news as the world frets about the Omicron coronaviruses variant causing a surge of cases and weakened vaccines. Two new Covid-19 pills are coming soon, and are expected to work against all versions of the virus. molnupiravir is a pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19 by 30 percent if taken within five days of the start of symptoms. Pfizer has a pill that may perform even better. The drug was effective when taken within five days of the start of symptoms. The F.D.A. could authorize it by the end of the year. …A nonprofit company linked to the University of Georgia studied the new drug molnupiravir as a treatment for a little-known pathogen that is feared as a potential bioweapon. molnupiravir wreaks havoc when it encounters a virus’s genes. New viruses can’t replicate. The drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 50 percent, according to the initial results of the trial. The U.S. government has bought over 2 million courses of molnupiravir in order to curb the toll of Covid-19.

Other News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Dec. 6)

An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state

CONFIRMED CASES: 1,290,778

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 25,824 | 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

Colleges Are Starting to Require Covid-19 Booster Shots

By Oyin Adedoyin

Syracuse University will require Covid-19 booster shots for all eligible students, faculty, and staff who “routinely access any Syracuse University campus location or facility” before the spring semester starts, the institution announced on Monday. Individuals eligible for the booster-shot requirement either received their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least six months ago or received the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months ago, the New York university said. In requiring a third shot, Syracuse joins a small list of colleges that are ramping up their vaccination requirements as the new Omicron variant has begun to sweep the globe. Public-health experts are racing to study whether the variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant, or is better at evading the protection offered by vaccines. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said vaccinations are now the key to curbing the spread of Covid variants on campuses.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

‘Student-Athlete’ Has Always Been a Lie

The NCAA coined the term in the 1950s to deny basic rights to students.

By Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Jay M. Smith, and Stephen T. Casper

DECEMBER 6, 2021

Few phrases are intoned with more solemnity on American college campuses than “student-athlete.” Yet most students, parents, faculty, and staff have only the vaguest idea what the term means. Its historical origins in a cynical evasion of athletes’ rights are long forgotten. The fact that it is a linguistic abomination typically evades notice. Is it two nouns? An adjective and noun? A noun and an adjective? However you slice it, it’s a lie designed to sell the myth that the unpaid labor of college sport is a form of prestige and privilege. In fact, the phrase “student-athlete” disguises and sustains a brutal system of indenture. In the exchange that occurs between athlete and university, the ivory tower makes off like a bandit. Athletes receive an often illusory prize: in-kind wages called scholarships and financial aid that quite obviously cost universities nothing — athletic scholarships, after all, are just the transfer of funds from one budget (athletic) to another (academic). For athletes, the exchange involves the surrender of the value produced by their talent, even as they take on enormous and undisclosed risk. …Nearly everyone who studies these issues — from college athlete advocates to Supreme Court justices to the National Labor Relations Board — condemns the NCAA’s and universities’ exploitation of these players. Given the enormous (and enormously overdue) public attention on these problems in recent months, it’s time to re-evaluate the ugly history of the phrase “student-athlete.”