University System News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The drought is over: Georgia is national champion again
By Chip Towers
INDIANAPOLIS – “Look at the confetti falling from the roof! Look at the confetti falling from the roof!” Surely, the angels in heaven were hearing that from the great Larry Munson on Monday night as the Georgia Bulldogs finally won that oh-so-elusive national championship at Lucas Oil Stadium. Gone now since 2011, Munson was the last Georgia play-by-play broadcaster to call a national championship victory for the Bulldogs. Forty-one years later, that earthly honor fell to Scott Howard, Munson’s longtime sidekick and the man calling the Dogs every year since Munson dropped the mic. His punctuating words will now enter UGA’s annals for perpetuity. “Dogs are winners; a national championship for a new generation of Bulldogs,” Howard exclaimed. “How ‘bout that final score, 33-18.” It’d been since the 1980 team went undefeated and beat mighty Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1981 that Georgia hoisted a national championship trophy. Monday night, against Nick Saban’s mighty No. 1-ranked Alabama team, Kirby Smart’s sixth team earned that right with a victory over Alabama.
See also:
Athens Banner-Herald
Dominant Georgia defense keeps Bryce Young, Alabama in check in national championship win
Marietta Daily Journal
Stetson Bennett leads Georgia to first national title since 1980
Albany Herald
Georgia Bulldogs beat Alabama for first national championship since 1980
Statesboro Herald
Georgia claims national championship
The Brunswick News
Georgia snaps 41-year title drought with 33-18 win over Bama
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Championship victory leaves Georgia Bulldogs all alone at the top
accessWDUN
Dogs end long title drought, roll past Tide
11Alive
Two Champs: Kirby Smart, Vince Dooley share emotional moment after title game
Vince Dooley was the head football coach when the Bulldogs last won in 1980.
Author: Jason Braverman
It’s an image that will forever live in Georgia football history. It came moments after the Bulldogs won their second National Championship Monday night in Indianapolis. Vince Dooley, 89, sat alone for 41 years as the only UGA football coach to win college football’s biggest crown. That is, until Kirby Smart joined him. Dooley coached the Bulldogs from 1964 through 1988. He served as the school’s athletic director from 1979 to 2004. Smart played for the Bulldogs from 1995 to 1998. In 2015, Smart was named the head coach of his alma mater. The two met on the field last night and were able to share a handshake and a few words. When posted to the Georgia Football social media pages, the only caption it needed was two goat emojis and a handshake emoji (the goat emoji symbolizes the acronym for “greatest of all time”).
Marietta Daily Journal
Georgia lawmakers hold quick opening session on national championship game day
By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia lawmakers didn’t let the start of the 2022 General Assembly session Monday get in the way of college football’s national championship game. The state House and Senate held truncated sessions Monday morning to give legislators time to head to Indianapolis for Monday night’s showdown between the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide. House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, even gaveled his chamber into session 90 minutes earlier than the usual 10 a.m. start time. “Go Dawgs!” were the last words out of his mouth as he wrapped up the brief floor session. The House also showed Dawgs highlights on a video screen before and after the session began.
Savannah Morning News
Marshpoint Elementary students prepare for UGA, Alabama game with STEAM activities
Bianca Moorman
Wearing University of Georgia gear and crafting goal posts with art materials, a fifth grade class at Marshpoint Elementary School hopes that the Bulldogs will defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football National Championship game on Monday evening. “This is a huge deal that (UGA gets) to go to the national championship and I was like, what can we do that is fun,” said Marshpoint Elementary School fifth grade teacher Heather Ager. Ager and her students worked on STEAM activities, including building a goal post, making a football helmet and learning about the University of Georgia. She said her students have been reading about the university and have asked her about majors, as well as the GPA needed to get into the school. …Even though Isabel Connelly likes Florida football, she said she was supporting Georgia through the outfit her mom made for her. She said she was excited to learn about football and the state of Georgia during class.
Georgia Trend
Catching Up With … Kimberly Ballard-Washington
The president of Savannah State University talks about the role and value of HBCUs.
By Susan Percy
Kimberly Ballard-Washington, an attorney, spent much of her career on the legal side of public higher education, as advisor to the state Board of Regents and in the legal affairs departments of the University of Georgia and Valdosta State University. After stints as interim president of Fort Valley State University and Albany State University, she moved to Savannah State, where she was interim president before being named president last May. These are edited highlights of an interview.
Q: Tell us about your university.
WGAU Radio
UNG team is runner-up in NSA competition
Finished right behind Ga Tech
By Clark Leonard, UNG
The University of North Georgia finished second out of 631 universities and colleges in the 2021 National Security Agency Codebreaker Challenge that wrapped up Jan. 4. UNG tallied 152,239 points as two Georgia universities stood atop the standings. Georgia Institute of Technology took first place with 234,982 points. …“This is UNG’s fourth top-three finish in a row in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge, following victories in 2019 and 2020 and a third-place finish in 2018,” Dr. Bryson Payne, UNG professor of cybersecurity and coordinator of student cyber programs, said.
Patch
Savannah Area Chamber: Georgia Southern University To Hold Spring Browse Of GSU Graduating Talent
The Savannah Browse will take place on Tuesday, January 25, at the Residential Plaza. Employers will have an opportunity to engage with Georgia Southern students entering the job market.
WTOC
East Georgia’s Statesboro site swaps buildings with GSU
By Dal Cannady
Some big changes at two colleges in Statesboro – they’re trading locations. The move finally comes after years of planning the swap between East Georgia’s Statesboro site and Georgia Southern’s College of Continuing Education. The new semester means a new home for East Georgia students from their former site on Highway 301 South of town. …East Georgia students already pay the fees that give them access to Georgia Southern’s library, dining hall and more. Faculty say they’re getting used to the closeness as much as the students. …Professors can also use Georgia Southern labs for classes without forcing students to commute.
Albany Herald
Coming to America mural exhibition set to open at ABAC
From staff reports
A special mural exhibition titled “Coming to America — The Immigrant Experience Featuring the Lost Mural of Ellis Island” will open to the public beginning Jan. 18 in Ernest Edwards Hall on the campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. The opening reception and the first of three supporting lectures for the exhibition are both set for Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. in Edwards Hall when John Vanzo speaks on “Malanija Knavs and the Right Way to Come to America.” Vanzo is a professor of political science and geography in the School of Arts and Sciences.
WGAU Radio
UGA researchers report sharp decline in deer population in NE Ga
Drop of two-thirds since 1979
By Tim Bryant
A new study from the University of Georgia says deer populations in the north Georgia mountains are down by almost two-thirds since 1979. Researchers in the University’s Forestry School say forest management policies are partly to blame.
WGAU Radio
UGA resumes asymptomatic COVID testing
Jackson Co: schools functioning normally, despite elevated case count
By Tim Bryant
With the start of the University of Georgia’s spring semester classes, UGA resumes its testing of asymptomatic students, staff, and faculty: a pop-up coronavirus testing site is on the west lawn of the University’s Tate Student Center, open at 10 o’clock this morning.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Jan. 10)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,572,899
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 26,589 | 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 Augusta Chronicle
Why is Omicron variant more contagious but less severe? Experts think they know
Tom Corwin
While doctors struggled early in the pandemic to help COVID-19 patients breathe and to keep them off a ventilator, where they could stay for weeks, that is happening much less with the Omicron variant, although it’s more contagious. Research from labs around the world might show why the lungs are often being spared. … Why is Omicron more infectious?
One study from the University of Hong Kong provides strong evidence of why it might be more infectious but less severe. Using human tissue from the upper airways and the lungs, the researchers found Omicron replicated 70 times more than the Delta or original strain of the virus in the upper airways but 10 times less in the lungs compared to Delta. That got Vazquez’s attention.
Higher Education News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Emory, other universities conspired to reduce student aid, lawsuit says
By Eric Stirgus
Complaint says schools favored wealthy applications in admissions process
Emory and more than a dozen of the nation’s most prestigious private universities have worked to reduce the amount of financial aid they provided students, a class action lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court in Chicago, says the universities have systematically favored wealthy applicants in making admissions decisions and overcharged many lower-income students over nearly two decades. …While the group says its goal is to assure educational access to students regardless of income, the lawsuit says administrators are operating otherwise.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Association of American Colleges and Universities Modifies Name to Reflect Global Membership
The Association of American Colleges and Universities will now be known as the American Association of Colleges and Universities, with its acronym remaining as AAC&U. Placing “American” before “association” rather than “colleges and universities” is intended to recognize the growing involvement of educators around the world and position the organization for continued growth in global membership, says the AAC&U. “The association’s new name acknowledges the reality that AAC&U has become a global membership organization,” said Dr. Lenore Rodicio, senior fellow in the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and chair of the AAC&U Board of Directors. “While AAC&U members continue to represent the full institutional diversity that is the great strength of US higher education, it is simply no longer the case that our membership is limited to American colleges and universities only.”
Inside Higher Ed
No More Cloth: Colleges Upgrade Face-Mask Requirements
Some colleges say cloth masks will no longer meet their masking requirements, and they are requiring medical-grade masks instead.
By Elizabeth Redden
Facing the surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, some colleges are upgrading their face-masking requirements for the spring semester. They say cloth masks will no longer be sufficient and are mandating KN95s or other medical-grade masks instead. The University of Southern California announced last week it is requiring “medical grade masks, which at minimum are surgical masks and may also include higher grade respirator masks (N95, KN95, or KF94)” in all campus locations where masks are required, including indoor common spaces, public areas, classrooms, libraries, offices and laboratories. The University of Arizona also adjusted its masking requirement to require surgical or higher-grade masks in all indoor campus spaces. …Gerri Taylor, co-chair of the American College Health Association’s COVID-19 task force, said the association is waiting for updated guidance for higher education institutions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before it recommends one type of mask over another. “Although the data is out there that really pretty much proves that the KN95s, the N95s, the KF94s are all much preferable to the cloth masks,” Taylor said. “If we want to be safe about this, we really should be wearing those.”