Atlanta Business Chronicle
Q&A with T. Dallas Smith, one of Atlanta’s 2021 Most Admired CEOs
Atlanta Business Chronicle just announced our 2021 Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs honorees. They will be recognized at a live, in-person awards event on Aug. 19 at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre at The Battery Atlanta. Here’s a Q&A with one of the honorees, T. Dallas Smith, president and CEO of T. Dallas Smith & Co. USG Board of Regents Member
Q: What can other CEOs can do to win such great admiration from their stakeholders?
WGAU Radio
Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants awarded at UGA
$1.5 million to faculty in 13 departments
By Allyson Mann, UGA Today
How can nanotechnology and big data be used to improve diagnosis of infectious viruses like SARS-CoV-2? That’s one of the questions that will be explored through funding provided by a third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants. Eleven grants totaling $1.5 million were awarded in November 2021 to recipients of the third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants. Overall the awards went to faculty from 13 UGA departments, centers, programs, schools and colleges. The program launched in 2017, with a second round of grants in 2019, through a partnership between UGA Research and UGA Public Service and Outreach. Teams in the first two rounds were highly successful at winning external funding to pursue the work initiated through these seed grants.
See also:
Athens CEO
Georgia Electric Mobility Initiative Taps Into the Evolving Technological Field
WJCL
Savannah State University hosts Public Safety Day
1o law enforcement agencies were on hand for the event
Dave Williams, Reporter
Savannah State students and faculty get an up close look at some of their public safety resources. A simulated burning of a residence was just one of the demonstrations during Wednesday’s Public Safety Day on the Savannah State campus. In addition to letting the SSU community know about safety measures available on campus, it also gave some of its students an opportunity to learn about future employment.
Gwinnett Daily Post
PHOTOS: Scenes from the Georgia Gwinnett College 2022 Spring Nurse Dedication ceremony
Photos by Rod Reilly/GGC
Georgia Gwinnett College hosted a Nurse Dedication Ceremony last week for 31 students joining its nursing program this spring. The ceremony included the “blessing of the hands,” which symbolizes the healing and hope the students will provide to the patients they will serve. Hands and a nursing lamp are depicted on a pin the students will receive when they complete the program.
Albany Herald
PHOTOS: Albany State University What’s Up Wednesday: Wellness in Action
Photos contributed by Reginald Christian
Albany State University students, faculty, and staff participated in a What’s Up Wednesday program on Jan. 19 with a theme of “Wellness in Action.”
Albany Herald
PHOTOS: Albany State University Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Brunch
Photos contributed by Reginald Christian
Albany State University held the Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Brunch on Tuesday with keynote speaker, Derreck Kayongo, the former CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Social Entrepreneur, Global Soap Project Founder, and CNN Hero.
GPB
Political Rewind: Push to get voting rights measure to Senate floor; Kemp heads to Vegas
By: Bill Nigut, Natalie Mendenhall, and Sam Bermas-Dawes
The Panel:
Dr. Adrienne Jones — Political science professor, Morehouse College
Greg Bluestein — Politics reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Heather Farley — Chair, Department of criminal justice, public policy and management, College of Coastal Georgia
Dr. Karen Owen — Political science professor, University of West Georgia
The Breakdown:
1. Senate Democrats are pushing to get federal voting rights bills to the floor for debate.
Crux
Pro-life movement needs to prepare for post-Roe political landscape, speakers say
By John Lavenburg
At the same time pro-lifers are optimistic that this could be the year Roe v. Wade is overturned, leaders in the movement caution that the potentially groundbreaking victory doesn’t negate the essential work that still needs to happen at the state and local level. In a post-Roe nation abortion law would return to the states, and while some states would move to more restrictive abortion policies, others would move to more permissive policies for both residents and women that travel across state lines, such as New York and California. Daniel Williams, a history professor at the University of West Georgia, said that if the 16 states that he believes will restrict abortion (post-Roe) close all of their abortion clinics that number still wouldn’t equal the number of abortion clinics in New York.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Jan. 19)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,696,978
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 26,854 | 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.
Reuters
Prior COVID infection more protective than vaccination during Delta surge -U.S. study
By Julie Steenhuysen and Manas Mishra
People who had previously been infected with COVID-19 were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, suggesting that natural immunity was a more potent shield than vaccines against that variant, California and New York health officials reported on Wednesday. Protection against Delta was highest, however, among people who were both vaccinated and had survived a previous COVID infection, and lowest among those who had never been infected or vaccinated, the study found.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
New COVID Guidance for Colleges Is Stricter Than CDC’s
By Susan H. Greenberg
In updated guidance released Wednesday, the American College Health Association recommended that students who test positive for COVID-19 not leave isolation until they receive a negative rapid antigen test—a departure from the latest CDC guidelines, which lowered the recommended quarantine period from 10 to five days and do not require a negative antigen test to end isolation. If a student tests positive after five days, they should test again on day seven or eight, said Gerri Taylor, co-chair of the ACHA’s COVID-19 task force. “And then if that is positive, they should stay through the full 10 days of isolation.” The new guidelines also recommend the use of N95, KN95 or surgical masks on campus, and amend the definition of “up-to-date” vaccination status to include a booster dose, in keeping with CDC guidelines.
Inside Higher Ed
A Radical Approach to Who Gets In
Report by NACAC and NASFAA calls for major changes in the systems used to admit and award aid to students. Failure to do so, the report says, will perpetuate racial inequity.
By Scott Jaschik
The admissions system should be totally overhauled to make it more fair, especially for students of color, said a report issued Wednesday by the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. A major reason that colleges developed the current system, with its tests, essays, grades and recommendation letters, said the report, is to promote selectivity. The report adds, “Selectivity exerts a fundamentally inequitable influence on the path to postsecondary education. It does so not because the system is designed on a complete definition of ‘merit,’ which remains elusive and ill-defined, but because in many cases it is designed to exclude even highly qualified students and because its current configuration relies upon an inequitable system of inputs.” In addition, colleges should “rethink the financial aid application process into one that is less burdensome for students and families, and no longer requires them to continue to ‘prove they are poor,’” said the new report.
Inside Higher Ed
Report Examines Dual Enrollment Programs in 16 States
By Josh Moody
A new report released by the nonprofit Southern Regional Education Board looks at dual-enrollment programs across 16 states, breaking down variances, shared elements and practices worth watching. It finds differences in how such programs are funded, student eligibility, workforce and educational goals, and more. The report, titled “Dual Enrollment: Common Issues Across SREB States,” notes that comparisons can be problematic given how much the structure of such programs can differ across state lines.
Inside Higher Ed
Transfer Enrollment Stabilized in Fall 2021
By Maria Carrasco
Transfer enrollment stabilized in fall 2021 compared to its steep drop the year prior, according to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The report, which analyzed over 12 million undergraduate students, including 1.3 million transfer students, found that transfer student enrollment dropped less than 1 percent—11,300 students—last fall, while nontransfer enrollment declined 4.1 percent. In fall 2020, transfer enrollment declined 9.2 percent, or 137,000 students, compared to 2.3 percent for nontransfer students. Among continuing students, transfers actually increased 2.3 percent in fall 2021 but declined 5.8 percent among students transferring from a stop-out. The economic and health impacts of the pandemic made navigating the transfer process “very difficult as never before,” the report said. Additionally, while four-year institutions expressed the need for transfers to help them maintain enrollment and diversity in the pandemic, the research center said, “The scope and impact of the efforts have proved to be limited.”
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Institutions Seek to Address Basic Needs Insecurity Among HBCU Students
Rebecca Kelliher
Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have grappled for decades with state and federal underfunding while educating many low-income students of color. But the pandemic has disproportionately hit the very communities they often serve. To experts and HBCU leaders, a new survey’s findings highlight the need for more support to students as well as institutions to help them. In its latest report, The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization at Temple University, found that two-thirds of HBCU students in Fall 2020 had experienced basic needs insecurity.
Inside Higher Ed
Hip Hop Caucus Rallies to Cancel Student Loan Debt
By Maria Carrasco
More than a dozen organizations, from the NAACP to the National Black Justice Coalition, are rallying in front of the White House today to demand President Biden cancel all student debt. Sponsored by the Hip Hop Caucus, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that connects the hip-hop community to the civic process, the Cut it: Cancel Student Debt Rally seeks debt relief for 46 million Americans and calls on Biden to extend the suspension of student loan payments until the end of the pandemic. At the very least, the Hip Hop Caucus statement said, the president should uphold a promise he made during his campaign to back Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan to immediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person.