University System News:
Barnesville Dispatch
Gordon State College Unveils Its First Memorial Stag Statue
On Tuesday, Feb. 15, Gordon State College hosted its first unveiling ceremony of the Alan R. Giles Memorial Stag statue. The event took place in front of the GSC Student Activity and Recreation Center (SARC) at 9:30 a.m. with remarks from the late honoree’s wife, Angela Giles.
GSC Vice President of Advancement, External Relations and Marketing Montrese Adger Fuller opened the ceremony by thanking Angela Giles and her late husband, Alan Giles for leaving such “a wonderful legacy and addition to the Gordon State College campus that will be here for many years to come.”
WGXA
Middle Georgia State University professor named 2022 Governor’s Teaching Fellow
by Haley Garrett
A Middle Georgia State University professor has been selected as a 2022 Governor’s Teaching Fellows. Dr. Patsy Butts, associate professor of nursing and coordinator of the Pre-Licensure-to-BSN degree program at Middle Georgia State University, was among the faculty from institutions of higher education across the state that were named in the program. The program provides higher education faculty with expanded opportunities in teaching skills. The program was established by Zell Miller in 1995 and he created the program to address faculty members’ pressing need to use emerging technologies and instructional tools.
Valdosta Daily Times
VSU students help St. Marys businesses
By Brittanye Blake
Valdosta State business students are helping St. Marys businesses develop marketing strategies. Dr. Amy Watson and 44 students in her MBA 7050 marketing strategy course work through Valdosta State University’s Center for South Georgia Regional Impact to help Riverview Hotel, Seagle’s Restaurant and Captain Seagle’s Saloon. Watson, assistant professor of marketing at VSU, assigned students a project to help businesses identify opportunities to increase sales, enhance their reputation and establish a foundation for long-term growth and success. Retrina Roberts, a student from Valdosta, worked alongside classmates Emily Martinez, Amaya Hartman and Chikina Miller to develop a plan for Riverview Hotel. “The purpose of the project was for us to see what we could do, as students to help businesses better withstand their position in the COVID-19 pandemic,” Roberts said. “We were able to use data that would provide a strategy to focus on target marketing and understanding customer experience.”
WGAU Radio
UGA study assesses virtual lab instruction during pandemic
“We wanted to get a sense of how the programs worked”
By Tim Bryant
As most of the world came to a halt at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers were trying to find a way to engage students through research at a distance. University of Georgia professor of biochemistry and molecular biology Erin Dolan and her research team carried out a study to appraise the remote programs that grew from this challenge. The study evaluated 23 programs at colleges, universities, and research institutions across the country. Most of these programs were eight- to 10-week internships.
Augusta Chronicle
COVID-19 has been deadly to cancer, transplant patients, but antibodies can offer ‘shield’
Tom Corwin
Even though she has been vaccinated and boosted, Bridgette McClarty, 49, of Grovetown knows her cancer treatment likely wiped out all of her protection against COVID-19. “I was walking around in a war with nothing,” she said. Her doctors at Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University have since found a way to protect her through a new shot of monoclonal antibodies, but McClarty remains cautious.
Capitol Beat
Pari-mutuel betting on horse racing gets airing in Georgia Senate
by Dave Williams
The perennial push to legalize gambling in Georgia hit the General Assembly Thursday for the first time in this year’s legislative session. A state Senate committee took up two similar measures asking Georgia voters to decide whether to legalize pari-mutuel betting on horse racing and two accompanying “enabling” bills outlining how the industry would operate in the Peach State. Supporters came armed with a report from Georgia Southern University projecting horse racing – including the breeding and raising of racing thoroughbreds – would create 15,800 jobs in Georgia during its first decade, generating $1.28 billion in economic impact.
WSAV
Sea levels forecast to rise rapidly; what it means for Savannah area
by: Brian Gallagher
A new government report anticipates an alarming forecast for sea level rise over the next 30 years. WSAV News 3 spoke with a local expert about what our region has seen so far and could expect in the future. “So locally here in Savannah over the last 85 years…or so, rates have been… about three millimeters per year, which is equal to about a foot per century,” said Dr. Clark Alexander, director and professor at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. The report by seven federal agencies says scientists are confident there will be another 10- to 12-inch rise in sea level by 2050. …He credits climate change as a factor to a faster rise in sea level.
Savannah Morning News
‘Decline in company culture’: Resignation letters show why 6 Port Wentworth staffers quit
Eight administrative employees have resigned from the city government in the last seven weeks
Nancy Guan
What to do with Savannah’s labor issues? Georgia Southern economics professor explains.
Georgia Southern economics pr0fessor Michael Toma discusses ways to improve the labor issues currently in Savannah and Chatham County.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: In standing with Trump, Sonny Perdue rebuked science and truth
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
A Regents’ professor says former governor can’t lead University System with integrity
Randy Malamud is Regents’ Professor of English at Georgia State University. The Board of Regents presents Regents’ professorships to faculty whose scholarship is recognized nationally and internationally as innovative and pace-setting. In a guest column, Malamud contends former Gov. Sonny Perdue’s tenure in the Trump administration as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture disqualifies him to lead the University System of Georgia. The regents, who are political appointees, named Perdue sole finalist to lead the state’s University System this week. Gov. Brian Kemp backs Perdue for the chancellorship, one of the most powerful positions in state government.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 17)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,899,884
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 29,018 | 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
College Endowments Saw Stellar Returns as the Market Soared
By Audrey Williams June
During a fiscal year when stocks soared, college endowments posted annual returns that were up sharply from the year before, when the markets hit a volatile stretch early in the pandemic. According to the annual Nacubo-TIAA Study of Endowments, scheduled for release on Friday, college endowments had an average one-year return of 30.6 percent, net of fees, in the 2021 fiscal year. The year before, the endowments’ overall average return was 1.8 percent. The positive results extended across endowments both large and small. Even the lowest rates of return were still more than 20 percent, the study found.
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
College Endowments Boomed in Fiscal 2021
The average endowment’s size increased by 35 percent, leaving 19 percent of institutions with endowments worth more than $1 billion. But experts say few students benefited from that growth.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why One Institution Is Bringing Back Tenure
By Megan Zahneis
Tenure has lately faced threats on levels both existential and practical. But one institution is embracing it, years after it scrapped the model in favor of hiring faculty members on multiyear contracts. Trustees of Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, endorsed the switch to tenure last week, and faculty members are expected to approve it by a vote that began on Thursday. Not being able to offer tenure has dampened faculty recruitment and morale, said Linda MK Johnson, a member of the faculty committee that recommended a tenure system to Chatham’s board.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why 2 Federal Lawmakers Decided to Target Legacy Admissions
By Sahalie Donaldson
As colleges face calls to become more inclusive, one refrain has grown in popularity in recent years. Why not ban legacy admissions? By giving a boost to the children of alumni, critics charge, the practice only adds an additional barrier for the underrepresented students striving to navigate higher education. On Capitol Hill, two Democratic lawmakers this month unveiled legislation to outlaw legacy preferences in admissions on many campuses. The bill’s passage is unlikely, at least for now, but its introduction signals how prominent a target legacy admissions has become in progressive circles.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Cal State Chancellor Resigns Over Allegations He Mishandled Harassment Complaints
By Katherine Mangan
California State University’s chancellor, Joseph I. Castro, resigned, effective immediately, on Thursday evening amid a growing furor over his handling of sexual-harassment and bullying complaints against one of his vice presidents when Castro was president of Cal State-Fresno. The stunning development capped a daylong meeting of the university system’s Board of Trustees, which had been expected to call for an outside investigation of the chancellor’s conduct. The board voted to accept Castro’s resignation and to proceed with plans for an outside review of the system’s sexual-harassment policies and procedures. Castro had drawn increasing fire for failing to rein in Frank Lamas, the Fresno campus’s vice president for student affairs, who had been the subject of a dozen complaints of sexual harassment and bullying over six years.
Inside Higher Ed
Texas Lt. Governor Slams ‘Looney Marxist’ Professors, CRT
By Colleen Flaherty
In response to the University of Texas at Austin’s Faculty Council passing a resolution affirming professors’ right to teach critical race theory and gender justice this week, Texas Republican lieutenant governor Dan Patrick tweeted, “I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”