Marietta Daily Journal
KSU’s Goslow places second in Jeopardy! championship
Zach Edmondson
Kennesaw State University’s Raymond Goslow placed second in the “Jeopardy!” National College Championship Tuesday night. Jaskaran Singh of the University of Texas at Austin stole the show, finishing with a score of $51,700 and winning the $250,000 grand prize. Goslow finished with a second-best $46,999, and Liz Feltner of Northeastern University finished last. …Goslow still took home $100,000 for placing second in the final round.
Albany Herald
City of Albany, Albany State get large share of federal stimulus grants
From staff reports
The water management council at Albany State University and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division are slated to receive more than $49 million, and the city of Albany will receive more than $12 million to help pay for its faltering sewage system as part of the $422 million in federal economic stimulus grants announced by Gov. Brian Kemp, state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims and Rep. Gerald Greene Tuesday. The grants are part of Georgia’s share of $4.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
WTOC
‘Engineers of Tomorrow’ program setting middle school students up for success
By Dal Cannady
Choosing your career can be tough. Many school districts start early to help students train and plan for their future. In Bulloch County, some middle schools got the unique chance this week to see some STEM fields up close. For hundreds of seventh grade students in Bulloch County, the “Engineers of Tomorrow” program is a chance to learn hands-on that it’s not too early to think about careers. A plasma cutter worked on patterns that Rylle Mackiewicz picked. She’s getting a firsthand look at one of Georgia Southern’s engineering labs. She says this definitely beats a visitor standing in front of her class to talk about STEM careers. …Roughly 300 seventh graders from Bulloch County middle schools get to tour Georgia Southern labs. They’re seeing robotics and a host of other science-related subjects that offer careers. School district leaders say they start early introducing students to the range of jobs available.
Columbus CEO
Wissner Named to USG Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program
Columbus State University’s Dr. Reba Wissner has been accepted to the 2022 summer symposium of the Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program. Wissner is an assistant professor of musicology in the Schwob School of Music, where she recently developed the school’s undergraduate certificate in public musicology. Former Gov. Zell Miller developed the Governor’s Teaching Fellows program to aid Georgia’s higher educational instructors in developing students and working for impact in their respective fields. Participants in the program engage in structured instructional and faculty development activities, as well as self-directed activities to further enhance their teaching expertise.
Albany Herald
Students explore careers in veterinary science during 4-H Vet Day at UGA-Tifton
By Josie Smith CAES News
Georgia 4-Hers experienced a day of career exploration and hands-on veterinary demonstrations during 4-H Vet Day at the Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory on the University of Georgia-Tifton campus recently. Students from 10 counties in UGA Cooperative Extension’s Southwest District heard from scientists and veterinarians about career opportunities in animal science. Laboratory faculty and staff welcomed 4-Hers in ninth through 12th grades and guided them through a series of workshops and rotations to explore elements of veterinary medicine, including studies of blood, bacteria, DNA, infectious diseases, parasites and pathology, and calving. Participants learned about practical applications for animal science and discovered related career options.
Henry Herald
Georgia students to participate in CyberStart America, compete for cash prizes
From staff reports
Georgia high school students will participate in CyberStart America, an innovative, online cybersecurity talent search and competition sponsored by the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation and the SANS Institute, state officials announced. The competition is open to all high school students to explore their aptitude for cybersecurity and computer science, with participants able to win scholarships and prizes and recognition for their schools. A partnership between the University of North Georgia, the Georgia Cyber Center at Augusta University, Georgia Tech Research Institute and the Georgia Department of Education created “CyberStart America in Georgia” to promote CyberStart within the state and provide $100,000 in cash prizes to Georgia students, teachers and schools.
yahoo!news
Silent auction to assist Donna Hatcher Memorial Endowed Scholarship
The Albany Herald, Ga.
Donna Hatcher proved herself to be quite a memorable person during her 20 years as a faculty member at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Now her legacy will continue in the form of the Donna Hatcher Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which will give talented students of the future a chance to experience the many charms of ABAC. The School of Arts and Sciences will conduct a silent auction and dessert reception for Hatcher’s many works of art and sculpture from 7-8:30 p.m. on March 12 in the Tom M. Cordell Conference Center at ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture. …Matthew Anderson, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, said the proceeds from the sale will set the stage for talented students in the arts to attend ABAC and take advantage of the new facilities in recently opened Ernest Edwards Hall.
WDEF
Sen. Ossoff talks job training at Dalton State
Collins Parker
U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff visited Dalton State University on Tuesday to talk about Pell Grants. He chose the Dalton campus because they are the only Hispanic Serving Institution in the state of Georgia.
WJBF
Chick-fil-A gives $100,000 to fund minority recruitment efforts at Augusta University
by: D.V. Wise
Chick-fil-A has donated $100,000 to Augusta University to support two minority-driven initiatives. Half of the gift will help fund minority scholarships for medical students at the Medical College of Georgia and the other half will be used to help recruit more Black males to become educators through the College of Education.
Campus Reform
Georgia bill would protect women’s sports
The Save Girls’ Sports Act would require that athletes compete according to their biological sex.
The bill is moving through the state Senate.
Alexa Schwerha | Reporter
The Georgia Senate is on track to consider a bill that would require athletes to compete according to their biological sex. The Save Girls’ Sports Act cleared the Senate Education and Youth Committee on Feb. 9 and will now move to the Senate floor for deliberation. SB266 was reintroduced by Senator Marty Harbin, who stressed the bill “is about fairness.” “This bill is about fairness. It is simply not fair to force biological girls to compete against biological boys, and it is certainly not fair to expect young women to endure the immense social pressure against them if they speak up for themselves,” Hardin said. The bill would affect student-athletes who compete for schools in the Georgia Education System, as well as within the University System of Georgia.
Savannah Morning News
Here’s how Georgia Southern athletics balanced the budget during the pandemic
Nathan Dominitz
After seeing the COVID-19 pandemic shut down college sports in the spring of 2020, the Georgia Southern University Athletic Department had an idea what was coming — more or less — for the 2020-21 fiscal year. More medical expenses for testing, treating and protecting student-athletes, coaches, staff, anyone involved with campus athletics. Less revenue from sales of tickets, concessions, novelties, programs, etc. With limitations on spectators and the very real possibility of home and road games lost off the schedules of any sport at any time, there could be fewer people to go to fewer games than when things were normal. Jared Benko, who became director of athletics at the Statesboro campus just as the pandemic was canceling games in the United States, pledged to keep things as normal as possible. Athletic departments nationwide feared debilitating financial losses and some took drastic measures. Benko did not want to cut any sports. The budget was tightened, no question. But here’s the thing: the budget was balanced, too. …Georgia Southern had operated in 2019-20 on $29,077,794 in total revenue and 29,099,661 in expenses, according to the report. A year later, the Eagles came in with a slightly smaller budget of $28,954,190 in total revenue, and the exact same number in expenses. A balance of zero.
See also:
Savannah Morning News
‘Help us close the gap’: Georgia Southern is losing ground to Sun Belt members in spending
Athens Banner-Herald
Georgia football recruiting signee hospitalized with gunshot wounds
McClain Baxley
EJ Lightsey, a linebacker from Fitzgerald, Georgia who signed with UGA football earlier this month, was hospitalized Monday night. Lightsey was one of two individuals injured by gunfire in Fitzgerald Monday. The linebacker was transferred by ambulance to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany with non-life-threatening injuries, Fitzgerald police told the AJC. As of Tuesday morning, Lightsey is in stable condition, WALB News 10 in Albany confirmed. Lightsey signed with the Bulldogs on Feb. 4 after leading his Fitzgerald team to the GHSA AA state championship in December.
Valdosta Daily Times
VSU observes 10th Tree Campus USA recognition
Valdosta State University has observed its 10th Arbor Day Foundation Tree Campus USA recognition and “steadfast commitment to effective urban forest management,” university officials said in a statement. VSU traditionally hosts an on-campus Arbor Day Ceremony with speakers, activities, and tree plantings. However, due to the ongoing global pandemic, officials decided to recognize the occasion with a video message from Monica Haynes, superintendent of landscape and grounds at VSU, and a “look at the university’s unwavering commitment to maintain, preserve and protect its trees and eye-catching landscaping.”
11Alive (Video)
Black History Month | A look at the significance of Black deans on college campuses
As we celebrate Black History Month, we are looking at the significance of Black deans on college campuses.
The Augusta Chronicle
Sonny Perdue announcement latest clash between USG Board of Regents, faculty and students
Abraham Kenmore
Abeeha Bhatti, a senior at Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, is getting ready for college. She is applying to Georgia State, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech to study Biomedical engineering. But as she weighs which school to attend, the Communications Director for the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition is concerned about who will likely be the next chancellor of the University System of Georgia. The USG Board of Regents recently voted to make former governor and US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue the sole finalist for chancellor. “I’m looking for a university where I’ll feel supported, I’m a minority student, I’m first generation, so I just am looking for somewhere where I’ll feel supported and where I know my administration is going to want me to graduate,” Bhatti said. Bhatti isn’t alone in her concern. “I’m outraged,” said Georgia American Association of University Professors President Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, of the potential Perdue appointment. “I’m outraged by the process, but I’m also outraged by the conclusion.”
The World University Rankings
How can US universities combat threat of teaching restrictions?
Lawmakers moving to block lessons on race and politics after successful efforts to police school curricula
Paul Basken
Lawmakers in half of US states are pursuing measures to restrict college-level teaching about race and other sensitive subject areas, and institutions appear unsure how to confront the issue. The crackdown began last year largely at primary and secondary school levels but has shifted in recent months to the post-secondary sector, with lawmakers proposing college curriculum restrictions in at least 25 states and already having won approval in three. Legislators across the nation are building on each other’s work and finding increasingly creative and bold ways to outlaw classroom discussions about racial and gender equity, said Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education at PEN America, a writers’ organisation that has been tracking the phenomenon. “These bills are moving from bigger, broader ideas to really specific, targeted forms of censorship against how people would talk about any kinds of issues in higher ed,” Dr Friedman said. …Those instances include the blocking and ousting of outspoken academics at the University of North Carolina, moves in Florida to restrict faculty from testifying in court against voter suppression efforts and to constrain presidential searches, and the imminent installation in Georgia of an outspoken Donald Trump ally as the head of the state’s university system. …The AAUP expressed hope that academic institutions would face natural consequences from actions such as the selection of Sonny Perdue – a former governor with no higher education experience and a record of having discounted scientific evidence while he led the US Department of Agriculture in the Trump administration – to head the University System of Georgia. Partisan appointments and curricular restrictions, the AAUP noted in one of its statements, are already attracting negative attention from students and from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accrediting agency that affirms Georgia’s state institutions as eligible for federal student aid.
Reporter Newspapers
News Briefs: MARTA Reach launch; Peace Week ATL; Midtown High auction
by Collin Kelley
MARTA and Georgia Tech are hosting a launch event for MARTA Reach on Feb. 28 at 11 a.m. at Harrison Square, 675 Cherry St., on the Tech campus. MARTA Reach is a six-month pilot research project with Georgia Tech to test an app-based, multimodal rideshare service designed to connect riders to MARTA bus and rail and help minimize waiting and walking
Agribusiness Info
Pandemic Lingers in Georgia and Ag Groups Want Chlorpyrifos
The Agribusiness Update Bob Larson
The lingering effects of the global pandemic continue to ripple through Georgia, with persistent supply chain issues and inflation affecting bottom lines. But, UGA ag economists tell www.gfb.org, a strong overall economic outlook and confident consumer spending signal recovery in 2022. UGA Ag and Applied Economics professor, Jeffrey Dorfman says, average incomes are about 8% above pre-pandemic levels and high rates of savings accumulated during the pandemic means consumers are well-positioned to absorb currently inflated prices.
Science Daily
Researchers discover when pollen comes of age
New research from the University of Georgia has determined when pollen comes of age and begins expressing its own genome, a major life cycle transition in plants. Each grain of pollen is actually its own multicellular organism — with two to 40 cells, depending on the species. Pollen expresses its own genome and is genetically distinct from its parent plant. That means pollen grains from a single flower can have different traits and characteristics, similar to how you might be different from your siblings.
WALB
5th annual Paint The Town Blue Gala returns to Americus
By Kiera Hood
The city of Americus is getting ready to paint the town blue. After being canceled due to COVID-19, the annual gala honoring law enforcement and their families is returning for its fifth year. …Faith Pinnell is president of The Smarr and Smith Foundation. She tells me year after year, this event allowed them to continue to show appreciation for the men and women who serve and have served. “We have donated over $41,000 in grants and needs to those departments and we’ve also started some scholarships, so we’ve given $7,000 in scholarships to training future officers through South Georgia Tech and we’re working towards endowing a scholarship at Georgia Southwestern.” The gala will be held on Saturday, March 19 at 6 p.m. at the Georgia Southwestern Storm Dome.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Georgia’s lack of need-based aid is legislative, moral failure
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
College counselor says too many low-income kids put college dreams on hold
Ashley Young is a college counselor at Drew Charter School in Atlanta and a doctoral student at Georgia State University. She is studying education policy with a passion for college access, equity and participatory democracy.
By Ashley Young
I was shocked and angry when I learned that Georgia is one of only two states that does not provide need-based financial aid to college students. I could not process this legislative and moral failure. There was $1.5 billion in the Georgia Lottery reserve, including $781 million in unrestricted reserves above the legal requirement of the lottery. Yet too many students in our state could not access the financial aid needed to help them afford college.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Feb. 22)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,905,790
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 29,352 | 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:
Inside Higher Ed
Professor Says He Was Fired for Refusing to Teach In Person
By Scott Jaschik
A former associate professor at Georgia Military College who suffers from chronic illnesses is suing the college for wrongful termination, saying that he was fired last year after refusing to return to in-person teaching, The Macon Telegraph reported. Joshua Fields taught biology, primarily at the college’s Augusta campus, from 2013 until his dismissal last February. Fields suffers from what the lawsuit describes as “serious medical conditions,” including Crohn’s disease and kidney failure, which “compromise his immune system” and “place him at higher risk for serious illness … were he to contract COVID-19.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court, contends that the college violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The suit notes that from March 2020 until August 2020
Inside Higher Ed
Most Students Believe Faculty Adjusted Well to the Pandemic
A report from the National Survey of Student Engagement found that students had positive perceptions about online and hybrid learning last year. Experts say the results reflect how faculty and students worked together during the pandemic.
By Maria Carrasco
Students had positive perceptions of faculty teaching during the pandemic and of how professors adapted their courses despite online and hybrid teaching challenges. Those are the findings released Tuesday by the National Survey of Student Engagement. The results were part two of its annual report, “Engagement Insights—Survey Findings on the Quality of Undergraduate Education,” which said 73 percent of students believed that faculty and staff at their institution did “a good job” helping students adapt to remote instruction. Faculty members largely agreed with that conclusion; 86 percent of them said they believed they “substantially” did a good job helping students adapt to the changes brought on by the pandemic. The survey, which was conducted in spring 2021, received responses from 7,413 first-year students and 9,229 seniors from 47 bachelor’s degree–granting institutions in the U.S. Jillian Kinzie, interim co-director of NSSE, said the survey results reflect how faculty and students worked together to teach and learn during an unprecedented time.
CNN
Red states are remaking the civil liberties landscape
Analysis by Ronald Brownstein
From Florida, Georgia and Tennessee through Texas, South Dakota and Montana, Republican-controlled states are approving a torrent of culturally conservative hot-button legislation at a pace unmatched in recent times, and probably ever. States where the GOP controls both the governorship and state legislature are moving in unprecedented numbers to restrict abortion, limit access to voting, ban books, retrench transgender rights and constrain teachers’ ability to discuss race, gender and sexual orientation at public K-12 schools and increasingly at public colleges and universities.