WGAU Radio
Federal funding will advance work of UGA’s Isakson Center
$5 million from spending package approved by Congress
By Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia gets $5 million in federal funding for Parkinson’s research as part of the spending package passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this week. The money goes to the Johnny Isakson Center for Brain Sciences and Neurological Disorders at UGA, the center named in honor of the late Georgia Senator who died after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
From UGA Media Relations…
The funds, which will support new facilities and equipment for the Johnny Isakson Center for Brain Science and Neurological Disorders at UGA, augment the university’s major investment in brain research and neurological disorders.
Albany Herald
Albany State celebrates student achievement during 2022 Honors Day program
By Alan Mauldin
Albany State University recognized the accomplishments of nearly 900 students on Thursday during its annual Honors Day program, which returned live after the event was held virtually in 2021. Of the 889 students whose names were read during the ceremony at the university’s West Campus, 67 achieved a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during the current academic year.
Marietta Daily Journal
Two KSU Master of Arts in Professional Writing students earn national honor
Staff reports
Two Master of Arts in Professional Writing students at Kennesaw State University have won national honors for their creative writing and composition and rhetoric. Tyra Douyon of Kennesaw won the Tin House Young Adult Workshop award and Haley Hamilton of Woodstock had a proposal accepted for the Conference on College Composition and Communication, which was held online March 9-12. Tony Grooms, director of the MAPW program and professor of creative writing, said he is “constantly amazed” by the accomplishments of MAPW students and alumni across a range of writing fields in the program’s 26-year history.
Douglas Now
USG FOUNDATION TO HONOR CHARLES EAMES AT FALL GALA
Mr. Charles B. Eames, Jr., of Waycross, Ga., enjoys helping others while expecting nothing in return. Through his work in supporting higher education, helping preschool students develop a love for reading, and many other efforts, Eames has been recognized with local honors and recognitions for his selfless generosity. This fall, everyone in Georgia will know about this quiet community servant. The University System of Georgia (USG) Foundation has announced its plans to present Eames with the University System of Georgia Regents’ Hall of Fame Alumni and Distinguished Friends Award. Eames is slated to receive the honor in person at the Board of Regents’ Scholarship Gala on Friday, Sept. 9 in Atlanta. “There are many more people deserving of the Regents award than I am. I am humbled by the honor,” Eames said. “I am pleased that the wonderful citizens of the Waycross and south Georgia areas can share in this honor.” South Georgia State College (SGSC) President Dr. Ingrid Sellers nominated Eames for the award in the State College category.
The City Menus
UWG’s Women Empowering Women event focuses on women in technology
By Julie Lineback
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the University of West Georgia’s Richards College of Business held its annual Women Empowering Women event last week. With the focus on technology, panelists – three of whom were UWG alumnae – included both seasoned leaders in the industry and those in the bloom of their careers. Leading the discussion was Dr. Jeannie Pridmore, professor of management information systems and director of UWG’s MBA program. Among her many achievements, she most recently received the University System of Georgia’s 2022 Felton Jenkins Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award in recognition of her commitment to teaching and student success.
Times-Georgian
UWG Coliseum announces All-Sports Camp for summer 2022
The Coliseum and UWG Athletics have combined to announce the first-ever All Sports Camp on the campus of the University of West Georgia. The camp, intended for rising K-5 children, will be a weekly camp full of fun and adventure on UWG’s Carrollton Campus. The cost of the event will be $175 per camper per week, but UWG Staff and Faculty are eligible for a $35 discounted rate off the registration price. Camp registration includes lunch, snacks, and a shirt, along with the event’s activities.
Patch
University Of Georgia: Road Dawgs Program Visits High Schools
Program is back on track after a pause, expanded to include visits with community businesses.
Program back on track after a pause, expanded to include visits with community businesses This spring break, University of Georgia students spent two days talking about the benefits of college to students around the state as part of the Road Dawgs program. UGA students visited Dooly County High School in Vienna and Crisp County High School in Cordele. There they gave a presentation on college life and had small group discussions with high school students all about college life—from picking a major to finding a social life. They taught students how to Call the Dawgs and gave away UGA T-shirts.
WGAU Radio
UGA hosts children’s literature conference
Two-day conference at Georgia Center
By Tim Bryant
The University of Georgia is hosting this year’s Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature: it is underway this morning at the Georgia Center.
From the UGA master calendar…
We are excited to be organizing a face-to-face conference for 2022 after having had an online conference last year. As an integral part of Georgia’s literacy initiative for half a century, the Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature draws hundreds of teachers, school media specialists, public librarians, authors, illustrators, and children’s literature scholars from the Southeast and beyond. The conference also hosts the finals of the annual Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, a statewide competition for students in grades 4–12.
University Business
Why more than 200 universities are turning to bikes to improve campuses
The healthy initiatives, which are rewarded nationally each year, have many benefits for students and institutions.
By: Chris Burt
Sustainability, health and wellness, keeping communities connected and space on campus are all issues that get the attention of college leaders as they plan for the future. And they can all be connected in a roundabout way through one simple, fun vehicle that can breathe surprising life into campuses: the bicycle. The League of American Bicyclists recently designated 33 new institutions as Bicycle Friendly Universities, and many of them are on the list not because they have expansive bike trails or paths. Some urban universities achieved the status because they have found ways to expand the use of two-wheelers and make room for riding over parking. …The other newcomers, those who moved up and renewals of status, include: …University of West Georgia
Smithsonian Magazine
How a Survey Course Assignment Connected Students With Contemporary Artists
Students of one Teaching with Primary Sources workshop participant forged connections with contemporary artists and their work in an assignment using the Archives of American Art’s Pandemic Oral History Project
Nathan Rees [Associate Professor of Art History at the University of West Georgia]
In Fall 2021, I structured my contemporary art survey around the theme of “embodiment.” As a participant in the Archives of American Art’s Teaching with Primary Sources workshop, I developed an assignment to help my students explore this topic through archival sources. Already a salient concept in contemporary art, embodiment seemed even more urgent in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Bodies define our place in physical and social worlds, they mediate our experience of visuality and our representation as viewed subjects—and, as the pandemic starkly revealed, they make us vulnerable, both physically and socially. I designed the assignment in conversation with the Archives of American Art’s Pandemic Oral History Project, an extensive collection of interviews with artists and art professionals. I aimed to create a project that would meet the course’s objective of learning “practices and procedures in conducting art historical research” while giving students a wide latitude in exploring personally-relevant topics as they addressed the theme of embodiment.
WJBF
AU professor to find out if exercise improves dementia complications
by: Mary Calkins
People living with dementia experience issues with memory, decision making and balance, which often leads to falls and injuries. A professor at Augusta University is studying ways to lower these risk factors. Dr. Deborah Jehu plans to find out if exercise can improve quality of life for those living with dementia. Her study includes 42 participants, half of which will receive their usual care, and the others will do the Otaga exercise program.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NCAA creates NIL problems by clinging to dying ‘amateur’ model
By Michael Cunningham
There are easy, legal solutions to the alleged problems that college sports leaders cite with athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness. All they need to do is admit that athletes are employees and deal with them as such. Just abandon the “amateur” model that’s enriched coaches and administrators at the expense of athletes for a new system that pays the labor fair market value. …“We have, I think, a high level of urgency to review that issue,” University of Georgia President Jere Morehead, chair of the NCAA’s Division I board of directors, told reporters, including AJC beat writer Chip Towers, recently. “But we also have to be cautious and careful because of litigation and potential litigation around any rules that the NCAA sets at a national level.” Morehead expressed “serious concerns about where NIL has progressed” since the court forced the NCAA to allow athletes the right to profit. The progression is that some athletes are making money for endorsements. Most of the deals are modest. The panic among NCAA leaders is that NIL compensation might in any way be tied to their work as athletes.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘The Wild West’: College sports’ NIL era brings upheaval
By Tim Tucker
Aaron Murray saw first-hand how dramatically life has changed for college athletes. “We had a little dinner in Athens, and oh my God, I’m handing these 19-to 22-year-olds checks for $28,000,” said Murray, the former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback who remains the SEC career leader in passing yards. “I was lucky to have a few hundred bucks in my bank account (during college).” Eleven members of Georgia’s 2021 national championship football team reacted with “big eyes,” Murray said, when they received the checks last month — their shares from the early profits of a new venture launched by Murray and several other former UGA players turned marketing entrepreneurs. For generations, college athletes were forbidden by NCAA rules from receiving compensation for endorsements, autographs and the like, or from using their “name, image and likeness” (NIL) in any way to earn profits. Those caught breaking the draconian rules drew suspensions for multiple games, as happened to Murray’s former teammates A.J. Green and Todd Gurley. But that all changed last summer when new state laws took effect around the nation, enabling college sports stars to make money from their NIL rights and forcing the NCAA to back down from its historical intransigence on the subject.
Daily Citizen News
Growings On: Education is key to reducing food waste
Farmers around the world are constantly faced with risks to their crops from weather and pests, but even more losses occur after crops are harvested. In fact, nearly a third of all the food produced worldwide — approximately 1.3 billion tons — is lost to food wastage each year. Dr. Angelos Deltsidis is an assistant professor in postharvest physiology in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. His research investigates how preharvest factors and postharvest treatments affect the quality of fresh produce. He hopes to use this information to develop methods of preserving produce quality as it travels from the field to the kitchen.
The Augusta Chronicle
Campbell Vaughn: Cold snap’s damage to crops already visible; full damage not yet known
Campbell Vaughn, Columnist [Campbell Vaughn, the UGA Agriculture and Natural Resource agent for Richmond County]
Boy did we take a beating last week. Just as we were getting lulled into an early spring, beware the Ides of March (minus three days). What the wind and rain didn’t do to beat up our spring blooms, the weekend’s freeze stomped the rest of the tender plants into the ground. … Hydrangeas that had already leafed out will have to start fresh. Same goes with figs. Loropetalum blooms, gone. I am still waiting on the full blueberry and peach crop loss report, which is the biggest concern because that is the livelihood of many farmers in our area. With a freeze as low as 21 degrees in the middle of peach country, with crops mostly in full bloom, I am expecting there to be significant loss. Praying there is not. Early assessments on blueberry freeze damage statewide looks to be substantial. Georgia is a top 3 producer of blueberries in the United States, so that crop is huge for our agriculture industry.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated March 17)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,921,472
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 30,630 | 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
Suing John Doe Students Over Copyright
A Chapman professor was upset when he saw his exams posted on Course Hero. Now he’s suing the anonymous students who put them there—to find out who they are. But how responsible is Course Hero?
By Colleen Flaherty
An assistant professor of business at Chapman University is suing students for posting parts of his midterm and final course exams on the website Course Hero. But he doesn’t know who those students are yet. That’s what the lawsuit is for: by suing John Does for copyright infringement, the professor, David Berkovitz, seeks to legally compel Course Hero—which is not a defendant in the case—to produce the students’ identities. “We had no choice,” said Marc Hankin, Berkovitz’s lawyer. “The only way to get a subpoena is to have a case pending.” Prior to suing, Berkovitz contacted Chapman about his exam questions being on Course Hero and reached out to the website itself, Hankin said. But neither party could tell him who uploaded the exams. While Chapman “has a very strong honor code and they don’t support cheating, obviously, they don’t know who it is and there was nothing they could do about it,” Hankin continued. Course Hero, meanwhile, allegedly told Berkovitz, “We’ll give you the information if you serve us with a subpoena.” Course Hero said Wednesday that it had received a takedown request from Berkowitz, in February, and that it complied.
Inside Higher Education
Congress Holds Hearing on HBCU Bomb Threats
By Sara Weissman
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing Thursday about the series of bomb threats received by historically Black colleges and universities this year. Several HBCU student leaders told lawmakers of the fear and anxiety felt by students, faculty and staff members on their campuses and the value of an HBCU education. “These institutions yield a societal impact that simply cannot be quantified,” said Kylie Burke, president of the Student Association at Howard University. “So when bigoted, cowardice actors began to issue violent bomb threats to Howard University and dozens of HBCUs at the start of 2022, it was clear that their intentions were to dismantle sacred pinnacles of Black excellence.” Representatives of the U.S. Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office for Bombing Prevention at the Department of Homeland Security also fielded questions from policy makers about their agencies’ responses to the threats.
Georgia Recorder
Most HBCU bomb threats may be coming from one juvenile, FBI official tells Congress
By: Ariana Figueroa
A top FBI official told members of a U.S. House panel on Thursday that the agency believes a single juvenile is behind most of the bomb threats made to more than 30 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Ryan Young, executive assistant director of the Intelligence Branch at the FBI, said that the bomb threats made to HBCUs and historically Black churches are the agency’s top priority. “We’ve treated this as domestic terrorism,” he said. “It’s meant to inflict harm within the African American population.” Under questioning from Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Young said that the FBI believes that a majority of the bomb threats are from one juvenile, but declined to give any more information.