The Augusta Chronicle
Could $2,500 help more college students graduate? Senate weighs need-based grant bill
Margarita Cambest
When Tiara Dugger decided she was going to college there was no stopping her. The 19-year-old John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet school graduate saved what she could from her part-time job, but said she knew that she and her family didn’t have enough to cover an entire year of school. “The choice was to be homeless on campus or stay home [in Augusta] and get my work done,” said Dugger, now a sophomore at Georgia State University in Atlanta. So she made do. First, by choosing to take pre-requisite classes online through GSU’s Perimeter College. Later, by stashing away financial aid refund checks that were meant to cover all of the small, unreimbursed schooling expenses that can add up for college students. … A bill making its way through the Georgia legislature could ease some of the financial burden and increase graduation rates in the process. …The Georgia House of Representatives voted 171-3 earlier this month to offer a need-based tuition grant of up to $2,500 for students who have completed at least 80 percent of their degree.
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta University basketball punches ticket to National Championship game
Will Cheney
Augusta University men’s basketball is playing for a national championship. The No. 5 Jaguars defeated No. 2 Indiana University of Pennsylvania 76-61 in the NCAA Division-II Final Four Thursday. They’ll face No. 5 Northwest Missouri State in the national title game Saturday at 3 p.m. …This is Augusta’s first trip to the national championship game since 2008, which the Jags lost to Winona State 87-76. That was the first of a three-year stretch where Metress led Augusta to Elite Eight appearances.
Savannah CEO
Savannah Children’s Museum to Host Bug Fest
Savannah Children’s Museum invites the public to attend Bug Fest, the annual family-friendly celebration buzzing with bug-themed crafts, activities and workshops. The event will be held Saturday, April 23rd from 10 am to 1 pm at Savannah Children’s Museum, 655 Louisville Rd. Savannah, GA 31401. “Our annual Bug Fest event is an absolute favorite among our visitors! Savannah Children’s Museum transforms into a colorful land of squirmy, buzzy and crawly bug-eyed friends,” said Elisabeth Chappell, Education Specialist for Coastal Heritage Society. “Exploring and embracing our world of bugs and insects is the perfect avenue for educational fun with themes like science, environmentalism, music and art! Whether you think these tiny creatures are cute or creepy, the whole family is sure to have a great time!” This year, attendees can learn about the importance of bees and other natural pollinators with the Coastal Empire Beekeepers Association, enter the Insectarium with Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus Entomology class, learn about insectivores with Oatland Island Wildlife Center and enjoy bug-themed yoga with Savannah Yoga Center.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU set to be part of new Adidas-funded NIL network
By John Bednarowski
Adidas is opening a name, image and likeness network for all of its college athletes. The move will allow up to 50,000 college athletes to become paid endorsers for the brand. That number is set to include athletes at Kennesaw State, who wear Adidas-branded apparel. The company is the first of the significant apparel brands to offer such an NIL program. …Kennesaw State is not the only Adidas-affiliated college in Georgia. Georgia Tech entered into a six-year agreement with the company in 2018, and Georgia Southern signed a seven-year deal in 2016. Mercer is also signed with Adidas. The University of Georgia is a Nike client, while Georgia State is signed with Under Armour.
WSAV
Georgia Southern, DPH to help fight COVID-19 in state confinement facilities
by: Dajhea Jones
Georgia Southern University has partnered with the Georgia Department of Public Health(DPH) to better fight COVID-19 in the state’s jails, prisons and other confinement facilities. The university has established the Institute for Health Logistics & Analytics to manage a $7.2 million contract in conjunction with the Georgia DPH. The project’s two initial purposes are to improve detection and mitigation of COVID-19 to reduce the risk of transmission among confinement facility staff and residents, and to reimburse Georgia confinement facilities for costs they have incurred from approved COVID-19 mitigation activities they have already implemented.
WGAU Radio
Pulitzer Prize winner coming to UGA
US Poet Laureate returns to University of Georgia in April
By Dave Marr, UGA Today
American author and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey will be visiting the University of Georgia on April 21 and 22. Trethewey, who is a UGA alumna, was appointed United States poet laureate in 2012 and again in 2013, and she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection “Native Guard.” The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts welcomes Trethewey as the annual Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding. Trethewey, who is Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will visit UGA and Athens for a slate of public events and informal conversations with college and high school students.
Americus Times-Recorder
Georgia Southwestern to host first-ever TEDx event on April 8
By Ken Gustafson
One hundred TEDx enthusiasts will come together on Friday, April 8, 2022 for the first-ever TEDx event held at Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) and in Americus, Ga. for an evening of dialogue and inspiration around the theme Perseverance and Creativity. TEDxGeorgiaSouthwesternU, a public event with a limited audience, will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Magnolia Manor Nursing Auditorium inside the Rosalynn Carter Health and Human Sciences Complex and will feature an incredible line-up of speakers on topics ranging from innovations in education to health to technology and the arts. The event will also be live-streamed.
WGAU Radio
UGA: historic Delta documents available in digital library
Delta Air Lines traces its history to the world’s first crop-dusting company in Macon in 1925
By Mandy Mastrovita, UGA Media Relations
Historical records detailing the growth of one of the world’s largest airlines are available to the public online through the Digital Library of Georgia, thanks to a partnership between the Delta Flight Museum, the University of Georgia Libraries and GALILEO. The collection contains Delta Air Lines’ digitized timetables, flight maps and annual reports for the past century through its expansions, moves and mergers with other airlines to become the aviation industry leader in the United States.
WebMD
Tick-Borne Heartland Virus Circulating in U.S., Researchers Say
By Carolyn Crist
The Heartland virus is circulating in lone star ticks in Georgia, according to a new study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. People can get the virus after being bitten by an infected tick, which can lead to hospitalization and death. The virus has also been found among deer and other wild mammals. “Heartland is an emerging infectious disease that is not well understood,” Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, PhD, the senior study author and an expert in vector-borne diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, said in a statement. “We’re trying to get ahead of this virus by learning everything that we can about it before it potentially becomes a bigger problem,” he said. Researchers at Emory and the University of Georgia analyzed virus samples from nearly 10,000 ticks collected in central Georgia. They found that about 1 out of every 2,000 specimens had the Heartland virus, including the adult and nymph stages.
Mirage News
Russian invasion at Chernobyl puts future research in limbo
Russia’s occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine is putting research projects there in limbo, said University of Georgia scientist James Beasley. Russian troops moved across the Ukrainian border earlier this month, and one of their early points of entry was in the exclusion zone near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But the invasion did more than cut off news of the defunct plant’s status-it also suspended a variety of ongoing research projects in the area. “At this point we have no idea how this will impact the long-term international collaborations that go on there,” said Beasley, associate professor of wildlife management and ecology at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “There are so many people from around the world, and from those countries, who do work there.” The exclusion zone that surrounds the nuclear plant spans Ukraine and Belarus, and the site is home to a variety of ecological studies conducted by national and international scientists. This research has a deep, collaborative history that goes back decades. Researchers from the University of Georgia and the Savannah River Ecology Lab are also entwined in its history.
The George-Anne
The Crown Act: Georgia Southern Students React
Taylor Coleman, Writer-Content Creator
The CROWN Act, formally known as the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act”, was passed by the House and expected to go to the Senate for voting. Representative Ayanna Pressley stated that “For too long, Black girls have been discriminated against and criminalized for the hair that grows on our heads and the way we move through and show up in this world”. The act would forbid “discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles that are commonly associated with a particular race or national origin, including locs, cornrows, braids, twists, Bantu knots, and Afros.” An anonymous survey was conducted among Georgia Southern University students to highlight their views on the bill. Among one of the questions, the students were asked how they felt about the House passing The CROWN Act. Here is what Georgia Southern students had to say about:
WSB-TV
University System of Georgia temporarily waives ACT, SAT requirements for most schools
By WSBTV.com News Staff
Students who apply to public universities in Georgia for the upcoming fall semester will not be required to submit standardized testing scores. The University System of Georgia announced this week it will temporarily waive ACT and SAT score requirements for most of its schools for Fall 2022. …The Associated Press reported that more than 1,800 colleges and universities, or nearly 80% of U.S. four-year campuses, adopted either test-optional or score-free policies for fall 2022 applicants, according to anti-testing group FairTest.
See also:
GPB
Some Georgia universities drop test requirements for 2022’s fall admissions
WGAU Radio
USG: no SAT, ACT scores needed for some enrolling students
The University System of Georgia says it is a temporary waiver
CBS 46
Toxic worms invading metro Atlanta gardens
The invasive hammerhead or flatworm is starting to rear its odd-shaped head in metro Atlanta now that the weather is turning warmer and more people are getting into the garden. “If you mess with them, they get slimy and they don’t want to be touched, and they’re just gross little things,” Curtis said. Many have posted warnings not to touch the worms because of the belief the worms carry a certain toxin. “Tetrodotoxin sometimes abbreviated as TTX is a very nasty compound something that’s found in Fugu pufferfish,” said James Murphy, an agriculture Agent with UGA Extension Rockdale. It was also found in the Hammerhead worm, but as far as being poisoned by touching them goes Murphy said, “It’s not to the point where touch it and you’re in trouble territory. If you do need to remove them from a space even if they’re not acutely toxic probably best to glove up.”
WTOC
Man found not guilty of 2018 sexual assault reported at Georgia Southern
A man charged with rape has been found not guilty in a Bulloch County court. According to Superior Court of Bulloch County records, Tyler Richards was found not guilty of rape and aggravated sexual battery charges in February 2022. Richards was arrested and charged in relation with an October 2018 sexual assault report at Georgia Southern University.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated March 24)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,924,327
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 30,856 | 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
Brain-Based Teaching to Improve Student Learning: Academic Minute
By Doug Lederman
Today on the Academic Minute: Tim Abraham, assistant professor of physical education, exercise and wellness studies at Utica College, examines different approaches to teaching college students. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.
Inside Higher Ed
Facilities Investment Dropped During Pandemic
By Emma Whitford
College and university investment in facilities projects fell by 19 percent year over year in 2021 as capital improvement projects slowed or stopped amid the pandemic, a recent report shows. College operating budgets declined by 9 percent year over year. Gordian, a facility and construction cost data and software company, analyzed more than 52,000 buildings on over 300 campuses. The resulting report shows that nearly one-third of all campus buildings are between 10 and 25 years old. More than half of facilities leaders told Gordian they had greater influence on campus since the pandemic began.
Florida Legislature Ushers in a New Era for Tenured Faculty
Liann Herder
Dr. Larry J. Walker worked as a congressional staffer before he became an assistant professor on tenure-track in the department of educational leadership and higher education at the University of Central Florida (UCF). By watching governments in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Texas discuss making big changes to tenure, Walker said he saw bill SB 7044 coming. The bill calls for many adjustments to higher education across the state of Florida, including classroom materials be submitted to the state Board of Governors; that institutional accrediting bodies must change every five years, and the Board of Governors can review tenured faculty accomplishments, productivity, research, and evaluations every five years. The controversial bill passed the Florida legislature early this month and is now on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. Walker’s not panicking—yet. …But Walker is concerned that this bill will make it harder for institutions in Florida to remain competitive by recruiting and retaining leading academic voices as faculty.
Inside Higher Ed
William Peace U Confronts History of Its Namesake
The university removed a statue of its founder from the campus, but will it change its name? That William Peace was a slaveholder has only recently become known.
By Scott Jaschik
The history of William Peace University dates to 1857, when it was founded in Raleigh, N.C., as the Peace Institute. Several name changes later, it became Peace College, and it operated as a women’s college until 2012, when it admitted men and became a university. William Peace was, for the 1850s, a generous philanthropist. His gift of $10,000 kicked off fundraising for the university. It was unusual for a man with means to direct that his funds go to women’s education. But William Peace was also a slaveholder. Brian C. Ralph, the president of William Peace, said that was not generally known among students, alumni or the faculty at Peace, or certainly not discussed. …William Peace is in another category, because the university only announced Tuesday that he was a slaveholder. But the university is not alone—Wingate University, also in North Carolina, discovered last year that it is named for a slaveholder. …Wingate created a panel to recommend steps the university should take. But a few weeks after creating the panel, Brown announced that one thing would not be considered by the panel. “I would first like to clear up an assumption some have made since the news first broke: Wingate University is NOT considering a name change,” he said. That’s not the case at William Peace University. On Tuesday, the university removed a statue of Peace from the center of campus. And Ralph said that all options are on the table for the university’s name. …Many colleges have debated what to do about buildings and monuments on their campuses that honor past slaveholders and segregationists.