Tifton CEO
ABAC Awarded $3.5M for Upward Bound Grants to Help Enroll Students in College
Staff Report
Thanks to $3.5 million worth of support from the United States Department of Education, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will help more students graduate from high school and enroll in college in years to come. ABAC Director of Sponsored Programs Scott Pierce said the two new five-year grants from the Office of Postsecondary Education will provide support for 139 students per year through the Upward Bound program. The program has been a vital part of ABAC and surrounding communities since 1977, motivating students to succeed for almost 45 years. Upward Bound helps students get into college by providing tutoring, Saturday sessions to help with college readiness, a five-week college “simulation experience” in the summer for students in grades 9-12, cultural trips, and a summer bridge program for graduating seniors to get them ready for their first year in college. ABAC’s Upward Bound program operates in Atkinson, Ben Hill, Coffee, Irwin, Tift, Turner, Wilcox, and Worth counties. Pierce said the programs are an essential part of ABAC’s undergraduate mission.
Georgia Trend
Economy: Valdosta’s Positive Prospects
Valdosta will likely pass its pre-pandemic job peak this year.
By Jeffrey Humphreys
From its 2020 peak-to-trough the Valdosta metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which includes Brooks, Echols, Lanier and Lowndes counties, lost about 10% of its jobs to the COVID-19 recession. The heaviest losses were in government and high-contact service industries such as leisure and hospitality. Valdosta’s labor market was not hit as hard as the state’s or the nation’s, which lost 13% and 14% of jobs, respectively. As of April, Valdosta had recovered over 99% of lost jobs, the same percentage recovered by the nation. In April, Georgia was about 2% ahead of where it was pre-pandemic. …Lowndes County accounts for 90% of the area’s jobs and 80% of its population. Top employers are Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta State University (VSU), …Valdosta is a college town and VSU is a major driver of the local economy. In FY 2019, VSU’s economic impact was $369 million and 4,031 jobs. The university’s excellent reputation will continue to attract students from outside the region, adding to student spending and the supply of college graduates.
Savannah Business Journal
DR. DAVID MARSHALL selected as new SSU dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
Savannah State University (SSU) has named David Marshall, Ph.D., as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, effective July 1. Marshall comes to SSU from Baltimore, Maryland and has served for more than two decades in multiple capacities in higher education administration. Former positions include: department chair, dean, vice president of academic affairs and college president. Most recently, he was chair of the Department of Strategic Communication in the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University.
Albany Herald
Shawn Burnette named coordinator of student activities at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
From staff reports
Shawn Burnette has been selected as the coordinator of student activities at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He began his duties on July 1. Burnette, a native of Cordele, is a 2015 ABAC graduate with a bachelor of science degree in Rural Studies-Politics and Modern Cultures. He also obtained a bachelor of arts degree in History and his teaching certification from Georgia Southwestern State University. Burnette is on track to complete his graduate degree in history from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington this summer. …In his new position, Burnette plans and leads different programs on campus that will enrich the college experience for ABAC students.
Albany Herald
UGA fruit pathologist inducted into Pest Management Hall of Fame
By Emily Cabrera
The Southern Integrated Pest Management Center has inducted University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit pathologist Phil Brannen into the Integrated Pest Management Hall of Fame for his significant contributions to commercial fruit growers throughout the Southern U.S. over the past 30 years. Each year, the Southern IPM Center recognizes an industry member for extraordinary contributions to the development and implementation of IPM for the honor. UGA IPM Communications Coordinator Emily Cabrera spoke with Brannen about the award and his career with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Metro Atlanta CEO
UGA SBDC to Host ExportGA 2022
Staff Report
Your fast track to international sales. ExportGA 2022 is an intensive four-session, 16- hour export training program designed to help companies develop their skills and identify new international sales opportunities. The in-person program will be held at the UGA Gwinnett Campus. Each participating company will have access to a student from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business to assist with research. Companies will also work with other export resource partners here in Georgia.
Rome News-Tribune
Foundation Camp mentors boys with fun and educational activities, spaces still available
By Imani Beverly-Knox
Foundation Camp in Rome is a free youth program that aims to nurture the community by providing boys and young teens mentorship on a college campus. And there are still a few spaces left. Gregory Shropshire, the camp director and president of 100 Black Men of Rome-Northwest Georgia, said the program was established in 2006. Fourteen years later, it’s still giving students access to a fun variety of academic experiences and sports. The camp features film-making classes, science labs, math classes, basketball, lacrosse and soccer, among many other activities, Shropshire said. College professors will teach some of the courses, which will further immerse campers in college life. …Foundation Camp takes place July 11-22 at Georgia Highlands College from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. every weekday.
Nip Impressions
DS Smith, a leading paper and packaging producer, and the University of Georgia are coming to the rescue of Rafinesque’s Big-eared bats, southeastern gopher tortoises and other critical animal species that call southeast Georgia home. They are among hundreds of rare, threatened or endangered species that UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources identified in 15 counties across Georgia where DS Smith operates, the first step in a project designed to protect habitats and promote biodiversity.
Semiconductor Engineering
Brain-Inspired Computing Device That Programs/RePrograms HW On Demand With Electrical Pulses
Multiple academic and government institutions jointly developed a new computer device that can “program and program computer hardware on demand through electrical pulses,” according to this Argonne National Lab news release. The device’s key materials are neodymium, nickel and oxygen and is referred to as a perovskite nickelate. This new research paper titled “Reconfigurable perovskite nickelate electronics for artificial intelligence” is from researchers at Purdue University, Argonne National Lab, Penn State, Santa Clara University, Brookhaven National Lab, University of Georgia, University of Illinois Chicago, and Portland State University.
The Augusta Chronicle
Professor: Why we must power through domestic issues to support total victory for Ukraine
Nicholas Barry Creel Columnist
Nicholas Barry Creel is an assistant professor of business law at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.
As Americans, we must continue to stand with Ukraine in their war against Russia. As time goes by this will become more difficult as the cost of that support literally goes up for us all. Regardless, practically and philosophically, it remains in our nation’s best interests to pay that price. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now in its fifth month, it is becoming increasingly obvious that this war has the capacity to drag on for far longer than most had anticipated. …Backing Ukraine is about more than punishing Russia. It’s also about maintaining the global order built by the United States in the wake of WWII. By supporting a total victory for Ukraine, we send a credible signal to China that any similar attack against Taiwan or another neighboring country would be an unmitigated disaster on their part.
Albany Herald
Albany State athletes earn Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference awards
From Staff Reports
Albany State racked up academic awards from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which released its 2021-22 honors Wednesday. The conference named its All-Academic Team, selected as the best among athletes with a 3.2 or higher GPA, and its Commissioner’s All-Academic Team, consisting of athletes with a 3.0 GPA or higher. The Albany State athletes who earned the distinction are as follows:
The Augusta Chronicle
Bulldogs finish top 20 in latest Directors’ Cup. AD Josh Brooks aiming much higher
Marc Weiszer
Athens Banner-Herald
One glorious January night in Indianapolis will define the past athletic year for Georgia. The Bulldogs’ first football national title in 41 years will be remembered by fans for decades to come, but it was just one major piece of the showings on the fields of play by UGA teams in the 2021-2022 season. Georgia finished No. 19 in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, an all-sports measurement whose final standings were released last week. That was down nine spots from the previous academic year and ranked sixth among SEC schools behind No. 5 Florida, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 13 Tennessee and No. 16 LSU. Nine Bulldogs programs slid in their national NCAA postseason finishes from a year earlier, five improved and six provided the same scoring—women’s basketball with another second-round NCAA tournament exit and men’s basketball, soccer, volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country failing to reach the NCAA postseason again.
Other News:
U.S. News & World Report
Age Big Factor in COVID Vaccine Views
By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter, HealthDay Reporter
Your age may play a huge role in whether you’ll decide to get a COVID vaccine, new research finds.
Though vaccine hesitancy due to personal politics has drawn a lot of media attention, a University of Georgia study reveals it’s not the only consideration. The link between vaccines and politics is “not so much true as people get older,” noted study author Glen Nowak. He co-directs the Center for Health and Risk Communication at the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, in Athens, Ga. In fact, “people who are 65 and older are almost universally vaccinated, particularly as you start getting to 75 and older,” Nowak said. For the study, his team surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 1,000 Americans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: Students lost habit of school. How do they regain it?
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
More must be done to address student mental health challenges
Gwinnett County Public Schools intends to set aside time for the first three days of the new academic year to concentrate on how to do school itself. Classrooms will focus on expectations of behavior and discipline in school and conflict resolution. That announcement, reported last week in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is spurring a lot of discussion, much of it skeptical. I raised the issue on the AJC Get Schooled Facebook page, where teachers said it will take more than three days to repair the behavioral fallout from the pandemic. …As the AJC reported in its deep dive into student mental health, rates of anxiety disorders and depression among young people doubled to 1 in 5 during the pandemic, with experts blaming the increase on the social isolation of virtual learning, social media pressures and academic expectations. But what did that look like in classrooms? One of my conversations was with a Georgia college graduate who spent a year working in a well-regarded charter middle school in the Northeast where students learned remotely for a year and a half. She worked as a classroom aide in its first full year back in person. The discipline challenges — including daily vaping in the school bathrooms — overwhelmed the staff. Students were so accustomed to communicating via their phones that they struggled to connect to peers sitting right next to them. She was surprised at how hard it was to get students to a place where learning was even possible. And this was a well-staffed and well-funded charter school noted for its high achievement.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Opinion
When crises occur, all higher education leaders are called upon to shift their leadership style, yet the response to these changes may differ along gender lines, argues Rachel Schreiber.
Rachel Schreiber
Illustration: A person stands on a white path, which is broken off. The second segment of the path, across a gap, is shaped like an arrow pointing forward.(Sorbetto/digitalvision vectors/Getty Images)
Much research, scholarship and advice are devoted to the topic of crisis leadership. Even before the pandemic, you could find copious articles, books and webinars intended to guide leaders through upheavals that ranged from acute and unanticipated emergencies—like Hurricane Katrina, Sept. 11 and social and political campus protests—to slow-burning crises, such as plunges in enrollment or the unfolding of a campus scandal. One concept that emerges clearly in the advice regarding crisis leadership is the need to act with speed, setting aside collaborative leadership styles in favor of decisive approaches. But as academic leaders know, quick action is not a traditional hallmark of academic decision making.
Inside Higher Ed
University Recovers $550,000 in Ransom From Hack
Scott Jaschik
A Dutch university has recovered $550,000 it paid in a ransom for a 2019 hack of its networks that prevented students, faculty and staff from accessing their email, research and data platforms, Bloomberg reported. The ransom was paid in response to an attack at the University of Maastricht on Dec. 23, 2019. The university paid 30 Bitcoins in ransom, which at the time was worth about $218,000, according to a spokesperson from the university. The payment was made after “extremely difficult deliberations” in which university officials weighed police advice and the moral objection to paying a ransom. In April of this year, the Dutch prosecution service was able to trace and seize some of the ransom: cryptocurrencies had increased in value to $550,000, according to the university.