Athens CEO
McBay Science Library Dedicated for Groundbreaking UGA Alumna
Camie Williams
The University of Georgia dedicated its science library Friday for Shirley Mathis McBay, the first Black student to receive a Ph.D. from the university and the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics from UGA. McBay went on to a long and distinguished career as an educator, administrator and advocate who worked tirelessly to promote the participation and advancement of minorities and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. She began her career as a math professor at Spelman College and then became dean for student affairs at MIT and chair of the National Science Foundation’s committee on equal opportunity in science and engineering. She later launched the Quality Education for Minorities Network, a nonprofit that she led for more than 20 years. The UGA library that now bears her name is one of the most popular study spots on campus, hosting a half-million visits from students each year.
Savannah CEO
Staff Report
Students majoring in human development and family science (HDFS) with a concentration in family services have the opportunity to earn their master’s degree in public administration at an advanced pace through a new accelerated program at Georgia Southern University. The accelerated bachelor’s to master’s program provides students with the opportunity to apply up to 12 credit hours of Master of Public Administration (MPA) coursework toward both their undergraduate and graduate degree requirements. The accelerated program allows a student to complete the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a total of five years. The family services concentration in HDFS is now available as an online program while the MPA degree is offered in a hybrid format, with the in-person component on the Statesboro Campus.
The Augusta Chronicle
Faculty group says changes to tenure overwhelmingly unpopular with professors
Abraham Kenmore
This story has been updated with a statement from USG.
A recent survey of professors at Georgia colleges and universities showed an overwhelming number want a reinstatement of tenure protections. The American Association of University Professors in Georgia, a professional faculty group, noted in a news release issued Sunday that changes to tenure protection in the University System of Georgia remain unpopular. According to the survey, 93.5% of the 972 faculty who responded agreed that the USG Board of Regents needed to re-instate the ability of tenured faculty to receive a hearing from their peers prior to a dismissal. … The Board of Regents continues to stand by the changes they made and say that there is still due process for faculty members in the post-tenure process. “The University System of Georgia (USG)’s public colleges and universities have worked with faculty to develop strong institutional post-tenure, annual evaluation and student success policies,” wrote Kristina Torres, assistant vice chancellor for leadership communications. “Their efforts strengthen tenure by allowing tenured faculty to be held accountable by their peers for at least maintaining, if not exceeding, the standards of a tenured faculty member.”
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
Survey: Georgia Professors Continue to Reject Tenure Changes
Higher Ed Dive
AAUP survey: Georgia system faculty widely dissatisfied with tenure changes
yahoo!news
ABAC Fine Arts Academy offers music, art classes
Carlton Fletcher, The Albany Herald, Ga.
The ABAC Fine Arts Academy, a new program created by the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Fine Arts Department, opens to the public on Friday. The Academy allows the students and the faculty of the Fine Arts Department an opportunity to provide high-quality music and art classes to the community at an affordable price. Zheng Jennifer Huang, the coordinator of the academy who is also the head of the ABAC Fine Arts Department, said the academy is an extension division of the Fine Arts Department.
Forsyth County News
UNG celebrates donors, 150th anniversary with annual Scholarship Gala
Sabrina Kerns
FCN staff
Leaders and community members from across Forsyth and surrounding counties came out to the Forsyth Conference Center Friday, Oct. 7, to attend the University of North Georgia’s 9th annual Scholarship Gala. But the night filled with food, drinks and celebration was especially significant for UNG and the UNG Foundation this year as it marked the university’s 150th anniversary and President Bonita Jacobs’ upcoming retirement. “What a great night to celebrate a rich, 150-year history,” said Nick Massengill, chair of the UNG Foundation’s Board of Trustees, as he welcomed the crowd of more than 100 guests. The gala was one of several events this year where university and foundation leaders took time to recognize the sesquicentennial anniversary, celebrating years of service to the state that began in 1873.
The Brunswick News
Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, once remarked, “One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” The team members working in Nuclear Medicine at Southeast Georgia Health System embrace that philosophy. “Working in patient care is a passion the three of us share,” says Team Leader Heather Burkhalter, RT(N) (CT), CNMT. …The team also enjoys teaching students from Georgia Southern University. “Our students are able to see a variety of nuclear medicine exams that they may not be able to see at other facilities,” says Burkhalter. “We had a student last year on his second rotation with us that was able to assist us greatly when we had a team member out for an extended period of time. We were working at a high volume as well, and he put forth so much effort and was able to excel fast. After he graduated, I was one of his job references and he is now a full time technologist in Lexington, Kentucky. Burkhalter adds, “It’s moments like these that are so special to our department. We are proud to see our students start their own careers.”
The Red & Black
UGA holds #BeWellUGA Week ahead of World Mental Health Day
Phoebe Lyons
From Oct. 3 through Oct. 8, the University of Georgia held its first #BeWellUGA Week, an initiative to “highlight and promote” all of the resources that the university offers to support students’ mental and physical well-being, according to Beau Seagraves, the associate vice president for student well-being at UGA. “It’s meant to make a big splash and help students see all that there is available to them,” said Seagraves, who also serves as the interim executive director of the University Health Center. Coordinating and planning the events was done by the office of Student Care and Outreach with help from the office of Student Affairs. Among the events were Dogs and Donuts with the Police, sexual health stations, the #flUGA vaccine event, depression screening, movie nights and Stegmania at Stegeman Coliseum. #BeWellUGA Week was met with positive feedback from students who attended the week’s events.
ExBulletin
International education award given to a couple of Georgia Southern professors
Georgia Southern Center Program Coordinator for the STEM Education Program Kania Greer, Ed.D., and Associate Professor of Elementary and Special Education Karin Fisher, Ph.D., were recently awarded a Global Partner Award by the Narayan School Seva Sansthan in Udaipur, India. Fisher said she was honored and pleasantly surprised that she and her partners were recognized for “innovation and special efforts in multi-ability STEM education.” Greer echoed the gratitude they feel for receiving the award. Greer and Fisher spoke of the importance of the work their international colleagues are doing.
Athens CEO
Terry’s Executive, Professional and Online MBA Director named to UGA Fellows Program
Staff Report
Susan Brown, lecturer and director of the Terry College of Business Executive, Professional and Online MBA programs, was one of nine faculty and academic leaders named by the University of Georgia to the 2022-2023 class of the university’s Women’s Leadership Fellows Program. Brown, before taking over Terry’s Atlanta-based MBA programs in 2021, spent 28 years in the corporate sector with companies including Cox Communications, Verizon Wireless and Daimler Chrysler. Her work focused on operations, strategy and technology solutions. She is a Fellow of the SCTE-Tuck School of Business Executive Leadership Program, and she was selected for Cox Enterprises’ Top 200 Executive Leadership Fellows Program. At Terry, she’s served as a faculty instructor for the EMBA, PMBA and Full-Time MBA programs, and is a 2020 EMBA graduate. UGA established the Women’s Leadership Fellows Program in 2015 as part of its Women’s Leadership Initiative to provide a select group of faculty and administrators with an opportunity to develop leadership skills while gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education. The program specifically focuses on issues women face in academic administration.
yahoo!
Women in Technology (WIT) Announces Winners of the 2022 Women of the Year Awards in STEAM
WIT Awards celebrates women in STEAM who live in the state of Georgia for their accomplishments as leaders in business, visionaries, and women who make a difference in their communities. Additionally, a special high school girl is recognized as the Girl of The Year, a campus club as the Campus Club of the Year Award, and a single mom with the Single Mother of The Year Award. One winner from each of the following categories was selected and announced at this event:
…Woman of the Year STEAM Education Winner:
Sweta Sneha
Founder & Executive Director at Kennesaw State University
Campus Club of the Year Winner:
Georgia Gwinnet College
The Campus Club of the Year, Georgia Gwinnett College, will be receiving a $10,000 scholarship sponsored by ADP and The Coca-Cola Company.
WJCL
World mental health day: Georgia Southern University working to protect students peace.
Georgia Southern University helps student-athletes with mental health
Kyron Neveaux, Reporter
Monday is recognized as mental health day worldwide, but protecting your peace is a year-round fight for faculty and staff at Georgia Southern University. The public institution works around the clock to help their student-athletes make sure they are healthy, always including their mental health. …Georgia Southern University football players will be wearing a green ribbon on their helmets, and the coaches will wear one on their hats to honor mental health awareness at Saturday’s game against South Alabama.
Athens Banner-Herald
‘Call it in the Air’: UGA professor’s latest book deals with grief through a poetic lens
Andrew Shearer
Ed Pavlić’s elder sister, Kate, passed away in 2005. In the process of sifting through her personal effects, Pavlić found a postcard-sized self-portrait painted by Kate in vibrant hues of red, yellow, green and blue. On the reverse side was another self-portrait, a literal flipside done in a monochromatic style of dark purple and muted white. The paintings eventually became the respectful front and back covers for Pavlić’s elegy for Kate, “Call it in the Air,” which will have its release celebrated with a virtual book launch hosted by Avid Bookshop on Oct. 11. A conversation between Pavlić and fellow author Kiese Laymon via Zoom video conference takes place 7-8 p.m. “Call it in the Air” is the 13th book by Athens resident Pavlić, who works as a professor of English, African American studies, and creative writing at the University of Georgia.
Savannah Business Journal
Greater Pooler Area Chamber of Commerce to host 2022 Economic Outlook Luncheon
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
The Greater Pooler Area Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Economic Outlook Luncheon Wednesday, Oct. 19, at the Courtyard by Marriott on Pooler Parkway. The luncheon is sponsored by the Queensborough National Bank & Trust Co. with keynote speaker Dr. Michael Toma, professor of economics at Georgia Southern University. “Businesses of every size can benefit from the insights given at this year’s Economic Outlook Luncheon,” said Courtney Rawlins, executive director, Greater Pooler Area Chamber of Commerce. “Dr. Toma will discuss predictions for the economy, and the Chamber is proud to bring this to our members and non-members alike.”
Marietta Daily Journal
ABAC Jess Usher Lecture Series features Jim McSweeney
The Albany Herald, Ga.
Jim McSweeney from the National Archives in Atlanta will speak on “Our National Experience, The National and Federal Archives” on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Jess Usher Lecture Series at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. The event is sponsored by the Tom M. Cordell Distinguished Lecture Series Each event is open to the public at no charge with no ticket required. All events in the series will be held in Howard Auditorium on the ABAC campus. Formerly known as the ABAC Lecture Series, this special collection of presenters has been renamed in memory of Jess Usher, a former ABAC faculty member and lecturer in the series, who passed away in 2021.
Statesboro Herald
ZuZu African Acrobats to bring unique show to PAC on Thursday
Special to the Herald
The Performing Arts Center at Georgia Southern will welcome the next show in its 20th anniversary season on Thursday, Oct. 13. The Zuzu African Acrobats will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Hailing from Tanzania, ZuZu African Acrobats celebrate the 2,000-year-old Bantu culture of East Africa with their thrilling, gravity defying stunts. This interactive show includes traditional acts such as human pyramids, dish spinning, drumming, stick balance, contortion, chair balance, unicycling, juggling, hand-to-hand balance, pole acts, hoop diving and more, along with a healthy dose of comedy, performed to the exciting sounds of African beats.
WTOC
Indigenous Peoples’ Day honors Native Americans
By Sarah Winkelmann
On Monday, your calendar might say it is Columbus Day, but some states and local governments are recognizing the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Back in history class for many, students learned that Christopher Columbus was credited with discovering America. Now, in more recent years there is more acknowledgement of the people that were here first, recognizing that Indigenous history is American history. …But it’s not just here in the US, Sociology Professor at Georgia Southern, Ned Rinalducci says this shift is happening all over the world. “It’s 2022 now and we look at history with clearer eyes and we can see that Columbus’ legacy and the things Columbus brought to the new world, slavery, oppression, disease…so Indigenous Peoples’ Day has become sort of a way to rectify everything that was wrong with celebrating someone and an event that lead to so much suffering by Indigenous Peoples,” Rinalducci said.
Albany Herald
UGA researchers use AI, engineering to address poultry heat stress
By Maria M. Lameiras
Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in Georgia, and poultry is the largest sector of that industry, with nearly 1.4 billion broiler chickens produced each year on thousands of farms around the state. An important aspect of the industry is the transportation of chickens from the farm to processing facilities, or more specifically, preventing bird loss during transportation. One of the major factors in bird loss during transportation is temperature, particularly in the South, where high temperatures and humidity can account for 2% to 3% in losses during transportation, impacting farmers’ profits. At the University of Georgia, poultry researcher Harshavardhan Thippareddi and engineering professor Ramana Pidaparti are using multiphysics computational simulations to create a machine learning model to evaluate bird comfort during loading, transportation and holding prior to processing.
Higher Education News:
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Panel Breaks Down DACA Ruling and What Colleges Can Do
Jon Edelman
In the wake of an appeals court decision maintaining the tenuous status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, experts and advocates met on Monday to publicly discuss the consequences of the ruling and how higher education can react. The panel, convened by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration in partnership with TheDream.US, fwd.us, and the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, agreed that the future of the program is precarious. … Last week’s ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, affirmed a lower court decision that DACA is illegal. However, acknowledging that DACA “has had profound significance to recipients and many others in the 10 years since its adoption,” the court stayed its ruling, allowing the program to continue and current recipients to renew their status. However, no new applicants may receive protection and the future of the program is uncertain. Next, a lower court will consider a Biden administration regulation designed to protect DACA in a case that could go to the Supreme Court in the 2023-24 term. The panel described the decision as “a sobering moment,” and argued that a permanent legislative solution is needed.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Exploring Best Practices in Building and Retaining a Diverse Faculty
Lois Elfman
Higher education leaders say the pandemic has changed how institutions handle faculty recruitment. Zoom interviews or other virtual connections have become commonplace. The desire to build more diverse faculties has grown over the past two-and-a-half years as colleges and universities have come to understand the need to connect with students who have felt disconnected and to bring more complex and inclusive thought to higher education.
Higher Ed Dive
Top law schools have been slow to add women faculty members, research finds
Laura Spitalniak, Associate Editor
Dive Brief:
Law schools have increasingly sorted along gender lines, and the makeup of faculties has become a reflection of schools’ student population, according to preprint research published on the SSRN, an open access platform for early-stage research. Before 1970, the gender breakdown of a law school’s faculty was not highly correlated with its student body, but the relationship has grown stronger in the decades since, researchers found. Now, if a law school has more female faculty members, it’s likely to have more women as students. Higher-ranked schools have tended toward fewer women faculty members since the 1980s. In 2020, U.S. law schools with a national ranking of 51 or lower, known as Tier 3 schools, had roughly the same number of male and female professors. But law schools consistently ranked 14 or higher, Tier 1 schools, only had about two female professors for every five male professors.