Dalton Daily Citizen
Perdue says university system wants to provide high value at low cost
By Charles Oliver
With 26 colleges and universities and some 340,000 students, the University System of Georgia is the sixth-largest university system in the United States. “Our job is to help them (students) succeed in their lives,” said Chancellor of the University System of Georgia Sonny Perdue. “Higher education is that important. It can change lives. We call it a million-dollar deal. Over their lifetimes, people who receive a college degree will make an average of $1 million more than if they hadn’t earned that degree.” Perdue and members of the university system’s Board of Regents, who oversee the system, are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday at Dalton State College. Perdue, a former Georgia governor, said in today’s job market, where some low-skilled jobs are paying up to $20 an hour, it can be tempting for someone graduating from high school to go to work. “We want them to take the long view and see that a college degree is a pretty good investment,” he said.
Albany Herald
Albany Area Chamber president/CEO named to 50 Most Influential Latinos
Alan Mauldin
The Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 group of 50 Most Influential Latinos includes Albanian Barbera Rivera Holmes, who said she was grateful for the recognition and opportunity to discuss the importance of diversity. “It’s an absolute honor to be recognized by the chamber for the work that is performed and what that work signifies for our area and our state,” Holmes, the president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, said. “I’m proud to be Latina, proud of what we have done in Albany and around the state as individuals and as a group of people. That heritage is such a large part of my life.” …Holmes, who is also a regent with the Georgia Board of Regents, said that Latinos are a big part of the business and work force communities in the Albany region.
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta Tech president hints at landmark dual-enrollment agreement with Augusta University
Joe Hotchkiss
Augusta Technical College and Augusta University will soon announce an agreement regarding course-credit transfers and dual-enrollment that the technical school’s president described as “the most transformative” initiative of its kind in Georgia. “I’m not kidding about that,” Dr. Jermaine Whirl said during his annual State of the College address Tuesday at Augusta Tech’s Jack B. Patrick Informational Technology Center Auditorium. “We put a lot of work into this with AU and you’re going to hear about it.” Whirl deferred further details to a more formal announcement with AU President Dr. Brooks A. Keel.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OPINION: College degree gives middle-aged women an uplift
By Nedra Rhone
For years, cultural norms kept Khadijah Abdur-Rahman in a physically abusive relationship. It wasn’t until she saw her son crying after she had an altercation with her then husband that Abdur-Rahman made the decision to leave. “Something just hit inside of me. Something said you are either going to show him what is acceptable to you or you are going to show him what is unacceptable,” she said. As a survivor of domestic abuse, Abdur-Rahman began connecting with organizations that helped her rebuild her life with a home, health insurance and when she was ready, an education. In 2015, at age 49, Abdur-Rahman earned a scholarship from the Jeanette Rankin Foundation. The unrestricted grant helped her obtain a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University. Now a Fulton County Commissioner, Abdur-Rahman said the scholarship from the Rankin Foundation played a pivotal role in changing the trajectory of her life.
WGAU Radio
By Tim Bryant
Today is school and college day at UGA: activities from 10 til 2 at the University’s Tate Student Center shine a spotlight on the various schools and colleges at the University of Georgia.
From the UGA master calendar…
Learn about the various schools and colleges at UGA. School & College Day takes place all day, and all students, past and current, are encouraged to celebrate their college both virtually and in-person.
Albany Herald
ABAC students receive Boyette Book Scholarship
From staff reports
On behalf of Henry Boyette and family and The Tift Regional Medical Center Foundation, the Ilse Boyette Book Scholarship was recently presented to two full-time students. This award was established in memory of Ilse Boyette for her love of nursing and the health care field. The 2022 Ilse Boyette recipients were Alexis Braselton and Katelin McMillan. Braselton is a full-time student at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Biology and Health Sciences. After completion of her bachelor’s, she plans to attain a master’s in Physical Therapy. Braselton has been shadowing at Georgia Sports Medicine since 2019.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A day at the fair through lens of UGA students
By Mark Johnson, The University of Georgia
For the eighth time, students from the University of Georgia’s photojournalism program spent a 16-hour day at the Georgia National Fair during its opening weekend. Coached by working professionals from around the South, the students were charged with showing not what the fair looks like, but what it means. Exploring everything from food vendors to rides to concerts to the stables, the UGA students talked with attendees, competitors and workers to visual explain what a day at the fair was like.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updates on Georgia Tech’s search for next athletic director
By Ken Sugiura
Georgia Tech’s search for an athletic director could be completed within a couple of weeks. Former Auburn AD Allen Greene, who was seen externally as a possible candidate, is not believed to be in the running, according to two people familiar with the situation. While he has been considered in the search, Georgia State AD Charlie Cobb is not believed to be a leading candidate, according to one of the people. Both Greene and Cobb have been seen as possible fits for Tech’s AD opening, given their experience in the AD chair and their hands in building football programs, Cobb in particular. In his introductory news conference Sept. 27, interim athletic director Frank Neville said that the ability to lead a football program would be a priority in the hire to replace Todd Stansbury, who was dismissed Sept. 26 after a six-year term.
Valdosta Daily Times
40 Under 40: GSU honor includes VSU administrator
By Brittanye Blake
Justin M. Arrington has been named to the Georgia Southern University Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2022. The honor recognizes alumni who have made significant strides in business, leadership, community, educational or philanthropic endeavors, according to GSU administrators. Arrington earned a bachelor’s in political science from Georgia Southern in 2008. He currently serves as chief legal affairs officer for Valdosta State University. The 40 Under 40 honorees were chosen by a selection committee that reviewed each individual’s professional expertise, achievements, dedication to charitable and community initiatives, and their commitment to GSU. Arrington said giving back to the community and campus that provided him much growth has encouraged his work in higher education and in his community.
Albany Herald
Anti-inflammatory compound supercharges stem cell stroke treatment
By Maria M. Lameiras University of Georgia
A new combination therapy developed at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center has shown promising results in models of ischemic stroke, or strokes caused by blood clots, significantly reducing disability within a three-month period. Building on more than a decade of work using pig models for stroke research and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cells, Professor Franklin West and a research team including Jin Xie, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, have determined that adding drug-loaded nanoparticles containing the anti-inflammatory compound Tanishinone IIA (Tan IIA) to iNSCs significantly improves outcomes in ischemic stroke pig models. The study has been published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Work on the study was supported by doctoral students Erin Kaiser, Elizabeth Waters and Xueyuan Yang.
WPLG
Researchers investigate novel treatment approach to Alzheimers
Kathleen Corso, Special Projects Producer, Kristi Krueger, Anchor/Health Reporter
It’s estimated that 5.8 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia. Getting medication to the affected area in the brain to provide treatment before the disease takes hold is the challenge. For a decade now, Dr. Quin Wang and her team at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta have been working with a peptide derived from a surface receptor in the brain. “And this receptor draws our attention because it’s a super essential one to protect the neurons of the brain from all various insults,” Wang said. Speculation is that delivering a targeted therapy through a nasal spray could be the perfect way to treat brain disease and injuries.
EurekAlert!
Genetic sequencing could be key to containing future COVID-19 variant outbreaks
Study shows travel bans, relying on estimates of disease severity are largely ineffective at containing COVID-19 variants at source
New COVID-19 variants could potentially be contained where they arise using genetic sequencing, a new study from the University of Georgia has found. But it will require global cooperation. Published in PNAS Nexus, the study found that standard methods that first assess a new variant’s severity are too slow to stop its spread. Next-generation genetic sequencing, however, offers a feasible alternative to spot new variants with enough time to contain variants where they first appear. Genetic sequencing is a process by which researchers can determine the genetic makeup of an organism. In the case of COVID-19, some new variants, particularly the more concerning ones, have distinct differences in their genetic code. That means researchers can use genetic codes to detect new troubling variants.
WRBL
CSU, River Mill Data Management holding free paper shredding event
by: Cole Trahan
In observance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Columbus State University and River Mill Data Management will be holding a free community shredding event on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 9 a.m. to noon. It will take place at Columbus State University, located at 4225 University Avenue, in Parking Lot 4 directly behind the Synovus Center of Commerce & Technology building. Visitors are welcome to bring documents with sensitive information to be shredded.
KPVI
UGA investigates potential of spray drones in agriculture
By Claire Sanders
It’s a familiar sight for many — a ground sprayer slowly making rounds in a field, applying pesticides to row crops to give producers the best chance of protecting crops from pests and seeing high yields at harvest. These ground sprayers, with booms that can be up to 120 feet wide, are the tool of choice for producers who are spraying large areas with agricultural chemicals. But there are times when these large, heavy ground sprayers have limitations. Significant rains or difficult terrain can make it challenging to run the machinery in a particular area or field, preventing a producer from applying pesticides in a timely manner, Simer Virk, assistant professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said. Producers face additional challenges when pests or diseases are present in small areas of their fields — where ground sprayers, with their large booms may not be well-equipped or efficient to provide the targeted application that producers seek.
Morning AgClips
UGA FoodPIC partners with industry to make the perfect orange juice
UGA project to perfect a technique known as pulsed electric field technology (PEF)
If you’ve ever wished that the orange juice you buy from the grocery store tasted like you squeezed it yourself — and stayed fresh at home — you may be interested in an electrifying project at the Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center (FoodPIC) on the University of Georgia Griffin campus. Food technology company Food Physics is working with FoodPIC scientists to perfect a technique known as pulsed electric field technology (PEF). An alternative to thermal pasteurization for processing food products, PEF uses short bursts of high voltage —15,000 volts per centimeter (V/cm) — to inactivate any harmful bacteria that may be found in the product.
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA student wounded, Georgia man shot in face in downtown Athens shooting
Wayne Ford
A dispute between two men in downtown Athens early Saturday resulted in gunfire that hit one man in the face and wounded a bystander identified as a female University of Georgia student, according to Athens-Clarke police. The shooting occurred at about 2 a.m. on the 200 block of West Clayton Street, according to the report. There was an altercation between a 24-year-old Lawrenceville man and a 30-year-old Athens man. They apparently did not know each other, police Lt. Shaun Barnett said Tuesday. A firearm was discharged and the Athens man was hit in the face with the bullet passing through the man’s face and striking the hand of a 22-year-old University of Georgia student from Dacula, who was standing nearby and not involved in the dispute, according to police.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed Dive
77% of adults think it would be hard to pay for college, according to survey
Rick Seltzer, Senior Editor
Dive Brief:
More than three out of every four U.S. adults, 77%, say it would be difficult for someone like them to pay for a college education, according to new polling from research firm Morning Consult. Women were more likely than men to call a college education unaffordable, 82% vs. 73%. The survey found 80% of Black respondents, 78% of Hispanic respondents, and 77% of White respondents said college would be difficult to afford. Community colleges and two-year colleges were viewed as the most affordable option — 65% of respondents said they considered them affordable. That was ahead of vocational and professional certificate programs, which 57% of respondents viewed as affordable.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher Ed’s Work Force Has Returned to Its Pre-Pandemic Size
By Dan Bauman
After more than two years of uneven recovery, America’s colleges and universities find themselves in a welcome position. Following the addition of an estimated 23,500 employees in July, academe’s work force added another 3,400 jobs in August, which restored it to its pre-pandemic size. All told, an estimated 4.7 million workers are employed by American higher ed today, on par with the labor force’s size during the early days of 2020 — before Covid-19 induced historic rates of furloughs, retirements, and layoffs. Job recoveries were strong across both of the sectors of American higher education that the Bureau of Labor Statistics observes.
Cybersecurity Dive
Cybersecurity needs a statewide approach, report finds
Research from Deloitte and state CIOs shows cities often hesitate to work with states on cybersecurity to protect their autonomy, but local government cyber grants could change that.
Michael Brady, Senior Editor
States face a growing number of increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats but lack the staff needed to deal with them, according to a report released Monday by consulting firm Deloitte and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. Malware, ransomware and phishing attempts remain among states’ leading cybersecurity threats, according to the report, which is based on a survey of state CISOs. In addition, states’ CISOs are becoming more concerned about foreign state-sponsored espionage, zero-day attacks and threats to cloud computing, the report said. States are struggling to address cyberthreats due to poor coordination among local and state governments and public institutions of higher education, the report states, as well as worker recruitment and retention challenges.
Inside Higher Ed
OPINION
U.S. research universities have seen a drop in citation impact and academic reputation as institutions in East Asia and the Middle East have been gaining ground, Phil Baty writes.
By Phil Baty Phil Baty is chief knowledge officer for Times Higher Education.
The Times Higher Education logo, with a red T, a purple H and a blue E.
University rankings rightly cause rancor for reducing the glorious complexities of higher education institutions into a crude, composite number—and for having far too much influence over students’ choices. But some rankings provide rich data insights that it would be wrong—indeed, dangerous—to ignore. This is the case with the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, which released its 19th annual edition Tuesday. The THE world rankings were established in 2004, not as a student consumer guide, sitting alongside rankings of best cars and best hospitals, but as a rigorous tool to help academics, administrators and policy makers in higher education make sense of their changing world. …The U.S., while still dominating the global rankings over all, has this year lost one of its world top-10 representatives, with the University of Chicago slipping from 10th to 13th. But more significantly, the data show steady, longer-term decline.
Inside Higher Ed
With Online Social Annotation, Students Read Together
Students who use collaborative annotation tools learn and build community, according to a new study. Many faculty members are enthusiastic proponents of the tools, even while acknowledging their limitations.
By Susan D’Agostino
Matthew Luskey, assistant director of the University of Minnesota’s writing across the curriculum program, wants undergraduates in his classes to talk with each other when they first encounter an essay such as Vershawn Ashanti Young’s “Should Writers Use Their Own English?” But several of his classes are blended, which means that some of the “talking” needs to happen online. Luskey could direct students to a discussion board in the learning management system, but “talking” there tends to be linear; one student may comment, followed by one or two replies, followed by another student comment and so on. Also, when a student wants to refer to a section of the text on a discussion board, they must import the quote, where it sits apart from the rest of the essay, cutting short conversations that might have naturally emerged from the context. For these reasons, Luskey is a proponent of online tools that facilitate social annotation—collaborative reading, thinking and marking up of an article, webpage, podcast, collection of images or video. Now, a new study offers evidence supporting what Luskey has long observed: online social annotation helps students understand and construct knowledge around scholarly content, while at the same time building community. Social annotation tools may be the natural evolution of collaborative learning and reading in online spaces.