USG e-clips for February 23, 2023

University System News:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Biden to welcome Georgia football champions to White House

By Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell

The Georgia Bulldogs should expect an invitation from President Joe Biden to celebrate the team’s latest college football title, the White House said late Wednesday. A Biden administration official said the president “looks forward to welcoming” the team to the White House after an uproar over a possible snub. Still, the timing of any visit is still being worked out and a Biden Administration spokeswoman said more information is forthcoming. The Bulldogs’ invitation came after a number of Georgia fans and Republican politicians – and at least one standout player – criticized the president for not immediately extending the invitation to the back-to-back champions.

EurekAlert!

AIBS announces 2023 emerging public policy leaders

University of California Davis and University of Georgia graduate students recognized

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is pleased to announce that Elena Suglia and Mohammad Inam Jameel have been selected to receive the 2023 AIBS Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award (EPPLA). The award recognizes graduate students in the biological sciences who have demonstrated leadership skills and an aptitude for working at the intersection of science and public policy. …Mohammad Inam Jameel is a Ph.D. student in genetics at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. Jameel conducts research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado to understand how natural populations adapt to climate change. …Jameel is active in his professional community. He currently serves as the President of Science Policy, Education, Advocacy, and Research, a student science policy group organization at UGA.

Rome News-Tribune

GHC’s Steve Stuglin selected for Felton Jenkins, Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award

From Georgia Highlands College

In recognition of his dedication to reaching students through innovative teaching practices, Steve Stuglin, associate professor of communication at Georgia Highlands College, has been selected for a 2023 Felton Jenkins Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award. Stuglin is one of only three such honorees in the state. These University System of Georgia awards recognize individuals for a strong commitment to teaching and student success. One faculty or staff award is given for the research and comprehensive universities sector, one for the state university sector and one for the state college sector.

Albany Herald

UGA CARE Center receives major gift with touching dedication

From staff reports

The Marsh family made a $25,000 gift to create the Chris and Annette Marsh CARE Center Student Support Fund to further the CARE Center’s life-changing mission.

Elliott Marsh is highly involved in his alma mater, serving on the board of directors of the University of Georgia Alumni Association and having been a president of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association. But his most recent commitment to the university is among his most personal. For nearly eight years, Elliott’s father, Chris Marsh, suffered from Lewy Body Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. His mother, Annette Marsh, was Chris’s primary caretaker until she unexpectedly passed away from cancer. Throughout her husband’s illness, Annette struggled to find a diagnosis, care assistance at home and general information on care for dementia.

WGAU Radio

UGA holds inaugural Active Learning Summit

By Hannah Gallant, UGA Today

The University of Georgia hosted its inaugural Active Learning Summit to celebrate how this method of learning is already changing instruction across campus and to explore ways to expand that culture in the future. Approximately 270 participants gathered at the Tate Student Center for the event. The summit’s opening ceremony began with a welcome from S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Hu provided a brief summary of the five-year, $6 million campus-wide Active Learning Initiative launched in 2022 as part of the university’s latest Quality Enhancement Plan. That plan was foundational to UGA’s reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The Active Learning Initiative builds on existing programs such as the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Active Learning Summer Institute with the goal of growing active learning at UGA across three strategic areas: instructor development, student engagement and classroom enhancement.

Athens Banner-Herald

GA Law School grant seeks to reduce animal abuse and neglect

Wayne Ford

The University of Georgia is looking to provide more legal protections for our four-legged companions. The University of Georgia School of Law is the recipient of a $1.35 million grant from a foundation based in New York City that provides money directed at the welfare of dogs. UGA Law recently announced the grant, saying the money will be used “to help reduce the neglect and abuse of dogs.” The money’s use will be directed through the schools’ Practicum in Animal Welfare Skills (PAWS) and its director Lisa Milot. The Stanton Foundation, established by former CBS president Frank Stanton, directs its grants to canine welfare along with non-animal endeavors like nuclear security and First Amendment rights.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education’

Two Scholars are Building Diversity Initiative Database for All

Liann Herder

The Academic Pipeline Exchange is an open access database charting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in businesses, organizations, and institutions of higher education across the nation. While the full database is only in its initial stages, Drs. Curtis Byrd and Rihana Mason are already working to turn their idea into a nationwide standard. … Byrd, former special advisor to the provost at Georgia State University (GSU), said that institutions are struggling to diversify their faculty. Despite the increasing number of PhDs, those graduates are not continuing into the professoriate. … It’s through the THRIVE Index that Byrd and Mason want to begin their national catalogue, open to internal and external sources, sharing DEI progress and commitments at these institutions as they work toward their strategic goals. So far, five institutions have joined the effort, including the University of Georgia (UGA), Brown University, the University of Vermont (UVM), and GSU. Five years from now, Byrd and Mason want their membership to reach 100 higher education institutions. This kind of database is critical for institutions to have better awareness of what’s happening on their campus, said Mason, a research scientist at GSU.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia linebacker arrested on reckless driving, racing charges

By Chip Towers

Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was booked into Athens-Clarke County Jail on Wednesday night on reckless driving and racing charges. The rising junior was incarcerated just 41 minutes before being released on a pair of bonds totaling $4,000. The arrest was executed by the Athens-Clarke County Sheriff’s Office. According to a release by the university Wednesday, the incident took place on Jan. 10 in Athens – one day after the Bulldogs defeated TCU in the national championship game near Los Angeles.

WRDW

I-TEAM: New evidence in Augusta University’s animal research case

By Meredith Anderson and Saint Julian Cox

New evidence in a case involving animal research at Augusta University could prove AU lied to the federal government, risking millions of research dollars. Our I-Team first uncovered allegations of fraud, forgery, and a cover-up at Augusta University after a research monkey died nine years ago. You could call it a smoking gun, and for years, Augusta University used the big guns to try to keep it under wraps. “I didn’t want to go to jail, so I made the mistake of blowing the whistle Look where it got me,” said Dr. Jay Hedge during a grievance hearing at Augusta University.

Higher Education News:

Higher Ed Dive

How can the Education Department build a list of low-value college programs?

Some prominent higher ed groups rejected the proposal altogether, while others suggested metrics they say could make it work.

Natalie Schwartz, Editor

In January, the U.S. Department of Education asked for feedback on a plan to publish a list of college programs with low financial value to students and solicited opinions on what factors the agency should consider when constructing the ranking. The announcement mimics an earlier idea from the Obama administration, which crafted a plan to rate all U.S. colleges and shame bottom-ranking institutions that saddled students with debt burdens they couldn’t afford. That system never came to fruition amid heavy criticism, echoes of which can be heard in concerns about the Biden administration’s new stripped-down version. The Education Department gave the public until Feb. 10 to provide feedback. Comments poured in from every corner of the higher education sector, including policy advocates, student borrowers and groups representing private and public colleges. Though many voiced support for the list and offered up ideas for how it should be built, other influential groups rejected the idea altogether. Those opposed include higher education’s top lobbying group, the American Council on Education.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Success Coaching and Online Platform Shown to Improve Retention

Jon Edelman

The road to completing a credential can be particularly challenging for minority male students, who may face systemic biases, a lack of financial resources, racism and microaggressions, and an absence of academic role models. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the trend. However, the Minority Male Success Initiative (MMSI), a three-year project from the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) and Watermark, an ed tech company, has offered a glimmer of hope: students who received success coaching using an online platform were 22.4% more likely to stay in school.

Cybersecurity Dive

Threat actors can use ChatGPT, too. Here’s what businesses should watch

While IT departments seek enterprise applications, cyber teams must be on the lookout for attacks using the generative AI technology.

Lindsey Wilkinson, Associate Editor

Threat actors have a new tool in their belts — ChatGPT. ChatGPT is not foolproof,  but experts think its ability to customize and scale cyberattacks could threaten enterprises. Yet, the hype around ChatGPT is obscuring security concerns. More than half of IT professionals predict that ChatGPT will be used in a successful cyberattack within the year, according to a BlackBerry survey of 1,500 IT decision makers across North America, the U.K. and Australia. More than 7 in 10 IT professionals think ChatGPT is a potential threat to cybersecurity and are concerned, according to the survey. While IT departments begin to decipher potential use cases, teams must also be aware of how generative AI might be used to target their company.

Cybersecurity Dive

6 stories that show the state of security spending and risk

Naomi Eide, Lead Editor

There’s an inherent tension between cyber risk and security spending. Risk keeps growing as threat actors capitalize on basic security mishaps. In an effort to shore up the business technology foundation, organizations are investing more in security, but there is a limit to how much those budgets can grow.  Recent research shows security budgets have tripled in recent years. At the same time, the severity and frequency of attacks has increased. Now, in the backdrop, economic uncertainty is adding another wrinkle to business security strategies as C-suite leaders try to corral — or cut — costs.

Cybersecurity Dive

GoDaddy source code stolen as part of a multiyear campaign

An investigation into the root cause of the incident is ongoing. The web hosting provider declined to say how many potential customers are impacted.

Matt Kapko, Reporter

GoDaddy’s source code was stolen and systems were infected with malware by an unknown threat actor in a breach the web hosting company linked to a multiyear campaign. The company, responding to customer complaints about intermittent site redirects starting in early December 2022, discovered unauthorized access to its cPanel shared hosting servers. GoDaddy later determined a threat actor stole code related to some of its services and installed malware on its systems, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.