Atlanta News First
How much economic impact does the University System of Georgia have?
By Jordan Barela
The University System of Georgia (USG) has contributed billions of dollars to the Peach State’s economy in the most recent fiscal year, according to a study from the system. In fiscal year 2022, which was between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, the University System of Georgia contributed a total of $20.1 billion to Georgia’s economy. The University System of Georgia said this was a 4.14% increase from fiscal year 2021′s $19.3 billion contribution. The study also found USG institutions generated 159,034 full- and part-time jobs across the state. Of those jobs, 32% were on-campus jobs and 68% were off-campus, the study found. …In another study, the system also looked at how much USG graduates add to their earnings over their lifetime on average. The study looked at the different degree levels for graduates.
The Herald Gazette
USG report notes Gordon’s economic impact at state level
By Walter Geiger
On Tuesday, Aug. 8, the University System of Georgia (USG) released a report that listed Gordon State College as having contributed more than $120 million to the regional economy and provided 990 jobs in fiscal year (FY) 2022. GSC enrolled more than 3,100 students in FY22. Due to the strategic initiatives embarked upon at Highlander Nation, GSC created 274 on-campus jobs and 716 off-campus jobs.
WRDW
‘Everybody’s in the same place’: Off-campus move-in day for AU students
By Sydney Hood
Fall semester is in full swing for Augusta University students, but there are 400 students having to live in alternative housing this semester. Oak Hall, a dormitory on campus, is under going repairs due to flooding and is not expected to re-open until spring semester. On Saturday, 80 of the 400 students moved into The Row apartment complex. The students are scattered across the city in four hotels and three apartment complexes. …AU President Brooks Keel said they aren’t sure what the price tag will be for damages. Keel said their main focus is getting the 400 students moved in. AU said they are working on a shuttle rotation to take students to and from campus throughout the semester.
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WGAU Radio
Fall semester begins today at UNG
By Tim Bryant
Today is the first day of fall semester classes at the University of North Georgia: back to class this morning for students at UNG campuses in Gainesville, Dahlonega, Cumming, Blue Ridge, and Watkinsville. It’s the first fall semester for new president Michael Shannon. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is telling drivers to look for heavy traffic on Experiment Station Road in front of the Bishop Farms Parkway campus in Oconee County.
From the UNG website…
In the event that classes are disrupted for multiple days due to the university’s closure for inclement weather or other circumstances beyond its control, the university may add class days at the end of the semester or during scheduled breaks to ensure that course requirements are met.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia State Announces 60th Annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Honorees
The Georgia State University Alumni Association has selected five exceptional graduates as the 2023 recipients of its Distinguished Alumni Award, the organization’s highest honor. They will be celebrated at the 60th annual Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner on Friday, Oct. 13 at Zoo Atlanta’s Savanna Hall, 800 Cherokee Ave. SE. The 2023 Georgia State Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award honorees are: …Dallas Smith (B.B.A. ’86) – T. Dallas Smith is founder and chief executive officer of T. Dallas Smith & Company, the largest African American-owned commercial real estate firm in the U.S. exclusively focused on tenant representation. …Smith is a former chair of the Georgia State Foundation board’s real estate committee and has been a guest lecturer at many classes at the university. He has a seat on the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, is a trustee of the Georgia Higher Education Facilities Authority board and is a member of the board of the University System of Georgia Real Estate Foundation Manager, LLC.
Albany Herald
CHRIS CLARK & NEIL PRUITT JR.: The coming crisis in health care: Work force
By Chris Clark & Neil Pruitt Jr.
Across Georgia and the country, we are experiencing a serious need for health care staff. Hospitals, senior care facilities, urgent care centers, local health clinics, and even imaging centers are facing long-term problems providing access to care for our citizens. We’ve seen this issue progressively worsen since COVID as burnout, fluctuations in demand, rising turnover, and lawsuit abuse have led to skyrocketing medical malpractice costs, and as health care professionals desire more work-life balance. Most concerning is the decline in appreciation and respect for the value of front-line health care personnel. We’ve become a society that refuses to show gratitude for our most important workers: educators, public safety employees, and caregivers.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Science Square at Georgia Tech reaches highest point
By Zachary Hansen
The first building within a massive life sciences district at Georgia Tech recently finished vertical construction, setting the stage for startups to soon have new lab space. Trammell Crow Company, the institute’s development partner on the 18-acre Science Square innovation district, announced Monday it topped out construction on the project’s first building, a 13-story lab and office building. The developer also finalized terms with its first tenant, life sciences venture capital fund Portal Innovations, which will lease more than 33,000 square feet on the building’s 10th floor. …Georgia is the home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Task Force for Global Health and medical schools, including Emory, Morehouse, Mercer and the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. But the project at North Avenue and Northside Drive is among Georgia’s most notable attempts to pursue the life science sector and become a rival to biomedical research hubs like Boston, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and San Francisco.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta college reinstates COVID-19 mask mandate as students return to city
By Vanessa McCray
A week after classes began, Morris Brown College is once again requiring students and employees to wear face masks on campus. The small, private Atlanta college announced the mask mandate Sunday in a letter to faculty, staff and students, saying the mask requirements and other COVID-19 safety protocols will be in place for two weeks. The college cited “reports of positive cases among students in the Atlanta University Center” as the reason for the decision. … The uptick comes as students from around the state and nation are returning to Atlanta’s college campuses. Georgia State University and Georgia Tech both begin classes Monday. Protocols have not changed, representatives of each school said. Georgia Tech’s Stamps Health Services reported 17 positive cases in the last two weeks. On Friday, the school posted a reminder on its website about COVID and campus health services, acknowledging that cases spike at the start of each semester.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia pension systems for teachers, university and state workers rebound
By James Salzer
A year after a plunge in the stock market dropped the value of Georgia’s massive teacher, university and state employee pension systems by $15 billion, the Teachers Retirement System and Employees’ Retirement System have seen a comeback of sorts. The two systems, which provide monthly benefits to more than 190,000 retirees and their beneficiaries, did not make all the money back it lost on paper when the stock market tanked in fiscal 2022, but it gained plenty of ground. The state fiscal year ended June 30, and the TRS reported its fund was at $94.7 billion, up from about $87 billion the year before.
Conquer Your Exam
What Med Schools Accept Low MCAT Scores?
Taking the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) is no easy feat. For many applicants, it is the most anxiety-inducing step in their medical school process. Medical students allot years of commitment, focus, time, and study to their academic pursuits and extracurriculars, so it’s daunting to think that all success hinges on their MCAT score. If you’re in a similar situation, fear not because we’ll delve into the lowest MCAT score accepted into med school and how you can do well on the test. …Now that we’ve considered MCAT scores for medical schools having high MCAT admission requirements, we’ll delve into the colleges that aren’t as competitive to get into: …Augusta University: 511 average MCAT score
The Newnan Times-Herald
Small business class overview held at UWG-Newnan
The West Central Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce hosted an overview for the LiftFund Grow Now Accelerator program Tuesday at the University of West Georgia-Newnan. A comprehensive training program funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s PRIME Grant, Grow Now Accelerator is designed to help disadvantaged entrepreneurs in Texas, Alabama and Georgia access the knowledge and resources they need to start and strengthen their businesses.
WRDW
Why Ga., S.C. farmers are worried about bee-eating hornet
By Staff
Experts are urging Georgia and South Carolina beekeepers and the public to look out for yellow-legged hornets after they were recently discovered near Savannah. The Georgia Department of Agriculture said they began investigating after a beekeeper found an unusual hornet and reported it. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed on Aug. 9 that the insect was a yellow-legged hornet or Vespa velutina. Officials added that this was the first time a yellow-legged hornet has been found in the U.S. Keith Delaplane, the University of Georgia honeybee program director, said that while the yellow-legged hornet isn’t more harmful to humans than other hornets, it can impact bee populations.
Fast Company
When it comes to robot legs, more is better
Research suggests that mobile robots require 12 legs at a minimum to be effective.
BY THE CONVERSATION Baxi Chong is a postdoctoral researcher in quantitative biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Adding legs to robots that have minimal awareness of the environment around them can help the robots operate more effectively in difficult terrain, my colleagues and I found. We were inspired by mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon’s communication theory about how to transmit signals over distance. Instead of spending a huge amount of money to build the perfect wire, Shannon illustrated that it is good enough to use redundancy to reliably convey information over noisy communication channels. We wondered if we could do the same thing for transporting cargo via robots. That is, if we want to transport cargo over “noisy” terrain, say fallen trees and large rocks, in a reasonable amount of time, could we do it by just adding legs to the robot carrying the cargo and do so without sensors and cameras on the robot?
Science
‘Folks in Alaska should take this seriously.’ Anchorage not safe from tsunamis, study finds
Low tide helped city dodge catastrophic 1964 wave, but future ones could destroy critical port, highways
By Christian Elliott
On a cold March evening in 1964, a colossal earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska. At magnitude 9.2, it was the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America, and it triggered massive tsunamis that killed more than 120 people and leveled communities. But no wave reached Anchorage, the state’s biggest city. Many concluded that nearby geography makes the city immune to tsunamis. A new study published this week by the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), however, finds Anchorage simply got lucky in 1964—and might not the next time an earthquake strikes the seismically active region. In a worst-case scenario—another giant rupture in a worse place at a worse time—a 10-meter wave could flood low-lying areas of the city and its critical port for more than 24 hours, according to the study. …Hermann Fritz, a tsunami expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology, thinks the study’s models are solid. But he says the study doesn’t account for another kind of tsunami: secondary ones that arise when earthquakes shake loose landslides that crash into the sea and Alaska’s many narrow fjords. For example, he says, a 1958 earthquake in southeastern Alaska triggered the Lituya Bay landslide, which created a 524-meter-tall wave—the largest ever recorded on Earth. With tsunamis, “there are always surprises,” Fritz says.
The Newnan Times-Herald
The University of West Georgia recently unveiled its new sign for its Newnan campus. The new fixture was created and installed by DeNyce Signs, a UWG alumni-owned company.
WGAU Radio
UNG schedules Community Engagement Fairs
By Tim Bryant
The University of North Georgia will hold Community Engagement Fairs at its Dahlonega, Gainesville and Oconee campuses early in the fall semester. Sixty organizations will provide 126 community engagement opportunities for UNG students, faculty and staff. …Students can identify volunteer and internship opportunities, while faculty and staff can make connections related to their research, teaching and leadership responsibilities.
The Moultrie Observer
From a petting zoo to milking a fiberglass cow, Destination Ag Day on Saturday, Sept. 16, promises lifetime memories for all visitors to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture. From 9 a.m. to noon, visitors can explore how agriculture impacts them in their daily lives through a variety of hands-on activities. Guests can milk Buttercup, the fiberglass milking cow, to learn how milk is processed. They will also learn why prescribed fire is vital to forestry, explore some of the tools used by foresters, and learn how Georgia crops provide many products used in our daily lives. …“Destination Ag Day is not only just learning about agriculture, but also a celebration of how important agriculture is to each of us every day,” said Kelly Scott, the museum’s agriculture and natural resources supervisor.
Griffin Daily News
Loran Smith to be featured in Author Entertainment Series at UGA Griffin
By Ashley Biles Uga Griffin
If you have ever wanted to hear the back story on how an author came up with the idea for a book, meet a writer whose work you like or connect with others who enjoy the same, then the University of Georgia’s Author’s Entertainment Series is something to attend. At the first event of the series, which begins Tuesday, Aug. 22, attendees will hear from Loran Smith, author of “How ‘Bout Them Dawgs! The Inside Story of Georgia Football’s 2021 National Championship Season.” Smith’s book recounts the winning season through the perspective of UGA head coach Kirby Smart as well as diving into his defensive philosophy, the importance of recruiting and the celebrations that followed the teams’ historic win. Smith has had a long-standing career with the university beginning as a student in the late 50’s and early 60’s where he was named MVP and captain of the track team.
Waverly Newspapers
From Georgia to Iowa: How the Snead’s became band directors at Wartburg, Tripoli
By Nick Thompson
Music brought Derrick and Lia Snead together at Savannah State University in Georgia in 2002. In 2023, music brought both of them to Bremer County. Lia is the new Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at Wartburg College in Waverly and Derrick teaches middle and high school band in the Tripoli school district. Lia’s music journey took her all across the country from New York to Georgia and even Illinois, but music wasn’t what she started off in. “I was actually pre-med when I first started so it took me a while to get my Bachelor’s degree when I transferred [to Armstrong State, now Georgia Southern University],” Lia said. “I grew up in New York and I met Derrick at Savannah State and we both transferred to Armstrong State where we both got out music education degrees.
The Red & Black
How to follow Athens open-container laws on gameday
Here are a few tips on how to drink responsibly (and legally) on campus and around Athens on gamedays. Athens–Clarke County open container laws have provisions that allow for drinking on property owned by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents (i.e. campus) and during certain special events (i.e. gamedays).
The Red & Black
Athena Studios officially open for business, revolutionizing film production
Ethan Wright
After two years of construction, Athena Studios, the first sound-stage development in Athens, is now open for business, ready to accommodate productions of any scale. The $60 million project with 200,000 square feet and a 150,000 square foot expansion to come offers four stages, support space with offices and more. Located at 900 Athena Drive, the 45-acre campus houses cutting-edge technology, making it an attractive destination for major studios, University of Georgia students and independent filmmakers.
Athena Studios is set to revolutionize film education with a state-of-the-art film production facility exclusively dedicated to training UGA and Georgia Film Academy students.
Ledger-Enquirer
Two dead in apparent homicide-suicide at Columbus State University, Muscogee Coroner says
By Kelby Hutchison
Two Columbus State University students are dead after an apparent homicide-suicide near the main campus, according to Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan. Bryan says Gisela Pierce, 20, was found dead in a car while Nathaniel Janik, 25, was found dead on the ground next to the car around 10:40 a.m. Bryan said an autopsy will be conducted on both students. The university released a statement saying it learned of a “gun-related incident” about 10:10 a.m. on Main Campus near the area of Lenoir Annex. “Columbus State University Police are now investigating the matter in partnership with the Columbus Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” the statement said. The university didn’t provide additional information on Pierce or Janik.
See also:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Feds Complicate College Mergers, With Possible Unintended Consequences
At a time when mergers might help more institutions survive, new rules from the Education Department—aimed at protecting students and taxpayers—might result in more college closures instead.
By Katherine Knott
The latest academic year saw the start of what industry experts expect to be an intensified wave of college closures or mergers as institutions contend with declining enrollment and financial pressures. But a series of policy changes by the Biden administration could make those transactions—which are often extremely difficult to bring about from a cultural standpoint—even harder in practice. Over the past year, the U.S. Education Department has amended federal rules to give itself more oversight over the “change in ownership” process, and it has subjected mergers to new requirements. The department says the changes are aimed at protecting students and taxpayers, given the risks for both groups associated with a change in ownership. But higher education lawyers say that the changes have injected more uncertainty and cost into an already difficult process and lengthened the timeline for deals to close, which could lead struggling colleges and universities to shut down entirely rather than move forward with a merger.
Higher Ed Dive
Will new state definitions of ‘sex’ exclude transgender students?
Four states have enacted laws this year limiting the definition of “sex” to “male” or “female,” setting up potential Title IX disputes.
Naaz Modan, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
Four states — Montana, North Dakota, Kansas and Tennessee — this year enacted laws limiting the definition of “sex” to a permanent category of “male” or “female,” potentially excluding transgender people from equal access to public life, according to an August report released by the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks anti-LGBTQ measures. Overall, at least 22 bills have been introduced in state legislatures so far in 2023 to define the term “sex” throughout state law as strictly male or female — typically based on a person’s characteristics at birth, the report said. While the impact of the laws is still uncertain, they could result in excluding transgender people from areas of public life, including sex-based nondiscrimination protections and the right to use bathrooms aligning with their gender identities.
Higher Ed Dive
WVU must involve faculty when making academic cuts, AAUP says
The organization criticized a lack of faculty input in the university’s decision-making and urged leadership to affirm its dedication to shared governance.
Laura Spitalniak, Associate Editor
Dive Brief:
The American Association of University Professors on Thursday criticized West Virginia University’s plans for dramatic cuts, arguing that faculty don’t appear to have been meaningfully consulted. Last week, WVU announced its intention to eliminate almost three dozen programs and nearly 170 faculty positions to counter a $45 million deficit. AAUP, the nation’s leading faculty group, urged the university to articulate how faculty will be involved in handling its financial crisis and said it will monitor WVU closely.
Inside Higher Ed
Vermont Law and Graduate School Can Cover Slavery Murals, Court Rules
By Susan H. Greenberg
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Vermont Law and Graduate School can permanently cover a pair of controversial murals depicting slavery without infringing upon the artist’s rights. Samuel Kerson painted the two 24-foot-long murals—which show scenes of a slave market and of Vermonters helping people escape on the Underground Railroad, among other things—on a wall at the law school in 1993. For years, students complained that the colorful images contained racist caricatures. Finally in 2020, after George Floyd’s murder by police, the institution decided to cover the murals with panels to hide them from public view.
Inside Higher Ed
Walking Faculty Back from the Cliff
With many faculty members exhausted and burned out, higher ed needs to take the well-being of its employees seriously, Sean McCandless, Bruce McDonald and Sara Rinfret write.
By Sean McCandless , Bruce McDonald and Sara Rinfret
Let’s get serious: educators are burned out. …As public administration scholars, we study how public policies are created and implemented and how public service institutions operate (e.g., governments, nonprofits or even some private sector agencies). Given public administration’s centrality in providing public services, we must find ways to address the employment and morale crises in both the public and nonprofit sectors. In February 2023, we conducted a global survey of more than 900 public administration faculty to gain insight into why faculty come to work, what universities can do to retain faculty and solutions for the future of higher education. Our findings offer three lessons for higher education institutions to consider.
Inside Higher Ed
Southern California Colleges Prepare for Hurricane
By Doug Lederman
Colleges and universities across Southern California canceled in-person classes and made other preparations for the unusual West Coast hurricane that made landfall in Mexico and Baja California Sunday. Monday was to be the first day of classes for some colleges in the region, and the storm, Hilary, disrupted those plans in various ways. Palomar College, a two-year institution north of San Diego, said that “due to a state of emergency,” it had canceled classes at all of its locations on Monday. Sunday afternoon, California State University, Los Angeles, updated its social media pages to say that it, too, would cancel classes and ask employees to work from home Monday. Sunday night, the San Diego Community College District said all of its campuses and facilities would be closed today, due to the “lingering effects” of the storm.
Cybersecurity Dive
Cyber authorities have a plan to defend remote monitoring tools
Threat actors can turn one point of attack into many by targeting remote management services that lack security controls.
Matt Kapko, Reporter
Cyber authorities are working to mitigate threats to remote monitoring and management tools with assistance from the government and private sector. The defense plan from the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative “addresses issues facing top-down exploitation of RMM software,” which present a growing risk to small- and medium-sized businesses, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. The 2023 Joint Cyber Defense Collaboration Planning Agenda established CISA’s efforts to reduce risk in the supply chain for SMB critical infrastructure entities. Three areas of focus this year include RMM, managed service providers and managed security service providers. Threat actors are exploiting RMM to intrude managed service provider servers and gain access to thousands of customer networks, cyber authorities warned.