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Georgia College launches free green tech course with $100K innovation grant
Green technology, solar power and entrepreneurship are the focus of a new, free course being offered at Georgia College and State University (GCSU).
Dejon Campbell
Green technology, solar power and entrepreneurship are the focus of a new, free course being offered at Georgia College and State University (GCSU). It’s thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Partnership of Inclusive Innovation that was awarded to GCSU’s School for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in September. “We’re starting a Workforce Development Program,” assistant professor of business law end ethics Dr. Nicolas Creel said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech campus plan: More housing, recreation areas in 10 years
By Vanessa McCray
Georgia Tech has unveiled a new campus plan to plot out the future of its Atlanta grounds and buildings over the next decade. The recently finalized 2023 Comprehensive Campus Plan will guide how the campus grows. The 130-page document envisions a vehicle-free core that emphasizes getting around on foot, bicycle and by shuttle. The plan also anticipates new student amenities, from expanded athletics facilities to more housing. It includes reopening a tunnel to connect to Midtown and a possible new performing arts center. The plan calls for an additional 2.23 million gross square feet to meet academic, research and workplace needs. New research and academic facilities could fill in surface parking areas along Hemphill Avenue and Ferst Drive, the document suggests.
WGAU Radio
UGA study: fostering cats can ease loneliness
By Amy Carter, Lauren Baggett, UGA Today
No one needs science to tell them that dogs make faithful and loving companions. Cats, on the other hand, could use the endorsement. The University of Georgia and Brenau University have provided just that in a pilot study that proves fostering a cat can ease loneliness among older adults. Susan Cannone, one of 29 participants in the study, responded to an advertisement in 2020 seeking human subjects to foster shelter cats. …After Cannone passed a cognitive test and assessments of her physical and mental health, co-investigator Sherry Sanderson, associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, brought Cannone to the Athens Area Humane Society to select a cat …Sanderson said cats are a good option for older adults because they are more self-sufficient than dogs but still social enough to engage their owners in play and talk. …Don Scott, campus director of geriatrics and palliative care and associate professor of medicine at the Augusta University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership and a co-investigator on the study, said the UGA study adds to the growing body of research indicating the benefits of pet ownership. “While a great deal of such research has focused on dogs, our study is the first to demonstrate that cat companions can decrease feelings of loneliness in older adults,” Scott said.
Atlanta News First
Have you seen a monarch? Scientists ask for help tracking migration in Georgia, southeast
By Hope Dean
When was the last time you saw a monarch butterfly? The iconic orange and black insects usually migrate to Mexico’s mountains in the fall and return in the spring, avoiding a cold winter. But that pattern could be changing, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division. That’s why several universities and other agencies under the name Monarchs Overwintering in Southeastern States are asking for the public’s help in tracking the butterflies’ behavior. Residents in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are invited to fill out a report if they see a monarch from Nov. 1 to March. 1. Sonia Altizer, a University of Georgia ecology professor and director of Project Monarch Health, said the information will help scientists find out how and why some of the butterflies breed and spend winter in the southern U.S. instead of flying to Mexico.
WNCT
As part of Food Lion Feeds’ partnership with 36 collegiate football teams, the teamwork helped provide 851,000 meals* to nourish neighbors experiencing hunger and make a meaningful impact. Through this collaboration to address food insecurity, Food Lion Feeds helped provide 1,000 meals* (up to 30,000 meals per team) for every quarterback sack made by the participating institution. The effort benefits Feeding America partner food banks throughout Food Lion’s 10-state operating area. …Sack to Give Back campaign is one of many efforts that Food Lion Feeds leads in partnership with colleges. In addition to this collegiate effort, Food Lion Feeds also teams up with universities for its Score to Give More campaign, providing 100 meals* (up to 30,000 meals per school) for every free throw made by the participating institution. …The participating schools, season sacks and correlating food banks that benefit from each school’s efforts are: Georgia Southern University, 24 sacks / 24,000 meals provided, America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia…
WALB
Georgia Southwestern University Athletics hosts annual education day
By Janyre Cooper
Every year Sumter County Schools and Georgia Southwestern University team up to allow students to watch college athletics up close and personal. Today, was that special day for students. The Storm Dome welcomed Sumter County kids for an in-state men’s basketball matchup. “One of the things is we have a great partnership with Georgia Southwestern University.” said Sumter County Schools Superintendent Walter Knighton. “They bring their specific players to our school and read to our students. Our teachers and students look forward every year to coming to GSW Education Day.”
Statesboro Herald
Georgia Southern bound for Myrtle Beach Bowl
Josh Aubrey
The Georgia Southern football team eared their bowl eligibility after defeating Georgia State in their eighth game of the season when they were 6-2. Since then, they have dropped four straight games which is not the way they would have liked to have finished, but Sunday they got some much-needed good news as it was announced that they will be kicking off the 2023-24 bowl season against Ohio University in the Myrtle Beach Bowl Dec. 16 in Conway S.C.
Athens Banner-Herald
How WSB pivoted when another Atlanta TV station became Georgia Bulldogs official partner
Marc Weiszer
Georgia football entered the 2023 season with a change at starting quarterback, offensive coordinator and its official exclusive multi-media rights holder. After more than a decade with WSB-TV in that role, Georgia athletics switched over the summer to Fox 5 Atlanta for a range of weekly and postgame shows. WAGA FOX 5 Atlanta will pay $1.59 million over the course of a five-year deal to JMG JV, LLC (Georgia Bulldogs Sports Marketing) for the rights to be the official station of a team that won back-to-back national titles the past two seasons, according to a contract obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald in an open records request.
Athens Banner-Herald
Winter WonderLights show returns to light up UGA’s State Botanical Garden
Joshua L. Jones
Visitors make their way through the light tunnel at the Winter WonderLights show at UGA’s State
The children’s garden is transformed into a beautiful light display featuring a fox and birds at the Winter WonderLights show at UGA’s State Botanical Garden in Athens, Ga., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. Visitors will travel through a Winter Wondercave, along Jingle Bell Lane, into the Northern Lights and through a Frosted Forest, among other dazzling features.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Israel’s Gaza Border College On ‘Healing Mission’ After Attacks
After the killings of dozens of students, faculty and staff, and with 1,000 still displaced, Sapir College looks to rebuild and renew.
By Pola Lem for Times Higher Education
With less than a month until the semester begins, an Israeli higher education institution hit hard by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks is still healing from the trauma—but already driving long-term changes to revitalize its surrounding area. Located near Sderot, just kilometers from the wall separating Israel from the Gaza Strip, Sapir Academic College is one of Israel’s largest public institutions, usually a bustling campus of more than 8,000 students. Now, more than a dozen of its community are dead and scores more have yet to return to their homes.
Inside Higher Ed
Thaw in Pa.’s Budget Freeze Funds 4 State Universities
The funding came with new conditions requiring the institutions to make financial, employment and operations records publicly available.
By Jessica Blake
After months of wrangling, Pennsylvania lawmakers recently passed a spending bill that ends a long-standing and contentious partisan debate over hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on four of the state’s leading public universities. The measure was approved only after the lawmakers reached consensus on one key condition: the leaders of the universities had to commit to adopt increased financial transparency practices. The bill, which was approved in mid-November, authorizes $603.5 million in funding for the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, Temple and Lincoln Universities. It was attached to an open records bill requiring the universities to make records about their finances, employees and operations publicly available. Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed both bills into law on Nov. 16.
Inside Higher Ed
New Title IX Regulations Pushed to March
By Katherine Knott
The Education Department has pushed back the date for finishing its updated regulations for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to March, according to the agency’s latest regulatory agenda. The final regulations, which would overhaul how colleges and universities respond to reports of sexual harassment and assault and create new protections for transgender students, were slated for release in May but then were pushed back to October. The department received more than 240,000 comments on its proposed Title IX rules, which has delayed the process, because the agency must review and respond to every comment before issuing a final rule.
Inside Higher Ed
House Approves Overhaul of Foreign Gift Reporting Requirements
By Katherine Knott
The House of Representatives voted 246 to 170 on Wednesday to pass a bill that would require colleges and universities to report more foreign gifts or risk their access to federal financial aid. The legislation is the first in a series of bills aimed at reforming the Higher Education Act of 1965. It addresses a number of concerns Republicans have raised in recent years about the flow of foreign dollars to colleges and universities, and about institutions’ compliance with federal reporting requirements. Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires colleges and universities to disclose, twice a year, all foreign gifts and contracts totaling $250,000 or more.
Inside Higher Ed
Fired LSU Professor Accused of Student Affair, Illegal Anti-CRT Lobbying
An ousted political science professor is denying salacious ethics charges against him.
By Ryan Quinn
A scandalous ethics charge in the South went public this week. According to the charge document, David Sobek, formerly a tenured professor and director of political science graduate studies at Louisiana State University, had an affair with his graduate assistant, told her to research whether his wife and other professors were using critical race theory in their teaching, and instructed the student to send those professors’ syllabi to legislators who he thought would favor anti-CRT legislation. …The Louisiana Board of Ethics is accusing him of just one illegality: violating a Louisiana law that bans state employees from lobbying for or against pending legislation, in their “official capacity” or on behalf of their “agency.” The charge says Sobek instructed his graduate assistant “to gather all of the ‘offending’ syllabi and distribute them to legislators who he thought would be in favor of passing anti-CRT legislation.” …The Louisiana ethics board voted in July to file the charges, but no one publicized them. This week, however, the charge document began making the rounds on X. The state’s separate Ethics Adjudicatory Board, which doles out punishment for ethics violations, has a status hearing later this month, but Sobek is currently settling the matter.