UGA Columns February 2, 2015

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New curator brings fresh perspective to conversation on American art at UGA CAMPUS NEWS

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‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ exhibition on display at Georgia Museum of Art Vol. 42, No. 23

February 2, 2015

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UGA GUIDE

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$1.3M grant to fund behavioral health training for students By Laurie Anderson laurie@uga.edu

Andrew Davis Tucker

Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., speaks during the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast Jan. 23.

‘Spiritual view of the world’

Behavioral health needs are a growing issue in Georgia, particularly among transitional youth between the ages of 18 and 25. A new three-year, $1.3 million grant is helping the UGA School of Social Work address these needs. The school’s researchers are developing specialized training for social work master’s degree students through funding provided by the Health Resources Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program will emphasize collaboration with families who use behavioral health services and will teach students how to work in concert with families, at-risk youth and health and social work professionals. According to a 2011 report by the Carter Center, Georgia ranks in the bottom half of states nationally

regarding its ability to meet growing behavioral health needs such as treatment for mental illness, trauma and other issues. The shortHarold Briggs age is particularly serious among transitional age youth, who are at a higher risk for developing behavioral health disorders and are among those least likely to seek services, said Harold Briggs, associate dean and co-principal investigator for the project. Adding to the difficulty of providing effective care, he said, is a lack of input from those being served as well as a lack of coordination between providers of different professional services. The curriculum for the program

Freedom Breakfast speaker said King believed in divine miracles that overcame obstacles College of Veterinary Medicine Noted infectious disease Sponsored by UGA, the During his address, Young reBy Aaron Hale aahale@uga.edu Athens-Clarke County Unified called a meeting he had with King researcher to join UGA Government and the Clarke and President Lyndon Johnson at Martin Luther King Jr. became the transcendent civil rights leader who broke down barriers for equality in America because of the “spiritual” way he looked at the world. That was the message from Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., during the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast Jan. 23. By spiritual, Young said, he meant that King believed in divine miracles that overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles such as the path to passing voting rights legislation in the 1960s.

County School District, the MLK Freedom Breakfast commemorates the life of the late civil rights leader. The event, which was held in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center, had a capacity crowd with more than 600 people in attendance. Young, who was a strategist and negotiator with King during the civil rights campaigns in Birmingham and Selma, delivered an inspiring keynote address about continuing King’s work. “We believe that Dr. King’s message to redeem the soul of America from the triple evils of racism, war and poverty is not only possible but necessary,” Young said.

the White House to discuss a push for voting rights legislation in 1965. According to Young, the president said that while he badly wanted a voting rights law, he didn’t have the political power at that time to get a bill through Congress. When the civil rights leaders left the White House that night, King told Young, “I think we have got to find a way to get the president some power.” At the time, Young thought King’s statement was either crazy or arrogant. But that meeting inspired the King-led march on Selma, which See BREAKFAST on page 8

Finance and Administration Division Parking Services expands electric vehicle charging program on campus By Allison Harper aharper1@uga.edu

Due to the popularity of UGA’s first electric vehicle charger and recent grant funding by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, UGA Parking Services has expanded charging locations to include the South Campus and East Campus parking decks. Service at the stations began Jan. 15. The chargers are located near the Lumpkin Street entrance in the South Campus parking deck and the main entrance in the East Campus parking deck. UGA’s first electric vehicle

charger, located in the North Campus parking deck, has been used 390 times since it opened for service in May 2014. Over the fall and summer semesters, “we saw an average of 46 sessions per month at the one charger,” said Don Walter, manager of Parking Services. “This has resulted in a total of 1,712 kilograms of greenhouse gas savings since installation. The one charger also has resulted in 511.63 gallons of gasoline saved.” The new installations bring the total number of electric vehicle charger parking spots on campus to six—each level 2 charger has two See ELECTRIC on page 8

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

One of the nation’s leading infectious disease researchers is joining UGA as its newest Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. Ted M. Ross, director of the vaccines and viral immunity program at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida, will join the College of Veterinary Medicine Aug. 17 as the GRA Eminent Scholar in Infectious Diseases. “Dr. Ross has an outstanding record of success in translating his pioneering research into promising new vaccine candidates,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “His expertise complements the University of Georgia’s growing research

See TRAINING on page 8

enterprise in infectious disease and will strengthen the university’s ties to vaccine researchers at other institutions and with Georgia’s economically important life sciences industry.” Ross’ research focuses on developing and testing vaccines for diseases such as influenza, dengue, respiratory syncytial virus, chikungunya virus, Ebola and HIV/ AIDS. The work he began while a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh to create a universal vaccine to protect against all strains of seasonal and pandemic influenza has resulted in a new vaccine platform. In 2012, an agreement was signed between Sanofi Pasteur and the University of Pittsburgh for continued

See RESEARCHER on page 8

College of Education

Professor using NSF grant to teach meaning behind numbers

Paul Efland

An electric vehicle charger located in the South Campus parking deck opened for service Jan. 15.

A way to think about mathematics connects both kindergarten students and high school seniors, whether they’re counting to five, working their way through a complicated algorithm or exploring the world around them. UGA’s Kevin Moore describes that way to think as quantitative reasoning. He’s using a five-year, $741,492 National Science Foundation grant to increase the use of quantitative reasoning in how math is both learned and taught. “If you look at most approaches

to teaching mathematics, it’s all very numbers-based,” said Moore, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s mathematics and science education department. “Students are playing with numbers all the time. But when those numbers aren’t representative of something to them, they’re just playing with them procedurally, just multiplying and dividing because,‘Oh, that’s what we do,’ without a deeper understanding. So quantitative reasoning is about putting meaning to the numbers.”

See GRANT on page 8


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