Periodicals Postage is PAID in Athens, Georgia
News Service University of Georgia 286 Oconee Street Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602-1999
®
‘Enduring partnership’: Dawgs at the Dome takes UGA to state Capitol CAMPUS NEWS
2
The University of Georgia Dream Award recipient teaches practical skills of nonprofit management
Vol. 42, No. 28
March 9, 2015
www.columns.uga.edu
$1.7M grant will be used to improve nutrition in Georgia By Cal Powell
jcpowell@uga.edu
UGA administrators and guests prepare to cut the ribbon Feb. 26 during the dedication ceremony for Delta Hall, UGA’s new permanent residential facility located in Washington, D.C.
Live and learn
UGA dedicates residential learning facility in Washington, D.C. By Stephanie Schupska schupska@uga.edu
Pockets of snow dotted Delta Hall’s front lawn Feb. 26 as UGA officials dedicated the new permanent residential learning facility in the heart of Capitol Hill. The three-story building, purchased in 2013 by the UGA Foundation, currently houses UGA students who are living and interning for various legislators and organizations in the nation’s capital (see story, at right). “As you look around the building, one point will become immediately clear: Delta Hall is a premier facility, providing students with all of the amenities they need to live and learn in Washington, D.C.,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “The true value of this facility, however, lies not in its design, but in the lifechanging learning experiences it will facilitate for UGA students.” UGA first established a presence in Washington, D.C., in 1997 with the start of the Congressional Agricultural Fellowship program. The university’s footprint expanded in 2002 with the introduction of the Honors in Washington program. Several other schools and colleges followed with their own academic and internship programs, and in 2008, UGA made internship opportunities in the city available to all undergraduate students through the Washington Semester Program. The opening of Delta Hall marks the first time UGA students have been able to live, study and take classes under the same roof while interning in the nation’s capital. The building was named in honor of a $5 million grant from the
CAMPUS NEWS
Delta Air Lines Foundation in support of UGA in Washington. “One of the tenets of giving back at Delta, one of our pillars, is the importance of education,” said Tad Hutcheson, vice president of community affairs for Delta Air Lines. “We believe in giving back to education, and there is nothing better than contributing to this facility.” The grant also funds a lecture series and creates additional internships for UGA students. The purchase and renovation of Delta Hall was a $12 million project funded by private gifts to the UGA Foundation and without a single state dollar, Morehead said. The facility enables UGA to enhance the quality of the student experience while providing significant cost efficiencies. Once a commercial office building, the 20,000-square-foot space is now capable of housing 32 students and additional faculty and staff. The building includes classroom and study space, common living areas, conference rooms, kitchens and suite-style rooms. Students are steps away from Stanton Park, minutes from the U.S. Capitol and six blocks from Union Station. “As I walk through this incredible facility, I am grateful that I live and study here,” said Torie Ness of Gastonia, North Carolina, a senior political science major and Washington Semester Program participant.“I have a 10-minute walk to the greatest deliberative body in the world.” Ness is one of five students interning in the office of Sen. Johnny Isakson, who also spoke during the ceremony. A UGA alumnus who graduated in 1966 and See FACILITY on page 8
Washington program enrolls its largest group By Tracy Coley tcoley@uga.edu
UGA’s Washington Semester Program marks its seventh year with the largest, most academically diverse group in program history as students moved into the newly renovated UGA in Washington facility. Twenty-nine students represent 17 majors in five colleges. The students are interning in offices including Congress, museums, law enforcement, think tanks, public relations firms and media groups. In addition to their internships, students are enrolled in UGA coursework taught by Paul Kurtz, the J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law and Associate Dean Emeritus, and Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. The increase in the number of students in the program is due in large part to the new building that the university opened at the beginning of January (see story, at left). Since the program’s inception in 2008, 262 students have participated in the university’s only Washington, D.C.-based program available to undergraduate students across all colleges See PROGRAM on page 8
A team of UGA researchers, led by a faculty member in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, has received a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve the nutritional habits of low-income Georgians. The researchers’ goal is to help Georgians eligible for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, establish healthy eating habits and a physically active lifestyle through evidence-based, behaviorally focused and culturally appropriate nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions. “We have a great need for this type of program in the state of Georgia, and we have a capacity to meet that need,” said Jung Sun Lee, an associate professor in the foods and nutrition department who serves as
7
principal investigator on the grant. Wi t h s o many Georgia residents facing persistent poverty and the associated health risks, Jung Sun Lee Lee said she’s optimistic about the potential for the SNAP-Education program to affect real change. “Food insecurity, people having problems getting the type and amount of food they need, exists in this nation, but it’s hidden and not many people think it’s actually happening,” Lee said. “In all indicators, Georgia always ranks poorly (in obesity and chronic disease statistics). We definitely need to think about what are the barriers
See GRANT on page 8
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS
UGA Press to develop series based on MLK Collection By Christina Cotter ccotter@uga.edu
The University of Georgia Press and the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection will collaborate to develop a groundbreaking new series of books using the archives of the Morehouse MLK Collection, which includes nearly 10,000 items. To be written by notable scholars of civil rights, race relations and American history and politics, the series will provide insightful overviews and fresh analyses of King’s intellectual, theological and activist engagement. A variety of themes will be covered, including poverty, the Vietnam War, capitalism, racial discrimination, nonviolence,
education and civil rights. The Morehouse MLK Collection represents a large portion of the Morehouse alumnus’s legacy, spanning the years between 1944 and 1968. Included are hundreds of handwritten notes, personal letters, famous and lesser-known speeches, manuscripts and sermons. Highlights include King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and an early draft of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Of significance are the 1,100 books from King’s personal library, many annotated with handwritten notes. Drawing upon this wealth of primary documents and source information, the series authors will
See SERIES on page 8
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UGA researcher to study link between concussions, driving By Kristen Morales kmorales@uga.edu
A concussion can keep an athlete out of a game. But should the same type of injury also keep someone from getting behind the wheel? Now, a pioneering study by a UGA researcher aims to find out. Using a grant from the UGA Office of the Vice President for Research, Julianne Schmidt, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s kinesiology
department, recently began the first-ever study of the effect concussions have on driving a vehicle. By partnering with Hannes Devos, an assistant professor at Georgia Regents University and assistant director of the school’s Driving Simulation Lab, the team has created a driving test and a set of cognitive tests to evaluate patients at different points in their recovery following a concussion. “We have good recommendations for when to go back to sport,
See CONCUSSION on page 8
2 March 9, 2015 columns.uga.edu Carnegie Mellon University recalls mistakenly mailed acceptance letters
Around academe
Carnegie Mellon University mistakenly emailed nearly 800 graduate school applicants, congratulating them on their acceptance, when they had not been accepted. The university, which is renowned for its computer science offerings, sent a follow-up letter to these applicants revoking their acceptance due to a computer foul-up. Carnegie Mellon acknowledged the error and apologized. But many applicants were left crushed after announcing to family members their acceptance, only to later have to admit they didn’t actually get accepted.
Harvard, MIT sued over closed captions
The National Association of the Deaf has filed lawsuits against Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claiming the universities violated anti-discrimination laws by not providing closed captioning on online courses. The complaints claim the universities violated both the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. They are seeking a permanent order requiring the universities to include closed captioning in all online materials.
Be wary of identity thieves posing as IRS agents and tax preparers
News to Use
Tax season is the time to be vigilant about identity theft, said Laura Heilman, a security awareness training and education manager in UGA’s Enterprise Information Technology Services office. “When a criminal files your taxes first, the burden of proving that you are the legitimate taxpayer falls on you, and it can take months, or even years, for you to receive the refund you are entitled to receive,” she said. Heilman warns that identity thieves may pose as IRS agents and tax preparers to trick taxpayers into giving away their Social Security number. Thieves can file fraudulent tax returns with stolen identities. There are steps to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. They include: • Not carrying a Social Security card or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number; • Protecting personal computers by keeping software and antivirus programs up to date; • Using a password for devices that may contain personal information; • Keeping physical copies of personal information secure and shredding documents when they no longer are needed; • Avoiding accessing personal financial and medical information when using an unsecured Internet connection; • Checking credit reports at least once a year; and • Filing a tax return as early as possible. UGA’s Office of Information Security has more information on identity theft and phishing scams available at infosec.uga.edu. Source: UGA EITS
TVWeek.com Radio Television Digital News Association
Ranking reporters
UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication was named one of the top two journalism schools in the country according to an annual survey. 1. Missouri 2. UGA 3. Northwestern 4. Syracuse 4. Columbia 5. Arizona State 5. Oklahoma 6. Troy 6. Lyndon State College 7. Indiana 8. Boston College 9. New York U. 10. Florida Source: TVWeek.com
Janet Beckley
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION
‘Enduring partnership’: Dawgs at the Dome takes UGA to state Capitol By Sydney Devine srdevine@uga.edu
Members of UGA’s Student Government Association visited the Georgia state Capitol Feb. 19 for the second annual Dawgs at the Dome event. The SGA executive branch and the Office of Government Relations made the event possible as part of UGA Day at the Capitol; it also marked the university’s 230th anniversary of its founding. SGA members met with UGA alumni and state government representatives during the event. Even Gov. Nathan Deal made an appearance—taking time to snap a picture with UGA President Jere W. Morehead and UGA’s mascot, Hairy Dawg. “Today is about showcasing what the University of Georgia does, its entire mission and most importantly showcasing the students,” said Toby Carr, associate vice president for government relations at UGA. “We had over 40 students who came over from Athens and braved the bitter cold, getting up very early in the morning to visit with legislators and their staff.” During a welcome breakfast, the students mingled with alumni, state representatives and other UGA supporters. For SGA members, the trip was an opportunity to network with policymakers. “I’m happy to get to build relations with everyone that we meet here and thank them for the work that they do on behalf of UGA students,” said Brittany Arnold, SGA treasurer. “I think it’s great just to have so many of our students finding time in their schedule to come over here and promote the university and its 230th anniversary,” Morehead said. After the breakfast, students were led into the House gallery, followed by the Senate chamber, where representatives passed resolutions acknowledging the event and invited Morehead to speak.
Photos by Andrew Davis Tucker
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, left, greets UGA President Jere W. Morehead Feb. 19 after the Dawgs at the Dome breakfast reception at the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta.
Morehead recognized the 230th anniversary of the founding of the university, saying the anniversary not only celebrates the birth of higher education at UGA, but also the birth of a partnership. “The University of Georgia and the state of Georgia have worked together to change the lives and change the state for the better,” Morehead said. “We are very grateful for the strong support that this body has provided the University of Georgia over the past 230 years, and we look forward to continuing our strong and enduring partnership in the future.” SGA members then were able to attend separate meetings with state policymakers to discuss issues in which they are interested. “I’m excited for a few of the meetings that we have today and to get to speak a little about policy and what students are passionate about,” Arnold said. Ebony Lowery, an SGA senator from the College of Education, said she was “glad to get out and talk to different people who make laws that affect us.”
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
UGA offers latest in research, outreach at 2015 Georgia Organic Conference By Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu
Pioneers in sustainable agriculture, backyard gardeners and urban homesteaders gathered in Athens Feb. 20-21 to share knowledge gathered over years of working the land and to learn new skills from researchers at UGA. From soil health research to breeding programs for organically produced crops, UGA faculty and staff have worked to improve the sustainability and efficiency of organic farms in Georgia. “Many people don’t realize how much work we have going on in sustainable agriculture,” said Julia Gaskin, sustainable agriculture coordinator for the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and recipient of Georgia Organics’ 2015 Land Steward Award. “Having the Georgia Organics conference here allows us to highlight all the research and UGA Extension work we have in this area,” she said. During the two-day conference, UGA faculty hosted farm tours at UGArden, the organic farm at Durham Horticulture Farm and at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center, UGA’s hub for sustainable agriculture research and public outreach. They also hosted hands-on workshops. • Lawton Stewart, an assistant professor of animal and dairy science, and Dennis
Hancock, an associate professor of crop and soil sciences, taught an introductory workshop on sustainable grazing. • David Berle, an associate professor of horticulture, and JoHannah Biang, UGArden farm manager, taught a class of beginning farmers and gardeners how to build raised beds and how to repair and use small farm machinery. • Peter Hartel, a retired professor of crop and soil sciences, and Elizabeth Little, an assistant professor in plant pathology, helped farmers inspect soil from their farms using microscopes and interpret findings in terms of soil health. • Suzanne Stone, a graduate student in horticulture, and Little helped lead a discussion on the need for better crop varieties for organic producers. • Gaskin and George Boyhan, a professor of horticulture, gave a workshop on selecting cover crops and how to maximize their benefit. • Judy Harrison, a professor of foods and nutrition in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, updated conference attendees on the Food Safety and Modernization Act and how it affects produce coming from small farms. • Bob Waldorf, an Extension coordinator in Banks County, gave an update on UGA’s Master Goat Farmer program. In addition to the tours and workshops, 12 UGA graduate students presented posters on their research at the conference.
Davis Parker, left, a senior economics and political science major, and Johnelle Simpson, a junior risk management and political science major, talk during the Dawgs at the Dome breakfast reception.
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Lawrence Bakst, Kathryn Wright to perform March 16 By Bobby Tyler btyler@uga.edu
The Performing Arts Center will present tenor Lawrence Bakst and pianist Kathryn Wright in a Noontime Concert March 16 at the Chapel. Open free to the public, the concert will last approximately one hour. The Noontime Concert Series features musicians who are in Athens to perform in the classical music series at the Performing Arts Center as well as performers from UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Wright has been the operatic vocal coach for the Hodgson School of Music since 2011. Her credits include longterm engagements at the Oper der Stadt Köln, the Semper Oper Dresden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Opera Australia and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Bakst studied voice and opera at the Juilliard School and was a national winner in the 1981 Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions. He also has won top prizes at Barcelona’s Vinas Competition, Toulouse’s Concours de Chant and the G.B. Viotti in Vercelli, Italy. Bakst has sung more than 40 roles in theaters on four continents. The final noontime concert of the season will feature the Jupiter Quartet with clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu on April 20.
RESEARCH NEWS
columns.uga.edu March 9, 2015
3
Digest Evening @ Skidaway to provide discussion on black gill in shrimp
Vasu Nair, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery in the UGA College of Pharmacy, is the lead author on a paper that details a new small molecule drug that may serve as a treatment against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Compound effect
UGA researchers discover potential treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis By James E. Hataway jhataway@uga.edu
UGA researchers have developed a new small molecule drug that may serve as a treatment against multidrugresistant tuberculosis, a form of the disease that cannot be cured with conventional therapies. They describe their findings in a paper published recently in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Nine million people contracted tuberculosis in 2013, and 1.5 million died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization. While standard anti-TB drugs can cure most people of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, improper use of antibiotics has led to new strains of the bacterium resistant to the two most powerful medications: isoniazid and rifampicin. “Multidrug-resistant TB is spreading rapidly in many parts of the world,” said Vasu Nair, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery in the UGA College of Pharmacy and lead author of the paper. “There is a tremendous need for new therapies, and we think our laboratory has developed a strong candidate that disrupts
fundamental steps in the bacterium’s reproduction process.” Just like other living organisms, the genetic information contained in M. tuberculosis undergoes a complex process known as transcription in which the bacterial enzyme, DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, or RNAP, produces TB RNA. This molecule is involved in processes that produce critical bacterial proteins that the organism needs to survive. Nair and his colleagues worked on a compound that binds to magnesium and specific amino acids found within the bacterium, interrupting the production of RNA. “The compound we developed strongly inhibits the growth of the bacterium and renders it incapable of reproducing and spreading infection,” Nair said. “More importantly, the compound shows very low levels of cytotoxicity, which means that it is not harmful to the body.” The research team members also performed extensive studies to determine if their newly developed compound had an appropriately long half-life and could be cleared from the body through normal
biochemical mechanisms. “All our tests were very favorable,” Nair said. “The half-life is a little over 14 hours, and all traces of the drug are expected to be cleared through normal bodily functions.” While Nair and his colleagues were pleased with their new compound, they were surprised to discover through preliminary experiments that it also exhibited strong anti-HIV properties, opening the door for dual therapeutic applications. A dual-purpose drug would be a windfall for clinicians, because the risk for developing TB is between 26 and 31 times greater in people living with HIV than those without HIV infection, according to the WHO. “This discovery of dual activity against both retroviruses and drugresistant gram-positive bacteria is unique and opens a new chapter in drug discovery in this area,” Nair said. Innovation Gateway, UGA’s technology licensing office, is seeking commercial partners to help develop this drug. A license would include humanitarian licensing terms to help ensure access to the drug by people in need at an affordable cost.
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK Study: Men, women use sexual assault hotlines differently By Molly Berg
mberg14@uga.edu
When victims of sexual assault dial a telephone hotline for help, what they ask and how long they stay on the line might be related to whether they are male or female, according to new UGA research. Every year, there are over a quarter of a million victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault hotlines provide services such as counseling, community resources and law enforcement options. Despite the same available resources from the hotline, males and females sought different things. “Females were more likely to call with specific requests—to be linked to services with questions about date-rape drugs and drug testing, information on restraining orders, information on abortion services,” said Jana Pruett, a co-author of the research, a graduate student and instructor in the School of Social Work.“Males were
more likely to utilize the hotline solely for counseling services—particularly to ‘tell their story’ and hung up or disconnected the call more often, without receiving any formal linkage or referral.” Sexual assault hotlines, Pruett said, can be a critical resource for a victim of an assault, particularly related to survivors and victims accessing additional resources. The researchers believe their findings can be applied to future changes in the training of hotline staff. “From our analysis, it seems as though hotline workers could be better equipped with an understanding of themes that we found amongst male callers, such as frequent hang-ups, fear of being judged, questions about what constitutes assault,” Pruett said. “This could give them a chance to normalize these feelings and behaviors for male callers to the hotline, thus building the rapport that is so critical to helping someone access
additional resources.” The graduate students “examined five years of data from a sexual assault agency,” said Marianna Colvin, a co-author and social work graduate student.“We looked at the narrative of the calls, how long they lasted and whether the callers got a referral to another resource.” Females received referrals more often than males; many male callers hung up before a referral or did not understand information about further options. For many male callers, the hotline was their first point of contact about the sexual assault. Instead of being a starting point to learn more, the hotline was the only resource to resolve the issue. After assessing their findings on female and male callers, Pruett, Colvin and Stephen Young, a co-author and social work graduate student, recommend further research on the types of callers across multiple sexual assault agencies.
Marc Frischer, a professor at the UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, will discuss his ongoing research into black gill in shrimp in an Evening @ Skidaway program. Open free to the public, the program will be held March 12 in the McGowan Library at the UGA Skidaway Institute, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. to be followed by the lecture program at 7:15 p.m. In recent years, Georgia shrimpers have been very concerned about black gill, a mysterious condition affecting the coastal shrimp population. While the condition does not affect the edibility of the shrimp, many shrimpers believe that black gill may be largely responsible for reduced shrimp harvests.
Pulitzer Prize winning environmental journalist Dan Fagin to speak at UGA
Environmental journalist Dan Fagin will discuss his 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, March 19 at 4 p.m. in the UGA Odum School of Ecology’s auditorium. The talk, which will be followed by a reception and book signing, is sponsored by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Health and Medical Journalism Program, the Odum School and the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program. The event is free and open to the public. Called “a new classic of science reporting” by The New York Times, Toms River is an environmental detective story about a small town in New Jersey devastated by toxic industrial waste. Fagin tells the stories of individuals seeking answers—and justice—from the chemical factory that polluted the town’s air and water, exploring the intersections of cancer epidemiology, public health, politics and industry. As well as the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Toms River was awarded the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the National Academies Science Book Award and the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Fagin is the co-author, with Marianne Lavelle, of Toxic Deception, published in 1997 and reissued in 2002, in which he investigates how and why so many toxic chemicals are found in food, clothing and other products deemed safe by regulators. He has written frequently for publications such as The New York Times, Slate, Nature and Scientific American and was the environmental writer for Newsday for 15 years. Fagin is an associate professor and director of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He currently is working on a book about monarch butterflies. Copies of Toms River will be available for purchase after the seminar.
Georgia Museum of Art raises $168,000 as part of biennial gala
The Georgia Museum of Art at UGA raised $168,000 on Jan. 31 as part of its biennial gala, “An Elegant Salute to Georgia.” It was the 14th edition of the event, organized by the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, the museum’s membership program. Focusing on the museum’s distinction as the official state museum of art and celebrating Georgia’s rich heritage of art, agriculture and natural beauty, the event was co-chaired by David Matheny and Michael Montesani. The museum relies on private donations to fund educational programming and exhibitions, as well as to keep admission free, and “Elegant Salute” is vital to that process. The Friends set a goal of raising $155,000 in ticket sales and cash sponsorships this year.
PERIODICALS POSTAGE STATEMENT Columns (USPS 020-024) is published weekly during the academic year and biweekly during the summer for the faculty and staff of the University of Georgia by the UGA News Service. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA News Service, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.
4 March 9, 2015 columns.uga.edu
RESEARCH NEWS
Digest College of Veterinary Medicine to host annual open house on April 3
The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine’s annual open house will be held April 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Exotic animal displays, horseback-riding demonstrations, a parade of dog breeds and limited tours of the new UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital are a few of the activities that will be featured at the event. Presented by UGA’s veterinary students, the event will focus on veterinary medicine as a rewarding career field and will demonstrate the opportunities available to veterinary medicine graduates, such as researching and controlling infectious diseases. For the younger crowd, there is teddy bear surgery, where children may assist as veterinary students repair their favorite stuffed playmates. Other tentatively scheduled activities include reading to dogs, milking demonstrations, police dog demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions with current veterinary students, a photo booth, face painting, games and scientific exhibits showcasing different types of animals. On-site registration is required for tours of the new UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which opens March 25 and will serve both small and large animals. The tours will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to people ages 16 and older. Tour groups consisting of approximately 15 people will be shuttled to the new facility for a guided tour. Sign-up for the tours will be located in the breezeway of the old large animal teaching hospital on the main College of Veterinary Medicine campus. Additional information is available online at www.vet.uga.edu/openhouse.
Bradley Hale Fund for Southern Studies established to support book publication
The University of Georgia Press has established the new Bradley Hale Fund for Southern Studies. This fund will support the publication of a range of scholarly and general interest books in the areas of Southern history, culture, literature, food and foodways and more. Support for the fund comes from the Sheffield Harrold Charitable Trust, headed by co-trustees Ellen Hale Jones and F. Sheffield Hale of Atlanta. The fund is named in memory of their father, Bradley Hale (1933-2011), a partner in the Atlanta law firm King and Spalding. Hale served as chair of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and the Atlanta History Center and as founding chair of the advisory board of the Georgia Historical Society. He was also a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and vice chair of Sweet Briar College. The first title to be published in October with support from the Bradley Hale Fund is A Boy from Georgia: Coming of Age in a Segregated South by Hamilton Jordan and edited by Kathleen Jordan.
Former UGA football player received Community Spirit Award March 5
Former UGA wide receiver Chris Conley received the Community Spirit Award, presented by Georgia Power, at the 10th annual Atlanta Sports Awards. The first collegiate athlete to win the award, Conley was honored alongside Lifetime Achievement winner Tom Glavine March 5 at the Fox Theatre. The Community Spirit Award is presented annually to an Atlanta-area athlete or coach who is actively involved in the community and epitomizes the highest standards of leadership, sportsmanship and integrity. Last year’s award recipient was Atlanta Falcons placekicker Matt Bryant. Conley volunteered for a variety of causes including “Learn, Play, Excel,” the UGA Athletic Association’s program promoting leadership, anti-bullying, respect for authorities and the value of athletics participations with Athens and Atlanta-area elementary schools; Home Runs for Hometown, softball games for Special Olympians; Samaritan’s Feet, a nonprofit that donates and distributes shoes to those in need; Read Across America, a national initiative that focuses on reading to young students; the Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer Golf Tournament; and Camp Sunshine, a facility for children with cancer.
Andrew Davis Tucker
Forestry professor Susan Wilde led research that formally identified and named the toxin that has been killing American bald eagles across the Southeast.
Tainted prey
Warnell researchers identify, name toxic cyanobacteria killing American bald eagles By Sandi Martin
smartin@warnell.uga.edu
UGA researchers have formally identified and named toxic cyanobacteria that have been killing American bald eagles across the Southeast. After years of studying the cyanobacteria coating the leaves of water plants in lakes, researchers in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources have determined that it is a previously undiscovered species in a new genus. In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa, they named it Aetokthonos hydrillicola and laid out evidence that it is responsible for the eagle deaths. “This new species has a growth form and gene sequence so unusual that it does not fit into any of the existing families,” said Susan Wilde, the Warnell professor who has been leading the research. “The naming convention for cyanobacteria is to use Greek for the genus—Aetokthonos translates to ‘eagle-killer.’ The species name is always Latin, and hydrillicola means ‘lives on hydrilla.’ ” Beginning in the mid-1990s, American bald eagles started to die off in noticeable numbers from a neurological disease called avian vacuolar myelinopathy.AVM was first found in Arkansas in 1994, but over the past two decades, 160 eagles are
known to have died across the Southeast from the disease, including 80 from one Georgia impoundment on the Savannah River, the J. Strom Thurmond Reservoir. Researchers speculate the death toll is actually much higher because most of the dead birds are never found. And the deaths will continue to rise and spread to new locations, Wilde said, because “the invasive hydrilla and associated cyanobacteria spread to new lakes.” Animals afflicted with AVM develop brain lesions that impair their motor skills, causing difficulty walking, swimming or flying. Once they consume the toxin, eagles suffer a neurological breakdown then death. Wilde realized that in virtually every site where bald eagles died, there was an intense invasion of hydrilla, an invasive aquatic plant native to Asia and considered the ultimate aquatic weed in freshwater locations where it is found. She hypothesized that the eagles were eating tainted prey: waterbirds called coots eat the hydrilla, develop AVM, then pass it on to the eagles who prey on them as food. She just had to figure out why that was happening, and a close examination of the hydrilla led her to the culprit—blue-green algae coating the leaves of the very plants the coots were eating, confirmed at every location where
birds were dying from AVM. Over the past few years, Wilde has been collecting samples from every site of an AVM eagle death, taking slimy hydrilla to her Warnell lab for analysis. She found that Lake Thurmond near Augusta has the highest cyanobacterial concentration of the 20 confirmed AVM sites in six states. To test the theory that the cyanobacteria is producing the neurotoxin that causes disease in birds, the researchers studied many lakes with hydrilla infestations. Some had the new cyanobacterial colonies on the leaves, but many did not. By monitoring both types, the researchers demonstrated only the lakes with Aetokthonos hydrillicola have birds suffering and dying from AVM. Wilde said now that they have strong evidence for what’s causing the AVM deaths, she will need to find out what environmental conditions are promoting Aetokthonos hydrillicola. “It’s already in lakes from North Carolina to Texas,” Wilde said, “and if it continues to spread, it could greatly undermine the bald eagle’s recovery and threaten other birds and aquatic wildlife. We already know that grass carp and turtles can develop the same AVM lesions, but we need to find out how it can affect the rest of the aquatic food web.”
SAVANNAH RIVER ECOLOGY LABORATORY
Researchers develop targeted approach to reduce rabies By Vicky L. Sutton-Jackson vsuttonj@uga.edu
Researchers at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory are evaluating new methods to reduce the spread of rabies in wildlife populations. Their project examines aerial baiting, a technique that involves distributing vaccine-filled bait at points throughout the wilderness so that free-ranging wildlife gain immunity to rabies simply by eating food. Used in the eastern U.S., this strategy has been successful in reducing the westward expansion of rabies in raccoons, the primary carrier of the disease in North America. But current practices don’t do enough to eliminate the disease. Working to overcome this challenge, wildlife ecologists James Beasley and Olin Rhodes from UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory partnered with researchers from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service and Purdue University to distribute placebo baits identical to those distributed in the aerial baiting program in the Upper Wabash River Basin in north-central Indiana. “We know that wildlife don’t utilize the landscape randomly, but they selectively spend a disproportionate amount of their time in habitats containing preferred resources,” Beasley said. “So, our interest was in determining whether we could increase the number of raccoons that consume baits by placing a disproportionate number of baits in areas of preferred habitat.” Researchers set up sites within eight forested tracks for the study. Four cells randomly were chosen as treatment sites. Baits in these cells were distributed based on the observed movements of the raccoons. The four remaining control cells received uniform bait distribution.
The placebo baits were made of 150 milligrams of Rhodamine B, a harmless biomarker detected in whiskers or hair. It was placed in a fishmeal polymer matrix, and baits were distributed three days after an initial 10-day trapping period that was used to determine raccoon density. Two weeks after the baits were distributed, the subjects were recaptured and samples were collected to determine bait uptake. The study also addressed the issue of bait consumption by the nontargeted opossum. The effective range of the treated area also was evaluated by looking at bait consumption among individuals at varying distances from the targeted area. Surprisingly, using models of observed movement to determine bait distribution did not increase the number of raccoons that consumed baits, which ranged from 12 percent to 39 percent among sites.
UGAGUIDE
columns.uga.edu March 9, 2015
For a complete listing of events, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu/). The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified. Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.
EXHIBITIONS
925,000 Campsites: The Commodification of an American Experience. Through March 27. Jackson Street Building, 285 S. Jackson St.
food and fire. Participants will join Russell Cutts on a daylong adventure of learning about wild edibles and friction fire. $50. 9 a.m. Classroom 2, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156, ckeber@uga.edu.
Small Truths: Pierre Daura’s Life and Vision. Through April 19. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817, hazbrown@uga.edu.
BASEBALL vs. Missouri. Second of three-game series. $5-$8. 2 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231.
Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments. Through April 19. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817, hazbrown@uga.edu.
GYMNASTICS vs. Utah. $10; $6 for youth. 4 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum. 706-542-1231.
Chaos and Metamorphosis: The Art of Piero Lerda. Though May 10. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817, hazbrown@uga.edu. “OC” Carlisle Solo Art. Through May 11. Candler Hall. Food, Power and Politics: The Story of School Lunch. Through May 15. Russell Library Gallery, special collections libraries. Terra Verte. Through May 31. Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden, Georgia Museum of Art. The Pennington Radio Collection. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu. (See story, above right).
MONDAY, MARCH 9 STUDENT SPRING BREAK No classes March 9-13; offices open. Classes resume March 16.
TUESDAY, MARCH 10 BASEBALL vs. Appalachian State. First of twogame series. $5-$8. 5 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 ARTFUL CONVERSATION A discussion of Dale Kennington’s “When Night Has Come.” 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-9078, mlachow@uga.edu. BASEBALL vs. Appalachian State. Second of two-game series. $5-$8. 5 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13 WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Kentucky. 3 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex. 706-542-1621. BASEBALL vs. Missouri. First of three-game series. $5-$8. 6 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231.
SATURDAY, MARCH 14 CLASS: FOOD AND FIRE This class will cover the knowledge on acquiring two basic human needs—
SUNDAY, MARCH 15 BASEBALL vs. Missouri. Third of three-game series. $5-$8. 1 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231. WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Vanderbilt. 1 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex. 706-542-1621.
MONDAY, MARCH 16 NOONTIME CONCERT Free performance by tenor Lawrence Bakst and pianist Kathryn Wright of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Noon. Chapel. 706-542-4400, ugaarts@uga.edu. (See story, page 2).
Classic radios on display at special collections libraries
An exhibit of radios from the early 1900s, the beginning of the age of electronic mass communication, is on display at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. The Pennington Radio Collection features tube radios, external speakers and other artifacts dating from 1913 to 1933, restored by the late Claude L. Pennington Jr. of Macon. A physician who specialized in microsurgery of the inner ear, Pennington was fascinated by another intricate mechanism: the tube radio. “The triode vacuum tube, invented in 1906, sits at the headwaters of the electronic age,” said archivist Mary Miller of the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection. “These radios, many of them exemplars of the design sensibilities of their era, offered a dynamic and immediate connection to the modern world and set the stage for the television and information revolutions that would follow.” Radios on exhibit, many approaching 100 years old, were crafted of materials such as mahogany, brass and bakelite and are in working order. The exhibition will be on display through December.
—Jean Cleveland
ADVISORIES
PHILOSOPHY PLATO MINI FESTIVAL The UGA philosophy department will host a Plato Mini Festival, funded by the Kleiner Series and partially funded by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and The President’s Venture Fund. A reception will follow the lectures. 3:30 p.m. 115 Peabody Hall. 706-542-2823. FILM SCREENING Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. Part of the Women’s History Month Film Festival. 6:30 p.m. 214 Miller Learning Center.
COMING UP CONCERT March 17. The UGA British Brass Band will present a spring festival. The ensemble will be led by former New York Philharmonic principal trumpet Philip Smith. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. 706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu. PANEL DISCUSSION March 18. A panel discussion centering on the 2015 national Women’s History Month theme of “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives.” To feature UGA faculty whose research focuses on narratives or women’s experiences. 1:30 p.m. 350 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu. WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE FOR SPRING SEMESTER March 19. GUEST LECTURE March 19. Environmental journalist Dan Fagin will discuss his 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation. 4 p.m. Ecology building auditorium. (See Digest, page 3).
Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Public Affairs. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available on the Web at calendar.uga.edu/.
EAST CAMPUS ROAD Through March 13. One southbound lane of East Campus Road adjacent to Sanford Stadium will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. so that Verizon Wireless may access Sanford Stadium for work to upgrade its digital systems there. Traffic will be directed by flaggers and police officers as necessary. It is suggested that southbound travelers use an alternate route. CORRELL HALL Through May 31. Construction is underway on the $35 million, 75,000-square-foot Correll Hall, the first phase of the Terry College Business Learning Community. The building will house graduate programs, college administration, classrooms and an innovation lab. The site is bounded by Lumpkin, Baxter and Hull streets. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic disruptions may occur occasionally at the construction site entrances from both Hull and Lumpkin streets.
SCIENCE LEARNING CENTER Through July 31, 2016. Construction is underway on the $44.7 million, 122,500-square-foot Science Learning Center, pictured in a rendering above. The site is at the southwest corner of D.W. Brooks Mall, bounded by Carlton Street, Pharmacy South and the McPhaul Center parking lot. The facility will encompass 33 instructional labs, two 280-seat lecture halls and two 72-seat classrooms. COLLEGE STATION ROAD Through Oct. 31, 2016. The Georgia Department of Transportation is replacing the College Station Road bridges over the North Oconee River, building new structures to include two lanes in each direction with bike lanes and sidewalks. A new bridge will be constructed north of the original bridges, and then through a series of traffic shifts, the existing bridges will be replaced. Two lanes will remain open in each direction during peak hours throughout the project. Lane closures are possible 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and during overnight hours.
TO SUBMIT A LISTING FOR THE MASTER CALENDAR AND COLUMNS Post event information first to the Master Calendar website (calendar.uga.edu/). Listings for Columns are taken from the Master Calendar 12 days before the publication date. Events not posted by then may not be printed in Columns.
Any additional information about the event may be sent directly to Columns. Email is preferred (columns@uga.edu), but materials can be mailed to Columns, News Service, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.
NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES March 11 (for March 23 issue) March 18 (for March 30 issue) March 25 (for April 6 issue)
5
6 March 9, 2015 columns.uga.edu
FACULTY PROFILE
No precedent
The New York Times spoke with Erica J. Hashimoto, the Allen Post Professor of Law in the UGA School of Law, for an article about court decisions that are “unpublished,” or set no precedent. Hashimoto, who also is a Meigs Professor, told the newspaper that “requiring courts to author binding precedent in every case is simply unworkable. “Because published opinions create binding precedent for all other cases considered by that court, those opinions, unless crafted with the utmost care and precision, can have significant unintended consequences for all sorts of other cases,” Hashimoto said. “Anticipating those consequences requires an incredible investment of time.”
Skimp sports
Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, wrote a piece for Forbes arguing that governments should not finance stadiums with public money. Dorfman wrote that public financing for stadiums “is simply a subsidy to rich team owners and a few businesses that stand to benefit from the events held there.” Using a hypothetical visitor to the Super Bowl, Dorfman argued against the claim that stadium visitors spending money at or around sporting events will provide enough economic activity to pay for the stadium. Dorfman wrote that “(t)his argument falls apart when you realize two key points: economic impact is not the same as tax revenue and when evaluating such events you must account for visitors’ budget constraints.” Dorfman also said that “stadiums can only justify public financing if they will draw most attendees from a long distance on a regular basis. The Super Bowl does that, but the average city’s football, baseball, hockey or basketball team does not.”
Super storms
USA Today used Brad Johnson, a meteorologist in UGA’s geography department, as an expert in an article about the massive amounts of snow received this year in Boston, which could be due to weather patterns impacted by global warming. Johnson told the newspaper that higher temperatures warm ocean water and allow the atmosphere to hold a larger amount of water vapor. “Both of these factors, among others, contribute to stronger storms in general,” he said. Johnson also said scientists cannot directly attribute a single storm or series of storms to climate change.
Super Tuesday
Charles Bullock, the Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs, was quoted in an article in The Economist about a “Southern Super Tuesday.” The plan would have Georgia and a slew of other southern states hold their presidential primaries March 1, 2016. Bullock, who also is a Meigs Professor, told the publication that any candidate who struggles to win in the South will have little hope of winning the White House. He also said that having a large southern primary vote is “very much worth” it for Jeb Bush.
Trash talk
BBC News spoke with Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering in the UGA College of Engineering, about a new study she led that found that 8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010. Jambeck helped visualize the scale of such a massive number. “The quantity entering the ocean is equal to about five plastic grocery bags full of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world,” she said.
Paul Efland
Phaedra Corso, associate director of the William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, is implementing a plan to make the institute the “go to” source for social and behavioral health expertise.
Professor aims to make UGA known as social, behavioral research hub By Terry Marie Hastings thasting@uga.edu
Phaedra Corso has a vision: To make UGA known as “the hub for social and behavioral research,” not just among researchers, but also with policymakers. And not just in Georgia, but across the Southeast, in the nation’s capital and with national research organizations. Corso, named associate director of the William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research last fall, said that “while individual researchers at the OIBR are well known nationally and internationally, OIBR as a whole is not yet well known outside of UGA.” Research in psychology, health behavior, consumer science, economics, policy and education—all in the scope of OIBR research—increasingly is recognized as fundamental to optimal health outcomes and improving quality of life, according to Corso. “Translational research—moving what we know about behavior from bench science to community practices —encompasses the entire scope of research conducted under the auspices of OIBR,” she said. Already, Corso and institute director Lillian Eby, a professor of psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, are implementing a plan to make OIBR the “go to” source for social and behavioral health expertise. The plan includes strategies aligned with what Corso said OIBR aims for: “breaking down the silos.” OIBR’s mission, she said, is to
encourage transdisciplinary research by facilitating the exchange of information and ideas across boundaries.The institute supports more than 100 affiliated faculty through a mentoring program, networking opportunities that bring together leading social and behavioral scientists from across the globe, as well as grants administration. Getting OIBR on the map beyond the walls of UGA calls for the same collaborative approach. Since becoming OIBR associate director, Corso has initiated discussions for numerous joint conferences and collaborations with external groups that she believes will lead to joint proposals for awards. “Our state’s leaders need information about our capabilities, too,” Corso said. She is developing relationships with UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government to get in front of government leaders. Similarly, she said working with UGA Extension with its presence in all 159 Georgia counties is an ideal way to get visibility throughout the state. Corso’s vision for the institute was inspired, in large part, by the 15 years she spent as a researcher at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease and Prevention in Atlanta. With its variety of expertise, the government’s public health agency was “a wonderful model of interdisciplinary research,” she said. In addition to serving as associate director of OIBR, Corso is the UGA Foundation Professor of Human Health and director in the College of Public Health’s health policy and management
FACTS Phaedra Corso UGA Foundation Professor of Health Policy and Management College of Public Health Associate Director of the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research Ph.D., Health Policy, Harvard University, 2002 M.P.A., Public Administration, UGA, 1991 A.B., Political Science, UGA, 1989 At UGA: Nine years
department. She also serves as associate director for policy at the Emory Center for Injury Control and is an adjunct faculty at the UGA School of Public and International Affairs. Corso is known both nationally and internationally for her research in economic evaluation and economic impact assessment, primarily in the areas of child maltreatment and substance use prevention. Her recent activities include serving on a National Academies’ Institute of Medicine committee to assess the current field of research in child maltreatment and consulting for UNICEF on a project measuring the economic burden of child maltreatment in the Pacific Rim. Her expertise in economic evaluations of public health services and programs has moved her into the public eye at a time when spending on health services is being highly scrutinized by all levels of government and the public.
OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
UGA at Oxford program names new associate director By Martina Kloss martina@uga.edu
Stuart Minson has been named the new associate director for the UGA at Oxford Study Abroad Program. His appointment is effective April l. As associate director, Minson will be responsible for assisting the program director in all aspects of oversight of the UGA at Oxford Program’s academic, administrative and financial operations. He also will coordinate alumni activities and serve as the principal communications liaison for the UGA at Oxford Development Board. Prior to accepting the position at UGA, Minson taught, researched
and served as a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the Middlebury Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford. Stuart Minson He previously has taught in study abroad programs, both through the Middlebury CMRS and the UGA at Oxford program. He also has served as summer school lecturer at the University of Alabama summer program in Oxford, housed at Worcester College. “We’re very excited to welcome
Dr. Minson to our team,” said James McClung, director of UGA at Oxford. “His unique combination of experiences, first as an international student himself and later as a faculty member in Oxford who has taught UGA students in the past, will no doubt allow him to have an immediate impact. As someone who has exhibited great dedication to enhancing undergraduate educational opportunities, Stuart will be a great leader for some of our newest student programs and initiatives.” Born in Canada, Minson grew up in Australia and completed his graduate studies in the United Kingdom. He has a master’s degree in modern European history and a doctoral degree in history from the University of Oxford.
2015 PRESIDENT’S FULFILLING THE DREAM AWARD
columns.uga.edu March 9, 2015
Sharing life lessons
7
Fulfilling the Dream Award recipient teaches practical skills of nonprofit management
By Aaron Hale
aahale@uga.edu
Joan Prittie, director of Athens’ Project Safe and an adjunct faculty member in the UGA School of Social Work, has spent the majority of her career working to end domestic violence and support its survivors. Prittie, who received the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award at the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast in January for her work to make King’s dream of equality and justice a reality, has worked tirelessly against domestic violence for decades. But she actually did not discover her passion for the issue until she already had started a career in law. Prittie graduated from the UGA School of Law in 1993 and went to work for indigent prisoners. She eventually found herself representing battered women in prison who had killed their abusive husbands. “I saw the injustice, the tremendous pain on top of pain that these people experienced, and I saw where I could help,” she said. Prittie eventually would leave the legal profession to go to work in nonprofit management. Fifteen years ago, she became the executive director of Project Safe Inc., which works to end domestic violence through crisis intervention, ongoing supportive services, systems change advocacy and prevention and education. In her role as a part-time educator, Prittie shares this story about finding her life’s work with students and interns. Prittie said many students think they need to find their passion and then go out and work in whatever area about which they are passionate. “I tell them, you work first and discover your passion through your work,” she said. “I didn’t care about domestic violence until I started on it.” These kinds of big lessons about careers and the more practical ones about running a charitable organization from a veteran in nonprofits like Prittie can be valuable for students planning a career in public service. This is especially true when it comes to learning how to raise money. Project Safe’s educational campaigns and support services for domestic violence survivors are what have contributed to improvements in the community. But it is the nonprofit organization’s successful fundraising campaigns that have kept these initiatives going.
Paul Efland
Joan Prittie, director of Athens’ Project Safe and an adjunct faculty member at the UGA School of Social Work, has worked tirelessly against domestic violence for decades.
“You can’t run an organization very well without resources and, really, without a diversity of resources,” Prittie said. Prittie shares her knowledge on the subject of funding nonprofits in graduate courses on grant proposal writing and fundraising in UGA’s School of Social Work. She has taught similar courses in the School of Public and International Affairs. “Everything I teach is based on lessons I had to learn the hard way,” she said. “I learned from doing and from mentors. I think I’m giving students some shortcuts.” Some of her lessons are simple, like to never turn in a grant application late. But she also stresses that raising money often means getting out of your comfort zone. “I actually spend most of my time in fundraising classes talking about individual solicitation and developing relationships with people,” she said. “It is very fruitful. In most instances it’s more bang for your time. And it’s also what’s most scary for people.” For Prittie, teaching at UGA is an oppor-
WEEKLY READER
Book examines ‘hot-spot’ global issues
Dispatches from the Frontlines: Studies in Foreign Policy, Comparative Politics and International Affairs By Howard J. Wiarda with assistance of Ann P. Kryzanek University Press of America Paperback and e-book: $36.99
Dispatches from the Frontlines analyzes some of the world’s most contentious hot spots. It focuses on such global issues as Third World development, the role of the state, corporatism and foreign aid. Written by UGA faculty member Howard J. Wiarda, Dispatches from the Frontlines is a thought-provoking book for anyone interested in foreign policy, comparative politics and international affairs. The book draws on Wiarda’s academic research and background working for foreign policy think-tanks in Washington, D.C. Wiarda is the Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. He also is senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Department of Defense consultant.
tunity to do two things she enjoys: interacting with students and sharing her enthusiasm for charitable organizations. “I’m quite evangelistic about nonprofits—charitable organizations in particular— and what they can accomplish in a community if they are run properly,” she said. Project Safe has shown how a nonprofit can spark a community conversation about domestic violence. One of the organization’s signature fundraising events, Dancing with the Athens Stars, has featured participants who share with the community their experience with domestic violence. The fundraiser, formatted after the TV dance competition, creates an opportunity to raise money for an organization while also raising awareness about domestic violence. When she was younger, Prittie expected that she might one day become a teacher. While she has no plans to get a doctoral degree and become a tenure-track professor, she enjoys working with students as an adjunct faculty member. She also is able
to facilitate experiential learning through internships. Prittie has supervised about 200 interns—most of whom attended UGA—in her 15 years at Project Safe. “We train our interns like we train our staff, and we treat them like we treat staff,” she said. Through experiences like these, students may have the opportunity to discover their passions and dedicate their lives to working on them. Prittie has been working on domestic violence long enough to see improvements in how communities react to the issue. Domestic violence continues to be stigmatized and more work is needed to eliminate it, but Prittie said she is optimistic that things will continue to improve. Like Martin Luther King Jr., Prittie is fueled by optimism for change. “To me, domestic violence is very much an issue of social justice,” she said. “And it’s a hopeful issue where change is happening and will continue to happen.”
ABOUT COLUMNS
CYBERSIGHTS
Columns is available to the campus community by subscription for an annual fee of $20 (second-class delivery) or $40 (first-class delivery). Faculty and staff members with a disability may call 706-542-8017 for assistance in obtaining this publication in an alternate format. Columns staff can be reached at 706-542-8017 or columns@uga.edu
Editor Juliett Dinkins Art Director Janet Beckley Photo Editor Paul Efland
Site dedicated to Veterinary Medical Center http://vet.uga.edu/vmc
The College of Veterinary Medicine has unveiled a new website in support of the new Veterinary Medical Center. The goal is to showcase the facility, educate the public on the project and help visitors get the information they need about ongoing and upcoming changes to hospital operations. The site features a responsive
design that accommodates devices of various sizes, focusing on mobile devices first. The layout is clean and modern, allowing users to find the most important information. Navigation items are available to help users get to the primary hospital website if they have an urgent need or require information about current services.
Senior Reporter Aaron Hale Reporter Matt Chambers Copy Editor David Bill The University of Georgia is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. The University of Georgia is a unit of the University System of Georgia. I
7 8 5
8 March 9, 2015 columns.uga.edu
GRANT from page 1
Robert Newcomb
TEACHING TUNES—Quintin Mallette, a percussion teaching assistant in the Hugh Hodgson
School of Music, worked with middle Georgia students last month as part of the new UGA Sounds Across Georgia program. The outreach initiative also included performances by the Hodgson Wind Ensemble and Bulldog Brass Society for nearly 650 music lovers in Perry and Americus.
FACILITY from page 1 served 17 years in the Georgia Legislature before being elected to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, he now is in his second term in the Senate. “As I have gone along through my career in the Senate, time and again I find myself going back to Athens or going to the phone to call Athens or dealing with interns in my office who are from Athens,” Isakson said.“The University of Georgia has made a meaningful difference in my life and my career, and I owe it a debt that I can never repay.” Delta Hall was built in 1931 and
originally housed a church society and club. Before UGA’s renovations, it was home to the American Society of Interior Designers. Funding UGA in Washington—the overarching name for UGA’s presence in the capital—has been a priority for Morehead and the UGA Foundation board of trustees as they seek to elevate the university to greater national stature. “This dedication marks another strategic milestone in the growth of the University of Georgia in Washington, D.C.,” Morehead said.
PROGRAM from page 1 and schools. It also is the only UGA program in Washington, D.C., that combines coursework, internships and a residential living environment during the fall or spring semester where students have the opportunity to gain real-world work experience in the U.S. while receiving full-time course credit. Nylah Oliver, a junior who is interning with Voice of America, believes this is one of the best decisions she has made in her college career. “The exposure and experience I’ve gained from my internship thus far have been nothing short of amazing,” she said. “Interning in D.C. has opened up many more doors of endless opportunities. The Washington Semester Program is molding me into a stronger leader and puts me in a place to gain the best experience in my
field and to be ahead of the game and more prepared in my major.” Each term, every student receives a minimum $500 scholarship provided by the UGA Foundation. These funds are designated to offset the increased cost of living in Washington, D.C., and to reward selection into the program. “Scholarships are funded for students participating in the fall and spring semesters by the UGA Foundation Washington Semester Program Scholarship and by WSP supporters through our annual fund,” said Don DeMaria, director of the program since its launch.“These scholarships provide needed support to students who often work in unpaid internships to gain the necessary work experience to successfully compete in the job market.”
Bulletin Board Free golf classes
10 minutes on the first day) and submaximal exercise (20 minutes on the second and third days) will be performed, and paper and computer-based tests will be completed. Participants can earn up to $50 in gift cards. Employees who are interested in participating should complete the screening process, which should take approximately 10 minutes, at http://tinyurl.com/ngpxs5l. Those who are eligible to participate will be contacted by email. For more info, contact Katie Fritz at kmfritz@uga.edu.
Study participants sought
Contracts and grants relocation
Staff at the UGA Golf Course will hold two free instructional classes for any interested UGA faculty and staff members. The classes will be held March 19 and 26 from 5:30-7 p.m. Class members can use their own equipment or some will be provided. Interested faculty or staff members are asked to email Clint Udell by the Monday before each class. In the email, indicate if any equipment will be needed. Udell can be contacted at cudell96@uga.edu. Men 18-34 years old who are not currently taking any prescription medication are needed for a study investigating the effects of exercise on psychological outcomes. Selected volunteers will visit the Exercise Psychology Lab on three separate days: 70 minutes for the first day and 2.5 hours for the second and third days. Maximal exercise (approximately
The contracts and grants department has moved. The new address is Tucker Hall at 310 E. Campus Road. The new telephone number is 706-542-9151. The new fax number is 706-542-9219. For more information, contact Allison Davis at ahdavis@uga.edu, Lynn Beard at lynnb@uga.edu or 706-542-9190 or Brad Langford at langford@uga.edu or 706-542-8766.
that prevent Georgians from healthy eating. We hope we can change these issues.” Faculty and students from four colleges and five departments within UGA will be involved in the grant, including the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the College of Education, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, as well as UGA Extension. SNAP-Ed involves four projects: • Expanding the existing Food Talk curriculum, which was developed at UGA by the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program staff, to include direct, face-to-face nutrition education in Fulton and Clarke counties that will reach 600 SNAP-Ed eligible adults via UGA Extension and peer educators. “These are people recruited from the community who represent our target population and know what they need and know the issues and barriers to maintaining healthy eating,” Lee said of the peer educators. • Launching Food eTalk, an interactive, online nutrition education program tailored to the specific needs of SNAP-Ed eligible adults that will deliver Web and mobile-based programming across the state. Food eTalk, still under development by faculty in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Education and set to launch in March, will include six modules and feature interactive games and videos that reinforce nutrition education. • Targeting nutrition and physical activity in young children through the Healthy Child Care Georgia program. Based in Clarke County, the program is a multi-level intervention under the direction of Caree Cotwright,
an assistant professor of foods and nutrition, and Diane Bales, an Extension specialist and associate professor of human development and family science. The program will include direct instruction to as many as 12 child care centers in Clarke County that participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. • Developing a vast social media and marketing intervention that aims to reach about 26,000 SNAP-eligible adult Georgians in the state’s 159 counties. This portion of the project will be directed by faculty in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. It will include print materials delivered statewide and distributed online to target audiences. The project also involves geographic information system analysis conducted by Jerry Shannon in the Franklin College geography department. This comprehensive food and physical activity environmental scan will be used to develop strategies to recruit SNAP-Ed eligible individuals and identify types and numbers of food resources available in the participants’ neighborhoods, Lee said. Co-principal investigators on the project are Cotwright, Bales, Joe Phua in the Grady College and Shannon and Ikseon Choi in the College of Education. The College of Family and Consumer Sciences’ Debbie Murray, an associate dean for extension and outreach, is the project director; faculty member Judy Hibbs is the program coordinator. SNAP-Ed staff involved in the project are Elizabeth Charron and Austin Childers, along with graduate student Sarah Stotz from the foods and nutrition department.
SERIES from page 1
CONCUSSION from page 1
examine King’s legacy as an activist, theologian, philosopher and political theoretician. Viewing the collection through a 21st-century lens will illustrate how King’s words, vision and actions affected other movements and philosophies, and how others responded to and perceived his work, both during his life and after his assassination. Walter Biggins, senior acquisitions editor at the University of Georgia Press, will work closely with a series advisory board and oversee acquisitions within the series. “I’m so excited about the series because it situates King within the larger and neverending struggle for human rights, and because it extends the promise and mission of his work into the present day,” Biggins said. “King should loom larger, and with more complexity, in the world as a result of the series’ groundbreaking work.”
but very little on when to go back to driving,” Schmidt said. “We see a lot of the same neuropsychological effects that lead us to believe people are impaired in ways that would affect their driving following a concussion, but nobody has ever studied it.” Schmidt, who also works with Ron Courson, senior associate athletic director for sports medicine, to evaluate head impacts among UGA football players, added that fewer than half of patients with a concussion plan to change their driving habits after their injury. Yet often, concussion symptoms affect skills required to drive, such as response time and cognition. Schmidt and Devos began data collection last fall with recreational athletes and members of the community. With a steering wheel and pedals hooked up to three wide-screen computer monitors, the patients used the driving simulator to navigate streets, pass cars on highways and react to common driving situations, like stopping at a red light or swerving to miss a child running into the street. The team will conduct another round of tests in the spring. “So based on their driving ability and cognitive tests, we will be evaluating their skills related to driving,” Devos said. He noted that while it’s important to know when someone who suffers from a concussion is ready to return to work, school or sports, “an equally important question is, when people with a concussion can go back to driving?” Along with the driving test, a neurological evaluation is important because not all cognitive impairments affect a person’s driving ability. For example, slurred speech won’t have an effect on driving like delayed reaction time. By pairing the tests, Schmidt said, the researchers get a fuller understanding of how the head injury translates to the task of driving. While the study itself is small, Schmidt and Devos stress that the need for information in this field is large. For example, U.S. military personnel sustain concussions at high rates—either in combat or in training exercises—and it would be beneficial to have guidelines for when it’s safe to go back to driving a vehicle. “Even though it’s small, it will be a study that people will refer to for a long time,” Schmidt said.
SecureUGA training
SecureUGA, an online, self-paced security awareness training program mandated by University System of Georgia policy, is available for all UGA employees to complete by March 31. This training is required for all employees, including student workers, and contractors. Current employees who previously have completed SecureUGA can select one of three options to meet the training requirements for SecureUGA. They are a brief refresher module, an opt-out quiz and SecureUGA core module series. UGA employees who completed SecureUGA on or after Sept. 1, 2014, have completed their SecureUGA training requirement for this cycle. Those employees are not required to take SecureUGA again during this annual training cycle. For more information or to take the online training, visit http://secure.uga.edu. Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.