UGA Columns October 27, 2014

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The University of Georgia Spotlight • Slingshot to feature all-star orchestrated concert of Big Star album

Arts festival hits campus SPECIAL SECTION

Vol. 42, No. 14

October 27, 2014

www.columns.uga.edu

UGA GUIDE

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$2.5M grant to fund study of baby boomer health, relationships By Cal Powell

jcpowell@uga.edu

UGA graduate student Danielle Rosensteel picks blueberries from a test plot at the UGA Blueberry Research and Demonstration Farm in Alma. Georgia is now leading the nation in blueberry production.

Peter Frey

Berry good news University team helps Georgia become nation’s leading blueberry producer

By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu

With the tally from the 2014 growing season complete, it’s official. Georgia now leads the nation in blueberry production. UGA blueberry breeder Scott NeSmith, who often is credited with helping to create the beginnings of this blue tsunami, was surprised to hear Georgia’s production topped the nation this year. The state has been No. 1 in blueberry acreage for the last few years, but it was uncertain when all this new acreage would impact the state’s annual blueberry production. “We’ve been gaining a lot of potential over the last five years, and I think we just reached that potential a little earlier than we thought,”

said NeSmith, who helped launch UGA’s current blueberry breeding program in the late 1980s. “Other states have held onto their positions as far as production goes, but we’ve just gotten much higher numbers.” The North American Blueberry Council released its report on the 2014 growing season in early October, noting that Georgia produced 96 million pounds of blueberries this year. Michigan, traditionally regarded as the blueberry capital of the country, produced 91.5 million pounds. “Georgia’s going to be a blueberry leader for the next generation,” said Gary Black, the Georgia commissioner of agriculture, who made the official announcement Oct. 14 at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie.

Hundreds of Georgia farmers have worked tirelessly over the last three decades to increase the state’s blueberry production and meet consumers’ growing demand for blueberries. The increase in production has been buoyed by the research and Extension support of UGA faculty and staff. When NeSmith started producing blueberry varieties that could thrive in Georgia’s sandy soils and warm summers, farmers were growing only about 3,500 acres of blueberries. Today, they are cultivating about 20,000 acres and have grown production tenfold. “We probably only produced about 5 million or 10 million pounds a year back in 1990,” he said. “That’s a long ways to go to See BLUEBERRIES on page 8

UGA Student Affairs

Nearly 800 UGA students complete new bystander intervention training program By Kristine Groft

kgroft@uhs.uga.edu

In fall 2013, a team from the University Health Center’s health promotion department created “Watch Dawgs,” a bystander intervention training program for UGA students, faculty and staff. Bystander intervention is an initiative that asks individuals to actively prevent incidents before they occur, ensuring the safety of fellow members of the

campus community. “Effective bystander programs foster a supportive environment for others to speak out against sexist attitudes, rape myth beliefs, dangerous behaviors including excessive alcohol consumption and sexual violence,” said Liz Prince, associate director of health promotion and the John Fontaine Jr. Center for Alcohol Awareness and Education. “Confronting these situations can start the shift in social norms of a community and society as a whole.”

The training program focuses on what might be observed before dangerous situations occur. Incidents typically occur on a continuum of increasing danger. If individuals can recognize some of the cues early on, they can intervene and prevent the situation from escalating. The program engages students in an interactive process, enabling them to practice skills through hypothetical scenarios and discuss See PROGRAM on page 8

Baby boomers’ marital relationships and health during their transition to later adulthood are the focus of a new UGA study funded by a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The study will examine continuity and change within couples’ relationships over 30 years and how chronic stressful experiences—such as financial, work and marital difficulties—affect mental and physical health outcomes in elder years. Kandauda “K.A.S.” Wickrama, a UGA Athletic Association professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences’ department of human development and family science, is the principal investigator on the project, which

continues research with nearly 400 couples who have participated in the I o w a Yo u t h and Families Project since Kandauda Wickrama 1989. The data assembled under these earlier waves will be augmented by a third project, a genome-wide association study, which collected genetic data from the same participants. The genetic biomarkers of the participants will add a potentially groundbreaking set of data to an already rich study, Wickrama said. “Research has shown that chronic stressful experiences really make dysfunction in the physiological system, leading to chronic See STUDY on page 8

Office of Institutional Diversity

Young, former UN ambassador, will speak at Freedom Breakfast By Sara Freeland freeland@uga.edu

Andrew Young, a former ambassador to the United Nations, will be the keynote speaker for the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast Jan. 23 at 7:30 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center. Sponsored by UGA, the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government and the Clarke County School District, the MLK Freedom Breakfast commemorates the life of the late civil rights leader. This year’s theme is “The Power of the Dream: Justice for All.” Along with Young’s address, recipients of the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award will be

recognized at the event, which has averaged more than 600 attendees in recent years. The award highlights the work of local Andrew Young citizens who have made significant efforts to build bridges of unity and understanding as they strive to make King’s dream of equality and justice a reality. Nomination forms to recognize community members, UGA faculty, staff and students are available at http://t.uga.edu/Vv and are due Oct. 31.

See BREAKFAST on page 8

EOO to host sexual assault forum

An Open Dialogue on Sexual Assault will be held Oct. 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 248 of the Miller Learning Center. The Equal Opportunity Office invites the entire university community to ask questions, share information and engage in dialogue about sexual assault issues in general and about the university’s efforts to prevent sexual assault and address its effect within the UGA community. Representatives from UGA’s Equal Opportunity Office, the UGA Health Center, the UGA Police Department, the Office of

the Dean of Students, University Housing and others will be available to answer questions. Based on the response from this discussion, future events on more targeted topics may be held. The goal is to raise university awareness for this area of concern. The event is part of the nationwide “It’s On Us” campaign, a movement aimed at changing the way the public thinks about sexual assault, raising awareness that sexual assault is a societal problem, supporting survivors and recognizing opportunities to intervene and prevent sexual assault.


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