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Food scientist helps develop DNA search engine that identifies genes in real time RESEARCH NEWS
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Vienna Boys Choir set for Feb. 28 performance at Hodgson Concert Hall Vol. 46, No. 26
February 25, 2019
www.columns.uga.edu
UGA GUIDE
4&5
Career outcomes rate 11.7 percent higher than national average
By Laura Bayne
endeavors, and the consistency of statistics from last year to this year demonstrates that the university is providing career readiness skills through professional programming, academics and experiential learning,” said Scott Williams, executive director of the UGA Career Center. Nearly 3,000 unique employers hired UGA graduates from business to government, nonprofit to education. Some of the top employers for the Class of 2018 include Amazon, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot and Teach for America. Of those full-time
lbayne@uga.edu
HowLao Photography
Members of UGA’s women’s tennis team are (kneeling from left) Alee Clayton, Lourdes Carle, Meg Kowalski, Marta Gonzalez and (standing from left) head coach Jeff Wallace, student coach Mariana Gould, Katarina Jokic, Morgan Coppoc, Vivian Wolff, Elena Christofi and associate head coach Drake Bernstein.
National champions
Women’s tennis team defeats North Carolina for title The fifth-ranked Georgia women’s tennis team defeated No. 3 North Carolina, 4-3, on the last remaining court in a third-set tiebreaker to win the 2019 ITA National Team Indoor Championship Feb. 12. The event was held in Seattle at the University of Washington’s Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Bulldogs’ (7-0) run to the title started with a sweep in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend two weeks ago and continued over five days with victories over No. 14 NC State, No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 1 Stanford
and No. 3 North Carolina (9-1). The latter was against the defending indoor champions and redemption from the 2015 ITA Indoors final in which the Tar Heels prevailed against Georgia. The Georgia women’s tennis program now boasts four USTA/ ITA National Team Indoor Championships and two NCAA Championships (1994, 2000). The 2019 squad joins members of the 1994, 1995 and 2002 teams in winning the National Indoors. “It is exciting,” said Georgia
head coach Jeff Wallace. “I’m really proud of this team, the coaches and the support staff who were here. It was a total team effort, which makes it really special. Drake (Bernstein, associate head coach) and I spent a lot of time talking to the team about the importance of supporting each other and being a true team and then to see them pull together like they have and lift each other up in tough situations and come back in these tough matches that we are able to get in close fashion—really, really says a lot.”
HONORS PROGRAM
UGA receives its highest Fulbright student program ranking with 16 participating students, alumni By Stephanie Schupska schupska@uga.edu
The University of Georgia’s record-breaking number of acceptances for the Fulbright U.S. student program this year earned the university its highest ranking yet on the student list of Fulbright Top Producers. The university tied for 16th—along with Stanford University, University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Villanova University—in its third time on the student list. Sixteen UGA students and recent graduates are participating in the 2018-2019 Fulbright U.S. student program. They are teaching English, conducting research and studying in countries spread around the globe. UGA previously made the top student list in 2012-2013 and 20162017, with 13 students accepting Fulbright awards in both of those competitions. “I am pleased that the University of Georgia is once again among the top producers of Fulbright students and that our ranking
continues to rise,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “UGA is proud of the students and alumni who will represent the university as they pursue their academic and career goals and build relationships with communities around the world.” The Fulbright U.S. student program offers research, study and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to recent college graduates and graduate students. As the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Fulbright is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and countries worldwide. “As a top producer, UGA is positioned among an elite group of institutions,” said Maria de Rocher, campus Fulbright U.S. student program adviser and assistant director of the Honors Program. “This is a campus-wide accomplishment. Our 16 Fulbrighters represent a diversity of backgrounds and areas of study, and include undergraduates, both within and outside the Honors Program, and
graduate students.” Seven UGA students and recent alumni received Fulbright academic and creative grants. They are with their study concentrations and host countries: Jennifer Alexander, waste management strategies, Vietnam; Katherine Cheng, microcredit and cash transfer programs, Brazil; Kristen Gleason, environmental theory and aesthetics in the contemporary arctic, Norway; Jonathan McCombs, urban geography, Hungary; Michelle Paterick, curriculum of Finnish public schools, Finland; Keysa Rosas-Rodriguez, effects of palm oil expansion on freshwater resources, Mexico; and Nicholas Twiner, syntactic theory and sociolinguistics, United Kingdom. Nine alumni received Fulbright English teaching assistantship awards. Listed alphabetically by their host countries, they are Brazil: Lilian Zhu; Colombia: Shornima KC; Malaysia: Kara Pemberton; South Korea: Rachel Kelley and Maggie Little; Spain: Elizabeth Jennings, Laura Moeller and Rachel Tepper; and Vietnam: Caroline Beadles.
University of Georgia graduates, for the second year in a row, are employed or attending graduate school within six months at a rate of 96 percent—11.7 percent higher than the national average. Of those students: • 63 percent were employed full time; • 19 percent were attending graduate school; and • Approximately 12 percent were self-employed, interning full time or were employed part time. “UGA students continue to excel in their post-graduate
See CAREER on page 8
COMMIT TO GEORGIA CAMPAIGN
First-generation law students at UGA aided by $3 million gift By Lona Panter lonap@uga.edu
Thanks to a $3 million gift— the largest outright donation in school history—the University of Georgia School of Law will be able to continue transforming the legal education experience for many of its first-generation college graduates. The First-Start Scholars Program, created by a lead gift from 1982 alumna Kathelen V. Amos and the Daniel P. Amos Family Foundation, will begin awarding scholarships in fall 2019. Students will receive a partial-tuition scholarship as well as a professional
development stipend. “With roughly 15 percent of each entering class representing the first person in his or her family to attend college, this program is a transformational commitment to first-generation college graduates,” School of Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said. “At its core, these scholarships provide financial assistance but beyond that tuition aid, they also will give additional support in vital areas such as financial planning advice, network development and acquisition of business attire and bar preparation classes.”
See LAW on page 8
COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
Georgia’s first lady tours UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital By Heather Skyler
heatherskyler@uga.edu
Georgia’s first lady Marty Kemp toured the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the University of Georgia on Feb. 18, along with her daughter Lucy Kemp, UGA President Jere W. Morehead and several others. Kemp, who has loved animals ever since getting her first horse, Flare, at a young age, is no stranger to the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine hospital. In 2006, she brought in a foal named Loula, who had reared up, fallen back and broken her tailbone. “It made her drag her left back leg,” recalled Kemp. “The vet came and said you need to get this foal to the vet school immediately or she’s going to die.” They brought her in and she was
there for five or six weeks. Kemp would come and see her every day. During her stay at the teaching hospital, her care team discovered that the foal had a blood disorder, one that would have killed her if she hadn’t been brought in for the tailbone. Today, Loula is alive and well on the Kemps’ farm. Horses are her therapy, said Kemp. “I can tell them things and they won’t tell anyone,” she said with a laugh. “I certainly wouldn’t have made it through politics without them. Anybody who loves horses knows exactly what I’m talking about. Whatever stress you have, they take care of it. That’s the beauty of them.” Kemp has also brought two animals to zoological medicine: a bunny she rescued from the mouth
See KEMP on page 8
2 Feb. 25, 2019 columns.uga.edu
UGA STAFF COUNCIL, DIVISION OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Learn more about available services, programs at Staff Resources Fair By Taylor A. West tawest@uga.edu
Niyi Osundare is an award-winning poet, essayist, playwright and nonfiction writer.
Writer Niyi Osundare set to deliver African studies spring lecture March 5 By Alan Flurry
aflurry@uga.edu
The African Studies Institute in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will welcome poet, essayist, playwright and nonfiction writer Niyi Osundare to campus March 4-6. As part of Osundare’s visit to UGA, he will deliver the 2019 African Studies Spring Lecture. Open free to the public, the lecture will be held March 5 at 3 p.m. in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. A recipient of several awards including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, two Cadbury Prizes, the Fonlon-Nichols Award and the Noma Award, Osundare is considered one of the most admired African Anglophone poets of his generation. The author of 18 books of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays and numerous monographs and articles on literature, language, culture and society, Osundare regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary. Educated on three continents, he has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, a master’s degree from the University of Leeds in England and a doctorate from York University in Toronto, Canada. Osundare is one of two African writers (joining Sierra Leonean poet and novelist Syl Cheney Coker) selected by the American organization Dialoguetalk for a major feature documentary, titled The Poets. A former Fulbright Scholar, Osundare currently is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans. As part of the spring lecture, students who have completed the requirements for the certificate in African studies will be recognized. Osundare’s visit is supported by several UGA units including the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; the Institute of Native American Studies; the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts; the Institute for Women’s Studies; the departments of English, Romance languages, comparative literature and language and literacy education; the Creative Writing Program; the Institute for African American Studies; and the Graduate School. More information is available at https://bit.ly/2EcrsWJ.
The second annual UGA Staff Resources Fair will be held March 11 from 2-6 p.m. in Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center. Free parking will be available at the Tate Center parking deck. Open to the UGA community, the event again is being organized and presented by the UGA Staff Council and the Staff Representative Group in the Division of Finance & Administration. Based on feedback from attendees, last year’s inaugural fair was a great success, according to Debi Chandler, an event co-organizer and chair of the F&A Staff Representative Group. “We were amazed at the positive response of the UGA community to the inaugural Staff Resources Fair,” said Chandler. “It was exciting to see so many UGA faculty and staff interact with numerous resources they wouldn’t have had the occasion to engage with otherwise.” This year’s Staff Resources Fair will bring together various on-campus partners who will provide information about services available to UGA staff. “As many attendees learned last year, it can sometimes be difficult to fully grasp and have awareness of the wealth of resources available to UGA staff,” said Marie Mize, president of UGA Staff Council. “The Staff Resources Fair hopes to help staff realize
Andrew Davis Tucker
The second annual Staff Resources Fair will take place March 11 from 2-6 p.m. in Tate Student Center’s Grand Hall. It is an opportunity for employees to hear from on-campus partners about the resources available to them.
all of the opportunities afforded to the UGA community in an engaging and fun way.” In addition to talking with on-campus partners, fair attendees will have the opportunity to receive additional swag items as well as opportunities to be included in various drawings for prizes. Last year, more than 50 UGA departments and more than 700 UGA staff participated in the fair. Organizers hope that this year’s event will be just as successful, as many on-campus partners have already signed on to attend the event.
Funding and co-sponsorship for the Staff Resources Fair is made possible through various groups including the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President for Finance & Administration, the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Dean of Students, the Terry College of Business, UGA Dining Services, UGA Transportation & Parking Services, University Housing and Bulldog Print + Design. For more information, email UGASC@uga.edu or Chandler at debimorr@uga.edu.
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Dawgs at the Dome: Bulldogs descend on Capitol
Andrew Davis Tucker
Students from the University of Georgia visited the Georgia state Capitol Feb. 12 for the sixth annual Dawgs at the Dome. The event, a collaboration between the Student Government Association and the Office of Government Relations, allows students to spend a day interacting with state lawmakers and showcases the university’s many contributions to the state. “I was so grateful for the opportunity to travel to the Capitol and to have the chance to interact with legislators,” said Amy Pan, fourth-year student and Student Government Association director of government relations. “Dawgs at the Dome was an incredible chance to see what real-life governing is like, and I appreciated how welcoming our state leaders were. This event affirmed how truly invested they are in supporting public higher education in our state.” Legislators, staff and lobbyists joined UGA students for a breakfast reception, and alumnus Gov. Brian Kemp joined the group for a photograph. The students were welcomed to the Capitol by Senate Higher Education Chairman Lindsey Tippins and by House Higher Education Chairman Chuck Martin. “Dawgs at the Dome provides an excellent opportunity for UGA students to interact face-to-face with legislators and UGA alumni serving the state under the gold dome,” said Griff Doyle, vice president for government relations.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
UGA to celebrate female visionaries with programs during Women’s History Month By Terri Hatfield tlhat@uga.edu
In conjunction with the 2019 national Women’s History Month theme “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace and Nonviolence,” the Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia will be hosting numerous programs in March. This year’s Women’s History Month keynote address will be presented by Layli Maparyan, executive director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College.
Maparyan is best known for her scholarship in the area of womanism and is the author of two groundbreaking texts in the field of womanist studies, The Womanist Reader (Routledge, 2006) and The Womanist Idea (Routledge, 2012). She also has published in the areas of adolescent development, social identities (including biracial/biethnic identity and the intersections of racial/ethnic, sexual, spiritual/ religious and gender identities), black LGBTQ studies, hip-hop studies and history of psychology. Maparyan’s scholar-activist work interweaves threads from
the social sciences and the critical disciplines, incorporating basic and applied platforms around a common theme of integrating identities and communities in peaceable, ecologically sound and self-actualizing ways. Her lecture, “Women, Peace and Nonviolence: Womanist Case Studies of the Contemplative Path to Social Action,” will take place March 21 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 271 of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. A reception sponsored by the Lucy Hargrett Draper Center and Archives for the Study of the Rights
of Women in History and Law will immediately follow the lecture. The Institute for Women’s Studies will continue its tradition of hosting a film festival during March featuring documentaries highlighting the often-untold stories of women fighting against discrimination and misrepresentation. All film screenings are open free to the public. They will be shown at 6:30 p.m. in Room 271 of the special collections libraries. This year’s film screenings include RBG on March 4, Mankiller on March 18 and Dolores on March 25. The Institute for Women’s
Studies also will host a panel discussion focusing on craftivism, the use of art and crafts to engage with social and political issues, on March 26 at 3:30 p.m. Panelists will discuss the importance of craftivism, the ways in which it engages community and fosters peaceful protest and examine the various ways to participate in this form of activism. Open free to the public, the discussion will take place in Room 271 of the special collections libraries. A complete list of Women’s History Month programming at the University of Georgia is at http://iws.uga.edu/.
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
columns.uga.edu Feb. 25, 2019
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Digest College of Environment and Design to host lecture by Biohabitats founder
Sharon Dowdy
Henk den Bakker, a researcher in the UGA Center for Food Safety, is part of an international team that built a DNA search engine similar in purpose to internet search engines like Google.
‘Ultra-fast system’
UGA food scientist helps develop new search engine that identifies genes in real time By Sharon Dowdy sharono@uga.edu
University of Georgia food scientist Henk den Bakker is a member of an international team of researchers that has developed a way to quickly search massive amounts of DNA microbial data to identify specific genes, such as the genes responsible for drug-resistant bacteria. Using their combined knowledge of bacterial genetics and web search algorithms, the scientists built the Bitsliced Genomic Signature Index (BIGSI), a DNA search engine that serves a similar purpose as internet search engines like Google. Described in a paper published in the February 2019 issue of Nature Biotechnology, the search engine could enable researchers and public health agencies to perform fast searches of genome sequencing data to monitor the spread of genes in microbial populations. This means scientists can now quickly identify how many strains of
bacteria—among hundreds of thousands of bacterial genomes contained in databases—contain genes that, for example, make them harder to fight with traditional antibiotics. “A lot of labs are currently sequencing the DNA of microorganisms and they enter this data in international public databases, such as Genbank in the U.S. These data produced by these sequencers are not a single genome sequence. Instead they consist of hundreds of thousands of little genomic sequences, which researchers have to piece together to study the genome and individual genes,” said den Bakker, a researcher in the UGA Center for Food Safety on the UGA Griffin campus. “There are currently hundreds of thousands of data points, each representing a microbial strain. Like Google, the Bitsliced Genomic Signature Index can show us which other bacteria share certain genes.” For comparison, den Bakker recalled a time just a few years ago when he was part of a group of scientists working on strains of bacteria
from France. It took a little less than a month to search through available data to find other strains in which this particular resistant gene could be found. “Now it only takes seconds using our ultra-fast system of bacterial and viral genomic data,” he said. “We can now look for microbial resistance quicker, and we can see which ones spread more quickly or are resistant to sanitizers or even resistant to colistin, which is kind of a last resort antibiotic medication.” With today’s technology, the amount of microbial DNA scientists sequence doubles every two years. Until now, there was no practical way to search this massive amount of data. BIGSI could prove extremely useful during outbreaks of foodborne illness. For example, it would be helpful during a food poisoning outbreak caused by a Salmonella strain containing a drug-resistance plasmid (a ‘hitchhiking’ DNA element that can spread drug resistance across different bacterial species). BIGSI would allow researchers to easily spot if and when the plasmid has been seen before.
PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH
Fanning conference to highlight rural leadership By Charles Bauder
Charlie.Bauder@fanning.uga.edu
Creating a pipeline of local leaders is difficult when young adults choose to leave home for opportunities elsewhere. This has been a challenge in Oglethorpe County for many years. With help from the University of Georgia’s J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, county leaders began to tackle the problem last year. “We recognized the need to build a core of leaders,” said Cary Fordyce, past president of the Oglethorpe County Chamber of Commerce. “In a rural county like ours, all kids see is a road out of the county and as they leave, it eventually creates an adult leadership void.” Fifteen adults completed the inaugural Leadership Oglethorpe class in 2018, covering topics like group decision making, collaboration and conflict management, and multigenerational leadership. “Having worked with young people,
I took a lot away from the session on multigenerational leadership,” said Seavy O’Neal, Crawford mayor and the owner of Building Wrights & Renovators LLC. “Before, I learned some of those generational differences the hard way, and learning how other generations communicate and collaborate is something I have carried on into my business.” Building leadership in rural communities like Oglethorpe County is a focal point of UGA’s fourth annual Community Leadership Conference, set for Feb. 28-March 1 at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. Organized by the Fanning Institute, this year’s conference theme is “Engaging Leaders, Engaging Communities.” Rural community leadership is one of four tracks of workshops that will be offered at the conference. The others will focus on community leadership development innovations and research, best practices in community leadership programming and leadership in nonprofit organizations.
“Cultivating and empowering engaged leaders plays a vital role in a community’s sustainability and development, and that is especially true in rural Georgia,” said Matt Bishop, director of the Fanning Institute. “Through the speakers and workshops at the Community Leadership Conference, attendees will have an opportunity to network with each other and discuss ideas they can take back home and use to strengthen their communities and organizations.” The Fanning Institute also will host two preconference sessions on Feb. 27 and 28. One session will certify attendees to facilitate the institute’s Youth Leadership in Action curriculum, while the other will focus on initiating and sustaining strong adult community leadership programs. Also during the conference, the Fanning Institute will award the Innovations in Community Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals or programs who have moved beyond traditional community leadership programming.
The UGA College of Environment and Design will host a lecture by Keith Bowers on March 7 at 5 p.m. in lecture hall 123 of the Jackson Street Building. Open free to the public, the lecture is sponsored by the college’s Eleanor Ferguson Vincent fund. For more than three decades, Bowers has been at the forefront of applied ecology, land conservation and sustainable design. As the founder and president of Biohabitats, Bowers runs a multidisciplinary organization focused on regenerative design, blurring the boundaries between conservation planning, ecological restoration and sustainable design. Using living-systems as the basis for all of its work, the firm applies a whole-systems approach to all of its projects. In his lecture, Bowers will examine what it means to be regenerative, to think about whole systems and to apply a living systems approach in a rapidly changing world. Using case studies, he will review climate change adaptation, wholesystems water management and urban ecology initiatives, among others.
Top food products make final round of 2019 Flavor of Georgia contest
Judges selected 33 products to compete in the final round of the University of Georgia’s 2019 Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest on March 19 in Atlanta. The contest is the state’s premier proving ground for small, upstart food companies as well as time-honored products. This year’s finalists represent all corners of the state and the best of Georgia’s diverse culinary heritage. The finalists passed the first round of judging and were selected from a field of 138 products in 11 categories. Finalists will bring their products to Atlanta for the final round of judging, which will be held in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Awareness Week celebration, set for March 18-22. Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black has designated March 19 as Flavor of Georgia Day. Finalists will be named in each category, and a grand prize winner and People’s Choice Award winner will be named. The list of this year’s finalists are at https://bit.ly/2GN5mvp.
Jumaine Jones to be UGA’s SEC Legend Jumaine Jones, who was named SEC Newcomer of the Year in 1998 and led the SEC in scoring in 1999, will be the Georgia Bulldogs’ SEC Legend at the upcoming SEC men’s basketball tournament in Nashville. This marks the 21st year of the SEC Basketball Legends program. Each of the 14 Legends will be recognized at halftime of his school’s first game of the tourney, which is slated for March 13-17 at Bridgestone Arena. He was named the SEC’s top newcomer as a freshman in 1998 when he led the Bulldogs in scoring (14.7 ppg) and rebounding (8.5 rpg). As a sophomore, Jones led the league offensively by averaging 18.8 ppg and again paced Georgia with an average of 9.5 rpg. Jones became the first Bulldog to reach 1,000 career points as a sophomore since Dominique Wilkins did so. Jones declared for the 1999 NBA draft and was selected in the first round by the Atlanta Hawks. He went on to play eight seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers,Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Bobcats and Phoenix Suns through the 2007 season. He continued his professional playing career internationally with success in Italy, Russia, Israel, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico and Mexico until retiring in 2017.
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 Division of Marketing & Communications. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.
For a complete listing of events at the University of Georgia, 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.
UGAGUIDE
EXHIBITIONS
Put a Bird on It. Through March 3. Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden. The Reluctant Autocrat: Tsar Nicholas II. Through March 17. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.
Education of the Negro: A Depression Era Photographic Study by Dr. Horace Mann Bond. Through March 25. Special collections libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu. Stony the Road We Trod. Through April 28. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu. Fighting Spirit: Wally Butts and UGA Football, 1939-1950. Through May 10. Special collections libraries. 706-542-8079. jclevela@uga.edu. Nevertheless, She Resisted: Documenting the Women’s Marches. Through May 17. Hargrett Library Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu. Under the Big Top: The American Circus and Traveling Tent Shows. Through July 5. Special collections libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu. Out of the Darkness: Light in the Depths of the Sea of Cortez. Through Oct. 27. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817. hazbrown@uga.edu.
MONDAY, FEB. 25 SPRING INTO GROUP FITNESS Purchase a Spring into Group Fitness multi-visit pass and get 30 classes for $30. This promotion will be available until March 8, and passes expire after 30 visits or 45 days from date of purchase, whichever comes first. Ramsey Student Center. 706-542-8023. lisawilliamson@uga.edu. MEN’S TENNIS vs. Florida Atlantic. 2:30 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex. FILM SCREENING Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story is a heartwarming and hopeful film about the plight of Asian elephants and the people who work tirelessly to save them. Discussion led by UGA student Grace Boothby and Athens citizen Nancy Hunter who have both volunteered at Lek Chailert’s Elephant Nature Park sanctuary in Thailand. Sponsored by Speak Out for Species and the UGA Office of Sustainability as part of the Animal Voices Film Festival. 7 p.m. 150 Miller Learning Center. 706-224-3796. sos@uga.edu.
TUESDAY, FEB. 26
at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby. Hosted by the Odum Graduate Student Association. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu. BASEBALL vs. LIU Brooklyn. $5-$8. 5 p.m. Foley Field.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27 WORKSHOP In “Teach Students to Problem Solve vs. ‘Answer Get’ in STEM Courses,” instructors will demonstrate and discuss how and why STEM faculty embed real-world problems that are authentic to their field in their courses. In addition, they’ll model how to help students learn discipline-specific principles of problem solving to tackle new, more complex problems in STEM. 9:30 a.m. M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-1713. ckuus@uga.edu. TOUR AT TWO Join Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro, assistant curator of education, for a discussion of selected works from the exhibition Stony the Road We Trod. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu. BOOK RELEASE AND DISCUSSION Elizabeth Weeks, School of Law associate dean, will host a panel discussion on her book Healthism: Health Status Discrimination and the Law and related topics with Ani Satz, Emory University; Jennifer Bennett Shinall, Vanderbilt University; Nicholas Terry, Indiana University; and Stacey Tovino, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A reception will follow the discussion. 3:30 p.m. Classroom A, Hirsch Hall. gmcpeak@uga.edu. UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MEETING 3:30 p.m. Theatre, Tate Student Center. 706-542-6020. BARBARA METHVIN LECTURE “ ‘Courage to Look’: Authenticity, Class and Pragmatic Discourse in Southern Literature and Culture,” Taylor Hagood, Southern literature expert and professor at Florida Atlantic University. 4:30 p.m. 265 Park Hall. 706-542-8952. BASEBALL vs. Kennesaw State. $5-$8. 5 p.m. Foley Field. SOFTBALL vs. Presbyterian. Special promotion: $1 hot dogs. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Auburn. $15. 9 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
THURSDAY, FEB. 28
MEN’S TENNIS vs. Mercer. 2:30 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
MICROBIOLOGY SEMINAR “The Environment Tunes the Cell,” Petra Levin, biology department, Washington University of St. Louis. 11 a.m. 404D Biological Sciences Building. khbrown@uga.edu.
ECOLOGY SEMINAR “From Dance Moves to Dispersal: Rainfall and the Ecology of Tropical and Grassland Birds,” Alice Boyle, assistant professor of biology at Kansas State University. Reception follows seminar
ARALEE STRANGE LECTURE Maisha Winn is the Chancellor’s Leadership Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis, and the co-founder and co-director of the Transformative Justice
CORE Contemporary and Aerial Dance present season performance starting Feb. 28 By Bala Sarasvati
baladance@mac.com
The UGA dance department’s CORE Contemporary and Aerial Dance will present its annual season performance Feb. 28 through March 1 at 8 p.m. at the New Dance Theatre in the dance building. The company will premiere Mutual Resonance, an aerial, contemporary dance and multimedia performance. The 40-minute, nonstop program consists of 13 aerial and dance vignettes that abstract, symbolize or portray a variety of relationships and interactions reflecting associations found in personal, social and environmental situations. The nine-member company will perform on aerial silks, slings, lyra, trapeze and bungee. The performance is enhanced through visual landscapes by incorporating projection mapping, animation and film. Staibdance company, from Atlanta, will share the evening’s program performing excerpts from 2016’s critically acclaimed work moat. In moat, George Staib, artistic director, reflects on his memories of immigrating from Iran to a small Pennsylvania town during the Iran hostage crisis. Four of the 12 dancers in Staibdance are UGA/ CORE alumni and return to share the stage with UGA performers. CORE Contemporary and Aerial Dance Company performing members are Olivia Byers, Devyn Hannon, Aviva Kasowski, Amira Kuhaneck, Avery Lumsden, Carey Marr, Alex Ozbilen, Morgan Rossi and Grace Weigel with guest performer Evann Guthrie. Guest performers in Staibdance are Ronnie J. Anderson, Anna Bracewell Crowder, Chrystola (Oseni) Luu and Ameilia Reiser, all UGA Dance/CORE alumni; and Georgia Bray, James La Russa, Erika Leeds, Britanie Leland, Courtney Lewis, Gianna Mercandetti, Laura Morton and Virginia Spinks. Tickets are $16 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets, visit the Tate Student Center ticket office, order online
By Bobby Tyler btyler@uga.edu
UGA Presents is bringing the Vienna Boys Choir to Athens Feb. 28 for a 7:30 p.m. performance in Hodgson Concert Hall. The choir will perform a program titled “Vienna Waits for You,” featuring classical selections by Strauss, Mendelssohn and Bizet, along with popular songs by contemporary composers including Billy Joel and Marc Shaiman (from the movie Sister Act). The Vienna Boys Choir was founded in 1498 by Emperor Maximilian I. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the imperial court, at mass and on state occasions. Today, the choir consists of 100 boys between the ages of 10 and 14, from dozens of nations, divided into four touring groups. Each group spends nine to 11 weeks of the school year on tour. Between them, the four choirs give 300 concerts annually for a total audience of half a million people. They visit virtually all European countries and tour frequently to Asia, Australia and the Americas. Tickets for the concert start at $40 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. A limited number of discounted tickets are available to current UGA students for $10 with a valid UGA ID (limit one ticket per student). Hodgson Concert Hall is in the UGA Per- The Vienna Boys Choir performs more than 300 concerts annually. The group’s Athens performance will take place Feb. 28 at forming Arts Center at 230 River Road in Athens. 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.
in Education Center. In her talk, “‘I Don’t Want Us to Forget the Fire’: Literacy, Activism and Black Literate Lives Overview,” Winn examines the role of the Black Arts Movement in building a literacy continuum for readers, writers, speakers and activists. This program is made possible by the Aralee Strange Fund for Art and Poetry. 5:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu. PERFORMANCE The 38th annual BCM Dinner Theatre will present an abridged version of Into the Woods. The production is directed and performed by UGA students and raises money for SendMeNow summer missions. Student shows are Feb. 28 and March 4 at 7 p.m.; tickets are $10. Dinner shows are March 1 and 2 at 6:30 p.m.; tickets are $26. Dessert shows are March 2 and 3 at 2 p.m.; tickets are $16. American Sign Language interpretation will be available at the Feb. 28 student show and March 2 dessert show. Baptist Collegiate Ministries. DELTA VISITING CHAIR LECTURE Rebecca Rutstein will join Samantha Joye for a discussion titled “Expeditions, Experiments and the Ocean: Adventures and Discoveries.” Rutstein, an artist whose work spans painting, sculpture, installation and public art and explores abstraction inspired by science, data and maps, is the University of Georgia’s third Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding. Joye is an Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences in the marine sciences department of UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The conversation will be moderated by Nicholas Allen, Franklin Professor of English and director of the Willson Center. Prior to the event, a public reception will be held at 6 p.m. in the Georgia Museum of Art. 7 p.m. Griffith Auditorium, Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-3966. wcha@uga.edu.
FRIENDS FIRST FRIDAY Join Cora Keber, director of education, as she walks attendees through the layers of learning and adventures that will take place in the much anticipated Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden. Make reservations at www.botgarden.uga.edu or 706-542-6138. Sponsored by the Friends of the Garden. $12. 9 a.m. Visitor Center, Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6138. lpbryant@uga.edu. INTERNATIONAL COFFEE HOUR 11:30 a.m. Ballroom, Memorial Hall. bgcecil@uga.edu. ART + FEMINISM WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THON Join attendees at the Lamar Dodd School of Art for an afternoon of communal updating of Wikipedia entries on subjects related to art and feminism. Wikipedians will be on hand for training, computers are available and snacks and coffee will be provided. Contact callan@uga.edu for more information. Presented in collaboration with the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Noon. Editing will take place in the Lamar Dodd School of Art library, Room N201. A tour will be available at the Georgia Museum of Art.
Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.
SOFTBALL vs. Virginia Tech. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.
SATURDAY, MARCH 2 SWIMMING & DIVING Through March 3. Bulldog Last Chance Meet. Gabrielsen Natatorium, Ramsey Student Center. YOGAFIT: ANATOMY AND ALIGNMENT This two‐day interactive module explores musculoskeletal anatomy and biomechanics to safely and effectively teach hatha yoga classes. Participants may take this workshop at any time that fits with their schedule. $450. Mind/Body Studio, Ramsey Student Center. 706-542-8023. lisawilliamson@uga.edu. CLASS Gareth Crosby, curator of the Heritage Garden, and Anthony Cannon from Heirloom Orchards will share their knowledge and experience with apple tree grafting. In this class, participants will hear about the history of grafting, which rootstocks are the best for local soils and have a hands-on opportunity to graft their own trees using the cleft graft method. All supplies are provided, but participants wishing to graft their own scion wood are welcome to bring it along with a sharp knife with a thin blade or a grafting knife and pruning shears. Fee includes rootstock, scion wood, pot and soil as well as handouts. $45. 9 a.m. Visitor Center, Classroom 2, State Botanical Garden. OLYMPIC LIFTING WORKSHOP This workshop will cover the basics of the snatch and clean and jerk and will taught by a USA-Weightlifting Level 1 sport performance coach. $6. 10 a.m. Functional Training Room, Ramsey Student Center. 706-542-8023. lisawilliamson@uga.edu. SOFTBALL vs. Virginia Tech. 3:30 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.
MIDTERM For spring semester.
at pac.uga.edu or by phone at 706-542-4400. Tickets are also available for purchase at the door beginning at 7 p.m. each evening of the concert. Student groups who can make a one-time purchase of eight or more student tickets will receive a group rate of $5 per ticket. Advance ticket purchase to all shows is highly recommended.
4&5
Vienna Boys Choir to perform Feb. 28 concert
FRIDAY, MARCH 1
The UGA department of dance CORE Contemporary and Aerial Dance will debut a new program during its annual season performance Feb. 28 through March 1.
columns.uga.edu Feb. 25, 2019
WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES “Policing Pregnancy: Statecraft, Poverty and Reproductive Health in Early Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,” Cassia Roth, history and Latin American and Caribbean studies. 12:20 p.m. 250 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846. tlhat@uga.edu. MRI SAFETY TRAINING Bio-Imaging Research Center provides MRI safety training for individual researchers and their teams who are directly using BIRC resources. Sign up for this course at least 48 hours prior to the preferred time/date. 2:30 p.m. 339 Coverdell Center. kmason@uga.edu.
SOFTBALL vs. UAB. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.
SUNDAY, MARCH 3 MEN’S TENNIS vs. Texas. 1 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex. SOFTBALL vs. UAB. 1 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Kentucky. $5. 1 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
MONDAY, MARCH 4 WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH FILM SCREENING Directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen, RBG details the life and legal legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. 6:30 p.m. 271 special collections libraries. 706-542-2846. tlhat@uga.edu. (See story, page 2.)
COMING UP LECTURE March 5. Cox Institute Fellow Amy Glennon will speak about news organization culture. 2 p.m. Peyton Anderson Forum, Journalism Building. ECOLOGY SEMINAR March 5. “Forest Community Reassembly with Climate Change,” Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, professor of biology at the University of Washington. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the
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, Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.
The next installment of the Ensemble Series takes place March 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall and features the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra.
Ensemble Series concert scheduled for March 2 By Stephen Davis Turner stephen.turner@uga.edu
The Hugh Hodgson School of Music in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will feature the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra in the next installment of the school’s Ensemble Series. The performance will be held in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center March 2 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will open with Jubilation by celebrated American composer Ellen Zwillich. Commissioned by the University of Georgia for the opening of the Performing Arts Center, a world-premiere performance of the work was led by guest conductor Yoel Levi in April 1996. Second on the program is Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which premiered in 1940. Originally written as music for the full-length ballet, Prokofiev arranged important musical sections into three orchestral suites; the UGASO will perform the first and second of the suites. The performance will conclude with Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 in D major, which was composed in 1815, a very productive year for Schubert as it was the same year he wrote his famous Erlkonig. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for students. They can be purchased online at pac.uga.edu or by calling the Performing Arts Center at 706-542-4400. All proceeds go directly to supporting student scholarships. For those unable to attend the concert, live streaming will be available online at music.uga.edu/live-streaming. ecology building lobby. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, Ecology Building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu. FILM SCREENING March 5. Aviva Kempner’s Rosenwald: The Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities is the incredible story of Julius Rosenwald. Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, this Jewish philanthropist joined forces with African American communities to build more than 5,300 schools during the early part of the 20th century. 6 p.m. Auditorium, special collections libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.
NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES March 6 (for March 18 issue) March 13 (for March 25 issue) March 20 (for April 1 issue)
6 Feb. 25, 2019 columns.uga.edu
CAMPUS CLOSEUP
Weather warming
Marshall Shepherd, associate head of the geography department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted on CNN about the recent cold weather phenomenon. Recently, parts of the U.S. faced some of the coldest temperatures the country has seen in a generation. But while weather is what happens today, climate is what happens over the long run. Portions of the U.S. were recently in a deep freeze, and other part of the planet, like Australia, saw record-breaking heat waves. When averaged out over the planet, the hotter temperatures are tipping the scale. That’s why the hottest five years on record have all occurred since 2014. The Earth’s temperature has changed drastically throughout its history. “People also tend to confuse what is happening where they live as an indication of what is happening globally,” said Shepherd, who is the program director in atmospheric sciences. “It’s not ‘Where You Live Warming,’ it is ‘Global Warming.’ ”
Minimal money
James Cobb, the university’s B. Phinizy Spalding Professor of History Emeritus, was quoted on WABE about Georgia’s minimum wage. The minimum pay in Georgia has remained $5.15 an hour by state law for more than 15 years. The wage doesn’t affect most workers since it’s below the federal minimum of $7.25, but keeping a low minimum wage on the books is not unusual in the South. A handful of Southern states don’t have minimum wage laws at all. The policies represent a longtime Southern strategy, according to Cobb. “What it is symbolic of is a dedication to the interests of the employer over those of the worker,” Cobb said.
Gender reveal parties
Keith Campbell, a psychology professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in Marie Claire about gender reveal parties. The “It’s A Boy/It’s A Girl” parties have been an economic boon to stationery companies and party supply stores nationwide; a search for “gender reveal” on Etsy yields 46,711 results. “I’m glad people are having children and celebrating that, because the birth rate is dropping in America,” said Campbell, who is a faculty member in the industrial-organizational program/brain and behavioral sciences program. “And there is something to be said for the communal aspect of sharing something meaningful with friends, which I don’t want to downplay. But there’s selfcelebration taking place here as well. We can link this to narcissism and individualism.”
‘Clean’ eating
Michael Doyle, emeritus professor of food microbiology in food science and technology, was quoted in Food Processing about “clean” foods. The “clean label” movement has fostered healthand sustainability-conscious consumption, corporate transparency and considerable product innovation. But the fear of chemical-sounding ingredients and additives that are unfamiliar to consumers but understood by food scientists are effecting the movement. The food processing industry is rushing to reformulate products to appease consumers, while scientists worry that removing or replacing timetested preservatives could compromise food safety. Doyle, a former director of UGA’s Center for Food Safety, acknowledged that not all additives traditionally used by the food industry are absolutely necessary, but they do serve a purpose. “Some are for functionality. Some are for stability. Some are for color,” he said. “Sorbate and benzoate have been used for years as antimicrobial preservatives, not just for preventing mold and yeast growth. Sorbate is added, for example, to certain foods like processed cheese that’s vacuumpackaged because it helps prevent Clostridium botulinum from growing and producing toxins.”
Wade Newbury studied drawing and painting and taught himself skills and programs used by graphic designers.
Dorothy Kozlowski
Graphic designer shares his take on artistry with university, community By Emily Webb
sew30274@uga.edu
For Wade Newbury, Athens and the University of Georgia have always felt like home. “I love being at UGA. I’ve never really left,” he said. “I grew up in Commerce, 25 minutes down the road. Then I went to UGA, and then after I graduated, I stayed in Athens. I never really got far away from campus.” Newbury, the senior graphic designer at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, started his UGA career at the Tate Printing and Copy Services as an assistant manager/ assistant designer. There, he moved up to senior graphic designer before accepting a position at the Warnell School. He will celebrate his seven-year anniversary at the school in March. “Teaching the next generation of students about the importance of managing natural resources—I think that’s a great mission to support and promote,” Newbury said. “That makes me really happy to be here. I love having a job getting to do what I love doing: graphic design.” Newbury graduated from UGA with a drawing and painting degree. Composition, color theory and general design aspects learned in his art classes translated to the design part of graphic
design. But works of art focus on the visual aspect, while works of graphic design focus on conveying a message. Before working at UGA, Newbury worked for seven years as a graphic designer for a sign company in town. He put in extra time at home to learn graphic design components. He took a class at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel in Adobe Photoshop.After that, he taught himself Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and other programs. “I’m still learning. I’m always learning,” he said. “You don’t just go from having a degree in drawing and painting to getting a job at UGA as an assistant graphic designer without putting in a lot of extra work.” Newbury is the only graphic designer for Warnell. He and Sandi Martin, Warnell’s public relations coordinator, work closely together on social media projects and the alumni magazine, The Log. He also helps develop projects for student services and alumni and development, ranging from recruitment brochures to thank you cards for donors. “I am alone in that I’m the only graphic designer, but I do have a whole team around me,” he said. “When we’re working on projects, there’s a lot of give and take and a lot of collaboration.” Newbury and Martin share
FACTS
Wade Newbury Senior Graphic Designer Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources B.F.A., Drawing and Painting, University of Georgia, 1994 At UGA: 13 years
photography duties for the college, and he takes studio portraits for new faculty members. Occasionally, he travels to different locations to take photographs of special school events, like homecoming tailgates or alumni banquets. Outside of work, Newbury has another creative outlet: playing drums. He has played drums for 38 years, and he is currently part of three bands: an original band called Norma Rae, a cover band called Tangents and a children’s band called The Rebecca Sunshine Band. Newbury played at AthFest with The Rebecca Sunshine Band for the last two years. Newbury recognizes that UGA and Athens are special places, and he takes pride in his work at Warnell. “It really is an honor to be able to serve the university,” he said. “My plan is to work here until I can retire. We’ll see if I can keep up with the software.”
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Psychology department faculty member recognized for early career work By Alan Flurry
aflurry@uga.edu
University of Georgia faculty member Katie Ehrlich is a recipient of the 2019 Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. The award, named for the first elected APS president, celebrates the many new and leading-edge ideas coming out of the most creative and promising investigators who embody the future of psychological science. Ehrlich, an assistant professor in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department, is among eight 2019 recipients of the award, which APS presents annually to individuals who have made transformative early career contributions to psychological science. A developmental health psychologist by training, Ehrlich’s research is focused on social and emotional experiences for
children and youth. One of Ehrlich’s major early contributions is serving as principal investigator on a $2.3 million Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Katie Ehrlich Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, to investigate the social determinants of health in children. The program will implement a new approach to examine how stress exposure is linked to children’s antibody response to vaccination. Children who do not produce sufficient antibodies may be susceptible to infection, and Ehrlich hopes this work will add to understanding why some children still get sick even though they received the flu shot. Ehrlich is grateful to be recognized by the Association for Psychological
Science but was quick to note that her research is a team effort. “It takes a small village to carry out our studies successfully,” Ehrlich said. “I have excellent graduate students and undergraduate research assistants who keep our projects organized and moving forward, and we rely on numerous faculty and staff across the university, including staff at the Clinical and Translational Research Unit, the Center for Family Research and the Center for Vaccines and Immunology.” Now that the flu season is winding down, Ehrlich’s team plans to launch a new longitudinal study to examine how children’s self-regulation and family life are associated with academic functioning, depressive symptoms and inflammatory processes. All the recipients of the Janet Taylor Spence Award will receive their award at the 31st APS annual convention, which will be held May 23-26 in Washington, D.C.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Social Work associate professor sheds light on civil rights activist By Laurie Anderson laurie@uga.edu
Hogansville, Georgia, is easy to overlook. Self-dubbed “The City of Friendly People” on the town’s official website, citizens of the small west Georgia municipality have worked hard in recent years to attract more visitors and development. Tony Lowe, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, grew up in Hogansville and agrees that today it is a friendly town. Few would guess that 122 years ago it was the scene of violence that started a national conversation on African American civic leadership. The story is not well known, even in Hogansville. Lowe heard about it while talking with senior African American civic leaders during a visit home. “They said that the town’s black postmaster was run out of the community,” said Lowe, “but no one knew much more.” Intrigued, Lowe began combing Troup County courthouse archives as well as the Georgia Historic Newspapers database and other records at UGA’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He discovered that in 1897, President William McKinley had appointed Isaiah H. Lofton, a black schoolteacher, postmaster of Hogansville. Lofton also was the local Republican Party organizer. “He had attended Atlanta University. He urged blacks to exercise their constitutional rights to vote and bear arms,” said Lowe. Angered, the local white community refused to rent Lofton space downtown for a post office. When he set one up in the black business district, they boycotted it and set up a separate, unofficial and illegal post office run by the former white postmaster for use by white citizens. In those days, a postmaster in a small town like Hogansville was paid according to the amount of mail he processed, said Lowe. “They were trying to smoke him out economically,” he said. Lowe’s sleuthing widened to include state archives, Howard University Law Library and eventually the National Archives. His community contacts helped him reach out to Lofton descendants who also provided a treasure trove of information. After the boycott drew federal investigators, unknown assailants shot at Lofton as he walked home from work one night. Lofton was wounded but survived. Still he refused to relinquish his appointment. “He said he had every right to that position,” said Lowe. The news made national headlines. “The governor got involved. The state
columns.uga.edu Feb. 25, 2019
2019 PRESIDENT’S FULFILLING THE DREAM AWARD
Student recipient of 2019 Dream Award steps out of her comfort zone By Emily Webb
sew30274@uga.edu
Dorothy Kozlowski
Tony Lowe’s research led to the first Civil Rights Trail marker in west central Georgia.
legislature got involved. The U.S. president was involved,” said Lowe. After a three-year standoff, during which Lofton’s post office was burned to the ground, Lofton accepted a postal position in Washington, D.C. The story faded from the news, but Lowe discovered one more thing: Lofton’s exploits played a part in launching the first nationwide civil rights organization. “The Hogansville case was one of the events that galvanized the creation of the National Afro-American Council, the forerunner of the NAACP,” said Lowe. Armed with documentation provided by Lowe, in 2018 the Hogansville city council applied to and received approval from the Georgia Historical Society for a Georgia Civil Rights Trail marker. It will be the first such marker in west central Georgia and one of the few between Atlanta and Albany. In arguing for the marker before the city council, Lowe also called for designating the area where events took place as a historic district, which could help local businesses. The suggestion, he said, “is getting some traction.” “The thing that I’m most proud about is that it’s taking my research from the university and bringing it back to the community it came out of,” said Lowe. “I’m excited about the translation of this discovery into an economic driver.” Lowe is working on a book proposal about the Hogansville Affair, as contemporary accounts dubbed it, and also is glad more people will learn about the postmaster’s bravery. “There are far too many communities whose stories have been lost,” said Lowe, “and this story has everything: family history, local history, the national aspect and now the economic development aspect. It has all these layers that keep on giving.”
WEEKLY READER
After attending high school in Gwinnett County, Charlene Marsh wanted to go to college out of state. But her mother, who had co-workers who were UGA alumni, encouraged her to use her last application fee waiver to apply to UGA. After being accepted, Marsh attended a minority admitted student reception, where she learned about the opportunities UGA offered. That reception with UGA alumni convinced Marsh to enroll at the university. Originally, she came in as an international affairs major because she wanted to be a foreign diplomat or work in foreign service. But as a sophomore, she took an urban policy class that would send her down a different path. “It completely changed the way I viewed political science and public service,” she said. The class inspired her to add a political science major and apply to the School of Public and International Affairs’ Master of Public Administration program through the Double Dawgs program. “The master’s degree program was a perfect intersection between sociology, history and government,” Marsh said. “It was applicable to a lot of topics that we discussed in that urban policy class, such as homelessness, gentrification, sustainable economic development and housing discrimination.” During her time at UGA, Marsh has worked with numerous organizations on campus and in the Athens community. “I got involved the minute I stepped on campus,” she said. She worked with the Student Government Association’s Freshman Forum, which teaches first-year students what service looks like and implements service projects in the community and on campus. She was also a literacy tutor for Alps Road Elementary School. She became part of the National Council of Negro Women. She attended the IGNITE: Social Justice Retreat sponsored by the Multicultural Services and Programs, where she met older students who became role models and mentors. She learned about topics surrounding her identities and the identities of other students and how to be an ally for those communities. “That experience threw me into this world of getting involved with advocacy and activism,” she said. She attended her first march that weekend with the Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement, and she got involved with the Athens for Everyone UGA chapter.
Dorothy Kozlowski
Charlene Marsh is the student recipient of the 2019 President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award.
This academic year, she serves as the vice president for SGA. Previously, she was the director of diversity and inclusion on SGA’s executive Cabinet. “My advocacy lies in working through SGA, speaking on behalf of and amplifying the voices of students who don’t necessarily always get a seat at the table,” she said. “If that’s LGBTQ-identifying students or students of lower socioeconomic status who might have to work more hours and can’t get super involved on campus, they can have a voice.” For her campus and community involvement, Marsh is the student recipient of the 2019 President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award. “It was an honor to receive the award, especially to be honored with two other black women who have accomplished so much and contributed so much to their communities, and this community specifically,” she said.“To me, it just means continuing the work that others have done. I’ve built on a foundation of understanding and dedication to equity that other people before me have gone through a lot more to start initiating things.” Marsh believes diversity and inclusion go hand-in-hand. “You can’t stop at diversity,” she said. “You can have a colorful room of people who don’t look the same, with people who have different ideas. That means nothing if those people don’t feel included, and if those people don’t have a stake in decisions that are being made or a voice at the table.” By stepping out of her own comfort zone, Marsh was able to find a community of individuals who wanted to learn more about the world and who sparked her passion for advocacy and service. That passion helped her decide what she wanted to do with her life.
CYBERSIGHTS
ABOUT COLUMNS
Book celebrates 20 years of SFA symposia
Vinegar and Char Edited by Sandra Beasley University of Georgia Press Paperback: $19.95 eBook: $19.95
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Yes, there is barbecue, but that’s just one course of the meal. With Vinegar and Char, the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates 20 years of symposia by offering a collection of poems that are by turns as sophisticated and complex, as vivid and funny, and as buoyant and poignant as any SFA gathering. The roster of contributors includes Natasha Trethewey, Robert Morgan, Atsuro Riley, Adrienne Su, Richard Blanco, Ed Madden, Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Sheryl St. Germain, Molly McCully Brown and 45 more. These poets represent past, current and future conversations about what it means to be Southern. Throughout the anthology, the region is layered with race, class and other shaping identities. Meant to be savored slowly or devoured at once, these pages are a perfect way to spend the hour before supper, with a glass of iced tea, and a fitting celebration of the SFA’s focus and community.
Columns is available to the 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
Alumni Weekend details on new website
http://alumni.uga.edu/weekend/
The UGA Alumni Association has designed a website to market Alumni Weekend, which will be held March 21-23. The page’s design and language are meant to invite alumni back to campus to feel like students again. It includes messaging that describes the overall weekend, a schedule for each day and a list of faculty
members from across campus who will teach classes that range from the world of spies to gendered messages in fairy tales to food insecurity. Details about registration and hotel room blocks are included, as well as a series of blog posts that are written to engage graduates’ various interests as they consider attending the event.
Communications Coordinator Krista Richmond Art Director Jackie Baxter Roberts Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski Writers Kellyn Amodeo Leigh Beeson 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.
8 Feb. 25, 2019 columns.uga.edu KEMP
LAW
from page 1
from page 1
Photo courtesy of the UGA School of Law
Dorothy Kozlowski
Georgia’s first lady Marty Kemp and her daughter, Lucy, pet Teddy, a German shepherd at UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital, during a visit of the facilities.
of one of the family’s Labradors and a duck that had died. The tour led Kemp through the small animal teaching hospital, where she got to meet a puppy about to undergo surgery, and the zoological medicine area, where a giant anaconda was being treated. It also included the parts of the hospital used for diagnostic imaging, the food animal treatment center, and the equine performance arena, where horses are checked for lameness and other ailments. Kemp was impressed by how the teaching hospital has grown since her tenure as a student at UGA. “It’s ramped up about 100 times since I was here,” she said. “What’s going on here is just awesome.” Currently, the Kemps have three dogs, a barn cat, two sheep, a goat, four horses and two chickens. “I’ve been kind of low on
animals recently, though Brian would say no, but we used to have a lot more.” One her daughter Lucy recalled with particular fondness is a goat named Kenny Chesney. When the human Chesney was in town, Lucy and her mother saw the tour bus downtown and relayed the fact of their goat’s name to Chesney’s people. They asked her to bring the goat to them, so they did, and Chesney himself got off the tour bus to meet the goat and Lucy. Lucy, a senior in high school and also a lover of animals, is interested in UGA’s veterinary medicine program. Kemp is still in the process of working out what she wants to focus on during her tenure as first lady of Georgia, though she is certain animal welfare will play a role because it is a cause so dear to her heart.
Bulletin Board Service-Learning Fellows
Applications for the 2019-2020 Service-Learning Fellows program are due March 20. Up to nine faculty members will be selected for participation in this yearlong program and will receive a $2,500 faculty development award. All permanent, full-time UGA faculty members with an interest in service-learning are eligible. Complete application materials, along with examples of previous Fellows projects, are available at https://bit.ly/2WWrJo3.
TEDxUGA registration
Registration for TEDxUGA 2019: Amplify is now open. The seventh annual celebration of ideas worth spreading will be held March 22 at the Classic Center. Individuals may register for $20 or $30 with a T-shirt. According to TEDxUGA organizers, there is no audience for the event—only participants. For this reason, it is required that all individuals plan to attend the entire event, which will run from 7-10 p.m. For more information, visit TEDxUGA.com/register. Additional details will be shared with registrants via email.
Flu vaccine study
Do you still need a flu vaccine? The UGA Clinical and Translational Research Unit is enrolling new participants for a study of immune system response to the flu vaccine, using FluMist, the nasal spray flu vaccine. Adults ages 18-49 who have not yet received a flu vaccine this season but would like to get one can call the
CTRU at 706-713-2721 for eligibility screening and more information. Participants can earn up to $90 for participating in the study.
Parenting study participants
The UGA Clinical and Translational Research Unit is now enrolling parents of young toddlers (ages 12-18 months) for a study on how parenting beliefs may affect health and relationships. Couples who are parenting their first child (ages 12-18 months) can call the CTRU at 706-713-2721 for eligibility screening and more information. Couples can earn up to $100 for participating in the study.
WIP proposal deadline
The Franklin College Writing Intensive Program invites proposals from arts and sciences faculty in all disciplines for innovative courses that encourage writing. The WIP aims to enhance undergraduate education by emphasizing the importance of writing in the disciplines by offering “writing-intensive” courses throughout the college. Faculty who teach WIP courses are supported by a Writing Intensive Program teaching assistant, who is specially trained in writing-in-thedisciplines pedagogy. Visit www.wip.uga.edu to find proposal forms and guidelines, as well as information about the program. The deadline for proposal submissions is March 10. Direct questions to Lindsey Harding, WIP director, at lharding@uga.edu. Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.
First-generation college graduates and current law students Sharod McClendon, left, and Tyler Mathis are creating the School of Law’s First-Generation Student Association, which they hope will create an inclusive community for those who are the first in their families to attend college.
The law school in recent years has placed a strong emphasis on assisting its students who are the first in their families to attend college. With this gift, more than $5 million has been given to the School of Law to assist this cohort throughout their legal education. Concurrent with the creation of the First-Start Scholars Program, the law school will hire an adviser to work exclusively with first-generation students as they embark on their three years of law school. Additionally, current law students and first-generation college graduates Tyler C. Mathis and Sharod J. McClendon have led a charge to establish the School of Law’s First-Generation Student Association. Mathis is the recipient of the Stacey Godfrey Evans Scholarship, which is awarded to first-generation college graduates, and McClendon is a Benham Scholar, which is a program that benefits individuals who hail from or show a demonstrated intent to practice in legally underserved communities. “Being able to connect with each other and share our experiences—the similarities and differences” led the pair’s desire to “foster a community of people relying on
CAREER
each other and feeling like they belong here,” McClendon said. The student group will serve as a unifying force around the academic, emotional, financial and social issues relevant to firstgeneration graduates—a complement to the First-Start Scholars Program. “We also want to celebrate being firstgeneration college students,” Mathis said. “You’re blazing a trail. You’re the first in your family to attend college or law school and you’re making it easier for those who come behind you.” With continued support from law school graduates and the legal community, the School of Law plans to eventually be able to offer financial aid to 100 percent of its firstgeneration college graduates, Rutledge said. “Scholarships like these ease the burden of obtaining a legal education—a foundation that will launch our hard-working students into careers with impact,” he said. “Thanks to this generous gift from Kathelen and the Daniel P. Amos Family Foundation, these students will go from scholarship recipients at one of the nation’s top law schools to graduates and practicing lawyers who will serve and become leaders in their communities, both near and far.”
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professionals, 58 percent were employed before graduation, a 3 percent increase over the Class of 2017, and 98 percent were hired within six months of graduation. Graduates landed in 47 states and 31 countries in the six months after graduation with 69 percent accepting employment within the state of Georgia. Top out-of-state destinations span the country and include cities like Austin, Texas, and New York City. Of the 19 percent of graduates who are pursuing additional education, some of the top graduate or professional schools they are attending include Georgetown University, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Vanderbilt University and Columbia University. The career outcomes rate is the percentage of students who are employed, continuing their education or not seeking employment within six months after graduation. The UGA Career Center calculates the career outcomes rate each January by leveraging information from surveys, phone calls, employer reporting, UGA departmental collaboration, LinkedIn and the National Student Clearinghouse. The preceding data is based on the known career outcomes of 8,130 graduates from the Class of 2018.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Dorothy Kozlowski
UGAHACKS EMPHASIZES INNOVATION, TEAMWORK—More than 300 students from around the
state descended on the Lamar Dodd School of Art Feb. 8-10 for UGAHacks4. During the 36-hour computer programming event, teams worked together to hack projects that tackled everything from technology that promotes physical fitness and raises mental health awareness to helping farmers track and perform analytics on their cows. More information is at https://ugahacks.com/.