UGA Columns Feb. 8, 2016 by UGA Columns

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Communication studies professor helps students become more mindful FACULTY PROFILE

The University of Georgia UGA Opera Theatre to perform Cosi fan Tutte in Fine Arts Theatre

Vol. 43, No. 24

February 8, 2016

www.columns.uga.edu

hmurphy@uga.edu

Sharon Dowdy

Lew Hunnicutt, assistant provost and campus director of the UGA Griffin campus, said UGA Griffin already has jumped the biggest hurdle of growing an academic program, which is getting community support.

‘Potential for growth’ New Griffin campus leader plans to further establish campus in community

sharono@uga.edu

Growing up in Texas, Lew Hunnicutt dreamed of owning a cattle ranch and being a cowboy. But, thanks to his grandmother’s encouragement, he enrolled in college and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree, three master’s degrees and one doctorate—all related to animal science and agriculture. Higher education transformed Hunnicutt’s life, and he’ll enable it to transform the lives of others as the new assistant provost and campus director of the UGA Griffin campus. Hunnicutt joined the university on Nov. 1, succeeding Jerry Arkin, who led the campus for 27 years. He is tasked with guiding research programs in Griffin as well as the academic program, which is comprised of courses and degrees from five UGA schools and colleges.

4&5

Law school creates fellowship from $2M founding gift By Heidi M. Murphy

By Sharon Dowdy

UGA GUIDE

This is no small task for someone a great town like Griffin.” Before applying for the position, whose high school graduating class Hunnicutt strolled the streets of consisted of 10 people. “I was the highest ranking boy,” Griffin virtually through Google Hunnicutt said. “But seriously, edu- Maps. After interviewing in Griffin, cation opened many doors for a boy he gained a feel for the campus. “I saw that this community from a small town in Texas.” Hunnicutt came to UGA from truly supports the campus,” he said. Frank Phillips College in the Texas “After I interviewed, I really, really Panhandle, where he served as vice wanted this job. I haven’t wanted president of extended services. many things ‘really, really’ badly, but During his 12-year tenure there, he I wanted this.” As the successful candidate, led the development of two branch campuses and saw enrollment rise on Hunnicutt made his home in the those campuses from 17 students to Spalding County area of Brooks, just a 10-minute drive from the UGA more than 300 per year. Building a community-focused Griffin campus. “I grew up in a town of academic program is his forte, and he believes the Griffin campus is “a 300 (people), so Griffin is almost great match” for him, although at metropolitan to me. Everyone I have first he wasn’t sure. met has been very friendly and wel“I thought UGA was too big,” he coming. I haven’t met one grumpy said. “But I now have the power of person yet and that speaks volumes one of the biggest universities in the for Griffin,” he said. “I don’t know state (behind me), and I get to live in See GRIFFIN on page 8

The UGA School of Law has established an elite fellowship program as a result of a $2 million founding gift from The John N. Goddard Foundation. Initially, the program will offer three law school students annually the opportunity to receive an educational experience including domestic and international externships and guided research experiences, opportunities to meet some of the country’s top legal leaders and a full-tuition scholarship. “Enhancing graduate and professional education is a priority of the University of Georgia,” said

UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “The Distinguished Law Fellows program will help us to further this goal while honoring one of our most accomplished alumni. We are grateful to the Goddard Foundation for its support.” Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said this fellowship program will attract the best and brightest to Athens for law school and will place Georgia Law among a small group of institutions offering full-tuition-plus law school scholarships. “I am thankful to the Goddard Foundation for its generous leadership gift that will make this new

See FELLOWSHIP on page 8

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Finalists for School of Social Work deanship to visit campus By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

Four finalists for the position of dean of UGA’s School of Social Work will visit campus in the coming weeks to meet with members of the university community. A committee chaired by Linda Kirk Fox, dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, conducted a national search to identify the finalists. The committee was assisted by the UGA Search Group in Human Resources. Each finalist will make a public presentation from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in Room 480 of the Tate Student Center. The finalists and the dates of their presentations are:

• Wesley Church, J. Franklin Bayhi Endowed Professor and director of the Louisiana State University School of Social Work, Feb. 8. • Michael Fendrich, professor and associate dean for research at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, Feb. 15. • Judy Postmus, associate professor of social work and director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at Rutgers University, Feb. 18. • Anna Scheyett, professor and dean of the University of South Carolina College of Social Work, Feb. 22. The CVs of the finalists, along with their itineraries and feedback forms, are at http://t.uga.edu/23o.

VOICES FROM THE VANGUARD LECTURE

Expert on controlling spread dengue, Zika will lecture Alumni Association unveils Bulldog 100 ByofMorgan carrying mosBeavers DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS By Elizabeth Elmore eelmore@uga.edu

The UGA Alumni Association recognized the 100 fastest-growing companies owned or operated by UGA alumni during the seventh annual Bulldog 100 Celebration Jan. 30 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. The 2016 fastest-growing business was SMD LLC, founded by Shane Douthitt and Scott Mondore. Their North Carolina-based talent management and analytics company enables businesses to monetize people management. SMD’s patented cloud-based talent software identifies cause-andeffect relationships between talent

management and business outcomes and then converts those analytics into actionable results in just four clicks for front-line managers and individual employees. Both Douthitt and Mondore each earned a master’s and doctoral degree in applied psychology from UGA. The rest of the Bulldog 100 top 10 was: 2. CAMFormulas. com, Brooklyn, New York; 3. Kabbage Inc., Atlanta; 4. 6 Degrees Group, Alpharetta; 5. Specialized Veterinary Services, Fort Myers, Florida; 6. Your Pie Franchising, Athens; 7. Verisail Partners, Atlanta; 8. CALIPSO LLC, Charleston, South Carolina; 9. Builders Specialty Contractors, Boynton Beach, Florida; and 10. Red Clay

Communications Inc., Atlanta. The Atlanta office of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors partnered with the UGA Alumni Association to review nominated businesses’ financial records to determine the ranked list. Nominations for the 2016 Bulldog 100 were accepted between February and May 2015. To be considered for the list, each organization must have been in business for at least five years, experienced revenues in excess of $100,000 for the calendar year 2012 and be owned or operated by a former UGA student who owns at least 50 percent of the company or is the CEO, president or managing See BULLDOG 100 on page 8

marymorganbeavers@gmail.com

Dengue fever debilitates, sickens and even kills millions of poor people around the world every year—many of them young children. And, the same mosquitoes that carry dengue also spread other high-profile viruses such as Zika. On Feb. 1, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus an international health emergency, noting that Zika is spreading explosively and could affect as many as 4 million people in the Americas by the end of the year. Prevention programs typically include distributing bed nets and dumping out containers of standing water where the disease-

quitoes breed. But extensive field research in Thailand and Peru has convinced entomologist and ecologist Thomas W. Thomas Scott Scott that a more interdisciplinary approach could be more effective. He’ll tell this story Feb. 16 when he speaks at UGA. His lecture, “The Human Factor: People, Places and the Fight Against Infected Mosquitoes,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Chapel. It will be the second event in this year’s Global

See LECTURE on page 8

2 Feb. 8, 2016 columns.uga.edu

Around academe

Study: Not all high-performing students are created equally

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation reported ways in which students from low-income backgrounds are disadvantaged in elite academic admissions. The report found that the students were deprived by policies that favor weighting GPAs and visits to campus. The report also challenged the notion that collegiate athletics is a ticket to an education for low-income students, noting heavily recruited Ivy League sports like crew and rugby are often nonexistent in low-income school districts.

ISU report: State support for higher education rises for third straight year

State funding for higher education has risen three years in a row, most recently by 4.1 percent, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University and the State Higher Education Executive Officers. The annual report compiles states’ spending from the current fiscal year and compares the data with years past. The report accounts for state appropriations, but does not include student fee revenue or most federal aid. Thirty-nine states, including Georgia, reported increases this year, with only nine seeing declines. Illinois and Pennsylvania have yet to finalize their annual budgets and are expected to influence the overall data once submitted.

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

More than 400 attend Cooperative Extension conference at Rock Eagle By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu

More than 400 UGA Cooperative Extension agents, specialists and researchers gathered at Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton Jan. 12-14 for a biennial UGA Extension tradition that provides equal doses of training and inspiration. The Georgia Cooperative Extension Conference offers agents the chance to learn about the latest research and resources available. In addition to new resources, this year’s conference also came with a call to think about outreach and service as scholarship. UGA Extension agents offer Georgia’s farmers, families and homeowners a wealth of research-based, Georgiaspecific training and information on topics ranging from child care

to leadership development to agronomic weed control to home lawn m anagement. During fiscal year 2015, agents provided more than 47,000 workshops, classes and camps in every county in Georgia. Agents have to measure the impact of their work for public accountability, but it’s less common to find agents who publish scholarly articles about their programming in scholarly publications. That’s the next step, Laura Perry Johnson, associate dean for Extension, told the agents. “We’ve always valued programming; that’s what we’re good at and that’s what we’ve rewarded and developed,” Johnson said. “But we need to close the circle. We need to ‘finish the drill’ as Mark Richt used to say.” She asked agents to document their teaching and outreach methods and outcomes as well as the results

TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

Pro baseball team owner talks about leadership values

News to Use

Reduce stress for a healthier life

With an increasingly busy life, a person’s physical and emotional resources may become depleted. Some stress can provide motivation to be productive, but too much stress can be detrimental to health. To make life less stressful and more enjoyable, the UGA Cooperative Extension offers the following tips to reduce stress level: • Take care of yourself. This is one of the cornerstones of stress management, and it’s especially important. Stress can spill over to other family members, so it’s a kindness to everyone when you take good care of yourself. • Focus on eating healthier foods, such as vegetables, fruits and lean meats. Ask yourself if you are truly hungry or if you are just eating because food is readily available. • Increase your physical activity by walking after meals and taking the stairs rather than elevators. • Take time for yourself, even if it’s only a few minutes while you are lying in bed in the morning. Time management is also key when it comes to reducing stress. • Be in the moment. Remember, many stressful situations have the potential for better memories and great stories in the future. To learn more, see UGA Extension Circular 1042, “Time Management: 10 Strategies for Better Time Management.” Source: UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

MORE THAN

2100 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

FROM

92 COUNTRIES

ENROLLED IN 2014 - 15 Read more about diversity at UGA at discover.uga.edu

of the on-farm experiments they’ve traditionally published. Lorilee Sandmann, professor emerita of the UGA College of Education and the opening session speaker for this year’s conference, called on agents to merge the knowledge being created within their own communities with the knowledge being generated at the university to create the “scholarship of engagement.” “We’re not just talking about research, we’re talking about scholarship in several different modes,” Sandmann said. “We need to broaden our conception of scholarship and … think about Extension as a scholarly act. “You are a learner amongst learners,” she also said. “You are thinking through problems in that swampy lowland (of the real world). You are employing an engaged, scholarly approach within a culture of evidence.”

By Matt Weeks

mweeks@uga.edu

100 and counting

Emily Selby

By defeating No. 17 Wisconsin on Jan. 30, the No. 1-ranked UGA women’s swimming and diving team earned its 100th consecutive victory at Gabrielsen Natatorium. UGA will compete in the SEC championship Feb. 16-20 in Columbia, Missouri.

2016 FOUNDERS DAY LECTURE

Speaker: Greater rigor needed to prepare students for future careers By Aaron Hale

aahale@uga.edu

With advances in computer intelligence technology, it’s time for higher learning educators to think about how to prepare their students for the future, said Thomas C. Reeves during the 2016 Founders Day Lecture on Jan. 27. “Researchers are focused on creating systems that can perform numerous tasks that were previously reserved for humans,” said Reeves, professor emeritus of learning, design and technology in UGA’s College of Education. These researchers are engineering robots that can see, understand, listen, speak, read, write and make judgments. As outstanding as this technology is, it also could have repercussions for human labor. “Most of us have become comfortable with machines taking over manufacturing jobs, but we have not begun to grapple with what machine learning means for the professions,” he said, noting that technology is being developed that could replace tasks performed by pharmacists, physicians, accountants, lawyers, journalists and others. For future workers, seeking new skills and acquiring more education may

not be enough, at least not if higher education doesn’t address some concerns. Grit, or the resolve to see something through, is a strong predictor of success, said Reeves, who suggested that universities should focus on greater rigor—more reading and more writing—to better prepare students for a rapidly changing career landscape. “I call upon our university leaders— our faculty, our staff, our students—to critically examine what we’re doing here at the University of Georgia,” he said. “Our programs and our courses can’t assume that secure careers await our graduates. That world is coming to an end. Instead, universities have to prepare our graduates to survive in a rapidly changing world, one in which people with the lifelong careers of today may only be seen in museum exhibits.” Brian Heredia, a second-year history and social studies education major from Athens, delivered the student response. Regardless of whether computer technologies wipe out certain professions, he said, there should be a greater focus at UGA on meaningful teaching that inspires students to analyze and evaluate. “The learning experiences I have valued the most are the ones that make me want to take action,” he said.

Ken Kendrick, the owner and managing general partner of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, talked to a packed house Jan. 22 at the Terry Leadership Speaker Series, which also is designated one of the university’s Signature Lectures. Since 2004, Kendrick has overseen day-to-day operations of the Diamondbacks. He also has helped to change the face of downtown Phoenix as a principal in the development of CityScape, Arizona’s largest commercial/retail real estate development. At the Terry event, he spoke about the values that guide his decisions, the leadership challenges of professional sports and why he enjoys entrepreneurship. “Leadership needs to be different in different settings, and baseball is the most unusual of the settings because it’s both a business and entertainment,” Kendrick said. “So the approach you take there is different from my early days when I was an entrepreneur and founded an early technology company. The style you adopt in that kind of setting is a very much more of a handson approach to leadership than you take in a large organization like the Diamondbacks.” During his tenure, the team has twice won the National League West Division title and eliminated more than $200 million of debt. But his successes weren’t always easy. “The thing you learn quickly is even though you thought you knew a lot about the sport, even though you were always a fan and you went to all the games and thought you understood it, you really don’t. You have to learn it,” Kendrick said. “And in terms of how you operate and how you lead, you really have to lead through others. You have to pick the very best people you can find, you have to give them a lot of freedom and you have to trust what they do.” Despite the differences in organizations, Kendrick said his leadership values remained consistent across organizations and industries. “I think everything you do in business ought be built around integrity,” he said. “That’s a word that’s not absolute in its definition. It’s relative.”

RESEARCH NEWS

columns.uga.edu Feb. 8, 2016

Digest UGA Libraries to host conversation about civil rights photographer Gordon Parks

File photo

Andrew Park, an associate professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and the College of Veterinary Medicine, led research that created a model for evaluating a potential new strategy in the fight against drug-resistant diseases.

‘Safe zones’

Researchers assess use of drug-susceptible parasites to fight drug resistance By Beth Gavrilles bethgav@uga.edu

UGA researchers have developed a model for evaluating a potential new strategy in the fight against drug-resistant diseases. The strategy would take advantage of parasite refugia—host populations that have not been treated with drugs, thereby serving as “safe zones” where parasites don’t develop drug resistance. When parasites from refugia mix with their drug-resistant counterparts in the general population, they could reduce the incidence of drug-resistance overall, which may help prolong a drug’s effectiveness. The research, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, offers a way to assess when such an approach is likely to work—information that could help in the increasingly urgent hunt for alternatives to the current suite of parasite-fighting drugs. “Once resistance emerges, you might squeeze a little bit of life out of a drug by tweaking it, but often, very quickly, that entire class of drugs will become useless,” said Andrew Park, an associate professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and the College of Veterinary Medicine, who led the research.

“Right now, we’re really struggling to manage diseases like MRSA and extensively drug-resistant TB,” he also said. “We’re at a point where new classes of drugs don’t grow on trees anymore; it can take 15 to 20 years to develop them. It’s a challenge just to keep pace. Refugia represent a management strategy that’s being considered as a way to slow down the development of drug resistance, particularly in animal health.” Park and his colleagues created a model to predict the effects of refugia on two important outcomes: the overall prevalence of infection within a population and the proportion of those infections that are drug-resistant. The model incorporates two main variables. One is the level of drug coverage—the proportion of the overall population that has been treated against parasites. The other is the degree of mixing between the treated and untreated groups. In the case of a disease like heartworm, which is transmitted by mosquitoes and infects both wild animal populations and companion animals, there is some natural variation in both drug coverage and mixing. Both variables also can be controlled, to an extent. “There might be variation in terms of how compliant animal owners are in

giving heartworm preventive and whether dogs are kept indoors a lot versus just allowed to run around outside,” Park said. In this case, the mixing is unintentional rather than planned. “Given that it’s happening, we should at least understand what the consequences might be for drug resistance,” he said. The model yielded predictions about how changing the levels of drug coverage and mixing would affect prevalence and resistance and shed light on the evolutionary processes at work. “The dogma is that increasing contact between treated and untreated groups would be predicted to simply increase prevalence and decrease frequency of resistance, but we found that the relationships were much more complex than that,” Park said. “And we gained a lot of insight into the different roles of selection—how different strains are favored because of the host environment—and gene flow, the movement of drug resistant and drug susceptible parasites between host groups.” The team’s model serves as a general outline for considering the use of refugia as a management strategy, providing a blueprint for future models to predict outcomes in specific host-parasite systems, according to Park.

OFFICE OF SERVICE-LEARNING

Study: Service-learning courses can boost salaries By Christopher James chtjames@uga.edu

Service-learning is already known to have a positive impact in the classroom but a UGA study shows it can help grow graduates’ bank accounts as well. The research, co-authored by Paul Matthews, associate director of UGA’s Office of Service-Learning, which reports jointly to the vice presidents for instruction and for public service and outreach, found that a group of students graduating in 2010 made about $4,600 more annually in their first full-time job if they had participated in servicelearning at UGA. They also received their first raise more than two-and-a-half months sooner than those who hadn’t taken service-learning courses. The results were surprising, Matthews said, because previous work

has indicated service-learning students may gravitate toward careers they’re passionate about but might not pay as well as other options. “We were expecting that we might find people who had service-learning would actually have lower salaries,” Matthews said. “In that sense, we were surprised to find the opposite.” The study was co-authored by Jeffrey Dorfman, a UGA professor of agriculture and applied economics, and former graduate student Xuedong Wu. It was published in the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. Researchers looked at 44 unique pairs of students, matching them from a larger sample as closely as possible based on major, gender, graduation date, GPA and SAT scores. One member of each pair had taken service-learning courses

while the other did not. Service-learning courses link the academic content of the class with a real-world community need or issue. The study didn’t look at why servicelearning students earned more, but Matthews has a few theories. “We know from a lot of research that service-learning courses tend to lead to student outcomes that employers tell us they want,” Matthews said. “Students report they have enhanced teamwork skills, enhanced communication skills. They better understand the subject matter and how to apply it in the real world. In many service-learning classes they’ve done a project or activity in the real world they can put on their resume or CV.” During the 2014-2015 school year, more than 6,000 students at UGA took over 400 service-learning course sections.

Billy Weeks, a two-time winner of the Gordon Parks International Photography award, will speak about Parks Feb. 16 at 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. Parks, who died in 2006, was the first AfricanAmerican staff member for Life magazine, where he covered the civil rights movement for two decades. He also distinguished himself in fashion photography and later as a filmmaker. Weeks’ talk complements an exhibit of photographs from a 1956 Life magazine photo essay on segregation in the South on view in the Hargrett Library Gallery in the Russell Building through March 31. The Hargrett exhibit is one of a series of exhibitions installed around Athens under the umbrella Pictures of Us: Photographs from The Do Good Fund Collection, which is part of the Global Georgia Initiative of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.

College of Environment and Design makes magazine’s America’s 10 top list

UGA’s College of Environment and Design earned top 10 rankings in four categories in DesignIntelligence magazine’s 2016 edition of America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools. The report, which is published by the Design Futures Council—a global network of design, product, construction and real estate leaders—also lists the college’s dean, Daniel Nadenicek, among the 25 most admired educators for 2016. The America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools survey, which is in its 16th year, is conducted annually among 1,426 design professionals. In the landscape architecture category, UGA’s undergraduate program tied for fourth and has been ranked among the top 10 for a decade. UGA’s graduate landscape architecture program placed 10th in the 2016 ranking. DesignIntelligence also tallied responses from 40 education leaders for its Survey of Landscape Architecture Deans and Department Heads. In that survey, UGA’s undergraduate landscape architecture program tied for third while its master’s degree program tied for fourth place.

Mellon Foundation grant to help academic publishers increase workforce diversity

A four-year, $682,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded to the University of Washington will help four university presses and the Association of American University Presses— including the University of Georgia Press—create a pipeline program to diversify academic publishing by offering apprenticeships in acquisitions departments. The collaborative project involves the University of Georgia Press, the University of Washington Press, the MIT Press, Duke University Press and the AAUP. The University Press Diversity Fellowship program will create cohorts of four fellows per year for three years. The program will recruit fellows who have significant personal experience and engagement with diverse communities and a demonstrated ability to bring the understandings gleaned from such engagement to the daily work of academic publishing. Fellows will have the opportunity to connect with one another and engage with industry colleagues at two AAUP annual meetings. The University Press Diversity Fellowship program is the first cross-press initiative of its kind in the U.S. to address the lack of diversity in the publishing industry. Although university presses have long fostered and supported diversity-related fields such as Native and Indigenous studies; AfricanAmerican studies; women’s, gender and sexuality studies; and Asian-American studies, the fellowship program represents an investment in creating career development opportunities and a supportive environment for diversity publishing.

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UGAGUIDE 11 12 12 14 11

columns.uga.edu Feb. 8, 2016

For a complete listing of events 7 8 5 at the University of Georgia, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu/).

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The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified. Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.

‘CUBA AND THE U.S. SOUTH’

WILLSON CENTER FOR HUMANITIES AND ARTS

‘PIANOS / PIANISTS’

CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER

By Bobby Tyler byler@uga.edu

ccschwabe@uga.edu

The UGA Opera Theatre’s spring production presents a worldfamous opera at, perhaps, the most appropriate time of year: Mozart’s classic love story, Cosi fan Tutte. The opera will be performed in the UGA Fine Arts Theatre on Feb. 12-13 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 14 at 3 p.m. “This is the perfect Valentine’s Day treat,” said Frederick Burchinal, director of the UGA Opera Theatre. “This opera, also called The School of Lovers, is filled with intrigue and deception, combined with beautiful scenery, elegant historical costumes, magnificent voices and orchestra, all in the intimate setting of the UGA Fine Arts Theatre.” Tickets are $18 each or $5 with a UGA student ID and are available at pac.uga.edu , by calling 706-542-4400 or visiting the Performing Arts Center box office. Told over two acts, Cosi fan Tutte, is the story of two soldiers, their fiancees and a wager that tests their fidelity. Once two outside meddlers join in to create an elaborate ruse, the game is on in what Burchinal calls a “romantic comedy” and “one of Mozart’s great compositions.” The cast of six includes four Hodgson School of Music graduate students: Laura Anne Cotney, Rachel Eve Holmes, Brett Pardue and Isaiah Feken, who will also be featured as Sweeney Todd in the theatre and film studies department’s April production. The cast also includes two alumni singers, Avery Draut and Richard Block, who are currently pursuing professional singing careers. The opera will be sung in Italian as originally written with English supertitles displayed on a screen above the stage.

The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, in partnership with the School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center, will present the symposium “Cuba and the U.S. South: A Shared History” Feb. 11-12. Highlighted by a talk from Emory University scholar Mark Sanders, the symposium also will include a panel discussion exploring Georgia’s historic ties to Cuba and a performance by Cuban musician Luis Barberia. There is a $3 charge for Mark Sanders Barberia’s performance; all other symposium events are open free to the public. Part of the Willson Center’s Global Georgia Initiative, Sanders’ lecture, “Blackness and Nationality: The Case of Ricardo Batrell and the Cuban Racial Narrative,” will take place Feb. 11 at 4 p.m. in the Chapel. Sanders is professor and chair of African American studies and professor of English at Emory University. He recently published a translation of Batrell’s 1912 memoir. On Feb. 11 at 8 p.m., Barberia will perform at Little Kings Shuffle Club, 223 W. Hancock Ave. A member of the collective Habana Abierta, Barberia left Cuba in 1996 for Spain, where he lived until returning to Cuba in 2014. “Cuba and Georgia over the Decades” will be held Feb. 12 at 4 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room on the fourth floor of Dean Rusk Hall. The discussion by panelists Diane Marie Amann, Kathleen A. Doty and Aleck Stephens will be moderated by Ben Ehlers.

HOLLYWOOD CONCERT ORCHESTRA

State Botanical Garden Art Competition Winners. Through Feb. 14. Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014, connicot@uga.edu Stirred Fiction. Through Feb. 26. Circle Gallery. Georgia’s Girlhood Embroidery: “Crowned with Glory and Immortality.” Through Feb. 28. Georgia Museum of Art. hazbrown@uga.edu Tools of the Trade. Through March 16. Georgia Museum of Art. hazbrown@uga.edu (See story, above right). Lucy Hargrett Draper Center and Archives Exhibit. Through March 31. Gallery hallway, special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu Pictures of Us: Photographs from the Do Good Fund Collection. Through March 31. Hargrett Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu Cherokee Basketry: Woven Culture. Through April 17. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817, hazbrown@uga.edu Seeing Georgia: Changing Visions of Tourism in the Modern South. Through July 30. Special collections libraries. 706-542-5788, jhebbard@uga.edu

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8 BLOOD PRESSURE AND CHOLESTEROL SCREENINGS At a free or reduced rate. Through Feb. 11 and Feb. 15-18 from 8 a.m. to noon and 1-3 p.m. University Health Center. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK DEAN FINALIST PRESENTATION Wesley Church, Louisiana State University. 9:30 a.m. 480 Tate Student Center. (See story, page 1). SOUTHERN REGION WOMEN’S AGRICULTURAL L EADERSHIP SUMMIT 10 a.m. Georgia Center. 706-542-7786, brucci@uga.edu CONCERT Julian Bliss Septet. $25-$35. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 WORKSHOP “Improving Student Learning Outcomes with Critical Reflection.” Free but pre-registration is required. 1 p.m. PSO Annex Conference Room, Office of Service-Learning building. 706-542-0535, swilder@uga.edu. (See Bulletin Board, page 8).

COOKING IN THE GARDEN CLASS “Cucinare con amore...and botanicals!” Luna Bucataio and Stephanie Bolton will teach participants how to prepare a threecourse Italian dinner. $50. 5:30 p.m. Visitor Center’s Classroom 2, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156, ckeber@uga.edu WEEK OF SOUL: HARLEM RENAISSANCE CELEBRATION* An evening of art, music and culture to celebrate the artistic, social and cultural explosion in Harlem, New York, from the end of World War I through the middle of the 1930s. 6 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. $5, free for students with valid UGACards who pay activity fees on the Athens campus. ART SHOWCASE* Students will share their talents in dance, spoken word, poetry, music and visual arts. 7 p.m. Multipurpose room, Building 1516. SPRING CONCERT The Hodgson School of Music’s University Philharmonia. 7:30 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 ASH WEDNESDAY Christian religious observance. TOUR AT TWO 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu HUGH HODGSON FACULTY SERIES CONCERT D. Ray McClellan, clarinet. $10; $5 with a UGACard. 8 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 EMPTY BOWL PAINTING Participants can paint glazes on a ceramic bowl to benefit the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. Ceramicists are encouraged to bring their own food-safe glazes and brushes. $7. 10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu ONE BILLION RISING Campus members can take part in this global event, which is a call to action to speak out about violence against women in the community. 2 p.m. 480 Tate Student Center. 706-542-7206, mpassonno@uhs.uga.edu

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the 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 on the Web at calendar.uga.edu/.

GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART

aisha.abdullahi@uga.edu

The UGA Performing Arts Center will present the Hollywood Concert Orchestra in A Night at the Oscars Feb. 14 at 3 p.m. in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. The concert will feature romantic movie themes ideal for Valentine’s Day and perfectly timed for the Feb. 28 Academy Awards ceremony. Tickets for the concert are $25-$45 and are discounted for UGA students. Tickets can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. The Hollywood Concert Orchestra was founded in 1999 and has become one of the premier pops ensembles in the world. The orchestra tours extensively across the U.S. as well as Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea with a unique presentation featuring special arrangements of the music that made the movies. For A Night at the Oscars, the orchestra will be joined by award-winning tenor Eamon Pereyara and soprano Sarah Stead. Stead earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at the Catholic University of America and continued her studies at Georgia Southern University. The Hollywood Concert Orchestra’s program will include some of the most popular film scores of the past 75 years, including My Fair Lady, An American in Paris, Chicago, The Sting, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Superman, Titanic and James Bond movies.

TUESDAY TOUR 2 p.m. Special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu

Tools of the Trade

By Aisha Abdullahi

btyler@uga.edu

EXHIBITIONS

‘A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS’

By Bobby Tyler

Hollywood Concert Orchestra

UGA OPERA THEATRE

By Clarke Schwabe

By Dave Marr

davemarr@uga.edu

THROUGH

The UGA Performing Arts Center will present the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. The program, “Pianos/Pianists,” will feature pianists Alessio Bax and Wu Han from the Chamber Music Society along with special guest Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Tickets for the concert are $40 and are discounted for UGA students. Tickets can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. The concert will include some of the most popular piano music from the 20th century with Debussy’s Petite Suite, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Lutoslawski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini. Spano has served as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2001 and is well-known to Athens audiences from his many Performing Arts Center appearances at the conductor’s podium. He is also a highly regarded pianist, and this concert marks his Hodgson Hall debut as a musician. Han is co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and in 2012 was recognized by Musical America as Musician of the Year. Bax was first prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions, and he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009. This concert is part of a season-long partnership between the UGA Performing Arts Center and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, establishing the greatest presence in one location for the Chamber Music Society outside of New York City. The concert will be recorded for national broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today, heard by 1.4 million listeners around the country.

COSI FAN TUTTE

GLOBAL GEORGIA INITIATIVE LECTURE “Blackness and Nationality: The Case of Ricardo Batrell and the Cuban Racial Narrative,” Mark Sanders, Emory University. Part of the “Cuba and the U.S. South: A Shared History” international symposium. 4 p.m. Chapel. davemarr@uga.edu (See story, above). PANEL DISCUSSION* “I Decided: HBCU vs. PWI,” how students make the decision to attend a historically black college or university or a predominantly white institution. 5 p.m. Russell building. LECTURE Alice Aycock will share stories of her career as an artist. Participants will get an in-depth look at selected works from the artist’s oeuvre. 6:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu FILM SCREENING Gerhard Richter Painting. This film follows the legendary German painter in his studio through the spring and summer of 2009, granting viewers access into his personal, tensionfilled process of artistic creation. Directed by Corinna Belz. In German with English subtitles. 7 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu WEEK OF SOUL FILM* To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). $3, free for students with valid UGACards who pay activity fees on the Athens campus. 8 p.m. Tate Student Center Theatre. CONCERT: ‘PIANOS/PIANISTS’ Pianists Wu Han and Alessio Bax, artist members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, are joined by special guest Robert Spano for this concert. $40. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400. (See story, above left). PERFORMANCE Cuban musician Luis Barberia. $3. Little Kings Shuffle Club, 223 W. Hancock Ave. (See story, above).

The Georgia Museum of Art will reveal some of its secrets through hands-on displays in the exhibition Tools of the Trade, which runs through March 16. Organized by Carissa DiCindio, curator of education, and Tricia Miller, head registrar, Tools of the Trade will examine how an exhibition is put together at a museum. Interactive displays will show what archival materials are and why museums use them, reveal the inside of an art-shipping crate and let visitors write their own object labels. Audience members will learn what the symbols on the outside of an art-shipping crate mean, how to measure properly for hanging a large number of works on the wall and what happens to a work over time when people touch it. Related events include a public tour led by DiCindio and Miller on Feb. 10 at 2 p.m.; a “Behind-the-Scenes” film series (Gerhard Richter Painting on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., National Gallery on Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present on March 3 at 7 p.m. and Le Mystere Picasso on March 10 at 7 p.m.); and a Family Day on Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. to noon. All events are free and open to the public.

CTL GUEST LECTURE Pratibha Varma-Nelson will review Peer-Led Team Learning research and provide recommendations for best practices to educators who wish to integrate PLTL in their courses. Part of the Center for Teaching and Learning’s National Speaker Series. 11:15 a.m. 400 chemistry building. 706-583-0067, tchagood@uga.edu

EXHIBITION OPENING David Ligare. Through May 8. A retrospective exhibition of nearly 80 works by the self-proclaimed classicist. Georgia Museum of Art. hazbrown@uga.edu

WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES LECTURE “‘We’re Going to the Chapel and We’re Gonna Get Married’: Ordination and Gay Marriage,” Wanda Wilcox, women’s studies, adult education and Franklin College of Arts and Sciences advising. 12:20 p.m. 248 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu

UNITY BALL: ‘UNITY IN THE EMERALD CITY’* This annual, formal event celebrates and promotes diversity and the unity of the campus community. $3 tickets are available at the Tate Student Center cashier’s window. 6:30 p.m. Tate Student Center Grand Hall.

FILM SCREENING AND RECEPTION Faust Song of the Sun. Visiting German author Werner Fritsch will introduce the screening of his cinematic poem. 4 p.m. S150 Lamar Dodd School of Art. 706-542-3663, german@uga.edu PANEL DISCUSSION “Cuba and Georgia over the Decades.” 4 p.m. Larry Walker Room, Dean Rusk Hall. (See story, above center). WEEK OF SOUL FILM* Straight Outta Compton (2015). Through Feb. 14. $3, free for students with valid UGACards who pay activity fees on the Athens campus. 6 and 9 p.m. Tate Student Center Theatre. POETRY READING The Georgia Review and the Georgia Poetry Circuit will present a reading by poets Margot Schilpp and Jeff Mock. 7 p.m. Cine, 234 W. Hancock Ave. 706-542-3481, lagsolo@uga.edu UGA OPERA THEATRE Performance of the Mozart classic Cosi fan Tutte. $18, $5 for UGA students. 8 p.m. Fine Arts Theatre, Fine Arts building. Additional performances Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 14 at 3 p.m. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu. (See story, above right).

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 MORNING MINDFULNESS Participants will enhance mindful practice in an environment of creative energy. Sessions include instructor-led meditation followed by a period of reflection and discussion. Register by calling 706-542-0448 or emailing branew@uga.edu. 9:30 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu GEORGE S. PARTHEMOS LECTURE “Tenuous Majorities, Party Sorting and the Contemporary American Electorate,” Morris P. Fiorina, Stanford University. 10:30 a.m. 250 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2057, jmaltese@uga.edu

WORKSHOP The Northeast Georgia Orchid Society will lead this workshop, in which attendees can bring up to two plants and containers and work with an expert to re-pot their plants. $15. 10 a.m. Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156, ckeber@uga.edu FAMILY DAY Participants will explore the behind-the-scenes world of art museums in the exhibition Tools of the Trade, then try their hand at curating their own mini-exhibition in the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom. 10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu

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.

GYMNASTICS vs. LSU. $10. 4 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum. 706-542-1621.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14 CONCERT: ‘A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS’ The Hollywood Concert Orchestra. $25-$45. 3 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400. (See story, above left).

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15 PRESIDENTS DAY Classes in session; offices open. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK DEAN FINALIST PRESENTATION Michael Fendrich, University of Connecticut. 9:30 a.m. 480 Tate Student Center. (See story, page 1). WORKSHOP “Set Them Up for Success: Motivating and Guiding Students with Advanced eLC Tools.” Participants will learn how to create checklists, release conditions and intelligent agents. 2 p.m. 372 Miller Learning Center. 706-583-0067, tchagood@uga.edu GUEST ARTIST RECITAL Performance by Claudio Merlo, Alessandria Conservatory in Alessandria, Italy. 6 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu CONCERT The Hodgson Symphonic Band and the Hodgson Wind Symphony. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu

COMING UP GUEST LECTURE* Feb. 16. “Two Views: A Conversation with Photographer Billy Weeks.” Weeks will speak about the influential photographer Gordon Parks. 2:30 p.m. 271 Russell Building. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu (See Digest, page 3). *PART OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Feb. 10 (for Feb. 22 issue) Feb. 17 (for Feb. 29 issue) March 2 (for March 14 issue)

6 Feb. 8, 2016 columns.uga.edu

FACULTY PROFILE

The American Chemical Society, in its Select Virtual issue, featured the research of 17 emerging investigators in bioinorganic chemistry, including UGA associate professor of chemistry Todd Harrop. The feature highlighted the group of early career researchers who have received their doctorate since 2004. Born and raised in San Francisco, Harrop was a chemistry/biology split major at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, where he conducted undergraduate research with Steve Bachofer. After a difficult junior year battling cancer, Harrop became fascinated with bioinorganic chemistry; two of his chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin and bleomycin) contained active metal centers. This interest led him to the University of California-Santa Cruz where he received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 2004 with Pradip Mascharak and was an NIH-MBRS graduate research fellow. His formal training ended with an NIH-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at MIT with one of the fathers of bioinorganic chemistry, Steve Lippard. Since 2007, Harrop has been at UGA’s Center for Metalloenzyme Studies in the chemistry department. His research group is focused on the synthesis and properties of low molecular weight model complexes of metalloenzyme sites that are responsible for the breakdown/transformation of reactive oxygen (superoxide dismutases) and nitrogen species (nitrite reductases). Vince Dooley, former head football coach and director of athletics, was named the professional recipient of the John Wooden Citizenship Cup. Sponsored by the Athletes for a Better World organization, the award is presented to the collegiate athlete and professional or Olympian who have made the greatest positive influence on the lives of others. Dooley, along with five nominees for the collegiate Wooden Vince Dooley Cup Award, will be honored at the 2016 award ceremony on April 27 at the Cobb Energy Centre in Atlanta. Previous professional recipients of the award include Jack Nicklaus, Pat Summitt, Dikembe Mutombo, Drew Brees, Mia Hamm, Peyton Manning, John Smoltz, John Lynch, Andrea Yaeger, Shannon Miller and Cal Ripken Jr. Founded in 1998, Athletes for a Better World exists to change the culture of sport by developing individual character, teamwork and civic responsibility through commitment to the Code for Living. Kudos recognizes special contributions of staff, faculty and administrators in teaching, research and service. News items are limited to election into office of state, regional, national and international societies; major awards and prizes; and similarly notable accomplishments.

Rick O’Quinn

Tina Harris, a professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, teaches International Perspectives on Interracial Communication to UGA students in Costa Rica. In the class, the students talk about bias, privilege, race and class as they relate to the U.S. but more importantly, Harris said, how they relate to Costa Rica.

Communication studies prof helps students become more mindful By Alan Flurry

aflurry@uga.edu

Many students enter UGA with limited notions about the world as it exists beyond their own experience. Serious discussions about bias, privilege, race and class require great skill and grace in any setting. For communication studies professor Tina M. Harris, the classroom provides both a refuge and forum to help students gain an understanding about who they are and how they engage with the world around them. “We talk about power, how power is constructed and how there are certain groups that benefit more so than others, not to make any students feel guilty but to be proud because that’s who you are, so don’t minimize that,” Harris said. “We need to recognize and discuss the fact that there are groups who have been historically marginalized, and they do not have access to opportunities and resources that the majority group does. And this is not just an issue in the U.S., but around the world.” For Harris, the tension of those unsettling and sometimes uncomfortable early discussions is balanced by the openness and liberation of learning on the part of her students she also gets to experience. “I’m blessed to be a part of that awakening in so many of them,” she said. “Often they thank me, but in so many ways, I am at least as fortunate as they are.” That ability to empathize with her students and share in their experience as

they begin to develop their consciousness about the world plays a significant role in interracial and interpersonal communications. Harris brings the same level of engagement to the coursework in the study-abroad program she teaches in Costa Rica. International Perspectives on Interracial Communication takes UGA students to Costa Rica to talk about these issues as they relate to the U.S. but more importantly, Harris said, how they relate to Costa Rica. “In many ways, they have the same racial hierarchy that exists in the U.S. that prioritizes lighter skin and stereotypes people of Afro-Caribbean or Nicaraguan descent,” she said. A service-learning project, course readings, ongoing class discussions and informal interactions among the students help them to think about their privilege as Americans coming to Costa Rica. “The program has evolved in a way that has made for the perfect experience,” Harris said. “We start off at the UGA campus in San Luis, letting the students take a moment and breathe, enjoy life and appreciate nature.” Students are slowly introduced into the culture for six days before leaving for the city of San Jose. “By the time we engage with the service project working with schools in Puerto Viejo, students have become more mindful of the racial differences in the country as well as the economic

FACTS

Tina Harris

Professor Communication Studies Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Ph.D., Communication, University of Kentucky, 1995 M.A., Speech Communication, UGA, 1992 B.A., Speech Communication, UGA, 1990 At UGA: 11 years

privileges they enjoy as Americans,” Harris said. “It’s a healthy experience learning about ethnocentrism, how to make sure it doesn’t get in your way as you genuinely engage in helping people. It’s often a life-changing few weeks.” A daughter of the South, Harris spent four years living in Spain while her father served in the military. “I’m so glad that we did,” Harris said. “My mom jokes to this day that Spanish was my first language.” That ability comes in handy in Costa Rica, though Harris admits that she, too, is still learning when it comes to her second language. “I can speak extensively about the educational system there, but I still might forget the word for fork,” she said. A Double Dawg in communication studies, Harris earned her doctorate at the University of Kentucky and taught at Bowling Green State University before returning to join UGA as faculty in 1998.

RETIREES January

Thirty-five UGA employees retired Jan. 1. Retirees, their job classification, department and length of employment are: Mike O. Booth, electrician, Facilities Management Division-Central Campus Zone Shop, 31 years, 8 months; Connie Gail Bridges, museum security coordinator, Georgia Museum of Art, 29 years, 10 months; Evelyn Brown, building services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Building Services, North Campus, 12 years, 5 months; James C. Cobb, professor, history, 18 years, 3 months; Alice Beverly Collins, cook II, East Village Commons, 35 years, 3 months; Robert Lee Crawford, building services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Building Services, South Campus, 10 years, 5 months; Tamara A. Dailey, research professional IV, Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, 34 years, 3 months; Marvin M. Dixon Jr., electronics

technician III, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, 31 years, 8 months; Gail Ealy, senior medial transcriptionist, University Health Center, 19 years, 11 months; Arcenouis John Eason Jr., director of athletic operations, Athletic Association, 14 years, 11 months; Walter Jerome Ethredge Jr., public service associate, UGA Cooperative Extension-Southwest District, 27 years, 11 months; Daniel Charles Feldman, professor, management, 12 years, 6 months; Robbie Kaye Hardy, county secretary, UGA Cooperative Extension-Southeast District, 36 years, 2 months; Richard B. Harrison Jr., glass shop manager, Research Business Services, 31 years; Timothy R. Holcomb, event support services specialist, Georgia Center Conference and Hospitality Services, 26 years, 3 months; Elisabeth Hughes, academic professional associate, Institute of Higher Education, 15 years, 10 months; James L. Hunter,

equipment operator I, Facilities Management Division-Grounds-Maintenance, 20 years, 3 months; Elouise S. Johnson, building services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Building Services, North Campus, 10 years; W. Dale Ledford, building services supervisor, Facilities Management Division-Building Services, North Campus, 29 years, 3 months; Jerome S. Legge Jr., associate provost, academic planning, 35 years, 4 months; Debra G. Love, administrative specialist I, School of Law, 11 years, 7 months; Diane M. McCauley, administrative specialist I, Athletic Association, 21 years, 11 months; Shirley R. McIntyre, administrative specialist II, College of Pharmacy, 23 years, 4 months; Lesa G. Meeks, accountant, EITS-Finance and Business Services, 27 years, 6 months; Kent R. Middleton, professor, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, 35 years, 6 months; Rosa L. Moody, building

services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Building Services, North Campus, 25 years, 8 months; Lynda K. Olliff, research professional II, microbiology, 13 years, 4 months; Glenda M. Owens, assistant fiscal compliance officer, University Business and Accounting Services, 10 years; Han S. Park, director, international affairs-School of Public and International Affairs, 45 years, 4 months; Robert G. Phares, Web developer associate, geology, 10 years, 8 months; Bobbie N. Ray, senior accountant, counseling and human development, 10 years, 5 months; Mary Ann Sutton, building services supervisor, Hill Hall, 26 years, 6 months; Carol L. Warnes, instructor, mathematics, 25 years, 11 months; Mamie Watson, administrative associate II, chemistry, 32 years, 2 months; and Daniel D. Williams, forest resources manager, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, 32 years, 4 months. Source: Human Resources

GRADY COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION

columns.uga.edu Feb. 8, 2016

Looking ahead

Grady College advertising faculty member sees life through virtual reality File photo

Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn, an assistant professor of advertising at Grady College, has been working on virtual reality for nearly 10 years. “Ten years ago we went through the mobile revolution, and now we are right at the cusp of a virtual reality revolution...” she said.

By Sarah Freeman freemans@uga.edu

Some people go through life as optimists. Others are pessimists. But, for Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn, an assistant professor of advertising at Grady College, she is a realist—a virtual realist. Virtual reality is becoming part of the everyday lexicon for many consumers, but it has been in Ahn’s everyday vocabulary for nearly 10 years. “Twenty years ago we went through an Internet revolution,” Ahn said. “Ten years ago we went through the mobile revolution, and now we are right at the cusp of a virtual reality revolution because now the devices are getting cheap enough.” Ahn credits the fact that major companies now are embracing virtual reality to simple economies of scale—as the price of virtual reality devices goes down, more people will carry them around. “I expected virtual technology to be a future thing for a really long time, but now that major companies are jumping in to make these cheaper devices, it’s really picking up speed,” Ahn said. “If it gets cheap enough and there is enough content, then this will literally change the way we think about communication.” While a lot of current attention is paid to using virtual reality in gaming and entertainment, much of Ahn’s research is looking ahead to incorporating the technology into persuasive messages in health applications and seeing how to make them personally relevant to the subjects. One such study is Ahn’s research proving there is a direct, positive effect between viewing a time-lapse, computer-generated video of someone gaining 10 pounds a year from drinking a soft drink and the reduction of

sugary beverage consumption. Many people who smoke or drink sugary beverages know there is no eminent danger—they don’t feel like they are going to die tomorrow. Ahn studies how messages can be delivered to prove risk behaviors are more immediate, and one way of doing this is through virtual reality. “People usually have a psychological distance with certain risk behaviors, and drinking sugary beverages is particularly distanced,”Ahn said. “People don’t think it’s a risk behavior because it seems like a harmless habit. If you can fast-forward time where the behavior and the consequence are brought together, the message becomes more salient and sticks with them longer.” In another related study recently accepted in the Journal of Media Psychology, Ahn studied the effects of incorporating a virtual simulation message within a digital brochure. Ahn found that people were much more likely to remember perceived risk using virtual simulation, especially when the health risks don’t seem very serious, for example, soda drinking. “When incorporating the virtual simulation, the perception of risk is significantly higher, it lasts longer and people remember it more,” Ahn said. “And, personally they feel more involved with the issue, so essentially it’s getting people to consider it more personally relevant to them. Virtual reality really does change behavior; sometimes it’s the medium that matters.” In another study published in Cyberpsychology,

WEEKLY READER

Former staffer finds stories ‘everywhere’

There Is Story Everywhere... If You Will Listen By William “Bill” Hale Self-published Paperback: $14

In There is Story Everywhere... If You Listen, former UGA staffer William Hale offers a collection of short vignettes that find curiosity and meaning in everyday events. In his introduction, Hale, an associate director at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education for 27 years, wrote, “Storytelling is the oldest form of organized language usage. The ability and desire to tell others about things that both happened and never happened or to spin a yarn for mere entertainment was the beginning of telling and keeping history.” The book offers dozens of stories—divided into the categories places, people, ideas and things— and covers such topics as war, music, marriage and technology. Copies of the book are available at ADD Drug Store and Avid Bookshop in Athens.

Behavior and Social Networking, Ahn studied the effects of using virtual pets to encourage 7- to 13-year-olds to eat fruits and vegetables. The children set goals for healthy food consumption, and they were able to watch their virtual pet become healthier when the children ate more fruits and vegetables. The research studied the consumption goals the children made after they interacted with the virtual pet and then measured intentions by what they put on their plate at meals, and their actual consumption. When the children ate a lot of fruits and vegetables, they were able to use a joystick to pump the heart of the dog, which would become easier when lots of healthy foods were consumed. They could also feel the virtual pet’s main artery, which was more elastic when fruits and vegetables were consumed. “In terms of actual consumption, kids in the virtual pet group ended up serving themselves a lot more fruits and vegetables than kids in the other two groups,” Ahn said. “Did they eat what they put on their plate? Virtual pets had a little more healthy consumption but not significantly different. Both intervention groups were significantly higher than the baseline group. They all had good intentions.” Ahn also has worked with virtual pets to encourage physical activity in children. When the children reach a goal, they are rewarded by being able to teach their virtual pet a new trick. Studies printed in the Journal of Health

“Virtual reality really does change behavior; sometimes it’s the medium that matters.”

Communication showed that the children in the group with a virtual pet engaged in 156 percent more physical activity than the control group. Currently, Ahn is working with Kyle Johnsen in the College of Engineering, Georgia Tech and the Children’s Museum of Atlanta on a National Science Foundation funded project that pairs a virtual buddy with children viewing museum exhibits. The virtual buddies will reinforce the STEM education and learning through virtual peers. “Studies show that when children model other people, they like to model peers, instead of adults,” Ahn said. “We expect the virtual buddies to work as a bridge between formal learning in the classrooms and informal learning in the museums. We want to make sure they come away knowing that the museum exhibit is teaching the same STEM concept they learned in the classroom.” Consumers are just seeing the beginning of the virtual reality revolution, according to Ahn who cites the recent free distribution of Google Cardboard by The New York Times to its subscribers as a striking point in virtual reality history. “It was a paradigm-changing experience for a lot of people to realize it was so cheap that people were passing it out,” Ahn said. “Google Cardboard doesn’t have full capabilities, but it gives the everyday consumer an idea of what the future could be like.” For now, Ahn is continuing her frantic pace of research. “As a scholar you always want to be doing the current stuff—the topics that are relevant to consumers,” she said. “It is always exciting to realize that what you have been doing for a while is finally getting some attention.”

ABOUT COLUMNS

CYBERSIGHTS

Columns is available to the campus community by subscription for an annual fee of $20 (secondclass 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

Financial Hardship Resources site online

Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski

financialhardship.uga.edu

Financial circumstances can change quickly, at times in ways outside of students’ control. Financial hardship creates significant stress and can impede student success. The Financial Hardship Resources initiative provides students with a starting point to seek guidance, assistance and, in certain cases, funding to enable them to flourish at UGA.

“The purpose of this initiative is to bring students facing difficult financial circumstances directly to the campus and community resources that may assist them,” said Matthew Waller, assistant to the vice president for student affairs. “We are committed to student success and will do all we can to help them continue their educational pursuits at UGA.”

Senior Reporter Aaron Hale Reporter Matt Chambers 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

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8 Feb. 8, 2016 columns.uga.edu

FELLOWSHIP from page 1

GRIFFIN from page 1 if all Texans are welcomed as much, but I sure have been.” Now set to focus on his mission, Hunnicutt said the UGA Griffin campus already has jumped the biggest hurdle of growing an academic program. “There’s so much potential in Griffin, and we already have the community support and that’s what’s tough to get,” he said. “I don’t care how good your programs are, if you don’t have community support, you will not be successful.” He sees “tremendous potential for growth” in the academic program and plans to target high school students.

Hunnicutt praises the campus’s recruitment efforts but said more focus needs to be put on helping high school students prepare for the first two years of college that are required for transferring to the Griffin campus. In addition to recruitment, Hunnicutt is no stranger to university research, the other major focus of his job. He earned an undergraduate degree in animal science and worked with native grasses and range and grazing management of cattle and sheep in graduate school. “I want to be an involved-in-everything kind of guy,” he said. “I get to be the head of the spear, but I have a whole bunch of people beneath me doing amazing work.”

level of legal education possible at Georgia Law,” Rutledge said. The Distinguished Law Fellows program is modeled after the university’s prestigious Foundation Fellows program, which was established in 1972. The initial fellows of the law school’s program will be known as Philip H. Alston Jr. Distinguished Law Fellows and will be announced later this year. Benefits of being an Alston Distinguished Law Fellow will include a professional development stipend to be used at the end of the fellow’s first and second years of law school for summer externships, study-abroad offerings or research projects; special travel opportunities to meet some of the nation’s foremost legal advocates and jurists, including U.S. Supreme Court justices; and a full-tuition scholarship. Robert G.“Bob” Edge, legal counsel for the

LECTURE from page 1

BULLDOG 100 from page 1

More than 400 nominations were received for the 2016 Bulldog 100. The class includes companies of all sizes, providing services and products in a variety of industries, including dentistry, law, IT, consulting, retail and pest control. Companies as far west as Texas and as far northeast as New York made the list this year.

partner. The Bulldog 100 recognizes the fastest-growing businesses regardless of size by focusing on a three-year compounded annual growth rate. More than 400 nominations were received for the 2016 Bulldog 100. The class includes companies of all sizes, providing services and products in a variety of industries, including dentistry, law, IT, consulting, retail and pest control. Companies as far west as Texas and as far northeast as New York, made the list this year. The average compounded

annual growth rate for this year’s Bulldog 100 businesses was 35 percent. The 100 businesses and the 153 alumni who lead them were recognized by the UGA Alumni Association during the event. The evening began with an optional roundtable discussion with the Bulldog 100 business owners, led by Bob Pinckney, UGA director of entrepreneurial programs, who was CEO of EvoShield LLC when that business was named the No. 1 fastest-growing Bulldog 100 business in 2011. The roundtable

Bulletin Board Service-learning workshop

The workshop “Improving Student Learning Outcomes with Critical Reflection” will be held Feb. 9 from 1-3:15 p.m. in the Office of ServiceLearning. Participants will learn about the fundamentals and best practices of reflection theory and put this into practice through hands-on activities that explore written, verbal, group and visual reflection activities. The workshop is free but preregistration is required. Sign up at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ SLWorkshopsSpr16. For more information, contact Susan Parish by email (sparish@uga. edu) or phone (706-542-8924).

Credit union food drive

The Georgia United Credit Union is holding its annual “Can Hunger” food drive through Feb. 29. Food and money donated locally will benefit ARK Ministries, which serves the low-income citizens of Athens-Clarke and surrounding counties who are facing financial

Goddard Foundation and senior counsel at the law firm Alston & Bird, said the trustees of the Goddard Foundation are pleased to help launch this significant new program at Georgia Law. “Just as the Foundation Fellows program for undergraduates has helped attract many of our nation’s most outstanding college-bound students to UGA, the Goddard Foundation trustees believe that the new Distinguished Law Fellows program can do the same for the law school,” Edge said. “It is very fitting that the first of these law fellowships will bear the name of Philip Alston Jr. because he was so devoted to the university that he served so well in so many capacities and because he, as the head of a major law firm himself, recognized that making the School of Law excellent in every way was vitally important to our state and region—and to his beloved alma mater.”

emergencies and are struggling to meet life’s basic needs. Donations may be dropped off at either of GUCU’s Athens branches (190 Gaines School Road or 1710 S. Lumpkin St.). The credit union also will accept $1 donations that will be used to buy food. The most requested/needed food items are peanut butter; canned tuna and chicken; canned fruit and vegetables; canned soups, stews and pasta; 100 percent fruit juice; and boxed pasta and rice. For the last four years, all 18 Georgia United branches across the state have collected 147,914 cans or 73 tons of food. For more information, contact Catalina Evans at catalina.evans@gucu. org or 770-476-4600, extension 8237.

Lilly Fellows deadline

The Center for Teaching and Learning currently is accepting applications for the 2016-2018 Lilly Teaching Fellows program. Faculty in their first, second or third year of a tenure-track position at

discussion was followed by a reception, dinner and the keynote address given by 1980 UGA graduate Jeff Dunn, CEO and president of C-Fresh, a division of Campbell Soup Co. that includes Bolthouse Farms, Garden Fresh Gourmet and Campbell’s retail fresh soup unit. To view the complete list of 2016 Bulldog 100 businesses or nominate a business for the 2017 Bulldog 100, see www.alumni.uga. edu/b100. Nominations will be accepted through May 31 at that website.

UGA are eligible to apply. The application deadline is 5 p.m. on March 11. Information and application materials can be found at http://t.uga.edu/22b. For more information, contact Jean Martin-Williams, the director of the program, at jfmartin@uga.edu.

Service-learning fellows

The Office of Service-Learning is accepting applications until March 18 for the 2016-2017 Service-Learning Fellows program. This yearlong faculty development program provides an opportunity for participating faculty to explore best practices in service-learning and community engagement while developing new service-learning courses or considering ways to integrate service-learning into existing courses or programs. Complete application materials along with examples of previous Fellows projects are available at http://t.uga.edu/1fF. Up to nine faculty members will be selected for participation and will receive a $2,500 faculty development

Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard series. Understanding the complexities of pathogen transmission is essential for disease prevention, said Scott, who is Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Nematology at the University of California at Davis. He shares his research on the development of disease transmission dynamics, an approach that he said is “among the most promising frontiers for improved mosquito-borne disease prevention.” This involves combining insights from social and biological sciences. An adviser to WHO and a leader of the Partnership for Dengue Control, Scott has directed epidemiological studies of dengue in Thailand and Peru to better understand transmission dynamics and approaches to control. Although he’ll use dengue to explain these concepts, he’ll also discuss how they apply to Zika and c hickunguyna. “Tom Scott is passionately committed to using his scientific skills to reduce the burden of misery on poor people around the world,” said Patricia Thomas, co-organizer of the series and holder of the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism at Grady College. “His research is especially timely, given global concern about links between maternal Zika infection and the birth of infants with microcephaly.” Scott, who holds a doctorate in ecology from the Pennsylvania State University, completed his postdoctoral training in epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine. He joined the faculty at the University of California at Davis in 1996 and has worked extensively in both Thailand and Peru. Now in its eleventh year, the lecture series is co-organized by Daniel G. Colley, microbiology professor and director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.

award. All permanent, full-time UGA faculty members (academic tenure track, academic professionals, public service faculty, clinical faculty, and lecturers) with an interest in servicelearning are eligible. Previous experience with servicelearning is not required. Service-learning is an experiential learning method that provides opportunities for students to apply and more fully understand academic knowledge through projects that address genuine community need. An information session for interested faculty will be held Feb. 29 from 4-5 p.m. at the Office of ServiceLearning, 1242 1/2 S. Lumpkin St. For questions related to application, contact Shannon O. Wilder, director, Office of Service-Learning at swilder@uga.edu or 706-542-0535. Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.