UGA Columns Nov. 26, 2018

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Double Dawgs reaches milestone with more than 150 linked-degree programs

Thursday Scholarship Series ends the year with two holiday concerts

CAMPUS NEWS

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Vol. 46, No. 17

November 26, 2018

www.columns.uga.edu

UGA GUIDE

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Groundbreaking to be held Nov. 27 for new ISTEM Building

By Emily Pateuk epateuk@uga.edu

Illustration by Jessica DeAngelis

Georgia Commitment Scholarships offer financial support and help with transitioning to college life.

Resounding success More than 300 Georgia Commitment Scholarships created in under two years

By Clarke Schwabe ccschwabe@uga.edu

In less than two years, the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program has led to the creation of more than 300 need-based scholarships, a resounding success in the University of Georgia’s ongoing mission to remove barriers and open doors for students.

The program, which was catalyzed by a $30 million gift from The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, was unveiled by President Jere W. Morehead in January 2017. Since that time, 322 scholarships from 206 donors have been created, putting the program well on pace to surpass its goal of 400 scholarships

by June 30, 2020.

“The Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program is a testament to the generosity of the UGA family and a demonstration

of their inspiring commitment to our students,” said Morehead.

“These scholarships will provide students a path to higher education not just today and tomorrow, but in perpetuity.”

Through the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program, the UGA Foundation matches—dollar for dollar—any gift in the amount of $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 to establish an endowed undergraduate need-based scholarship. The scholarship is awarded by the Office of Student Financial Aid within a year of the donor making his or her gift, and from that point forward, the endowment grows—increasing the size of the scholarship award over time and helping student after student earn a UGA degree.

The GCS Program offers students more than financial support to attend UGA. The program, in partnership with the Division of

Academic Enhancement, provides tutoring, workshops, academic coaching and other support to help students transition into college life, find success while on campus and plan for life after graduation.

Students in the program come from an array of backgrounds as diverse as the state of Georgia itself.

“Forty-one percent of GCS students are from the metro Atlanta area with 59 percent from all other areas of Georgia, and 60 percent of scholars are from minority backgrounds,” said Brittany Adams, Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program coordinator. “We’re very proud that these scholarships support students from all across our state.”

Similarly, the donors who have established scholarships range from major Georgia business leaders such as Arthur Blank, Tom See SCHOLARSHIPS on page 3

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

The University of Georgia will break ground on the new Interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Research Building at 2 p.m. on Nov. 27. The groundbreaking marks the beginning of the construction of the ISTEM Research Building, which will house engineering, chemistry and related disciplines to promote collaborations between students, faculty and researchers.

The $65 million facility is made possible by $39.4 million in state support. It is strategically located on UGA’s South Campus

near other buildings that house STEM researchers and will promote interdisciplinary research to address the needs of industry and government agencies. It will also enhance the state of Georgia’s economic development.

“The new ISTEM Research Building provides an exciting opportunity to take the collaborative strengths of UGA to a whole new level,” said Rawad Saleh, assistant professor of engineering at UGA. “It will be home for a new interdisciplinary energy and air pollution research group. Having our laboratories co-located in the Interdisciplinary STEM Building

See STEM on page 8

BALDWIN HALL MEMORIAL

‘Enduring tribute’: Memorial dedicated at Baldwin Hall The University of Georgia hosted a ceremony on Nov. 16 to dedicate a new memorial at Baldwin Hall in tribute to those who were buried there.

“We are drawn here today by a deep sense of respect for these individuals and by a strong sense of duty to commemorate the lives they lived,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “The memorial we are dedicating this morning will provide for an enduring tribute as well as a physical space for meaningful reflection in the future.”

Morehead was one of three individuals who spoke at the ceremony.The Honorable Steve Jones, U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, and Michelle Cook, UGA’s Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic University Initiatives, also shared their own reflections.

“As a member of the Baldwin Hall Memorial Advisory Task Force, my fellow members and I spent a great deal of time thinking deeply about this monument,” Jones said. “We recognized the significance of this great project.

We took pride in knowing that we had been called upon for this special occasion and this special task. It mattered to us. We wanted to get it right, and I think we did.”

The memorial, located on the south end of the front lawn of Baldwin Hall, near Old Athens Cemetery, will serve as a place of remembrance for the individuals who were originally buried on this site in the 1800s, most of whom likely were slaves or former slaves.

The memorial, which complements the aesthetic of the university grounds, includes: See MEMORIAL on page 8

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

UGA students earning their degrees in record time Portrait of Louise McBee to be

By Sam Fahmy and 49 percent, respectively. the dedication of faculty and staff unveiled at Nov. 28 ceremony sfahmy@uga.edu The university’s six-year com- across campus to helping our stuAn expanded slate of programs at the University of Georgia tailored to the needs and ambitions of students is helping them earn their degrees in record time.

The university’s four-year completion rate has moved up 2 percentage points to reach a record 68 percent, and 75 percent of UGA students earn their degrees in four years plus one semester. For comparison, the average four-year graduation rate at UGA’s highly selective aspirational institutions is 69 percent, while the average four-year graduation rates for peer and SEC institutions are 53 percent

pletion rate moved up 1 percentage point to reach a record 86 percent, which is just 1 percentage point shy of the 87 percent six-year completion rate for the university’s aspirational institutions. UGA’s 86 percent six-year completion rate exceeds the 76 percent average for UGA’s peer institutions as well as the 72 percent average for Southeastern Conference institutions.

“It is exciting to see the results of several UGA initiatives to increase student success building on one another to produce recordsetting outcomes for our students,” said President Jere W. Morehead.

“These achievements also reflect

dents attain their goals.”

UGA provides a range of programs that promote academic success while building community among students with similar interests and aspirations. Schools and colleges, the Division of Student Affairs, Public Service and Outreach and the Office of Instruction are among the many units that work, often in tandem, to create a learning environment that keeps students on track to graduate while also helping them grow and thrive as individuals.

Programs such as the Freshman College Summer Experience,

See DEGREES on page 8

By Heather Skyler

heatherskyler@uga.edu

The University of Georgia will celebrate the lifetime achievements of Louise McBee by unveiling her portrait in the Administration Building at a ceremony on Nov. 28 at 11 a.m., UGA President Jere W. Morehead announced.

McBee held leadership positions for more than 25 years at the University of Georgia before serving for more than a decade as a champion for higher education in the Georgia state House.

“Dr. McBee’s extraordinary legacy at UGA is one that will

endure for many years to come,” said Morehead.

“She helped to guide the university community in a thoughtful and nurturing Louise McBee manner. She later served the Athens community as a highly effective state legislator.

Her many contributions to this institution and to higher education make her deserving of this special recognition.”

See PORTRAIT on page 8

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ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Double Dawgs program reaches milestone

CAES

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

Andrew Davis Tucker

CAES Dean Sam Pardue and UGA President Jere Morehead congratulate former U.S. President Jimmy Carter before his induction into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Former President Jimmy Carter joins Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame

By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu

He’s easily the most famous peanut farmer in history, and he is now the first president of the U.S. to be inducted into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame.

President Jimmy Carter was inducted into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame, housed at the University of Georgia, Nov. 9 at the 64th UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association Awards.

“This has been the highlight of my life in agriculture, my induction tonight,” Carter told the crowd gathered at the ceremony. “It’s my honor to join all of my friends who are here, and those who are not here, as a member of the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame. I’m very thankful to everybody here.”

The Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame was established in 1972 to recognize individuals who made unusual and extraordinary contributions to the agriculture and agribusiness industries in Georgia. The UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association maintains the Hall of Fame.

“When you think of notable Georgia farmers, you can’t help but think about President Carter,” said CAES Alumni Association President Van McCall. “But what most people are surprised to find out is how involved he was with Georgia agriculture before he ran for governor. He wasn’t just a farmer; he was a community and agribusiness leader in southwest Georgia and really worked to develop agriculture in that region.”

For Ammishaddai Grand-Jean, the Double Dawgs program provides an opportunity to deepen his understanding of economic policy so that after graduation he can make a positive impact on communities. Ellen Everitt sees the linked bachelor’s/master’s degree program as a pathway to effective leadership in the arts, while Jessica Ho said the opportunities the program provides bring her closer to her goal of becoming a physician epidemiologist.

Launched last fall, the Double Dawgs program was created to help University of Georgia students such as Grand-Jean, Everitt and Ho save time and money by enabling them to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in five years or less.

The program offered just over 100 dual degree pathways at its inception, but that number has since grown to exceed 150, with faculty members and department heads continuing to propose new linked-degree programs.

“The Double Dawgs program offers another great example of how the University of Georgia is prioritizing student learning and success,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I am pleased by the commitment of our faculty to enable this innovative program to expand the number of opportunities for UGA students to challenge themselves academically and gain a competitive advantage in the workplace.”

The Double Dawgs program comes at a time when the advanced skills and knowledge that graduate education provides are in high demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of jobs typically requiring a master’s degree is expected to grow by 17 percent in the coming years, compared to 10 percent for a bachelor’s degree alone.

“In addition to positioning students for greater career success, the Double Dawgs program helps students deepen their knowledge and create meaningful connections among separate but related

Honors student Jessica Ho, shown here during a study abroad in Morocco, is pursuing a Master of Public Health degree through the Double Dawgs program.

fields,” said Vice President for Instruction Rahul Shrivastav. “This kind of broad-based knowledge applied with deep, critical thinking helps students thrive in a world that is constantly changing.”

Ho, an Honors student and a recipient of UGA’s prestigious Foundation Fellowship, says that complementing her undergraduate degree in cellular biology from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences with a Master of Public Health degree from the College of Public Health will provide her “a more holistic conceptualization of health care, from discoveries at the bench to population-level interventions.”

Everitt is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in theatre from the Franklin College along with a master’s degree in nonprofit management and leadership from the School of Social Work. “My goal is to explore the ways nonprofits can benefit the artistic communities they serve to create innovative and exciting theatre that sustains a community,” she said.

Spurred by the aftermath of the 2008 recession, Grand-Jean is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science from the School of Public and

WARNELL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

ETHICS WEEK/SIGNATURE LECTURE

By Leigh Beeson

By Emily Webb

Wildlife expert explains connection between health of people, animals, environment lbeeson@uga.edu

If you ask Sharon Deem what’s keeping her up at night, the wildlife veterinarian and epidemiologist will give you a blunt answer.

“We are in a hot mess,” said Deem, the director of the Institute for Conservation Medicine at the Saint Louis Zoo. “If you … pick your favorite challenges, you can see that there are a number of them that link humans, animals and plants to where we are with planetary health today.”

Deem’s research spans 30 countries and has included everything from a health-monitoring program for gorillas in central Africa, to health assessments of sea turtles in Africa and the Americas, to health care of working elephants in Myanmar. That connection between the health of humans, animals and the environment is the basis of the One Health Initiative, a movement to form collaborations between experts in a variety of fields to answer pressing health challenges, and it’s what Deem focuses on in her research and her work as a zoo veterinarian.

“If there is one thing I think One Health is— this growing movement of bringing disciplines together—it is [about] finding the solutions to these challenges,” she said.

With the reduction of animals’ natural habitats and the increase in international trade, the boundary between humans and animals has blurred, Deem said. As human interactions with wild animals increase, so does the risk of transmitting infectious diseases—both from animals to people and from people to animals.

Of emerging infectious diseases affecting people in the 21st century, approximately 75 percent of

them originated in animal populations.

One example that embodied the principle of collaboration between epidemiologists, veterinarians and other researchers began in the 1980s, Deem said during her Signature Lecture, held in the Warnell School on Nov. 5. Several species of vultures in India began to rapidly die off. Then, the incidence of rabies infections among people increased. The two issues seemed unrelated, but thanks to the “detective work” of veterinary pathologists, ecologists and others, researchers identified the culprit: a drug called Diclofenac that was being used to reduce inflammation in cows.

The cows had the drugs in their muscles when they died, so when vultures ate the cows, they would consume the drug, which caused renal failure in vultures. Their decreased numbers led to more carcasses, which in turn provided a food source for India’s feral dog population. Feral dogs increased, and as a result so did rabies in both the dogs and the people they bit.

Once the source was identified, researchers could take action. The government made Diclofenac illegal to use in veterinary practices, increased rabies prevention vaccinations in dogs and set up vulture “restaurants” where vultures could munch on uncontaminated meat placed in fields specifically for them. That collaboration between disciplines is the key to solving these pressing interspecies health problems and making sure the environment and nature are something people can enjoy for generations to come.

“From a public health standpoint, this connection we have with nature and animals improves us spiritually, psychologically, emotionally and physically,” Deem said. “We need this ­connection.”

I­nternational Affairs, a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Terry College of Business and a master’s degree in public administration from SPIA. “I would like to gain a deeper understanding of policy and how to create, implement and evaluate public policy that affects a vast number of people,” he said. “I am sincerely passionate about leaving places and people enabled, unified and proficient.”

Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Libby V. Morris emphasized that the Double Dawgs program reflects the university’s broader commitment to fostering student success, both during their time on campus and after graduation.

“Through experiential learning, the Double Dawgs program, active learning and a host of other programs and initiatives, our faculty create extraordinary learning experiences that enable students to achieve their full potential,” she said. “The quality of instruction at the University of Georgia is rooted in our dedication to students.”

To learn more about the Double Dawgs program and to read Q&As featuring Grand-Jean, Everitt and Ho, visit doubledawgs.uga.edu.

Notre Dame professor discusses human blind spots at Ethics Week Lecture sew30274@uga.edu

You are not as ethical as you think you are.

That’s the takeaway from the 2018 Ethics Week Lecture by Ann E. Tenbrunsel on Nov. 7 in the Chapel.

Tenbrunsel, the David E. Gallo Professor of Business Ethics in the College of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame, discussed the blind nature of ethicality and behavioral ethics.

The four blind spots that Tenbrunsel discussed are ethical illusions, ethical fading, dangerous reward systems and motivated blindness.

She called ethical illusions “biased perceptions of our own ethicality.” Research has found that typically people rate their honesty as higher than it should be. The good news, she said, is that this means that people want to be ethical, but the bad news is that people are inaccurate about their own traits.

Tenbrunsel focused on three areas of decision-making: prediction, or how a person thinks he’ll act; action, the making of the decision; and recollection, the person reflecting on the decision he made.

“We predict we’re going to behave one way we often don’t, yet we recollect that behavior as being more in line with our values than it actually is,” she said.

Tenbrunsel attributed this to re-

visionary ethics, which includes use of language to make the unethical behavior seem better than it was and advantageous comparisons to make a person feel that their ethics are still better than other people’s.

With ethical fading, the brain unconsciously asks what kind of decision is being made, then draws up the criteria for that type of decision. Different decision frames cause the brain to call up different criteria. So, unless the brain determines the decision an ethical one, the ethical criteria will not be included.

Reward systems can lead to unethical behaviors.

“We’re really good at paying attention to that which we’re asked to pay attention to and that which we’re rewarded for,” she said. “We’re equally good at not paying attention to anything that we’re not being rewarded to pay attention to.”

While the first three blind spots focus on an individual’s ethicality, the fourth blind spot extends unethical behavior to other people. With motivated blindness, the person refuses to see others’ unethical behaviors if it is not in their best interest.

Tenbrunsel said there is hope for changing these behaviors. “The goal of all this was not to make you depressed and say, ‘Gosh, that’s too bad I’m not as ethical as I think that I am,’ but rather to use this information to become the person that we want to be,” she said.

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE

columns.uga.edu Nov. 26, 2018

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Digest Holiday Staff Appreciation to be held Kris Braman

Joon Choi

Anneliese Singh

Jessica Kissinger

Elizabeth Weeks

Michelle Momany

Shannon Wilder

Nicole Northrup

Sheri Worthy

Leading the way

Nine faculty members named 2018-2019 Women’s Leadership Fellows

By Abbey Miner

abbeym36@uga.edu

Nine University of Georgia faculty members have been named to the 20182019 class of the university’s Women’s Leadership Fellows Program.

Faculty members in the 2018-2019 cohort include representatives from eight schools and colleges as well as the Office of Service-Learning. Throughout the yearlong program, the faculty members will attend monthly meetings to learn from senior administrators on campus as well as visiting speakers from academia, business and other fields. The program, which was created in 2015 as part of the university’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, also features a concluding weekend retreat for more in-depth learning.

“Faculty members serve in both formal and informal roles of leadership across campus, and this program gives participants an outstanding opportunity to network and learn more about leadership roles and responsibilities,” said Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Libby V. Morris.

The 2018-2019 Women’s Leadership Fellows are: • Kris Braman, department head and professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Braman previously served as president of both the Georgia Entomological Society and the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America. Her research examines insect-plant interactions, integrated pest management and environmental conservation issues.

• Y. Joon Choi, associate professor and director of the Ph.D. program in the School of Social Work. Her research examines community intervention/

prevention strategies for domestic violence and substance abuse among immigrant and minority women. Choi was recently appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence.

• Jessica Kissinger, Distinguished Research Professor in the department of genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Institute of Bioinformatics. Kissinger has served on several campus committees as well as advisory boards of the National Institutes of Health. Her research explores parasite genomics and data integration challenges.

• Michelle Momany, associate dean for life sciences in Franklin College and professor of fungal biology in the department of plant biology. Momany, who previously served as department head, studies the cell biology and genetics of fungi, including pathogens of humans. She has chaired and served on many international scientific and campus committees.

• Nicole Northrup, associate professor in the department of small animal medicine and surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Northrup is a board-certified veterinary oncologist and the assistant hospital director for the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital. In addition to caring for veterinary cancer patients, she participates in studies of diagnostic and therapeutic options.

• Anneliese Singh, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion in the College of Education and professor in the department of counseling and human development services. Singh’s research focuses on the complex intersections of social justice, mental health, resilience and education among transgender people, trauma survivors and minority groups.

• Elizabeth Weeks, associate dean for

faculty development and a J. Alton Hosch Professor in the School of Law. Her research investigates health care financing and regulation, and public health law. Weeks was a 2017-2018 Public Service and Outreach Fellow, and her university-level service includes positions in University Council and on the university’s Institutional Review Board.

• Shannon Wilder, founding director of the Office of Service-Learning.

Wilder is an adjunct faculty member in the department of art education in the Lamar Dodd School of Art and has served on the President’s Task Force on Student Learning and Success as well as the ALL Georgia program committee.

In addition, she chairs the SPLOST 2020 Citizens Advisory Committee for Athens-Clarke County.

• Sheri Worthy, department head and the Samuel A. and Sharon Y. Nikols Professor in the department of financial planning, housing and consumer economics in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Her research examines consumer health and wellbeing, with an emphasis on behavioral economics and the intersection of health care and financial decision making.

“We are pleased to welcome another impressive cohort to the Women’s Leadership Fellows Program,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I appreciate their many contributions to the University of Georgia already, and I am excited about their potential for further career growth and development as academic leaders.”

The Women’s Leadership Fellows were chosen from nominations from deans and other senior administrators as well as from self-nominations.

The program is administered by Meg ­Amstutz, associate provost for academic programs, in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

Flatt. “We consider our contributions to this program an excellent investment to improve our society for the future.”

“Donor support has been truly astonishing,” said Kelly Kerner, vice president for development and alumni relations. “In FY18, 12 scholarships were established, on average, each month. In the first four months of FY19, that average has risen to 15 each month. Alumni and friends understand

the importance of this program and what it means for students, and they’re eager to help.”

As a major component of the ­Commit to Georgia Campaign’s effort to remove barriers for students, the GCS Program has been a critical element of UGA’s fundraising success over the past two years. To find out how you can contribute to that success, visit give.uga.edu.

SCHOLARSHIPS from page 1 Cousins and Pete Correll to UGA Foundation Trustees and UGA faculty and staff, including William Flatt, the D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Foods and Nutrition.

“My wife, Marihope, and I support the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program because we realize the impact that it can have, not only on the recipients but also on the future of our state, nation and world,” said

The University of Georgia will express its gratitude to our staff during this season of thanksgiving by hosting a Holiday Staff ­Appreciation event in the Tate Grand Hall on Dec. 18 from 4-6 p.m. Hosted by the Office of the President, the event will include light snacks, cookie decorating and other activities.

In addition, staff are invited to cheer on the men’s basketball team as it takes on Oakland at 7 p.m. Two tickets will be provided, compliments of UGA Athletics.

RSVP for the holiday party and, if interested, to claim your two basketball tickets by Nov. 30.

To RSVP, please call or email the Office of Special Events at rsvpuga@uga.edu or 706-542-7619.

UGA Alumni Association announces 2019 Bulldog 100 list of businesses

The University of Georgia Alumni Association has unveiled the 2019 Bulldog 100 list of fastest-growing businesses owned or operated by UGA alumni. More than 564 nominations were submitted for the 2019 list.

The 2019 Bulldog 100 includes businesses of all sizes and from industries such as real estate, dining, technology and retail. Companies are based as far north as New York and as far west as California. Of the 100 businesses, 80 are located within Georgia.

Business applicants were measured by their compounded annual growth rate during a three-year period. The Atlanta office of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors verified the information submitted by each company. On Jan. 26, the UGA Alumni Association will host an event to celebrate the Bulldog 100 and count down the ranked list to the No. 1 business.

To view the alphabetical list of honorees and to learn more about the Bulldog 100, see www.alumni.uga.edu/b100.

Ward named SEC Legend for 2018

Former Georgia receiver/quarterback Hines Ward was among those selected for the 2018 Southeastern Conference Football Legends class.

The class will be honored at the 2018 SEC Football “Weekend of Champions” Nov. 30Dec. 1 in Atlanta, highlighted by the annual SEC Legends Dinner presented by AT&T Nov. 30 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. The group will also be recognized prior to the SEC football championship game, which will be held Dec. 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Ward earned All-SEC first-team h ­ onors after his senior season of 1997, when the Bulldogs went 10-2 and defeated ­Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. He saw action primarily as a receiver and caught 55 passes for 715 yards and six touchdowns. He also set the school record for receptions in a bowl game when he pulled in 12 passes for 122 yards against the Badgers.

Ward was selected in the third round of the 1997 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He went on to be selected to four Pro Bowls, was a member of two Super Bowl champion teams and earned MVP honors in Super Bowl 40 in 2006.

Ward remains the Steelers’ all-time leading receiver with 1,000 catches for 12,083 yards and 85 touchdowns. He became well known off the football field in 2011 when he won the Dancing with the Stars national television competition.

Other members of the 2018 class include Shaun Alexander (Alabama); Darren McFadden (Arkansas), Ronnie Brown (Auburn), Lawrence Wright (Florida), Rich Brooks (Kentucky), Ronnie Estay (LSU), Jim Miller (Ole Miss), Mardye McDole (Mississippi State), Devin West (Missouri), Eric Norwood (South Carolina), Philip Fulmer (Tennessee), Pat Thomas (Texas A&M) and Zac Stacy (Vanderbilt).

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4 Nov. 26, 2018 columns.uga.edu

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

New round of funding expands UGA lab’s research on concussions The University of Georgia will continue its partnership in the world’s most comprehensive concussion study thanks to a new round of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the NCAA. Faculty in the UGA Concussion Research Lab in the university’s College of Education joined the project in 2014, with the shared goal of understanding how concussions affect the brain and identifying ways to improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Known as the NCAA-DOD Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium, or CARE Consortium, the study is led by the Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the Medical College of Wisconsin, in collaboration with the Uniformed Services University.

So far, researchers across the country have collected data on more than 39,000 student-athletes and cadets at 30 colleges and military service academies, including more than 3,300 who have experienced concussions. This represents the largest sample of concussions ever researched in a single study.

At UGA, faculty and graduate students in the Concussion Research Lab administer baseline assessments to all student-athletes and also provide evaluation services to any athlete who sustains a concussion. The data collected by the lab has also been used in several published research papers, with assistant professors Julianne Schmidt and Robert Lynall, co-directors of the lab, as authors or co-authors.

“It has been a great honor for UGA to serve as a CARE Consortium site over the past four years, and we are excited to continue this important work,” said Schmidt, a co-investigator on the grant. “We work hard to provide the best possible concussion evaluation and management services to UGA student-athletes. Combining our efforts with the other sites within the CARE Consortium allows us to research the injury in a much larger sample over a much more diverse group, which ultimately cycles back to improve the care we provide here at UGA and across the country.”

This second phase of the study is funded by a $22.5 million grant over several years.

The initial study was made possible by a joint NCAADepartment of Defense grant of $30 million and focused on the acute effects of concussions by evaluating concussed participants with a sequence of clinical and advanced research tests in the hours, days and weeks after a head injury, then comparing the results with baseline tests given at the start of the study.

The new phase will include comprehensive testing of participants when they leave college and up to four years after their collegiate sports or service academy career has ended. This expanded approach will enable researchers to study the intermediate and cumulative effects of concussion and repetitive head impact exposure. More importantly, researchers hope to differentiate between the effects of concussion, repetitive head impact and sports participation with no history of either concussion or repetitive head impact exposure.

“We have gathered important information about the short-term effects of concussions over the past few years, but there is still a lot we do not understand about how our brains respond to different types of impact over time,” said Thomas W. McAllister, chair of the psychiatry department at Indiana University School of Medicine and the leader of the study’s administrative and operations center. “By comparing these groups across multiple years, we think we can parse out the effects of concussions, versus repetitive head impacts, versus normal life at university. This is critical for us to make informed decisions that protect our athletes, members of the military and other members of our communities.”

The evaluations will include clinical tests to assess attributes such as balance and memory but also will probe changes to participants’ psychological health to determine what role, if any, concussions and repetitive head impacts may have on depression, anxiety and emotional control.

Researchers also will continue to conduct advanced research tests, including genetic analysis, brain imaging and blood tests to measure biomarkers associated with inflammation and nervous system dysfunction. It is conceivable that the advanced research tests will help identify genes and other objective markers that render an athlete or cadet more or less susceptible to concussion or injury from repetitive head impacts.

The NCAA is providing $12.5 million in funding over two years for the second stage of research. The Department of Defense approved a two-year grant of nearly $10 million.

“This new phase of funding represents a critical extension to the original study goals, allowing us to take an unprecedented look at cumulative and persistent effects of concussion and repetitive head impact exposure,” said Brian Hainline, NCAA chief medical officer.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Faculty from several units will take part in the Department and Leadership Teams for Action, or DeLTA, project as part of a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to help students develop STEM knowledge and skills.

‘Investments in instruction’ UGA launches project to transform STEM education

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

More than 100 University of Georgia faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math will collaborate on a comprehensive research project that seeks to transform STEM education on campus and at research universities nationwide.

Funded by a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, teams of faculty members will create, implement and assess active learning materials to help students better develop STEM knowledge and skills. The multi-level project also involves department heads, the Office of Faculty Affairs and Office of Instruction, who will work together to explore ways to better support, incentivize and reward effective, evidencebased STEM instruction. Research findings, at both the disciplinary level and at the department and institutional levels, will be broadly disseminated to improve student learning outcomes at UGA and at research institutions nationwide.

“Once again, the University of Georgia is setting an example as a national leader in undergraduate education,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I am pleased that our outstanding faculty will be helping to strengthen education in these critical fields through their research.”

STEM education is in high demand, both nationally and at UGA. At a national level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in science and engineering fields to grow by nearly 20 percent in the coming years.

At UGA, 22 percent of undergraduate students earned degrees in STEM fields last year, compared to 18 percent just five years earlier.

“We were in a really good position to secure this grant because of a number of things at UGA that help us leverage the funding, like the Science Learning Center and its SCALE-UP classrooms, the small class hiring initiative and the active learning initiative that’s currently underway,” said principal investigator Paula Lemons, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology who leads an interdisciplinary center on campus known as Scientists Engaged in Education Research, or SEER. “These are all investments in instruction that enable

us to design and test better learning experiences for students.”

To improve the quality of STEM education, faculty members at UGA and across the nation are increasingly using active learning methodologies that open up class time for students to solve problems and make sense of concepts with guidance. As best practices at a classroom level become more clearly defined, the National Science Foundation has sought to scale the use of evidence-based instruction to departments and universities. Lemons has been studying the science of teaching and learning for more than a decade, and she and her colleagues at UGA have collectively authored nearly 200 research publications that illuminate how effective teaching can improve student success.

The new project at UGA is formally known as Department and Leadership Teams for Action, or DeLTA, and it is inherently a team effort. Lemons’ co-principal investigators are Tessa Andrews, assistant professor in the department of genetics; Peggy Brickman,

Core commitments for STEM education The DeLTA project at the University of Georgia seeks to transform STEM education on campus and at research universities nationwide through the use of active learning materials and other forms of evidence-based instruction. The project is guided by five core commitments: 1. Design educational experiences to achieve clear and measurable learning outcomes.

2. Base education decisions on evidence, including students’ conceptions, capabilities and attitudes.

3. Actively collaborate and communicate about undergraduate education.

4. Foster continuous teaching improvement.

5. Promote inclusion and diversity.

Meigs Professor in the department of plant biology; and Erin Dolan, Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. In addition to Lemons and her Franklin College of Arts and Sciences colleagues, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Sarah Covert also is a co-principal investigator. This core team of five will work with senior administrators as well as department heads and other faculty members in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics and statistics to bring the total number of collaborators to more than 100 over five years.

“If our goal is to change what happens in the classroom for students, then we can’t just focus on an individual classroom or instructor because each instructor is part of a department, part of a discipline and part of a broader university,” Andrews said. “We need to make sure the entire system is working together to support evidence-based instruction and reduce achievement gaps.”

Beginning in fall 2019, students who take courses in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics and statistics will begin to see an increased use of active learning methods in their classroom. The DeLTA project will continue through 2024, and its long-term goal is to inspire a culture change in the way that STEM courses are taught by faculty and supported by departments and the institution.

“The goal is not to do away with the lecture format,” Lemons emphasized, “but for instructors to be able to use evidence rather than tradition to choose the teaching method that best serves students.”

The DeLTA project comes on the heels of an Active Learning Initiative that is being implemented based upon recommendations of the Task Force on Student Learning and Success charged by Morehead. As a result of the initiative, 32 faculty members recently completed an Active Learning Summer Institute, a new teaching laboratory is in development to enable instructors to examine and test different technologies or classroom configurations that promote active learning, and select classrooms with fixed chairs are being transformed into active learning spaces.

UGAGUIDE

columns.uga.edu Nov. 26, 2018

For a complete listing of events, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu/­).

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

EXHIBITIONS

Nature Speaks: Artworks by Katherine Mitchell and Diane Kempler. Through Dec. 7. Jackson Street Building. mtufts@uga.edu.

Poppies: Women, War, Peace. Through Dec. 14. Special collections libraries.

706-542-7123. jclevela@uga.edu.

War of Words: Propaganda of World War I. Through Dec. 14. Special collections libraries. 706-542-7123. jclevela@uga.edu.

DISEASE ECOLOGY WORKSHOP “Phenology, Competency and the Disease-Diversity Relationship: A Case Study of West Nile Virus in New York,” John Vinson, doctoral student in the Odum School of Ecology. His dissertation is focused on theoretical and empirical investigations of the diseasediversity relationship in vector-borne disease systems. RSVP for lunch; seating capped at 30. 12:20 p.m. Conference room 104D, Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases. 706-542-1930. tross312@uga.edu.

WE: American Thanksgiving Conflict and Communion. Through Dec. 22. Special collections libraries. 706-542-5766. jsevern@uga.edu.

TOUR AT TWO Tour of highlights from the permanent collection led by docents. 2 p.m.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

One Heart, One Way: The Journey of a Princely Art Collection. Through Jan. 6.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MEETING 3:30 p.m. Theatre, Tate Student Center.

706-542-6020. univcouncil@uga.edu.

Richard Hunt: Synthesis. Through Feb. 3. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Fighting Spirit: Wally Butts and UGA Football, 1939-1950. Through May 10.

Rotunda, special collections libraries.

706-542-8079. jclevela@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.

TUESDAY, NOV. 27 ECOLOGY SEMINAR Speaker: Sarah Hobbie, professor, ecology, evolution and behavior department, University of Minnesota. Host: Ford Ballantyne. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby.

3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building.

706-542-2968. bethgav@uga.edu.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION LECTURE SERIES Rodney Bullard, vice president of community affairs for Chick-fil-A, Inc. and executive director of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, leads Chick-fil-A’s community engagement and philanthropic strategy. Bullard is an alumnus of the Air Force Academy, Duke Law, the University of Georgia and the Harvard Business School. 5 p.m. 271 special collections libraries. 706-542-7990. leadership@terry.uga.edu.

MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Kennesaw State. $15. 7 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28 POTTERY SALE Through Nov. 29. UGA ceramic students will be selling their handmade clay creations, including cups, bowls, plates, sculptures, boxes and more. Prices start at $8. Proceeds from the pottery sale will be used to support student educational field trips to ceramic conferences and to bring in visiting ceramic artists.

9:30 a.m. First-floor lobby, Lamar Dodd School of Art. 706-338-3652. tsaupe@ uga.edu. (See Bulletin Board, page 8.)

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Mercer. $5. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

THURSDAY, NOV. 29 SWIMMING & DIVING Through Dec. 1. Georgia Fall Invitational.

Gabrielsen Natatorium, Ramsey Student Center.

MICROBIOLOGY SEMINAR “Social Interactions Among Marine Bacteria,” Alecia Septer, marine sciences department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The William Jackson (Jack) Payne/MGSA Alumni Seminar is hosted by the Microbiology Graduate Student Association. 11 a.m.

404D Biological Sciences Building. khbrown@uga.edu.

DISCUSSION FORUM Join the Russell Forum for Civic Life, the civic engagement program of the Russell Library, for a deliberative community forum on immigration, “Coming to America: Who Should We Welcome, What Should We Do?”, following a brief tour of the WE exhibit with the artist.

With the help of trained neutral moderators, participants will weigh and discuss three options to tackle this complex issue. All ideas are welcome. Registration for the event is not required, but participants may request a copy of the forum discussion guide in advance by emailing russlib@uga.edu. 7 p.m.

277 special collections libraries.

706-542-5766.

FILM SCREENING Charlie Ahearn’s documentary Richard Hunt Sculptor features Kerry James Marshall as well as rare archival footage from a 1971 film made about Hunt for the Museum of Modern Art. Directed, produced and edited by Ahearn, music

by TJ Anderson, co-produced by Alitash Kebebe. 2010, NR, 44 min. Followed by a tour of the exhibition Richard Hunt: Synthesis with Shawnya Harris, the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. Sponsored by UGA Parents Leadership Council. 7 p.m.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.

FRIDAY, NOV. 30

5

THURSDAY SCHOLARSHIP SERIES CONCERT TO CELEBRATE HOLIDAY SEASON WITH CONCERTS

WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES “Breaking In and Having It All: Black Women and the Hollywood Jim Crow,” Maryann Erigha, African American studies and sociology. 12:20 p.m. 214 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-0066. tlhat@uga.edu.

GEORGIA INFORMATICS INSTITUTE LECTURE AND SYMPOSIUM The second Georgia Informatics Institutes Lecture, “Learning (for All of Us) in the Machine Learning Era,” will be given by Nirav Merchant, director of the University of Arizona Data Science Institute. The event is sponsored by the Institute of Bioinformatics and Georgia Informatics Institutes. 1 p.m. Masters Hall, Georgia Center.

SATURDAY, DEC. 1 FAMILY DAY: GEOMETRIC HOLIDAY Rebecca Rutstein’s works of art are inspired by her interest in geology, marine science and undercurrents. Explore her creations and make a holiday-inspired geometric ornament. This free, drop-in program includes gallery activities and an art project in the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom.

Enjoy refreshments and a special holiday performance by the Meridian Women’s Choir in the lobby. Sponsored

by Heyward Allen Motor Co., Inc., Heyward Allen Toyota and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. 10 a.m.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

SUNDAY, DEC. 2 STATE BOTANICAL GARDEN HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE The Visitor Center and Conservatory will be decorated for the season during the holiday open house. Santa will be available for photos with a professional photographer and to hear children’s wishes. Children will be able to create a holiday craft with the education staff.

The gift shop will be open. 2 p.m.

Visitor Center and Conservatory, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Charleston Southern. $5. 2 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum.

HOLIDAY CONCERT Join the Athens Flute Choir for its holiday concert. The concert is part of the holiday open house in the Visitor Center. 4 p.m. Day Chapel, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. conniecot@uga.edu.

HOLIDAY CONCERT The Solstice Sisters are three women harmonizing traditional folk and 1940s styled swing. Enjoy a warming beverage and a cookie in the decorated conservatory at night as The Solstice Sisters sing old-time holiday music. The gift shop will be open before the show for holiday shopping. The concert is an extension of the holiday open house. $5, general admission; free for members. 5 p.m.

Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s holiday concerts will held be Nov. 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Hall.

By Camille Hayes ceh822@uga.edu

Get into the holiday spirit with an evening of music that celebrates the season with a program of sacred and secular music.

The University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s annual holiday concert will take place Nov. 29 and Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. on the Hodgson Hall stage. Audiences will be able to enjoy the talents of hundreds of singers and instrumentalists from the choral and large ensembles of the School of Music.

“The sheer size and scope of the performing forces make this concert special. That the concert comes at the end of the semester as the holidays approach makes it particularly fun for such a collaboration for our students and faculty,” said Daniel Bara, the John D. Boyd UGA Foundation Professor of Choral Music and director of choral activities.

The Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs, University Chorus, Hodgson Singers, African American Choral Ensemble, the UGA Symphony Orchestra, British Brass Band and several vocal soloists will be performing.

The conductors will be Bara; music faculty members JD Burnett, Mark Cedel, Gregory Broughton and Philip Smith; and graduate conducting student Jean Gomez.

The repertoire for the performance includes the “Act II Pas de Deux” from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, movements from John Rutter’s Magnificat as well as a performance of “Bless Us All” from The Muppet Christmas Carol. Under the baton of Smith, bandmaster and the William F. and Pamela P. Prokasy Professor in the Arts, the British Brass Band will perform an audience sing-a-long of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

The evening will close with a combined choral and orchestral arrangement by Gary Fry that features singing in Swahili and Spanish, as well as an arrangement of the perennial holiday favorite, “O Holy Night.”

As part of the Thursday Scholarship Series, the proceeds from this concert go toward scholarships to young musicians.

Tickets, which are $25 for adults and $6 for students and children, can be purchased online at pac.uga.edu or by calling the Performing Arts Center box office at 706-542-4400. For those unable to attend the concert, live streaming will be available online at music.uga.edu/live-streaming.

MONDAY, DEC. 3 HANUKKAH Through Dec. 10. Jewish religious observance.

MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Texas Southern. $15. 7 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum.

COMING UP CLASSES END Dec. 4. For fall semester.

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.

ECOLOGY SEMINAR Dec. 4. “Nature Rewiring Under Changing Conditions,” Kevin McCann, professor, integrative biology department, University of Guelph. Host: Craig Osenberg’s lab group. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building. 706-542-2968. bethgav@uga.edu.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Dec. 4. vs. Furman. $5. 7 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum.

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Dec. 5 (for Jan. 7 issue) Jan. 2 (for Jan. 14 issue) Jan. 9 (for Jan. 22 issue)

6 Nov. 26, 2018 columns.uga.edu

FACULTY PROFILE

Bee more aware

Jennifer Berry, a research professional at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was quoted by Fox News about the decline of honey bees.

Through a partnership with Bee Downtown, ­a startup that introduces beehives to companies in cities, Delta is the first U.S. airline to integrate honey bees into its world headquarters. Companies like Delta are introducing honey bees in creative ways to ramp up the insect’s numbers, which have been starkly low the past decade, and maintain the bee’s billion-dollar impact on America’s agricultural economy. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in added crop value. On average, U.S. beekeepers lost an estimated 40 percent of their managed honey bee colonies last year, according to Bee Informed, a nationwide collaboration of research efforts to better understand the decline of honey bees.

These numbers are alarming, considering the impact bees have on society, said Berry, who has been the apicultural research professional and lab manager for the University of Georgia Honey Bee Program for the past 18 years. Honey bee populations have been declining “truthfully, since 1945, after WWII.” Berry said honey bees are still in trouble. “There’s more awareness, but there’s also more issues, more problems.”

Return to the fold

Monica Sklar, an assistant professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, was quoted in The Guardian about the fashion trend of folding clothes to create a new look.

At Jacquemus, dresses folded at the waist became skirts.

At Calvin Klein’s spring 2019 show, a tie-dye neoprene top folded over to become a miniskirt. Zara has a gray cashmere skirt with an elastic band designed for folding, while Finery has a selection of jumpers with too-long sleeves, meant to be folded back.

According to Sklar, there are three reasons why folding has made a comeback: individuality, sexualityslash-gender and a backlash against fast fashion.

“It might seem tangential, the idea of personalizing things by folding them,” said Sklar, who studies 20th- and 21st-century design history, theory and criticism and social-cultural aspects of dress in conjunction with merchandising, retailing and consumers. “But in this age of Instagram, you need a tweak that distinguishes you from everyone else. It’s about not subscribing to one notion of sexiness. And it’s not obvious. It’s about playing with what you reveal, and owning what you reveal. Folding turns a garment into something else entirely. It’s art for art’s sake but it’s also upcycling.”

China pattern

Clifton Pannell, emeritus professor of geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in CounterPunch about China’s interest in Africa.

Historically, the African continent has been plundered by foreign powers, mainly but not exclusively European, who have extracted valuable resources, corrupting African elites and destroying feeble attempts at democracy throughout the continent.

China’s approach is different from other traditional colonial powers. Its main interests in Africa are searching and exploiting oil and mineral resources and creating new markets for Chinese goods. Building and repairing infrastructure also provides jobs for Chinese technicians and laborers. China has shown relatively minimal interference in African countries’ domestic affairs but provides generous aid and loan packages.

“Its oft-stated policy in dealing with African states is to stress the notion of mutual benefits, and it has long promoted itself as a partner in solidarity with African states in opposition to colonialism and economic dependency,” said Pannell.

Andrew Davis Tucker

Although James Beasley is based at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina, he travels to foreign countries where he supervises teams of graduate students as they conduct field research.

Associate professor teaches students how to study behavior of wildlife

By Vicky L. Sutton-Jackson vsuttonj@srel.uga.edu

In teaching the concepts of wildlife ecology, James Beasley covers a lot of ground both literally and figuratively.

Based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 310-square-mile Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina, Beasley gives advanced hands-on instruction to students investigating the conditions of wildlife and their behavior.

“I spend a lot of time in the field mentoring students,” said Beasley, who also is a faculty member in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “Handling large mammals requires a great deal of oversight and training in trapping techniques, administering anesthetics and handling animals after capture.”

Currently, he teaches an online class in basic wildlife ecology for nonmajors and a Maymester class that exposes students to lab and field work on the SRS. He balances teaching at the SRS with travel to foreign landscapes where he investigates the effects of radiation fallout on wildlife.

Beasley supervises individual teams of graduate students who conduct research in the field in Fukushima, Japan, and in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

The research in Chernobyl is conducted in an 834-square-mile ecological reserve in Belarus. Students study population dynamics, movements and health of large mammals, including gray wolves. As part of this research, Beasley helped develop a tool that combines an electronic dosimeter with a GPS tracking collar. It can capture an animal’s movement and exposure to

radiation in close to real time.

Despite the presence of radioactive chemicals on the landscape, Beasley’s team determined that abundant populations of wildlife exist in the CEZ. He cautioned that the results of the study do not necessarily indicate that these wildlife are healthy.

“It opens our eyes to the effect of humans on large mammals—deer, moose and wolves,” said Beasley. “It is an extreme example, but it brings to light that human presence on a landscape disrupts the natural environment.”

Beasley began the studies in Japan after he was asked to serve as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s wildlife adviser to the Fukushima Prefecture government in 2014.

“In Fukushima, we work throughout the human exclusion zone as well as a large, surrounding control area inhabited by people,” Beasley said.

Although his research studying radioactive elements in the environment has garnered much attention, Beasley is quick to point out that other areas of his research are equally important.

“Within my lab, we also conduct research on the management of carnivores, invasive species and their impacts on natural ecosystems,” said Beasley.

“A lot of this research has focused on the management of invasive wild pigs.”

His expertise in this area is evident.

He heads a national subcommittee that developed recommendations for managing the invasive wild pig population.

During his time at UGA, Beasley has quickly risen from an assistant research scientist to a tenured position.

This achievement came on the heels of him being named the 2018 Fred C.

Davison Early Career Scholar. The award is given to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding accomplishment and in short, demonstrates the potential for achieving future success.

Beasley said he enjoys what he’s doing and where he’s doing it.

“I knew that I wanted to work outside in either forestry, fisheries or wildlife because I grew up in the country hiking, fishing and hunting,” Beasley said. “I’ve always been drawn to the outdoors.”

Prior to coming to UGA, Beasley was a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University. When asked if he prefers research or teaching, Beasley said he enjoys both.

“That’s why I am at a school like Georgia,” Beasley said. “In fact, most of my research is done with graduate students, so mentoring, which I view as teaching, is a big part of that research. I suppose you can say that I am ­ p assionate about experiential learning.”

than 100 articles, as well as numerous books, the best known of which is Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law. He coined the term, “legal transplants,” which is Alan Watson now ubiquitous in legal literature. In 2005, the University of Belgrade established the Alan Watson Foundation, which is dedicated to developing international cooperation in comparative law and legal history.

Born in Hamilton, Scotland, ­Watson earned seven degrees in total

from the Universities of Glasgow, ­Edinburgh and Oxford, at all of which he later taught. He received six honorary degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belgrade, Palermo, Pretoria and Stockholm.

He is survived by his wife, Camilla Emanuel Watson, a professor at the UGA School of Law; children, Sarah Alexandra Campbell of Dacula, Eleanor Ann McCulloch of Sydney, Australia, and David Jardine Watson of London, England; and grandchildren, Wyatt Alexander Jardine Campbell, Emma Frances Jardine McCulloch and Rosie Piper Jardine McCulloch.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

FACTS

James Beasley Associate Professor Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources Ph.D., Wildlife Ecology, Purdue University, 2010 M.S., WIldlife Ecology, Purdue University, 2005 B.S., Wildlife Management, The State University of New York, 2002 A.A.S., Pre-professional Forestry, Paul Smith’s College, 2000 At UGA: Six years

OBITUARY

Alan Watson

William Alexander Jardine Watson, 85, a world-renowned expert on Roman law, comparative law, legal history and law and religion, died Nov. 7.

For more than two decades, he held the Ernest P. Rogers Chair at the UGA School of Law as well as a University Distinguished Research Professorship. Prior to that, he was the Nicolas F. Gallicchio Chair at the University of Pennsylvania Law School as well as a University Professor. He was also an honorary visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh, where he held the Chair of Civil Law from 1968 until 1980.

A prolific scholar, he authored more

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

columns.uga.edu Nov. 26, 2018

Slow food and big ag

7

Agricultural policy expert calls for America to embrace multiagricultural future

By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu

Whether it’s an argument for slow food or technologically advanced agriculture, most people oversimplify the narratives surrounding the modern food system.

Those who support exclusively organic and localized farming practices often won’t admit that technology might have a role to play in feeding the world’s growing population. Those who advocate for large-scale agriculture often won’t admit that farming practices could evolve to better protect the environment and animal welfare.

The truth is somewhere in between, argued author and agriculture policy expert Robert Paarlberg during the 2018 D.W. Brooks Lecture hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

He called for Americans to embrace a multiagricultural mindset.

“I have a vision for America’s farming future that I think that both foodies and ‘aggies’ can support,” Paarlberg said.

“It’s not an either-or vision, but it’s not a homogenized compromise either … It’s a vision for multiagriculturalism. And I think it’s one that both foodies and aggies should be able to embrace.”

Paarlberg is an adjunct professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, a visiting professor at Harvard College and an associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. From 1976 until 2015, he was a professor of political science at Wellesley College. In his three books Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism and Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa, Paarlberg has tackled the long-term impacts of agricultural policy.

His interest in the cultural schism that surrounds food started after discussing agriculture with students far removed from farm life. They had an interest in agriculture but held overly idealized visions of what farming is.

In his call for multiagriculturalism, Paarlberg is asking for advocates of both slow food and industrial agriculture to recognize the need for and value of many types of farms.

The public should recognize that large

Matt Hardy Photography

Pictured from left are 2018 Brooks Award recipients Yen-Con Hung and Kari Turner; Robert Paarlberg, who gave this year’s D.W. Brooks Lecture; CAES Dean and Director Sam Pardue; and 2018 Brooks Award recipients Dan Suiter, Lisa Jordan and Jack Huang.

farms have made great strides in ecological stewardship and still produce the vast majority of food. They also should understand that there is still room for large-scale agriculture operations to improve.

He added that the traditional farming community should recognize that organic and locally-focused farms are vital to sustaining rural communities by supporting small businesses and adding needed populations to the landscape.

While their supporters may seem at odds with one another ideologically, large-scale, industrialized farms and small farms actually need each other to survive. Rural communities and America’s food system will both be more robust if U.S. agricultural policy was designed to support both.

“While 87 percent of our food comes from this system (of large-scale agriculture), 85 percent of our farms don’t fall into part of that category,” he said. “Industrial farms may be commercially dominant, but they’re not demographically or culturally dominant.

The vast majority of our farms, and hence

WEEKLY READER

Book details region’s role as nature’s ‘lab’

Beyond the Mountains: Commodifying Appalachian Environments

By Drew A. Swanson University of Georgia Press Hardcover: $99.95

Published by the University of Georgia Press, Beyond the Mountains explores the ways in which Appalachia often served as a laboratory for the exploration and practice of American conceptions of nature.

The region operated alternately as frontier, wilderness, rural hinterland, region of subsistence agriculture, bastion of yeoman farmers and place to experiment with modernization. In these various takes on the southern mountains, scattered across time and space, both mountain residents and outsiders consistently believed that the region’s environment made Appalachia distinctive, for better or worse.

With chapters dedicated to microhistories focused on particular commodities, Beyond the Mountains builds upon recent Appalachian studies of scholarship, ­emphasizing the diversity of a region so long considered a homogenous backwater.

While Appalachia has a recognizable and real coherence rooted in folkways, agriculture and politics (among other things), it is also a region of varied environments, people and histories.

the vast majority of our farmers, are smaller commercial operations, part-time farms, retirement farms, hobby farms …”

Both types of operations will be needed to feed the world’s growing population and keep rural communities viable, he said.

In addition to Paarlberg’s talk, CAES students, faculty and staff gathered to recognize the winners of the 2018 D.W. Brooks Awards of Excellence. This year’s winners included: • Qingguo “Jack” Huang, professor in the crop and soil sciences department, whose research into the remediation of organic compounds in polluted soil and water has gained international attention and earned him the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Research.

• Kari Turner, associate professor in the animal and dairy science department, whose focus on inspiring undergraduates has helped to earn the department its excellent reputation for student-centered instruction and earned her the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Teaching.

• Yen-Con Hung, professor in the food

science and technology department, whose commitment to international outreach and collaboration has helped to build safer food systems around the world and earned him the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Global Programs.

• Dan Suiter, Extension entomologist in the entomology department, whose training programs for structural and urban pest management professionals have been used across the Southeast and around the world to earn him the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Extension.

• Lisa Jordan, Family and Consumer Sciences program development coordinator for UGA Cooperative Extension’s Southeast District, whose dedication as PDC and nearly 20 years of work to expand the reach and reputation of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in Chatham County has earned her the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Public Service Extension.

For more information about this year’s lecture and awards, visit dwbrooks.caes.uga. edu.

CYBERSIGHTS

ABOUT COLUMNS 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

Flavor of Georgia contest now underway

flavorofgeorgia.caes.uga.edu/

From pimiento cheese to ­prosciutto, Georgians take their food seriously. And they make some seriously good food.

Each year UGA’s Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest highlights the state’s burgeoning Georgia-made food industry and helps separate the great products from the good ones.

Registration for the 2019 contest, which is coordinated each year by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, is now open. Rules and regulations as well as judging details, contest categories and testimonials from past winners are on the Flavor of Georgia website.

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 Nov. 26, 2018 columns.uga.edu PORTRAIT

MEMORIAL

from page 1

from page 1

McBee came to UGA in the early 1960s and served for four years as the dean of women, a position that was later broadened and renamed the associate dean of student affairs. It was not common for women to be in senior leadership positions during that era, but McBee thrived and was widely admired.

She went on to hold several other positions at UGA, including dean of student affairs, a job that placed her in an elite group of female administrators in higher education.

At the time, she was one of four women in the U.S. holding top jobs in student personnel in schools with more than 10,000 students.

In 1987, McBee was appointed interim vice president for academic affairs, becoming the university’s second-highest ranking official. She served in the position for a year before retiring in 1988.

McBee was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1991 and served for 14 years, using her experiences at UGA to help set state policy in higher education.

Among her many accomplishments in office, McBee was key to establishing the successful Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program. She also devoted herself to a bill that allowed teachers to count their unused sick leave as service creditable toward retirement.

Born in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, McBee attended East Tennessee State University, Columbia University and Ohio State University, where she earned her Ph.D. She taught high school and college—receiving

a Fulbright to teach in Holland—before moving into administration.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Louise McBee Lectureship in Higher Education, which was created in her honor and is one of the few annual lecture series in the U.S. that focuses solely on higher education. Founded by the UGA Institute of Higher Education in 1989, the series has brought numerous persons of great distinction to IHE and the University of Georgia to comment upon current directions and themes in higher education.

STEM from page 1

will be a major contributor to the success of our collaborative research.”

Expected to be completed by the summer of 2021, the facility will expand laboratories for chemistry, engineering and other material sciences; offer undergraduate research opportunities; and expose graduate students to projects with real-world relevance.

“The addition of this new STEM building will centralize the world-class research labs that are currently spread around campus, allowing for easier collaboration and interdisciplinary work,” said Jacob Davis, a graduate student studying engineering. “I am looking forward to seeing how this new building will change research at UGA and the impact it will have on the world.”

Bulletin Board Data loss prevention policies

Effective Dec. 1, stricter policies will be put in place in Office 365 to help prevent the sharing and storing of sensitive and restricted data via UGAMail and OneDrive for Business.

Data Loss Prevention polices already exist to prevent UGA students and employees from sharing Social Security numbers over email. Additional DLP policies will include controls for other restricted data types, such HIPAA ePHI data, credit card data and bank account information. There will also be a control that prevents the sharing of sensitive student records.

Beginning Dec. 1, if you try to email messages or share files with any of these data types, you may be prevented from doing so. You will see a notification in your email client or web browser.

Examples of these notification include the following: • A notice in your web browser or email client, reading: Policy Tip: Your email message conflicts with a policy in your organization. To send this message without removing the information, you must first select Override.

View details about the information that appears sensitive.

• You may also receive an email notification, reading: Your email message could not be sent, due to a violation of UGA’s Data Loss Prevention Policy (DLP). Sharing sensitive or restricted data, such as Social Security numbers, HIPAA ePHI data, credit card data and bank account information via email or OneDrive for Business is prohibited at the University of Georgia.

If you are not transmitting sensitive or restricted data and received this message in error, contact our Help Desk at 706-542-3106.

If you believe you have not violated the DLP policy, you will be able to self-service report errors and override the DLP policy with a written justification. You can also contact the EITS Help Desk at helpdesk@uga.edu or 706-542-3106.

If you need to share sensitive or restricted information, you can use SendFiles, an encrypted file service

that allows you to securely share sensitive documents and large files online.

For more information about this change, contact Chris Workman at cworkman@uga.edu.

eLC migration

Beginning Dec. 27 at 12:01 a.m., eLC will be migrating to a new platform.

This migration will occur after the conclusion of the fall semester and 10 days after grades are due. The migration will begin Dec. 27 and end Dec. 28 at 11:59 p.m. During this time, eLC will be unavailable.

During the downtime, UGA’s instance of eLC will migrate to the latest version of Brightspace by D2L, the system behind eLC. This update will provide tool fixes and enhancements but no major changes to the system. This migration will not affect any content in eLC. As a result of this migration, users will experience continuous delivery, without downtime for regular maintenance.

For more information, contact George Matthews at gmatthew@uga.edu.

Holiday pottery sale

The UGA Ceramic Student Organization will hold its annual holiday pottery sale Nov. 28-29 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the first-floor lobby of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, 270 River Road.

Work on sale will include handbuilt sculpture for home and garden as well as functional pottery: mugs, plates, vases, lidded boxes and bowls.

All work was made by ceramic students or faculty. Prices start at $8.

Proceeds from the pottery sale will be used to support student educational field trips to ceramic conferences and to bring in visiting ceramic artists.

Hourly parking is available at the Performing Arts Parking Deck, which is next to the Performing Arts Center on River Road. For more details, contact Ted Saupe at tsaupe@uga.edu.

Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Attendees gather to view the Baldwin Hall Memorial after a dedication ceremony Nov. 16.

Dorothy Kozlowski

The design was recommended by members of the Baldwin Hall Memorial Advisory Task Force.

• a circular form for the memorial plaza, creating a focal point that will serve as a place of contemplation to honor and respect these individuals; • an elevated fountain in the center of the memorial plaza; • a granite marker, purposefully designed with elements similar to a marker at Oconee Hill Cemetery, which will include text about the memorial; • two granite benches facing the granite marker; and • vertical elements that will create a sense of ascension and will provide visibility from the street.

The design was recommended by members of the Baldwin Hall Memorial Advisory Task Force, a group of 18 representatives from the university and the local community appointed by Morehead and chaired by Cook.

“Our goal was to honor, with dignity and respect, the men, women and children who were once buried here,” Cook said. “This

DEGREES

memorial is a place of remembrance and reflection. Each element was chosen to evoke a sense of place and permanence. It will be here for generations to come.”

The memorial includes more than 35,000 pounds of granite donated by an Oglethorpe County quarry on land that has been owned by a Georgia African American family for more than a century. Cook is a member of the family that owns the property.

The remains of the individuals were first discovered during construction of an addition to Baldwin Hall in November 2015. They were reinterred at Oconee Hill Cemetery in March 2017, in accordance with guidance from the State Archaeologist’s Office.

The university also held a memorial service at Oconee Hill Cemetery to commemorate their lives, and a granite marker was placed at the gravesite. Acknowledgment in the form of a plaque also was placed inside the new entrance of the Baldwin Hall addition.

from page 1

Dawg Camp and the First-Year Odyssey Seminar program lay a strong foundation in the first year of a student’s college experience.

Academic advising, which has been bolstered with increased face-to-face support and new digital tools, helps students navigate their coursework and choice of majors.

UGA is the nation’s largest public university to ensure that each of its undergraduate students engages in hands-on learning such as internships, research, study abroad and service-learning. A small class size initiative and a recently completed Investing in the Student Experience hiring initiative have lowered the student-to-faculty ratio and enabled more personalized academic support.

This fall the university launched two new Living Learning Communities—one focused on entrepreneurship and another focused on research—that connect students with exclusive learning opportunities, facilities and faculty mentors. In addition, a program known as Double Dawgs gives students more than 150 opportunities to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in five years or less. (See story, page 2.)

Recommendations from the university’s Task Force on Student Learning and Success, charged by Morehead, have resulted in an active learning initiative that is promoting higher levels of student engagement and success by transforming traditional

classrooms into environments that foster critical thinking, discussion and teamwork.

A new program known as ALL Georgia, which also stems from the work of the task force, supports students from rural parts of Georgia with a network of resources and common experiences. It also provides financial aid for six outstanding students from the state’s rural areas per year for a total of 24 students.

Tailored academic and support programs such as these have helped the university jump three spots to No. 13 in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report ranking of best public national universities—the highest U.S. News ranking in UGA’s history—and also earned the university a No. 12 national ranking in Kiplinger’s list of best values in public colleges. The university’s career outcomes rate is at a record level as well, with 96 percent of students either employed or enrolled in graduate school within six months of graduation.

“Each and every student at the University of Georgia has a support network of faculty, staff and peers who are deeply invested in their success,” said Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Libby V. Morris. “Our record completion rates are a cause for celebration—for our students and for the entire university community.”