UGA Columns Nov. 6, 2017

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November 6, 2017

Vol. 45, No. 15

www.columns.uga.edu

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UGA helps coastal community resolve water-related issues By Emily Woodward ewoodward@uga.edu

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories about UGA and economic development in rural Georgia.

As part of Moina Belle Michael’s effort to make the red poppy a sign of remembrance, she planted the flowers on what is now UGA’s Health Sciences Campus.

The Poppy Lady Moina Belle Michael starts a movement by selling poppies to support soldiers

By Sara Freeland freeland@uga.edu

It began with a simple idea from a University of Georgia professor— sell poppy flowers to raise money on behalf of soldiers killed and injured in World War I. Now, nearly 100 years and billions of dollars later, the poppy has become the international symbol of remembrance and support for all military veterans, thanks to the tireless efforts of Moina Belle Michael, affectionately known today as “The Poppy Lady.” “During her lifetime, if you adjust for inflation, poppy sales raised $3 billion worldwide, most of which went directly to veterans,” said Tom Michael, a great nephew of Moina Michael, who died in 1944. “She championed the poppy as a

permanent symbol and reminder of our collective obligation to support our veterans and their families. And through all the poppy sales around the world, her legacy of helping veterans lives on.” Moina Michael, an education professor from the small Georgia town of Good Hope, was in Germany on the final leg of a European vacation when World War I unexpectedly broke out in 1914—forcing her to flee to Italy to find a ship that would carry her home. After a harrowing 16-day trip through mine-infested waters and an ocean patrolled by enemy submarines, she returned to the relative quiet of her Athens, Georgia, home—but did not find peace. The nation was fixated on the war, and Michael did everything she could to bring comfort to soldiers awaiting

james.lichtenwal25@uga.edu

Dave Allen is having a completely different UGA undergraduate experience than the majority of his classmates. For starters, he is 29 years old and married. When his classes end, Allen does not head back to his residence hall or hang out at the Tate Student Center. Instead he works as an undergraduate research assistant or goes home to his wife, Ashley. More significantly, Allen is one of the 122 student veterans currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at UGA. After attending the university from 2006 to 2009, Allen left school and joined the U.S. Navy, before returning to Athens last summer. “I got in the military with the goal of picking up some discipline and leadership before coming back to get my degree,” he said.

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Graduation, retention rates at UGA reach all-time high sfahmy@uga.edu

See POPPY on page 8

‘Point of contact’: Student Veterans Resource Center gives student vets structure for success By Jim Lichtenwalter

For the coastal city of St. Marys, changing sea levels and severe storms are local issues. With assistance from the U niversity of Georgia, local ­ leaders, property owners and s choolchildren are working ­ together to protect their historic and picturesque community of about 17,500 people. Among the tasks: meeting federal guidelines for floodplain­ See WATER on page 8

By Sam Fahmy

deployment. She made sure soldiers were adopted by local families. She also set up a campaign for the families to write the soldiers while they were overseas. “How busy everyone was kept back in those early days responding to and arousing others to respond to the superhuman struggles to win the war,” Michael wrote in her autobiography. “I anguished for some power by which our boys might be saved from gas, bombs [and] shrapnel.” During the war, Michael

Statistically speaking, military veterans who come to public universities like UGA are a fairly at-risk group, according to Ted Barco, director of UGA’s Student Veterans Resource Center within the Division of Student Affairs. “If you look at the data nationally, about half the student veterans at public institutions graduate over a six-year period,” said Barco, who is an Air Force veteran. This happens for a variety of reasons. Nationally 43 percent of a university’s student veterans are married or have dependents. Veterans also are often older than the average undergraduate—about 60 percent of UGA’s student veterans are between the ages of 22 and 30 (the other 40 percent are between 31 and 62)—so they often want to complete their education as quickly as possible. This creates a problem when it comes

See VETERANS on page 8

­ evelopment, raising awareness of d behaviors that can contaminate the city’s drinking water and developing an emergency communications plan for severe weather events. “We needed a better process for getting the information out about flood risks,” said Scott Brazell, Camden County floodplain manager. In 2015, St. Marys and Camden County developed Georgia’s first joint Program of Public Information, an outreach tool designed to educate local residents about flood risk and encourage them to take actions to make the community more resilient.

Measures of student success at UGA are at all-time highs, and ongoing enhancements to the learning environment aim to lift retention and graduation rates to even higher levels in the coming years. The retention rate—an indicator of student success and satisfaction that quantifies the percentage of incoming students who return for their sophomore year—now stands at 96 percent, a record that exceeds the 95 percent average retention rate for UGA’s highly

selective aspirational institutions. UGA’s 96 percent freshman ­retention rate also exceeds the 90 percent average for UGA’s peer institutions and the 88 percent Southeastern Conference average. “There is no commitment more important at the University of Georgia than our commitment to student learning and success,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “I want to congratulate our outstanding faculty, staff and students. These impressive metrics ultimately reflect their hard work and dedication to academic excellence.” See RETENTION on page 3

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Cook named vice provost for diversity, inclusion, initiatives By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

Veteran campus administrator Michelle Garfield Cook will be taking on an expanded leadership role as the institution’s vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives. As one of two vice provosts, she will plan and implement programs that span units across campus while continuing to lead the Office of Institutional Diversity, where she has served as associate provost since 2011. Her new appointment is effective Nov. 15. “Dr. Cook’s record of success in leading campus-wide programs and garnering external funding to advance institutional priorities has been exemplary,” said Provost

Pamela Whitten. “She translates vision into action for the benefit of our students, faculty and university as a whole.” In her role Michelle as associate Garfield Cook provost, she has played a vital role in elevating the recruitment, retention and success of underrepresented minority students on campus. Since 2005, she been the co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundationfunded Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for M ­ inority Participation

See COOK on page 8


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