8 March 21, 2016 columns.uga.edu
FUNDING
A BIG IMPACT—This year as
part of IMPACT Service Breaks, 370 students went to 20 locations in the U.S. to work on service projects dealing with topics from urban environmental awareness to Native American cultural awareness and advocacy. Above: A group of students worked to build a house with Habitat for Humanity in Asheboro, North Carolina. Above right: UGA students helped frame a house in Immokalee, Florida. Right: Students volunteered at the Wade Center after-school program in Bluefield, West Virginia.
INITIATIVE from page 1 based on enrollment trends, with an eye toward high-demand courses and challenging courses where students would benefit from more personalized attention. New course sections range from “Basics of Chemistry,” a core requirement in the physical sciences, to “Computational Engineering Methods,” which counts toward the graduation requirements of six majors. “Increasing the number of small class sections in critical instruction areas will improve student learning and success as well as help keep students on track for graduation,” said Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction.
The full impact of the small class size initiative won’t be felt until fall 2016, but the nine students in a campaign politics class taught by Josh Putnam in the School of Public and International Affairs have already given it a unanimous vote of approval. “In smaller classes you get to know the professor better and more quickly,” said Caroline Kaltz, a junior Honors student pursuing a degree in mass media arts from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “You also get to know your classmates better, which creates a more comfortable atmosphere for speaking up in discussions.”
Bulletin Board Records retention schedule
The University System of Georgia has revised its Records Retention Schedule. The schedule determines how long official records at USG institutions, which includes UGA, are to be retained and what kinds of records should be held permanently. The retention schedule has legal and organizational implications for all UGA faculty and staff and is particularly important to those who directly oversee records for their department or unit. View the revised schedule at http:// www.usg.edu/records_management/ schedules. Departments may also contact Venus Jackson, records manager, at vjackson@ uga.edu, or Steve Armour, university archives and electronic records archivist, at sarmour@uga.edu.
CTEGD symposium
Registration is open until April 27 for the 26th annual Molecular Parasitology/ Vector Biology Symposium, which will be held May 3 at the Georgia Center. This daylong regional conference, hosted by UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, on parasites and host/parasite interaction routinely draws more than 120 attendees from many departments in at least four colleges or schools at UGA as well as colleagues from other institutions. John Boothroyd from the Stanford University School of Medicine will be the keynote speaker. His research focuses on
the pathogenesis of parasitic infections, most notably Toxoplasma gondii. There is no cost to attend the symposium, or the full catered lunch, but registration is required. For more information and to register, visit http://t.uga.edu/27N .
Research participants needed
The Department of Health Promotion in the College of Public Health is conducting a study to learn more about how intermittent physical activity helps control blood sugar. Researchers are seeking men and women ages 40-64 who are overweight or obese and able to perform exercise for two to four minutes at a time. Participants will wear a glucose monitor for three days and will be provided meals during this time. They also will climb stairs on a stair climber machine for two to four minutes at a time, several times per day on two days. Participants will be given information about their body composition and health and also receive a financial incentive valued up to $270 for completion. For more information, contact Jennifer Gay at UGAWHG@gmail.com or jlgay@uga.edu , or by phone at 706-542-6698.
Senior Signature deadline
Students who graduate in May or December have until March 31 to make their Senior Signature donations to secure their names on the Class of 2016 Senior Signature plaque in Tate Plaza. UGA faculty and staff are
from page 1 Kelly Dawe, a Distinguished Research Professor of Plant Biology and Genetics, received $4.6 million to lead a team that hopes to better understand the critical role of centromeres, which are the structural regions of plant genomes that ensure chromosomes segregate properly during cell division. A research team led by Scott Jackson, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of crop and soil sciences in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received $742,000 to understand the genetic basis of adaptation in common beans and runner beans. James Leebens-Mack, a professor of plant biology, is leading a team that will create the first complete genome sequence for dogwoods.They received a $1.4 million grant that ultimately will help plant breeders use genetic
markers to guide cultivation of new dogwood varieties that are both beautiful and strong. A team led by Wayne Parrott, a professor of crop and soil sciences, received $3.4 million to create molecular tools that will make it easier for geneticists and plant breeders to identify and study the function of genes associated with desirable traits in soybeans. Esther van der Knaap, a professor of horticulture who recently joined UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is using a $4.9 million grant to continue research she began at Ohio State University on tomato fruit quality. Her laboratory will analyze genome sequence data for a mixture of wild, semi-domesticated and cultivated tomatoes to identify the genes that control important fruit traits such as flavor, size, color and firmness.
IDENTITY from page 1
LECTURE
In a review of 60 universities, including UGA’s peer and aspirational institutions, all have a unified visual identity system in place. To inform and guide development, the division is seeking input from the university community concerning the preferences for logo elements and the functional needs of a system for its use. Structured public listening sessions continue to be held in March, and the remaining sessions are listed on the Master Calendar. (See Bulletin Board, below). Targeted sessions with staff, students and alumni will take place in April, in addition to focus groups with faculty moderated by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Input is welcome from all stakeholders in the UGA community. Questions, comments and recommendations can be directed via email to visualidentity@uga.edu. The Division of Marketing & Communications is working closely with the Division of Development and Alumni Relations on this process as UGA prepares to launch the public phase of a comprehensive capital campaign. Based on the input from the university community, the division will determine key strategies to develop creative concepts for an enhanced visual identity system for the university. Those concepts will then be tested with key stakeholder groups to evaluate their effectiveness before a decision is made about the refreshed logo.
Cole additionally is professor emerita of Emory University, from which she retired as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women’s Studies and AfricanAmerican Studies. Cole is a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was appointed director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in March 2009 and currently serves on the Scholarly Advisory Board for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is also the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and she is on the board of Gregory University in Uturu, Nigeria. Cole has been awarded 63 honorary degrees and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the TransAfrica Forum Global Public Service Award, the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Community Service from United Way of America, the Joseph Prize for Human Rights presented by the Anti-Defamation League and the AlstonJones International Civil and Human Rights Award. The Mary Frances Early Lecture honors the legacy of the first African-American to earn a degree from UGA. Early graduated with a master’s degree in music education in 1962 and completed her specialist in education degree in 1967. The lecture series recognizes Early’s dedication toward making UGA an institution of higher learning for all people. It also strives to demonstrate the progress that has been made in achieving her vision as well as to identify the work that remains to be done.
encouraged to remind students about this important deadline as it will be the last time graduating students have the opportunity to be included on the plaque. Senior Signature is the university’s class gift program through which students make a $50 gift to UGA, $20 of which is an unrestricted gift to the Georgia Fund, UGA’s annual giving fund. The other $30 may be designated to a school, college or other unit on campus about which the student is passionate. To make a gift or learn more about this important fundraising opportunity, visit alumni.uga.edu/seniorsignature . Questions? Email alumni@uga.edu .
‘Listening’ sessions
UGA is exploring an update of its visual brand identity and logo system and invites members of the UGA community to participate in a series of open, public input meetings in March. (See story, page 1). The meetings will be structured “listening” sessions led by the Division of Marketing & Communications that will explore the preferences and needs of faculty, staff, students and alumni and discuss opportunities to establish a university-wide system for logos and to make it more relevant for digital media use. To sign up to attend, go to http:// goo.gl/forms/ko7ph97ySb . Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.
from page 1
PROFESSOR from page 1 development of methods for investigating the biological properties of metals that are essential to life processes in plants and animals. Many of his discoveries have “set up their own subfields of research worldwide,” said Brian Hoffman, the Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, in his nomination letter. Johnson’s work has garnered $12.3 million in external funding, including a $3.3 million NIH MERIT award, which provides longterm grant support to investigators “whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior.” He has published more than 235 peer-reviewed journal articles with an average of 48 citations per article. He has presented his work at more than 100 regional, national or international conferences. In addition, he has chaired numerous national and international meetings and created a series of Summer Inorganic Biochemistry Summer Workshops that trained graduate and postdoctoral students from across the U.S. at UGA. Johnson received a UGA Creative Research Medal in 1995, was named Distinguished Research Professor in 1998 and was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1986 through 1988. Department head John Amster and five other colleagues in UGA’s chemistry department wrote in their nomination letter, “His performance during his 28 years at the University of Georgia has been remarkable by any criterion, and all indications suggest that this research excellence will continue and even accelerate in the future.”