Mars, Planet of Mystery, a multimedia lecture, will be presented Friday,
November 6th, 2009, 7-8:30pm in the Math-Physics (Crider) Lecture Hall, at
the University of West Georgia.
It is free and open to the public and
suitable for ages 10 years and up.
It will be presented by Dr. Ben de
Mayo, Prof. Emeritus of Physics and sponsored by the Departments of
Physics and Continuing Education and by the Georgia Space Grant
Consortium-NASA.
Phone 678-839-4087 or 678-839-4097 for more information.
The H1N1 vaccine will be offered FREE to students, faculty, staff,
retirees, and family members of students, staff, and faculty tomorrow,
Friday, Oct. 30 from 8:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the BACK DOOR of
Health Services.
Please bring your UWG or other photo ID.
This vaccination is highly recommended, especially for young adults, for
those who have chronic medical problems, including diabetes, asthma,
other respiratory conditions, and other illnesses that challenge the
immune system; those who are pregnant, or those who care for small
children.
For further information please see http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
and UWG's web site: http://www.westga.edu/flu
Goals:
1) Engage in dialogue with someone new. (interactions with people
outside your normal social circle)
2) Make people more comfortable in interacting with others.
The "Mix It Up" challenge provides an opportunity for the UWG
community to reach across the lines of style and appearance, the
divisions of race, socioeconomic status, gender, generations/cohort
groups, and social boundaries to become acquainted with new people.
Survey tables will be available for your input.
Time: 11:00am - 2:00pm
Locations: UCC and Z-6
Co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity, Multicultural
Achievement Program, and The College of Education Diversity Committee.
For additional information call: 678-839-5400 or 678-839-6280.
A key measure of consumer confidence continued to slip in October, with consumers’ gauge of the current economic situation falling to a 26-year low, a research group said Tuesday.
The Conference Board, the New York-based research group, said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 in October from an upwardly revised 53.4 in September.
Economists were expecting the index to increase to 53.5, according to a Briefing.com consensus survey. The figure, which is based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households, is closely watched because consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.
The index component that evaluates consumers’ judgment of the present situation dipped to 20.7 in October, the lowest since the 17.5 measured in February 1983. It stood at 23 in September.
“Consumers’ assessment of the present-day conditions has grown less favorable, with labor market conditions playing a major role in this grimmer assessment,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center.
Employers continued to cut jobs from their payrolls in September, as the unemployment rate rose to 9.8% and hit another 26-year high in September, according to a reportfrom the Labor Department earlier this month.
The percentage of those claiming that jobs are currently hard to get reached new high of 49.6%, while the number of consumers claiming that jobs are “plentiful” hit a new low at 3.4%.
“It is surprising how uniformly weak this report was,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo. “The expectations had gotten ahead of themselves. Everyone thought that economy would follow the rebound in the stock market. But now that the rebound has leveled off, folks doubt whether conditions will get better.”
Meanwhile, a pair of economists speaking at a public forum on Tuesday said that economic improvement is on the way, but will take a while to solidify, especially in employment.
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The Department of Art's "Carve on the Quad" has partnered again with
Residence Life's "Safe Treat Trick-or-Treating" for a great evening of
Halloween fun. The events will take place this Friday, October 30th
on the Academic Quad.
Carving begins at 12pm and pumpkins will be lit for Safe Treat which
runs from 6-8pm. Last year's event had 180 creative pumpkins on
display carved by UWG students and faculty.
Other events on the quad Friday night include a night iron pour by sculpture
students and faculty, "The End" Flashlight exhibition, a print and pot
sale, cast chocolate treats and more.
Bring family and friends and come join the fun. The community is
invited to carve and trick-or-treat.
Please visit the link below for details, pics and video of last year's
event-
The Sport Management Society is hosting the second annual WOLVES
CAN food drive to support the local food bank.
Society members will be
collecting non-perishable food items at Wolves Volleyball on Tuesday, Oct. 27 and
at Wolves Football, Thursday, Oct. 29.
Boxes will also be available in the Education
Center and The Coliseum.
Donations will be accepted through Friday, Nov. 20.
The economic recession that has gripped the nation appears to be
ending, but that doesn’t mean that conditions will improve dramatically anytime soon, University of West Georgia economist William “Joey” Smith said Tuesday.
“The good news is the bad news is close to being over,” Smith said. “We’re already seeing a turnaround at the local and probably at the state levels. By all measures at the national level we are starting to experience recovery.”
Smith, who spoke at UWG’s annual Economic Forecast Breakfast, said there remain several areas of concern, such as unemployment, home foreclosures and high vacancy rates in residential and commercial real estate.
In many counties of west Georgia, unemployment insurance claims are continuing to rise, but at a slower rate, Smith said. That’s a good sign, because unemployment insurance claims are a leading economic indicator, a predictor of future trends.
“The employment situation is starting to stabilize, but it might be a while before there is a significant drop in the unemployment rate, which is a lagging indicator, providing a look at how conditions have been,” Smith said.
Donald Ratajczak, Regents Professor Emeritus of economics at Georgia State University, also spoke at the breakfast, telling the audience that a lean job market will linger for a while.
“Georgia had the fifth-worst number of job losses in the nation. That’s not something you bounce back from overnight,” he said.
Ratajczak also said that air transportation appeared to be one of the few industries showing some employment growth recently in Georgia, thanks to the presence of Delta Air Lines and other carriers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Ratajczak said the economic downturn has been brutal for businesses and consumers, but that cutbacks made by companies have helped many of them weather the storm.
“This has been the most remarkable recovery in terms of productivity. In past recessions, businesses have waited too long to cut workers. This time, they started doing it earlier, which actually helped raise productivity,” he said.
Smith talked about how the job losses have had a ripple effect on other sectors of the economy, especially real estate.
In the housing market, foreclosures have soared throughout west Georgia, Smith said, and have yet to show signs of stabilizing.
Early in the recession, foreclosures largely affected holders of subprime home loans and those who were on the margins of being able to afford homeownership, Smith said.
But as the recession has progressed, foreclosures have taken a huge toll on solidly middle class families that held traditional 15- or 30-year mortgages. Many of those households had two incomes but now have one or none, Smith said. Many of them also have had to depend on savings to pay the mortgage, and those savings are dwindling, putting them on the verge of foreclosure.
Vacancy rates, in residential and commercial real estate, also continue to be a problem.
Perhaps not surprisingly, building permits in west Georgia have plunged drastically and don’t show signs of rebounding. From 2007 to 2008, building permits for single family homes fell 56 percent in Carroll County, for example, and are projected to fall this year by 82 percent.
“The only reason we are starting to see some stabilization in housing permits really is that you can’t go below zero,” Smith said.
Despite the gloom that lingers, Smith said positive signs have clearly emerged.
“The recovery so far has been driven by optimism in the stock market and a bounce in consumer confidence,” he said.
In employment, Smith said health care and education remain the strongest sectors and that jobs in local governments will likely increase as the federal and state governments shift more responsibilities to localities.
Ratajczak said that at the national level, banks have not done a good job of making loans, which would help spur the economy. That has forced the federal government to extend more credit.
He also said that unlike the past two recessions, consumers won’t lead the recovery from this crisis, but rather businesses and government activity would.
Ratajczak said he believed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that bailed out a number of troubled banks, was absolutely necessary.
“You already lost about 6 or 7 million jobs in this recession. Without that, there would have been a multiplier effect that could have caused 14 or 15 million job losses.”
He also said that while a stimulus package was also necessary to shore up job losses, the one passed by the federal government was loaded with pet projects and earmarks that shouldn’t have been included.
This Thursday night is the final home football game of the season in UWG's new stadium, against Valdosta, at 7 p.m.
The game will be televised, and the Gulf South Conference is offering cash prizes for fans in attendance wearing the best costumes, as the university celebrates "Howl-o-ween" at the stadium.
Children in costume will get into the game free; everyone in costume will get a chance to join the parade across the field at halftime. The following prizes will be awarded at halftime:
- Age 6 and under - Best Costume - $25
- Age 7 to 12 - Best Costume - $25
- Teenagers - Best Costume - $50
- UWG Student - Most Creative Costume - $150
- UWG Student - Best UWG Spirit Costume - $150
- UWG Student - Best Costume - $150
- Faculty & Staff (including retirees) - Best Costume - $100
To participate, you need to check in at the judging table outside of the stadium between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Tunnel is an extrasensory activity to raise students’ awareness of oppression that exists today by capturing participants with auditory, visual, intellectual and emotional stimuli. Students will be exposed to a variety of topics including racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, body image, anti-Semitism and more.
Joe Blackwell of UWG’s Housing and Residence Life helped to coordinate and plan the event on campus.
“The idea is that when you go through the event, it will overwhelm you,” said Blackwell. “Too often there are students who cruise through this world without realizing that all of these things happen. They block out all of the media that comes to them.”
For this reason, one of the displays offered at the Tunnel is a Words Hurt wall, where all of the hurtful words that people say are drawn, uncensored, on boxes. The display is a way to inform people that words used in everyday language is rude, crude and hurtful.
The Tunnel of Oppression program started in 1993 at the Western Illinois University. Based on the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the program has swept the nation as a whole, giving students everywhere the chance to experience oppression hands-on.
This is Blackwell’s sixth year participating with the Tunnel of Oppression, and his first year bringing it to UWG.
“This is a foundation year for the event,” said Blackwell. “We’re hoping to make it annual and to enlarge the event as a whole. We’re also hoping more student organizations will get involved and that we can make the event part of an entire diversity week.”
This year, students, faculty and staff from the Excel Center, the Multicultural Achievement Program, LAMBDA, and the RA staff on campus have helped with funding and setting up the event.
“The planning and work of many makes this a very powerful event and hopefully one our students will learn from,” said Blackwell in a statement to UWG.
For more information on the Tunnel of Oppression contact Joe Blackwell at 678-839-2251.
The University of West Georgia will host Kevin Powell, a community and political activist and Democratic candidate for Congress from Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2009.
Known for being a highly gifted public speaker, UWG will be Powell’s second stop on his “New Directions Tour,” which is visiting numerous higher educational institutions in Georgia.
His agenda for the day includes meetings with various on-campus organizations, followed by a book signing at 3:30 p.m. in the University Community Center room 200, and a public meeting at 4 p.m., both of which are open to the community.
Powell is a growing presence in the world of politics, and is known for his liberal views. He was a cast member of the MTV hit show “Real World” in its premier season, and has also written 11 books. The most recently published is “Open Letters To America,” a series of essays about America in the era of President Barack Obama.
“My life-calling is to be a servant for the people, period. Money, fame, status, personal achievements and all that mean very little to me when pain and suffering are still real on this planet. I am interested in the powerless becoming powerful,” said Powell.
He has also provided service to the underprivileged community of Brooklyn through mentoring and counseling in local schools, camps and prisons.
For more information contact Delandra Hunter of the University of West Georgia at 678-839-6280.
The Carrollton Police Department has arrested several individuals for stealing property from automobiles in the city of Carrollton. It is possible that some of the thefts occurred on the University campus as well. Carrollton Police currently have a substantial amount of recovered personal property in their possession. Anyone who has had property stolen from their vehicle recently may contact the Carrollton Police Department Criminal Investigations Division to ascertain if the property has been recovered. The phone number for the Carrollton Police Department is 770-834-4451.
UWG will be offering the H1N1 vaccine for students, staff and faculty on
Oct. 28 from 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. (or until vaccine supply lasts) in the
main lobby of the Coliseum.
There is no charge for students, faculty or
staff or the dependents of faculty and staff.
Please note you must have your
UWG staff or student ID on hand, and if a dependent of a faculty and staff
member is planning on taking the vaccine, he or she must come with the
faculty or staff member.
We have the H1N1 shot, but the H1N1 Flu Mist will
also be available on a first come/first serve basis.
Students: Class excuses
will not be given; you will receive a hand stamp to prove vaccine was
administered.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the University of West Georgia will mark A Day for the UWG Annual Fund, the conclusion of the university’s recent fund-raising efforts.
The campaign, which has been known as A Day For West Georgia since 1983, now is a collection of events that spread the word to a broader audience about UWG’s impact in order to generate support for the university. A Day started out as a one-day event to garner support from local businesses and individuals for the institution, but since then has become a two-month campaign that has involved a growing number of volunteers, donors, and university employees.
This year’s A Day for the UWG Annual Fund will conclude with a victory celebration for invited guests at the university’s new stadium. Those interested in donating are still welcome to do so even after the campaign’s official conclusion.
As UWG ends the revamped fund-raising campaign for the year, it is still trying to emphasize to donors, volunteers and the community that it is continuing to excel in growth, even as it navigates uncertain financial terrain.
According to the latest data, 72 percent of UWG students qualified for some form of financial aid, but the university was only able to provide Foundation-supported scholarships to approximately 5 percent of those seeking assistance.
The Annual Fund campaign is continuing its growth and targeting alumni in other parts of the nation and overseas, as well as businesses throughout Georgia and other states. The university has also reached out to its younger alumni as it seeks to assure them that even if they can only give a little, any level of support is helpful and appreciated.
For more information on supporting the UWG Annual Fund, call 678-839-6582.
To recognize the valuable contributions from approximately 20 major donors to the Athletics Complex, a donor recognition ceremony will take place during the pre-game ceremony of the homecoming football game this Saturday, Oct. 24, beginning at 1:45 p.m. prior to the 2 p.m. kick-off against West Alabama.
Come early to the stadium and enjoy tailgating with the National Alumni Association under the big blue and white tent. Enjoy free hot dogs and reminiscing with other alumni and former faculty and staff prior to the pre-game ceremony.
For more Homecoming details, contact the UWG Alumni House at 678-839-6582.
Is the French national motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” an empty promise? Come see one director’s response in the film “Indigènes” (“Days of Glory), Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in TLC 1303.The third annual Disabilities Awareness Day is Thursday, Oct. 29, starting at 9 a.m. The event is sponsored by the Achievers, a student organization for people with disabilities, led by Sharon Nunnally and the Department of Health, Physical Education and Sport Studies. Multiple events will take place in and around the Campus Center Ballroom, atrium, patio, Love Valley, and front entrance. Activities include wheelchair basketball, wheelchair team handball, wheelchair tennis, blindfolded goal ball, sit volleyball, and bocce ball, all sponsored by BLAZE Sports in Atlanta. There will also be other activities such as making blindfolded peanut butter sandwiches, demonstrations, speakers, inspirational video viewing, and a wheelchair rally. There will also be free ice cream and drinks for participants
Schedule:
(Vendors: 9 a.m.-2 p.m./Blaze Sports 9:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m. & 1:45-3:00 p.m. with information sharing from 12:30-1:30 p.m./Campus wide Wheelchair Rally 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Registration for activities will begin the week of Oct. 19, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. outside of the UCC.
Beginning this coming Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Office of Institutional Diversity will begin a series of discussions about culture. Each session will have a presenter (almost always a UWG faculty member or an off campus scholar) who will discuss a particular issue related in some way to the general topic of "culture." The purpose of these conversations is to further faculty and staff knowledge and understanding of disparate cultures. Certainly, culture itself is a very broad term that covers a great deal of territory. A committee consisting of representatives from the Departments of Anthropology (Dr. Marjorie Snipes), Sociology (Dr. Jane McCandless), Foreign Languages (Dr. Robert Kilpatrick), History (Dr. Aran MacKinnon), and Psychology (Dr. Kareen Malone) have agreed to help select faculty and others to serve as presenters. The committee is certainly open to suggestions from others about possible speakers.
Dr. Aran McKinnon has agreed to be our first presenter. His topic will be " Constructions of Otherness: District Nine and the Case of South Africa." His presentation will involve a discussion of the movie "District Nine."
Conversations about Culture will take place in the Executive Dining Room located on the second floor of our Food Services Building (Z-6). Dr. MacKinnon will present at approximately 12:05. We will have the Executive Dining Room from 11:30 to 1:30.
To mark Cyber Security Awareness Month, the University of West Georgia will present Ross Meltz of SecureWorks in Atlanta to address faculty, staff and students about a security issue that affects us all as computer users.
Th presentation will be on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 2:00 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom 108.2. Topic of this presentation will be The Academy Awards for Movies and What They Can Teach Us.
Meltz has been a software engineer with SecureWorks since early 2009. He currently works with Web 2.0 technologies and leads the Internal Innovation Committee, a committee dedicated to turning the ideas of SecureWorks employees into feasible opportunities for the company.
Ross received an MBA from Emory in 2007 and received his undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech, during which he also worked for the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
The University of West Georgia will host The Climate Project: A Presentation on Global Warming on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. in UWG’s Campus Center Ballroom in Carrollton. The presentation is free and open to the public.
The Climate Project (TCP) is a non-profit organization consisting of 3,125 volunteers worldwide, a number of whom have been personally trained by Nobel Laureate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to educate the public about climate change awareness. Volunteer presenters span the globe, from countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Spain, the UK and Indonesia.
The presentation, given by Claude Ouimet, senior vice president and general manager of InterfaceFLOR, will feature a version of the slide show featured in the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth.
TCP’s mission to combat the climate crisis has reached a combined audience of more than five million worldwide, with plans to develop offices in Israel, China, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Latin America. The group hopes that by raising awareness and informing the public about potential solutions to solve the climate crisis, that humanity, together, can preserve the climate balance on which we all depend.
For more information about the presentation, please call 678-839-6464.
University of West Georgia alumna Jeanine Chambers Biron was recently recognized by Georgia Trend magazine as one of Atlanta’s 40 Under 40 “Up and Comers” for her work as an executive director for Angel Flight.
Under her direction, volunteer pilots offer free medical and humanitarian transportation for those in need. Patients travel for surgery, chemotherapy, dialysis and other treatments.
When Biron, a 1996 graduate, first came to Angel Flight, she intended to volunteer for only six months while finishing her master’s in business administration. She stayed for the six months – and then ten years.
“It helped me so much to help other people,” Biron told Georgia Trend. “It gave me a purpose at a time when I needed it.”
Angel Flight is financially supported by the pilots who volunteer the use of their time and expenses and by contributions from individuals, service clubs, social and religious groups and corporations. Biron is executive vice president of Angel Flight’s national network, which includes similar organizations in different locations. The company recently opened offices in South Carolina and St. Simon’s Island, with three more locations in the works.
Biron is currently working to raise money for a terminal at DeKalb Peachtree Airport, which will offer overnight accommodations and a hangar that doubles as an emergency shelter.
She also serves on the Richards College of Business Board of Visitors and recently created the Dr. Faye S. McIntyre Honorary Scholarship in the name of her mentor. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a female business major at the University of West Georgia who demonstrates academic ability and leadership skills.
For more information on Angel Flight or Jeanine Chambers Biron, contact the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 678-839-6582.
The Townsend Center of Preforming Arts brings you Michael Cooper’s "Masked Marvels and Wondertales," Saturday, Oct. 10, at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. There will be refreshments available before each performance, and Cooper will also be available for photographs and autographs at the end of each performance. Tickets are $12 for adults, $9 for seniors and military and $5 for children.
Talk is going around the county about City Council turning state owned wet land property into a planetarium, and boardwalk for residents to come appreciate nature and its beauty. Dr. Ben Demayo, professor emeritus of physics at UWG came up with the idea of using the land in a way that would benefit all of Carroll County, and is now planning on proposing it to members of the City Council.
The City Council authorized the signing of contracts Monday night to repair roads damaged by September flooding. They are planning on repairing seven major roads in the area, the first on the list is Rose Avenue, with the rest soon to follow.
Member's of the University of West Georgia's Lambda organization helped out at the Fourth Annual Overcome Ovarian Cancer 5k Walk in Alpharetta on Saturday, Sept. 26. The organization played its part in helping the Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance raise $93,000, which surpassed many expectations for the event due to recent economic times.
The library's third floor is again open for access.
The construction project to replace ceiling, lights and ductwork on the library's second and third floors is now complete. This project was funded by an energy conservation grant secured by UWG Campus Planning and Development. The work provides much better lighting and will result in significant energy savings for the campus.
This week, the federal government is beginning the first shipments of H1N1 vaccine. The University of West Georgia is the provider designated to vaccinate all students, faculty, staff and their dependents (ages 6 months and older).
While there has been a great deal of speculation about the vaccine over the past few months, the university's Health Services department has seen many cases of the flu on campus already, and welcomes the opportunity to increase the immunity of those on campus.
The federal Centers for Disease Control is recommending that most people receive the vaccination, unless they have had a recent case of the flu that was genetically determined to be H1N1 by the CDC, testing for which hasn't been conducted since July.
So even if you have had the flu recently, you need this vaccine.
Persons allergic to eggs (with hives and asthma), or those persons who have had Guillain-Barre, are NOT recommended to have the vaccine.
Pregnant women are strongly recommended to get the vaccine as influenza increases the risk of premature deliveries.
For more information you can check: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/vaccine_safety_qa.htm
There you will find data about the studies that have been done on the H1N1 vaccine.
Dr. Leslie Cottrell, medical director of UWG Health Services, said that at a recent meeting at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, a CDC researcher talked about the vast resources that have been expended on this vaccine to ensure both efficacy and safety.
The researcher said that "there are whole departments at the CDC empty because everyone is working on the H1N1 vaccine."
There are numerous negative messages being circulated about the vaccination by supposed experts, but it's important to stay aware of the best scientific information available.
At UWG, the inoculation for students, faculty and staff will:
-- be free to all persons
-- consist of one shot for persons over 10 years of age. Children 6 months to 10 years will need two shots, with the second one coming no sooner than 21 days after the first.
-- be conducted at the Coliseum in conjunction with the Community Nursing Class. These experienced seniors helped run the seasonal flu vaccine, administering over 900 vaccines in 6 hours.
-- occur once Health Services has obtained several thousand doses. The vaccine clinic will then administer the doses on a first come, first served basis. Once the initial doses are dispensed, that inoculation session will be concluded and another will be offered when a similar quantity of doses has arrived. The university's total allottment is 13,530 doses.
--have a hand stamp available for recipients of the shot who need to document their participation because of time delays they might face as a result of attending a mass inoculation. Recipients will not be able to receive individual notes. Be mindful of appropriately planning your schedule.
For more information, also see:
