Category: UGA

NASA and a Franklin alumnus have made a very magnanimous gesture toward the College and UGA:

The University of Georgia and its Franklin College of Arts and Sciences received the honor after the Kepler mission, NASA's first mission capable of finding earth-size planets, confirmed in 2012 the existence of three new planets in the system known as Kepler-37. This year, NASA authorized the nickname designation of this planetary system as UGA-1785.

The announcement was made in a letter from NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden to Franklin College Dean Alan T. Dorsey in March 2013. Roger C. Hunter, a Franklin College alumnus, presented the letter to Dorsey during a recent visit to campus.

It has been a very big week for NASA and Kepler Mission and we are proud to be a small part of it. This is a great story, and one we will tell often in the years to come. Our thanks to Roger Hunter for this terrific honor. Let us continue to boldly go.

Image: NASA illustration of 'UGA-1785'

The First-Year Odyssey program has been an important innovation in teaching but also in introducing freshman to the university setting. The FYO now has a new director:

Melissa Harshman, an associate professor in the University of Georgia's Lamar Dodd School of Art, has been named faculty director of the First-Year Odyssey Seminar program. Through the program, small-group academic seminars taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty are offered to all incoming freshmen. Harshman follows Tim Foutz, who served as director in the founding year of the program from 2011-12.

...

"The First Year Odyssey program not only allows freshmen to work with some of the most distinguished faculty on campus, but also introduces them to the myriad of exciting opportunities at the University of Georgia," said Harshman. "I'm delighted to be leading such an auspicious program."

My own bias aside(!), it's important to have an art professor and artist rotate into this position. A lot of what we do at the university is preparing people to be active citizens, critical thinkers and leaders, if they are so inclined. The arts are a crucial aspect of the university experience as preparation for an engaged citizenry - what one contributes to them as well as what one receives. 

Congratulations to the program and to Harshman.

Sections of the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt-the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 92,000 individuals lost to AIDS-will be on view through Dec. 4 at the University of Georgia Gwinnett Campus in Lawrenceville.

The quilt display is hosted by the UGA department of student affairs for extended campuses. Visitors may view the display weekdays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The NAMES Project Foundation, established in 1987-the international caretaker of the AIDS Memorial Quilt-works to preserve, care for and use it to foster healing, advance social justice and inspire action. The quilt began in San Francisco almost 25 years ago with a single 3-foot by 6-foot panel. Today the tapestry includes more than 47,000 panels from every state in the nation.
According to the NAMES Foundation, in a war against a disease that has no cure, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved as a potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, the quilt helps teach compassion, triumphs over taboo, stigma and phobia while inspiring individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends and community.

Image: Interactive quilt-stitch patchwork, via the NAMES Project Foundation.

The fine and performing arts units in the Franklin College - the Lamar Dodd School of Art, the department of dance, the department of theatre and film studies and the Hugh Hodgson School of Music - have long been the heart of the university. Not only do these units provide performance and exhibition opportunities for our students, they are important venues for the cultural life of the campus community and they are visibly engaged in our wider mission: educating a cultivated citizenry for Georgia. These units welcome school children and alumni alike, and quite often for the public, attending a concert or opening is their first experience on campus. So these units are constant ambassadors for UGA. 

But the arts at UGA are represented by far more than these Franklin units. From the Georgia Museum of Art to the Georgia Review and the UGA Press, many UGA Units are engaged in bringing the cultural life of our campus to the community and beyond. The University, under the leadership of Vice Provost Libby Morris, has brought together the leaders of all the arts units to form the UGA Arts Council. The Council is a new conglomeration formed to build support, and audiences, for the arts units on campus. One of the important outcomes of this new collaboration is a new UGA arts website, which is a great all-in-one-place web destination for information on the arts.

Full calendar here.

UGA alum and Athens artist talks about his experience discovering his love for sculpture:

Flage graduated from Oconee County High School in 2004 and stumbled into sculpture while studying art at the University of Georgia. He took only one or two art classes in high school, and initially wanted to pursue a graphic design degree. But he had a revelation after walking into the sculpture department.

What's it like to be a walk-on football player and a biology major in the Franklin College?  Sophomore Ben Reynolds knows and here's a terrific new video featuring him and his experiences at UGA.

The Corisol Awakening Response, or CAR, an increase of 

about 50% in cortisol levels occurring 20–30 minutes after awakening in the morning in some people, is the focus of a new study from UGA researchers.

For the first time, psychology researchers from the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences have shown that this response for infants is opposite of what it is for adults. The new information could have implications for how infants handle stress and why proper care from their mothers could affect how growing children react to cortisol in later life.