Georgia State University News & Events

University Relations Tip Sheet - April 15, 2009

State of the University address
Georgia State President Mark Becker will give his “State of the University” address at 4 p.m. Thursday (April 16) in the Student Center Ballroom. The Georgia State community and members of the public are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Liz Babiarz at lbabiarz@gsu.edu or 404-413-1356.

Divorce during an economic crisis
The financial impact of divorce disproportionately affects women during an economic crisis, according to Tanya Washington, an associate professor in the College of Law. “Some of that is because of poor management, but there are also some employment realities in terms of who’s fired first,” Washington said. “There were already existing earning disparities and a lot of those are exaggerated during an economic crisis and it’s having a significant impact on women and as a result it’s having a significant impact on the children who they are responsible for caring for.” Washington, a family law expert, has been providing advice to women about taking control of their financial resources and the importance of being aware of legal frameworks that dictate marital asset allocation and alimony determinations. “It’s so that they can structure the decisions that they make during the marriage to positions themselves in the best possible situation should the marriage fail. I’m not telling people to plan for their marriage to fail, but just to act within the reality that 50 percent of them do.” To speak with Washington, contact Leah Seupersad at 404-413-1354.

Early reading intervention makes a difference
Nearly 40 percent of fourth graders cannot read at the “basic level,” according to the most recent NAEP scores. Children from low-income homes are even more at risk for reading failure which is why Georgia State Assistant Professor Nicole Patton-Terry recently studied how effective early intervention programs are at solving this crisis. Patton-Terry followed 79 children who participated in two Early Reading First programs, provided by Smart Start, the early childhood division of the United Way Metropolitan Atlanta, through kindergarten and found the majority of children in the programs were performing at or above age expectations in each language and literacy skill tested. “Children who participate in programs like Early Reading First are acquiring the skills they need to learn how to read successfully,” Patton-Terry said. For more information, contact Liz Babiarz at lbabiarz@gsu.edu or 404-413-1356.

Despite winter rains, conservation measures still needed, researcher says
Recent heavy rains might have helped to end the exceptional drought the metro Atlanta region has faced for several years, but conservation measures are still needed to help boost the region’s water capacity during the drier summer months, according to a Georgia State University professor. “This is no time to let go of conservation measures that are in place,” said Jordan Clayton, assistant professor of geosciences. “We need to maintain conservation levels so that we can increase storage capacity to the point where local reservoirs are mostly full.” Typically, Atlanta’s reservoirs and streams are replenished during the winter, and are depleted during the summer due to many factors, including a process called evapotranspiration - a combination of evaporation and transpiration, or the loss of water from plants during photosynthesis. “In metro Atlanta, we have a roughly equivalent annual rate of precipitation to evapotranspiration,” Clayton explained. “The balance is therefore sensitive because even small deviations in precipitation can result in water deficits. Conservation measures help reduce our vulnerability.” To speak with Clayton, contact Jeremy Craig at 404-413-1357 or jcraig@gsu.edu.

Happenings at Georgia State University

Usery Workplace Conference to focus on labor market issues and policy
Georgia State’s Economics Department will host the Usery Workplace Conference on Labor Market Issues and Policy on Friday (April 17) from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the 7th floor seminar room of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The conference, which will feature prominent economists and policy experts, will examine important workplace issues confronting policy makers and the public. Topics include pensions and savings, health care costs and the workplace, employment trends among African-Americans, educational equity and public school teachers, job security, and lessons from the Great Depression and New Deal. The conference ends with a policy roundtable. For more information contact Leah Seupersad at 404-413-1354 or lvh@gsu.edu.

Georgia State to co-host regional NIH seminar on program funding
Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology are hosting the 2009 Annual Regional Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration on behalf of the National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research April 16-17. The seminar will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. The seminar, one of two regional sessions held nationally this year, is intended to help explain the application and review process for program funding, to clarify federal regulations and policies, and to highlight current areas of special interest or concern. For more information, including a schedule of events and session topics, visit www.gsu.edu/research/conference.html. To register, visit www.regonline.com/NIHRegionalATL.

Trumpeter Jon Faddis to join University Jazz Band in concert
The Georgia State University Jazz Band will be joined by a special guest, jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis, at its upcoming performance. Faddis has toured with Charles Mingus, recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson and served as music director of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. The concert will be held at 8 p.m. April 17 at the Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W., Atlanta. For tickets, call 404-413-9TIX or visit www.rialtocenter.org.

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