​If you recall, a little over a year and a half ago Chick-fil-A introduced food trucks to the Athens scene at both the Barnett Shoals and Beechwood locations. And as of Monday, Aug. 27, the largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the country is now offering Mealtime kits for customers to make at home. This program operates much like the services such as Blue Apron and Hello Fresh.

As reported recently in The Red & Black, because CFA was founded in Atlanta, the chicken capital of the South decided to start testing out its new program in Georgia, including Athens at the Barnett Shoals Road, Atlanta Highway, Alps Road and Epps Bridge Parkway locations.

“This is so unique for our company, it almost feels like starting another business, so we want to start where we started our business, here in Atlanta,” said Michael Patrick, Chick-fil-A principal program lead on the Mealtime Kits program, to 11Alive.

All customers can purchase the meal kit either in the store, through the drive thru or through the CFA app without having to pay a subscription fee or advanced planning. Each kit costs $15.89, offers two servings and takes 30 minutes to prepare. Each ingredient is also pre-proportioned.

Meals available from now until Nov. 17 include chicken parmesan, chicken enchiladas, chicken flatbread, crispy Dijon chicken and pan-roasted chicken. Menus would be changed from month to month, with the chicken parmesan and chicken enchilada recipes available during the first month of the program.

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When Mike Lord’s wife checked her student account to pay her health insurance bill, he found out late last month that he would have to pay at least triple more each month or go without coverage. 

As a small business owner, Lord counts on his wife’s health insurance plan, which she has through the University of Georgia as a graduate student. 

He would now have to fork over $640 a month, which has left Lord unsure of what to do. 

“If they knew that price was going to be [3.5] times higher, I wish they would’ve just told me, and I never would’ve signed up for it in the first place,” Lord told The Red & Black. 

Graduate students with a qualified assistantship, such as Lord’s spouse, are required to enroll in university health insurance, according to UGA Human Resources. That is why Lord decided to switch to UGA’s plan in January.

His plan went from around $1,300 for January through July 2018 to around $4,400 for January through July 2019 — a 338 percent rate hike — which must be paid in full at the beginning of each semester. In month-to-month costs, his plan went from nearly $186 a month — cheaper than typical marketplace plans available on healthcare.gov — to almost $629 a month. 

When it was time to renew the policy for the five-month semester, his wife logged on to pay for her health insurance plan, which isn’t affected by the rate increase, and saw that his total was much more than their budget allowed. 

"This is not only just out of the blue, but we don’t have an extra $5,000 in our budget, particularly because one of us is a grad student,” Lord said. 

The only choice he has for insurance is to enroll through the marketplace, Lord said. However, the open enrollment period is no longer open for 2018, unless he can prove a loss of coverage. 

“Otherwise, I can’t register for insurance at all,” Lord said. 

Lord decided to contact UGA and the University System of Georgia after seeing the insurance spike. 

“Kind of what the university has done is worse, because they’re going to try to argue that it’s not a loss of coverage on one hand, but then they made it so unaffordable that essentially it is a loss of coverage,” Lord said. 

The 350-percent rate hike affects all graduate students’ spouses and children who are on university health insurance under USG, not just at UGA, according to Annette Ogletree-McDougal, executive director of communications at Board of Regents at USG. 

The rate was negotiated late last year with UnitedHealthcare Student Resources, an insurance company specializing in offering students’ health insurance, Ogletree-McDougal said. 

The rates increased as a result of more spouses signing up for UGA health insurance.   

"A rise in spouse claims increased the cost of the plan for all students regardless if a student has a spouse covered on the plan,” Ogletree-McDougal said.

All graduate students’ costs were affected by spouses’ costs. Dependents account for 7 percent of plan participants within USG, Ogletree-McDougal said. 

“The insurance company — they’re in it obviously to just make money -— but the university could be a little bit more compassionate,” Lord said. 

Negotiations with UHSR began in late 2017, according to Ogletree-McDougal.

USG negotiated the “best overall premium plan for covering its students,” Ogletree-McDougal said. 

In its July notification sent to students, UGA Human Resources suggested spouses of graduate students enroll for health insurance through the marketplace or through employer plans. 

The marketplace’s open enrollment period for 2018 ended in December 2017. The 2019 open enrollment period is from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. 
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Lord said he does not plan to renew his UGA health insurance for the semester. He will look into his options on the marketplace but will only be able to apply for coverage if his situation is considered a loss of coverage.
 
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The University of Georgia recently announced a new interdisciplinary Museum Studies Certificate program. Its objective is to prepare students for careers in museums and museum-related fields.

The program “provides a broad overview of the history of museums as well as knowledge of museum theory, methodology and practice consistent with contemporary national and international standards” according to UGA’s Bulletin website.

As reported in The Red & Black, the Museum Studies Certificate requires at least 16 semester credit hours including a museum internship.

The rest of the nine credit hours can be picked from among 23 pre-approved elective courses found on the Bulletin website.

“Museum Studies is a growing field and has incredible opportunities and applications for students in a variety of academic disciplines — history, art history, art education, biology, anthropology, just to name a few,” said Callan Steinmann, associate curator of education at the Georgia Museum of Art in an email.

A variety of UGA graduates have worked at museums at one point during their careers, said James Reap, graduate coordinator of the Masters of Historic Preservation Program.

Steinmann, Reason and Reap, who worked on the program together over the past year, all emphasized the future career opportunities in museums and museum-related fields that the program seeks to offer.

Steinmann also said that because of UGA’s and Athens’ museums, such as the Georgia Museum of Art and the Georgia Museum of Natural History, students will have close access to internships and field experience.

“These institutions provide students the opportunity to work with objects, solve problems and apply concepts and ideas learned in the classroom,” Steinmann said. “Museums are such rich cultural resources, and this certificate will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the role of museums in society and the day-to-day logistics of managing collections, developing exhibits and working with visitors.”

Even though the program was approved to begin this fall, there will be an application period before the required courses are offered, Reason said.

Reason also said a proposal for a graduate certificate in museum studies is in the works.

“We hope [the graduate certificate] will be approved for spring as well, allowing those students to take the course,” Reason said.

The Museum Studies Certificate program is being offered to all undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students who are in academic good standing (cumulative GPA is a 2.0 or above).

​Students must also submit an application to the program, which may be found on UGA’s history department website soon.
 
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Along Clayton Street, construction crews and blocked parking spaces can be seen throughout the day Mondays through Thursdays.

The long work days have helped crews be two weeks ahead of schedule, according to an Athens-Clarke County press release.

As reported in the Red & Black, the first phase of the renovations started June 18 when crews began digging trenches for the stormwater system.

“They are two weeks ahead because they didn’t find as many unmarked conflicts as they feared in the first block and it went smoothly,” said Jeff Montgomery, public information officer for ACC.

The weather and moving to a Friday morning schedule for repaving “helped save a few days,” Montgomery said.

Even though construction crews have sped up in the timeline, they may be back on schedule.

“I should note that while we are ahead on [the first] block, some changes have been made to the south side of the [second] block, which will make the work on that side a little longer than originally scheduled,” Montgomery said, “so the net result may be closer to the original schedule.”

The third block from North Jackson Street to Thomas Street will occur from Oct. 1 to Oct. 25.

“After a successful pilot project, crews will continue [to] work full days on Thursdays and laying down asphalt to open the roads on Friday mornings for the second block,” according to the Athens-Clarke County website.

A few parking spaces will be blocked on Thursday evenings.

Some controversy has surrounded the renovations, mostly from business owners on Clayton Street.
Back in February, downtown business owners turned in a petition with 37 signatures to the Mayor & Commission, requesting for ACC to split up the construction timelines.

Following the submission of the petition, breaks in the timeline were implemented, particularly to work around football and holiday seasons, which are the busiest times for downtown businesses.

“What we’ve done here is we’ve broken it apart so that the businesses, the people that are going to be impacted the most, will still be able to serve their customers, and we can still do the construction in a reasonable amount of time,” said District 10 Commissioner Mike Hamby at the June 5 Mayor & Commission meeting.

For more public input, ACC will have two public meetings, allowing for feedback on the streetscape design phase of the East Clayton Street Improvement Project. An online survey will also be available for attendees to select “features important to them,” ACC’s website said.

The meetings will be held Aug. 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. and Aug. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Michael Bros. Building Mezzanine on East Clayton Street.

The who project is expected to be completed by August 2020.
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