STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) – As we have been covering a lot of back-to-school stories this past month it is officially time for local universities to start as well.

Wednesday, was the first day of class for Georgia Southern University.

WTOC was on campus to see how the first day went for both students and staff.

Wednesday marks the first day of classes for over 27,000 Georgia Southern students across all of their campuses.

We went to the Georgia Southern campus in Statesboro and checked in with students and faculty to see how the first day of class is going.

Many students we spoke to said they are looking forward to starting their core classes in a wide variety of majors.

“Intro to Criminal Justice,” said student, Maria Marin.

“Business Management here,” said student, Jimmy Fallstrom.

Tuesday night, the university kicked off their First in Flight event to welcome new students.

For the first day, the common challenge seemed to stay the same navigating campus.

“To just learn about the school and just not get lost around campus which…I just did,” said Marin.

However, faculty like Aileen Dowell the Dean of Students said they were prepared for this challenge.

“Today, is just going to be a lot of way-finding for students like where is this building, where is this class, how do I get there? So, actually today I’ll be helping with welcome tents that are all over campus. We have staff, students, and faculty pointing students to the right direction,” said Dowell.

Dowell said that for the more than 4,000 freshman, excited nerves are what makes this day so special.

“So today is going to be a lot of excitement, a lot of wow this is a new place, like how do I navigate it,” said Dowell.

Across campus, staff that have served this campus for years, like Chef Kathy Thomson, said that Wednesday is exciting because they get to see their beloved students again.

“I’m kinda like a mentor since I’m older and I kind of tell them the right thing, what to do, and go to school, graduate so you can get a good job so you can make some money. But I love them, I treat them like my own kids,” said Thomson.

University officials tell WTOC that their goal for the rest of the week is to make sure that the old and the new students are feel at home as much as possible.

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Kirby Smart has Georgia football ranked No. 1 entering the 2024 season, and it will take a lot of work for the Bulldogs to stay there with arguably the most demanding schedule in the nation ahead.

Smart likes to say “it all starts in the trenches,” and that leads to today’s DawgNation preview on the most important offensive lineman on the team. It will take a team effort and great continuity, regardless of which Bulldog lineman we’re evaluating.

Mike Griffith: “It starts at left tackle with Earnest Greene III protecting Carson Beck’s blind side. You have to protect the franchise player.”

Kaylee Mansell: I think (Tate Ratledge) will be the motivator to finally secure the Joe Moore Award as the best offensive line.

Jeff Sentell: “It’s the center of the team, it’s Jared Wilson. Georgia has to fill one hole on the offensive line and that’s Sedrick Van Pran Granger.

Connor Riley: Sedrick Van Pran Granger said he expects Wilson to be a better center than he was.”

Officials issued an emergency alert at Georgia’s largest nuclear plant Tuesday afternoon after a small transformer fire.

According to Georgia Power Co., the alert was issued at 12 p.m. ET for a fire at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke County, Georgia. A spokesperson for the energy company, John Kraft, told the Associated Press (AP) that the fire impacted a transformer that supplies electricity to one of the plant’s units. The alert was issued for Units 1 and 2 at the plant.

The fire and alert were not a threat to public safety, per Georgia Power Co.’s press release on the matter. Officials fully extinguished the fire and the alert was lifted at 2:36 p.m. ET.

A spokesperson for Georgia Power told Newsweek over the phone Tuesday that no injuries occurred in connection to the fire and that there was no risk to the reactor units under the alert or to the plant itself.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), which regulates civilian use of nuclear materials, has four classifications for emergencies at commercial nuclear power plants. An “alert” is the second-least serious category, above “notification of unusual event.”

USNRC spokesperson Dave Gasperson told AP that the fire at the Alvin W. Vogtle plant “did not affect any of the plant’s operating systems.” Georgia Power said in a press release earlier in the day that the alert meant that an event occurred that reduced the plant’s safety level but that no action was needed to be taken by the public.

“Georgia Power’s top priority is the safety of the public and employees at the plant,” the company said in an alert to its website. “We are committed to the safe operation of our nuclear generating facility.”

While Georgia Power holds the most control, the Alvin W. Vogtle plant is also partially owned by Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.

The units where the alert was issued on Tuesday were first built in August 1976. Commercial operation on the units began in June 1987 and May 1989, per Georgia Power’s website. The units can generate up to 2,430 megawatts of power. According to AP, if the older units lose primary electricity from the outside grid as well as backup electricity from a diesel generator, the reactors could overheat and melt.

Commercial operations recently began at units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle plant as well, which were first built in June 2009. Operations at Unit 3 started in July 2023 and Unit 4 began running on April 29, 2024. The units have the capacity to generate 2,234 megawatts of power. AP said that the newer units are designed to avoid a meltdown if power is lost.