USG NEWS:
www.news-daily.com
http://www.news-daily.com/news/2013/jan/15/archives-supporters-launch-funding-fight/
Archives supporters launch funding fight
Historians, genealogists demand ‘fair’ money allocation
By Curt Yeomans
ATLANTA — Georgia’s 2013 legislative session began with lawmakers having to make their way past a dozen historians and genealogists demanding full funding for the state archives Monday. The archives supporters were at the state Capitol building to call on legislators to add more funding to the Georgia Archives’ budget. The archives faced the prospect of restricting access to state historical records to a “by appointment” basis last fall. At the last minute, state leaders gave the Morrow-based facility a reprieve by agreeing to transfer it from the Secretary of State’s Office to the University System of Georgia. The transfer is still pending legislative approval which archives supporters view as a formality. “We’re more focused on getting more funds to keep the archives open five days a week right now,” said Vivian Saffold, co-chairwoman of the Georgia Archives Matters advocacy group. “We understand the transfer is basically a done deal. The governor wants it to happen so it’s going to happen.”
RESEARCH:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/supreme-court-decision-a-victory-for-some-stem-cell-research/article_23061ec6-6049-11e2-83e5-001a4bcf6878.html
Supreme Court decision a victory for some stem cell research
by JEANETTE KAZMIERCZAK
The Supreme Court gave a big win to federally-funded embryonic stem cell researchers by denying a review of Sherley v. Sebelius, which might have restricted federal research funding to adult stem cells. “We all had anticipated that this would happen but to get the final indication that the federal funding could be used to further stem cell research was welcome news,” said Steve Stice, director of the Regenerative Bioscience Center and professor of animal and dairy science. The decision comes after years of contention about the National Institutes of Health’s authority to fund research that uses embryonic stem cells. The plaintiffs filed the suit after President Obama signed an executive order in 2009, giving NIH the ability to assess and fund research using new type embryonic stem cell lines as long as it adhered to ethical standards.
STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.macoon.com
http://www.macon.com/2013/01/16/2319047/gov-deal-to-propose-hope-changes.html#storylink=rss#wgt=rss
Gov. Deal to propose HOPE changes
By MAGGIE LEE
ATLANTA — A proposal due to be published Thursday by Gov. Nathan Deal would reverse some cuts to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship. Meanwhile, a separate proposal from Democrats would expand eligibility for the HOPE grant. Deal will propose raising HOPE scholarship payments by 3 percent in his draft budget for the fiscal year that begins this July. “I think it will be well received by the committees,” said state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, who sits on the two committees likely to hear the proposal: Higher Education and the budget-vetting Appropriations Committee. “The lottery has done a little better,” said Staton, who oversees higher education bills for Appropriations, “so it’s possible to do this without jeopardizing the integrity” of the award’s reserve fund. Lottery revenue is used to fund HOPE. HOPE scholarships are awarded to Georgia students in public colleges and universities in the state. HOPE grants are awarded to students from Georgia attending technical schools in the state.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-16/weaker-expected-recovery-hampers-state-budget
Weaker-than-expected recovery hampers state budget
By RAY HENRYASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — A weaker-than-expected economic recovery is proving to be a drag on Georgia’s state finances. Republican Gov. Nathan Deal must find a way to close the gap between what Georgia’s government collects and what it spends when submitting his budget plans Thursday. Republican leaders in the Statehouse have ruled out any significant tax increases, meaning more budget cuts will be required to balance the state budget.
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-01-16/gov-deal-backs-guns-school-administrators#.UPgEro6TpGM
Gov. Deal backs guns for school administrators
By WALTER C. JONES
ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal announced Wednesday he will offer legislation to beef up the state’s review of mental-health records for gun permit applicants. He also predicted passage for a bill that would allow trained administrators to have guns in schools. His comments came in response to reporters’ questions following remarks to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs and Issues breakfast. Other state leaders also spoke, but only Deal faced the media. “Most of what we will probably see will come out of Washington, either through the executive orders that the president is talking about now or federal legislation,” he said.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-16/gun-toting-principals-bad-idea-say-area-educators
Gun-toting principals bad idea, say area educators
By LEE SHEARER AND WALTER JONESNEWS@ONLINEATHENS.COM
A proposal in the Georgia Legislature to let school administrators carry guns should be shot down, said several Athens area educators. Gov. Nathan Deal predicted passage of the bill Wednesday at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs and Issues breakfast. A bill by Rep. Paul Battles, R-Cartersville, would authorize local school boards to arm principals. Administrators would have to undergo the same weapons training as law enforcement officers to receive the authorization. “That one does have some merit,” said Deal, in what is as close as he ever gets to endorsing anyone else’s proposals. “If someone is going to be in an environment around children, they certainly need to be trained. I think it’s one that may receive favorable consideration by the General Assembly.” Chase Street Elementary School Principal Adam Kurtz doesn’t think so.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.albanyherald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jan/16/asus-fine-arts-building-must-not-become-casualty/?opinion
ASU’s fine arts building must not become a casualty
Leroy E. Bynum Jr., DMA, is dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Albany State University.
ASU’s proposed Fine Arts Building is a well-established, legitimate project that deserves this community’s support. The efforts of those committed to bringing this facility to reality have been extensive, expansive, exhaustive, and honorable, and have had very little to do with the conflict stemming from money given to this institution by Ray Charles. It is therefore important to separate the facts about ASU’s proposed Fine Arts Building from the swirl of misconceptions about Ray Charles’ gift and its connection to this project. In the wake of the news that ASU has returned funds to the Ray Charles Foundation, speculation about what may have happened and questions about ASU’s culpability will certainly be forefront in the minds of interested ASU supporters, and detractors alike. The most unfortunate consequence of this speculation, however, is that it will likely obscure the fact that ASU’s Fine Arts Building is the real casualty of this dispute. And thereto, the fate of ASU’s highly productive faculty and students and their hopes of acquiring a facility that addresses their needs may be threatened.
www.blogs.ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2013/01/17/pre-k-paying-off-for-georgia-according-to-study/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
There is near universal agreement in the research community that early childhood education benefits disadvantaged children despite the contention of skeptics that Georgia pre-k is just free daycare. To address that skepticism, Georgia commissioned a study to look at the impact of its pre-k program. According to the AJC: A first-of-its kind study of Georgia pre-kindergarten program is nearly complete, and early reports indicate it shows largely good news about the program that has enrolled about 1.2 million youngsters in 20 years. The study, which cost $1.5 million in lottery dollars, not tax dollars, was launched at the request of lawmakers two years ago amid dire predictions about the long-term viability of the lottery-funded pre-k and HOPE scholarship programs, arguably the state’s two most popular initiatives.
www.theatlantic.com
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/inequality-in-american-education-will-not-be-solved-online/267189/
Inequality in American Education Will Not Be Solved Online
With funding tight, the state of California has turned to Udacity to provide MOOCs for students enrolled in remedial courses. But what is lost when public education is privatized?
One night recently, it was raining hard as I drove to pick my son up from an evening class at the Atlanta Ballet. Like many cities, Atlanta’s roads are in terrible condition after years of neglect. Lane divider paint is so worn as to become invisible in the wet darkness, potholes litter the pavement. But this time the danger was magnified: on large stretches of Interstates 75 and 85, two major freeways that intersect the city, the streetlights were completely extinguished. There are ways to fix such dangers. One option would involve allocating public funds to repair and revitalize the infrastructure in question. Of course, such services are difficult in an era of reduced tax revenues and massive public resistance to financial support of infrastructural projects in the first place… Written by Ian Bogost, who is a researcher, designer, and critic who focuses on videogames. He’s a professor at Georgia Tech and a founding partner of Persuasive Games, a videogame studio.
www.chron.com
http://www.chron.com/opinion/king/article/Perry-waging-a-war-over-higher-education-4200295.php
Perry waging a war over higher education
Bill King says after years of tuition increases, the governor may find support for his battle to make state universities more accountable.
By Bill King
One of the high profile, high stakes battles currently being waged in Austin is over what higher education in Texas will look like in the future. Gov. Rick Perry declared the war by concluding that the state’s major universities, and the University of Texas and Texas A&M in particular, were in need of serious reform. The intellectual fuel for Perry’s ideas of reform come from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a conservative Austin think tank that devotes a substantial portion of its efforts proposing solutions to what it believes are inefficiencies and waste in state government. TPPF and its allies have been advocating a menu of changes to the way higher education is managed. It believes those changes would bring down the costs for students and, nearer to its heart, taxpayers. TPPF’s proposals attempt to create some accountability for higher education’s productivity. But there is where the rub begins.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/7-questions-katie-blot-president-blackboard-education-services
7 Questions for Katie Blot, President Blackboard Education Services
By Joshua Kim
What would you want to know from Katie Blot, president of Blackboard’s new Global Education Services business? I am fascinated by the transition of Blackboard from a one product business (the flagship LMS) to a diversified educational services company – one that offers both multiple platforms (through it purchase of MoodleRooms and Netspot) and a full range of educational consulting services. A key architect of these changes at Blackboard is Katie Blot, who prior to ascending to the role of president of the Education Service division spent 4 years as an SVP in Blackboard Consulting. Prior to coming to Blackboard, Katie was the CIO for the Federal Student Aid program in the Department of Education. Below are my questions for Katie and her answers from an e-mail interview that we conducted:
www.popecenter.org
http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2792
Accreditation–or Real Quality Assurance?
Higher education still relies on a weak accreditation system, but something better will replace it.
By Richard DeMillo
Higher education is not on a sustainable path. Underlying business models are crumbling, costs are spiraling, and there is for the first time significant doubt in the minds of parents and employers about the value of a college degree. Accreditation and accreditors featured prominently in my book Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities. College accreditation is costly, parasitic, self-perpetuating, and prone to abuse. It is increasingly ineffective and doomed to fail in its primary role of quality-assurance.
Education News
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/50710/
Campus Safety Experts Hail President’s Obama’s Executive Orders
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
WASHINGTON — The gun control measures signed Wednesday by President Barack Obama were hailed as critical steps that could help make America’s college campuses safer and allow academia to shine the light on gun violence like never before. That’s the take that two leading experts on gun control and campus safety, respectively, and a university president had on the 23 executive orders President Obama signed Wednesday in response to the massacre that claimed the lives of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month. Of the 23 executive orders, at least two will have a direct impact in the realm of higher education—one could lead to more federally-funded research into gun violence and another seeks to boost campuses’ ability to respond to emergencies. And given the fact that several recent campus shootings involved shooters with significant mental health issues, other orders that relate to mental health services could be of benefit as well, the experts and campus president said.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/georgia-pre-k-program-lifts-students-study-says/nTy5N/
Georgia pre-k program lifts students, study says
By Nancy Badertscher
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A first-of-its kind study of Georgia pre-kindergarten program is nearly complete, and early reports indicate it shows largely good news about the program that has enrolled about 1.2 million youngsters in 20 years. The study, which cost $1.5 million in lottery dollars, not tax dollars, was launched at the request of lawmakers two years ago amid dire predictions about the long-term viability of the lottery-funded pre-k and HOPE scholarship programs, arguably the state’s two most popular initiatives. …Georgia has been considered a nation leader in early childhood education as the first state to offer pre-k to all children regardless of family income. The program is funded almost exclusively from about one-third of lottery proceeds, including $301 million in 2011-2012 and $299 million in 2012-2013. Susan Adams, the assistant commissioner for pre-k at Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, said the longitudinal study being conducted by the North Carolina researchers is “one of only a handful of studies” of its type that have been done in the country. But there have been other studies, including two by researchers from Georgia State University, one from 1996 to 2001 and one from 2001 to 2004, Adams said.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/17/moodys-report-calls-question-all-traditional-university-revenue-sources
Nowhere to Turn
By Kevin Kiley
If colleges and universities thought they could ride out the current revenue challenges by becoming more like some other institution, Moody’s Investors Service has a bit of bad news for them: The grass isn’t greener on anybody else’s quad. Not even Harvard University’s. In a report released Wednesday, the ratings agency outlines how every traditional revenue stream for colleges and universities is facing some sort of pressure, a finding Moody’s uses as grounds for giving the whole sector a negative outlook. The agency has been pessimistic about much of the sector since its annual outlook in 2009 after the economic downturn began, but Wednesday’s report contains a downward shift in how analysts view even market leaders, the elite institutions with high demand and brand recognition. The pressure on all revenue streams is the result of macro-level economic, technological and public opinion shifts, the report states, noting that these changes are largely beyond the control of institutions. Moody’s analysts caution that revenue streams will never flow as robustly as they did before 2008.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/17/new-paper-aims-invigorate-promise-degree-qualifications-profile
New Paper Aims to Invigorate Promise of Degree Qualifications Profile
With great fanfare and big names in the student learning world behind it, the Lumina Foundation two years ago unveiled its Degree Qualifications Profile with the hope that it would prod faculty members and college leaders to better define and drive their students to show what they should know and be able to do at various degree levels. Despite experimentation on scores of campuses and by accreditors and others, the profile’s impact has been muted, and in a new paper released today by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, two of the crafters of the profile, Peter Ewell and Carol Geary Schneider, seek to give faculty members and administrators reasons (and tools) to embrace its use. Both Ewell’s paper, which is the core of the document, and Geary’s afterword, subtly concede that the degree profile has not been fully accepted or understood. Ewell offers a “tasting menu” of practical ways that faculty members and institutions can develop “the needed assignments, examination questions, and projects that enable the collection of meaningful evidence of student mastery,” the profile’s underlying goal. Contrary to the widely assumed view (from some faculty critics) that the profile is designed to lead to a standardized, reductionist way of capturing student learning, Ewell writes, “engaging assessment in the context of the DQP requires faculty to be much more systematic and intentional than is currently the case at most colleges and universities.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/17/u-california-vows-push-online-efforts-further
U. of California Vows to Push Online Efforts Further
Days after the other public institutions in the state announced expanded initiatives to incorporate massive open online courses into their curriculums, leaders of the University of California said they would soon bolster their own efforts to use digital courses to expand student access in a more cost-effective way, the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press reported. Speaking at a Board of Regents meeting at which officials of the MOOC providers Coursera, Udacity and edX made presentations and regents discussed a position paper on online learning, President Mark G. Yudof said the university had “hit a wall with regard to traditional instructional methods,” and suggested that online learning was largely the way way out.
Related article:
www.mercurynews.com
University of California wants more classes online
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22383759/gov-calls-more-online-courses-at-ca-colleges
www.nytimes.com
Next Made-in-China Boom: College Graduates
By KEITH BRADSHER
…Even if her dream is only dorm-room reverie, China has tens of millions of Ms. Zhangs — bright young people whose aspirations and sheer numbers could become potent economic competition for the West in decades to come. China is making a $250 billion-a-year investment in what economists call human capital. Just as the United States helped build a white-collar middle class in the late 1940s and early 1950s by using the G.I. Bill to help educate millions of World War II veterans, the Chinese government is using large subsidies to educate tens of millions of young people as they move from farms to cities. The aim is to change the current system, in which a tiny, highly educated elite oversees vast armies of semi-trained factory workers and rural laborers. China wants to move up the development curve by fostering a much more broadly educated public, one that more closely resembles the multifaceted labor forces of the United States and Europe.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Put-Student-Work-at-the-Center/136701/
Put Student Work at the Center of Accountability Efforts, Authors Argue
By Dan Berrett
Students would be likely to learn more in college and academic rigor would be increased, say two higher-education leaders, if faculty members and accountability advocates focused on a deceptively simple idea: Ask students to produce original work and judge them on it, not on how they perform on standardized tests or how many hours they spend in class. This idea underlies a new paper, by Peter T. Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, and its afterword, by Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The paper and afterword were released on Thursday by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, which advocates for the use of assessment data to improve undergraduate education. The two documents elaborate on a framework for student learning, called the Degree Qualifications Profile, put forth two years ago by the Lumina Foundation, which also supports the assessment institute. The degree profile has since been tested by about 220 colleges and is undergoing revision.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Academics-on-Both-Sides-of/136703/
Academics on Both Sides of Administration-Faculty Divide Warn of Its Perils
By Sydni Dunn
When John Wooding was promoted from political-science professor to provost at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, he joked that he had moved to “the dark side.” But, in fact, he says, his former peers on the faculty almost immediately started to treat him like an other. One colleague who regularly wore jeans showed up in his office in a suit. Others started calling him by his title, not his name. “The whole tenor of how you are treated changes,” Mr. Wooding says. “These were people I knew and worked with.” The disconnection and tensions between faculty members and administrators—and their ramifications—are the subject of a new book by Mr. Wooding and Kristin Esterberg, provost of Salem State University and a former sociology professor at Lowell.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/17/rasmussen-cuts-tuition-12-percent
Rasmussen Cuts Tuition by 12 Percent
Rasmussen College, a midsized for-profit institution with roots in the Midwest, this week announced a tuition cut that averages 12 percent across the institution. Some students will see a 24 percent tuition reduction, the college said. Rasmussen is also locking in tuition rates for continuously enrolled students.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/17/tulane-blames-single-individual-submitting-false-data
Tulane Blames ‘Single’ Individual for Submitting False Data
Tulane University, which late last year acknowledged having submitted inaccurate information about its M.B.A. program to U.S. News & World Report for rankings, has now issued more information about the fabricated data. The university said that “a single business school employee falsified data and submitted it” and that the “individual is no longer at the school.” The university also said that it now believes that inaccurate data were submitted for the classes that entered the program from 2007 through 2011, and that U.S. News has been provided with details on the information submitted. A statement from Michael Bernstein, the provost, said that “I sincerely regret that these events occurred and that one person could so negatively impact how others see us as a place of learning.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/17/scholars-critique-ncaa-its-annual-convention-possibly-last-time
NCAA Ends Scholarly Experiment
By Allie Grasgreen
GRAPEVINE, Texas — A three-person panel here on Wednesday afternoon painted a disconcerting picture of the financial model supporting collegiate athletic programs, arguing that the system is unsustainable and detrimental to the academic pursuits of the athletes who generate tens of millions of dollars for their institutions and conferences. Here’s hoping they got the message out, because they’re not going to have another chance — at least not under the umbrella (and on the dime) of one of their primary targets, the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA told them and others Monday night that the association has defunded the Scholarly Colloquium that for six years provided a space for (often critical) academic discourse at the association’s annual convention. NCAA officials said the colloquium’s low attendance and its accompanying academic journal’s failure to generate revenue were at the root of the decision, but the scholars who run the two-day event suspect foul play.
www.nytimes.com
At Many Top Public Universities, Intercollegiate Sports Come at an Academic Price
By TAMAR LEWIN
Public colleges and universities that compete in N.C.A.A. Division I sports spend three to six times as much on each athlete as they do to educate each of their students, according to a new report by the Delta Cost Project at the American Institutes for Research. “Participation in intercollegiate athletics in the United States comes with a hefty price tag, one that is usually paid in part by students and institutions,” said Donna Desrochers, the author of the report. “Public institutions with Division I athletic programs have continued to invest significant resources in athletics, even as academic budgets were under strain during the recent recession.” Between 2005 and 2010, on a per-capita basis, the report found, athletic costs increased at least twice as fast as academic spending at institutions with top-tier athletic programs. “The Delta report confirms what a lot of college presidents have long feared: that intercollegiate athletics has become a financial arms race,” said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president at the American Council on Education.
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Other Publications of the University System of Georgia:
USG Strategic Plan
USG Annual Report (PDF)
System Supplement
Legislative Update
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