USG eClips

USG VALUE:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-22/uga-prof-advise-international-court
UGA prof will advise international court
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS — A University of Georgia law professor has been appointed a special adviser to the International Criminal Court. UGA said court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has named Diane Marie Amann her special adviser on children in and affected by armed conflict. Amann will support and advice the prosecutor’s office on policies, training and awareness in that area. Amann is one of three new special advisers appointed.

USG NEWS:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2013-01-22/university-system-georgia-chancellor-wants-faculty-raises?v=1358891286
University System of Georgia chancellor wants faculty raises
By Walter C. Jones
Morris News Service
ATLANTA — The lack of faculty pay raises has made Georgia professors the targets for recruiters in other states, University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby told lawmakers Tuesday. “Other states don’t come after our weakest faculty. They come after our very best,” he told members of the House and Senate appropriations committees after a presentation on the system’s budget for the next fiscal year. Gov. Nathan Deal is recommending lawmakers give the system an increase of $42 million, the result of adding money to accommodate more students and subtracting 3 percent like every other state agency. Of the $42 million increase, half will go to cover benefits for employees and retirees, said John Brown, the university system’s financial officer.

Related articles:
www.onlineathens.com
Huckaby warns pay freeze invites other states to recruit faculty
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-01-22/huckaby-warns-pay-freeze-invites-other-states-recruit-faculty

www.jacksonville.com
Other states poaching Georgia professors, University System chancellor says
The governor is urging lawmakers to increase the system’s budget by $42 million.
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2013-01-22/story/other-states-poaching-georgia-professors-university-system-chancellor

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/deal-sets-aside-43-million-for-georgia-archives/nT4YH/
Deal sets aside $4.3 million for Georgia Archives
By Kristina Torres
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Nathan Deal has taken the first step toward his pledge to keep the Georgia Archives open, setting aside $4.3 million for it in next year’s proposed budget. The proposal would also fund 10 positions to the Morrow institution, which lost five employees last fall to layoffs. Many more steps, however, remain. Supporters are pushing for an additional $1.5 million to expand public access to the state’s important and historical records dating to at least 1733, saying the additional money would reopen the archives from two to five days a week. …The cuts nearly resulted in the archives’ closure, until a public outcry — including rallies at the Capitol and in Deal’s office — resulted in the governor agreeing to restore enough money to keep the archives open through June. He has proposed to then cut the archives’ ties to the Secretary of State’s Office and allow the University System of Georgia to take over its management.

www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2013/01/22/2326300/governor-seeks-10-million-for.html
Governor seeks $10 million for WR military ‘gateway center’
By MAGGIE LEE
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is asking the state Legislature to approve a $10 million school in Warner Robins that would offer academic credentials to members of the military to round out their armed services training and channel them into civilian work. The center’s mission would be retraining military veterans for the private work force, especially in critical areas such as nursing and truck driving, said House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire. “The military is an excellent proving ground for logistics,” he said, as an example. “Part of that is truck driving. But these people get out of the military and they can’t get a commercial driver’s license.” Both the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia would offer classes. Technical College System Chancellor Ronald Jackson said he and University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby have yet to sit down and talk about the division of the programming they would provide.

www.wabe.org
http://www.wabe.org/post/oral-history-association-relocates-georgia-state-university
Oral History Association Relocates to Georgia State University
By STEVE GOSS
Beginning this month, the Oral History Association, a national organization dedicated to gathering and preserving historical information through recorded interviews, will be located at Georgia State University. Associate Professor of History, Dr. Clifford Kuhn–a familiar voice to WABE listeners for his monthly “This Day in History” series–will be the association’s first Executive Director.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/students-urged-to-read-tuition-fine-print-avoid-confusion/article_a3d98184-64ed-11e2-b479-001a4bcf6878.html
Students urged to read tuition fine print, avoid confusion
by MEGAN INGALLS
Students should pay attention to the terms of their tuition and financial aid to avoid unexpected charges. Shannon Lay, manager of the student accounts department, said students should anticipate costs in advance — they may not be notified before tuition changes and other charges occur. “The only advice I could give is just to make sure that they understand the kind of aid they have, and they know how it works so they can budget accordingly,” Lay said. For those receiving some benefits of the HOPE Scholarship, unanticipated charges could occur after dropping hours during drop-add. Amy Toale, a senior finance major from Jonesboro, said she was charged $636.30 after dropping a three-hour class during drop-add week. “It was because of HOPE,” she said. “It was because UGA has a flat rate tuition that I did not know about.”

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/crime/2013-01-22/college-student-identified-southside-savannah-homicide-victim#.UQAVFY6TpGM
College student identified as southside Savannah homicide victim
By Corey Dickstein
A 21-year-old Savannah college student was shot to death in her car outside her southside apartment complex Monday evening. Savannah-Chatham police investigators Tuesday identified the victim of the city’s first reported murder in 2013 as Rebecca Lorraine Foley, said police spokesman Julian Miller. Foley, a student at Savannah State University, was inside her Volkswagen Beetle near her residence at Colonial Village at Marsh Cove off White Bluff Road when she was fatally shot about 7 p.m., Miller said. He indicated Monday evening officers had found her on the ground outside the vehicle but they were uncertain how she got there. …Foley had transferred to Savannah State from Armstrong Atlantic State University after the Spring 2012 semester in order to change majors, the universities confirmed.

GOOD NEWS:
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/georgia-state-to-give-credit-for-moocs/nT4Tb/
Georgia State to give credit for MOOCs
By Laura Diamond
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia State University plans to give students credit for taking free online courses that are taught by other colleges. The University Senate approved the new policy last week and although many details still need to be worked out, this action allows Georgia State to enter the growing market of massively open online courses (MOOCs). The MOOC movement has boomed over the past year as more than 2 million students worldwide have signed up for the classes. Georgia Tech and Emory University teach these courses through Coursera, the largest of the MOOC providers. Georgia State won’t enter the MOOC market, but President Mark Becker said the university needs to be at the forefront of this movement.

Related articles:
www.finchannel.com
Georgia State University Takes Major Step Toward Developing Online Course Learning Option
http://finchannel.com/Main_News/B_Schools/122530_Georgia_State_University_Takes_Major_Step_Toward_Developing_Online_Course_Learning_Option/

www.chronicle.com
Georgia State U. to Grant Course Credit for MOOCs
https://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/georgia-state-u-to-grant-course-credit-for-moocs/41795

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/23/public-universities-move-offer-moocs-credit
MOOCs for Credit
By Scott Jaschik
Two announcements this week suggest that MOOCs — massive open online courses — will increasingly include a route for students to receive academic credit.
Georgia State University announced Tuesday that it will start to review MOOCs for credit much like it reviews courses students have taken at other institutions, or exams they have taken to demonstrate competency in certain areas. And Academic Partnerships, a company that works with public universities to put their degree programs online, announced an effort in which the first course of these programs can become a MOOC, with full credit awarded to those who successfully complete the course. The educational idea is that this offering will encourage more students to start degree programs. The financial idea is that the tuition revenue gained by participating institutions when students move from the MOOC to the rest of the program (which will continue to charge tuition) will offset the additional costs of offering the first course free. Among the first universities planning to make the debut course in their online programs a MOOC are Arizona State, Cleveland State, Florida International, Lamar and Utah State Universities and the Universities of Arkansas, Cincinnati, Texas at Arlington and West Florida.

RESEARCH:
www.11alive.com
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/273654/40/UGA-professors-get-grant-for-flu-fighting-research
UGA professors get grant for flu fighting research
The Associated Press
ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia researchers have received a federal grant of more than $1.1 million for their work on fighting the flu. The grant from the National Institutes of Health is to be distributed over the next four years. The researchers’ works are refining a nanotechnology-based method that uses laser beams to more accurately predict emerging influenza strains, especially the most deadly ones.

Related article:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
UGA professors get grant for flu fighting research
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/01/23/2354634/uga-professors-get-grant-for-flu.html

www.11alive.com
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/272683/3/New-invention-prevents-crusties-on-milk-jugs
New invention prevents ‘crusties’ on milk jugs
Jennifer Leslie
MARIETTA, Ga. — Tommy Tornroos turned his pet peeve into a pet project. Last year, he decided he’d had enough of milk crusties, those dried milk flakes that form on the top of milk jugs. “When I was pouring, it got in the cereal, and I was really grossed out,” Tornroos told 11Alive’s Jennifer Leslie. “I didn’t eat it at that point.” He came up with a plan and turned to his alma mater, Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta. Students in a new rapid design and engineering class worked in teams to design a device to prevent milk crusties.

STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=257455
Deal: Agenda trimmed back because of budget
By The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) Gov. Nathan Deal told Georgia lawmakers his legislative agenda will be less elaborate because a still-weak economy is curtailing state spending. The Republican governor on Tuesday presented his changes to the state’s current budget and a $40.8 billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year. That plan includes roughly $19.9 billion in state funds. Deal told lawmakers that the state’s tax and other collections have not kept pace with estimates, leading him to trim the budget of many state agencies.

www.11alive.com
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/273640/40/GA-Legislature-to-consider-allowing-guns-at-colleges-and-universities
GA Legislature to consider allowing guns at colleges and universities
Jon Shirek
ATLANTA — Part of the big national debate over gun laws and over the Second Amendment to the Constitution is playing out, in microcosm, on college campuses in Georgia and in the state legislature. Students who want to be able to carry guns on campus are speaking out in support of a new bill in the Georgia House of Representatives that would change state law in order to allow them to do just that. “You’d be allowed to strap on your gun the way you would in other environments, and carry it with you around campus, just as you would elsewhere around the state,” said Robert Eagar, a Georgia Tech student and Chairman of “Georgia Tech Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.” Eagar and the Vice Chairman, fellow Tech student Kyle Wilkins, said it’s a simple matter of self-defense. “‘Campus carry’ will be a great deterrent to crime,” Wilkins said, “because criminals don’t want armed targets, they want something easy” to attack. The author of the bill, known at the State Capitol by its official name, “HB 29,” is Rep. Charles Gregory, (R) Kennesaw.

Related article:
www.13wmaz.com
Lawmakers to Consider Allowing Guns at Colleges
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/topstories/article/213434/175/Lawmakers-to-Consider-Allowing-Guns-at-Colleges

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/state-fiscal-economist-predicts-slow-but-steady-gr/nT4Lg/
State fiscal economist predicts ‘slow but steady growth’
By James Salzer
Georgia’s economy should see slow but steady growth over the next few years as the job and housing markets continue to improve, the state’s main economist told lawmakers Tuesday. However, with tax collections still below what they were before the Great Recession, Gov. Nathan Deal told the same group of legislators that they won’t be seeing many new initiatives this year. “We do not have as elaborate an agenda this year as we have had in previous years,” Deal told members of the House and Senate budget committees. Deal and Ken Heaghney, the state’s fiscal economist and a Georgia State University research professor, led off a week full of state budget hearings, where lawmakers will review what’s in the governor’s spending plans for the upcoming 18 months. Heaghney said that tax collections — an indication of the state of the economy — will be up 3.9 percent the rest of fiscal 2013, which ends June 30.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/lawmaker-who-opposed-embryonic-research-named-chai/nT4wq/
Stem cell foe named chair of science panel
By Aaron Gould Sheinin
The new head of the state House Committee on Science and Technology is a social conservative who has used a moral compass to question scientific research, but who says he knows the importance biotechnology has on the state’s economy. Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, has previously led efforts to ban research on embryonic stem cells and sponsored a bill making it illegal to implant people with microchips against their will. Setzler, beginning his fifth term in the House, is also a frequent sponsor of bills to restrict abortions. …His appointment has left some in the industry and at the Capitol concerned that Setzler would use that moral compass to block further advances in the bioscience industry. …“I recognize the vital importance of the biotech industry to the state of Georgia and appreciate the impact that biotech innovators in Georgia are having worldwide,” Setzler said.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2013/01/23/georgia-earns-a-c-for-how-well-it-selects-and-prepares-its-teaching-force-colleges-are-not-selective-enough/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia earns a C for how well it selects and prepares its teaching force. Colleges are not selective enough.
The National Council on Teacher Quality gave Georgia an overall grade of C in its teacher preparation policies, docking the state points for the lack of selectivity in admissions to teacher prep programs and for ridding classrooms of under performing teachers. Still, Georgia outperforms the rest of the nation. The average grade nationwide was a D plus. Here is a link to the full 2012 Georgia report. The report recommends:

Education News
www.wabe.org
http://wabe.org/post/pre-k-study-shows-program-benefits
Pre-K Study Shows Program Benefits
By MARTHA DALTON
Georgia’s pre-kindergarten program seems to be yielding good results. Early reports from a first-of-its kind study show pre-K students are making gains. Researchers from the University of North Carolina followed 500 Georgia pre-K students during the 2011-2012 school year. Bobby Cagle, the commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), says students were tested in a range of subjects at the beginning and end of the year. “The results showed significant gains in all of the areas and indicated that many of the children moved from below the national average in that particular test to above the national average after the test,” Cagle says. The study was launched at the request of state lawmakers two years ago. Cagle says they had questions about the sustainability of the lottery-funded program.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/hometown-hero-project-grad-leader-helps-guide-stud/nT4NB/
Hometown hero: Project GRAD leader helps guide students to college
By Bill Hendrick
On prom night in his senior year of high school, Kenneth Perry was in a horrific traffic accident that required three brain surgeries over the next two years. He’s back to normal now, finishing college and plotting his path to a doctorate in theater and dance. He credits much of his success to a highly regarded program of the Atlanta Public School System, called Project GRAD Atlanta, which provides $4,000 scholarships to deserving students as well as guidance and support throughout college. And after the accident, says Perry, 22, he needed guidance. “After the accident, Project GRAD was right there to support me with books and materials and made sure I could be self-sustaining at the College of Wooster,” he says. “They maintain a constant conversation while you are in college.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/online-marketplace-offers-an-alternative-to-student-loans/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Online Marketplace Offers an Alternative to Student Loans
By Allie Bidwell
With rising student-debt burdens and bleaker job prospects making headlines in recent years, young people are thinking twice about how to pay for a college education or launch their dream career. Enter Pave, an online platform that allows students and young professionals to market themselves to potential investors in hopes of gaining financial support, networking opportunities, and mentorship. People who turn to the start-up company for money to go to college or start a career project—”prospects,” as Pave refers to them—create a profile on its Web site to pitch their stories to potential backers. In turn, prospects pledge to share a percentage of their income over a fixed amount of time. Unlike other crowdfunding sites, Pave is not limited to a specific project, and unlike loan services, prospects have no obligation to repay the specific amount of money given to them.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/congressman-asks-higher-one-for-information-on-student-debit-card-fees/54489?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Congressman Asks Higher One for Information on Student Debit-Card Fees
U.S. Rep. George Miller, the California lawmaker who is the top Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, on Tuesday sent a letter to Higher One Holdings Inc., asking the company to provide information about students’ ability to use ATMs the company maintains free of charge. Mr. Miller wrote that he is “deeply concerned” that students who use Higher One debit cards to access their financial-aid money will not be able to do so without incurring the company’s fees, which have previously come under scrutiny. Mr. Miller wrote that the company had a limited supply of fee-free ATMs on California campuses, which he said “raises important questions about the adequacy of fee-free access to student aid,” particularly on large campuses or for nontraditional students. He asked the company to review a list of ATMs it maintains on campuses in California, to provide details about ATMs it maintains on campuses across the country, and to describe its policies to refund fees charged to students when the machines fail or are not accessible.

www.online.wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323635504578213502177768898.html
Health Law Pinches Colleges
Some Schools Cut Hours of Hard-Pressed Adjuncts to Avoid Rules on Insurance
By MARK PETERS and DOUGLAS BELKIN
The federal health-care overhaul is prompting some colleges and universities to cut the hours of adjunct professors, renewing a debate about the pay and benefits of these freelance instructors who handle a significant share of teaching at U.S. higher-education institutions. The Affordable Care Act requires large employers to offer a minimum level of health insurance to employees who work 30 hours a week or more starting in 2014, or face a penalty. The mandate is a particular challenge for colleges and universities, which increasingly rely on adjuncts to help keep costs down as states have scaled back funding for higher education. A handful of schools, including Community College of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania and Youngstown State University in Ohio, have curbed the number of classes that adjuncts can teach in the current spring semester to limit the schools’ exposure to the health-insurance requirement. Others are assessing whether to do so, or to begin offering health care to some adjuncts.

www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/23/18supply_ep.h32.html?tkn=SSQFM%2FLJBGv0IGubHc6HaErC0l3Ix6rP30LT&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
Colleges Overproducing Elementary Teachers, Data Find
By Stephen Sawchuk
Though universities’ economics departments preach the gospel of supply and demand, that principle is not always followed when it comes to their education departments. Data, while imprecise, suggest that some states are producing far more new teachers at the elementary level than will be able to find jobs in their respective states—even as districts struggle to find enough recruits in other certification fields. For some observers, the imbalances reflect a failure of teacher colleges—by far, the largest source of new teachers—and their regulatory agencies to cap the number of entrants. “If you increase the number of elementary teachers beyond what the market will bear, you are going to be forcing far too many trainees into an overburdened K-12 system,” said Arthur McKee, the managing director of teacher-preparation studies at the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality. “We need to have some equilibrium so we can set up strong clinical programs. And everybody wants to do that.”

www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/community-colleges-higher-ed-lower-cost/
Community Colleges: Higher Ed, Lower Cost
Source: Yahoo Finance
Giovanny Martinez didn’t enroll in a community college because he was worried about paying for his education. After four years in the Marine Corps, he had the GI Bill to cover his costs. Instead, he did it because he needed a new kind of training — on how to be a student again. The time that the 25-year-old native of Colombia spent in uniform meant he’d gotten out of the habit of studying and test-taking, and that’s why he’s now at Brookhaven Collegein Farmers Branch, Texas. “I came here because it’s been probably more than five years since I stepped in a classroom, since high school,” says Martinez, who’s eying a career in physical therapy. “So [community] college, for me, I thought it was a step into education. So it will get me into a process, will get me used to a university.” Like Martinez, millions of Americans are choosing community college — and for nearly as many reasons. In addition to being cheaper and shorter than traditional four-year universities, community colleges offer degrees in vocations with a more practical bent, including automotive technology, business administration, computer information systems and nursing.

www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/community-colleges-students-come-in-employees-emerge/
Community Colleges: Students Come In, Employees Emerge
Source: Yahoo Finance
For community colleges, working directly with area employers on job skills is essential to getting students placed in positions. This matters greatly in the modern economy because not every company can or will offer lengthy training for new hires. “When a company looks at how they maximize their resources, they might utilize our services on an as-needed basis or on-demand basis rather than support a whole arm of the organization that’s responsible just for training,” says Marilyn Lynch, associate vice president of career and program resources at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch, Texas. “Those are non-income-producing things, more long-range.” Even if they want to, some firms are small, and their human resources divisions might not have the time to spend on anything beyond cursory orientation. Corporations increasingly perceive community colleges as responsive, prepared and anxious to fill jobs with their students.”If you have shovel-ready projects, you need to have work-ready employees,” says Dr. Thom Chesney, Brookhaven’s president. “And the expectation is that this is where it will happen … at a community college.”

www.stateimpact.npr.org
http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2013/01/22/florida-graduation-rate-improving-still-among-the-nations-lowest/
Florida Graduation Rate Improving, Still Among The Nation’s Lowest
BY JOHN O’CONNOR
Florida’s graduation rate is increasing but the state still ranks among the nation’s lowest, according to new federal data. Just six states and the District of Columbia had a lower graduation rate than Florida’s 70.8 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2009-2010 school year. In the 2001-2002 school year, just five states and the District of Columbia had a lower graduation rate than Florida. However, Florida’s graduation rate has risen to 70.8 percent in the 2009-2010 school year from 63.4 percent in the 2001-2002 school year — a 7.4 percentage point increase. During the same period, the national rate increased to 78.2 percent from 72.6 percent — a 5.6 percentage point increase.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/50848/
HBCUs Increase International Presence by Hosting 1,000 Brazilian Students
by Cherise Lesesne
In order to support the partnership between the United States and Brazil, referred to as the Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination (JAPER), the Brazilian government has agreed to send approximately 1,000 students to several of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities. As a result, selected HBCUs are preparing efforts to accommodate an average of 30 to 50 students to be admitted into each selected school for the 2013 fall semester. …With the help of federal agencies like the Institute for International Education (IIE), the HBCU-Brazilian Alliance has already approved 34 schools to participate in the Brazilian student exchange. Of those 34 schools, the most prominent institutions that accepted the students were Howard University, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T University, Jackson State University, Southern State University and Dillard University. While many other HBCUs were included in the exchange, the aforementioned schools were among the first wave to submit proper documentation in order to be included. Not only were the selected HBCUs the first to respond to the initiative, but they also were schools that, according to the Brazilian government, exhibited strong STEM programs and other academic programs that accommodated the needs of international students.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/skepticism-about-tenure-moocs-and-presidency-survey-provosts
Skepticism About Tenure, MOOCs and the Presidency: A Survey of Provosts
By Scott Jaschik
Today’s provosts are a skeptical lot. That may come with the territory, as they must constantly prioritize some ideas (and some people’s careers) over others — tasks that are never easy and have been made more challenging by the economic downturn. But the 2013 Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers finds evidence that in some areas of higher education (MOOCs or massive open online courses, for example) provosts aren’t yet ready to jump on the bandwagon, and relatively few see these offerings playing a positive, transformational role in higher education. In other areas (tenure), provosts see established practice as the norm at their institutions, but an apparent skepticism for tenure shows up in the very high percentage who are open to the idea of long-term faculty contracts in its stead. And while provosts appear to be well aware of the extent to which most colleges and universities today rely on non-tenure-track faculty members, two-thirds of provosts are skeptical that this will change — and of those who expect change, CAOs are nearly twice as likely to anticipate increased reliance on adjuncts as they are to envision growth of the tenure track.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Bill-of-Rights-Seeks-to/136783/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
‘Bill of Rights’ Seeks to Protect Students’ Interests as Online Learning Rapidly Expands
By Steve Kolowich
A dozen educators met last month in Palo Alto, Calif., to discuss the future of higher education. They had been convened at the epicenter of technological innovation in higher education by Sebastian Thrun, a pioneer of massive open online courses, and yet the task at hand had nothing to do with software or strategy. It had to do with citizenship. The Philadelphia Convention, it was not. But the 12 educators, many of them well known in online-education circles, did manage to draft a document that they hope will serve as a philosophical framework for protecting the interests of students as online education, propelled and complicated by the rise of MOOCs, hurtles into a new phase. Called “A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age,” the document proposes a set of “inalienable rights” that the authors say students and their advocates should demand from institutions and companies that offer online courses and technology tools.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/23/aaup-recommends-more-adjunct-faculty-participation-governance
Making Room for the Majority
By Colleen Flaherty
The final version of the American Association of University Professors’ report on the role of adjunct faculty in governance out this week includes new recommendations to counteract the possible influence of term employment on the process. “There’s a balancing act in this report,” said Joe Berry, a retired labor rights professor and a principal author of “The Inclusion in Governance of Faculty Members Holding Contingent Appointments.” “On the one hand, [adjunct faculty] are legitimately open to influence and intimidation and all those sorts of things because they don’t have academic freedom. But on the other hand, that has to be balanced with the fact that they are three-fourths of the [overall higher education] faculty and if they don’t have any role in governance, you’ve zapped that majority of power.” AAUP released a draft of the report for member review in June.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/23/colleges-share-strategies-meeting-new-eligibility-standards-ncaa-convention
Helping Athletes Make the Grade
By Allie Grasgreen
GRAPEVINE, Texas – If an athletics department doesn’t have people spreading the word to high school students, counselors and parents about the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s heightened academic standards for initial eligibility, it’s doing a serious injustice to the athletes who will be arriving on college campuses in the coming years, officials say. “These kids are investing in their future, and it would be fundamentally unfair for them to get to the finish line and realize they’re failing – not because of them, but because we didn’t tell them what to do,” said John Morris, deputy athletics director at Colorado State University. “It’s access to a college degree, or not.” Morris and other athletic administrators presented to a packed room of college presidents, athletics directors and faculty members here at the annual NCAA convention last week, trying to imbue a sense of urgency into those who don’t already have it.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-oregon-seeks-supreme-court-review-in-former-ph-d-students-case/54523?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
U. of Oregon Seeks Supreme Court Review in Lawsuit by Ex-Ph.D. Student
In a legal case that university officials say goes to the heart of the graduate student-professor relationship, the University of Oregon has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court’s ruling that allowed a former doctoral student’s discrimination lawsuit to go forward, The Register-Guard, a newspaper in Eugene, Ore., reported. The case was brought by Monica Emeldi, who was a doctoral candidate in the university’s College of Education in 2007 when she complained to administrators that her dissertation adviser was not giving her as much help as a male counterpart was receiving. Her adviser then quit as chair of her dissertation committee, and 15 other faculty members afterward declined to take on the task, leaving her unable to finish her degree. Ms. Emeldi sued under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, asserting that the university had retaliated against her for complaining about discrimination. The university, which has hired a prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer to press its appeal, argues that the adviser’s decision to step down was an “exercise of academic judgment unaffected by discrimination.” It wants the Supreme Court to limit the use of a “burden-shifting” test that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit applied in its ruling last fall.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/23/men-are-more-likely-women-engage-science-fraud
Men Are More Likely Than Women to Engage in Science Fraud
Male scientists are more likely than their female counterparts to engage in research fraud, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal mBio. The study analyzed a large database of cases of scientific fraud, categorized those who committed the fraud by different stages of careers and then compared those at different stages of their careers (from junior levels to senior scientists) to the gender make-up of the fields.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/crime/some-attacked-at-houston-area-college-campus/nT4K8/
3 hurt as gunfire erupts on Texas college campus By JUAN A. LOZANO
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at a Houston-area community college, leaving three people wounded, including a maintenance worker caught in the crossfire. No one was killed, but the volley of gunshots just after noon on the Lone Star College campus sent students and others scrambling for safety and sparked fear of another campus massacre slightly more than a month after 26 people were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Harris County sheriff’s officials said late Tuesday that Carlton Berry, 22, had been charged with aggravated assault in the shooting. Berry remained hospitalized, the officials said. The conditions of the other person involved in the shooting and maintenance worker were not available. …Several school districts in Texas have either implemented or are considering a plan to allow faculty to carry guns on campus. While guns are not allowed on college campuses, the Texas Legislature this year might debate a bill that would allow them. Richard Carpenter, chancellor of the Lone Star College System, said the campus is a gun-free zone that “has been safe for 40 years.”

Related articles:
www.onlineathens.com
Fight leads to gunfire on Texas college campus
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2013-01-22/texas-campus-issues-alert-amid-reports-shooter

www.insidehighered.com
Three Injured in Texas Campus Shooting
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/23/three-injured-texas-campus-shooting
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