USG NEWS:
qww.news-daily.com
http://www.news-daily.com/news/2013/may/06/deal-gives-green-light-archives-transfer/
Deal gives green light to archives transfer
By Curt Yeomans
ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law the transfer of the Georgia Archives to the University System of Georgia Monday afternoon.

www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2013/05/work-at-georgia-regents-university.html
Work at Georgia Regents University president’s home not approved
Carla Caldwell, Morning Call Editor
More than $280,000 has been spent by school officials on repairs and renovations at the Georgia Regents University president’s home in Augusta since 2010 without approval from the state Board of Regents, according to documents obtained by The Augusta Chronicle.

Related article:
www.jacksonville.com
$284,000 in work done on Georgia Regents University president’s house without approval, system spokesman says
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2013-05-06/story/284000-work-done-georgia-regents-university-presidents-house-without

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/middle-georgia-college-student-from-metro-atlanta-/nXjXM/
Middle Georgia College student from metro Atlanta missing for nearly 2 weeks
By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The search continued Tuesday for a Middle Georgia State College student from metro Atlanta missing for nearly two weeks. Jmaal Malik Keyes, 19, was last seen April 25 on his college’s campus in Cochran, according to campus police. The freshman was reported missing by his family four days later.

GOOD NEWS:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/05/06/2492576/chuck-williams-66-million-gift.html
Chuck Williams: $66 million gift to Medical College of Georgia historic
By CHUCK WILLIAMS
Retired Columbus physician Cecil Whitaker — a long time OB-GYN — has taken part in thousands of deliveries over the years. But last week, almost two decades after he quit birthing babies, Whitaker played a role in one of the greatest deliveries public education in the state of Georgia has ever seen. The estate of J. Harold Harrison, a successful Atlanta vascular surgeon and cattle rancher, announced a $66 million gift to the Medical College of Georgia Foundation to fund scholarships and educational chairs. This came on the heels of a $10 million contribution last year to help finance a building named for Harrison, like Whitaker, a graduate of the Medical College.

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-05-06/exchange-brief#.UYkyBuCTpGM
Exchange in brief
Georgia Southern among ‘greenest’ colleges
Georgia Southern University has been recognized as one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible “green colleges” by the Princeton Review and the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council for the third consecutive year.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/students-eligible-to-graduate-at-uga-spring-commencement/article_e28160be-b67d-11e2-b7e6-0019bb30f31a.html
5,255 students eligible to graduate at UGA Spring Commencement
UGA News Service
Approximately 4,164 undergraduates and 1,091 graduate students — a total of 5,255 — are eligible to walk in the University of Georgia’s spring Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 10.
Tickets are not required for either ceremony.

www.ledger-enquirer.com
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/05/06/2493036/finally-csu-and-ctc-hold-spring.html
Finally: CSU and CTC hold spring commencement ceremonies
— Larry Gierer
The waiting is over. Approximately 1,000 college degrees were presented to graduates of Columbus State University and Columbus Technical College Monday night. CSU held its spring commencement ceremony at the Columbus Civic Center while Columbus Tech celebrated at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center. …At its function CSU awarded a honorary doctorate to Aflac CEO Dan Amos. With 769 degrees awarded, it was one of the largest graduating classes in CSU history.

www.americusrecorder.com
http://americustimesrecorder.com/local/x319977471/Sen-Jason-Carter-reveals-secret-to-wealth-power-to-GSW-graduates
Sen. Jason Carter reveals secret to wealth, power to GSW graduates
Beth Alston
Americus Times-Recorder
AMERICUS — It is a rare occasion when a former President of the United States introduces his grandson, a state senator, as the keynote speaker at a university graduation ceremony, but that’s what occurred Saturday morning at Georgia Southwestern State University. Former President Jimmy Carter had the pleasure of introducing grandson Georgia state Sen. Jason Carter, Senate District 142, an attorney at Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP in Atlanta.

USG VALUE:
www.midtown.patch.com
http://midtown.patch.com/articles/ga-tech-s-advanced-technology-development-center-named-as-one-of-the-business-incubators-changing-the-world
Ga Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center named as one of the “Business Incubators Changing the World”
In its description of ATDC, Forbes noted that since 1980, the center has launched more than 120 companies that have collectively raised more than $1 billion in outside financing.
By Patch Staff
Forbes magazine has named the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech as one of the “Business Incubators Changing the World.” The magazine worked with CB insights, a New York firm that tracks funding trends, to identify a dozen “especially crackling innovations hubs” from among more than 300 candidates. …ATDC was the only incubator in the Southeast to make the Forbes list.

www.wtoc.com
http://www.wtoc.com/story/22175880/georgia-southern-students-help-design-homeless-shelter
GSU students help design homeless shelter
By Dal Cannady
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) -A proposed homeless shelter in Statesboro took one more step toward reality, thanks to a class of Georgia Southern University students. A dozen students from instructor Chris Johnson’s interior design class spent the semester planning the interior and exterior of the Open Hearts Community Mission. Organizers have purchased property in February to build a 40 bed (20 men/20 women) shelter. Students designed everything from the sleeping quarters to the dining hall to the processing area and administrative offices. Students attempted to balance privacy/security with cost and comfort.

RESEARCH:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-05-06/underwater-robot-will-let-uga-researcher-probe-gulf-stream-eddies
Underwater robot will let UGA researcher probe Gulf Stream eddies
By LEE SHEARER
A University of Georgia marine scientist will explore the edges of the Gulf Stream with the university’s first robotic submersible. Physical oceanographer Renato Castelao will work with another researcher to analyze data collected by the torpedo-shaped device, dubbed the Salty Dawg.

www.bbc.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21699307
Google Glass – will we love it or hate it?
By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter
Google’s smart glasses project has been causing excitement in the tech world for months as speculation about what it will finally look like and be able to do reaches fever pitch. Prototype devices are being tested by around 1,000 so-called Glass Explorers and are expected to go on sale to the public next year… Prof Thad E. Starner, Georgia Institute of Technology: For the past 20 years I have been wearing a computer with a head-up display as an intelligent assistant in my daily life. My research teams have formed communities of users to create “living laboratories” where we can explore the potential benefits and social aspects of these devices.

www.onlineamd.com
http://www.onlineamd.com/amd0513-lightweight-sensors-UAV.aspx
Supporting Development of Lightweight Sensors for UAVs
Elizabeth Engler Modic
A research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing airborne testing capability for sensors, communications devices, and other airborne payloads. This aerial test bed, called the GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS), is based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made by Griffon Aerospace and modified by the GTRI.

www.contracostatimes.com
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_23169256/independent-state-panel-may-add-broken-bay-bridge
Independent state panel may add broken Bay Bridge bolts to its work
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
OAKLAND — Amid mounting concerns over the safety of the new Bay Bridge, State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier wants a panel of experts to conduct the first independent technical review of the broken bolt problem… The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, made up of the top executives of Caltrans, California Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, is paying the $100,000 it will cost to convene the panel. Reginald DesRoches, director of the engineering school at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will lead the group.

www.hngn.com
http://www.hngn.com/articles/2525/20130504/georgia-tech-researcher-amplifies-russian-meteor-sound-waves-make-audible.htm
Georgia Tech Researcher Amplifies Russian Meteor Sound Waves To Make It Audible
By Sam Goodwin
A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals of the Russian Meteor to make them audible to people so that they can hear what these meteors sounded like. The meteor shower blast that took place above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk was so powerful that it injured more than 1,500 people and damaged many properties. A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals of the Russian Meteor to make them audible for people to hear what these meteors sounded like when they blasted through the Russian sky.

www.midtown.patch.com
http://midtown.patch.com/articles/study-texting-kids-with-asthma-can-make-them-more-in-tune-with-their-illness
Study: Texting Kids With Asthma About Illness Information, Symptoms Can Help Them
The Georgia Tech research was recently presented at a conference in Paris.
By Leslie Johnson
Sending texts about asthma symptoms and information can be helpful to a young asthmatic’s health, according to a Georgia Tech study. According to a post on the university’s website: In a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, pediatric patients who were asked questions about their symptoms and provided information about asthma via SMS text messages showed improved pulmonary function and a better understanding of their condition within four months, compared to other groups. T.J. Yun, former Georgia Tech Ph.D. student, and study leader Rosa Arriaga, senior research scientist in the College of Computing’s School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech Arriaga are behind the research, “A Text Message a Day Keeps the Pulmonologist Away.”

www.gizmodo.com
http://gizmodo.com/biomedical-engineer-on-making-iron-man-3s-extremis-tec-493188992
Biomedical Engineer on Making Iron Man 3’s Extremis Tech Real
Kyle Wagner
The tech driving Iron Man 3 isn’t, as it typically is, Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. Instead, it’s the medical-but-also-real-explodey Extremis. And believe it or not, the physiological nanoparticle science behind it isn’t pure science fiction. At least some parts of it are within reach relatively soon. Extremis works, to paraphrase the movie, by hacking the operating system of your body using nanotechnology. Dr. Shuming Nie is a professor in Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and says the concept isn’t too far off base. He says that within 10 year or so, we can have practical medical applications of nanoparticles that not only enhance the human body, but make performing surgery easier.

www.nytimes.com

Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
By DAVID STREITFELD
Google’s wearable computer, the most anticipated piece of electronic wizardry since the iPad and iPhone, will not go on sale for many months. But the resistance is already under way. The glasseslike device, which allows users to access the Internet, take photos and film short snippets, has been pre-emptively banned by a Seattle bar. Large parts of Las Vegas will not welcome wearers. West Virginia legislators tried to make it illegal to use the gadget, known as Google Glass, while driving… Thad Starner (Georgia Tech), a pioneer of wearable computing who is a technical adviser to the Glass team, says he thinks concerns about disruption are overblown. “Asocial people will be able to find a way to do asocial things with this technology, but on average people like to maintain the social contract,” Mr. Starner said. He added that he and colleagues had experimented with Glass-type devices for years, “and I can’t think of a single instance where something bad has happened.”

www.forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2013/05/07/michigan-i-corps-program-in-ann-arbor-begins-today/
Michigan I-Corps Program In Ann Arbor Begins Today
Amit Chowdhry, Contributor
Michigan Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a statewide program that was designed to foster and grow an innovation ecosystem. The program was designed through partnerships between the National Science Foundation (NSF), several universities in Michigan, Michigan SmartZones, and multiple entrepreneurial communities… Around 25 teams work per node. Michigan became the third node after Stanford and Georgia Tech. The Stanford node is led by Steve Blank and the Georgia Tech node is led by Keith McGreggor.

www.globalatlanta.com
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/26233/georgias-whole-package-key-to-winning-british-film-studio/
Georgia’s ‘Whole Package’ Key to Winning British Film Studio
By Trevor Williams
Like the suave secret agent portrayed in its movies, studio operator Pinewood Shepperton plc is looking to become an even larger international force. As of last week, Georgia was added to the list of global production outposts for Pinewood, best known for making 21 of 23 James Bond films including the recent “Skyfall”… Already, reports indicate that more than 70 companies have inquired with Fayette County about the prospect of relocating, one factor behind a Georgia Institute of Technology report that calculated the studio’s spillover could lead to 3,400 jobs for the area when all is said and done.

www.globalatlanta.com
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/26234/bicycle-coalition-inspired-by-bogota-and-copenhagen/
Bicycle Coalition Inspired by Bogota and Copenhagen
By Phil Bolton, Kathryn Dennis
A trip to Bogota, Colombia, in 2006 sparked Rebecca Serna’s activism to transform Atlanta’s dependence on cars into a more bike friendly city. The South American city of 8 million inhabitants and countless cars and buses closes off a 70-mile stretch of streets on Sundays transforming its usually congested center into a haven for hundreds of thousands of walkers and bikers. As a student at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, she studied urban policy and became involved in bicycle advocacy through an internship with the Georgia Department of Transportation where she helped write a bicycle and pedestrian safety action plan. A Fulbright scholarship took her to Bogota where she studied the city’s innovative plan that fired her enthusiasm for launching a bike friendly city environment through the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition of which she has been the executive director since 2007. …Another indicator is the commitment of its board members including Amir Farokhi, the coalition’s co-chair and executive director of Georgia Forward; Glenn Kurtz, coalition co-chair and executive vice president of Lanier Parking Solutions; Aaron Fowler, alternative transportation coordinator at the Georgia Institute of Technology;

STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.myajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/deal-signs-199-billion-budget-for-fiscal-2014/nXjdK/
Deal signs $19.9 billion budget for fiscal 2014
By James Salzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Nathan Deal Tuesday morning signed a $19.9 billion budget for the coming year that increases spending $600 million but doesn’t provide cost-of-living raises for the state’s 200,000 employees and teachers. As in every year since the start of the Great Recession, the state budget includes spending cuts in nearly every department, from agriculture to technical colleges. At the same time, it funnels millions more into k-12 education and public health care.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/new-ethics-overhaul-brings-new-challenges/nXhpG/
Deal signs ethics overhaul, says give it a chance
BY GREG BLUESTEIN AND CHRIS JOYNER – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Gov. Nathan Deal signed an ethics overhaul into law Monday that imposes Georgia’s first-ever limitations on gifts to public officials, and he hailed the move as a watershed moment shoring up the public’s trust of its elected leaders. The new rules place a $75 cap on dinners and many other gifts lobbyists typically lavish on public officials, but vague language and confusing exceptions have prompted unresolved questions about what the changes mean and how they will be enforced.

Related article:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Gov. Deal signs ethics legislation
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2013-05-06/gov-deal-signs-ethics-legislation?v=1367866581

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/may/07/state-releases-new-school-grades-how-did-your-scho/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
State releases new school grades. How did your school and district stack up?
The state Department of Education just released grades for all k-12 public schools in Georgia based on a brand new measures called the Georgia College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). You can see scores for each school and district averages for the three bands, elementary, middle and high school.

www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/05/06/31jennings.h32.html?tkn=OSUFeuqzdsY8PA9XTTVouLOcOqxQbwHx1jD4&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1
An Apology to Secretary Duncan
By Jennifer Jennings
I agree with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on just about nothing. I think Race to the Top is an evidence-free mess. I think the idea of a test worth teaching to is a willful misunderstanding of the science of testing. And I can’t agree with Duncan’s insistence that the cheating scandals that have garnered widespread attention in recent months are a parable about “rotten” school cultures and not a reflection on the incentives that we’ve forced upon teachers. But as I sat on the floor of a packed ballroom in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association last week, I was embarrassed—no, humiliated—that some of my colleagues booed the secretary of education when he approached the microphone for his keynote speech.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53149/
Higher Ed and the Dreamers: The Big Winners in Immigration Bill By Far
by Emil Guillermo
Compromise is imperfect, but colleges and universities have to be happy with the immigration bill as it stands. Whatever the Gang of Eight hammered out in the Senate is still likely to undergo some changes as it goes through the lawmaking process. But if it stays intact, it’s because conservatives knew it was time to give in on the DREAM Act, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/06/essay-suggests-moocs-are-losing-their-original-worthy-goals
The Hijacking of MOOCs
By Kevin Bell
The recent announcement from the California State University System regarding its embrace of edX massive open online courses (MOOCs) is interesting and depressing at the same time. As with many aspects of the MOOC phenomenon, it comes packaged with good and bad aspects bundled up together. Instructors will offer a “special ‘flipped’ version of an electrical engineering course … where students watch online lectures from Harvard and MIT at home.” So the good is the flipped part because it’s more interactive and dynamic and there’s less lecture-based didacticism in the classroom due to watching videos at home? Really? The 1970s just called: they want their Open University courses back.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/not-hand
Not A Hand Up
By Bonnie Stewart
There’s a refrain we keep hearing in the current debate over MOOCs: people don’t complete. Only a small fraction finish. The dropout rate is enormous. It’s all true. As illustrated in Katy Jordan’s excellent data visualization, released this spring, less than ten percent of registered students actually complete all their MOOC course requirements. To which we tend to respond, Oh dear! MOOCs have a big problem. They aren’t serving their students sufficiently.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Reciprocity-Is-Essential-for/139043/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Reciprocity Is Essential for Regulating Distance Education
By Richard W. Riley
Online education has been growing at a tremendous pace over the last decade or so. Students today have the opportunity to earn college credit and degrees from a wide variety of institutions. Almost seven million students used online technology in 2011 to get access to postsecondary courses, and 32 percent of higher-education students now take at least one course online. This potential market has not escaped the attention of institutional leadership. Nearly 70 percent of chief academic leaders say that online learning is critical to their long-term strategies for their institutions.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/05/06/essay-how-earn-tenure
10 Tips to Earn Tenure
By Mary Kirk
One day while I was simultaneously earning my doctorate and teaching full-time as a lecturer in the Computing and Software Systems Program at the University of Washington at Bothell, a colleague’s comments foretold my future. I didn’t want to believe her then, but I wish I had. It happened this way. I had complained to my colleague, who was an assistant professor of education, that after the intellectually, emotionally and physically grueling experience of completing graduate school while teaching full-time, I would really look forward to “just” being a professor. She replied, “I hate to tell you this, but you’ll still be working 60 and 70 hour weeks to earn tenure and promotion because you’ll have all kinds of other responsibilities besides teaching that you don’t have now.”

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/provost-prose/we-need-talk
We Ned to Talk
By Herman Berliner
At this time of year, I’m always reminded of the spring a few years ago when I had University related events for 27 nights in a row in addition to all the normal day activities. Just as this period was ending, I bumped into a senior faculty member, now retired, who wanted to tell me that he was certain that the Provost was a glamour job and that he couldn’t imagine anything more fun to do in higher education. Perhaps glamour and fun are not the most accurate descriptors. But the provost position provides an excellent vantage point to see clearly what is going on, on a college or university campus.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/measuring-success
Measuring Success
By Matt Reed
How do you know when a college is doing a good job? The traditional answer was either “by reputation,” or “because the faculty tells you so.” But those are both flawed. The former is based on a host of factors having little or nothing to do with teaching and learning — the fate of the basketball team, say — and the latter is beset by a basic conflict of interest. “We’re experts — just ask us!” doesn’t convince most laypeople, nor should it. But if we don’t use those standards, what should we use?

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Bouncing-Back-May-Be-Tough/138923/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bouncing Back May Be Tough, but So Are We
By Beth McMurtrie
In 2005 the National Science Foundation brought together some unlikely collaborators—ecologists and psychologists among them—to talk about resilience. It turns out they had a lot in common. For decades researchers in each field had been studying the ways in which external events and stresses could transform complex systems. Their conclusions were strikingly similar: Resilience is often the result of a period of stress and change.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Out-of-Debt-on-the-Road/138921/
Out of Debt, on the Road
By Ken Ilgunas
I thought of student debt like I thought of death: I didn’t think of it at all. As a 21-year-old college student, I had a long life and bright future ahead of me. Why should I worry myself sick over gloomy inevitabilities? Best to shove worries of my $32,000 debt to the back of my mind alongside other yet-to-be-grown-up concerns, like paying a mortgage, finding good day care, and growing skin tags. I had little desire to leave college. …Despite having been an editor at my college newspaper, all 25 of my applications to paid journalism internships were rejected. I began to feel desperate: It struck me that maybe I wasn’t going to be able to pay off my debt after all.

Education News
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/schools-prepare-to-get-their-grades/nXh3y/
Schools prepare to get their grades
BY MARK NIESSE – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Students aren’t the only ones graded on their performance. Starting Tuesday, their schools will be too.
For the first time, every public school in Georgia will receive number grades that measure academics, readiness for advancement, graduation rates, progress and achievement gaps. The new report card evaluates schools with a system familiar to children and parents, with grades near 100 signifying excellence, and lower grades exposing schools that need improvement. This scoring system, called the Georgia College and Career Ready Performance Index, replaces the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which judged schools based on whether they achieved Adequate Yearly Progress. Georgia is one of 10 states that has been granted a waiver from the federal law and its pass-or-fail assessments of standardized test results.

Related article:
www.independentmail.com
Georgia to release new grades for public schools
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2013/may/07/georgia-release-new-grades-public-schools/

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/most-metro-school-districts-outpace-state-average-/nXjc7/
Most metro school districts outpace state average on new school report card
By Ty Tagami
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s new report card for schools is out this morning and the grade for most metro Atlanta school systems is above average, with the City of Decatur and Gwinnett County leading the bunch.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/06/public-university-accountability-system-expands-ways-report-student-learning
Public University Accountability 2.0
By Doug Lederman
The Voluntary System of Accountability was born six years ago as a defensive act, seeking to demonstrate to politicians and critics that colleges and universities were willing to show the public how they were performing in key ways. But the two college groups that created the VSA, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, are now revising it, in large part to encourage more public universities to participate.

www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/05/08/30debate_ep.h32.html?tkn=NYTFPj8zDM86KNB5ODgUg7siTXsfz3h0zzTy&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
Rifts Deepen Over Direction of Ed. Policy in U.S.
By Michele McNeil
In statehouses and cities across the country, battles are raging over the direction of education policy—from the standards that will shape what students learn to how test results will be used to judge a teacher’s performance.
Students and teachers, in passive resistance, are refusing to take and give standardized tests. Protesters have marched to the White House over what they see as the privatization of the nation’s schools. Professional and citizen lobbyists are packing hearings in state capitols to argue that the federal government is trying to dictate curricula through the use of common standards.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/06/nea-prepares-new-statement-digital-learning
NEA Prepares New Statement on Digital Learning
The board of the National Education Association, which represents college faculty members in addition to elementary and secondary school teachers, on Friday approved a new statement on digital learning that is likely to be adopted as official policy for the union by its Representative Assembly in July. The policy, which applies to both K-12 and higher education:

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Faculty-Backlash-Grows-Against/139049/
Faculty Backlash Grows Against Online Partnerships
By Steve Kolowich
Many professors recognize that online education is changing the landscape of academe. But faculty members at several colleges are making it clear that they will not be steamrolled. Philosophy professors at San Jose State University last week wrote an open letter saying they refused to use material from an edX course, taught by a famous Harvard University professor, for fear that California State University administrators were angling for a way to eventually gut their department.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/06/u-texas-system-postpones-implementation-employee-disclosure-policy
Full Disclosure
By Carl Straumsheim
Should not disclosing the fact that you coach Little League be a fireable offense for a professor? As administrators in the University of Texas System move to expand the employee disclosure policy to avoid overlooking inappropriate conflicts of interest, faculty members say the plans infringe on their academic freedom and personal privacy. The “Conflict of Interest, Conflicts of Commitment and Outside Activities” policy, meant to go into effect May 1, was pushed back four months after faculty members last month spent more than an hour objecting to measures, which some professors described as excessive.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/06/community-colleges-expand-outreach-alumni
Reaching Alumni
By Zack Budryk
Two-year colleges are typically not known for their alumni relations. But as state cutbacks leave many of them with major shortfalls, more community colleges are turning to alumni outreach to make up the difference.

www.diveseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53126/
Colleges and Universities Work to Build Endowments After Recession
By Reginald Stuart
When Barbara Miller joined North Carolina A&T University as its chief advancement officer, she was tasked with helping the university boost its endowment to $75 million by 2020 by raising some $40 million between now and then. A&T, as the Greensboro-based state university is commonly known, is in many respects a mirror of what has happened in recent years to many public and private institutions across the nation. …As outside sources of funds level and decrease and many institutions try to hold the line on boosting tuition and fees, the income from endowments is increasingly being looked to as a future source for closing funding gaps for scholarships, fellowships, supplements for teachers and researchers and various light and water expenses.

www.businessweek.com
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-05/johns-hopkins-sets-4-dot-5-billion-target-for-fundraising-program
Johns Hopkins Sets $4.5 Billion Target for Fundraising Program
By Dan Hart
Johns Hopkins University seeks to raise $4.5 billion to endow professorships and generate funds for undergraduate financial aid and graduate fellowships, the biggest effort in the institution’s history, the school said. The university has already raised $1.94 billion from more than 150,000 donors since it began a “quiet phase” of the fundraising in January 2010, Johns Hopkins said in an e-mailed statement.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/06/new-procedures-verifying-student-visas
New Procedures for Verifying Student Visas
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has outlined new steps for verifying international students’ visas at immigration checkpoints, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/06/more-evidence-economic-value-college-degrees
More Evidence of Economic Value of College Degrees
Throughout the economic downturn, some pundits and politicians have suggested that there is limited value to a college degree. An analysis in The New York Times, based on the latest unemployment data, suggests otherwise.

www.online.wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324582004578461450531723268.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0
Colleges Cut Prices by Providing More Financial Aid
By RUTH SIMON
Private U.S. colleges, worried they could be pricing themselves out of the market after years of relentless tuition increases, are offering record financial assistance to keep classrooms full. The average “tuition discount rate”—the reduction off list price afforded by grants and scholarships given by these schools—hit an all-time high of 45% last fall for incoming freshmen, according to a survey being released Monday by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53137/
More Students Opting for Education Buffet
by Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
Danine Adams has taken a few courses at a four-year university, some at a community college, and still more online while working all over the country as an investigator for the federal Bureau of Prisons—career experience that she has also been able to transform into academic credit. A little from here. A little from there. And now Adams, who is 42, is just a few credits shy of earning a bachelor’s degree. …She’s also a forerunner of a new type of college student, one who doesn’t start and finish at a single brick-and-mortar campus, but picks and chooses credits toward a degree or job from a veritable buffet of education options. These include dual-enrollment courses—college-level courses offered to students while they’re still in high school—advanced-placement programs, military or corporate training, career and life experience, and classes taught online.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53104/#
These Junior Rocket Scientists Have Their Sights on Top-Flight Colleges
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
CLARKSVILLE, Md. — When Jasmyn Logan and Nia’mani Robinson, age 14, met up to test launch their rockets in the middle of farm here the other day, their purpose was to prepare for the upcoming national Team America Rocketry Challenge. But as members of “Team Rocket Power” — one of 100 teams that qualified for the national competition set for May 11 in The Plains, Va. — the girls were actually aiming for new heights in more ways than one. Team Rocket Power is a rarity among rarities. Not only is the team one of nine all-girls teams to qualify for national finals of the Team America Rocketry Challenge, also known as TARC, but their team is also the only all-girls team that is African-American, according to the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or NSBE.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53116/#
U. of Central Arkansas Opts Out of Guns on Campus Law
by Associated Press
CONWAY, Ark. — The University of Central Arkansas’ Board of Trustees has voted to not allow faculty and staff members with concealed-handgun permits to carry their weapons on campus. The board voted 5-1 Friday to opt out of the new state law that allows weapons on campus carried by faculty or staff members with a concealed-carry permit. It is the state’s first four-year college to do so. UCA President Tom Courtway, campus Police Chief Larry James, the staff senate and the faculty senate recommended the action.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53141/
Diverse Docket: LSAT-Takers With Disabilities Win Round in Calif.
By Eric Freedman
A California civil rights agency can go forward with group claims that the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) illegally discriminates against LSAT-takers with disabilities, a federal judge has held. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing doesn’t need to follow the more complicated procedure for class action certification because it’s a governmental agency “authorized to act in the public’s interest to obtain broad relief.”

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/06/japan-plans-more-scholarships-foreign-study
Japan Plans More Scholarships for Foreign Study
Japan is planning to offer scholarships for students at its universities to study abroad, The New York Times reported.