There is troubling news about low academic standards at community colleges and the reasons for them in a story titled “Low Bar, High Failure” in Inside Higher Education below.
USG NEWS:
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/your-good-news/2013-05-09/family-donates-aed-memory-georgia-southern-student#.UY0Lv-CTpGM
Family Donates AED in Memory of Georgia Southern Student
By Savannah Morning News
The College of Business Administration (COBA) at Georgia Southern University has been given an automated external defibrillator (AED) by the family of Cory Wilson. The junior business major collapsed in class and died on January 17. Kenny and Lisa Wilson of Savannah made the donation in memory of their 21-year-old son.
GOOD NEWS:
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-05-09/armstrong-expand-build-new-facilityin-hinesville#.UYz29-CTpGN
Armstrong to expand, build new facility in Hinesville
By Savannah Morning News
Armstrong Atlantic State University announced plans this week to expand its Armstrong-Liberty Center in Hinesville. In partnership with the city of Hinesville, the university will build a new classroom and laboratory building downtown on Central Avenue at the intersection of Welborn Street and Memorial Drive. The site is close to Hinesville’s new library and is expected to be an important part of the delopment of Memorial Drive. “This formalizes construction of a long-anticipated and much-needed facility,” said Armstrong President Linda Bleicken. “Our partnership with the city of Hinesville allows an expanded presence to create new educational pathways in the region for students of all ages.
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-05-08/herty-celebrates-milestone-anniversary#.UY0DVuCTpGM
Herty celebrates milestone anniversary
By Mary Carr Mayle
For much of the last century, the Savannah-based Herty Advanced Materials Development Center has worked to help the pulp and paper industry create commercial applications for the state’s massive timber reserves. On Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal — calling Herty an institution that has contributed much to the industrial and economic development of Georgia — joined Georgia Southern University President Brooks Keel and Herty president and CEO Alex Koukoulas in a celebration of the center’s 75 years of innovation. …Herty, which became part of GSU last year, was established in 1938 to continue the work of the late University of Georgia professor Charles Herty, a research chemist whose findings on turning pine trees into newsprint spawned a massive industry.
RESEARCH:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/power-plants-uga-researchers-explore-how-to-harvest-electricity-directly/article_5d05a396-b8ad-11e2-9ebc-0019bb30f31a.html
Power plants: UGA researchers explore how to harvest electricity directly from plants
UGA News Service
The sun provides the most abundant source of energy on the planet. However, only a tiny fraction of the solar radiation on Earth is converted into useful energy. To help solve this problem, researchers at the University of Georgia looked to nature for inspiration, and they are now developing a new technology that makes it possible to use plants to generate electricity.
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/uga-scientists-develop-giant-titan-blueberries/article_c01c46ae-b7fb-11e2-858a-001a4bcf6878.html
UGA scientists develop giant Titan blueberries
Staff Reports
Although Georgia is known as the Peach State, the state produces tons of blueberries every year. With the University of Georgia’s newly developed Titan variety, blueberries could gain even more traction in the state.
UGA scientists recently bred a new, larger type of blueberry variety, the Titan — a berry that can grow as large as a quarter, according to a press release from the university’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
www.local15tv.com
http://www.local15tv.com/news/local/story/Using-Energy-Beets-for-Biofuel/0rkjtFuhPk6bG1TBFvWngA.cspx
Using Energy Beets for Biofuel
Reported by: James Gordon
BON SECOUR, Ala. (WPMI) Research teams from Auburn University along with teams from the University of Georgia have been studying the use of “energy beets” for biofuel. If successful the beets would be grown in the winter providing farmers across the Southeast a crop to grow in rotation with their summer crops. It would also provide other advantages. Plastic bottles and ethanol can come from beets.
www.southeastfarmpress.com
http://southeastfarmpress.com/peanuts/auto-steer-driving-peanut-grower-profits
Auto-steer driving peanut grower profits
Increased yield, income
By Clint Thompson, University of Georgia
Auto-steer technology is driving peanut farmers to higher crop yields and bigger profit margins. George Vellidis, a researcher on the Tifton Campus of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, reached this conclusion following a two-year study in 2010-11. Vellidis and his research team tested the on-board computer system for tractors on a private farm.
www.atlantamagazine.com
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/agenda/2013/05/08/dogs-cancer-medical-research
Man’s best lab partner
Dogs helpful in medical research
by Mary Jo DiLonardo
A pit bull named Petey is romping around twenty months after undergoing an investigational brain tumor treatment—developed at Emory University in conjunction with the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-05-08/uga-help-afghanistan-bound-soldiers-use-livestock-and-seeds-win-over-locals
With UGA help, Afghanistan-bound soldiers use livestock and seeds to win over locals
By WALTER C. JONESMORRIS NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA — Some members of the Georgia National Guard deployed to Afghanistan are using cows, chickens and seeds more than they’re using their guns. They’re volunteers on the Agribusiness Development Team, the third such unit sent from Georgia in three years. …Despite having some of the most fertile soils anywhere, agriculture in Afghanistan is so primitive that scientists at the University of Georgia compare it to American practices of 200 years ago. As a result, even simple suggestions brought by these soldiers can have a huge impact, such as hanging grape vines on trellises rather than the traditional practice of growing them on mounds. Afghan farming suffers from 30 years of war, according to Steve Brown, the University of Georgia assistant dean who oversaw the week-long agriculture instruction for the members of the Guard.
STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2013/05/07/gov-deal-signs-14-state-budget.html
Gov. Deal signs ’14 state budget
Dave Williams
Staff Writer-Atlanta Business Chronicle
Gov. Nathan Deal signed a $19.9 billion state budget Tuesday that will increase spending by 4.6 percent over this year, primarily to cover higher education and health-care costs. Of the $522 million increase in spending over fiscal 2013, $247.7 million will go toward Georgia’s Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids programs. Another $146.5 million will cover enrollment growth in the state’s public elementary and secondary schools.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.saportareport.com
http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/05/coca-cola-pledges-3-8-million-in-grants-to-fight-obesity-in-georgia/
SaportaReport by Maria Sporta
Coca-Cola pledges $3.8 million in grants to fight obesity in Georgia
The Coca-Cola Co. Wednesday morning pledged $3.8 million in grants to help fight the obesity epidemic in Georgia. In a press conference at the World of Coca-Cola with Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said: “We are inspiring our hometown of Atlanta and home state of Georgia to be active.” …The Coca-Cola Foundation has pledged $3.8 million to support statewide initiatives to help people get active, including $1 million for Georgia SHAPE and $1 million for Walk Georgia initiatives. …Walk Georgia was created by the University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Service. This initiative focuses on community-oriented physical activity programs customized by community members.
Related article:
www.bizjournals.com
Coca-Cola pledges $3.8 million in grants to fight obesity in Georgia
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2013/05/08/coca-cola-pledges-38-million-in.html
www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-j-carter/how-to-save-billions_b_3233176.html
How to Save Billions and Better Prepare Students to Make Billions
Carol J. Carter
Author and student success expert
Last February, The National Center for Education reported that 50 percent of the 3 million students who begin college annually require some level of remediation. This trend costs students, parents, institutions, and taxpayers nearly $7 billion a year, while remedial students fail to earn a single college credit. The high volume and costs of remediation have policymakers and education leaders scrambling to stop this financial hemorrhage. While reform in remedial education is inevitable, the unintended consequences of swooping changes can be harmful to students, institutions, and the economy at a time when the U.S. is struggling to fill the 21st century workforce with high-skilled workers.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/not-everyone-should-go-college
Not Everyone Should Go to College
By Matt Reed
But everyone should have the option. This week’s Twitterverse has featured a series of exchanges about success rates of students with academic preparation gaps, the cost of financial aid, and allegations of throwing good money after bad. Michael Petrilli in particular is staking out a position that we should stop offering remedial courses altogether, and stop admitting students with preparation gaps, so that they can find other pathways in life in which they’re likelier to be successful, and the rest of us can stop paying for them. It’s a frustrating discussion, because it conflates a series of issues. Instead of falling into the “are too — am not” exchange so familiar to the interwebs, I’ll try to separate the issues involved and assume that everybody means well.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/moocs-and-remediation
MOOCs and Remediation
By Matt Reed
Bonnie Stewart’s post yesterday triggered some reflections on the ways that MOOCs could actually be useful in remediation. I’m not sure if she would agree with where I’m taking this, but a good thought is a good thought. Remedial classes, by and large, are subject to the same semester and financial aid regulations as credit-bearing classes. That’s true even though, with rare exceptions, remedial classes don’t transfer. And it makes sense that they don’t. They don’t count towards graduation, for one thing, and the whole point of them is to get students ready for college level work. Students are “supposed” to get ready for college level work in high school, so there’s already ample precedent for recognizing instruction done outside a college setting.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/07/essay-state-budget-cuts-academe-australia-and-us
Oz and Us
By Gaye Tuchman
At Wannabe U, a research university that I have been observing for years, the provost and president have announced that it is time to create a new academic plan. (That’s a business plan garbed in academic regalia, gold tassel and all.) “We have exceeded many of [the] goals” set in the last plan, the announcement said. It also revealed that this newest plan is to guide restructuring: It will set the criteria for eradicating academic departments and eliminating jobs. When I spoke at several Australian universities in March, I heard professors utter the same words again and again: “We are undergoing restructuring.” (Some universities had already experienced restructuring several times.)
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/09/faculty-who-teach-online-are-invisible-campuses-essay
Where Have All the Faculty Gone?
By Keith Kroll
Over the past five or six years, as I walked the halls or stepped into the faculty mailroom, copy room, and faculty/staff lounge at the community college where I teach, I have been struck by the noticeable absence of faculty. And I don’t mean part-time faculty, who — despite making up nearly 70 percent of all community college faculty — have always been nearly invisible on campus. I mean full-time faculty. Simply stated, they’re just not around as much anymore.
Education News
www.wctv.tv
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/20-Billion-State-Budget-Cuts-Technical-College-Funding-206636331.html
Georgia Budget: Less Funding For Technical Colleges
By Eames Yates
May 8, 2013
Valdosta, GA – Governor Nathan Deal has signed a nearly twenty billion dollar budget for Georgia that begins on July first. Part of that budget says that the state’s technical colleges will get nineteen million dollars less… which has its consequences. Craig Wentworth is the president of Southwest Georgia Technical College. He said “its just made it tougher on us to offer new programs of study. Cause, you know, with new programs of study you got to have the funds to be able to pay for new faculty members and for new equipment.” The new budget also says there will be no raises for the roughly two hundred thousand state employees and teachers in Georgia. That applies to Wiregrass Tech as well as Southwest Georgia Tech.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/nacubo-survey-reports-sixth-consecutive-year-discount-rate-increases
Price of a Bad Economy
By Kevin Kiley
The tuition price you see is getting further from the price you pay, at least at private colleges and universities. The average tuition discount rate – institutional grant dollars as a share of gross tuition and fee revenue – for full-time freshmen enrolled at private colleges and universities grew for the sixth consecutive year in 2012, reaching a new high of 45 percent, according to an annual survey of private colleges and universities by the National Association of College and University Officers.
www.tampabay.com
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/university-leaders-expect-gov-rick-scott-to-veto-tuition-increase/2120045
University leaders expect Gov. Rick Scott to veto tuition increase
Tia Mitchell, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers included a 3 percent tuition increase in next year’s budget, but state universities say they aren’t counting on the extra money. Most expect Gov. Rick Scott to veto the modest tuition increase when he signs the state budget into law in the coming weeks. “He’s come out strongly against tuition increases and fee increases, and now will be a time to see if the governor stands by his word,” said Brian Goff, the outgoing student body president at the University of South Florida.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53229/
Republicans to Back President Obama’s Plan
by Philip Elliott, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are willing to give President Barack Obama a rare win, the chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee said Thursday in outlining a deal that would let college students avoid a costly hike on their student loans.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/cfpb-report-looks-solutions-private-student-loan-debt
No Easy Answer on Private Loans
By Libby A. Nelson
WASHINGTON — A federal agency released a report Wednesday examining ways to help borrowers of private student loans, but the agency made few clear-cut recommendations on helping borrowers refinance private loans or lower monthly payments.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/new-protocols-requiring-verification-sevis-status-cause-delays-ports-entry
New Visa Protocols Cause Delays
By Elizabeth Redden
Universities are reporting that students arriving in the United States are experiencing delays at border checkpoints since the implementation of new procedures requiring the verification of Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) status at border checkpoints. As first reported by the Associated Press, the new procedures were put in place after it was found that an international student accused of aiding in the destruction of evidence related to the Boston Marathon bombings was allowed to reenter the country on a terminated visa.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/community-college-students-struggle-meet-low-academic-standards-study-finds
Low Bar, High Failure
By Paul Fain
Community colleges set a low bar for students during their first year of enrollment, with lax academic standards in literacy and mathematics, according to a new study from the National Center on Education and the Economy. And many students fail to meet even those minimal expectations. The study released today uncovered “disturbingly low standards among community college instructors,” said Marc S. Tucker, president of the center, a nonprofit group that focuses on academic assessment and standards across systems of education. “It’s clear that we’re cheating our students.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/study-questioning-college-going-all-itself-questioned
Free for All Over ‘College for All’
By Doug Lederman
Questioning whether too many people are going to college is increasingly in vogue, posed in growing numbers of op-eds and articles in The Wall Street Journal and, more surprisingly, The New York Times. It’s a reasonable line of inquiry, and at a time when jobs for graduates are harder to come by (though easier for them than for non-graduates) and college tuitions keep rising, more and more scholars are trying to study the question empirically rather than merely opine about it. The latest study to explore the issue, released Wednesday, comes from the Brookings Institution and the well-regarded labor economist Isabel V. Sawhill, co-director of Brookings’ Center on Children and Families and a Clinton administration official.
www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com
http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/articles/report-highlights-impact-of-remedial-courses-need_13135.aspx#.UY0MJuCTpGM
Report Highlights Impact of Remedial Courses, Need for Standardization
By Samantha Gordon
The need for remedial courses is a growing concern for many community college officials. A recent study conducted by the National Center of Education and the Economy (NCEE) took an in-depth look at the information students need to be ready for college, and the findings show there is room for improvement.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/09/strayer-creates-completion-scholarship
Strayer Creates Completion Scholarship
Strayer University this summer will begin offering a scholarship under which undergraduates can earn a free senior year if they stick with their degree programs, the for-profit institution announced this week.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/berkeley-agrees-do-more-help-disabled-students-do-homework-and-research
Win for Disabled Students
By Ry Rivard
College students with disabilities across the United States are likely to benefit from a settlement signed this week by the University of California at Berkeley. The university will do more to make homework and research material accessible to students with visual and learning disabilities, an effort that may provide a model for disability rights advocates and university officials elsewhere.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/09/californias-looming-educational-attainment-crisis
California’s Looming Educational Attainment Crisis
A low level of educational attainment is the one common characteristic of California’s working poor, according to a new report from the Campaign for College Opportunity, a California-based advocacy group. About one in five adult Californians have not earned a high school degree or its equivalent, the report said, and the state is facing a workforce shortage of 2.3 million college graduates by 2025.
Related article:
www.diverseeducation.com
Report: California Higher Education Reforms Should Focus on State’s Working Poor
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53188/#
www.miamiherald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/09/3388705/colleges-tout-need-to-mesh-academia.html
Colleges tout need to mesh academia with hiring realities
BY DOUGLAS HANKS
When Barry University negotiates a vendor contract, it may have a few requests beyond the lowest prices and speedy delivery: finding jobs for its students. “We are changing our RFP process,’’ Sara Herald, the university’s vice president of external affairs, told a business panel Wednesday morning. To compete for Barry’s business, vendors may be asked about conducting employment interviews on the school’s Miami Shores campus and how many internships might be available for Barry students to pursue. “We want to make it a two-way street,’’ Herald said.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/florida-polytechnic-u-offer-multi-year-contracts-not-tenure-faculty
A Future Without Tenure
By Carl Straumsheim
Florida Polytechnic University’s re-envisioning of a public research institution is making some radical departures from the norm, including scrapping the idea of tenure. The state’s union leaders, however, say that decision should be reversed if administrators are serious about their aspirations for the university. Instead of tenure, faculty members “will be offered fixed term, multi-year contracts that will be renewed based on performance,” the university-to-be announced on Tuesday.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/ohio-public-institutions-consider-creating-adjunct-referral-system
Trading Adjuncts
By Carl Straumsheim
Public institutions in northeastern Ohio, squeezed by upcoming guidelines that will limit how many credit hours their adjuncts can teach, are encouraging departments in the same disciplines to share the names and qualifications of their part-time instructors with one another. But adjunct advocates say they fear some instructors could be blackballed from teaching altogether, and that the inter-university cooperation could violate U.S. antitrust laws.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/pulse-podcast-features-tools-help-teach-lab-courses-online
The Pulse: Teaching Lab Courses Online
By Doug Lederman
This month’s edition of the Pulse podcast features an interview with Jim Brown of Ocean County College, discussing tools that can help faculty members teach lab courses in online settings. Brown, associate professor of science at Ocean County, in New Jersey, and Rodney B. Murray, the host of the Pulse podcast, examine services such as Labpaq by Hands-On Labs and SoftChalk. Brown also shares some of his favorite resources for teaching the sciences in digital settings.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/09/mooc-moment-new-compilation-articles-available
‘The MOOC Moment’: New Compilation of Articles Available
Inside Higher Ed is today releasing a free compilation of articles — in print-on-demand format — about massive open online courses, or MOOCs. The articles aren’t today’s breaking news, but reflect long-term trends and some of the forward-looking thinking of experts on how MOOCs may change higher education. The idea is to provide these materials (both news articles and opinion essays) in one easy-to-read place.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/study-finds-black-and-latino-grad-students-borrow-more-earn-phds
Debt, Race and Ph.D.s
By Scott Jaschik
Colleges and universities — not to mention many businesses — have been pushing for gains in the numbers of black and Latino students who earn doctorates, especially in STEM or social science fields.
A new study may point to one hindrance in making progress toward this goal. Black and Latino graduate students are more likely to borrow and more likely to borrow larger sums to earn a Ph.D. than are white or Asian graduate students. The figures are particularly striking for African Americans and for STEM fields.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53233/
AAUW Urges Action on Child Care, Women’s STEM Participation at Community Colleges
by Ronald Roach
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) organization released a report Thursday to bring attention to the need for community colleges to facilitate campus-based child care services as well as to highlight the potential of community colleges for enabling women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/07/montana-governor-vetoes-bill-allow-guns-campus
Montana Governor Vetoes Bill to Allow Guns on Campus
Montana Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, has vetoed legislation that would have allowed students with a permit to carry concealed weapons on campus, the Associated Press reported.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53237/
Pa. University to Allow Guns on Campus
by Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
An eastern Pennsylvania university has dropped its blanket prohibition on guns and will now allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry them onto campus under certain conditions, officials said Thursday. Kutztown University’s new policy says that a gun owner with a “compelling reason” related to personal safety may bring a weapon onto campus with permission from the university police chief. Weapons will still be banned from campus buildings and athletic events. Kutztown, one of 14 state-owned universities in Pennsylvania, made the change after lawyers concluded that an outright ban was legally unenforceable, according to Kenn Marshall, a spokesman for the State System of Higher Education.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/09/wealthy-universities-move-away-investing-us-debt
Wealthy Universities Move Away From Investing in U.S. Debt
Wealthy American universities are cutting way back on their endowments’ holdings in U.S. debt, Financial Times reported.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/09/house-holds-hearing-college-tax-issues
House Holds Hearing on College Tax Issues
WASHINGTON — At a hearing Wednesday afternoon on the Internal Revenue Service’s recently issued wide-ranging report on tax compliance at colleges and universities, lawmakers said they were disturbed that the report found a high degree of noncompliance on unrelated business income, revenue earned by nonprofit organizations in ways that are not directly related to their missions.