USG VALUE:
www.statesboro365.com
http://statesboro365.com/news/local/item/963-around-the-world-on-a-bicycle
AROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE
Written by LyndyB
The first stop on a bicycle ride around the world to share free educational resources will be Georgia Southern University. Interaction Design Foundation’s (IDF) “Share the Knowledge Tour” with Max Peer will pedal onto campus at the Recreation Activity Center (RAC) on Wednesday, May 22 at 2 p.m. University students, faculty and staff and community members are invited to be there to cheer his arrival. “Over the next four years, I will travel 35,000 miles by bike and canoe to visit major universities around the world to promote free educational materials with the generous support of SAP,” explained Peer, the IDF bicyclist. …Georgia Southern’s Department of Information Systems is an active member in the SAP University Alliances program, and has emerged as a leading location for ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) education in the U.S. SAP software is used to reinforce business computing concepts in more than 15 undergraduate and graduate programs.
USG NEWS:
www.statesboroherald.com
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/291/article/50308/
Expansion at Paulson begins
Georgia Southern AMR
Demolition of the scoreboard at the east end of Allen E. Paulson Stadium began Monday as preparation begins for the upcoming stadium expansion and Football Operations Center projects. Both projects have a planned June 6th construction start date with expected completion in May 2014. The removal of the venerable scoreboard, originally installed in the mid-1990s, signals a new era for Paulson Stadium and the Georgia Southern Football program.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/23/soft-benefits-domestic-partners-u-georgia#ixzz2U7PYsPTC
Soft Benefits for Domestic Partners at U. of Georgia
The University of Georgia will soon begin offering “soft benefits” – voluntary dental, vision and life insurance – to domestic partners of employees, it announced this week. Approximately 35 percent of the 150 couples to apply for the benefits are same-sex, a university spokesman said. Although law and policy prohibit state money from funding domestic partner benefits in Georgia, the extension of voluntary, employee-paid soft benefits to domestic partners of employees of state institutions, including Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology, dates back to 2002.
GOOD NEWS:
www.statesboroherald.com
http://www.statesboroherald.com/multimedia/5642/ (video)
Studio Statesboro – Commissioning ROTC cadets
Georgia Southern Commissions news class of army officers
www.thepostsearchlight.com
$3 million expansion coming to BSC
By Justin Schuver
Bainbridge State College will officially announce Thursday that it has received $3 million in state funding for an expansion of River Birch Hall. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is scheduled to be a special guest of BSC and state Sen. Dr. Dean Burke on Thursday, during a reception to celebrate the announcement. The reception will be held at 6 p.m. in the BSC Kirbo Center’s solarium. “This is our way of thanking Sen. Burke and all of the members of our legislative delegation in their hard work in helping to secure these state funds, as well as thank them for their continuing support for Bainbridge State College,” BSC President Dr. Richard Carvajal said.
www.news.yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/moocs-georgia-tech-education-student-loans-195108964.html
MOOC University
Georgia Tech will soon offer a Master’s degree in Computer Science that you can receive online. This could be huge.
Rob Walker
Technology has made lots of things cheaper, more efficient and available to wider audiences. Why not education? That line of thought, while not exactly new, has manifested most recently in the considerable hype surrounding “massive open online courses” — MOOCs. While specific MOOC iterations vary in their details, the name refers to classes distributed online (and thus available to a “massive” audience) and “open” to all comers (meaning, usually, no charge): Lectures are consumed via web video, discussions happen on dedicated message boards, testing is administered online. …The latest bit of MOOC-news comes from the Georgia Institute of Technology, which just last week announced that, in partnership with Udacity and AT&T , it will offer a full-on master’s degree in computer science in MOOC format — or rather, Georgia Tech College of Computing Dean Zvi Galil corrected me, a “MOOC 2.0” format.
RESEARCH:
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/atlantech/2013/05/innovolt-sparks-62m-raise.html
Georgia Tech’s Innovolt sparks $6.2M raise
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer-Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta-based Innovolt Inc. has raised half of a planned $6.2 million raise, according to a Securities & Exchange Commission filing. Innovolt has developed technology, it says, guards against damage from 99.5 percent of power interruptions and extends the life span and reliability of electronic devices. The Georgia Tech spinoff has designed a microprocessor — about half the size of a business card — that can be embedded in electronic devices. The chip is able to detect abnormalities in the electrical flow and evens out the current, or shut off the device before damage occurs.
www.mnn.com
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/stories/5-super-cool-energy-projects-being-backed-by-the-us-government
5 super-cool energy projects being backed by the U.S. government
These green energy projects are high-risk, high-reward, and have the potential to change the energy landscape.
By Bryan Nelson
When President Barack Obama announced the launch of ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) in 2009 with bipartisan support, a high-risk research grant program run out of the Department of Energy was born. The program is modeled after the lauded DARPA, the Department of Defense agency that claims responsibility for the invention of the Internet… The Tasmanian devil-like swirling motion of these dust tornadoes could make for a powerful way to spin a turbine, if they can be controlled. That’s the idea behind this ARPA-E backed invention by researchers at Georgia Tech. They have created a device that generates its own dust devil thanks to some strategically angled vanes. The vanes take the hot air rising off a dark surface (that absorbs heat) and twists it into a vortex, which is contained within a cylinder. A turbine at the top spins from the action, generating electricity.
www.clatl.com
http://clatl.com/atlanta/why-atlanta-is-taking-tiny-bits-of-info-very-seriously/Content?oid=8279982
Why Atlanta is taking tiny bits of info very seriously
City Hall throws its arms around hackers and learns to love data
by Max Blau
Deep in a wooded ravine on a vacant parcel in Peoplestown sits a mountain of old tires. There’s no telling how long they’ve been sitting there collecting water, breeding mosquitoes, and sullying the property. Or how many there are. “That’s hundreds. At least 200, maybe more,” said longtime community activist Columbus Ward as he escorted volunteers from Georgia State University around the neighborhood… Across town, Georgia Tech professor Randall Guensler’s research team is outfitting wheelchairs with Toshiba tablets. Over the next few months, dozens of professors, students, and volunteers will push the devices across the city’s estimated 2,200 miles of sidewalks. Along the way, the tablets’ cameras will record more than 6,000 hours of footage, capturing every inch of public walkways. “You can’t make public policy without data,” says Guensler. “You can’t do future planning without data. This makes it tenable for everybody.”
STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-05-22/athens-outpace-states-economic-growth-says-forecast
Athens to outpace state’s economic growth, says forecast
By WALTER C. JONESMORRIS NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA – The metro Athens economy will grow slightly better than the state this year, according to Georgia State University’s quarterly economic forecast released Wednesday. “For 2013, we forecast strong employment growth of 2 percent, followed by a 1.5 percent growth in 2014,” wrote Rajeev Dhawan, director of Georgia State’s Economic Forecasting Center, about the Athens economy. Athens added 700 jobs in the first three months of the year, with three-fourths of them coming from state and local government. That was enough to maintain the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 6.1 percent.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/When-2-Colleges-Become-One/139345/
What Happens When 2 Colleges Become One
By Ricardo Azziz
Earlier this year, Moody’s Investors Service released its annual assessment of higher education in the United States, a report that viewed the sector’s short-term outlook as largely negative amid growing economic pressures. The analysts, however, applauded the efforts of a few states that were trying to merge or consolidate campuses because such efforts “foster operating efficiencies and reduce costs amid declining state support.” Georgia was among those states. Its Board of Regents ratified four consolidations, involving eight universities. As a result, I took the helm of Georgia Regents University, a new institution created through the consolidation of Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences Universities. (A consolidation is two organizations forming a third organization while a merger is one organization taking over another organization.)
www.dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com
What We’re Reading
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kennesaw State University: This small university in Kennesaw, Ga. has been named “Innovator of the Year” by the National Restaurant Association, beating out the Walt Disney Parks and the United States Air Force, among others, for the title. The group cited the university’s “robust organic ‘Farm-to-Campus-to-Farm’ program, water reclamation, aerobic digestion, composting/recycling programs, oil-to-biodiesel conversion” and more. — Julia Moskin
www.thebrunswicknews.com
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/story/printer/EDIT-THURS-052313
Fins restaurant soon a good place to learn
The leadership at College of Coastal Georgia and the Jekyll Island Authority have come up with another great idea, one that will benefit the college, Jekyll Island and the community in general. An agreement between the two will put Jekyll’s beachside restaurant, Fins, in the hands of culinary classes and students at College of Coastal Georgia. This will be an excellent place for students, under the guidance of instructors and other professionals, to dive fully into the world of food preparation. At the same time, it will become a great opportunity for this authority-operated beachfront restaurant to turn into a possible hallmark attraction for culinary students around the country. This is the kind of partnership that will make College of Coastal Georgia a destination college for high school seniors everywhere, both in Georgia and from other states.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/may/23/ap-classes-vs-dual-enrollment-which-tougher-course/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
AP classes vs. Dual Enrollment: Which is the tougher course?
This is a tough one. A reader sent me a note about dual enrollment vs. AP classes. I have written about this ongoing debate before, which boils down to this question: Are college courses, for which students earn higher points toward their GPAs, as tough as the AP classes that kids take at their own high schools?
www.cbsnews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57584503/seeking-solutions-to-the-student-aid-mess/
Seeking solutions to the student aid mess
By LYNN O’SHAUGHNESSY / MONEYWATCH
(MoneyWatch) The financial aid system in this country is broken. There are many reasons why the system needs to be overhauled, but let’s start with this one: the federal government is profiting tremendously when it lends money to college students and their parents. According to a report released earlier this year by the Congressional Budget Office, this is how much cash the government is pocketing for each dollar that someone borrows through the federal loan program:
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53464/
Diverse Conversations: The Globalization of Higher Education
by Matthew Lynch
Visit the website of your favorite college or university, find the search box, and type in the words “international programs,” “study abroad,” or something to this effect. What you will find out is that, odds are, your favorite institution has a department that serves as the international arm of the university, developing partnerships with countries and organizations around the world. They are part of one of the biggest trends to hit today’s modern university. The trend that I speak of is commonly referred to as the “globalization of higher education.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/23/essay-predicting-radical-change-higher-education-over-next-five-years#ixzz2U7W4iVxd
Higher Ed in 2018
By Jeb Bush and Randy Best
Rising tuition, declining government subsidies, stagnant endowments, and increased competition are challenging higher education like never before. College and university leaders are struggling to understand where these changes will lead and how they can make higher education more affordable, more accessible, and of greater quality for an increasingly diverse and aspiring student. Based on our interaction with university leaders and policy makers, we believe that the timeline for transformational change has shortened to five years. During this time, higher education will have moved from a provider-driven model to a consumer-driven one and, in so doing, upend a system that had endured for centuries.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/05/22/what-colleges-can-learn-from-k-12-education/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
What Colleges Can Learn From K-12 Education
By Richard Kahlenberg
Our higher-education system is often thought of as a model for elementary and secondary education because top American universities rank among the very best in the world. But maybe it’s the reverse that is true. After all, only about half of first-time college students earn certificates or degrees within six years, a completion rate much lower than among high-school students. At community colleges, while 81 percent of first-time entering students say they would like to earn bachelor’s degrees, only 12 percent do so within six years.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/23/ny-principals-why-new-common-core-tests-failed/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
NY principals: Why new Common Core tests failed
Teachers and principals in New York have expressed strong concerns about the new high-stakes standardized tests supposedly aligned with the Common Core State Standards that were recently given to students across the state. The following letter to New York Education Commissioner John King from a number of New York principals explains the depth of the problems educators found with the tests.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/biz-beat/2013/may/23/no-degree-good-paying-jobs-still-exist/
The Biz Beat
By Christopher Seward
Who says you need a four-year degree to land a decent-paying job? A new report from CareerCast, “Best Jobs Without a College Degree,” says there are plenty good-paying jobs out there for people who weren’t among the Class of 2013. The list may come in handy for millions who are thinking about a technical degree or who never got around to extending their education beyond high school. It’s also good news for workers in non-degree but high-demand occupations who want to strike out on their own, such as web developers, electricians, plumbers and bookkeepers. To be sure, many experts maintain that a four-year degree and higher provide the best opportunity for landing a high-paying job in the hottest careers.
www.blogs.ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-forward/2013/05/22/start-up-capital-angel-investors/
Atlanta Forward
Start-up capital, angel investors
Moderated by Rick Badie
Women and minorities face tougher hurdles when it comes to start-up capital and financing, according to research commissioned by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Today, the researcher explains her findings, while the Georgia district SBA director outlines what that agency does to level the playing field. And we learn about “angel investors.”… Atlanta’s ecosystem begins with “entrepreneurial assets.” These are start-up concepts and ideas germinated by entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds, and by professors and students at colleges and universities that include Emory, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State and the Savannah College of Art and Design. The next stage of the ecosystem consists of enablers. These are the various entities throughout Atlanta that help the entrepreneurial assets shape business plans that will help them become fundable companies. Among the Atlanta enablers are the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC); The Atlanta Tech Village; Emory University programs; Georgia Tech’s Business Plan competition, Flashpoint program and VentureLab; the Georgia Tech-Emory TI:GER program;
www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/prerna-gupta/help-entrepreneurs-make-a_b_3318507.html
Help Entrepreneurs Make America Home
Prerna GuptaChief product officer, Smule
I co-founded a technology startup in 2009, along with my husband, and two other highly skilled engineers. Our company, Khush, uses sophisticated artificial intelligence technologies to help people make music. Developing these technologies requires unique expertise in music information retrieval, which only a handful of people in the world possess. Our two co-founders were among them. Three of us are children of immigrants — our parents come from India and Great Britain. The fourth is a Chinese immigrant who got his Master’s degree in Music Technology at Georgia Tech. It was there that he helped invent the technology that powered our company’s first product. His story is not unique — according to the Partnership for a New American Economy, in 2011 more than three out of every four patents awarded to the top 10 patent-producing universities — including Georgia Tech — had an immigrant inventor.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2013/may/22/ggc-students-faked-kidnapping-a-national-story/
GGC student’s faked kidnapping a national story
By Tyler Estep
LAWRENCEVILLE — Now everybody knows he was flunking English. Georgia Gwinnett College student Aftab Aslam, 19, was arrested last week by Johns Creek police for allegedly faking his own kidnapping. He told authorities he did so because he was afraid to tell his parents he was failing his English class for the second time. Now that’s the least of his worries. Nine felony charges aside, Aslam’s story has become a national one, showing up everywhere from USA Today, Gawker.com and late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s Tuesday night monologue.
Education News
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Allows/139443/
Education Dept. Allows Financial Aid for More American Students Abroad
By Karin Fischer
In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. Department of Education has said it will reinstate the eligibility of foreign colleges, seminaries, and arts schools to participate in the federal student-loan program. The department last summer told the institutions, which are mainly in Britain and Ireland, that they could no longer participate in the U.S. student-aid program because they do not directly grant academic degrees. But during last weekend the department notified the colleges by e-mail that it was “clarifying” how it defined eligibility, and that they were again able to participate in the loan program, effective immediately. A more detailed letter is to follow, the colleges were told.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/23/look-back-ford-foundation-international-fellowships-program#ixzz2U7Vusvf6
$420M and 4,314 Students Later
By Elizabeth Redden
As the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program graduates its last group of students this year, a new publication released today quantifies the impact of a graduate scholarship program that made a point of reaching students from marginalized groups with commitments to social justice but not top test scores, necessarily. All told, the $420 million program has supported 4,314 fellows, from 22 countries, for up to two years of master’s- or three years of Ph.D.-level study.
www.stateimpact.npr.org
Report: Florida Among The Cheapest States In Spending Per Student
Report: Florida Among The Cheapest States In Spending Per Student
BY GINA JORDAN
Florida spent $8,887 on each public school student in 2011, making it one of the lowest states in the nation for per-pupil spending. The totals from the U.S. Census Bureau – including federal revenue – were compiled before Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature cut about $1.3 billion from education funding. Since then, the state has put about $2 billion back into education, so Florida students may be faring a little better these days.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53453/
Federal Report Highlights College Graduate Employment, Student Loan Debt
by Ronald Roach
In the federal government’s annual status report on U.S. education outcomes, researchers affiliated with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have put a special emphasis on higher education and employment and on the growth of federal student financial aid. The Condition of Education 2013, which was released today by NCES and includes both K-12 and higher education outcomes, documents that nearly 30 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds are neither employed nor attend school.
www.nytimes.com
Though Enrolling More Poor Students, 2-Year Colleges Get Less of Federal Pie
By DAVID LEONHARDT
WASHINGTON — Community colleges have received a declining share of government spending on higher education over the last decade even as their student bodies have become poorer and more heavily African-American and Latino, according to a report to be released Thursday.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/2-Year-Colleges-Are-at-Risk-of/139445/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
2-Year Colleges Are at Risk of ‘Separate and Unequal’ Future, Report Says
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Washington
Community colleges “are in great danger of becoming indelibly separate and unequal institutions in the higher-education landscape,” a Century Foundation task force warns in a report being released here on Thursday. To deal with what it calls “the increasing economic and racial isolation of students” at community colleges, the group also calls for major changes in how two-year colleges are financed and operated.
Related article:
www.insidehighered.com
Equity Gap Widens
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/23/two-year-colleges-serve-more-disadvantaged-students-less-money#ixzz2U7VToWN3
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53455/
TG Report Explores the Financial Ramifications of Transferring
by Beatrice Townsend
Given the hard economic times, some students opt to keep college debt down by beginning their postsecondary education at a community college. But a recently released four-page report by the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG) calls into question the notion that beginning at a community college and transferring to a four-year university will significantly lower debt for transfer students. TG is a nonprofit organization that offers resources to help students and families plan for college, learn about money management and repay their federal student loans.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/23/cal-state-may-turn-virtual-labs#ixzz2U7VLNhkg
Virtual Lab Experiment
By Ry Rivard
The California State University System may bet big on virtual labs starting this fall, a sign of how heavily some policy makers are counting on technology to solve funding problems. The effort could end in-the-flesh lab experimentation for many Cal State students who are not biology majors. The proposal is part of a multipronged plan from the Cal State chancellor’s office to help students unable to find a path through the Cal State system.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53468/
Divided South Carolina State Trustees OK President’s $330K Pay
by Associated Press
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — South Carolina State University trustees have offered new president Thomas Elzey a salary of $330,000 a year, but several trustees say that is too much money. The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg reports that the trustees voted 6-4 on Tuesday to offer the contract to Elzey, a vice president at The Citadel set to take over the Orangeburg school on June 15.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53471/
Complaints Filed Against 4 Colleges Over Rapes
by Associated Press
NEW YORK — Women’s-rights attorney Gloria Allred says federal complaints have been filed against four U.S. colleges over how the colleges handle rape allegations. Allred joined students from the colleges at a New York City news conference to announce the filing of complaints against Swarthmore College, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley. She said some of the complaints filed Wednesday were Title IX complaints alleging a hostile environment for women. Other complaints charged the colleges with violating the federal Clery Act, which requires accurate reporting of campus crimes.
Related articles:
www.chronicle.com
4 More Colleges Are Targets of Students’ Complaints Over Sexual Assault
http://chronicle.com/article/4-More-Colleges-Are-Targets-of/139449/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
www.businessweek.com
Four Colleges Hit With Federal Sexual Assault Policy Complaints
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-22/four-colleges-hit-with-federal-sexual-assault-policy-complaints
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-penn-state-president-spanier-asks-judge-to-throw-out-charges-in-alleged-sandusky-cover-up/2013/05/22/da121cc8-c336-11e2-9642-a56177f1cdf7_story.html
Ex-Penn State President Spanier asks judge to throw out charges in alleged Sandusky cover-up
By Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has asked a county judge to throw out charges accusing him of helping cover up abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Spanier’s lawyers filed the motion last week, citing his allegation that the university’s former top lawyer, Cynthia Baldwin, violated attorney-client confidentiality when she gave prosecutors information about him. He also argued that some of the charges were filed after the statute of limitations had run out.