University System News
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (requires password)
AT&T center boosts region’s tech roster
http://www.myajc.com/news/business/att-center-boosts-regions-tech-roster/nYTG8/
By Kristi E. Swartz
Monday, June 24, 2013
AT&T wants the next generation of wireless products to better monitor your home or help you drive safely to come from a new innovation center at Georgia Tech. The research hub is the fourth set up by AT&T and its Atlanta-based wireless unit, AT&T Mobility. Called the Foundry, the center is the latest example of Atlanta’s growth as a hub for wireless and mobility operations. “We wouldn’t be (in Atlanta) if we didn’t think Atlanta was a big hub,” Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of Atlanta-based AT&T Mobility, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
AT&T is expected to announce Tuesday that it will open the Foundry at Georgia Tech’s Technology Square campus in Midtown Atlanta by the end of the summer. The other three, in California, Texas and Israel, have worked on more than 60 ideas so far, the company said.
Business Week
AT&T Opening Two Research Centers in Bid to Spur More Innovation
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-25/at-and-t-opening-two-research-centers-in-bid-to-spur-more-innovation
By Scott Moritz
June 25, 2013
AT&T Inc. (T) is opening research centers in Atlanta and Plano, Texas, part of an attempt to shed its stodgy Ma Bell image by innovating in such areas as home security, inventory tracking and in-car online services. The two new sites bring its total number of innovation centers to five, the company said today in a statement. The Atlanta location, affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology, will focus on wireless products such as Digital Life, a home-security service, as well as Internet-connected car technology. The Plano center expands an existing facility where AT&T has been developing what it calls machine-to-machine services, including cargo and inventory tracking. AT&T and its technology partners, including Cisco Systems Inc., have spent about $100 million trying to jump-start the development of new products, said Abhi Ingle, the Dallas-based company’s vice president of innovation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA Foundation won’t help with domestic partner benefits plan
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/uga-foundation-wont-help-with-domestic-partner-ben/nYTDX/
By Laura Diamond
June 24, 2013
Money raised by the University of Georgia Foundation will not be used to pay for domestic partner benefits at the university. The foundation announced Monday that its executive committee met last week to consider taking responsibility for funding, insuring, accounting for, and administering a health care program for domestic partner benefits. However, they decided this was not consistent with the foundation’s mission. President Michael Adams, who is stepping down Sunday, previously asked Chancellor Hank Huckaby if the university could develop and fully fund such a plan. Adams said no state money would be used.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (requires password)
UGA chief: high school standards key to needed diversity
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/uga-chief-high-school-standards-key-to-needed-dive/nYTQ8/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch
By Laura Diamond
June 24, 2013
The Supreme Court on Monday called for tougher scrutiny on colleges’ affirmative action policies, but did not eliminate their authority to consider an applicant’s race. The University of Georgia is familiar with these legal issues. Its affirmative action admissions policy was ruled unconstitutional in 2001 by a federal appeals court. President Michael Adams is stepping down Sunday, having served as president for 16 years. He discussed that 2001 decision and the issue of affirmative action during an interview June 11 with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The August Chronicle
GRU will help manage Roosevelt institute
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-06-24/gru-will-help-manage-roosevelt-institute?v=1372112067
By Tom Corwin
June 24, 2013
Georgia Regents University will soon be helping to manage the health care at the historic Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, its third agreement to help operate a state agency.
The university is expected to sign an agreement this week with the Georgia Vocational Re¬ha¬bil¬itation Agency to manage the long-term acute care and inpatient rehabilitation at the institute through the university’s health system. “Our job is to help optimize and restructure (operations) and serve more citizens of Georgia,” said David S. Hefner, GRU’s executive vice president for clinical affairs. The health system already provides health care for the Georgia Department of Correc¬tions, mainly through Augusta State Medical Prison, and helps manage East Central Re¬gion¬al Hos¬pital for the state De¬part¬ment of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabil¬ities.
Americus Times-Recorder
SGTC, Southern Polytechnic State University sign memorandum of understanding
http://americustimesrecorder.com/local/x182748254/SGTC-Southern-Polytechnic-State-University-sign-memorandum-of-understanding#sthash.xOqvaJBL.dpuf
June 25, 2013
South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) President Sparky Reeves and officials from Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) in Marietta, signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement recently that would allow SGTC students to continue their education after graduation from SGTC at Southern Polytechnic State.
“I would like to thank Southern Polytechnic State University officials for visiting South Georgia Technical College,” said Reeves. “South Georgia Tech is very interested in pursuing a partnership with Southern Polytechnic because we believe that it will provide additional opportunities for students in this area. Southern Polytechnic has a strong workforce development mission as well as outstanding educational credentials in the engineering and business fields. This could be a great opportunity for students who would like to pursue engineering and other advanced degrees.”
A new degree, Associate of Applied science in pre-engineering technology, will allow SGTC graduates to attend Southern Polytechnic State University and continue their education in one of three bachelor of science in rngineering technology degrees — electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering technology.
Education News
Wanted: leader who can redeem Atlanta schools
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/wanted-leader-who-can-redeem-atlanta-schools/nYTQt/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch
Monday, June 24, 2013
By Mark Niesse
Atlantans pushed for a new superintendent Monday who can unite the city around solving its educational problems, be accessible to parents and bring classroom experience to the job. They want someone who can leave behind Atlanta Public Schools’ standardized-test cheating scandal, raise graduation rates and heal leadership failures that stall academic progress. More than two dozen community members voiced their visions for the qualities they’d like to see when Atlanta Public Schools hires its next leader to succeed Superintendent Erroll Davis when he steps down after the 2013-2014 school year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State CRCT scores mixed bag
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/state-crct-scores-mixed-bag/nYTmc/
By Wayne Washington
June 25, 2013
Georgia students performed better in 2013 than their predecessors in 24 of 30 content areas of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, results released by the state Department of Education Tuesday show.
The percentage of students exceeding the state standard jumped 10 percentage points in fifth-grade math from 2012 to 2013. This year’s seventh-graders performed better than last year’s group in reading, where there was a 7 percentage point increase in the percent of students who exceeded the state standard. And among eighth-graders, the percentage of students who exceeded the standard in math rose 5 percentage points from 2012 to 2013.
Performance did fall off in some areas. The percentage of third-graders who met or exceeded the state standard in math dropped 3 percentage points. Seventh-grade math saw a 1 percentage point drop, as did fourth-grade English/language arts and eighth-grade English/language arts.
USA Today
Tuition increases lower than usual at U.S. Universities
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/24/lower-college-tuition-increases/2453575/
Kellie Rowe, USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent
June 24, 2013
Many universities across the U.S. are putting the smallest tuition increases in years in place this summer. One reason could be increases in state funding to schools.
The time of year has arrived for higher education administrators to buckle down to determine tuition costs before the fall, and many universities are giving students’ pocketbooks a bit of a break.
Despite years of consistent raises, some universities are experiencing lower tuition increases than years past.
Ball State University administrators approved its lowest tuition increase in 37 years at about 2%, a 2.9% increase marked the University of Vermont’s lowest increase in 36 years and Indiana University increased tuition by about 1.75% — the lowest in 35 years.
The University of Michigan’s 1.1% increase is its lowest in 29 years and the University of South Carolina’s 3.5% increase is its lowest in 14 years.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
Four Ways Higher Education Has Changed in Wake of Great Recession
http://diverseeducation.com/article/54148/
by Justin Pope, Associated Press
More urgent. More crowded. More expensive. Also, more flexible and accessible to millions. That, in a nutshell, is how higher education has changed around the world in the wake of the global financial crisis that struck five years ago, and the Great Recession that followed. Here’s how it happened: Increasing financial pressures to get more people through higher education more efficiently opened the door to new technologies. Those technologies, in turn, have begun “unbundling” individual classes and degrees from traditional institutions much in the same way iTunes has unbundled songs from whole albums and the Internet is increasingly unbundling television shows and networks from bulky cable packages.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Moody’s Says MOOCs Could Raise a University’s Credit Rating
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moodys-says-moocs-could-boost-a-universitys-credit-rating/44519?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
June 24, 2013
By Sara Grossman
The spread of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is “credit positive” for universities that offer them but “credit negative” for a majority of lesser-known institutions that lack a prominent brand name, according to a report published on Monday by Moody’s Investors Service.
The announcement comes a year after the credit-rating agency predicted that MOOCs could improve the financial prospects of large research universities while presenting challenges to smaller institutions and for-profit colleges.
The latest report, available only to Moody’s subscribers, says that, among other things, MOOCs offer colleges and universities increased global brand recognition, new revenue opportunities, and a chance to improve instruction methods. The report also warns that smaller liberal-arts institutions could be left behind, as they lack the resources to compete with better-known universities.
Yahoo! News
U.S. spends big on education, but results lag many nations: OECD
http://news.yahoo.com/u-spends-big-education-results-lag-many-nations-090514836.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UZEx8lRIyEAnevQtDMD
By Stephanie Simon
The United States is one of the world’s biggest spenders when it comes to education, but with much of the money flowing to the wealthiest students, the country is losing ground to other nations from pre-school through college, according to a report released on Tuesday on educational progress around the world.
The United States spends 7.3 percent of its gross domestic product on education from pre-kindergarten through the university level, according to the report, by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The rate, which encompasses both public and private spending, is the fifth highest in the world. But the results don’t match the spending.
CNN Money
Recent college grads face 36% ‘mal-employment’ rate
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/25/news/economy/malemployment-rate/index.html?section=money_news_international
By Tami Luhby @Luhby
June 25, 2013
More than a third of recent college grads with jobs are working in positions that don’t require a degree.
Economists call that figure the “mal-employment” rate, and right now it tops 36% for college-educated workers under the age of 25, according to figures crunched by Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. “People don’t go to college to be a waiter or a bartender,” Sum said. “They lose and we lose.”The official unemployment rate for grads under age 25 was 7% in May, but that doesn’t reflect all those who are under-utilized in one way or another. Nearly 8% of grads are working part-time, but would like full-time positions. These workers aren’t counted in the mal-employment rate.