University System News
Newnan Times-Herald
West Georgia’s regional economic impact growing
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20130713-UWG-economic-impact-continues-to-grow
by Celia Shortt
July 13, 2013
According to the University System of Georgia’s annual study, the Carrollton-based University of West Georgia’s economic impact in the region for this last fiscal year was more than $442 million, marking the fifth year in a row of continued annual impact growth.
‘In today’s world of higher education, an institution serves a greater responsibility within the community – that of economic development and workforce preparation,’ said President of UWG Dr. Kyle Marrero. ‘It is clear that UWG’s economic impact to the region is formidable and will continue to grow as the university grows.’

Times-Georgian
Economic study: UWG’s regional impact reaches $442 million
http://www.times-georgian.com/news/local/article_75d96326-ec15-11e2-bc33-0019bb30f31a.html
July 13, 2013
The University of West Georgia had a regional economic impact of more than $442 million in fiscal year 2012, according to a study by the University System of Georgia. The spending by UWG and its students increased from $418 million the previous year.
“In today’s world of higher education, an institution serves a greater responsibility within the community — that of economic impact, development and work force preparation,” said UWG President Dr. Kyle Marrero. “It is clear that UWG’s economic impact to the region is formidable and will continue to grow as the university grows.”
Among the system’s state universities, the University of West Georgia had the second largest impact overall.

Albany Herald
ASU, Darton inject $291 million into economy
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jul/14/asu-darton-inject-291-million-into-economy/
By Terry Lewis
Albany State University and Darton State College combined to pump more than $291 million into the Southwest Georgia economy during Fiscal Year 2012, according to a study released late last week by the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. The annual study analyzed data collected between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012. According to the study, of Darton’s total output impact, student spending equaled $78 million, or 57 percent. Additionally, Darton generated 1,627 jobs — both on and off campus — during FY 2012.Albany State’s economic impact on the region increased to $156 million, which represents a 5 percent increase over the previous fiscal year’s total of $148 million, while Darton contributed $135.6 million to the local economy, up 13.5 percent from $119.4 million in FY 2011.

Marietta Daily Journal
Higher education — KSU’s 2012 economic impact up $72M from Fiscal 2011
http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/23126395-Higher-education-KSU-s-2012-economic-impact-up-72M-from-Fiscal-2011
July 13, 2013
Kennesaw State University’s growth over the past decade continues to spark major regional economic impact, rising to more than $926 million in 2012, according to the University System of Georgia’s most recent economic impact report.
Spending on everything from architectural services to burgers and bags of groceries helped catapult KSU’s local economic impact, which has been bolstered by the university’s rapid student population growth and expansion of facilities.
More than 24,600 students now attend the university — with just more than 3,000 of them living on campus in one of the four residential housing communities constructed since 2002.

Ledger-Enquirer
Don’t call it Cody Road High any more
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/07/12/2579787/richard-hyatt-dont-call-it-cody.html#storylink=cpy
By RICHARD HYATT
Walk the campus on what used to be Cody Road. Hear the bell on the clock tower chime. Search for a parking place. Walk into buildings that weren’t there the last time you visited. Try and find Woodruff Gym and while you’re at it keep looking for a parking place.
Catch a Columbus State University bus for downtown but prepare to stand, for unlike Metra, these buses have passengers. Work through a traffic jam of students on Broadway. Listen to young musicians jam on the sidewalk. Notice they’re learning and living where a few years ago wigs were being sold.
This is my way of gauging the impact that Columbus State University is having on a community that used to take it for granted.

CovNews
GPC has big economic impact
http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/43100/
July 13, 2013
A recent study found that Georgia Perimeter College had the greatest economic impact of all of Georgia’s state colleges in the University System of Georgia last year, an impact that the study listed as $774 million and 7,221 jobs. Fiscal year 2011’s impact was $713 million and 6,762 jobs. An annual study of the University System’s economic impact on the state records an overall 7.4 percent increase from fiscal year 2011 to 2012. In cash, that is a jump of $980 million, from $13.2 billion to a new high of $14.1 billion of direct and indirect spending fueling the regions served by the System’s 31 colleges and universities.

Albany Herald
UGA scientists seek disease-resistant crops
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jul/13/uga-scientists-seek-disease-resistant-crops/?features
By Clint Thompson
July 13, 2013
Gummy stem blight can be a tough foe for watermelon farmers to tackle. With the ability to cause lesions on leaves and turn stems into gooey mush, the plant disease can cripple watermelon production.
“It can wipe out an entire field. It can cause 100 percent losses,” University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences plant pathologist Katherine Stevenson said. “This pathogen loves warm, wet conditions. Like last year when we had a week of rain and it was 90 degrees, the gummy stem blight just took off. We had field plots of watermelons planted and it just wiped them out completely.”
Finding the right fungicide application is critical to the future of one of the state’s top vegetable crops. According to the 2011 Georgia Farm Gate Report, watermelons generated $98 million, considerably less than the $139 million in revenue tallied in 2009. The drop in value can be attributed to gummy stem blight’s impact, which Stevenson is trying to alleviate.

Gainesville Times
Ga. Tech president visits Gainesville
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/84/article/86060/
From staff reports
July 14, 2013
Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson and his wife, Val, attended a reception at Lake Lanier recently. This was Peterson’s fifth annual Georgia Tour, which serves as an opportunity to meet and thank alumni and friends for continual support of the Institute and to underscore Tech’s commitment to strengthening relationships in communities it serves throughout Georgia.

Athens-Banner Herald
Summer enrollment down at UGA, lowest since 1990s
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-07-13/summer-enrollment-down-uga-lowest-1990s
July 14, 2013
Final figures show a summer semester student count of 13,562 at UGA’s Athens and extended campuses, said Tracy Giese, public relations coordinator in the UGA Office of the Vice President for Instruction.
That’s down 2.1 percent from last year, a smaller decrease than in the previous two years.

Www.FastCompany.com
FIDO Is Far More Than Google Glass For Dogs
Thad Starner, the technical lead from Google Glass, wants to make a wearable computer for dogs.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3014197/fast-feed/fido-is-far-more-than-google-glass-for-dogs
By: Christina Chaey
In 2010, Google Translate for Animals was an April Fool’s prank. But now one of Google Glass’s advisers is working on technology to help dogs communicate with their handlers.
The original technical lead on Google Glass, who is currently a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, is now part of a project called FIDO: “Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations.” This isn’t technology that lets your house pet text you when it needs to go out–though that could be a potential application. FIDO’s purpose is to develop wearable technology that allows assistance dogs–such as bomb-sniffing dogs, rescue dogs, or dogs who aid people with disabilities–to communicate information to their handlers.

Education News
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New geometry course could bring tough challenges
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/new-geometry-course-could-bring-tough-challenges/nYpSm/
By Wayne Washington
Georgia high-schoolers who performed poorly on an end-of-course coordinate algebra test given earlier this year will face another big challenge in the coming school term: a tough new analytical geometry course.
State officials say the geometry end-of-course test will have the “same rigor” as the algebra test that produced a set of lackluster scores.
The analytical geometry and coordinate algebra courses are both tied to Common Core, the controversial national education standards Georgia and 44 other states have embraced. The algebra course is primarily taken by ninth-graders. It is sometimes also taken by advanced eighth-graders and by 10th-graders who failed ninth-grade math. The geometry course is for 10th-graders.

Www.InsideHigherEd.com
Differential Tuition Impact
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/15/study-finds-differential-tuition-can-influence-enrollment-levels#ixzz2Z9KAsrCy
July 15, 2013
Scott Jaschik
When public universities impose higher tuition rates on some academic programs, students are discouraged to enroll in some fields, according to a new study.
Engineering enrollments declined by 1.1 percentage points (on a base of 14.7 percent) three years after the imposition of higher tuition for the field, found the study, which examined public research universities with differential tuition. Business programs saw smaller declines in enrollment and nursing saw a small (but statistically insignificant) gain in enrollments three years after tuition was raised for that field above standard rates.
The study also found that enrollment decisions of female and minority students are more likely to be influenced (negatively) by higher tuition rates for programs than are white men. And the study found no evidence that additional financial aid negates the impact of higher rates for selected programs.

Www.InsideHigherEd.com
Stretching State Aid
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/15/state-aid-dollars-increasingly-awarded-merit-well-financial-need#ixzz2Z9O6m1dA
July 15, 2013
By
Kevin Kiley
The financial aid debate has long centered on the contrast between need-based aid and merit aid. But at the state policy level, lawmakers are increasingly seeking to strike a balance between the two, even within individual grants.
This year’s annual report on state-funded financial aid programs by the National Association of State Student Grant & Aid Programs is the fifth consecutive report to show an increase in the amount of aid being awarded by states on criteria that include both financial need and merit. Such awards now make up about a fifth of all state financial aid dollars awarded, surpassing for the first time awards given out solely on the basis of merit.
“For a long time the talk was all about access,” said Frank Ballmann, director of NASSGAP’s Washington office. “States are now focusing on making sure that people are making progress toward completion. They want to make sure people are qualifying, getting the credits they need and passing the classes they take.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 15, 2013
Many States Increased Student Aid Despite Recession, Data Show
http://chronicle.com/article/Many-States-Increased-Student/140353/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Eric Kelderman
Even as state spending on higher education was being propped up with federal stimulus money, states increased their amount of student financial aid by nearly 2 percent during the 2011 fiscal year, and used a larger share of that money for need-based aid than they had since 2003, according to an annual survey released on Monday.
While the total increase is relatively small, after adjusting for inflation, the survey reveals that many states shifted financial-aid dollars away from merit-based aid and nongrant aid, such as loan forgiveness and work-study, in order to spend more on grants based on financial need. And the data indicate that many states focused their financial aid on the neediest students, with 60 percent of the dollars going to families with incomes less than $40,000 annually.
The figures, compiled by the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs, show that states spent $11.1-billion on student aid in 2011, with about 85 percent of that money being awarded in the form of grants and scholarships, mostly to undergraduate students.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 15, 2013
Report Seeks to Shift the Financial-Aid Conversation From Loans to Savings
http://chronicle.com/article/Report-Seeks-to-Shift-the/140361/?cid=at
By Casey McDermott
Public discussion of college affordability tends to focus more on student-loan debt than on savings. But to protect access to college, improve outcomes, and move away from a debt-driven model, savings must be promoted across income levels, says a new report proposing a federal program of children’s savings accounts. What’s needed is a comprehensive system that’s easy to navigate, friendly to lower-income families, and able to give people faith that dollars saved now will pay off in the long run, according to the report, “Building Expectations, Delivering Results: Asset-Based Financial Aid and the Future of Higher Education,” which was released on Monday by the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas.

The Chronicle of Higher Education (Blog)
Is It Time for One Loan Program?
http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/is-it-time-for-one-loan-program/35393?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
July 14, 2013
By Rick Shipman
Students would be better served if there were one federal loan program rather than all of the different ones available today. That’s the conclusion a group of aid administrators reached when they studied the loan system. In a guest post today, Rick Shipman explains their thinking. Mr. Shipman, director of financial aid at Michigan State University, is scheduled to present on this topic at the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, in Las Vegas, this week.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Gates Effect
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $472-million (so far) on higher education. Why many in academe are not writing thank-you notes.
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Marc Parry, Kelly Field, and Beckie Supiano
In Bill and Melinda Gates’s vision for higher education, more students will get a college experience similar to Terry Crosgrove’s. Each morning, Mr. Crosgrove clocks in for the 5:30 a.m. shift packaging Slim Jims at a ConAgra plant in Troy, Ohio. On days off, he chips away at an associate degree offered through an experimental online program at Southern New Hampshire University. The low-cost, self-paced education lacks courses and traditional professors. Instead, students progress by showing mastery of 120 “competencies,” such as “can use logic, reasoning, and analysis to address a business problem.” The program is an important guinea pig. The U.S. Department of Education recently allowed Southern New Hampshire to become the first university eligible to award federal aid for a program untethered from the credit hour, the time-based unit that underlies courses and degrees. The move, wrote one advocate, “could signal a new era for higher education.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education
How Gates Shapes State Higher-Education Policy
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Gates-Shapes-State/140303/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Katherine Mangan
Over the past several years, lawmakers in dozens of states have passed laws restricting remedial college courses and tying appropriations to graduation rates. The changes have been advanced by an unusual alliance of private foundations and state policy makers who are shaping higher-education strategies in profound ways. At the center of that effort, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has financed studies that argue for broad-scale changes aimed at pushing more students, more quickly, toward graduation. Working alongside the Lumina Foundation through intermediaries like Complete College America and another nonprofit, Jobs for the Future, the Gates foundation has helped influence higher-education policy at the state level to a degree that may be unprecedented for a private foundation. At a time when college budgets are strained from decades of cuts in state support, Gates grantees have urged lawmakers to allocate spending more efficiently, emphasizing the need for more students to graduate and presenting evidence that remedial courses hold them back.

The Washington Post
Why college has become so costly
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-college-has-become-so-costly/2013/07/11/cc32be38-e518-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html?wpmk=MK0000200
By Michelle Singletary
July 12, 2013
We know many students have to borrow to attend college. On top of that, the interest rates on many new federal student loans doubled on July 1 from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.
There are congressional efforts to lower the rates. But regardless of whether congressional Republicans and Democrats find a compromise on the student loan interest rate, the bigger issue is curbing the cost of college so interest rates don’t matter as much. This is particularly important because a large number of students borrow and then don’t finish college.
Just a little more than 50 percent of those who enter college leave with a bachelor’s degree, notes Jeffrey J. Selingo, editor at large for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Selingo has written a compelling book that looks at the state of higher education. “College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students” (Amazon Publishing/New Harvest, $26) is the July Color of Money Book Club selection.
“American higher education is broken,” Selingo writes. “Like another American icon — the auto industry in Detroit — the higher-education industry is beset by hubris, opposition to change, and resistance to accountability.”

Other News
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Demographic change amplifying racial inequities
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/education/demographic-change-amplifying-racial-inequities/nYqjh/
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
One-year-old Ka’Lani is so fascinated by a round plastic toy that she doesn’t see her mother, Ke’sha Scrivner, walk into the Martha’s Table day care, chanting her name while softly clapping out a beat that Ka’Lani keeps with a few bounces on her bottom.
Once on welfare, Scrivner worked her way off by studying early childhood education and landing a full-time job for the District of Columbia’s education superintendent. She sees education as the path to a better life for her and her five children, pushing them to finish high school and continue with college or a trade school.
Whether her children can beat the statistics that show lagging graduation rates for black children is important not just to her family. The success of Ka’Lani and other minority children who will form a new majority is crucial to future U.S. economic competitiveness.