University System News

USG NEWS:
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-07-23/georgia-southern-president-sees-future-partnerships-savannah#.Ue6WJeCTpGN
Georgia Southern president sees future partnerships in Savannah
By SEAN HORGAN
North Dakota, Georgia Southern University turns its lonely eyes to you. When it comes to the Statesboro-based university’s national reach for recruiting new students, the lone holdout is North Dakota. Georgia Southern president Brooks Keel dropped that little nugget of information on the Rotary Club of Savannah on Monday as part of a speech that trumpeted his university’s growth and held out the possibility of greater partnerships with the private sector across coastal Georgia. “This past fall our enrollment was 20,574,” Keel told the assembled Rotarians at the DeSoto Hilton Hotel on Liberty Street. “Our freshman SAT average is 1,115. So not only is the quantity of our students increasing, but the quality of our students is increasing.” Keel added that Georgia Southern’s sphere has expanded beyond southern Georgia, with about 50 percent of the students now hailing from the Atlanta metropolitan area and every county in Georgia represented in its student body. Today, the school also boasts students from 100 foreign countries and 49 states.

Related article:
www.wtoc.com
GSU president discusses university’s growth
http://www.wtoc.com/story/22904019/ga-southern-president-discusses-universitys-growth

www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2013-07-22/gru-merger-featured-time-magazine-article?v=1374529075
GRU merger featured in Time magazine article
From Staff Reports
The merger of Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences universities into Georgia Regents University was featured in a recent Time magazine article on higher education consolidations. The news magazine quoted GRU President Ricardo Azziz on the logistics of the process and the financial and academic benefits of such a venture.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/54788/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0e67ef5014ae4b5d96177fc392c2cfb4&elqCampaignId=33#
Like Private Businesses, Universities Consolidate to Cut Costs
by Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
Workers at the former Augusta State University in Georgia are spending the summer putting up new signs, redesigning the school’s website and carting furniture and files among offices. There are new T-shirts in the bookstore, new logos on the business cards, a new fight song and alma mater — even a new name, for the first time, on the degrees of students who graduated in May. What was known as Augusta State University when those students arrived as freshmen has been combined with the neighboring Georgia Health Sciences University to form Georgia Regents University. It’s a kind of private sector-style consolidation that is becoming increasingly common, not only for public institutions, but also for nonprofit, independent ones that can pool their resources and cut their costs in a time of falling budgets and demands for more efficiency in higher education.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-07-21/domestic-partner-benefits-advocates-ask-if-law-or-commitment-holds-uga-back
Domestic partner benefits advocates ask if law or commitment holds UGA back
By LEE SHEARER
University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby recently said Georgia’s public colleges and universities can’t use state funds to pay for domestic partner benefits under current law and policy. Huckaby suggested the University of Georgia Foundation might be an avenue for funding such benefits. But the foundation’s executive committee last month said that employee benefits are not part of its mission. And though the foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation, it is too intertwined with the state to help to bring such benefits as health and life insurance to unmarried partners at UGA, they said. With the foundation’s and chancellor’s statements, UGA administrators have gone as far as they can on that issue, university President Jere Morehead said in a recent radio interview. But proponents of domestic partner benefits aren’t giving up.

www.cpexecutive.com
http://www.cpexecutive.com/business-specialties/investment/scion-virtus-buy-118m-student-housing-portfolio-from-acc/
Scion, Virtus Buy $118M Student-Housing Portfolio from ACC
By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor
A joint venture between affiliates of The Scion Group, Chicago, and Virtus Real Estate Capital, of Austin, Texas, has acquired, from American Campus Communities, a portfolio of three student-housing properties for $118 million, it was announced late last week. The three properties, which total 2,360 beds in 628 apartment units in 58 buildings, are The Village at Blacksburg, a 1,056-bed community serving Virginia Tech; State College Park, a 752-bed property serving Penn State University; and University Pines, a 552-bed community serving Georgia Southern University.

Related article:
www.multihousingnews.com
JV Acquires Three Student Housing Properties
http://www.multihousingnews.com/news/jv-acquires-three-student-housing-properties/1004087203.html

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/gallery/entertainment/myajc-flashback-fotos-sideways-sweetheart-georgia-/gCB2f/#3631228
MyAJC Flashback Fotos: Sideways, the Sweetheart of Georgia Tech
Talk about a strange love affair. A school known for its rivalry with Bulldogs experiences a full-on case of puppy love? Not even the fabled scribes of the Journal or Constitution could make up such a shaggy dog story. A little background on this frisky Juliet and her campus of adoring Romeos, courtesy of the Georgia Tech Dean of Students’ Handbook: “In 1945, a black and white, long-haired mongrel appeared on the Tech campus after her owner moved away from the area. Injured when thrown from a car, the dog walked with her head and shoulders about fifteen degrees out of phase with her hindquarters. Observant Tech students affectionately dubbed the dog Sideways.” We at the paper noted that “this 1946 photograph of Sideways, the famous campus dog of Georgia Tech, is being etched on a marble monument on the northwest side of the Administration Building.”

USG VALUE:
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/atlanta-education-programs-make-summer-learning-fu/nYzLt/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch
Atlanta education programs make summer learning fun
BY CHELSEA CARIKER-PRINCE – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Swimming lessons, field trips to museums, and building model rockets can make a memorable summer camp experience. A national education program is also using these activities, to help Atlanta Public Schools students remember their math and reading skills. Horizons Atlanta is partnering public universities and prestigious private schools with public schools in lower-income communities to provide engaging summer learning experiences for kids. With five sites open this summer, Atlanta has one of the largest concentrations of Horizons programs in the country. The program aims to stop the “summer slide,” the loss of reading and math skills while school is out for summer.

GOOD NEWS:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/tech-to-give-more-value-to-online-degree-with-master/article_0860de7e-f321-11e2-ae84-001a4bcf6878.html
Tech to give ‘more value’ to online degree with master’s program
Chet Martin
Ranked as one of the top engineering schools and technology institutes in the country, The Georgia Institute of Technology has expanded its horizons even further to provide education opportunities to more students.
Georgia Tech will offer an online master’s degree in computer science for less than $7,000. The online degree will be the first accredited master’s program in the nation to operate through a partnership with Udacity, a company that runs massive open online courses.

www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2013/07/21/2566896/middle-georgia-state-offers-new.html
Education Notebook: Middle Georgia State offers new payment plan
Middle Georgia State College is tweaking its tuition payment plan, giving students the chance to make several payments over the course of each semester, according to a news release. The college recently partnered with Nelnet Business Solutions to allow students to pay each semester’s tuition and fees over time. Students have until Aug. 2 to sign up, the news release said. For full-time students, tuition and fees total about $1,900 a semester. Fees can vary depending on which campus students take their classes. Students interested in participating can go to www.mga.edu/bursar/payment-plan.aspx and follow the steps to set up their payment plans, according to the news release.

www.albanyherald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jul/22/darton-to-graduate-first-four-year-nursing-class/
Darton to graduate first four-year nursing class
Staff Reports
ALBANY, Ga. — The first Darton State College students to complete requirements for a bachelor of science degree in Nursing will graduate Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Cavalier Arena. Seventeen students will graduate, becoming the first class to receive four-year degrees from Darton. Darton State College received approval from the state of Georgia’s Board of Regents to start offering four-year degrees in May of 2011. The first RN-to-BSN cohort class to complete the program started taking classes during fall semester of 2012.

www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2013/07/21/2566896/middle-georgia-state-offers-new.html
Georgia College recognized for charitable donations
Georgia College & State University recently received statewide recognition for participation in the annual State Charitable Contribution Program, according to a news release. Faculty and staff contributed more than $21,000 last year, which benefited a number of nonprofit organizations and was the second-highest amount contributed in its category. “Generosity is one of the core values of Georgia College. Our employees have embraced that by giving willingly to help those who are less fortunate,” Georgia College President Steve Dorman said in the news release.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-07-20/economist-ranks-uga-executive-mba-among-world’s-best
The Economist ranks UGA Executive MBA among world’s best
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
In its first rankings of Executive MBA programs, The Economist placed the University of Georgia Terry College of Business program No. 22 worldwide. The Economist’s rankings reflect each EMBA program’s performance in two broad categories: personal development/education experience and career development, with each category weighted equally. “This is an indication that we’re on the right track, and a reflection of the hard work that goes on at Terry,” said Charles B. Knapp, interim dean of the Terry College.

RESEARCH:
www.slate.com
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/georgia_tech_s_computer_science_mooc_the_super_cheap_master_s_degree_that.html
The MOOC That Roared
How Georgia Tech’s new, super-cheap online master’s degree could radically change American higher education.
By Gabriel Kahn
Georgia Institute of Technology is about to take a step that could set off a broad disruption in higher education: It’s offering a new master’s degree in computer science, delivered through a series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, for $6,600. The school’s traditional on-campus computer science master’s degree costs about $45,000 in tuition alone for out-of-state students (the majority) and $21,000 for Georgia residents. But in a few years, Georgia Tech believes that thousands of students from all over the world will enroll in the new program.

www.cbsatlanta.com
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22903670/georgia-tech-grad-develops-pressgram-an-alternative-photo-sharing-application
Georgia Tech grad develops alternative photo sharing application, Pressgram
Jennifer Mayerle
ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) – A Georgia Tech grad has developed a new iPhone application that he says will rival Instagram and is better for bloggers. It’s called Pressgram. John Saddington said he developed it so people can keep ownership of their pictures. It’s nearly impossible to escape social sharing. People no longer use their phone to just talk and text. It’s about snapping a photo to upload, letting friends know what you’re doing, announcing the birth of a baby or an engagement. The software engineer hopes to revolutionize the way people share pictures.

www.polygon.com
http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/22/4546672/xyz-exhibit-museum-of-design-atlanta-womens-contributions-games
‘XYZ’ exhibit highlights women’s contributions to games
By Samit Sarkar
XYZ: Alternative Voices in Game Design, a new exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta, focuses on games designed by women and the ways in which they offer a wider range of experiences than most mainstream games. The exhibit features nearly 40 video games as well as a number of tabletop games, including Brenda Romero’s Holocaust board game, Train (pictured above). XYZ is being supplemented by a panel about women in the game industry that will take place tomorrow, July 23, from 6-8 p.m. at the museum. XYZ, which was put together by the museum in conjunction with the Digital Media Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology,

www.medgadget.com
http://www.medgadget.com/2013/07/magnetized-nanoparticles-deliver-stem-cells-to-therapeutic-target.html
Magnetized Nanoparticles Deliver Stem Cells to Therapeutic Target
by EDITORS
Stem cells hold the promise of treating a variety of diseases, and while techniques that differentiate these cells into wanted types are regularly making waves in the news, effectively depositing them where needed in the body remains a challenge. Now a team from Emory University and Georgia Tech has developed a technique of injecting magnetized particles of iron oxide into mesenchymal stem cells.

STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-07-21/georgia-sees-increase-temporary-workers
Georgia sees increase in temporary workers
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — The use of temporary workers is on the rise in Georgia, following a national trend that’s typically considered as an indication of economic improvement. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday (http://bit.ly/12Fg9dd ) that Georgia has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of temporary workers over the past four years. The newspaper reports more than 101,500 people are now employed as temporary workers in the state. Nationally, temp jobs increased by 53 percent to 2.7 million workers. Hiring of temporary workers has increased in nearly every industry, Jim Link, Atlanta-based managing director for staffing at recruiting agency Randstad USA, told the newspaper.

www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2013/07/22/manufacturers-news-georgia-gaining.html
Manufacturers’ News: Georgia gaining manufacturing jobs
Jacques Couret
Senior Online Editor-Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia’s manufacturing employment continues to improve from Great Recession set-backs, according to the 2014 Georgia Manufacturers Register. The annual published by Manufacturers’ News Inc. measures employment and sector data from May to May. Georgia gained 7,769 manufacturing jobs from May 2012 to May 2013 for 1.6 percent growth. That’s more than double the gain the Georgia Manufacturers Register reported for the 2011-2012 survey period, and one percentage point above the national average gain as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional/a-piecemeal-approach-to-saving-georgias-history/nYpwM/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch
A piecemeal approach to saving Georgia’s history?
BY JAMES SALZER AND KRISTINA TORRES – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Six years ago, the state paid $1.1 million for the old World of Coca-Cola building downtown and talked of turning it into Georgia’s premier history museum. Today, the building is still the old World of Coke, empty and sweltering, a museum of air and dust. Georgia isn’t the only original colony without a state museum, but it’s in a minority that includes Rhode Island and New Hampshire. And since the state bought the one-time monument to Coke, the General Assembly has twice killed funding to start work on a museum there. The old World of Coke, fenced off from Underground Atlanta and filled with leftover shelving, mannequins, chairs and storage items, is a symbol of the General Assembly’s skittishness when it comes to funding the preservation of Georgia’s history.

www.tri-cityherald.com
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/07/21/2479965/ga-lawmakers-stalling-on-plan.html
Ga. lawmakers stalling on plan for state museum
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — State officials have let a former Coca-Cola building in downtown Atlanta sit empty after buying it for $1.1 million instead of following through on plans to turn it into a state history museum. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/15WVMKA ) reported Sunday that the General Assembly has killed funding to start work on building the museum twice since the state bought the property six years ago. “I think it is at least a couple of years down the road before we can see fit to spend the money for a museum,” said House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn. “We’ve still got some other things we need to do.”

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-07-20/georgias-chief-innovation-cheerleader#.Ue6N4eCTpGN
Georgia’s chief innovation cheerleader
By Mary Carr Mayle
It’s been said that if you want something done right, ask a busy person. Maybe that’s why Page Siplon — director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics in Savannah and one of the busiest people in Georgia — has been tapped by the Georgia Department of Economic Development to lead all six state innovation centers. More likely, it’s because if anyone is up to the task, it’s Siplon. “Georgia’s Centers of Innovation program is a national model and an excellent resource to help our Georgia companies create new jobs and investment,” said Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of economic development for the state. “Page has a proven track record of success with the logistics center, and his past experiences, leadership and enthusiasm will elevate the program to the next level.” The Georgia Centers of Innovation focus on six areas of strategic industry growth and expansion: agribusiness, aerospace, energy, life sciences and IT, logistics and manufacturing.

www.nytimes.com

In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters
A study finds the odds of rising to another income level are notably low in certain cities, like Atlanta and Charlotte, and much higher in New York and Boston.
By DAVID LEONHARD
ATLANTA – Stacey Calvin spends almost as much time commuting to her job — on a bus, two trains and another bus — as she does working part-time at a day care center. She knows exactly where to board the train and which stairwells to use at the stations so that she has the best chance of getting to work on time in the morning and making it home to greet her three children after school. “It’s a science you just have to perfect over time,” said Ms. Calvin, 37. Her nearly four-hour round-trip stems largely from the economic geography of Atlanta, which is one of America’s most affluent metropolitan areas yet also one of the most physically divided by income. The low-income neighborhoods here often stretch for miles, with rows of houses and low-slung apartments, interrupted by the occasional strip mall, and lacking much in the way of good-paying jobs. This geography appears to play a major role in making Atlanta one of the metropolitan areas where it is most difficult for lower-income households to rise into the middle class and beyond, according to a new study that other researchers are calling the most detailed portrait yet of income mobility in the United States.

Related article:
www.orlandosentinel.com
Study: For upward mobility, it’s location, location, location
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/blog/blog-o-nomics/os-geography-affects-income,0,6074592.post

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/jul/22/breaking-news-georgia-will-develop-its-own-tests-c/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Breaking news: Georgia will develop its own tests for Common Core. So, how will we know where we stand nationally?
As hinted by Georgia School Superintendent John Barge earlier this month, Georgia will drop out of a consortium developing new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards. A critical element of Common Core was a related national assessment that would show how Georgia students performed in comparison with students in other states. But now the state has decided that Georgia will not offer the test, which is being written by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a 22-state consortium that had included Georgia. Barge says the new test would be too costly.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/jul/23/now-georgia-has-dumped-test-should-we-drop-common-/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Now that Georgia has dumped the test, should we drop the Common Core Standards, too?
Yesterday’s Department of Education announcement that Georgia was pulling out of a 22-state consortium developing tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards has sparked commentary nationwide. The test would replace the CRCT, which is not considered rigorous and does not tell parents how their kids stack up against peers elsewhere in the United States. One of the concerns: Does it make sense for Georgia to follow the standards but not use the tests that go along with them? And does it defeat the purpose of Common Core, which was to create standards and tests that would finally tell Georgia parents where their kids stood?

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/biz-beat/2013/jul/23/study-insurers-charge-high-school-grads-more/
The Biz Beat
Study: Insurers give college grads better break on rates
By Christopher Seward
Major auto insurers routinely charge customers with only a high school diploma rates higher than those paid by customers with college degrees, despite good driving records, according to a new study by the Consumer Federation of America. GEICO charges a high school graduate obtaining minimum liability coverage, which state governments require, 45 percent more than college grad customers in Seattle, 21 percent more in Chicago and 20 percent more in Baltimore. The study did not include rates in Atlanta, but we’re checking to see whether the same pattern exists here.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/kyle-wingfield/2013/jul/23/about-study-showing-low-income-mobility-atlanta/
Kyle Wingfield
About that study showing low income mobility in Atlanta
You will be seeing a lot of commentary about a new study about intergenerational income mobility by metropolitan area that was featured in a New York Times story (which was published on the front of today’s AJC print edition). That’s in part because it’s a first-of-its-kind look at one of the biggest political and socioeconomic topics today, income mobility, and the way it varies across the country. From a local perspective, it’s important because Atlanta ranked dead last for intergenerational income mobility among the nation’s 30 largest metro areas.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/07/23/essay-real-stakes-higher-education-reform#ixzz2ZrTEYsV4
The Stakes for All of Us
By Matthew Pratt Guterl
If you were a casual reader of American newspapers, you would think that the fate of the humanities was in doubt. Polishing off a 30-year-old critique, most famously offered by Allan Bloom in 1987’s The Closing of the American Mind, an acerbic corps of doubters – David Brooks of The New York Times is in the vanguard — wonders if scholars of literature have lost their way, substituting politically chosen texts for classics, stripping away the basic function of the humanities, defined gloriously as: to help us make sense of our world. Enrollments are down, they note, which means that students are shifting their efforts into the sciences, or business, or technology. The doubters want us to believe that the wonderful dreamers who once taught at Chicago or Penn or Yale are, sorrowfully, gone.

Education News
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/georgia-decides-against-offering-common-core-stand/nYzDr/
Georgia decides against offering ‘Common Core’ standardized test
By Wayne Washington
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia leaders announced today that the state will not offer a new and expensive standardized test tied to the controversial set of national standards called Common Core. In rejecting the test, Gov. Nathan Deal and Superintendent John Barge cited its cost, which could have been as high as $27 million — slightly more than the state’s entire K-12 testing budget. Georgia will offer assessments developed by education officials in this state, who will continue working with their counterparts in the region toward the goal of offering a regional test.

Related articles:
www.onlineathens.com
Georgia will drop out of Common Core-aligned testing consortium
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-07-22/georgia-will-drop-out-common-core-aligned-testing-consortium

www.blogs.edweek.org
Georgia Drops Out of PARCC Test Consortium
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/07/georgia_drops_out_of_parcc_tes.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

www.jacksonville.com
Georgia sticking with nationwide Common Core curriculum but will write own exams, governor says
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2013-07-22/story/georgia-sticking-nationwide-common-core-curriculum-will-write-own

www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/07/parcc_test_cost_higher_for_half_.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
PARCC Test Cost: Higher for Nearly Half the States
By Catherine Gewertz
PARCC summative tests in mathematics and English/language arts will cost member states $29.50 per student, more than what half its member states currently pay for their tests, according to figures released today. The new tests being designed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, are priced just below the $29.95 median level of spending on summative tests in those two subjects in the consortium’s 20 member states. The cost estimates for the PARCC tests were posted today on its website. The cost of tests being designed by PARCC and the other state testing group, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, are a topic of intense interest now as states try to decide their testing plans for 2014-15. That’s when the new tests designed by each group are scheduled to be operational.

www.stateimpact.npr.org

Florida Supporters And Opponents Race To Explain Common Core

Florida Supporters And Opponents Race To Explain Common Core
BY JOHN O’CONNOR
When Gov. Rick Scott and Education Commissioner Tony Bennett met with school superintendents in April, Florida’s new education standards led the questions. “Let’s start with Common Core,” said Martin County superintendent Laurie Gaylord. “We recently held a Common Core workshop for our school board and our community and we got picketed…So I guess I’m reaching out so that we can have the same message for all of us throughout the state — if there’s a marketing-type plan to be able to help us.” Common Core is supposed to prepare students better for college or a career. Teachers will cover fewer topics, but spend more time on each one. And students will spend less time memorizing facts and more time learning to analyze and explain things. Florida is one of 45 states that has adopted new math, English and literacy standards known as Common Core.

www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/07/house_passes_partisan_nclb_rew.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
House Passes Partisan NCLB Rewrite, But Rocky Road Still Ahead
By Alyson Klein
UPDATED
After two days of partisan debate on an issue that used to bring Democrats and Republicans together in a kumbaya chorus, the House of Representatives passed a GOP-only reauthorization of the long-stalled No Child Left Behind Act. The bill, approved 221-207, with no Democratic support, would maintain the NCLB law’s signature testing schedule and its practice of breaking out student-achievement data by particular groups of students (such as English-language learners and students in special education). But otherwise it’s almost a complete U-turn, policy-wise, from the existing federal school accountability law.

www.gwinnettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2013/jul/20/cisco-gives-100000-to-gwinnett-tech/
Cisco gives $100,000 to Gwinnett Tech
By Frank Reddy
LAWRENCEVILLE — Cisco has awarded Gwinnett Technical College a $100,000 grant to fund the college’s Accelerated Learning Program, which provides academic support to students entering college to improve their academic progress and further their success at the college level. It marks Cisco’s second year of funding for the unique program, which provides intense and accelerated short-format courses in English, reading and mathematics as a way to shorten the time and need for traditional learning support programs. This early intervention is a means to ultimately improve retention and college completion, enabling graduates to earn the skills and college credentials necessary to successfully enter the workforce.

www.online.wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324144304578622343932131354.html?mod=ITP_pageone_1
Parents Shell Out Less for Kids in College
By DOUGLAS BELKIN
Parents are giving their children less cash to pay for college amid continued economic weakness, adding to pressure on students to borrow money, rely more on grants and scholarships—and in many cases, live at home. Parents shelled out an average of $5,727 from their income and savings for each child’s college costs in the 2012-2013 academic year, down more than a third from $8,752 in 2009-2010, according to an annual report on college funding by student loan provider Sallie Mae to be released on Tuesday.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/23/salle-mae-survey-finds-families-unwilling-pay-more-higher-education#ixzz2ZrSRmf7w
Holding the Line
By Kevin Kiley
Colleges’ effort to increase tuition revenue, now the dominant form of funds for most colleges and universities, is running headlong into a public that is reluctant to pay much more for higher education. That is truest of all for wealthy families. An annual survey released today by Sallie Mae and Ipsos Public Affairs found that the amount families paid for college — a number that includes savings, current income and borrowing by both students and their parents, as well as some outside and institutional scholarship and grant dollars — leveled off for the school year that ended this summer after falling between 2009 and 2012. For the most recent year, families paid an average of $21,178.

Related article:
www.chronicle.com
Many Families Face Unexpected College Expenses, Survey Finds
http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/families-face-unexpected-college-expenses-survey-finds/35779?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/23/ohio-state-president-steered-state-policy-two-years-thanks-relationship-governor#ixzz2ZrSJjHqJ
Personalities and Policies
By Kevin Kiley
If there’s a formula to generate infighting among colleges and universities for scarce state dollars, it would probably look a lot like the situation in Ohio. Start with one of the country’s most populous states. Divide it into regions that have distinct political interests and a history of strong local control. Add 14 universities, 24 branch campuses and 23 community colleges that historically operated without much in the way of centralized state governance. After the 2010 election, subtract a governor who had made higher education a top priority and created a new centralized authority, and add one who showed antipathy toward the sector before stepping into the role. Zero out the state’s chief higher education administrator. Then multiply those issues by giving significant authority to one of the country’s most high-profile and politically adept presidents, who represents an institution that dominates the state. The result could have been disaster. But state higher education officials say the past two years in Ohio have been almost the opposite.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/23/house-proposal-would-slash-funding-neh-half-part-broader-trend#ixzz2ZrSeXawV
Another Whack at the Humanities
By Doug Lederman
WASHINGTON — There may be a problem in the mailroom of the House of Representatives. Judging by legislation introduced Monday by the chamber’s Committee on Appropriations, which would cut the budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities in half next year, it seems the panel’s members did not receive their copies of the recent report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, which among other things called on governments and other funders to “significantly increase” their support for humanities and social science programs at all levels.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/23/report-says-all-male-physics-departments-dont-result-bias#ixzz2ZrSoTWYy
Departments Without Women
By Scott Jaschik
More than one-third of physics departments in the United States lack a single female faculty member. That figure has been cited by some as evidence of discrimination. With women making up just 13 percent of the faculty members (assistant through full professors) in physics, could there be another explanation? A new report from the American Institute of Physics — based on simulation analysis — concludes that the large number of departments without a single woman is to be expected and is not the result of discrimination. Some experts on women and science, however, disagree.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/54794/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0e67ef5014ae4b5d96177fc392c2cfb4&elqCampaignId=33#
Bennett More Than a ‘First’ at Southern Mississippi
by Pearl Stewart
When Dr. Rodney Bennett was appointed president of the University of Southern Mississippi, he anticipated a bit more publicity than usual, but he says he “did not expect that we would still be talking about it from February to June.” As the first African-American president of a predominantly White university in Mississippi, Bennett has garnered significant national attention. Not only does Bennett’s appointment highlight the state’s progress in race relations, it also leads to reflection on its dismal past. Southern Miss, like its higher-profile sister Ole Miss (University of Mississippi), took extreme measures to resist desegregation. …But Bennett isn’t dwelling on racial issues or on being a Black “first.” Instead, he told Diverse in a recent interview, “Race is something that we can talk about, and it generates interest, but I don’t think that was why I was selected,” says Bennett. “I think [the Institutions of Higher Education Board of Trustees] were looking for someone who can do the work and graduate students.” …As the former vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia, it is natural that Bennett would hone in on student achievement and success.