University System News

USG NEWS:
www.gpb.org
http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/08/22/sectors-outline-college-missions-focus#
‘Sectors’ Outline College Missions, Focus
By Joshua Stewart
ATLANTA — Georgia’s state colleges and universities are now sub-divided into four different classes – “sectors,” as the University System of Georgia calls them. The Board of Regents approved the new policy last week. The categories – research university, comprehensive university, state university and state college – both determine and are determined by a college’s program of study, the degrees it offers and other measures.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/campus/uga-s-college-of-engineering-grows-up/article_bb26d69c-0a25-11e3-b384-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=print
UGA’s College of Engineering grows up
Marena Galluccio
Before the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering opened it’s doors on July 1, 2012, between 400 and 500 students were studying the five available undergraduate engineering major options.
A little over a year later, the college and the majors have hit a growth spurt.

www.times-herald.com
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20130822-NewnanDDA_groundbreaking-UWG-hospital-redev
UWG Campus Groundbreaking Sept. 9
by CELIA SHORTT
A groundbreaking ceremony for the University of West Georgia hospital redevelopment project for the new Newnan Center campus will be held on Sept. 9. The announcement came at the Newnan Downtown Development Authority meeting Wednesday.

www.cnn.com
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/us/georgia-tech-sophomore-speech/
Georgia Tech welcome speech stuns freshmen, goes viral
By Marcy Heinz, CNN
Atlanta (CNN) — Georgia Institute of Technology student Nicholas Selby is a force to be reckoned with. The sophomore is a Mechanical Engineering major, co-leads Team Solar Jackets — Georgia Tech’s team that built and raced a solar-powered car in the Formula Sun Grand Prix — and is a president’s scholar, representing the top 2% of enrolled students at the university. It’s safe to say he must have a lot of energy — and it appears to have been unleashed during his welcome speech Sunday to this year’s freshman class.

Related article:
www.bizjournals.com
Ga. Tech student gives ‘epic’ speech to welcome freshmen (Video)
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2013/08/ga-tech-student-gives-epic-speech.html

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/uga-named-contender-for-south-s-best-tailgate/article_9287d7a0-0af6-11e3-9350-001a4bcf6878.html
UGA named contender for South’s best tailgate
Mariana Viera
Southern Living Magazine has named their top 15 tailgate campuses and the University of Georgia is on that list. Southern Living is holding their second-annual contest for the best tailgating celebration. They’ve named their 15 contenders and now it’s up to the fans to choose who has the best tailgate in the South.

GOOD NEWS:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-08-21/uga-fundraising-tops-100-million-eighth-consecutive-year
UGA fundraising tops $100 million for eighth consecutive year
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
The University of Georgia raised more than $117 million in gifts and new commitments for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. It marked the eighth consecutive year that private giving to the university has topped $100 million and a 14 percent increase over the 2012 fiscal year. The total includes gifts and pledges from 54,797 contributors. Of the total, $17 million was designated for scholarships.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-08-21/uga-professor-awarded-international-veterinary-congress-prize
UGA professor awarded International Veterinary Congress Prize
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
Because of her contributions to an international understanding of veterinary medicine, University of Georgia professor Corrie Brown recently received the XIIth International Veterinary Congress Prize from the American Veterinary Medical Association. …The XIIth International Veterinary Congress Prize, given annually, recognizes outstanding global service by a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, which, with more than 84,000 members, is one of the oldest and largest veterinary medical organizations in the world.

www.blogs.wsj.com
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/08/22/mits-innovators-list/
MIT’s Innovators List
By WSJ Staff
The MIT Technology Review, a Massachusetts-based technology publication has come out with its annual list of 35 innovators aged under 35. This year it features two men of south Asian origin. Balaji Srinivasan and Vijay Balasubramaniyan, both 33, made it to the coveted list, which celebrates young entrepreneurs and inventors, who have done exceptional work in the field of technology globally… Mr. Balasubramaniyan completed his undergraduate studies in engineering from R. V. College of Engineering in the southern Indian city of Bangalore and doctoral studies from Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. Prior to Pindrop, he worked at some of the top technology firms such as Google Inc.GOOG +0.45%, Intel Corp. and IBM Research.

RESEARCH:
www.azonano.com
http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3607
Nanoparticles Could Train Immune System to Fight Cancer
By Will Soutter
Nanoparticles have been a hugely important part of research into cancer treatment recently. Their ability to penetrate deep into the body, and the possiblity of using them as a platform for designing complex, multi-functional systems which can both detect, target, and destroy specific types of cancer cell, have proved very attractive to the research community. Now, however, Shanta Dhar and her team at the University of Georgia have a fresh approach to the problem – harnessing the incredible power of the human body’s own immune system to kill off cancer cells.

www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/10256768/Malicious-apps-smuggled-into-Apple-app-store.html
Malicious apps smuggled into Apple app store
Computer scientists in America claim to have discovered a way to slip malware into Apple’s app store without being detected by the mandatory review process.
By Sophie Curtis
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have published a paper on what they call “Jekyll apps”, which have the outward apprearance of being benign but contain vulnerabilities that allow them to be exploited remotely. In their investigation, the team, led by Tielei Wang, developed a proof-of-concept Jekyll app and successfully published it to the Apple app store. The app worked by taking the binary code that had already been digitally signed by Apple and rearranging it in a way that gave it new and malicious behaviours.

Related article:
www.esecurityplanet.com
Researchers Plant Malware on Apple’s App Store
Apple says it has made changes in response to the researchers’ work.
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/mobile-security/researchers-plant-malware-on-apples-app-store.html

www.businessnewsdaily.com
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4965-consumers-not-attracted-to-controversy.html
Want a Buzzworthy Brand? Avoid Too Much Controversy
By: Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor
Brands that try to drum up a lot of controversy to create some buzz might want to rethink their strategy, a new study finds. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania discovered that although slightly controversial topics can be intriguing to consumers, topics that are too controversial turn them off.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-ricardo-azziz/consolidation-in-higher-e_b_3784640.html
Consolidation in Higher Education: Thoughts From the Trenches
Dr. Ricardo AzzizPresident, Georgia Regents University
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 efficiences and reduce costs amid declining state support.” Consolidation in higher education is representative of a broader trend across many industries: consolidating two or more entities into one or merging one into another, to increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs amid shrinking budgets in a weakened economy.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/mobile-learning-and-edited-course#.UhY5bOB5iCY
Mobile Learning and the Edited Course
By Joshua Kim
I’ve been spending lots of time thinking about mobile learning. Why am I so excited about designing online and blended learning environments around the phone? Isn’t this yet another case where the technology is driving the approach to teaching and learning, exactly the opposite of what we all say we should be doing? The number reason to be excited about mobile learning is that mobile learning will force us to edit our online and blended courses.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/08/22/california-bill-third-party-providers-bad-policy-essay#ixzz2cheynlyG
Better Off Dead
By Campaign for the Future of Higher Education
Despite the praise heaped on California Senate Bill 520 by Phil Hill and Dean Florez in a recent panegyric published in Inside Higher Ed, the bill was not the right answer for California’s higher education access woes, and it is a poor model for other states to emulate. A bill that would open the door to for-profit companies — including unaccredited “fly-by-night” ones — to offer courses in the name of a state’s colleges and universities is fraught with danger.

www.economix.blogs.nytimes.com

College Costs: Rising, Yet Often Exaggerated
By DAVID LEONHARDT
“Soaring college costs” is one of those phrases for which journalists and speechwriters seem to have a save-get key. It’s become conventional wisdom that the cost of attending college has risen far more than the cost of just about any other major item in family budgets. Expect to hear more such talk in the commentary about President Obama’s speech on higher education on Thursday – and perhaps even in the speech itself. But the conventional wisdom is at least partly wrong.

www.finance.yahoo.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/profit-college-scams-hurt-students-taxpayers-121740602.html;_ylt=A2KLOzIU.xVSXSIAOIPQtDMD
For-Profit College Scams Hurt Students and Taxpayers
By Lauren Lyster | Daily Ticker
We’ve all heard about the cost to students of rising college tuition and student loan debt. But what’s the cost of exploiting those trends as a school, and systematically deceiving college students by advertising phony job placement rates to boost enrollment and revenue? Well, apparently it’s just over $10 million. That’s how much one of the largest for-profit college corporations in the U.S. has agreed to settle with the state of New York for, over such claims.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/law-policy-and-it/obama-shake-higher-ed#.UhY5euB5iCY
Obama ‘Shake-Up’ of Higher Ed
By Tracy Mitrano
Especially in Western, Central New York and Pennsylvania, where President Obama is on a bus speaking tour of the region to give his opening salvos of a promised shake up of higher education, we await his pronouncements with bated breath. What could he possibly propose that we have not all thought about, discussed and implemented already as remedy to access, completion and tuition challenges?

Education News
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/deal-orders-review-of-common-core/nZYbc/
Deal orders review of Common Core
By Greg Bluestein and Wayne Washington
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Nathan Deal has ordered a sweeping review of the Common Core national guidelines and asked the State Board of Education to “formally un-adopt” a part of the program that includes sample English test selections that infuriated some parents. Deal also asked the board to develop a new social studies curriculum that emphasizes, among other aspects, civic and fiscal responsibility; and urged members to come up with a model reading list for school boards across the state.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/just-26-percent-of-act-test-takers-are-prepared-for-college/2013/08/21/a99fba0e-0a81-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html
Just 26 percent of ACT test-takers are prepared for college
By Emma Brown and Lynh Bui
Just more than one-quarter of students who took the ACT college entrance exam this year scored high enough in math, reading, English and science to be considered ready for college or a career, data released Wednesday showed. That figure masks large gaps between student groups — with 43 percent of Asians, but only 5 percent of African Americans — demonstrating college readiness in all four subjects.

www.savannahtribune.com
http://www.savannahtribune.com/news/2013-08-21/Front_Page/Savannah_Tech_Soars_With_New_Aviation_Training_Cen.html
Savannah Tech Soars With New Aviation Training Center
Technical College System of Georgia Commissioner Ron Jackson, Savannah Technical College President Dr. Kathy Love and honored guests celebrated the grand opening of STC’s Aviation Training Center today. “The new Aviation Training Center at Savannah Technical College will provide Georgia’s aviation industry with the highly-skilled workforce that they need in key areas like aircraft assembly and maintenance,” said Jackson.

www.marketwatch.com
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/want-to-save-on-college-ditch-dorms-campus-2013-08-21
Want to save on college? Ditch dorms, campus
More students choosing to live at home, take online courses
By Maria LaMagna, MarketWatch
To lower the cost of college, more parents are suggesting that their kids skip dorm life, and perhaps even the campus altogether. According to a new study from Fidelity, 54% of parents expect their children to take online courses for credit. Half of parents say they’re considering having their child live at home and commute. The number of students taking online courses has spiked. Since 2010, online college course enrollment has jumped 29%, according to Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. Now, 6.7 million students (roughly a third of all college students) are enrolled in online courses. …More recently, Georgia Tech created a stir by announcing that next January, it will offer a master’s degree in computer science that will cost just $6,600.

www.gigaom.com
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/21/despite-bad-press-udacity-founder-says-hes-found-the-magic-formula-for-online-education/
Despite bad press, Udacity founder says he’s found the ‘magic formula’ for online education
by Ki Mae Heussner
It hasn’t been a great few months for massive open online classes (or MOOCs), particularly those offered by the Silicon Valley startup Udacity. In July, San Jose State University, which had announced a partnership with the company amid much hoopla, said that it was taking a “short breather” from the project given disappointing outcomes among students enrolled in the online Udacity classes… In the past few months, MOOCS, which quickly captured the nation’s imagination thanks to startups Udacity and Coursera and the nonprofit edX, have drawn more criticism from university professors and faculty members. So the academic world will continue to closely watch the Udacity project at San Jose State, as well as the startup’s online degree with Georgia Tech.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Growth-of-International/141223/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
International Graduate Admissions Rise Steadily Even as Applications Slow
By Ian Wilhelm
American graduate schools are showing continued interest in students from overseas, but there are signs the feelings aren’t mutual. A report released on Thursday by the Council of Graduate Schools says offers of admissions to international applicants grew at a steady pace of 9 percent from 2012 to 2013, making it the fourth consecutive year of growth. Yet during the same time period, applications from overseas grew only 2 percent, much lower than in previous years.

Related article:
www.insidehighered.com
International Admissions Up, But…
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/22/despite-slowdown-applications-growth-admission-offers-international-grad-students#ixzz2cheNbrjO

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/22/study-shows-need-based-aid-eligibility-positively-affects-student-outcomes#ixzz2cheXoN4j
Beyond Enrollment
By Lauren Ingeno
Amid a national debate about how the federal financial aid system could be improved, a new study shows that an increased amount of need-based aid with no strings attached can have positive, long-term effects for low-income students.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Oregons-Pay-It-Forward-Plan/141221/?cid=at
Oregon’s ‘Pay It Forward’ Plan on Student Loans Could Become ‘Pay It Yourself’
By Eric Kelderman
It’s not surprising that a group of students would come up with a plan to try to eliminate the need for student loans. Some state legislators across the country have quickly embraced the concept, but without thoroughly examining the proposal, which could end up costing many students more money than they are currently paying for their loans—or even more than their total tuition.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/22/alabama-limits-graduate-student-workloads-avoid-paying-their-health-insurance#.UhY40eB5iCY
The Next Target
By Colleen Flaherty
As the new academic year begins, adjuncts at dozens of institutions across the country will be returning to campus with lighter course loads and smaller paychecks. That’s because some colleges and universities are trying to keep their hours below the threshold at which they become benefits-eligible employees under the Affordable Care Act.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/22/state-funding-upturn-familiar-pattern-or-newfound-importance-higher-ed#ixzz2chdzcvFC
State Funding Upturn
By Doug Lederman
Invest in higher education in good times, drain it (and expect students and families to make up the difference) when the economy sours. State governments have embraced that pattern for decades, even as many analysts deride it as flawed if not foolish. As most states set their budgets for the 2014 fiscal year this spring and early summer, public higher education fared better than it has in several years.

www.abcnewsradioonline.com
http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/white-house-picks-panel-to-review-nsa-programs.html#ixzz2chYxLCxD
White House Picks Panel to Review NSA Programs
A group of veteran security experts and former White House officials has been selected to conduct a full review of U.S. surveillance programs and other secret government efforts disclosed over recent months, ABC News has learned. The recent acting head of the CIA, Michael Morrell, will be among what President Obama called a, “high-level group of outside experts” scrutinizing the controversial programs… Swire recently became a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At the start of the Obama administration, he served as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and, during the Clinton administration, he served as the chief counselor for privacy.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/22/president-obama-proposes-link-student-aid-new-ratings-colleges#ixzz2chdjk2qQ
Obama’s Ratings for Higher Ed
By Scott Jaschik
WASHINGTON — President Obama appears to be making good on his vow to propose a “shake-up” for higher education. Early Thursday, he released a plan that would: Create a new rating system for colleges in which they would be evaluated based on various outcomes (such as graduation rates and graduate earnings), on affordability and on access (measures such as the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants).; Link student aid to these ratings, such that students who enroll at high performing colleges would receive larger Pell Grants and more favorable rates on student loans. etc.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-propose-college-ranking-system-that-could-increase-affordability/2013/08/22/73e674c0-0b17-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html?hpid=z1
Obama proposes college-rating system that could increase affordability
By Philip Rucker and Nick Anderson
BUFFALO, N.Y. — President Obama declared a crisis in the soaring cost of higher education here Thursday and unveiled a broad new plan that aims to make college education more affordable by tying federal financial aid to new college ratings. The plan, which Obama rolled out as he opened a two-day campaign-style bus tour of college campuses, would create a rating system beginning in 2015 to evaluate colleges on tuition, the percentage of low-income students, graduation rates and debt of graduates.

www.nytimes.com

Obama Vows to Shame Colleges Into Keeping Costs Down
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
BUFFALO — Deploring the rising costs of a college education, President Obama vowed on Thursday to try to shame universities into holding their prices down and to eventually use federal student aid as leverage in that effort. Speaking at the University at Buffalo, where tuition and fees now total about $8,000 per year for New York residents, Mr. Obama said the middle class and those struggling to rise out of persistent financial struggles were being unfairly priced out of the higher education market.

www.nytimes.com

Obama’s Plan Aims to Lower Cost of College
By TAMAR LEWIN
President Obama plans to announce a set of ambitious proposals on Thursday aimed at making colleges more accountable and affordable by rating them and ultimately linking those ratings to financial aid. A draft of the proposal, obtained by The New York Times and likely to cause some consternation among colleges, shows a plan to rate colleges before the 2015 school year based on measures like tuition, graduation rates, debt and earnings of graduates, and the percentage of lower-income students who attend. The ratings would compare colleges against their peer institutions. If the plan can win Congressional approval, the idea is to base federal financial aid to students attending the colleges partly on those rankings.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/higher-education/as-president-obama-talks-college-affordability-buffalos-program-looks-to-be-a-model/2013/08/22/bcd166b8-0af4-11e3-89fe-abb4a5067014_story.html
As President Obama talks college affordability, Buffalo’s program looks to be a model
By Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When 18-year-old Cheyenne Ketter-Franklin begins classes at the University at Buffalo next week, she will be spared at least one anxiety — the prospect of being saddled with a mountain of higher-education debt. An innovative scholarship program that offers up to full tuition to any Buffalo public or charter school graduate accepted to college is taking away that worry for Ketter-Franklin and hundreds of other students, and giving parents a powerful incentive to stay. The public-private partnership is just the kind of model that its supporters hope President Barack Obama will tout when he comes to the Buffalo campus Thursday to talk about ways to make college more affordable.

Related article:
www.bloomberg.com
Obama to Propose Tying Federal Aid to College Ranking
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-22/obama-said-to-propose-tying-college-aid-to-school-ranking.html

www.cbsatlanta.com
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/23225517/innovative-ny-program-picks-up-college-tuition
Innovative NY program picks up college tuition
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – When 18-year-old Cheyenne Ketter-Franklin begins classes at the University at Buffalo next week, she will be spared at least one anxiety – the prospect of being saddled with a mountain of higher-education debt. An innovative scholarship program that offers up to full tuition to any Buffalo public or charter school graduate accepted to college is taking away that worry for Ketter-Franklin and hundreds of other students, and giving parents a powerful incentive to stay.