University System News
GOOD NEWS:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2013/sep/10/ggc-ranked-no-5-by-us-news-and-world-report/
GGC ranked No. 5 by U.S. News & World Report
By Camie Young
LAWRENCEVILLE — Gwinnett’s young college has quickly risen to acclaim, gaining a fifth ranking among Southern public regional colleges, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine. The magazine released its ranking Tuesday, with the seven-year-old school besting any other Georgia institutions in that category.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-09-10/georgia-back-us-news-top-20
University of Georgia back in U.S. News Top 20
By LEE SHEARER
The University of Georgia climbed back into the Top 20 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report annual rankings of colleges and universities released Tuesday. UGA’s scores landed it at No. 20 in the 2014 ranking among U.S. public universities and 60 among all national universities, public and private, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Related article:
www.redandblack.com
UGA ranked No. 20 in top public universities
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/campus/uga-ranked-no-in-top-public-universities/article_533b5c42-1a1f-11e3-b666-0019bb30f31a.html
www.techspot.com
http://www.techspot.com/news/53943-is-your-school-ranked-among-the-nations-top-collegiate-pirates.html
Is your school ranked among the nation’s top collegiate pirates?
By Shawn Knight
University networks are unique in that they typically offer students a very speedy connection to the web that can’t be had elsewhere but even these networks are struggling with the same issues facing traditional ISPs: piracy. To highlight the behavior, TorrentFreak has put together a collection of the top 50 universities ranked by BitTorrent usage. In what is a surprise to pretty much nobody, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked first place overall followed by Rutgers and New York University. Rounding out the top 10 is the University of Houston, Texas A&M University, University of Illinois, Northeastern University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University and Michigan State University.
www.usnews.com
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2013/09/10/discover-11-hot-college-majors-that-lead-to-jobs
Discover 11 Hot College Majors That Lead to Jobs
From robotics to cybersecurity, STEM majors are among the hottest for career-seeking college students.
By CATHIE GANDEL
Looking for an academic direction with terrific growth potential? Some traditional fields are newly hot at the bachelor’s level; in other cases, enterprising colleges are creating new majors in emerging fields. Here are some hot majors you might want to consider. 1. Biomedical engineering: The folks standing at the intersection of the life sciences, engineering and medicine are working on such advances as an artificial kidney to help 2 million people worldwide give up their dependency on dialysis, and “designer” blood clots created from artificial platelets to save wounded soldiers on the battlefield. …The Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor boast top 10 programs in the field.
www.statesboro.wtoc.com
http://statesboro.wtoc.com/news/news/218381-annual-gsu-fundraiser-brings-21-million
Annual GSU fundraiser brings in $2.1 million
Submitted by WTOC Web Staff
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC)- Georgia Southern supporters set a record in donations in their 40th annual ‘A Day for Southern’ campaign. Volunteers raised more than $2.1 million in Bulloch County. The money helps pay for scholarships and other extras not covered by the state budget.
Related article:
www.thecoastalsource.com
Tuesday was a big day for Georgia Southern University.
http://www.thecoastalsource.com/2013/09/10/a-day-for-southern-fundraiser-underway/
www.times-herald.com
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20130911-Newnan-CC_financing-UWG-hospital-redevelopment-project
Financing For Redevelopment Approved
by CELIA SHORTT
The Newnan City Council unanimously approved United Bank’s proposal for the additional financing needed for the University of West Georgia/Newnan Hospital Redevelopment project at its regular meeting on Tuesday. United Bank’s proposal includes an interest rate of 1.9 percent for the first five years. They are waiving their loan origination fee, closing costs, and any prepayment penalties.
USG VALUE:
www.valdostadailytimes.com
http://valdostadailytimes.com/business/x31541547/SIFE-celebrates-20-years
SIFE celebrates 20 years
Stuart Taylor
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA — It was 20 years ago that Don Park and Wayne Plumly decided to start a new student organization on Valdosta State University’s campus. Students in Free Enterprise, or SIFE, is an international organization founded in 1975 that encourages university students to give back to their communities. SIFE, or as it has recently been re-named, Enactus, boasts a membership of more than 62,000 across 39 countries.
RESEARCH:
www.atlantamagazine.com
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/health/2013/09/10/mapping-the-exposome
Mapping the exposome
Emory and Georgia Tech researchers have teamed up to study the environment’s impact on health
Researchers at Emory University and Georgia Tech have joined forces to study the “exposome”—a measure of the environment’s impact on health. The partners received $4 million, the first exposome-centric grant awarded in the U.S., to establish HERCULES. (The acronym covers quite a mouthful: Health and Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposures.)
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/10/why-u-s-news-college-rankings-shouldnt-matter-to-anyone/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
Why U.S. News college rankings shouldn’t matter to anyone
Another year, another set of college rankings from U.S. News & World Report, another opportunity to explore what value the most closely watched “best school” lists actually offer to students and families. Not much, if any.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/09/11/promise-individualized-learning-and-faculty-role-essay
Personalized College Degrees
By John C. Cavanaugh
“Frenzy” may be the best way to describe what’s currently happening in higher education. On one hand, there’s MOOC (massive open online course) mania. Many commentators, faculty creators, administrators, and public officials think this is the silver bullet that will revolutionize higher education. On the other hand, there is the call for fundamental rethinking of the higher education business model.
www.blog.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/k-12_talent_manager/2013/09/moocs_offer_promise_K12TalentMgrs.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2
MOOCs Offer Promise for K-12 Talent Managers
By Emily Douglas
The New York Times called 2012 the “Year of the MOOC,” or Massive Online Open Courses for those of us just learning the lingo. The Society of Human Resource Management recently featured a large article in their August issue on the future of MOOCs. And, the headline of an article in TIME Magazine last year asked, “Will Massive, Open Online Courses Revolutionize Higher Education?” Even Gallup is asking university presidents and faculty across the United States for their views on the issue.
www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/the-great-stagnation-of-american-education/?utm_campaign=090313ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=ea4677c866704c0da3d904d86727fe78&elqCampaignId=67
The Great Stagnation of American Education
Source: New York Times blog
For most of American history, parents could expect that their children would, on average, be much better educated than they were. But that is no longer true. This development has serious consequences for the economy.
Education News
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/55889/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=f4710a0f10a2422c96a3344d382eee14&elqCampaignId=62#
U.S. News & World Report Reveals Best Colleges
by Diverse Staff
U.S. News & World Report released its 2014 edition of the Best Colleges yesterday, which includes rankings and data of nearly 1,800 schools nationwide. Breaking a tie with Harvard University, Princeton University claimed possession of the No. 1 spot in the Best National Universities category. Williams College tops the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges category for a second time. This year, U.S. News made changes to the Best Colleges ranking methodology to reflect the current state of college admissions and place more emphasis on student outcomes.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/diy-college-rankings/36211?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
DIY College Rankings
By Eric Hoover
For better or worse, the college-rankings field is ever fertile. The latest innovation is College Factual, a new Web site that allows users to create customized rankings of colleges based on criteria they select. Students may weight each of 17 factors (including ethnic diversity, graduates’ starting salaries, and freshman-to-sophomore retention rates) as unimportant, slightly important, important, very important, or critical.
www.deseretnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765637527/Big-student-debt-in-unexpected-places.html
Big student debt in unexpected places
By Philip Elliott
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Don’t let the big price tags nix an application to Harvard or Yale. The average student receiving financial aid on those campuses paid about a quarter of the public sticker price and most graduates leave their ivy-covered quads with smaller debts than peers who attended less prestigious schools. It’s not that unusual, according to statistics released Tuesday from U.S. News & World Report.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Public-Colleges-Quest-for/141541/
Public Colleges’ Quest for Revenue and Prestige Squeezes Needy Students
Less institutional aid goes to the poorest students, as colleges seek to rise in rankings and make up for state cuts
By Marian Wang (ProPublica)
Shauniqua Epps was the sort of student whom so many colleges say they want. …Ms. Epps was admitted to three colleges, all public institutions in Pennsylvania. She was awarded the maximum Pell Grant, federal funds intended for needy students. She also qualified for the maximum state grant for needy Pennsylvania students. None of the three colleges gave her a single dollar of aid.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/55874/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=f4710a0f10a2422c96a3344d382eee14&elqCampaignId=62#
Analysis: 2012 Higher Education Enrollment Rate of Latino High School Graduates Surpassed That of Whites
By Ronald Roach
Among 18- to 24-year-old U.S. postsecondary students, the higher education enrollment rate of Latino high school graduates surpassed that of White high school graduates in 2012 for the first time, according to a census data analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/55878/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=f4710a0f10a2422c96a3344d382eee14&elqCampaignId=62#
Enrollment Drops at Mississippi Universities
by Jeff Amy, Associated Press
JACKSON Miss.—For the first time since 1993, enrollment has dipped at Mississippi’s eight public universities. Figures released by the College Board on Monday show the preliminary fall student count at the schools is down 0.6 percent to 80,532 students.
www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/citrus-college-reaches-100-percent-of-its-transfer-degree/?utm_campaign=090313ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=ea4677c866704c0da3d904d86727fe78&elqCampaignId=67
Citrus College Reaches 100 Percent of its Transfer Degree
Source: midvalleynews.com
As California’s community colleges work to enhance transfer rates and formalize students’ courses of study, Citrus College is one of only five community colleges statewide that successfully met its target in developing new transfer degrees to the California State Universities (CSU). Citrus not only met its goal of 13, it exceeded it by creating a 14th degree.
www.chornicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/google-and-edx-create-a-mooc-site-for-the-rest-of-us/46413?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
Google and edX Create a MOOC Site for the Rest of Us
By Steve Kolowich
Until now, massive open online courses have mostly reinforced existing hierarchies in higher education. MOOC providers have recruited elite institutions and offered them and their professors the opportunity to broadcast their courses to the world. But now edX, a nonprofit provider founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is joining forces with Google to create a spinoff Web site where ordinary folks—and professors at colleges that have not been invited to join high-profile MOOC consortiums—can not only sign up for a MOOC but also build one themselves.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/11/edx-and-google-develop-open-source-mooc-platform#ixzz2eaJLO2kd
Open-Source MOOCs
By Carl Straumsheim
EdX, the online course provider created by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, sees an open-source future for massive online courses. On Tuesday, the company announced it has found a like-minded partner in Google, which will work with edX to make its online course platform more accessible to aspiring developers.
Related article:
www.blogs.wsj.com
EdX, Google to Create New Online Education Site
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/09/10/edx-and-google-will-create-new-online-education-site/
www.nytimes.com
Answers for Middle-Aged Seekers of MOOCs, Part 1
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cathy N. Davidson, a professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at Duke University, is answering questions about how to find and use Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other online continuing education tools.
www.nytimes.com
Advice for Middle-Age Seekers of MOOCs, Part 2
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cathy N. Davidson, a professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at Duke University, is answering readers’ questions about how to find and use Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other online continuing education tools. Part 1 of her answers is here.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Oppose/141543/
Students Oppose Concealed-Carry Gun Policy on Campuses, Survey Finds
By Justin Doubleday
As state legislatures continue to debate whether to allow people to carry concealed firearms on college campuses, a survey shows that most students oppose the idea. The survey, conducted by Ball State University, found that 78 percent of students at 15 Midwestern colleges were against the carrying of handguns on campuses and would not obtain a permit to do so if it were allowed.
www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2013/09/ies_nsf_release_common_ed_rese.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
IES, NSF Release Common Ed. Research Guidelines
By Sarah D. Sparks
The Institute of Education Sciences and the National Science Foundation have formally released common guidelines for education research and development. The guidelines, first previewed back in May, are intended to guide research investment decisions at the U.S. Department of Education’s main research agency, and NSF research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. They are also supposed to clarify the evidence expected for different types of research proposals from those applying for grants from the agencies.
www.denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24055707/university-colorado-tries-new-plan-keep-research-money
University of Colorado tries new plan to keep research money flowing
By Anthony Cotton
The Denver Post
As federal money for university research dwindles, the University of Colorado has come up with a plan to replace those dollars by forging research partnerships with private industry.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/hopkins-dean-apologizes-to-researcher-for-nsa-blogging-kerfuffle/46419?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Johns Hopkins Dean Apologizes to Researcher for NSA Blogging Kerfuffle
By Steve Kolowich
A Johns Hopkins University dean has publicly apologized to a research professor a day after demanding that he remove a blog post about the National Security Agency from university servers.
www.customwire.ap.org
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_SCOTT_COMMON_CORE_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-10-17-01-15
Fla. Gov. in middle of education battle
By GARY FINEOUT
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Rick Scott is in the middle of a tug-of-war over education that could reshape the state’s schools while also turning upside down the 2016 presidential race.
The Republican governor in recent weeks has refused to come out strongly in favor of Florida’s transition to new standards known also as the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/09/10/04california.h33.html?tkn=WNUFqlCY%2B1bVONJkGxrORQzxjoRngyX4Q6wz&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
California in Testing Showdown With U.S. Department of Education
By Catherine Gewertz
California’s proposal to suspend most of its accountability testing for one year has drawn a sharp rebuke and a threat from the U.S. Department of Education, illustrating the complications some states could face next spring when they juggle their own assessments with field tests of new common-core tests. In an unusually stern statement late Monday night, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that California’s plan “is not something we could approve in good conscience.” If the state proceeds with the plan anyway, “the department will be forced to take action, which could include withholding funds from the state,” he said.
www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/09/consortium_approves_data-priva.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
Assessment Consortium Votes on Privacy of Student Data
By Catherine Gewertz
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has taken the first step toward adoption of a policy to protect the privacy of student data gathered as part of a new testing regimen aligned with the common-core standards.
www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/09/parcc_consortium.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
PARCC Consortium Seeks Bids for Common-Core Testing Platform
By Sean Cavanagh
One of the two main consortia of states developing tests aligned to the common-core standards is asking for proposals from vendors to develop an ambitious array of technology services, including a platform for delivering the assessments and a warehouse for storing reams of data.