University System News

GOOD NEWS:
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/county-by-county-news-for-sunday/nbYq6/
County by county news for Sunday
GWINNETT
Gwinnett College is military-friendly
Georgia Gwinnett College has been named a 2014 Military Friendly School, one of the top 20 schools for military personnel transitioning into civilian life, by Victory Media.

www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/28/nyregion/college-rankings.html?ref=education&_r=1&
Harvard and Harvey Mudd: Both Best Value Colleges, Depending on the List
Top ten lists that ranked colleges based on the best value for students vary widely.
Washington Monthly – Best Bang for the Buck Rankings – 6. UGA … The Alumni Factor – Value for the Money- 5. Georgia Inst. of Tech – Main Campus; Princeton Review – Best Value Colleges, Public – 10. UGA

www.valdostadailytimes.com
http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x134990553/VSU-program-celebrates-honor-students
VSU program celebrates honor students
Kristin Finney
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA — In high school, advanced-placement classes and gifted programs differentiate most honors students from their peers. In college, honors students can sometimes fall by the wayside or not feel recognized or fulfilled. For honors students at Valdosta State University, this is not the case.

www.coe.georgiasouthern.edu
http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/blog/2013/10/21/coe-receives-u-s-doe-sub-award-for-project-escolar/
COE Receives U.S. DOE Sub-award for Project ESCOLAR
COE’s Goizueta Distinguished Chair, Alejandro Gallard, is co-principal investigator of a $2.5 million, 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, for a project that helps middle school students with learning disabilities learn science content with online sources. Gallard said part of the project will focus on Latina/o populations. Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) is a collaborative effort between the Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon, Georgia Southern University’s College of Education and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study group.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-10-25/uga-college-veterinary-medicine-receives-full-accreditation
UGA College of Veterinary Medicine receives full accreditation
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine once again received full accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education. “The College of Veterinary Medicine is pleased that the (Council on Education) has reaffirmed our full accreditation,” said the college’s Dean Sheila W. Allen. “Accreditation by the COE is recognized internationally as the gold standard for veterinary medical education. Thanks to the work of many throughout the college, we have earned this well-deserved recognition.

USG NEWS:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2013-10-26/georgia-regents-university-keeps-campus-consolidation-plans-open?v=1382879920#
Georgia Regents University keeps campus consolidation plans open
By Susan McCord and Tom Corwin
Staff Writers
A consultant ranked Augusta’s Mills District proposal last among options for the future expansion of Georgia Regents University. But university officials plan to start from scratch in an upcoming comprehensive master plan, which could put the mills back in play along with many other properties. The study looked at three distinct university campuses each separated by two miles, a downtown health system and even foundation-owned real estate. The many parts in play leave the potential configuration of the consolidated campus, or campuses, wide open and have the potential for substantial change, including the sale or repurposing of substantial assets.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-10-07/uga-division-student-affairs-works-strengthen-academic-partnerships
UGA Division of Student Affairs works to strengthen academic partnerships
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
Sylvia M. Hutchinson, a professor emerita, has been named director of academic partnerships and initiatives at the University of Georgia. She will join the Division of Student Affairs staff to coordinate a new strategic priority to formalize and strengthen partnerships with campus academic units, according to an announcement by Victor K. Wilson, UGA vice president for student affairs. Her position will be responsible for building a network of student affairs partnerships with academic degree programs and instructional enterprises, as well as fostering learning opportunities for students.

USG VALUE:
www.statesboroherald.com
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/54484/
Public Medicaid hearing Monday at GSU
Special to the Herald
Georgia Southern University will host members of the Joint Study Committee on Medicaid Reform during a meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center, 847 Plant Drive. The committee is composed of six members of the Georgia House of Representatives, six from the state Senate and six appointments by Gov. Nathan Deal to represent the Department of Community Health, hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, physicians and consumers. …During the meeting, lawmakers will hear testimony by faculty from Georgia Southern’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health and the School of Nursing.

RESEARCH:
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/tech-study-finds-suburbs-contribute-to-warmer-atla/nbYpK/
Tech study finds suburbs contribute to warmer Atlanta
BY KRISTINA TORRES – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
If you felt the heat this summer in Hotlanta, you’re not alone — and you can thank the ‘burbs for making it worse. New research out of Georgia Tech has for the first time confirmed just how much the metro Atlanta suburbs may exacerbate climate warming over time in the core city. Major cities have long been associated with the concept of “urban heat islands,” where a predominance of concrete and minimal amounts of vegetation help drive up temperatures.

www.aikenstandard.com
http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20131028/AIK0101/131029505/0/SEARCH&slId=1
Ecology lab studies birds to deter airfield accidents
Derrek Asberry
The University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory is working on an acoustic hailing device to disperse birds from unwanted locations. Professors began the project this summer. Their efforts are to protect airfield environments from bird-strike hazards. According to the Federal Aviation Administration – or FAA – there were more than 10,000 bird-aircraft collisions in 2011.

www.mashable.com
http://mashable.com/2013/10/25/engineering-entrepreneurs/
Want to Take Your Ph.D. Further? Think Like an Entrepreneur
NICK LEIBER for Businessweek
In a crowded hotel conference room in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., in October, Jerry Engel told dozens of earnest young scientists and engineers to cut the “scientific crap” and instead identify would-be customers who might care about their products. Frank Rimalovski piled on, urging attendees presenting research that they wanted to turn into businesses — from bone grafts to facial-recognition software — “to focus on the problem, not the solution.”… More than 230 teams from at least 100 schools, including Virginia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology and George Washington University, have completed the I-Corps program.

www.atlantamagazine.com
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/agenda/2013/10/28/the-foundry-att-tech-cisco-team-up-for-research
The Foundry: AT&T, Tech, Cisco team up for research
The Midtown center is intended to spur wireless and mobile technology innovation
by Mary Jo DiLonardo
AT&T is joining forces with Georgia Tech and Cisco for some serious tech power, opening a research hub for wireless innovation at Technology Square. At the un-tech-sounding Foundry, AT&T employees will work with entrepreneurs and Tech researchers to develop mobile products. Carlton Hill, vice president of devices and developer services at AT&T, explains what’s going on.

www.scoutmob.com
http://scoutmob.com/atlanta/scoutfinds/5626
THE SIX MOST AWESOMELY NERDY INVENTIONS AT ATLANTA’S MINI MAKER FAIRE
In common parlance, “DIY” typically connotes projects more along the lines of crochet crafts, upcycled scarves and Pinterest-fueled escapades than, say, homemade robots. But thanks to the rise of the maker movement, hobbyists and artists around the world are tinkering and inventing their way toward homegrown innovations… A “smart hive” for bees: Urban beekeeping? There’s an app for that. Well, maybe not quite yet, but there is a group of Georgia Tech students designing “smart hives” with sensors and scales—not to mention devices that allow the beekeepers to monitor their charges over the Internet.

www.abc.net.au
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/10/28/3875381.htm
Brain training improves memory not intelligence
Anna Salleh
ABC
Brain training may increase your brain’s ‘RAM’ but it won’t improve your ability to solve problems, according to a new US study. The findings suggest brain training will not lead to the “large and grandiose” rewards some have suggested, says co-author Tyler Harrison of the School of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology. The idea that you can train the brain to improve intelligence is gaining popularity in the light of new findings on neuroplasticity, says Harrison.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/26/the-real-21st-century-problem-in-public-education/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
The real 21st-century problem in public education
There are plenty of problems in public education, but here’s the biggest, from Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a project of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute that recognizes the impact of social and economic disadvantage on many schools and students, and works to better the conditions that limit many children’s readiness to learn.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/28/five-stereotypes-about-poor-families-and-education/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
Five stereotypes about poor families and education
Here is an excerpt from a new book called “Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap,” by Paul C. Gorski, associate professor of integrative studies at George Mason University. The book, which draws from years of research to analyze educational practices that undercut the achievement of low-income students, is part of the Multicultural Education Series of books edited by James A. Banks and published by Teachers College Columbia University.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/10/25/dont-call-us-rock-stars/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Don’t Call Us Rock Stars
By Kevin Werbach
Ah, the life of a superprofessor. Since I started teaching a massive open online course, I’ve been called “Internet royalty” by the Financial Times and been told I had great skin on the public-radio show Marketplace. This must be what the edX president Anant Agarwal meant when, responding to concerns that MOOCs were overhyped, he asked, “What better to hype than education? For the first time, you’re going to make the teacher a rock star” (Information Week). And you know what? I hate it.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/10/28/essay-need-new-innovation-focused-accreditor#ixzz2j1NFHFyr
Debt-Free Degrees
David Bergeron and Steven Klinsky
In many respects, higher education in the United States – with credits awarded on time a student sits in a chair – remains trapped in the 19th century and has been slow to embrace technology. Online education from traditionally accredited colleges has been available since at least 1999, but almost always at the same high tuition cost as the traditional “physical” courses. New ideas, such as tuition-free massive open online courses (MOOCs), are now emerging, but are generally not accredited.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/satact-tell-us-something-valuable/nbXr8/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub3
SAT/ACT tell us something valuable
BY PATRICK MATTIMORE
I occasionally teach test prep courses and have been interested in standardized tests for a long time, so a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution news article on how closely Georgia’s SAT scores align with family income piqued my interest. Critics of the two main college admissions tests — the SAT and ACT — complain that the tests are narrow measures of students’ abilities that unfairly reward students from the highest socioeconomic classes that can afford test prep. They point out that the tests are highly correlated with family socioeconomic status. So, are the tests necessary?

Education News
www.romenews-tribune.com
http://romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/23918263/article-Jackson–Post-secondary-credentials-necessary-for-future-jobs-in-work-place?instance=home_news
Jackson: Post-secondary credentials necessary for future jobs in work place
by Nick Godfrey, staff writer
It’s a different world that’s challenging students to extend their education beyond high school, said Ron Jackson, commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia. “The real importance to having a post-secondary credential of some sort is that you cannot in K through 12 get everything you need for the work place,” he told members of the Rotary Club of Rome on Thursday. “Everything has become so technical.” Gov. Nathan Deal has challenged the secondary school systems across Georgia to have 250,000 more post-secondary graduates by 2020, Jackson told the club.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-10-27/about-half-students-who-lost-hope-grants-did-not-return-school
About half students who lost HOPE grants did not return to school
By LEE SHEARER
More than 11,000 Georgians lost HOPE grants to attend state technical colleges when the state Legislature imposed tougher academic requirements in 2011, and more than half have not re-enrolled in school as of this fall, according to Technical College System of Georgia statistics.

www.examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/article/common-app-finally-admits-to-isolated-server-problems
Common App finally admits to ‘isolated’ server problems (Photos)
Nancy Griesemer
DC College Admissions Examiner
In a notice posted on Facebook late last night, officials from the Common Application finally admitted that for some time, the troubled system has suffered from isolated “server” problems. “The slow performance some of you encountered earlier this evening occurred as we were rolling out corrections to the system,” explained the Common Application on Facebook. “The slowness was isolated to certain servers, which is why some users experienced a problem and others did not.” This statement supports growing speculation that students in different regions of the country have been experiencing differing levels of difficulty with the system… Note that the Common Application ensured a significant increase in applications this year by signing up Purdue, which received somewhere in the ballpark of 31,000 applications last year, as well as Georgia Tech (14,645 applications last year),

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/28/colleges-use-fafsa-information-reject-students-and-potentially-lower-financial-aid#ixzz2j1Mq1RjE
Using FAFSA Against Students
By Ry Rivard
Some colleges are denying admission and perhaps reducing financial aid to students based on a single, non-financial, non-academic question that students submit to the federal government on their applications for student aid. Millions of high school students and their parents probably have no idea this happens after they fill out the ubiquitous Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The form, known as the FAFSA, is used by nearly every American who needs help paying for college. It turns out students’ pleas for help are now being systematically used against them by some colleges.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/28/online-course-providers-increasingly-using-term-learning-experience#ixzz2j1N1UqRn
Don’t Call It a Course
By Carl Straumsheim
As ed tech companies and universities search for the most effective way to teach students online, some have found the term “course” no longer captures what it means to pursue an education. Enter the “learning experience” — a term being used to describe a module of higher education not anchored to a specific place or time. The name change is more than just semantics or corporate jargon, its creators argue, but a necessary shift as colleges and universities establish what does and does not work in online education.

www.chornicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/A-MOOC-That-Would-Make-a-Real/142565/?cid=at
A MOOC That Would Make a Real Difference
An online format could help low-income students learn how to apply to college
By Jermaine Taylor
Much has been written recently about the advent of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, and what role, if any, they should play in disrupting centuries-old models of pedagogical practices specifically and the higher-education landscape more broadly. Proponents argue that MOOCs can lower the skyrocketing costs of a college degree and usher in a new age of equal access for students and prosperity for institutions.

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-10-27/expanded-services-follow-chatham-countys-hispanic-growth#.Um578yh5iCZ
Expanded services follow Chatham County’s Hispanic growth
By MARCUS E. HOWARD
Chatham County’s Hispanic population continues to grow substantially, increasing outreach services and programs along the way. According to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Hispanics make up 5.9 percent of the county’s 276,434 residents, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from only two years prior. Between 2010 and 2000, the Hispanic population increased 14.3 percent. …The American Dream Thalia Ramirez of Stone Mountain and Alejandra Reyes of Newberry, S.C., are both first generation Mexican Americans who are realizing their families’ dreams by pursuing a college education. …Ramirez, a senior, and Reyes, a junior, attend Armstrong Atlantic State University, where they are active in the Hispanic Outreach & Leadership at Armstrong (HOLA) Club, which provides support services and cultural awareness programs for Hispanic students. Since HOLA was established in 2003, Hispanic enrollment at Armstrong has increased more than 200 percent to 6.7 percent for the current fall enrollment, according to university data. There are about 477 Hispanic students on campus, many of whom are first generation college students.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/57066/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=2e835f4259624c1c8d4697d5418390f4&elqCampaignId=62#
HACU Conference Addresses Federal, Education Issues for Hispanics
by G.E. Branch III
CHICAGO — Dr. Antonio R. Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, did not have to dig deeply to find compelling evidence that plenty of work remains for his organization to do to ensure that his constituents are well represented in higher education and the world at large.

www.nytimes.com

Lists That Rank Colleges’ Value Are on the Rise
By ARIEL KAMINER
Looking out over the quadrangle before him as students dashed from one class to the next, James Muyskens was feeling proud one recent afternoon, and why not? The college he had led for the past 11 years had just been awarded second place in a new ranking of American higher education — ahead of flagship state universities, ahead of elite liberal arts colleges, even ahead of all eight Ivy League universities. …But dollars-and-cents tabulations like that one (which was compiled by Washington Monthly), are the fastest-growing sector of the college rankings industry, with ever more analyses vying for the attention of high school students and their parents who are anxious about finances.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/States-Demand-That-Colleges/142651/
States Demand That Colleges Show How Well Their Students Learn
By Dan Berrett
Some of the hallmarks of No Child Left Behind are creeping into higher education. The 2002 law was intended to hold elementary and secondary schools accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students. It has come to be reviled by many teachers for what they see as a narrowing of the curriculum to the material covered on standardized tests, and for punishing schools for their students’ performance.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/inside-the-hidden-world-of-thefts-scams-and-phantom-purchases-at-the-nations-nonprofits/2013/10/26/825a82ca-0c26-11e3-9941-6711ed662e71_story.html
Inside the hidden world of thefts, scams and phantom purchases at the nation’s nonprofits
WRITTEN BY Joe Stephens Mary Pat Flaherty
For 14 years, the American Legacy Foundation has managed hundreds of millions of dollars drawn from a government settlement with big tobacco companies, priding itself on funding vital health research and telling the unadorned truth about the deadly effects of smoking. Yet the foundation, located just blocks from the White House, was restrained when asked on a federal disclosure form whether it had experienced an embezzlement or other “diversion” of its assets.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Foundations-Attract-More/142659/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Foundations Attract More Scrutiny as Their Influence on Academe Grows
By Aisha Labi
New York
Powerful private foundations are drawing increased scrutiny as their influence on the agenda for higher-education reform has grown, but their role is not a particularly new one in the history of American academe, according to panelists at a discussion on Friday at New York University. The discussion, “Private Dollars for Public Purposes: Are Foundations Setting the Agenda for Higher-Education Reform?,” considered whether the dominance of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation is sidelining disparate voices on important policy debates.