University System News
USG NEWS:
www.dailyjournal.net
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/bf81816ade084ba6845dc23320807710/GA–Campus-Smoking-Ban/#.UpypFyh5iCY
University System of Georgia Board of Regents member proposes system-wide campus smoking ban
ATLANTA — An orthopedic surgeon serving on the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents is proposing to ban smoking at the system’s 31 schools. Thomas Hopkins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wants the university system’s board of regents to consider a smoking ban early next year. The ban would apply to all students, staff and visitors.
Related article:
www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=268313
Ga. regent member proposes campus smoking bans
www.albanyherald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/nov/30/outgoing-albany-state-university-interim/
Outgoing Albany State University interim president praises school and students
Kimberly Ballard Washington says Albany State University is a fine school with exceptional students
By Brad McEwen
ALBANY — Although she has only served as Albany State University interim president for a month, Kimberly Ballard Washington feels she’s been able to have some impact on what she considers to be a great institution with exceptional students. …“This is a great institution,” said Ballard Washington. “Students can thrive in this environment. The students are remarkable. They’re doing well in the classroom and in a smaller environment you get to figure out how to work things and how to thrive and how to show your talents. So it’s very impressive.”
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-11-28/georgia-colleges-explore-online-courses
Georgia colleges explore online courses
By WALTER C. JONESMORRIS NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA – The 30,000 students who signed up to take Sam Shelton’s Energy 101 course online were more than he had taught in his two-and-a-half decades as a Georgia Tech professor. “It’s unbelievable how this has taken off,” said Shelton, who’s semi-retired now. He’s talking about a new type of online course available to the public for free without enrollment in a degree-seeking program. They’re called massive open online courses, or MOOCs, and they are shaking up higher education.
www.chornicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-11-30/technologies-decrease-rate-animal-testing-locals-still-upset-gru?v=1385901485
Technologies decrease rate of animal testing; locals still upset with GRU
By Tracey McManus
Staff Writer
At least one dental implant experiment conducted on dogs at Georgia Regents University this year is over and the six hound mixes have been euthanized, but the furor in the community has not gone away. Biology freshman Hannah Kellems was so appalled when she read the media reports of the experiments this month, she began paperwork to transfer to another college. One protest has already taken place and another is scheduled for Dec. 7.
www.deseretnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765642588/Slave-artifacts-found-at-Ga-highway-project-site.html
Thousands of slave artifacts found at Georgia highway project site
By Russ Bynum
Associated Press
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Mexican coin punctured with a small hole, nails from long-decayed wooden dwellings, and broken bits of plates and bottles are among thousands of artifacts unearthed from what archaeologists suspect were once slave quarters at the site of a planned highway project in Savannah. …Historical records show that a wealthy Savannah attorney named William Miller owned a large plantation at the site and at one time had 87 slaves, Elliott said. Archaeologists didn’t find the main plantation house but believe many of the artifacts they found are consistent with slave dwellings. …Eventually the artifacts will be turned over to the University of West Georgia in Carrollton for safe keeping.
GOOD NEWS:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2013-11-29/uga-ag-professor-wins-national-teaching-award
UGA ag professor wins national teaching award
By FROM STAFF REPORTSNEWS
The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities recently honored UGA Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics professor Michael Wetzstein with the National Teaching Award for Food and Agriculture Science. The APLU presented the award, which honors university faculty for the use of innovative teaching methods and service to students, at the 126th APLU annual meeting this month in Washington, D.C.
RESEARCH:
www.cbsnews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tongue-piercing-allows-paralyzed-to-control-wheelchair/
Tongue piercing allows paralyzed to control wheelchair
From fashion statement to … wheelchair controller? In an advance that promises to improve the lives of the more than 250,000 people in the United States who are paralyzed from the neck down, researchers announced on Wednesday that they have developed a wireless device that operates specially rigged chairs by means of a tiny titanium barbell pierced through the tongue. Merely by moving their tongues left or right across their mouths, essentially using it as a joystick, paralyzed patients have been able to move their motorized wheelchairs, as well as computer cursors. Tapping tongue against cheek, quickly or slowly, controls the chair’s speed… Engineer Maysam Ghovanloo of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta thought he could do better. About five years ago he and his colleagues began developing the tongue-based system.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/entertainment/another-reason-to-look-upengineering-art-an-intern/nbxBd/
Another reason to look up“Engineering Art,” an international exhibition of monumental sculpture at Georgia Tech, expands public art in the city, at least for a little while
BY ROSALIND BENTLEY – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Now that the smog alerts are all but gone and the air doesn’t shimmer with 95 degree heat, as you walk across the campus of Georgia Tech on a blue-sky day the temptation is to pause and gawk at the surrounding Midtown skyline above the campus’ perimeter. But lower your gaze. Over there, near the student center parking ramp, nestled in a cradle of rosemary, is Chakaia Booker’s 8-foot sculpture, “Renegade.” Get closer. The sensation of scent, real and imagined, is overwhelming. There is the perfume of the herb itself. Then there are the fronds covering Booker’s arching panels, bits of old radial tires that suggest the pungent smell of burning rubber. Across the campus, Isaac Duncan III’s stainless steel piece “Tux” suggests a postmodern sundial being offered up on a slender post to the late-morning sun. A short walk from there is the helix-inspired work, “Squirt,” by John Clement. Imagine a 71Ž2-foot high and wide orange Slinky, sliced, diced and reconfigured into a whirl on a patch of green lawn. This clear, crisp, late season seems the perfect time to view “Engineered Art,” an international sculpture exhibition now on view at Georgia Tech.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-roff/debating-killer-robots_b_4361220.html
Debating Killer Robots
Heather RoffVisiting Associate Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
Last week, Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Ethics and Technology held a debate between Ron Arkin and Robert Sparrow over the ethical challenges and benefits of lethal autonomous robots (LARS) or “killer robots.” The debate comes amidst increasing attention to LARS, as the United Nations has recently agreed to discuss a potential ban on the weapons under the Convention on Conventional Weapons framework early next year. Moreover, we see more media attention in major media outlets, like the Washington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Policy and here on Huffington Post as well. With NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Article 36 also taking up the issue, as well as academics and policy makers, much more attention may also be on the horizon.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Can-Still-Save/143305/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
Colleges Can Still Save Themselves. Here’s How.
By Jeffrey Selingo
…The only way some colleges will survive is to form deeper academic alliances with other institutions, across town or across the country. By closely aligning with other institutions, colleges can share courses, either physically or virtually. They can also pare back entire academic departments, putting most of their resources toward making a few degree programs distinctive while leaving the rest to their partners. In some cases, the combined brand might be stronger than any of its individual institutions.
www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/fix-higher-education-by-funding-community-colleges/?utm_campaign=1121ccnewsletter%20%3A%20Copy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=5cde32695b51447fb3e4e504c199b572&elqCampaignId=143
Fix higher education by funding community colleges
Source: Ross Gittell, Glenn DuBois, Joe May, Scott Rawls and Thomas Snyder
America is mired in a higher education crisis. Two out of every three jobs available in the United States will require more than a high school diploma by the end of the decade. Yet the incoming generation of workers is less educated than the retiring baby boomers they will replace. …Community colleges helped create and sustain America’s middle class. If that is to continue, we must release some outdated notions about the institutions and increase both public- and private-sector investment in them. After all, as open-access institutions, community colleges are tasked with higher education’s toughest challenges yet given the fewest resources.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/still-trailing/nb4kd/
EQUITY IN PUBLIC EDUCATION?
Still trailing
BY DENNIS VAN ROEKEL
When I taught high school math, a student who received a D in my class asked me what grade I thought he would make in the next semester. With a slight smile, I responded, “If you keep doing exactly what you did first semester, I believe you’ll make a D.” On Tuesday, the triennial Program for International Student Assessment rankings will be released, comparing the competencies of high school students from 64 countries. Although I haven’t seen the results, I imagine that the United States will end up about where we did three years ago, when our students ranked behind nine other nations in literacy and 23 others in math.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/poor-kids-need-slack-not-grit/nb4kf/
Poor kids need slack, not grit
BY PAUL L. THOMAS
No child has ever chosen to be poor. Children have never caused the poverty that defines their lives and their education. Yet the adults with political, corporate and educational wealth and power — who demand “no excuses” from schools and teachers serving the new majority of impoverished children in public schools, and “grit” from children living in poverty and attending increasingly segregated schools that offer primarily test-prep — embrace a very odd stance themselves: Their “no excuses” and “grit” mottoes stand on an excuse that there is nothing they can do about out-of-school factors such as poverty.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/27/no-one-really-cares-do-they/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
‘No one really cares, do they?’
“No one really cares, do they?” That is one of the reasons for why No Child Left Behind won’t be rewritten, according to a new report on what “education influentials” think will happen in the world of education. Actually, a lot of people care, because it affects what happens in classrooms to children, but, apparently, it’s not too much of a concern to enough members of Congress, which was supposed to rewrite No Child Left Behind when it expired on Sept. 30, 2007.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/27/gates-foundation-pours-millions-into-common-core-in-2013/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
Gates Foundation pours millions into Common Core in 2013
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent more than $20 million this year in grants to institutions and organizations to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, continuing the hefty support it has provided since the initiative began more than five years ago, according to its Web site. The foundation has spent well over $170 million to support the creation and implementation of Common Core State Standards, and has been praised by supporters for its philanthropy and questioned by critics who worry about wealthy private citizens using their personal fortunes to impact public policy.
Education News
www.wsbtv.com
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/hope-father-has-streak-luck-400k-pre-thanksgiving-/nb6Pf/
HOPE father has streak of luck with $400K pre-Thanksgiving win
ATLANTA — Taking an alternate morning route led to a lucky win for a Conyers father of three. Michael Griffiths, whose oldest son is a Georgia Lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship recipient, won a $400,000 top prize playing the new Georgia Lottery instant game Lucky Streak. …A sales representative, Griffiths and his wife, Charmain, have two school-aged children and a son who currently is attending the University of West Georgia. “That’s why I play because the Georgia Lottery supports HOPE,” he shared.
www.flagpole.com
http://flagpole.com/news/in-the-loop/jason-carter-hope-changes-are-a-catastrophe
Jason Carter: HOPE Changes Are a ‘Catastrophe’
By Blake Aued
A stunning 200 people came to a last-minute campaign stop at Hendershot’s this afternoon to meet state Sen. Jason Carter, the likely Democratic nominee for governor. …Policy-wise, Carter focused mainly on education. Sixty thousand students have dropped out of the technical college system, 140 school districts hold class fewer than 180 days out of the year, there are 9,000 fewer teachers in the state than there were four years ago, and college enrollment is down for the first time in memory because HOPE reform has put higher education out of reach for some, he said. Carter was the public face of Democrat’s opposition to HOPE cuts, which he called an “unbelievable catastrophe.”
www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/are-you-a-college-stopout-new-study-says-you-might-be/?utm_campaign=1121ccnewsletter%20%3A%20Copy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=5cde32695b51447fb3e4e504c199b572&elqCampaignId=143
Are you a college ‘stopout?’ New study says you might be
Source: usatoday.com
Stories on famous college dropouts like Lady Gaga, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg are commonplace. So is “stopout.” “Stopouts” drop out of college, then re-enroll. Toby Park, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at Florida State University, recently studied 38,000 community college students in Texas who first enrolled in 2000.Park found among community college students — which make up 45% of undergraduates — 94% stopout at least once.
www.jbhe.com
The Discouraging Trend in Graduation Rates at HBCUs
JBHE has compiled a listing of Black student graduation rates at a large group of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities. The graduation rates shown here are four-year averages for Black students who entered a particular college or university from 2003 to 2006 and earned their degree at the same institution within six years. …At Fort Valley State University in Georgia, the Black student graduation rate improved by 11 percentage points over the past five years. Black Graduation Rate 2013 – Albany State University 42; Fort Valley State University 33; Savannah State University 32
www.ocala.com
http://www.ocala.com/article/20131130/ARTICLES/131139985/1402/NEWS?Title=State-not-producing-enough-science-grads-study-confirms
State not producing enough science grads, study confirms
By Jeff Schweers
Staff writer
Florida’s public universities are producing a little more than half as many engineers, mathematicians, scientists and technicians than they need to in order to meet the demand of job growth in the next decade, according to a study presented to the Florida Board of Governors. The report shows the state university system is way off the benchmarks set in the board’s strategic plan to increase the total number of degrees produced each year from 53,000 to 90,000.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/57774/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=bae8f146cc994279bbc34b03cc295c84&elqCampaignId=62#
For Returning Veterans, Back-to-School Brings New Battles
by Liz Willen, The Hechinger Report
When veterans come home from war and try to put their lives back together, there’s often a giant missing link in their transition: Clear advice on getting back to school and managing the next phase of their education. “Where you are going next is a huge hole in the system, and there is no entity in the community to help them figure out where to start,’’ Pamela Tate, president and CEO of CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning), said at a hearing on educating veterans in Washington D.C. last week. “They don’t know where they should go to school, what they should study and what careers are there for them.’’
www.jbhe.com
Chinese Government to Offer Hundreds of Scholarships to Black Students
Chinese Government to Offer Hundreds of Scholarships to Black Students
Liu Yandong, the vice premier of the People’s Republic of China, and the highest-ranking education officials in China’s government, announced in Washington, D.C., that her nation would award 1,000 scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students at historically Black colleges and universities to study in China. These scholarships would pay for study from 3 months to two years at Chinese universities.
www.educationnews.org
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mooc-providers-worry-about-low-completion-rates/
MOOC Providers Worry About Low Completion Rates
Online education offers many advantages to students including lower costs, accessibility, customized pacing, flexibility in scheduling, and digitally-based interactive tools. But it may not meet its most grandiose promises of revolutionizing education.“One reason, which is being discovered as the great online education experiment is carried out, is that most of us aren’t motivated enough to teach ourselves,” writes Dan Newman of The Motley Fool. …A study of 51,000 community college students from 2004 to 2009, as the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, found an 8% -point gap in completion rates between those who took courses online versus in person. It makes sense that the social pressure and face-to-face relationship with other students and teachers lend themselves to better student performance.
www.chornicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/academics-to-udacity-founder-told-ya/48667?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Academics to Udacity Founder: Told Ya
by Steve Kolowich
In a new magazine profile of Sebastian Thrun, the Udacity founder calls his company’s massive open online courses a “lousy product” to use for educating underprepared college students. That assertion has prompted a chorus of I-told-you-sos from his critics in academe. In interviews for the Fast Company profile, Mr. Thrun reflected on the discouraging results of an experiment at San Jose State University in which instructors used Udacity’s online platform to teach mathematics. Some of the students were enrolled at the university, and some at a local high school.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/02/pennsylvanias-14-university-system-feeling-pain-budget-cuts-and-demographic-shifts#ixzz2mKY2XLtq
Wither Pennsylvania
By Ry Rivard
Pennsylvania’s 14-university state system is feeling the burn of budget cuts and declining enrollment with little relief in sight.
In the last few years, the universities have shed 5 percent of their permanent work force and discontinued or frozen new enrollment to 198 academic programs. But that wasn’t enough to shore up their budgets. Now universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education are looking to end programs, lay off dozens of full-time faculty members, and cut ties with numerous adjuncts and more staffers.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/02/study-explores-career-paths-history-phds#ixzz2mKYAtiMk
Employed But …
By Scott Jaschik
A new study looking at large cohorts of Ph.D. recipients in history is quick to point out that the doctorate in the field almost always seems to result in employment — and not of the barista variety. Further, the study finds that many new doctorates are finding their way to the tenure track — and that such positions still exist for those starting their careers.
At the same time, the report found large numbers of history Ph.D.s working as adjuncts well after they earned their doctorates — apparently working off the tenure track for the long term.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/02/study-finds-role-star-scientist-may-be-growing-while-role-top-department-shrinking#ixzz2mKYO5zdx
Star Power
By Scott Jaschik
Where is the most important science produced?
A study (abstract available here) being released today suggests that it may be coming from a broader range of academic departments, but from a smaller number of elite scientists. The study — from the National Bureau of Economic Research — points to a new way of thinking about so-called “star” scientists.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/02/researcher-reflects-studies-faculty-issues#ixzz2mKYcK7v9
Giving ‘Voice to Faculty’
By Colleen Flaherty
If attacks on tenure are cyclical – and Cathy Trower thinks that they are – the outgoing director of research for the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard University became interested in researching faculty careers during another “trough.” That was when she was a Ph.D. candidate in higher education policy, planning and administration at the University of Maryland at College Park, in the mid-1990s.
www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/12/04/13assess_ep.h33.html?tkn=OLOFW4bScPpnEq5cEqAnfhRBVX10Cgl%2FwhGK&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
Performance-Based Test for Teachers Rolls Out
By Stephen Sawchuk
Jaclyn Midgette has no shortage of adjectives to describe a new performance-based licensing test she took as an undergraduate teacher-candidate at East Carolina University: stressful, drawn out, and exhausting, to name a few. But now that she’s a bona fide, full-time teacher, Ms. Midgette acknowledges that the planning, instructional, and analytical skills measured in the test—which at least seven states are already planning to use—surface frequently in her instruction. …As the test, known as the edTPA, kicks into high gear in 2013-14 after two years of pilot testing, thousands more teacher-candidates will be expected to demonstrate those competencies to receive a teaching certificate.
www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2013/11/researchers_estimate_7600_district_buyers_for_common_core_materials.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
Researchers Estimate 7,600 District Buyers for Common-Core Materials
By Michele Molnar
As districts implement the Common Core State Standards, 68 percent plan to purchase new instructional materials—an increase from 62 percent two years ago, according to a survey by MDR , a provider of marketing information and services for education. The potential market size of purchasing common-core materials is 7,600 district buyers, according to the survey, which will be included in MDR’s EdNET Insight State of the K-12 Market 2013.