University System News

USG NEWS:
www.valdostadailytimes.com
VSU health & business building nears completion
Kristin Finney
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA — One year and two months after the official groundbreaking ceremony, construction will soon be complete on Valdosta State University’s new Health Sciences and Business Administration building. According to Alan Sanderson, Project Manager, the crew is projecting to be done with construction on Tuesday, Dec. 10. Furniture for the building is expected to arrive in January, with offices and departments moving in gradually over the spring and summer. Students will begin their Fall 2014 semesters in the new space.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/administration/morehead-takes-progressive-steps-with-students-in-mind/article_ac9410b2-5bc5-11e3-8f1c-0019bb30f31a.html
Morehead takes progressive steps with students in mind
Stephen Mays and Taylor West
With a semester moving from one part of the administrative building to another, President Jere Morehead has made sure not to lose sight of the students. “Focusing on our students will remain my primary and first goal,” Morehead said after his Nov. 20 cabinet meeting. “I think, after all, the University exists for the purpose of ensuring the education of our students, all of our students — undergraduate, graduate and professional students.” Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs, wrote in an email that Morehead continues to meet regularly with student leaders.

www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2013/Power-Players-Strengthening-Business-Ties/
POWER PLAYERS: STRENGTHENING BUSINESS TIES
Patty Rasmussen
Even before he officially took over as president of the University of Georgia, Jere Morehead knew he wanted to beef up the university’s impact in statewide economic development. In April, Morehead announced his intention to reorganize UGA’s economic development activities and open an office in Atlanta, tightening the bonds with the business sector and the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD).

www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/12/leading_architect_of_moocs_cal.html
Leading Architect of ‘MOOCs’ Calls for Changing Their Focus
By Sean Cavanagh
The world of “MOOCs” is, in the language of so many of those classes’ adherents—being disrupted. And that disruption is coming from within. Sebastian Thrun, the colorful academic and entrepreneur who in many ways has become the public face of “massive open online courses,” is now expressing dismay with the low numbers of students completing those courses, and with the forum’s inability to engage and help college students… The company is not abandoning higher education. The story describes a partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology, in which the institution and Udacity will offer classes at a cost for an online master’s degree program.

www.educationnews.org
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/as-higher-education-demand-rises-mooc-marketplace-grows-rapidly/
As Higher Education Demand Rises, MOOC Marketplace Grows Rapidly
M. Nadeem
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are attracting millions of students around the world as an affordable — and usually free — education option. It is estimated that there are more than 2 billion potential learners around the world today and more than 70% of those are unable to afford a college degree… The MOOC providers are expected to launch online degree programs to target the more than 2 billion potential students around the world. Recently, Udacity teamed up with AT&T and Georgia Tech to deliver an online masters degree in computer science.

www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2013/Sustainable-Georgia-Where-The-Art-Is/
SUSTAINABLE GEORGIA: WHERE THE ART IS
Ben Young
Communities throughout the state are learning the power of the fine arts. It’s easy to take the real deal for granted until programs disappear from schools and have to re-emerge in sometimes scattered ways. Fortunately the Georgia Council for the Arts, which helps create and nurture the fine arts throughout the state, has survived the recession and emerged stronger than ever, even taking its message on the road. …In partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development Tourism Division and the Georgia Humanities Council, the GCA has put together a collection that reflects the wow power of its Governor’s Awards reception, with works by such renowned Georgia artists as Benny Andrews, Lucinda Bunnen, Herbert Creecy, Howard Finster, Ruth Laxson and Nellie Mae Rowe. “We feel collectively that it tells a nice story,” says Paty. “Some of the works are less famous, but we feel they are still beautiful and a part of the story.” The exhibit is accompanied by interpretational text, videos of interviews with four of the artists and a catalog printed in partnership with the Georgia Museum of Art (GMA).

www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2013/50-Years-And-Counting/
50 YEARS AND COUNTING
The Georgia Economic Developers Association has helped bring $23.6 billion in investment to the state in the last five years.
Lawrence Viele Davidson
… GEDA was established to make sure the state’s economic developers were working in concert and with the best available information to bring business to Georgia. Today the organization has broadened its reach and made education and networking the goals for its members. They come from utility companies, banks, chambers of commerce, the Federal Reserve and regional, county and municipal economic development authorities. The idea is to make sure groups are working on the same page when it comes to courting new business… GEDA helps certify more practitioners than all but one state, according to the association’s website. The organization started sponsoring scholarships in 1972 and has sent 144 practitioners to Georgia Tech and the University of Oklahoma – a value of approximately $104,000. In fact, GEDA built the basic economic development curriculum with Georgia Tech.

www.northfulton.com
http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-COMMUNITY-NEWS-c-2013-12-02-201738.114126-sub24322.114126-GSU-economic-forecastGeorgias-2014-economic-outlook-promising.html
GSU economic forecast:Georgia’s 2014 economic outlook promising
State ‘poised for takeoff in growth’
by Hatcher Hurdwrite the author
ATLANTA – The state’s economic outlook is the healthiest it has been in a long time and things are looking better in 2014, according to Rajeev Dhawan, director of Georgia State University’s Economic Forecasting Center. The factors needed for healthy economic growth are falling into place, Dhawan said Nov. 22 at GSU’s quarterly forecast. “We could be poised for a takeoff in growth,” said Dhawan.

USG VALUE:
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/effingham-now/2013-12-04/4-hers-visit-georgia-southern#.Up89kyh5iCY
4-H’ers visit Georgia Southern
By Effingham Now
4-H’ERS VISIT GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Some Effingham 4-H’ers recently participated in “A Day at Southern,” touring Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. The students got an inside look at college life, admission procedures and the overall operation of the university. This event was designed to get students thinking about college and their goals by giving them a clear picture of college admissions procedures and overall college life.

RESEARCH:
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-12-02/wormsloe-expands-emphasis-research#.Up9gKCh5iCY
Wormsloe expands emphasis on research
By Mary Landers
A groundbreaking Monday for the University of Georgia Center for Research and Education at Wormsloe Plantation signaled the expanding focus on research at this iconic Savannah site. Wormsloe is a “living environmental laboratory” as well as a repository of history, said Daniel Nadenicek, dean of the UGA College of Environment and Design. “The inherent beauty of this small campus will inspire innovation and promote new research and teaching partnerships,” he said. About 15.5 acres of Wormsloe became part of UGA in April when the University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted to accept the parcel as a gift from the trustees of the Wormsloe Foundation. The property will be used for interdisciplinary research by faculty and graduate students in fields including landscape architecture, historic preservation, environmental planning, ecology, archaeology, and geology. The donated parcel contains both high ground and marsh and includes a former slave cabin constructed in the 1740s.

www.natureworldnews.com
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/5176/20131203/beneath-europas-icy-surface-ocean-heat-creates-chaos-terrains.htm
Beneath Europa’s Icy Surface, Ocean Heat Creates ‘Chaos Terrains’
By James A. Foley
Jupiter’s moon Europa, one of the few planetary bodies in our solar system that is mostly likely to have the conditions to support some form of life, may have a subsurface ocean with deep currents and circulation patterns that can conduct heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geographics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research reported the finding in the journal Nature Geosciences after running a simulation of how the moon’s subsurface ocean is predicted to flow.

www.the-scientist.com
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38532/title/Star-Scientists-Align/
Star Scientists Align
While scientific output has suffered in evolutionary biology departments, individual researchers are churning out more than ever, thanks in part to geographically distant collaborations.
By Tracy Vence
While scientific output has suffered in evolutionary biology departments, individual researchers are churning out more than ever, thanks in part to geographically distant collaborations. Evolutionary biology research output has declined at the departmental level but increased at the individual level, a study has found. Writing in The National Bureau of Economic Research, University of Toronto’s Ajay Agrawal, John McHale from Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, and Alexander Oettl from the Georgia Institute of Technology show that evolutionary biology publications fell between 1980 and 2000 in top university departments. At the same time, the number of papers from so called “star scientists” grew.

www.dawsonnews.com
http://www.dawsonnews.com/section/2/article/13484/
Company planning to expand
Seeks incentives to do so at local plant
By Michele Hester Staff Writer
A local steel fabricator is in talks with Dawson County officials about possible tax incentives for an upcoming project… Working with a group from Georgia Tech, the authority expects to have the review, which would also include impact on the city of Dawsonville and the local school system, complete within a few weeks.

STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2013/Gun-Solutions/
GUN SOLUTIONS
Expand or restrict? Georgia policymakers, advocates and experts weigh in on gun laws, sure to be a hot topic in the upcoming legislature.
Jerry Grillo
I’ve never seen the man before, don’t know his name, but he’s definitely local, or he wouldn’t be embedded at a North Georgia sports shop, where he presents an air of native permanence. I’ve only lived in this rural community for 15 years, so I’m the gatecrasher here, asking questions about the many guns on display, taking notes, handing out business cards. He looks at the card with the name of this magazine printed on it and asks, “You a liberal or conservative?” I say, “I’m not here to talk politics, I’m here to ask about guns.” Except this guy knows better. Any discussion about guns can become a political debate faster than you can say, “Reach for the sky,” especially in Georgia, where policymakers are pushing legislation to radically overhaul the state’s gun laws.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jacoby-college-vocational-training-cte-20131203,0,7927246.story#axzz2mW5hsG3S
The college-for-all model isn’t working
After years of disfavor, vocational education is being transformed for young people seeking jobs that require more than high school but less than college.
By Tamar Jacoby
Instead of going through Congress and making the initiative bipartisan, President Obama acted alone in mid-November, promising $100 million in grants to specialized high schools — such as New York City’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School — that prepare students for technical careers. The president’s on the right track, but why make it partisan? Schools like P-TECH are an idea whose time has come — one that can be adopted by both parties and by business as well as government.
Vocational education fell from favor decades ago because it was seen as an inferior track for less able students.

www.securityweek.com
http://www.securityweek.com/what-would-nostradamus-have-said-about-cyber-security-2014
What Would Nostradamus Have Said About Cyber Security in 2014?
By Mark Hatton
It’s that time of year again when everyone wants to wow you with their insights and predictions about what the next year will bring us in terms of technology and hacks in the security industry. . . One of the better reports published each year is the Emerging Cyber Threats Report presented by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). While it’s a fairly lengthy report, it is well worth your time investment as it provides analysis and trends with straightforward explanations of the types of threats we should be actively preparing to deal with in the coming years.

Education News
www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2013/Against-All-Odds/
AGAINST ALL ODDS
How and why some Georgia schools are succeeding in spite of economic challenges.
Jerry Grillo
The results came in for Sammye E. Coan Middle School, and they were very good, which is why school principal Betsy Bockman was so worried. “I thought, ‘Oh, great, now they’re going to investigate us,’ because our positive growth was so dramatic,” says Bockman. “We’re under greater scrutiny now, and that black cloud will be there for years.” The cloud is left over from the standardized test cheating scandal that has rattled Atlanta Public Schools, including Coan Middle. Besides the mass promotion, over years, of failing students, the rampant cheating on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) resulted in resignations and firings and dozens of arrests throughout the system, and a weird kind of PTSD, a tendency toward Orwellian doublethink, so that anything this good might really be wretched.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/57878/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=04b76f5e985c447983d198eb658006c0&elqCampaignId=146
College Access Documentary Takes Center Stage at IHEP National Summit
By Ronald Roach
WASHINGTON – Over its 20-year history, the Washington-based Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) has been known nationally for the research and analysis it conducts to shed light on how federal and state policies shape college access and success for low-income and socially-disadvantaged students. However, during the institute’s annual national summit event on Tuesday, data-heavy research took a decidedly lower profile as IHEP leaders premiered a documentary to showcase first-generation college-going students describing the challenges they overcame to gain admission to and, in two cases, complete college. In “Redefining Access for the 21st-Century Student” documentary, five students told poignant stories of how they struggled during their high school and young adult years to get into and find stable paths in college.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Under-Pressure-to-Hit-Learning/143303/?cid=at
With an Eye Toward Retention, Colleges Amp Up Advising
By Justin Doubleday
As colleges face a growing list of incentives to boost retention and graduation rates, and help students find jobs, many are overhauling their academic-advising operations. Guiding students to majors that suit them—and giving sound advice that helps set them on a firm path to graduation and beyond—can be critical, campus leaders believe, in improving metrics that have always been important but now, too, increasingly affect institutional revenue.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Mapping-a-Faster-Path-to-a/143359/
Group Hopes to Map a Faster Path to College Completion
By Katherine Mangan
With on-time graduation rates hovering in the single digits in some of its member states, Complete College America on Wednesday will recommend that students step on the accelerator and colleges slam on the brakes when it comes to the credit hours needed to graduate. The nonprofit group says that too many students languish in college for five or six years while taking the 12 credit hours per semester that the federal government defines as full time.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/04/students-blame-colleges-debt-woes
Students Blame Colleges for Debt Woes
A national poll of four-year college students has found that they are more likely to blame colleges than other institutions for the rising levels of student debt. The poll, by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, found that 68 percent of those polled viewed student debt for young people as a major problem, while 21 percent viewed it as a minor problem.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/04/study-out-pocket-costs-most-higher-education-rising
Study: Out-of-Pocket Costs in Most of Higher Education Rising
Students during the 2011-12 academic year paid, on average, higher immediate out-of-pocket costs to attend public and private colleges than their counterparts in 2007-8, according to a new federal report released Tuesday.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/04/education-department-launches-site-aimed-guidance-counselors
Education Department Launches Site Aimed at Guidance Counselors
The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled a new web portal aimed at the people who help students and families prepare for college.
The site aggregates a range of Education Department resources and promotional material meant to encourage students to attend college and take advantage of federal student aid programs.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/57870/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=04b76f5e985c447983d198eb658006c0&elqCampaignId=146
U.S. Trails Behind Other Countries in Eliminating Educational Disparities
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
When it comes to educational performance among advanced nations, the United States remains in the middle of the pack. But when it comes to eliminating educational disparities between poor students and their more affluent peers, the U.S. lags behind “many other countries.” Those are among the key findings from the latest version of the Programme for International Student Assessment or the PISA 2012 Results.

www.mysuncoast.com
http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/state/florida-students-below-global-peers-in-math-science/article_78bccda2-9399-5016-b5db-8afa9e4db973.html
Florida students below global peers in math, science
Associated Press
Results released Tuesday from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment show U.S. students overall have made little improvement. American 15-year-olds scored below the international average in math and about average in science and reading. Florida was one of three states to get state-specific results.

www.news.yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/teens-asia-dominate-global-test-us-stagnant-160339072.html;_ylt=A2KJ2PZGIJ5SBjoA_7nQtDMD
Teens in Asia dominate global test; US stagnant
By Kimberly Hefling
WASHINGTON (AP) — Teens from Asian nations dominated a global exam given to 15-year-olds, while U.S. students showed little improvement and failed to reach the top 20 in math, science or reading, according to test results released Tuesday. American students scored below the international average in math and about average in science and reading.

www.nytimes.com

More College Adjuncts See Strength in Union Numbers
By Tamar Lewin
BOSTON — Gillian Mason was passionate about literature in college, so she made a career of it, earning a Ph.D. in American studies from Boston University. She had part-time teaching jobs on different campuses, but after 10 years as an adjunct she realized that she would never find a tenure-track job, or even one that paid a living wage. …So Ms. Mason left teaching and became a higher-education organizer, part of a movement catching on across American campuses where adjunct faculty members, the working poor of academia, are turning to collective action.

www.wabe.org
http://wabe.org/post/head-emorys-winship-cancer-institute-sequestration-taking-toll
Head of Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute: Sequestration Taking Toll
By MICHELLE WIRTH
The executive director of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, Dr. Walter Curran, says sequestration is taking its toll on the institute. Curran made the comments during a teleconference Tuesday with the American Cancer Society Action Network and other cancer center directors. The American Cancer Society Action Network is urging Congress to end sequester cuts. Curran estimates if sequestration continues through March of next year it will have reduced money for cancer discovery at the institute by $5 million dollars.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/university-spending-on-research-dropped-slightly-in-2012/70017
University Spending on Research Dropped Slightly in 2012
By Charles Huckabee
University spending on research and development in all fields totaled $65.8-billion in the 2012 fiscal year, according to survey results published last week by the National Science Foundation. The figure reflects a 1-percent decline from the previous year, after adjusting for inflation. That drop represents the first constant-dollar decline since the 1974 fiscal year, the report says, and ends a trend of modest growth seen from 2009 through 2011, when research and development expenditures increased an average of 5 percent each year.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/03/college-board-pushes-back-revised-sat-one-year
Delay for New SAT
By Scott Jaschik
The new SAT will not be arriving until 2016, one year later than originally announced. A brief statement released by the College Board’s press office said that “this change in the timing of the redesign will serve our members in higher education by providing two years to plan for the redesigned exam and it will allow students to take the revised PSAT/NMSQT before the revised SAT. Our goal is to deliver an assessment system that is focused, useful and clear. Member input will continue to be integral to this work and we look forward to sharing additional information regarding the revision of our exams in the spring.” (The new PSAT will start in 2015.)

www.coosavalleynews.com
http://www.coosavalleynews.com/np104994.htm
GED Test to Embrace College/Career Readiness
Tony Potts
The State of Georgia will launch a new GED program in January 2014 that has been developed by the national GED Testing Service in Washington, D.C. The change will align the entire GED program with college and career readiness standards and provide the level of academic rigor required by the increased demands of the job market. Students who are taking the current GED test, but have not passed all five parts, have until the end of 2013 to pass.

Related articles:
www.moultrieobserver.com
http://www.moultrieobserver.com/local/x1566987788/New-GED-test-starts-in-January
New GED test starts in January
No part of current test will carry over

www.forest-blade.com
http://www.forest-blade.com/news/education/article_359c8d6c-5c52-11e3-81cb-0019bb2963f4.html
2014 GED® Test to embrace College and Career Readiness