University System News
USG VALUE:
www.kiplinger.com
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/college/T014-C000-S000-2013-rankings-of-the-100-best-public-college-value.html#CgVtwzKvY38eZ8MH.99
Our 2013 Rankings of the Best Public College Values
By the Editors of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine
Here’s a look at Kiplinger’s top 100 public college values for 2013: See Our Slide Show: 10 Best Values in Public Colleges, 2013: 2013: 100 Best Values in Public Colleges: 15. University of Georgia; 30. Georgia Institute of Technology; 96. North Georgia College & State University
GOOD NEWS:
www.gpb.org
http://www.gpb.org/blogs/georgia-works/2013/12/09/tag-business-intelligence-and-analytics-awards
TAG Business Intelligence and Analytics Awards
By Chip Rogers
The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the TAG Business Intelligence and Analytics Society of TAG have recently recognized their winners for the 2013 Innovation Awards. Georgia Southern University and Manheim were both recognized for their outstanding achievements in their development and application of business intelligence and strategies. Georgia Southern University created a mobile application that allowed development officers in the field to maximize their time and efficiency which resulted in increased donations to the school by 38 percent.
USG NEWS:
www.albanyherald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/dec/09/darton-interim-president-fully-committed-to-growth/
Darton interim president fully committed to growth
Dr. Paul Jones is committed to helping Darton despite being in an interim position
By Brad McEwen
ALBANY — It would be easy for an interim in any situation to simply man the post until a permanent replacement is named. Dr. Paul Jones feels a bit differently. He says he’ll act as though the interim part doesn’t exist in his title and do everything in his power to help Darton State College grow. “I’m not at all concerned about the interim part of the title,” Jones said. “I’m fully engaged and fully committed.” It’s likely it was that kind of attitude that lead leaders of the University System of Georgia to name Jones as the interim president of Darton this fall after Peter Sireno resigned the post after 25 years.
www.campusreform.org
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5296
Georgia judge cites ‘complex’ arguments in lawsuit demanding in-state tuition for illegal immigrants
Timothy Dionisopoulos
Reporter
A Georgia judge claimed last Thursday the arguments surrounding a lawsuit demanding in-state tuition for illegal immigrants are “complex,” and extended the filing period for an additional sixty days. The Cherokee Tribune reports Dekalb County Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott also heard arguments to move the case to Fulton County where the Georgia University System Board of Regents are located.
www.athens.patch.com
http://athens.patch.com/groups/university-of-georgia/p/science-software-design-company-expanding-its-business-moving-into-school-district-offices
Science Software Design Company Expanding Its Business, Moving into School District Offices
The company has developed interactive case studies, 3-D animations, applications, games and e-books that make science more understandable and engaging.
Posted by Rebecca McCarthy (Editor)
By. James Hataway
One of the University of Georgia’s most innovative start-up companies is preparing to expand its business after graduating from the Georgia BioBusiness Center, UGA’s business incubator, which supports companies with research and technology ties to UGA. IS3D LLC, maker of interactive educational software designed to teach high school students fundamental scientific principles, has received support from the GBBC for the past three years. In that time, the company has developed a variety of products, including interactive case studies, 3-D animations, applications, games and e-books that make science more understandable and engaging.
RESEARCH:
www.gpb.org
http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/12/09/new-research-may-make-it-easier-to-detect-dementia
New Research May Make It Easier To Detect Dementia
By Ellen Reinhardt
ATLANTA — Nearly 36 million people worldwide are estimated to currently have dementia, and that figure is expected to almost double every 20 years. Researchers at the University of Georgia are hoping a new biomarker will lead to earlier diagnosis. Former graduate student Carlos Faraco and Stephen Miller, director of the UGA Bio-Imaging Research center, used fMRI scans to measure brain activity in people with mild cognitive impairments.
www.nsf.gov
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129840r
Harvesting electricity: Triboelectric generators capture wasted power
With one stomp of his foot, Zhong Lin Wang illuminates a thousand LED bulbs–with no batteries or power cord. A professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Wang is using what’s technically known as the triboelectric effect to create surprising amounts of electric power by rubbing or touching two different materials together.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/10/millions-in-private-money-poured-into-common-core-promotion/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
Millions in private money poured into Common Core promotion
It cost money to implement and promote the Common Core State Standards. Here’s a post about where some of the funding is coming from, written by award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/12/10/federal-aid-needy-students-inadequate-essay
The Real College Barrier for the Working Poor
By Sara Goldrick-Rab
A recent New York Times op-ed blames the rules and regulations of the federal Pell Grant program for many of our nation’s higher education access and completion problems. In short, the authors contend that the rule that defines a full-time course load as 12 or more credits per term hinders students from graduating early or even on time.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/moocs-and-liberal-arts-college-0
MOOCs and a Liberal Arts College
By Carol E. Quillen
MOOCs are a potential game-changer in the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education. They can affordably expand access to rigorous, effective curricula otherwise available only to a few. They can enable analytics that will offer insight into how humans learn. They may even strengthen global community and commitment to a shared future. Even leaving aside the work force demands of a technology-driven economy, all those who see educational opportunity as a social justice issue will support the ongoing MOOC experiment.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/To-Measure-a-MOOCs-Value/143495/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
To Measure a MOOC’s Value, Just Ask Students
By Owen Youngman
…When a student’s educational investment is measured mostly in time, attention, and effort rather than in dollars, euros, or bitcoin, what sort of value will be ascribed to the credential she ultimately earns?
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/tools-v-toys#ixzz2n50ICm4j
Tools v. Toys
By John Warner
When confronted with technological innovation I’m kind of like one of my dogs, Oscar, when presented with a toy. Some merit nary a sniff, and go entirely unused, unless the other dog, Truman, decides it’s interesting, in which case maybe that toy isn’t so bad, but then the excitement quickly fades and Oscar realizes he doesn’t really want it. For me, the smart phone was this way. On first appearance, I didn’t see the point, though I couldn’t help but notice the resultant frenzy and wonder if I was missing out. Once my old phone died and Verizon gave me an offer I couldn’t (but probably should have) refuse(d) I became a reasonably late adopter… In the post, the authors declare at the outset, “The educational landscape is shifting under our feet. Georgia Tech’s decision to offer a name-brand master’s degree in computer science at a strikingly low price is only the most dramatic example of the host of innovations that are reshaping higher education.”
www.saportareport.com
http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/12/the-heart-of-the-matter-why-we-need-the-humanities/
“The Heart of the Matter”: Why we need the humanities
Posted in Jamil’s Georgia
– See more at: http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/12/the-heart-of-the-matter-why-we-need-the-humanities/#sthash.Xw1oi2jX.RuGlugin.dpuf
We in Georgia are engaged in a national conversation on the value of the arts and humanities. One of the leaders in this dialogue is Wayne Clough, the former head of Georgia Tech and now the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Clough worked diligently to infuse the arts and humanities into the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum when he was president of Georgia Tech. It is important to do so, he recently said at a University of West Georgia humanities symposium, if that institution is to graduate young men and women “who use both sides of their brains” and are “able to understand cultures of other countries and move with ease across societal boundaries.” Clough continues to make this case as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences commission that earlier this year released “The Heart of the Matter,” a report that called for increased federal, state, and philanthropic support of the arts and humanities at every level.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/12/10/essay-defends-study-questioning-merits-performance-funding
Questions on Performance Funding
By David Tandberg and Nicholas Hillman
Policy making is difficult and complex; evaluating the effects of policy can also be quite difficult. Nevertheless, it is important that researchers and policy analysts undertake the hard work of asking difficult questions and doing their best to answer those questions. This is what we attempted to do when we undertook a yearlong effort to evaluate the effects of performance funding on degree completions.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/if-you-were-president…
If You Were a President…
By Matt Reed
Ry Rivard has been on a roll lately. If you haven’t seen his latest at IHE, check it out. It’s about the increasingly perilous state of many private colleges, particularly in the Northeast. It makes an effective, if depressing, companion piece to the one from last week about public universities in Pennsylvania. In both cases, a combination of awful political choices, difficult demographic changes, and long-deferred economic dilemmas threatens the survival of many small, private colleges.
Education News
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/09/private-colleges-remain-under-weather
Private Distress
By Ry Rivard
Some private colleges that managed to weather the recession are finding new troubles. So they are announcing layoffs, cutting programs and more. Almost all of these small to mid-sized privates are tuition-dependent and lack large endowments. National declines in the number of traditional college-age population mean students just aren’t showing up to privates, which are facing competition from public colleges that are more stable now than a few years ago and the reality that privates cannot afford to indefinitely lure students by cutting prices with generous financial aid packages. And this could become a huge problem.
www.csnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/community-college-system-partners-with-high-schools-to-increase-matriculation/?utm_campaign=1210ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=10f7bc931851405d944c5ea38fe8f022&elqCampaignId=152
Community college system partners with high schools to increase matriculation
Through a new partnership with 16 high schools, the Community College System of New Hampshire is aiming to increase matriculation by 25 percent over the next three years. This project, called the Partnership Initiative, seeks to better educate high school students and their parents about the value of attending a two-year college, either as the precursor to a career or a four-year bachelor’s degree. Another goal is to increase participation in the Running Start program, which allows high school students to take courses for college and high school credit.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/10/study-examines-impact-major-vs-impact-college-prestige-womens-earnings
Prestige vs. Major
By Scott Jaschik
If you are a young woman who hopes to earn as much as the men in your education cohort, is it more important to go to Stanford or to study (anywhere) computer science?
Obviously one could study computer science at Stanford, but for those who don’t have that option, new research says that young women can close the income gap with men if they pursue lucrative majors (science, technology, mathematics and business). But those women who don’t study in those fields and who enroll in elite institutions are destined to earn much less than their male counterparts.
www.gainesvillebizreport.com
UF OFFERS FURTHER EDUCATION TO FLORIDA BUSINESSES
By Bradley Osburn
Every business can be better, whether they’re run by seasoned veterans or novice entrepreneurs. Maybe you need help with retention, business development or brainstorming to find solutions in order to drive results. The University of Florida offers all of this through its Professional Development and Executive Education programs, a suite of specialized programs and online offerings designed to help business owners overcome obstacles and build their best company.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Shared-Services-Plans-Rile/143527/?cid=at
Shared-Services Plans Rile Faculty Members at 2 Flagships
By Don Troop
Faculty members at two of the nation’s largest flagship universities pushed back on Monday against “shared services” proposals that administrators say will save millions of dollars but that opponents charge will be costly boondoggles.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/10/feds-will-investigate-title-ix-complaint-uconn
Feds Will Investigate Title IX Complaint at UConn
The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will investigate a complaint alleging that the University of Connecticut violated Title IX when it “did not respond promptly and effectively to complaints and other information indicating that students have been subjected to sexual violence, including sexual harassment, and that students have, as a consequence, been subjected to a sexually hostile environment,” OCR told the university Monday.
Related article:
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/federal-office-to-investigate-title-ix-complaint-against-uconn?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Federal Office to Investigate Title IX Complaint Against UConn