University System News
USG NEWS:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2013-12-20/uga-forms-academic-advisory-board
UGA forms Academic Advisory Board
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Ga.— The University of Georgia has announced the formation of a board meant to encourage and support student success. …The school says vice president for student affairs Victor K. Wilson created the board with the goal of enhancing the current mission of Student Affairs.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/whos-on-the-panel-reviewing-the-nsas-actions/2013/12/18/396edbe0-682b-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html
Who’s on the panel reviewing the NSA’s actions?
By Terri Rupar
The five-member Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, named by President Obama earlier this year, took aim at some of the National Security Agency’s most controversial practices in its report released Wednesday… Here’s a look at who’s on the panel: Peter Swire: The Georgia Tech professor was also on the Obama-Biden transition team and worked as a special assistant to Obama for economic policy. Swire previously worked in the Clinton administration as chief counselor for privacy at the Office of Management and Budget, where his reach extended across government agencies to coordinate privacy policy.
www.news.yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/panel-tell-obama-end-nsa-phone-record-collection-190205397.html
Panel will tell Obama to end NSA phone record collection
By NCC Staff
President Barack Obama is releasing a critical report today about the National Security Agency that calls for more than 40 major reforms, after parts of the report were leaked to the press last week. The report is a set of non-binding recommendations for the White House. President Obama has said previously he would issue his own set or guidelines in January based on the report and other sources of information. The president met with the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology earlier on Wednesday, a group that includes Richard Clarke, a former U.S. cybersecurity adviser; Michael Morell, a former deputy CIA director; Geoffrey Stone from the University of Chicago; Cass Sunstein from Harvard Law School; and Peter Swire from Georgia Tech.
www.abcnews.go.com
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/viral-videos-plays-year-21285172
ABC’s Josh Elliott looks back on 2013’s popular videos with viral sensation Claire Konkel (includes Georgia Tech’s Nick Selby at 3:53).
GOOD NEWS:
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2013/12/18/atlantas-united-way-gives-away-36.html
Atlanta’s United Way gives away $3.6 million while promoting collaboration
Maria Saporta
Contributing Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
The United Way of Greater Atlanta awarded four local teams a total of $3.6 million over the next three years to lead transformation in their communities… On Wednesday, United Way announced the four winning teams at an event at the Loudermilk Center: Talk With Me Baby: An education and health initiative with a focus on the important role that parents play in developing language skills with their children. The Marcus Autism Center is the lead collaborator. The other collaborators include the Georgia Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Georgia Department of Public Health, Georgia Tech, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University and the Georgia Department of Education. The team will receive $500,000 a year for three years.
www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=269066
UNG receives grant to support safe driving among young adults
By Staff
DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia has received a $7,270 grant to participate in a Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) program aimed at reducing young driver crashes, injuries and fatalities. GOHS’ latest figures, from 2008, show 306,367 crashes, and 12.8 percent of those crashes involved drivers between the ages of 15 and 20.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/ugas-journalism-school-ranked-third-in-the-country/ncPpg/
UGA’s journalism school ranked third in the country
By Janel Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is the third top journalism school in the country according to a survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association.
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2013/12/19/uga-nations-eighth-most-valuable.html
UGA nation’s eighth most valuable college football team
Jacques Couret
Senior Online Editor and Social Engagement Manager- Atlanta Business Chronicle
They might be No. 1 in your hearts, but The University of Georgia football team isn’t the No. 1 most valuable college football team in America. …The UGA Bulldogs are No. 8 on the list with a team value of $91 million. The team generated $66 million in revenue and made a $40 million profit this year.
RESEARCH:
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2013/12/20/how-data-is-opening-doors-for-the-next.html
How data is opening doors for the next generation
Written by Rod Adkins. Adkins is IBM’s senior vice president of corporate strategy. He is a National Academy of Engineering inductee, and serves on the board of directors for United Parcel Service Inc. and the Georgia Tech Board of Trustees. Last week, I had the privilege of delivering the fall commencement address for my alma mater, Georgia Tech. More importantly, I also had the pleasure of watching my youngest son receive his diploma. This generational juxtaposition gave me an opportunity to highlight the ways in which my son and his fellow Tech graduates will create innovations that prior generations like mine could only dream of. Data has become this generation’s new natural resource and, when combined with a new era of computing, it will enable today’s graduates to create previously unimaginable advances in whatever fields they choose to pursue.
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2013/12/20/city-to-host-first-atlanta-science.html?page=all
City to host first Atlanta Science Festival
Maria Saporta
Contributing Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
The idea for an Atlanta Science Festival was born in February 2011 when three Emory University program directors and friends met for coffee at Starbucks at Emory Village… “We are really great in science,” Meisa Salaita said. “We have great institutions and great corporations. But I don’t think we are generally thought of by residents as a city for science. And we want to change that. Our goal is to try to bring science to everybody and to highlight Atlanta as a science city.”… Soon Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson also came on board as well as the Metro Atlanta Chamber, numerous organizations and even Delta Air Lines Inc. as the festival’s gold sponsor… Salaita, now director of education, outreach and diversity of the National Science Foundation/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution at Georgia Tech, is counting the days to when the festival begins.
www.voanews.com
http://www.voanews.com/content/tongue-controls-wheelchair-for-quadriplegics/1813950.html
Tongue Controls Wheelchair for Quadriplegics
George Putic
People paralyzed from the neck down are bound to a wheelchair. One of the biggest problems for them is controlling its movements. Now, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States have devised a system that allows quadriplegics to operate wheelchairs using their tongues. The new device is so easy to operate that it opens many other possibilities for quadriplegics.
Related article:
www.reuters.com
http://www.reuters.com/video/2013/12/18/reuters-tv-tongue-tip-technology-drives-quadriplegi?videoId=275486728&videoChannel=118065
Tongue tip technology drives quadriplegic independence
www.phys.org
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-scientists-tackle-bacterium-major-diarrhea.html
Scientists look to tackle bacterium that is major cause of diarrhea, vomiting
Scientists want to make a chink in the armor of a bacterium that has little name recognition yet is the number-one bacterial cause of the diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain Americans experience annually. … Chickens and other birds are a major source for both, and, as is becoming the norm, antibiotic resistance is a problem in treating either infection, said Dr. Stuart A. Thompson, microbiologist at the Medical College of Georgia.at Georgia Regents University. …Thompson is working with Drs. Artur Muszynski and Russ Carlson at the University of Georgia Complex Carbohydrate Research Center to identify the primary sugar c uses to make biofilm. The new grant will help him analyze the biochemical pathway used to make the sugar and look at CsrA’s role in regulating that biochemical process. He believes it’s substantial.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.northwestgeorgianews.com
http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/opinion/editorials/friday-blog-things-indeed-going-on/article_94a3f962-693b-11e3-b5c7-001a4bcf6878.html
FRIDAY BLOG: Things indeed going on
By the Rome News-Tribune
GUESS IT’S NOT A SECRET any longer. When Georgia Tech, which has had a helpful-hand presence of one sort or another in Greater Rome for more than 50 years, announced it was opening an office at Heritage Hall (the Rome campus of Georgia Highlands College) to help local industries come up with new strategies, an interesting comment was made. Why would Tech now place two members of its Enterprise Innovation Institute in Greater Rome to provide hands-on assistance?
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/12/20/cross-disciplinary-communication-key-cfo-effectiveness-essay
Communication Is Key for CFOs
By Christine Helwick
Today’s university business officers feel overwhelmed. The scope of their responsibilities is vast and growing, and even though they have control over institutional resources, there are rarely enough to go around, especially for their own work. This can easily result in a retreat to their comfort zones and abandonment of the extra effort required to reach across disciplines to collaborate with colleagues. The consequence can be that the business office becomes siloed.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/lump-coal-kansas
A Lump of Coal for Kansas
By Matt Reed
Earlier this week, I mentioned my suspicion that part of the reason that the Adler case in Colorado was attracting so much attention is that it’s the increasingly rare no-brainer. Now, Kansas decides to up the ante. I may have to rethink my assumption that no-brainers are increasingly rare.. This makes two in a single week. The Kansas Board of Regents has adopted a social media policy that, among other things, bans any communication that “impairs…harmony among co-workers.” I think of this as the “more trouble than you’re worth” clause.
Education News
www.blogs.edweek.org
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2013/12/governors_offer_bipartisan_praise_for_early_learning_challenge_grants.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
Governors Offer Bipartisan Praise for Early Learning Challenge Grants
By Christina Samuels
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has been on the record as being distrustful of federal Race to the Top funding when he was a gubernatorial hopeful. But that was three years ago, before the state won $400 million in Race to the Top funds to reform its education system, and before Thursday’s announcement that Georgia, along with Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Vermont, had garnered a share of nearly $281 million in federal funds earmarked for early-learning programs. They join 16 other states that had won funding in two previous early-learning grant competitions. The $51.7 million that Georgia was awarded in under the program “augments what the state of Georgia is already doing,” Deal said in a Thursday press call hosted by the U.S. Department of Education to announce the winners of the latest round of grants.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/20/nj-poised-approve-state-tuition-undocumented-students
N.J. Poised to Approve In-State Tuition to Undocumented Students
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, and Democratic legislative leaders have reached an agreement that should pave the way for the state’s public colleges and universities to charge in-state tuition to students who lack the legal documentation to reside in the United States, The New York Times reported. …Under the compromise, the governor has said he will sign the bill as long as it is amended to deny state financial aid to the undocumented students.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/20/court-backs-u-california-records-dispute
Court Backs U. of California in Records Dispute
A California appeals court has ruled that the University of California System does not need to obtain and release investment return records, Bloomberg reported. A lower court ruled that that the university had to do so under the state’s open records laws.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/20/senate-democrats-launch-new-push-student-loan-debt-college-accountability
‘Skin in the Game’ on Loans
By Michael Stratford
WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Democrats announced Thursday a new push to provide student loan borrowers with more protections and hold colleges more accountable for loan defaults.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/20/ryerson-professors-scramble-handle-exam-blunder
Not-So-Final Exam
By Colleen Flaherty
Twas the final before Christmas, and all through the hall,
It seemed that a gift had been given to all.
For one professor had shared, along with the test,
A partial list of which answers were best.
No, it’s not just a nightmarish twist on a holiday classic. It’s what happened recently at Ryerson University, in Toronto, when 190 engineering students in a required, intro-level chemistry course received final exams with part of an answer key on the back. An unnamed professor accidentally left a computer-generated key attached to one of the versions of the test, which was distributed to about one-fifth of students in the massive exam hall.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/20/publishing-associations-join-forces-combat-illegitimate-open-access-journals
Principles of Transparency
By Carl Straumsheim
Four publishing associations join forces to combat the rise of illegitimate open-access journals.
In response to the uptick in journals with questionable editorial practices that have followed in the wake of the open-access movement, several publishing associations are banding together over a new set of principles to tell the legitimate journals from the crowd.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59610/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=c64fa27d99fe4ea6a859c7a86e1f7fb8&elqCampaignId=146
HBCUs Still Waiting for Solution to Parent PLUS Loan Crisis
by Reginald Stuart
Higher education institutions across the nation began closing this week for the winter break with no news from the U.S. Department of Education on whether it will resolve disputes over the popular Parent PLUS Loan (PPL) program in time to avoid another blow to the fall 2014 recruiting season, now in high gear. Last-minute efforts earlier this month to alleviate differences between college presidents and the DOE collapsed at the last minute when a planned meeting in Washington, organized by the Congressional Black Caucus, was canceled with no future date set. Some 15 presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were scheduled to participate with several members of Congress and DOE Secretary Arne Duncan.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59622/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=c64fa27d99fe4ea6a859c7a86e1f7fb8&elqCampaignId=146
Aviation Schools Preparing Students for Future Drone Jobs
by Dave Kolpack, Associated Press
…Mastering the Corsair simulator is the first practice course for the two trainees, who are among hundreds of student pilots nationwide preparing for jobs that don’t exist yet. They and their classmates are eager to cash in on the booming market for drone operators that’s expected to develop after more unmanned aircraft become legal to fly in U.S. airspace, which could happen in the next few years.