University System News

USG VALUE:
www.wsav.com
http://www.wsav.com/story/24236214/ga-tech-savannah-helps-unemployed-veterans
GA Tech Savannah Helps Unemployed Veterans
By Raquel Rodriguez, Reporter
SAVANNAH, GA –
After serving our country, the next mission veterans face is finding a job. The Georgia Tech campus in Savannah is trying to make the hunt for employment easier. The program is called VET2 which stands for the veterans education, training, and transition program. The four week course helps local military heroes take what they learned on the battlefield and transfer it to the workplace.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/business/2013-12-14/pawley-women-business-expo-invigorates-professional-drive
Pawley: Women in Business Expo invigorates professional drive
Strong. Successful. Independent. These are words I like to think describe me personally and professionally. But as I sat recently in a room surrounded by Athens women business owners at the second annual Women in Business Expo hosted by the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center, I questioned how much I really had in common with these women. The Expo provided an opportunity for area businesswomen to get together to learn from experts in the field and network with like individuals. I jumped at the opportunity to attend.

GOOD NEWS:
www.athens.patch.com
http://athens.patch.com/groups/university-of-georgia/p/olli-at-uga-receives-a-1m-endowment
OLLI at UGA Receives a $1M Endowment
Osher Institutes provide non-credit educational programs specifically developed for adults who are aged 50 and older.
Posted by Rebecca McCarthy (Editor)
By UGA Staff
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Georgia has received a $1 million endowment from The Bernard Osher Foundation. “This generous gift from the Osher Foundation continues that organization’s support of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Georgia, and will allow us to extend the reach and impact of the Institute’s programming,” said Morehead. “OLLI is one of UGA’s most popular and effective programs, and we are very grateful to the foundation’s president, Mary Bitterman, and the board for their support.”

www.m.savnnahnow.com
http://m.savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-12-17/aasu-pursues-new-business-economics-degree
AASU pursues new business economics degree
By Mary Carr Mayle
If all goes as hoped, Armstrong Atlantic State University could get the go-ahead to offer a bachelor of science in business economics as early as the fall of 2014. The university already offers a bachelor’s degree in economics. But, based on the popularity of the business economics track within that degree, AASU submitted a prospectus to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia asking to offer business economics as its own degree. “We offer three different tracks in our economics degree program — general economics, business economics and international economics,” said Laura Barrett, dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

www.informationweek.com
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/executive-insights-and-innovation/5-higher-education-cios-informationweeks-chiefs-of-the-year/d/d-id/1113088
5 Higher Education CIOs: InformationWeek’s Chiefs Of The Year
Learn how these CIOs in higher education drive critical change — in an industry ripe for disruption.
Higher education must change. There’s the obvious reason of tuition rising far faster than inflation and wages, raising student debt burdens and pricing out would-be students. But students also are changing — they’re demanding more mobility, remote learning options, and classrooms that combine face-to-face and digital teaching. Recognizing the critical need for IT leaders to anticipate and respond to these changes, InformationWeek chose five leading higher education CIOs as its 2013 Chiefs of the Year.
Carver Takes A Shared Services Approach To Solving Problems
By Chris Murphy
For students, overbooked classes and waiting lists can mean it takes longer to graduate, adding to their loan debt and delaying entry into the workforce. A few vendors sold software for this kind of cross-institution registration, but USG CIO Curt Carver thought those products were too complex and costly. “It was an elephant to kill a kangaroo problem,” Carver told us, tapping an expression that sounds straight out of his 27-year career as a US Army officer.

USG NEWS:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-12-16/uga-police-continue-probe-online-racial-slurs
UGA police continue probe into online racial slurs
By JOE JOHNSON
University of Georgia police may be zeroing in on the person or persons responsible for posting racial slurs on social media accounts registered to university minority groups.
UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson on Monday said he would not comment on the investigation, which he expected to continue through next month.

RESEARCH:
www.medicalxpress.com
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-stem-cell-uncovers-importance.html
Stem cell research uncovers importance of cell cycle
by April Reese Sorrow
(Medical Xpress)—One of the biggest problems in stem cell research may not be a problem at all. Scientists have worried for years that stem cells grown in their labs were made up of many different kinds of cells, making them useless for stem cell therapies, but new research from the University of Georgia suggests they’re not different cells, some are just more mature than others.

www.nytimes.com

Ants That Can Flow Like a Fluid, or Move Like a Solid
By JAMES GORMAN
Fire ants, those stinging pests that are all too familiar to Southerners, have gotten plenty of attention from scientists — but not from physicists. … Usually the issue is how to stop the spread of the most problematic of the different species, or figure out why the sting is so painful. But scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, including Zhongyang Liu and David Hu, were interested in the ways that a mass — or you might say, a mess — of fire ants can act like a fluid or a solid, depending on the situation. It’s the first time this duality had been observed in a group of living things.

www.thealmagest.com
http://www.thealmagest.com/study-explains-firms-handle-bad-news/7321
Study explains how firms should handle bad news
By PressRelease
When a firm becomes the subject of a news story its stock price is usually affected. Whether positive or negative, newly publicized details about a company tend to attract investor attention and move the stock price based on the article’s sentiment. In the past, managers have been hard-pressed to respond appropriately. But new research from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business and published in the Journal of Marketing Research shows that two in-house tools can influence the effects of news reports on stock price.

www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thad-starner/interspecies-and-interdis_b_4450045.html?utm_hp_ref=tedweekends&ir=TED+Weekends
A Computer Scientist’s Unexpected Run-In With… a Shark
Thad Starner
“SHARK,” yelled John as he dove into the water. Looking out, I saw our 200 feet of tow line with two of the world’s leading researchers in marine mammal science hanging from it; the third was somewhere in the water, too. John, the first mate of our boat who was responsible for the safety of our swimmers, had disappeared under the waves … Using Georgia Tech’s GVU Rapid Prototyping Lab, student volunteers iteratively refined the computerized guts for the custom-milled box.

www.georgiastate.com
http://georgiaslate.com/buckhead/2013/12/18/mobile-apps-with-real-time-atlanta-bus-train-arrival-info/
Mobile Apps with Real-time Atlanta Bus & Train Arrival Info
by Marvin Arrington Jr.
Patch Staff Report
Tired of not knowing just when that bus or train will arrive? Not to worry as now there’s help from a pair of new mobile apps that deliver real-time arrival times for all busses and trains in the metro area. MARTA’s “On the Go” is a mobile version of the Itsmarta.com website and allows patrons to view bus/rail schedules, real-time bus arrivals, trip planning, service alerts, fare information and contact information. Developed out of Georgia Tech’s Urban Transformation Information Lab, OneBusAway.org helps travelers with real-time arrival information for MARTA buses, Georgia Tech Trolley and Stinger shuttles, the Atlantic Station shuttle, the Buckhead “buc” shuttle, Cliff/Emory shuttles, and Cobb Community Transit buses.

www.gainesvilletimes.com
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/93024/
Water group to keep study secret until final plan OK’d
By Jeff Gill
Not wanting to get caught in the middle of legal wrangling between Georgia and Florida, a private tri-state water group has decided to clamp down on information in an ongoing water-sharing study … The group soon embarked on the water study, conducted by Georgia Tech’s Georgia Water Resources Institute, and has raised more than $1.5 million to help pay for costs, McClatchey said.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/dec/16/college-freshman-class-2007-56-percent-finished-sc/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
College freshman class of 2007: 56 percent of the class finished school
Does it seem to you that college students transfer more today? I’ve been surprised at the number of students who leave their colleges after a semester or two and resume their studies at a local campus, often a community college.

www.nationaljournal.com
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/education/pathways-to-nowhere-for-georgia-s-undocumented-20131217
Pathways to Nowhere for Georgia’s Undocumented
Georgia students without papers must pay out-of-state tuition and are barred from attending some of the state’s top colleges.
By Sophie Quinton
Some students who graduate from Dalton High School are forbidden, under state law, from attending Georgia’s five most selective universities. They must pay out-of-state tuition at all state colleges. On top of that, they’re ineligible for state and federal financial aid and federal student loans. These young people may also find it hard to pay their way through college: They’re forbidden from getting a driver’s license, obtaining a work permit, or starting their own business. Undocumented students may make up about 8 percent of Dalton High’s student body, former Principal Debbie Freeman estimates. No matter how well the school tries to prepare all students for the future, some graduates find they have few options after 12th grade.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/dec/18/new-state-report/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
New state report: Maximize impact of digital learning
From the governor’s office today:
Gov. Nathan Deal today released the final report of recommendations from his Digital Learning Task Force. Formed by Deal in April 2012, the task force developed a cohesive strategy to improve student achievement through digital learning implementation across the state. “Georgia students need 21st century skills to succeed in our economy, and digital learning can help provide those skills,” Deal said. “The task force recommendations provide a strong framework for digital learning that will increase student achievement and broaden choices for Georgia students and parents.”

www.saportareport.com
http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/12/gov-nathan-deal-seeks-legislative-reform-to-help-prisoners-re-enter-society/
SaportaReport
Gov. Nathan Deal seeks reforms to help prisoners re-enter society
By Maria Saporta
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal plans for the next legislative session to complete the third leg of his criminal justice reform stool — supporting transition and re-entry into the community for people who have been in prison. …The state is seeking to provide educational skills for those in prison, and it is partnering with the technical colleges to provide skilled training so that they can develop a marketable skill while in prison. But Deal said he will need help from the private sector to hire people with a criminal record — often those who are the hardest to employ.

www.diveseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59515/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=79deff6cff23460f9d5e04d728a9d4c5&elqCampaignId=162#
History Suggests College Rating System a Losing Proposition
by Vinton Thompson
President Obama’s proposal of August 2013 to tie individual students’ financial aid to government ratings of the college they attend is perhaps the worst idea ever put forward for higher education by a sitting president. Two of the major proposed metrics — graduation rates and post-graduation employment and income — are inexorably bound up with the nature of the students that the colleges serve. Poverty, poor preparation, commuter and part-time attendance, and non-traditional adult age status are all highly correlated with lower completion rates.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/12/17/essay-questions-mandatory-arbitration-clauses-students-profit-higher-education
Signing Away Rights
By Stephen Burd
In the fall of 2011, Career Education Corporation (CECO) revealed that a significant number of its schools had cooked the books on the job placement rates they were disclosing to prospective students and regulators. Now investors in the giant for-profit higher education company are about to earn a nice profit for these misdeeds.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/selling-springboard
Selling The Springboard
By Matt Reed
I’m torn on this one. A for-profit company, American Honors, is offering a package to high-achieving community college students with the goal of helping them transfer to selective institutions. The article even quotes a transfer coordinator at Mount Holyoke, just up the street, saying that students who went through that program will be at an advantage in the transfer process. Hmm. I’ll a big fan of Honors programs at community colleges. If you believe, as I do, that the correlation between parental income and student ability is less than total, then it follows that some students from economically modest backgrounds may be quite strong academically.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/12/18/essay-incentives-and-training-teaching-online
Incentives and Training
By Marian Stoltz-Loike
A new academic fairy tale goes something like this. Once upon a time there was a great faculty member who had been lecturing to her class for 25 years. She was smart, entertaining and interesting. One day, the president of her university told her they were going to flip the classroom. In a flash, she placed much of her material online, along with interesting videos and other material and, in class, she cleverly led the discussion among students, always making sure to speak far less than her students. The reality? It doesn’t always work out that way.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/envious-nprs-17-million-digital-grant
Envious of NPR’s $17 Million Digital Grant
By Joshua Kim
NPR just got $17 million bucks. A large chunk of that money will be allocated to build a new digital platform to deliver NPR content. (Some of the money also goes to expand coverage of education, which I am very happy about. Maybe NPR will cover this blog entry?). I’m jealous. I’d love to build a similar digital platform for educational content. Here is what the NPR platform will do (from the press release):

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/shame-us-us
Shame on us (as in U.S.)!
By Liz Reisberg
Unlike our usual blogs, today’s missive is not exactly international in its focus. Rather it addresses a uniquely US phenomenon—salaries for university presidents that are out of control. Outside of the US, salaries for faculty and administrators at public universities are often defined by a civil service salary scale. It is difficult to know what presidents of universities in the private sector outside of the US earn, particularly when they are “owners” of their university, common in the case of developing economies.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/why-do-american-students-lose-ground-over-time/ncJmF/
Why do American students lose ground over time?
BY MARK BAUERLEIN
With so much reporting and discussion of test scores these days, it’s easy to forget a simple fact. This overlook-habit is reinforced whenever the U.S. Department of Education releases its biannual report on math and reading scores for fourth- and eighth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams that shows steady gains in the past few decades.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/respect-our-teachers-if-we-truly-value-education/ncKgs/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1
Respect our teachers if we truly value education
BY MARY SANCHEZ
Arne Duncan wants you! Picture that slogan on a poster. The secretary of education pointing outward like Uncle Sam, summoning the nation’s top-achieving college students to enter America’s classrooms as teachers. Not very convincing, eh? OK, the Department of Education’s new public service campaign, called Teach, is far more polished, but essentially it has all the honesty and appeal of “Join the Army and see the world. ” When will they learn?

www.wired.com
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/12/the-paradox-of-wearables-close-to-your-body-but-keeping-tech-far-away/
Google Glass Lead: How Wearing Tech on Our Bodies Actually Helps It Get Out of Our Way
BY THAD STARNER
One of the rallying cries for Google Glass is to make technology that’s there when you need it, gone when you don’t. It is intended to help people get on with their lives, without focusing on the technology. Wearable computers, in general, play supporting roles in what the user is doing — as opposed to the computer use being the primary focus itself. … Wearable computing pioneer Thad Starner is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Technical Lead on Google Glass …

Education News
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Senate-Passes-Budget-Deal/143661/?cid=at
Senate Poised to Pass Budget Deal Ending Set-Aside for Nonprofit Lenders
By Kelly Field
Washington
The U.S. Senate cleared the way on Tuesday for passage of a budget deal that sets annual spending levels around $1-trillion in both the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years, and rolls back some of the automatic spending cuts that would otherwise take effect in mid-January. Once the Senate passes the budget blueprint, a step expected later this week, it will head to Congressional appropriators, who will determine how much money will be spent on agencies and programs, including research and student aid.

www.wabe.org
http://wabe.org/post/new-hope-bill-would-cover-tuition-qualified-technical-scholars-talk-rep-stacey-evans
New HOPE Bill Would Cover Tuition for Qualified Technical Scholars: A Talk with Rep. Stacey Evans
By DENIS O’HAYER
…This year, Evans is back with a bill aimed at making it easier for qualified technical college students to afford their educations. The bill, which she has pre-filed for 2014, would allow the HOPE program to cover 100% of the tuition costs for technical students who meet the grade requirements.

www.chornicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/As-GI-Bill-Reaches-Milestone/143597/?cid=at
With GI Bill at Milestone, Veterans Push for Campus Services
By Libby Sander
When Jose Roman enrolled at Old Dominion University in the spring of 2012, he thought he would find more services for veterans on the campus than he did. … The Norfolk, Va., campus, he says, has become a more welcoming place for veterans. They now have their own faculty adviser, a small office, and a Student Veterans of America chapter, of which Mr. Roman, 40, is president. Last month the university held a conference for student veterans from around the state. More and more colleges are recognizing veterans as a distinct demographic group, with specific needs. As those students become more visible, they are finding one another with greater ease, pressing for better support services, and raising the bar for what is expected of colleges.

www.times-georgian.com
http://www.times-georgian.com/news/article_585e526a-6786-11e3-8845-0019bb30f31a.html
Gun carry law backers ready for new fight
Winston Jones/Times-Georgian | 0 comments
When the clock ran out on the 2013 Georgia General Assembly last March, major gun carry legislation failed to make it to a vote, but supporters pledged to bring it back to the next session. State Rep. Dustin Hightower, R-Carrollton, said Tuesday that it’s his understanding that legislation, similar to last year’s original House Bill 512, will likely be pre-filed before the session starts in January. …Last year, HB 512 passed by a 117-56 vote in the House. All local legislators, including Hightower, Rep. Kevin Cooke, R-Carrollton; and Rep. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, voted for it. But the legislation ran into opposition from college leaders, especially the Board of Regents and college police chiefs.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59500/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=8735fb8769334246bdaa053f36ef4b75&elqCampaignId=146
Just the Stats: College Graduate Debt Increases by 10 Percent From Previous Year
By Olivia Blackmon
Nearly 70 percent of all graduating college seniors in 2012 had a student loan debt and their average debt was $29,400, according to a new report from The Project on Student Debt at the Institute for College Access and Success. (TICAS). College graduates student loan debt increased from 2011 to 2012 by 10.5 percent, an increase from $26,600 in 2011 to $29,400 in 2012. Despite the sharp decline in private education lending, one-fifth of student graduate debt was in private loans, which yield more risks, fewer protections and repayment options and are often more costly compared to safer federal loans.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/18/consumer-bureau-calls-financial-institutions-disclose-debit-card-agreements-colleges
Sunshine for Campus Debit Cards?
By Michael Stratford
U.S. consumer protection officials on Tuesday called for financial institutions to publicly disclose their agreements with colleges to market debit cards and other products to students.

www.thepress-sentinel.com
http://www.thepress-sentinel.com/articles/2013/12/13/news/doc52ab791e41f64503259431.txt
Chamber pays tribute to tech colleges, local educators
By Derby Waters–STAFF WRITER
With education as the theme of the general membership luncheon of the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, the heads of the two technical colleges to be combined here next year were the guest speakers at noon Wednesday. Meeting at Altamaha Technical College, the luncheon was sponsored by the Wayne County Board of Education. Carey Jones chairman of the Chamber this year, recognized several educators (see sidebar) as part of the salute to education.

www.walb.com
http://www.walb.com/story/24230551/wiregrass-names-semi-finalists-for-goal-award
Wiregrass names semi-finalists for GOAL Award
By Dave Miller
VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) – Information from Wiregrass Georgia Technical College- Four Wiregrass Georgia Technical College students have been selected as the college’s semi-finalists for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, or GOAL: Brittany Lecates, Early Childhood Care Education, Valdosta; Alex Terrell, Marketing, Valdosta; Jennifer Walker, Accounting, Valdosta, and Charles Williams, Computer Information Systems, Valdosta. GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia, honors excellence in academics and leadership among the state’s technical college students. GOAL winners are selected at each of the state’s 24 technical colleges as well as one Board of Regent college with technical education division.

www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/community-college-degrees-in-demand/?utm_campaign=1217ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=cbc9f14b49264e278f1f7b8c4a729c40&elqCampaignId=161
Community college degrees in demand
Source: bridgemi.com
To see the difference between yesterday’s skilled-trade career and today’s, Michael Hansen offers what’s happening at BOSS Products, a snowplow manufacturer in Iron Mountain. The president of the Michigan Community College Association describes entering a welding shop, expecting to see “guys in hoods and greasy overalls.” Hardly. The work was done by robots, with the human element consisting of “guys in sweaters and khakis, operating the machines.” And the difference between those two versions of the same job is the reason training at a community college is increasingly the baseline education credential for those seeking the sort of job they might have learned as an apprentice out of high school a generation ago.

www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/obama-aides-visit-tout-community-college-grants/?utm_campaign=1217ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=cbc9f14b49264e278f1f7b8c4a729c40&elqCampaignId=161
Obama aides visit, tout community college grants
…On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited the facility where Myles got his training, MCC’s Michigan Technical Education Center, or M-TEC. They were joined by college officials and community leaders. …During the visit, they announced the award of a $24.9 million, four-year grant to a MCC-led coalition of eight community colleges, including Grand Rapids Community College, Lansing Community College and Schoolcraft College. The grant is designed to create and expand partnerships between business and community colleges to train workers for in-demand jobs. It is also part of a program jointly administered by the labor and education departments.

www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/local-community-colleges-work-on-retention/?utm_campaign=1217ccnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=cbc9f14b49264e278f1f7b8c4a729c40&elqCampaignId=161
Local community colleges work on retention
Source: thesouthern.com
With a national retention push under way, regional community colleges are looking at ways to increase retention and graduation rates with the goal of producing higher-achieving graduates.

www.covnews.com
http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/48000/
Labor commissioner: Workers need ‘soft skills’
By Gabriel Khouli
Georgia residents and students need new skills to compete in more efficient, technology-based workplaces, but they also need top-notch “soft skills” to work with their peers and please customers, and Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said his department is working in both areas. …Butler shared details about two programs designed to improve the Georgia workforce. The Special Workforce Assistance Team (SWAT) takes some of the department of labor’s top employees into communities with high unemployment and works with local nonprofits and colleges to develop a series of workshops for residents.

www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2013/12/13/manufacturing-will-help-boost-2014-job.html
Manufacturing will help boost 2014 job growth
Randy Southerland, Contributing Writer
From floor covering to biotech, Georgia is in the midst of a resurgence in manufacturing. The sector will be one of the hottest in 2014, adding 4,100 jobs. Although the numbers are impressive, the long-term prospects for manufacturing are not as bright, according to the Georgia Economic Outlook 2014 report from The University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59520/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=79deff6cff23460f9d5e04d728a9d4c5&elqCampaignId=162#
Study Reveals only 4 in 10 Finish College Where They Start
by Philip Elliott, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Fewer than half of all students who entered college in 2007 finished school where they started, and almost a third are no longer taking classes toward a degree anywhere, according to review released Monday. The dire numbers underscore the challenges that colleges confront as they look to bring in more students and send them out into the world as graduates. The numbers also could complicate matters for students at schools with low graduation rates; the U.S. Department of Education’s still-emerging college rating system is considering linking colleges’ performances with federal financial aid.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/a-new-gallup-survey-will-measure-the-value-of-a-degree-beyond-salary/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
A New Gallup Survey Will Measure the Value of a Degree, Beyond Salary
By Scott Carlson
As nearly everyone in higher education knows by now, Americans have been paying closer attention to the return on an investment in a college degree. The problem has been how to measure that return. …So a new initiative from Gallup and Purdue University, being announced on Tuesday, is intriguing in that it strives to go deeper, especially on the intangibles. In fact, in the conversation about the value of college, the results could be revolutionary. Beginning this coming spring, and continuing over the next five years, the polling agency, with help from researchers at the Indiana institution and support from the Lumina Foundation, will survey adult college graduates—30,000 at a time, with more than 150,000 respondents at the end of the study—to find out how the graduates perceive the effect of college on their careers and quality of life.

Related article:
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/17/gallup-purdue-study-will-measure-graduates-quality-life-outcomes
Measuring Other Outcomes

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/18/american-bar-association-approves-experimental-hybrid-jd-program
Law School Hybrid
By Carl Straumsheim
William Mitchell College of Law has received approval from the American Bar Association to launch a part-time J.D. program that blends face-to-face instruction with online courses. Although the hybrid program marks the first of its kind, experts are split on whether it marks an experiment or a turning point for how legal education is delivered in the U.S.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/18/san-jose-state-u-resurrects-scaled-back-online-course-experiment-mooc-provider
Scaling Back in San Jose
By Carl Straumsheim
San Jose State University has all but ended its experiment to offer low-cost, high-quality online education in partnership with the massive open online course provider Udacity after a year of disappointing results and growing dismay among faculty members.
The university will next spring offer three of the five courses that it created in participation with Udacity — elementary statistics, introduction to programming and general psychology — but the courses will be absorbed into the regular framework of the institution.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/17/colleges-report-job-outcomes-results-are-limited-value
Job Placement Confusion
By Megan Rogers
…With tuition prices continuing to rise and greater numbers of graduates struggling in the job market, families, students and policy makers — most visibly President Obama — are increasingly questioning the “value” that colleges are providing. In response to that mounting pressure, more colleges and universities are turning to alumni outcome surveys. But widely differing survey methods and various interpretations make it hard for students or national policy makers to draw conclusions about how a college degree from one institution prepares graduates for the work place compared to a degree from another college.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/16/tenured-professor-boulder-says-she-being-forced-out-over-lecture-prostitution
Too Risky for Boulder?
By Scott Jaschik
Patricia Adler stunned her students in a popular course on deviance Thursday by announcing that she would be leaving her tenured position teaching sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Adler said that officials told her that one of the highlights of the course — popular year after year — had to go. That is an annual lecture on prostitution (a topic covered in deviance courses nationwide). Her news stunned students, who are mobilizing on social media to make sure she can stay on. And because the course typically enrolls 500 students, many students and alumni are expressing outrage.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/17/aaup-says-professor-was-inappropriately-denied-tenure
Caught in the Crossfire
By Colleen Flaherty
Northeastern Illinois University denied tenure to a linguistics professor on “glaringly insufficient” grounds, concludes an investigative report out today from the American Association of University Professors. Investigators also cite “an unfavorable climate for academic freedom” on that campus.

www.nytimes.com

Pay for U.S. College Presidents Continues to Grow
By TAMAR LEWIN
Forty-two presidents of private colleges were paid more than a million dollars in 2011, up from 36 for the previous two years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual analysis of the colleges’ latest available tax forms. The three top earners were Robert J. Zimmer, University of Chicago ($3,358,723); Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern University ($3,121,864); and Dennis J. Murray, Marist College ($2,688,148).

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/emory-president-ranks-27th-on-highest-paid-list/ncMbG/
Emory president ranks 27th on highest-paid list
BY JANEL DAVIS – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Emory University President James Wagner ranked 27th among the nation’s highest-paid leaders of nonprofit private colleges in a recently released report compiled by the Chronicle for Higher Education. The Chronicle reported Wagner’s total compensation at $1.2 million, including base pay of more than $870,000.

www.online.wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303293604579254861650304686
Education Department Targets For-Profit Colleges
Plan Aimed at Schools Whose Students Have High Debt or Loan-Default Rates
By JOSH MITCHELL CONNECT
WASHINGTON—As many as 20% of programs at for-profit colleges would lose revenue from student aid under a draft proposal the Obama administration is developing to rein in tuitions. The plan, which the Education Department has spent months drafting, targets for-profit schools whose students end up deep in debt or default on their student loans at exceptionally high rates. The rules would also apply to community colleges that offer career training, and technical schools. Public and nonprofit four-year colleges and universities wouldn’t be affected.

www.gallup.com
http://www.gallup.com/poll/166490/americans-college-education-important.aspx?utm_source=WWW&utm_medium=csm&utm_campaign=syndication
Americans Still See College Education as Very Important
Seven in 10 say college education is very important, up significantly from 1978
by Frank Newport and Brandon Busteed
PRINCETON, NJ — Seven in 10 American adults believe that a college education is very important, up significantly since the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, when Gallup first asked the question as part of a Phi Delta Kappa survey, just 36% of Americans considered a college education to be very important.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Seeks-Input-on/143649/?cid=at
Education Dept. Seeks Input on Setting Up College-Rating System
By Kelly Field
Washington
The U.S. Education Department is seeking suggestions from colleges, students, and others on how it should design President Obama’s proposed college-rating system. In a notice scheduled to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register, the department requests input on which measures to use in the ratings, how they should be weighted and combined, and how colleges should be grouped “to ensure appropriate comparisons.” The department also wants advice on how to present the information to the public and examples of model rating systems.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59567/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=8735fb8769334246bdaa053f36ef4b75&elqCampaignId=146
Gates Foundation Hires California University Chancellor as CEO
by Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Tuesday the chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, to be the third CEO of the world’s largest charitable foundation. Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellman will take over from Jeff Raikes in May. Raikes announced his retirement in September after five years as foundation CEO. Desmond-Hellman will be the first person without a Microsoft connection to run the foundation, which has more than 1,000 employees and an endowment totaling more than $40 billion. The foundation makes grants equaling more than $3 billion a year, with a focus on global health, world agriculture and education.