University System News
CONSOLIDATION:
www.mdjonline.com
http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/24315009-KSU-Southern-Poly-merge-together
KSU, Southern Poly merge together
by Rachel Gray
MARIETTA — The announcement about the proposed merger of Kennesaw State University with Southern Polytechnic State University took students, faculty, alumni throughout the community, and the SPSU president by surprise. On the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2013 students gathered outside of the student center to ask Lisa Rossbacher, who has been SPSU’s president since 1998, for guidance on how to list SPSU on resumes and what the school will be named on future degrees. Besides some helpful advice, Rossbacher told the crowd of students, “I was not consulted on this, I found out yesterday.”
USG NEWS:
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/georgia-archives-is-ready-for-researchers/ncNTR/
Georgia Archives is ready for researchers
By Kenneth H. Thomas Jr.
For the AJC
Now that it’s been transferred to the University System of Georgia and will be staying open to the public for research, the Georgia Archives wants people know about the many resources it has that can’t be found elsewhere. You have to visit the Archives in order to access these items; contrary to what some people think, all state and local records of genealogy interest are not on the Internet.
www.times-herald.com
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20140101-YearInReview
Economic Improvement Tops List Of 2013 Stories
by ELLEN CORKER
Positive economic signs for Coweta County, with several development projects completed, under way or announced, topped the list of local news events in 2013. …Coweta is the fastest-growing county in the west Georgia region, it was noted at the annual Economic Forecast Breakfast held in October at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. A major area of activity has involved post-secondary education, with the opening of the new Coweta campus of West Georgia Technical College and the start of construction to transform the old Newnan Hospital on Jackson Street for use as the University of West Georgia Newnan center.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-12-30/2013-year-review
2013: Athens area year in review
By STAFF REPORTSNEWS
This proved to be a big year for the Athens area. New leadership marked a promised change in direction at the University of Georgia. A new manufacturing plant opened but a major planned development for downtown fizzled. And the potential for adding medical residencies at area hospitals took a big step forward. The following are the stories that marked major changes for the Classic City and its inhabitants, or simply caught our collective attention in 2013:
www.mdjonline.com
http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/24315167-Story-of-the-Year-Braves-announce-move-to-Cobb-County
Story of the Year — Braves announce move to Cobb County
by MDJ staff reports
…2. KENNESAW STATE HAS FOOTBALL PROGRAM APPROVED; BOHANNON NAMED FIRST COACH: A process just over three years in the making finally came to a head in February when the Georgia Board of Regents officially approved Kennesaw State University’s desire to have a football program.
USG VALUE:
www.news-daily.com
http://www.news-daily.com/news/2013/dec/31/clayton-state-preps-for-first-lego-league-super/
Clayton State preps for First Lego League Super Regionals
By Johnny Jackson
MORROW — Clayton State University officials are preparing for an assembly of hundreds of potential engineers. “They’ve been preparing for it for several months,” said Clayton State spokesman John Shiffert. Organizers are setting up for local teams to battle in the First Lego League Super Regionals Jan. 11. The annual contest pits teams of students, ages 9 to 14, against one another as they use their skills in robotics to compete in disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/02/essay-criticizes-new-kansas-policy-use-social-media-university-employees
A Dangerous Policy
By Frank D. LoMonte
For decades, the Supreme Court has kept vigil over the campuses of state universities as, in the words of one memorable 1995 ruling, “peculiarly the marketplace for ideas.” No opinion, the Supreme Court has emphasized, is too challenging or unsettling that it can be banned from the college classroom. Forget the classroom – professors today are fortunate if they can be safe from punishment for an unkind word posted from a home computer on a personal, off-campus blog. The Kansas Board of Regents triggered academic-freedom alarm bells across America last month with a hastily adopted revision to university personnel policies that makes “improper use of social media” grounds for discipline up to and including termination. (While the board this week ordered a review of the policy, it remains in place.)
www.chroniclevitae.com
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/234-moocs-mechanization-and-the-modern-professor?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
MOOCs, Mechanization, and the Modern Professor
Katherine Moos
Recently, in a course on classical political economy, my students and I discussed mechanization and its effects on employment. Having read Adam Smith’s classic text, The Wealth of Nations, we examined the productivity gains from the division of labor in his well-known pin-factory example—in which he demonstrated that workers who specialize in particular tasks outproduce those who perform every task themselves. We talked about industries in which machines are replacing workers to varying degrees of success: grocery clerks swapped out for self-checkout machines, restaurants using conveyor belts instead of waiters and waitresses, and even nursing and elder care performed by so-called “caring robots” This got me thinking about academia, where we’re witnessing a similar move towards mechanization. The advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is making it clear that university instructors aren’t as insulated from the effects of technological progress as we might have thought.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/12/31/in-defense-of-an-academic-boycott-of-israel/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In Defense of an Academic Boycott of Israel
by Curtis Marez
On December 16 the American Studies Association announced that its membership had voted to endorse an academic boycott of Israel, the second and most high-profile U.S. scholarly association to do so thus far. The boycott is one prong of a global justice movement that is anchored in international law and universal principles of human rights. It aims to help end Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights. Sadly, in the ensuing days, ASA members have been savaged in the press, attacked by Israeli government officials, smeared as anti-Semites, and targeted with threatening emails and phone calls.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/?p=6955?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Don’t Cut Off Debate With Israeli Institutions—Enrich It Instead
by Linda Gordon, Alice Kessler-Harris, and Elaine Tyler May
The recent decisions of two learned societies to support a boycott of Israeli academic institutions represents understandable frustration with Israeli government policy of appropriating Palestinian land and resources and violating human rights (“Scholars Debate Significance of American Studies Assn.’s Vote to Boycott Israel,” The Chronicle, December 16). We doubt that we need to detail these policies applied to land occupied by Israel—sponsoring tens of thousands of settlers on Palestinian lands; withdrawing water resources; bulldozing Palestinian homes, orchards, and farms; arbitrary closures of Palestinian universities;
Education News
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59819/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=47fc2ada94c8463d8835985947358b30&elqCampaignId=173#
GED Test Overhauled; Some States Opt for New Exam
by Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The General Educational Development (GED) test, for decades the brand name for the high school equivalency exam, is about to undergo some changes.
Today, an upgraded GED exam and two new competing equivalency tests offered in several states will usher in a new era in adult education testing. The GED exam was created in 1942 to help World War II veterans who dropped out of high school use college benefits offered under the GI Bill. This will be its first face-lift in more than a decade.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/02/common-application-sees-high-volume-late-night-problem
Common Application Sees High Volume, Late Night Problem
The Common Application, which had severe technological problems in the early fall, but which has seen a more stable system recently, was able to process more applications on December 31 (the day of the year at which it typically receives the largest number of applications) than it did a year ago on the same day. But late on New Year’s Day and continuing for a few hours, many of those filing were unable to do so.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/02/questions-tactics-used-collect-student-loans
Questions on Tactics Used to Collect Student Loans
Critics charge that the Educational Credit Management Corporation uses “ruthless” tactics to collect student loans, ignoring legitimate and serious medical issues (such as cancer) in evaluating borrowers’ ability to repay, The New York Times reported.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/02/judge-upholds-new-florida-rules-tenure-and-student-success
Raising the Bar on Faculty
Colleen Flaherty and Scott Jaschik
This article has been updated with reactions.
An administrative law judge in Florida last week upheld new rules by the State Department of Education that require significantly more of state college faculty members – particularly in the areas of student success – for them to earn continuing contracts.
www.insidehighered.comhttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/02/suicide-ocr-again-tells-colleges-not-remove-self-threatening-students
Who Protects the Suicidal?
By Allie Grasgreen
Nearly three years after a revision of federal regulations, colleges and the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights are still squabbling over when potentially self-harming students should be sent home – and in at least one case where OCR intervened, the reinstated student went on to commit suicide.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59823/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=47fc2ada94c8463d8835985947358b30&elqCampaignId=173#
Community College Grapples With Ways to Help Students Without Housing
by Earni Young
Quaris Carter, now 37, moved to Philadelphia from Houston in 2010, believing he could find work as an electrician. When that didn’t work out, he wound up living on the streets. He enrolled at Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) in 2012, using $30 he earned for giving blood to pay the application fee. Carter, who is entering his third semester at the college, said he could think of no other way to break out of the poverty and chronic homelessness that has been his lot for the past three years. “If this doesn’t work, I just don’t know of any other way,” said Carter. …According to data from Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), 58,000 applicants nationwide self-identified as homeless in the 2013-2014 academic year, up from 33,000 students in the 2010-2011 academic year. Since colleges are not required to keep track of their homeless students, the FAFSA form is the only significant data available.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/How-CUNY-Is-Producing-More/143755/?cid=at
Full-Time, Structured Program at CUNY Yields More Community-College Grads
By Katherine Mangan
When Nicolina Dapilma enrolled at the City University of New York, the odds of earning an associate degree in two years were less than one in 10. Ms. Dapilma, who immigrated to the United States from the West African nation of Togo at age 11, was considering various academic programs when a CUNY adviser called. The pitch: free tuition and textbooks, intensive academic and career advising, monthly subway passes, and a structured schedule that could accommodate her part-time job. In exchange, she’d have to enroll full time, attend mandatory tutoring sessions, and commit to graduating in two or three years.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/02/presidents-denounce-academic-boycott-israel-some-campuses-faculty-and-presidents
Boycott Battles
By Elizabeth Redden
The backlash against the American Studies Association’s resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli universities continued unabated through the holiday vacation, with scores of American college presidents condemning the action and the president of the American Council on Education joining the chorus of critics.
Related article:
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Backlash-Against-Israel/143757/?cid=at
Backlash Against Israel Boycott Puts American Studies Assn. on Defensive
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/02/kansas-board-reviews-controversial-social-media-policy
Kansas Board Reviews Controversial Social Media Policy
The Kansas Board of Regents has ordered a review of its recently adopted and highly controversial rules on social media. The rules outline situations in which faculty members could be dismissed or disciplined in other ways over statements they make on social media — and numerous faculty and civil liberties groups have said that the rules violate basic principles of academic freedom and the First Amendment rights of professors.