University System News
2014 GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION NEWS:
wwww.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/general-assembly/2014-01-22/bill-would-require-attendance-georgia-board-meetings-reimbursement
Bill would require attendance at Georgia board meetings for reimbursement
By WALTER C. JONES MORRIS NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA – Political appointees can’t “phone it in” if one Georgia lawmaker has his say. Members serving on one of 15 state boards would have to physically attend meetings in order to get expense allowances and daily allotments under legislation pending in the state House. State law grants the same daily allotment as legislators for the members of the State Board of Education, the Board of Regents, State Transportation Board, the Board of Natural Resources and others. Currently that is $173 for each day of meetings, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/vote-on-midyear-budget-on-fast-track/ncx68/
Vote on midyear budget on fast track
BY JAMES SALZER – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Georgia House leaders bent on a high-speed legislative session will put a midyear budget that adds $300 million in new spending up for a vote barely a week after Gov. Nathan Deal released the proposal. Most new spending in the amended budget, which runs through June 30, will go to pay for school enrollment increases and public health programs. Deal released his budget proposal Jan. 15. The House budget committee approved a slightly edited version Wednesday, and the full chamber will pass it Friday.
www.acccessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=270266
House committee approves $41B revised Ga. budget
By The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) A legislative committee has approved changes to a $41 billion spending plan for Georgia’s state government. The House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to approve a revised budget for the financial year that ends in June. House lawmakers must still decide whether to approve it in a floor vote.
www.myajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/cagle-supports-opt-in-on-campus-carry/ncyHd/
Cagle supports ‘opt in’ on campus carry
BY KRISTINA TORRES – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said Wednesday he will support giving college leaders a say on whether students may carry guns on campus. With a new version of a controversial gun bill expected to be filed Friday, Cagle sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to talk about why he favors an “opt in” approach to guns, how quickly he wants to privatize parts of Georgia’s troubled foster care system and how to properly honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
www.11alive.com
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/319620/3/Busy-legislative-agenda-this-week-under-the-Gold-Dome
Georgia’s legislative agenda this week includes food stamp drug testing, guns on campus & DFCS
Paul Crawley
…Meanwhile, a new gun bill is about to be introduced to expand places where Georgian’s who’re at least 21 and have a weapons carry license can take their firearms. Like previous unsuccessful attempts, it would include such places as churches and bars, whose owners don’t object. But the big sticking point has been including public college campuses.
CONSOLIDATION:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2014-01-22/gru-add-augusta-signs?v=1390410952
GRU to add ‘Augusta’ to signs
‘Augusta’ will be added after backlash about GRU
By Tracey McManus
Staff Writer
After public backlash for not including “Augusta” on Georgia Regents University entrance signs installed last month, school officials announced Wednesday that the signs will be revised to include the city’s name. The decision was made after university leaders, including President Ricardo Azziz, spoke with “community members” upset about the issue, said David Brond, the senior vice president of communications and marketing. Brond said that the work should be completed by the end of February and that the costs to change the signs will be “negligible.”
GOOD NEWS:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/science_health/sustainability-grants-help-fund-student-projects/article_1d71e708-830f-11e3-8eae-001a4bcf6878.html
Sustainability grants help fund student projects
by JEANETTE KAZMIERCZAK
Nine student groups received a total of $28,000 from the University of Georgia’s Office of Sustainability to complete projects promoting a culture of sustainability on campus.
Kevin Kirsche, director of sustainability, said students submitted a total of 33 proposals this year. The projects range from outdoor solar power charging stations to a composting initiative and bike repair stations.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.mdjonline.com
http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/24435623/article-More-sunshine-would-help-crimp-last-minute-lawmaking?instance=lead_story_left_column
More sunshine would help crimp last-minute lawmaking
The last day of Georgia’s annual 40-day legislative session is famous throughout the state for its combination of marathon manipulation, skullduggery, deal-making and general confusion. It’s a murky setting for outsiders looking in while trying to keep track of key legislation as the midnight hour nears; and it’s nearly as opaque for insiders as well. Now a lawmaker reportedly is on the verge of proposing a pair of ways of lessening that chaos.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/01/23/campus-carry-bill-dealt-a-killing-blow-state-lawmaker-says/
Political Insider with Jim Galloway
Campus-carry bill dealt a killing blow, state lawmaker says
State Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartswell, said a full year of negotiations over a bill to permit the carrying of concealed weapons on public university campuses has been for naught – after the General Assembly’s legal counsel pronounced a floated compromise unconstitutional. The Legislature had been headed toward a measure that would have permitted university presidents to decide whether or not students – licensed and 21 years or older – would be permitted to carry weaponry in bookbags and on their person. But on Tuesday, Powell and state Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, were informed that optional provisions – whether “opt in” or “opt out” – wouldn’t pass muster.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-01-22/editors-desk-improving-k-12-education-vital-states-economy
The Editor’s Desk: Improving K-12 education vital to state’s economy
By JIM THOMPSON
Georgia’s economic outlook for 2014, an outreach program of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, was presented Wednesday in Athens to a luncheon crowd of 500 area business and civic leaders and elected officials. As has been the case at presentation luncheons held previously around the state, improving K-12 education was cited as a cornerstone for boosting Georgia’s economy.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jan/23/low-wage-workers-today-have-more-education-less-pa/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Low-wage workers today have more education, but less pay
In the last two months, an honor’s grad from UGA served me lunch and a University of Florida history major sold me headphones. They had not been able to fnd jobs in their fields and were working for more than a year in low-paying positions to pay their bills. Increasingly, folks in low-wage jobs have a lot of education, including college degrees. Here is a piece and chart quantifying that trend from Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute:
www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/reaching-inflection-point-college-presidential-pay
Reaching an inflection point with college presidential pay?
Boston Globe
There were signs in the recently released Chronicle of Higher Education report on college and university presidents’ paychecks that higher education is gaining a sense of limits. From 2010 to 2011, the total compensation for the chiefs of nonprofit higher-ed institutions edged up only 3.2 percent. But there were also signs of the old profligacy. The number of presidents collecting more than $1 million rose by 17 percent, to 42. And 2011 was a tough economic year, when median household income dropped and average student debt soared toward $30,000; one could argue that presidential compensation should have dropped as well. Next year’s survey will tell whether universities are serious about putting the brakes on presidential pay hikes.
www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/it-time-colleges-apply-more-academic-muscle-develop-entrepreneurs
Is It time for colleges to apply more academic muscle to develop entrepreneurs?
Huffington Post
Cambridge, Massachusetts is known as one of the higher education and start-up meccas in the U.S. Those of us that live close by, understand and embrace it, and probably take it for granted more than we should. …Young people are everywhere in Harvard Square. A high percentage of them are students. They’re writing, researching, studying, building start-ups and writing code. You name it, they’re creating it. This unique entrepreneurial environment causes me to think about how I can merge my own business skills with college students to create something special.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/01/22/a-uga-professor-referees-the-fight-over-global-warming/
Political Insider with Jim Galloway
A UGA professor referees the fight over global warming
If you lose a couple of toes to frostbite this morning, all Marshall Shepherd asks is this: Don’t blame the polar vortex. The previous deep freeze could be attributed to that mystical force spiraling over the North Pole. The current one is just a traditional, run-of-the-mill cold snap. If Shepherd seems a little touchy about it, you can’t blame him. The University of Georgia professor has spent a good part of this month trying to rescue the phrase from a tug of war between Rush Limbaugh and the White House.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/23/the-coming-common-core-meltdown/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
The coming Common Core meltdown
In the following post, veteran educator Stan Karp explains why the problems surrounding the implementation of the Common Core are less about the substance of the standards and more about the context in which they were introduced. Karp taught English and journalism in Paterson, N.J., for 30 years and is an editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, where this appeared. By Stan Karp The trouble with the Common Core is not primarily what is in these standards or what’s been left out, although that’s certainly at issue. The bigger problem is the role the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are playing in the larger dynamics of current school reform and education politics.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/23/essay-criticizes-presidents-who-have-condemned-israel-boycott
Whose Academic Freedom Is Being Trampled?
By Ashley Dawson
On December 27, William Kelly, the interim chancellor of the City University of New York, the vast university system in which I teach, published a statement condemning the resolution of American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities. In his statement, Chancellor Kelly wrote, “The need for global cooperation has never been more urgent, and we repudiate any effort to foreclose productive dialogue.” Who, one might wonder, is this we the chancellor is invoking, and who exactly is foreclosing dialogue?
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/23/essay-turmoil-middle-east-demonstrates-why-american-colleges-should-expand-ties
Constructive SolutionsBy Devorah Lieberman
In December the American Studies Association joined the Association for Asian American Studies in calling for a boycott of academic and intellectual exchanges with Israeli colleges, universities, and individual faculty in protest of that country’s treatment of the Palestinians. Since the ASA’s resolution, scores of college and university presidents and the American Association of University Professors have proclaimed that this action is a violation of academic freedom.
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/4-questions-lynn-u-itunes-u
4 Questions for Lynn U on iTunes U
Joshua Kim
I read with great interest about Lynn University’s plan to move from Blackboard to a one-to-one iPad mini program and course materials in iTunesU and iBooks. At my own institution we have some experience with combining our LMS with iTunes U, but have not made the leap to seeing Apple’s learning platforms as a Blackboard (or Canvas) replacement.
Education News
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2014-01-21/gulfstream-expansion-create-100-jobs-brunswick#.UuE7eij0Ce8
Gulfstream expansion to create 100 jobs in Brunswick
By Mary Carr Mayle
With nearly 2,200 aircraft in service across the globe, Gulfstream’s cavernous service facility in Savannah — the world’s largest for business jet aircraft — is already getting crowded. To help alleviate the situation, Gulfstream president Larry Flynn on Tuesday announced the company will expand its service center at the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport, doubling its current footprint and adding at least 100 new highly skilled positions.
www.jbhe.com
Colleges Commit to Increasing Access for Low-Income Students
Colleges Commit to Increasing Access for Low-Income Students
More than 100 college presidents along with several directors of nonprofit organizations came to the White House on January 16 for the Expanding College Opportunity Summit. The academic leaders were addressed by Michelle Obama and President Obama. Leaders of 119 institutions made commitments to increase financial aid programs for low-income students, boost outreach efforts to recruit students from low-income families, or take other measures to increase access to their institutions for students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Several institutions committed to increasing their participation with the Posse Foundation or Questbridge, organizations that are focused on increasing educational opportunities for low-income students.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/60306/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=eb513600f14340c889517a35fd29aa8c&elqCampaignId=173
U.S. Sen. Warren: Let Students Refinance Their Loans
By Associated Press
BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is planning to file a bill to let students refinance their old loans at a new lower rate. Warren said she wants to ease the loan burden that she says is burying graduates in debt and stifling economic growth.
www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/louisiana-higher-education-leaders-ask-jindal-stop-cuts
Louisiana higher education leaders ask Jindal to stop cuts
Houma Today
Louisiana’s higher education leaders are asking Gov. Bobby Jindal to continue the current level of state financing for public colleges and to steer $40 million to a workforce investment fund in next year’s budget. The request comes as Jindal planned Tuesday to announce his recommendations for financing Louisiana’s colleges in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/60303/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=eb513600f14340c889517a35fd29aa8c&elqCampaignId=173
Mississippi 2-Year Colleges Plan to Rework Remedial Courses
by Jeff Amy, Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — A new structure for remedial courses at Mississippi’s 15 community colleges could help more students graduate more quickly. The centerpiece of the model is an effort to move some students who previously would have been forced to take a remedial course for no academic credit into credit-bearing English and math courses. The colleges would provide supporting labs to boost those borderline students’ performance, in hopes of helping them succeed.
www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/legislation-aims-prevent-college-fire-deaths
Legislation aims to prevent college fire deaths
Rep. Steve Israel announced Tuesday morning he will introduce federal legislation to prevent fire deaths at colleges and universities nationwide that was inspired by the death two years ago of a 21-year-old Commack woman in a house fire in upstate New York.
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/ny-state-budget-includes-free-tuition-college-students-tech-fields
N.Y. state budget includes free tuition for college students in tech fields
Buffalo News
Students at the top of their high school classes who plan to major in a field related to the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) would receive free tuition to any State University of New York or City University of New York institution, as long as they remain in the state for five years after graduation to pursue their careers, according to a proposal in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s executive budget, presented Tuesday. The $8 million budget line is intended to help reverse the “brain drain” of the “best and brightest.”
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/majority-colleges-restrict-free-speech-campus-says-report
Majority of colleges restrict free speech on campus, says report
Huffington Post
A majority of colleges have rules in place severely restricting free speech on campus, according to a new report released Friday. The 2014 report by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found 59 percent of higher education institutions have policies that the group believes infringe on First Amendment rights.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/23/association-wants-create-portable-competency-based-general-education-framework
General Education’s Remake
By Paul Fain
WASHINGTON — The academy’s primary liberal education group is working to redesign general education pathways, which it says are becoming obsolete and need to be better grounded in learning outcomes, or competencies. Armed with a $2.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Association of American Colleges and Universities is leading the ambitious effort.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/pressure-provosts-2014-survey-chief-academic-officers
Pressure on the Provosts: 2014 Survey of Chief Academic Officers
By Scott Jaschik
Some governors and college presidents are hailing the end of the economic downturn that started in 2008. But to provosts — the people who lead academic operations at their institutions — the era of cuts and tough choices does not appear over, according to this year’s Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers.
Only 5 percent strongly agree and another 18 percent agree that the economic downturn is “effectively over” at their institutions.
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/23/colleges-pitch-possible-experiments-competency-based-programs
Colleges Pitch Possible Experiments With Competency-Based Programs
A group of institutions that favor a competency-based approach to student learning have offered examples of the sorts of approaches they would try in a program the U.S. Education Department is contemplating to encourage such experimentation. The department in December issued an invitation to institutions to propose ways in which a waiver of certain federal financial aid rules, as part of an “experimental sites” program, might allow them to improve student outcomes, speed time to degree, and lower costs for students.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/23/u-copenhagen-mooc-instructor-searches-right-amount-online-moderation
Everything in ModerationBy Carl Straumsheim
A professor’s plan to let students in his Coursera massive open online course moderate themselves went awry over the holidays as the conversation, in his words, “very quickly disintegrated into a snakepit of personal venom, religious bigotry and thinly disguised calls for violence.” But some students have accused him of abusive and tyrannical behavior in his attempts to restore civility.
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/23/udacity-redesign-embraces-founders-pivot
Udacity Redesign Embraces Founder’s ‘Pivot’
The massive open online course provider Udacity unveiled a redesigned website on Wednesday, highlighting the company’s recent focus on corporate training. In an accompanying blog post, the founder Sebastian Thrun also announced the start of two new courses, developed in partnership with Cloudera and Salesforce, that “address the widening job skills gap in the U.S. and around the world.”
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/23/public-universities-propose-alternative-obama-ratings-plan
Ratings Alternative
By Michael Stratford
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities on Wednesday took issue with certain parts of the Obama administration’s proposed college ratings system — but recommended an alternative approach that embraces some of its key principles, including linking colleges’ performance to how much student aid money they receive.
While praising the goals of the Obama administration’s rating system, the group’s president, Peter McPherson, said in a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan that the ratings system would produce “misleading information and perhaps create perverse incentives.”
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-education-wins-in-spending-bill-but-universa/ncy2R/
Early education wins in spending bill, but universal pre-k a long way off
BY DANIEL MALLOY – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
WASHINGTON — Compared to the big plans President Barack Obama brought to Decatur a year ago, the nearly $1 billion in new early childhood education money Congress just handed out is a pittance. But advocates see the funds in the spending law signed last week – at a time when cuts have been dominating the federal budget conversation – as a bipartisan building block that will bring results for tens of thousands of children nationwide. Following last February’s State of the Union Address, Obama visited College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center and gave a speech nearby calling for the federal government to provide high-quality preschool for all 4-year-olds, modeled in part after Georgia’s lottery-funded program.