University System News

2014 GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION NEWS:
www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/03/08/2980035/study-groups-can-keep-lawmakers.html
Study groups can keep lawmakers busy long after session ends
BY MAGGIE LEE
ATLANTA ­­– State lawmakers, like students, count down to their last day of work before taking a break. For the folks under the Gold Dome, the session lasts just 40 days and finishes March 20 this year. But some of them have the equivalent of summer school, with study committees that work out key ideas in peace. Others serve on study committees that are more like detention: places to put people who are disruptive and getting out of line. The state Legislature will approve a dozen or so summer study committees by the time the session is over. Membership will include House or Senate members, or both, as well as top administrators and experts. Some of them are supposed to come up with laws to propose or repeal, and some are just supposed to study.

GOOD NEWS:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/mar/07/ggc-awarded-grant-to-recruit-retain-women-in/
GGC awarded grant to recruit, retain women in technology
By Keith Farner
LAWRENCEVILLE — Thanks to a grant awarded to Georgia Gwinnett College, the school will be able to encourage women to register for classes and pursue degrees in computing and technology fields. GGC is one of five academic instituions to receive a $10,000 grant from the National Center for Women & Information Technology Academic Alliance Seed Fund and Microsoft Research for use in developing and implementing initiatives that recruit and retain women in those areas.

USG NEWS:
www.mdjonline.com
http://mdjonline.com/printer_friendly/24711957
Nunn talks guns, immigration at KSU
by Jon Gillooly
KENNESAW — U.S. Senate hopeful Michelle Nunn stopped by Kennesaw State University on Saturday where the MDJ asked her about such hot-button issues as gun control, immigration, Common Core and the crisis in Ukraine. …She is the daughter of Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator from Georgia. Sitting on a patio outside the student center, Nunn said she was not a fan of lifting restrictions on guns on university campuses or churches, as was proposed in the state Legislature this session. On a related note, New Jersey lawmakers are debating legislation that would reduce the size of ammunition clips from 15 to 10 rounds. Nunn was asked whether she supported that proposal. She said she “believes in the Second Amendment” and comes from a family of hunters, but would not rule out voting for tighter gun control laws.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-03-07/zaxbys-exec-will-take-ugas-historic-red-barn
Zaxby’s exec will take UGA’s historic red barn
By LEE SHEARER
An historic but deteriorating red barn on the University of Georgia campus might soon move to a residence in Oconee County. If the Board of Regents approves the transfer, the nearly century-old barn will move to a farm Tony Townley recently bought from UGA, according to a Friday announcement. In 2011, the Townley Family Partnership agreed to buy UGA’s 522-acre Plant Sciences Farm for $11.4 million as UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences sold off land over the past several years and acquired other farms more suitable to its needs. The Board of Regents approved the sale in August 2012.

www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2014-03-07/columbia-county-board-commissioners-struggles-complexity-hospital-decision?v=1394256354
Columbia County Board of Commissioners struggles with complexity of hospital decision
By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer
The more information they get, the more complex Columbia County commissioners said they find the task of picking a partner from among three Augusta hospitals to build a new hospital in the county. And while two health care professionals at a public hearing Friday endorsed University Hospital as their choice, Chairman Ron Cross said he has heard just as many folks argue for the other two bidders, Doctors Hospital and Georgia Regents Health System. …“I can tell you that local decisions are always kicked upstairs and final decision rests with HCA on local matters in many cases,” he said. Georgia Regents is a “large institution,” Stocks said. “It is a bureaucracy unto itself. It already has spread across the state to many other facilities. Their focus is not here, on just this community. And they don’t answer to Columbia County. They answer to the (University System of Georgia) Board of Regents in Atlanta.” He also said the “town/gown split” would prevent community physicians from practicing at a GRU facility.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/plan-to-extend-foster-care-aims-to-improve-support/nd7rM/
CHILDREN’S WELFARE
Plan to extend foster care aims to improve support
BY JANEL DAVIS – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Georgia is expanding its foster care coverage until age 21, a move that could better provide support for hundreds of vulnerable youths considering or entering college.
Foster children now age out of the system at age 18, although slightly fewer than one in five choose to voluntarily stay for extended care. The policy change, to take effect in the next few months, increases the age in an effort to provide more support and guidance in the years after high school. …In her freshman year of college, Schylundye Thomas experienced her first bout of depression. The Georgia State University student had a supportive foster mother but said she wishes DFCS would help older students learn more about the intricacies of college, including providing better assistance in obtaining financial aid and teaching them how to find help on college campuses once they get there. …A college education is seen as a way to help children overcome the challenges that come with growing up in foster care.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/georgia-tech-professor-accused-taking-20k-students/nd734/
Georgia Tech professor accused of taking $20K from students
By Alexis Stevens
A Georgia Tech associate professor is being dismissed from his job for allegedly taking more than $20,000 of funds intended for student stipends, the Institute said Friday. Jochen Teizer, an associate professor of construction engineering and director of Tech’s construction safety and technology laboratory, has been the subject on an internal investigation since October, when allegations were reported, Phillip Hurd, chief audit executive, told the campus in a memo.

Related articles:
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/georgia-tech-seeks-to-fire-professor-accused-of-taking-money-from-grad-students/74071
Ga. Tech Seeks to Fire Prof Accused of Taking Graduate Students’ Money

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/georgia-tech-prof-accused-shaking-down-grad-students-20000
Georgia Tech prof accused of shaking down grad students for $20,000

USG VALUE:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-03-08/economic-development-nothing-new-uga-focus-shifts
Economic development nothing new at UGA, but focus shifts
By LEE SHEARER
Economic development is nothing new for the University of Georgia, but there’s a shift in focus and a new emphasis under new UGA President Jere Morehead. For decades units such as Cooperative Extension have promoted economic development in the state, broadening from its early roots of simply bringing the most advanced scientific agricultural practices to farmers. Agricultural scientist also have helped grow some of the state’s largest agricultural industries, such as poultry, peanuts, blueberries and turfgrass.

www.times-georgian.com
http://www.times-georgian.com/article_1d8ec9ea-a72c-11e3-9767-0017a43b2370.html
Shamrock Week: Sorority campaigns to raise awareness of child abuse
Winston Jones/Times-Georgian
News reports about child sexual abuse cases often include comments from neighbors, friends or co-workers who register surprise, saying they never suspected anything was wrong.
Experts note that this often happens because people are not trained to pick up on some of the subtle signs that might signal abuse. “The typical child sexual abuser in not someone you’d suspect,” said Emily Cole, the chairwoman of the Carroll County Child Advocacy Center board. “In fact, about 90 percent of abused children are abused by someone the family knows and trusts.” The University of West Georgia chapter of the Kappa Delta national sorority is joining with the Carroll County Child Advocacy Center to help raise awareness of child abuse and how it can be prevented.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/science_health/walk-georgia-helps-residents-become-more-active/article_fccc1306-a6cd-11e3-b7d6-0017a43b2370.html
Walk Georgia helps residents become more active
Evelyn Andrews
Georgia has one of the highest obesity rates in the United States. Walk Georgia hopes to change that. Walk Georgia, which began in 2008, is a 12 week program run by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. …”The essential goal is to obesity across the state. We are trying to decrease obesity in each county be 5 percent and increase our participation rate to 100,000 Georgians,” said Kathryn Schiliro, public relations specialist for the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences who works with Walk Georgia. The Coca-Cola Foundation’s recent partnership with Walk Georgia will help them achieve those goals.

RESEARCH:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-03-07/uga-researchers-identify-candidate-genes-associated-free-radicals
UGA researchers identify candidate genes associated with free radicals
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
Researchers led by a University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences faculty member have identified candidate genes associated with disease-causing free radicals.
By identifying the specific genes that influence the cell’s ability to fight free radicals—the reactive molecules strongly linked with a variety of chronic diseases—researchers say the findings can be a starting point for future studies aimed at the origin of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, for example.

www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/science_health/uga-researchers-uncover-how-bacteria-helps-create-clouds/article_e3522a56-a57d-11e3-b293-0017a43b2370.html
UGA researchers uncover how bacteria helps create clouds
Helena Joseph
When a clear sunny day turns into clouds, people used it to explain their grave mood without taking into consideration how clouds can affect global warming in the atmosphere. But University of Georgia marine researchers have discovered the process of an anti-greenhouse gas known as DMSP (dimethylsulfoniopropionate) that can be used by certain bacteria to create clouds. A $2 million grant given by the National Science Foundation to the UGA researchers and will allow them to further their research on the creation of clouds by microorganisms.

www.motherboard.vice.com
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-cyborg-drummer-has-arrived
The Cyborg Drummer Has Arrived
For as advanced as prosthetics have become, nothing beats the human hand when it comes to play music. Well, not until now at least: a new robotic prosthesis designed by Prof. Gil Weinberg, founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, can not only keep a beat alongside a human hand, it can improvise its own. “I think the potential is limitless,” Weinberg told me. “I’m very excited about actually helping someone with a disability to become actually better than his teacher.”

www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-03-09/news/48051123_1_new-device-wire-cell-phone
New device charges your cell phone while you walk
Scientists have developed a new device that can generate electricity from your body movements to power your cell phone. The device built by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology consists of four discs layered on top of one another. The first disc is made of copper, and rotates. The next is a polymer and remains stationary, and the third is a gold layer that is divided into sectors, with alternating sections cut out, to make something that looks like a bicycle wheel. The last layer is made of acrylic… The team led by researcher Zhong Lin Wang said the device can generate power as long as something causes the copper disc to rotate.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/its-deja-vu-all-over-again-on-campus-carry/nd76h/
It’s deja vu all over again on campus carry
By Jim Galloway
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the last few minutes allotted to the 2013 Legislature drained away, a compromise on a gun bill was reached among five of six Republican lawmakers. Over the objections of the Board of Regents, the measure would have allowed the carrying of concealed weapons on public university campuses — as long as younger permit holders obtained extra training in the use of firearms. The fact that one lawmaker, state Sen. Cecil Staton of Macon, a former associate provost at Mercer University, refused to sign onto the deal reached by the House-Senate conference committee made no difference. But Staton’s withdrawal a few minutes later mattered very much.

www.blogs,ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-forward/2014/03/08/if-campaign-against-academic-standards-wins-kids-lose/
Atlanta Forward
If campaign against academic standards wins, kids lose.
by Maureen Downey, for the AJC Editorial Board
In beseeching the Georgia House Education Committee to reject a bill that would undo the Common Core State Standards here, Lee County High School teacher Coni Grebel pleaded, “I have now tasted rigor. Please do not send me back to mediocrity.” If the General Assembly adopts Senate Bill 167, it will not only send Grebel, a former Lee County Teacher of the Year, back to mediocrity, it will tether Georgia children to a second-rate education, devalue their high school degrees in the eyes of top colleges and affirm perceptions of this state as an academic wasteland. Not only does the sweeping bill essentially eviscerate Common Core, it mandates that Georgia stand alone in deciding what its students ought to learn and not borrow from other high-achieving states that banded together to create better standards.

www.blogs,ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-forward/2014/03/08/let-georgians-decide-our-students’-fate/
Atlanta Forward
Let Georgians decide our students’ fate
By Mike Krolak
Common Core is the latest in knee-jerk reactions to “fix” education. This offshoot of No Child Left Behind should be outed as what it truly is, an end run around the U.S. Constitution. The current Georgia Senate Bill 167 is a valiant effort to have Georgia students evaluated by Georgia educators on Georgia-designed standards. Common Core was developed by the nation’s governors who wanted to adopt national standards. There are several problems with this. One problem is what is important in Montana may not be important to students or educators here in Georgia.

www.blogs,ajc.com
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-forward/2014/03/08/national-standards-will-benefit-our-kids/
Atlanta Forward
National standards will benefit our kids
By Otha Thornton
As a resident, native Georgian and president of the National PTA, which represents more than 74 million children, I firmly believe it is critical that Georgia gets the Common Core decision right if we plan on being a state of excellence in the educational arena as the nation moves forward.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-03-08/blackmon-common-core-just-symptom-real-problem-education
Blackmon: Common Core is just symptom of real problem in education
By MYRA BLACKMON
Last weekend, along with 400 teachers, principals and concerned citizens from across the country, I participated in the Network for Public Education’s first national conference. It was inspiring and energizing. Across the board, everything I heard about the Common Core State Standards was negative. Opinions about testing were even more hostile. Last Wednesday, I watched the three-hour meeting of the Georgia House Education Committee on Senate Bill 167, a misguided proposal from Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick. Not including committee members, 70 people spoke. Of those, the vast majority of teachers, superintendents, principals and business leaders spoke in favor of the CCSS. I didn’t hear anyone say anything positive about our massive testing efforts.

www.politics.blog.ajc.com
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/03/10/a-portrait-of-a-political-reporter-by-a-political-columnist/
Political Insider with Jim Galloway
3rd article down
***
While her GOP counterparts were doing debate prep on Saturday, Michelle Nunn, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, sat down with the Marietta Daily Journal and declared herself opposed to easing restrictions on guns in houses of worship and on public university campuses. She also defended Common Core, the new educational standards for k-12 public school students:

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/mar/09/rotten-core-stop-federal-dicates-georgia-education/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Rotten to the Core: Stop federal dictates on Georgia education
Tanya Ditty is state director of Concerned Women for America of Georgia. Jane Robbins is a senior fellow with the American Principles in Action. Together, they call for passage of Senate Bill 167, now under review in the House Education Commitee and due for a vote there Wednesday.
By Tanya Ditty and Jane Robbins
With the Senate passage of SB 167, Georgia scored a victory against CommonCore for parents and students. This is the strongest anti-national standards legislation to make it out of a legislative chamber in the nation. It is fitting that since Georgia claims credit for moving the nation into this mess, Georgia should take responsibility to lead us out. The essential problem with CommonCore is that it embraces and exacerbates everything that has damaged public education over the last 40 to 50 years. Why should we believe that doing more of what failed in the past will succeed in the future?

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/mar/09/have-critics-actully-read-common-core-state-standa/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Have critics read Common Core State Standards?
A lot of folks responded to an AJC op-ed piece by Tanya Ditty and Jane Robbins criticizing Common Core State Standards. A frequent comment was the two critics mischaracterized what Common Core says, especially in contending it mandates students spend half their time on “informational texts,” forcing students to bypass Milton and Dickens to read EPA regulations. “Have Ditty and Robbins actually read the “Common Core” curriculum?” wrote a Brookhaven reader.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/kyle-wingfield/2014/mar/10/whats-core-georgias-common-core-bill/
Kyle Wingfield
What’s at the core of Georgia’s Common Core bill?
The question is not whether Georgia lawmakers should pass Senate Bill 167, the anti-Common Core legislation pending before them. At this point, the question is: Why bother?
As passed by the state Senate, the bill would essentially pry Georgia out of the Common Core standards for student learning, which were created several years ago at the behest of governors led by our own Sonny Perdue. But it would also bar Georgia from using any standards set by the federal government, any group of states or any “third party.”

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/column/2014-03-09/state-senator-dump-common-core-georgia#.Ux3bqigrseV
Commentary: State senator: Dump Common Core in Georgia
By WILLIAM LIGON
State Sen. William Ligon is a Republican from Brunswick
The Common Core collides with local control and our state’s sovereign authority over education. It represents what may be the crowning achievement of progressive ideology in education, the idea that control of every classroom across the nation can be achieved by centralizing standards and testing in the hands of a select and unaccountable few.
The thinking behind the Common Core framework, which arrived under the grant conditions of Race to the Top (RTTT), is in direct opposition to the founding philosophy of this nation. Our founders staked everything on the principle of self-government.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/price-of-failure/nd7H4/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1
THE BOTTOM LINE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Price of failure
BY RICK DIGUETTE
At a recent faculty meeting, my colleagues and I were reminded once again that improved student advisement and retention will lead us to the Promised Land of improved graduation rates. We’ve been hearing this for some time. The message is always delivered loud and clear. Enrollment numbers used to drive the bottom line at many of Georgia’s public colleges, but not anymore. Butts in seats just won’t get it done. Once the diktat of Complete College Georgia finally kicks in, there’d better be graduation caps on more heads, or it will be “slim pickins” in the House and Senate appropriations rooms. (The Complete College Georgia initiative calls for and identifies strategies for the state’s public and private colleges to add an additional 250,000 college graduates — whether by a one-year certificate, an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree — by 2020.) The message this year, however, took a not-so-subtle ominous turn for the worse. Things must be heating up under the Gold Dome.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/degrees-of-inequality-how-the-politics-of-higher-education-sabotaged-the-american-dream-by-suzanne-mettler/2014/03/07/a7ecab1a-a2d7-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html
‘Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream’ by Suzanne Mettler
By Nick Anderson, Published: March 7 E-mail the writer
America likes to think of itself as a country where the doors to college are open to all, where anyone can earn a bachelor’s degree through hard work and academic merit, and where public support for higher education is unwavering. Reality belies the vision. The doors are wide open for the privileged, but opportunity narrows considerably for the less fortunate. The bachelor’s is eminently reachable for those who stick with their studies — indeed, the master’s degree is coming into vogue for many — but huge numbers of promising students who start college don’t finish.

www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/03/10/2981690/kendrick-proud-to-serve-the-state.html
KENDRICK: Proud to serve the state of Georgia
BY MORGAN KENDRICK
Morgan Kendrick is the president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia.
Over the past few months, a great deal has been written about the changes to the State Health Benefit Plan, which provides health care coverage to 650,000 Georgia state employees, retirees and their families. As the claims administrator of the plan, we have received feedback from many state employees who embraced the plans and want to take an active role in how their health care dollars are spent. Others have raised concerns regarding out-of-pocket costs. The Department of Community Health has taken prompt action, introducing co-pays for prescription drugs and office visits. While doing so, DCH did not lose focus on the long-term issue of ensuring quality and affordable health care for state employees. We believe this focus is critical. Like many of the largest employers in the country, the state of Georgia is 100 percent responsible for the medical claims incurred by its employees. This means that it assumes the major cost of health insurance, instead of an insurance company.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/07/they-still-dont-get-it-obamas-new-race-to-the-top-contest-for-equity/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
They still don’t get it: Obama’s new Race to the Top contest for ‘equity’
They still don’t get it. The Obama administration still apparently thinks — despite evidence to the contrary — that it can achieve “educational equity” by holding a contest with winners and losers.
When the $4.35 billion Race to the Top was first announced in 2009 as the administration’s chief education initiative, it was promoted as an effort to ensure that every student was “college and career ready” and to achieve “educational equity” by aggressively ”turning around” the lowest-performing schools (or by closing them if they didn’t turn around fast enough.)

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/getting-more-low-income-students-college-isnt-about-money-its-about-curriculum
Getting more low-income students into college isn’t about money, it’s about the curriculum
Forbes
A recent White House summit on the issue proposed a number of ways to tackle the problem, from connecting young people to schools that better match their academic abilities; early intervention to ensure that a larger pool of low-income students are prepared for college; better access to college counseling and test preparation; and more on-campus remedial education.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/colleges-need-act-startups-—-or-risk-becoming-obsolete
Colleges need to act like startups — or risk becoming obsolete
WIRED
It’s clear that universities will have to figure out the balance between commercial relevance and basic research, as well as how to prove their value beyond being vehicles for delivering content. But lost in the shuffle of commentary here is something arguably more important than and yet containing all of these factors: culture.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/nearly-all-college-presidents-think-their-school-handles-sexual-assault-just-fine-thank-you
Nearly all college presidents think their school handles sexual assault just fine, thank you
The Huffington Post
Only 10 percent of the college presidents surveyed said that they did not believe universities overall must improve their response to sexual assault complaints on campus. Another 71 percent indicated higher education institutions do need to make improvements in this area.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/how-us-can-lead-technological-innovation
How the U.S. can lead on technological innovation
The Seattle Times
Our country’s technological and economic leadership is at risk as U.S. innovation capabilities have stagnated while those of other nations have advanced. Since 2008, the number of foreign-origin patents that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted annually has surpassed the number of domestic-origin patents.

Education News
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/after-chilly-reception-georgia-teachers-warm-to-co/nd7yx/
After chilly reception, Georgia teachers warm to Common Core
BY WAYNE WASHINGTON – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Georgia teachers have moved from significant apprehension about Common Core academic standards three years ago to strong support for them now, according to polling of thousands of teachers released to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Surveys conducted last fall for the state Board of Education and for the state’s largest education trade group, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators offer a glimpse into the thinking of teachers on a topic that has become a fiery point of contention in Georgia and across the country. The political dimensions of the debate have largely muted individual educators. A clear understanding of teacher views could have an impact on Common Core legislation still being debated at the Capitol.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/poorer-families-bearing-brunt-college-price-hikes
Poorer families bearing brunt of college price hikes
Dallas News
The trend could further widen the gap between the nation’s rich and poor, say financial aid experts and a growing number of university leaders. They worry about college degrees drifting beyond the economic reach of many students.

www.mercurynews.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_25307144/rising-college-costs-poorer-families-bear-greatest-burden
Rising college costs: Poorer families bear greatest burden
By Katy Murphy, Bay Area News Group, and Jon Marcus and Holly K. Hacker, the Hechinger Report
Soaring college costs have bedeviled the poor and the rich alike, but those hit with the sharpest increases since the recession are the least able to afford it. America’s colleges and universities are shifting the burden of their big tuition increases onto low-income students, widening troubling disparities in access to higher education, an analysis of federal data shows. The surprising trend is playing out at many Bay Area schools, especially private universities, but the University of California is a notable exception.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/sen-warren-fitchburg-state-says-12t-debt-crushing-students
Sen. Warren at Fitchburg State, says $1.2T debt is crushing students
Telegram.comFSU students listened intently in the Holmes Dining Commons as Ms. Warren talked about ways to bring down the cost of college and ease the student debt burden. The system is caught in a “one-two punch,” she said, with the costs of higher education going up and tough federal lending policies on students.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61105/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=055fca16409c40e2a4639e290d499576&elqCampaignId=173
High Cost of Education Forcing Colleges, Students to Make Difficult Decisions
by Adrienne T. Washington and Barrington M. Salmon
Mike Wilson was not surprised when his 18-year-old daughter called him to say that she had a 4.0 grade point average for her first semester at college. What has surprised him is the high cost of keeping her in college. “She really loves it and has become so active in everything that she could be a poster student for the school, so we’d hate for her not to be able to go back,” said Wilson. Wilson, an Internet technology specialist, said he worked with his daughter over the summer to prepare her for college-level courses at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), but now they spend time searching for grants, scholarships and other financial assistance to keep her in school. For the 2012/2013 school year, the annual cost to attend VCU for in-state students was $22,549. Wilson’s daughter is an in-state student because she lived with a relative in Virginia before college. Out-of-state students faced a total one-year cost of $35,964.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/10/much-change-some-progress-dominate-second-annual-online-learning-summit
Work in Progress
By Carl Straumsheim
BERKELEY, Calif. — A year after the Online Learning Summit was founded in Cambridge, Mass., attendees this weekend struggled to draw parallels to last year’s event. The reason, they said, is that “everything has changed.” Top-ranking university officials and ed-tech company executives reconvened at the University of California at Berkeley after a turbulent year for massive open online courses. During the the day-and-a-half-long summit, organized by Berkeley, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, speakers seemed to follow an everything-but-MOOCs approach to online education on campus.

www.nytimes.com

More Indian Students Taking U.S. Graduate School Test
By VIMAL PATEL | THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
WASHINGTON — The number of Graduate Record Examinations taken by students in India increased 70 percent in 2013 from the year before, according to figures released last month. The G.R.E. is the entrance test used by most graduate-school programs in the United States. The numbers, from the Educational Testing Service, a nonprofit company that administers the G.R.E., suggest that a recent surge in the number of Indian students entering American graduate schools may continue. A report released last fall by the Council of Graduate Schools showed a 40 percent rise in first-time graduate enrollments from India from 2012 to 2013.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61093/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=055fca16409c40e2a4639e290d499576&elqCampaignId=173
At ACE, Presidents Focus on Building Partnerships with Institutions Abroad
by Jamal Watson
SAN DIEGO, Calif.—The American Council on Education kicked off its 96th annual meeting yesterday with a series of panel discussions focused on best practices for collecting institutional data and ways to improve retention and graduation rates. One particular session, titled “Internationalization—Presidents Panel and Discussion of Partnerships and Global Education,” drew a crowd of academicians interested in strengthening international programs on their respective campuses.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Are-Divided-on-Need/145225/
Colleges Are Divided on Need for New Speech Policies
By Peter Schmidt
Many colleges have been slow to develop policies governing professors’ online speech. But institutions’ hesitancy to adopt new rules for new forms of communication might be wise, a number of faculty leaders and legal experts say. Among the more than 70 four-year colleges whose faculty leaders recently provided details about their policies to The Chronicle, nearly half said their institutions had no policies specifically regulating online speech.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/10/can-us-government-tell-colleges-poor-financial-shape-those-are-not
Scores of Problems
By Ry Rivard
By the U.S. Department of Education’s standards, a small institute on the verge of collapse in California and numerous beauty schools across the country have lately been in better financial health than any university in the Ivy League. Georgetown University, meanwhile, is barely avoiding additional government oversight because of its performance on the department’s measure of financial responsibility, which covers the college budget years that ended in late 2011 or summer 2012. If Georgetown’s score falls much lower, the university with a $1.3 billion endowment will have to get a letter of credit from a bank to assure the department it won’t go under.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/10/poll-finds-mixed-public-attitudes-higher-education-issues
Mixed Views of Higher Ed
By Scott Jaschik
Americans with a college education are more likely than others to report a good or very good standard of living, according to a new poll of American adults. But while that’s consistent with the views of college educators about one of the benefits of attending their institutions, other responses may raise concerns for college leaders, especially at private institutions.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/higher-education-apathy-condemned
Higher education apathy condemned
The Advocate
Much of the hand-wringing in Louisiana’s higher education community these days stems from the $700 million Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature have stripped from the state’s colleges and universities since 2008. The budget cuts are at the root of what faculty describe as a wide array of dismal conditions on college campuses, from crumbling infrastructure and low employee morale, to program cutbacks, staff turnover and ballooning student-faculty ratios.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/california-master-plan-higher-education-faces-new-scrutiny-old-challenges
California Master Plan for Higher Education faces new scrutiny, old challenges
The Daily Californian
The California Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework document conceived in 1959 that coordinates the responsibilities of the UC, CSU and community college systems, has weathered a severe decline in state funding, changing demographics and a complete technological revolution. Due to these extreme changes, student groups and others are demanding a new master plan altogether, claiming the current policy is out-of-date and in need of reform.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/university-digging-mississippis-past-long-forgotten-graveyard
University is digging into Mississippi’s past with a long forgotten graveyard
CNN U.S.
Amid a grove of trees, buried beneath the grass and dirt, Mississippi’s past is colliding with its future. Surveyors last month discovered dozens of neat, tight rows of coffins just feet below the ground at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

www.nytimes.com

The Youngest Technorati
By MATT RICHTEL
Ryan Orbuch, 16 years old, rolled a suitcase to the front door of his family’s house in Boulder, Colo., on a Friday morning a year ago. He was headed for the bus stop, then the airport, then Texas. “I’m going,” he told his mother. “You can’t stop me.” Stacey Stern, his mother, wondered if he was right. “I briefly thought: Do I have him arrested at the gate?” But the truth was, she felt conflicted. Should she stop her son from going on his first business trip? Ryan was headed to South by Southwest Interactive, the technology conference in Austin. There, he planned to talk up an app that he and a friend had built. Called Finish, it aimed to help people stop procrastinating, and was just off its high in the No. 1 spot in the productivity category in the Apple App store. Ryan was also eager to go because, as he put it: “There were really dope people, and I really like smart-people density.” Ms. Stern loved her son’s passion, but told him that he could go to Austin only if he finished the schoolwork he’d neglected while building the app. But Ryan didn’t comply, and, like battle-weary parents everywhere, she let him go anyway.

www.usatoday.com
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/08/data-online-behavior-research/5781447/
Social media research raises privacy and ethics issues
Vast amounts of information collected by private companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, give new insight into all aspects of everyday life.
Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
Every time you search online for the best restaurant deal, share good news or bad with your Facebook friends, or tweet to your followers, your “audience” is bigger than you know.
That’s because your every online move leaves cyber footprints that are rapidly becoming fodder for research without you ever realizing it. Using social media for academic research is accelerating and raising ethical concerns along the way, as vast amounts of information collected by private companies — including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter — are giving new insight into all aspects of everyday life.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Get-Chance-to-Air/145261/
Colleges Get Chance to Air Concerns About Ratings With a Key Listener
By Goldie Blumenstyk and Scott Carlson
San Diego
The Obama administration’s proposed rating system for colleges is clearly one of the most important issues facing higher education right now, and getting a White House nominee for a top higher-education post in a room, listening to colleges’ concerns about the ratings, was bound to be a hot ticket at the annual meeting here of the American Council on Education.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/obama-talks-higher-education-part-opportunity-tour
Obama talks higher education as part of ‘Opportunity’ Tour
The Christian Science Monitor
The FAFSA Completion Initiative, referring to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, includes new resources to help states and high schools support students who don’t know how to complete the form – or perhaps aren’t even aware it exists.