University System News

USG NEWS:
www.forest-blade.com
http://www.forest-blade.com/news/education/article_1ac1f9e0-b126-11e3-9f49-0019bb2963f4.html
Reject anything less than your dream–pursue college
A college degree provides opportunity, but completing one requires intentional preparation and perseverance. Additionally, the navigation of admission, financial aid and degree requirements is often a troublesome maze. Consequently, many capable people go through life without completing a college degree. Recognizing possible barriers faced by college-bound students, East Georgia State College (EGSC) administrators, staff and students are visiting high schools throughout the region to increase awareness of available resources. Their goal is to share potential roadblocks and help students navigate a direct path to a college degree, regardless of the college being attended. …The visits are part of EGSC’s Complete College Georgia campus plan, a statewide effort in collaboration with the University System of Georgia and the Governor’s Office to dramatically increase the number of Georgian’s completing college degrees by 2020.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-03-25/uga-contributes-report-radiological-security-nuclear-security-summit-hague
UGA contributes report on radiological security to Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
To support the third Nuclear Security Summit, the University of Georgia Center for International Trade and Security has released a report in cooperation with Indonesia’s National Nuclear Energy Agency. “The Human Dimensions of Security for Radioactive Sources” was distributed at the summit in The Hague March 24-25. CITS and Indonesia’s National Nuclear Energy Agency developed their report to provide practical advice for users of radioactive sources that are vulnerable to being diverted for malicious purposes, on the basis of methodologies and documents from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/college/georgia-state-midway-to-strength-and-conditioning-/nfLKq/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1
Georgia State midway to strength-and-conditioning facility
BY DOUG ROBERSON – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Georgia State has raised almost $1 million of the $2 million necessary to construct a new strength-and-conditioning facility for football, athletic director Cheryl Levick said Tuesday, but she said the school can’t break ground until all the money is raised. “I know how valuable this facility is,” Levick said. “It’s a top priority.” Levick and coach Trent Miles said the program needs the facility to improve recruiting and help players improve their chances at maximizing their potential.

GOOD NEWS:
www.tiftongazette.com
http://www.tiftongazette.com/local/x787231308/History-in-the-making-New-four-year-business-degree-announced-at-ABAC
History in the making: New four-year business degree announced at ABAC
Angye Morrison
Tifton Gazette
TIFTON — A press conference at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton this morning revealed some exciting news – students who wish to pursue a four-year bachelor of science in business and economic development can now do so at ABAC. College President David Bridges, speaking in Lewis Hall, told those present the change is “history making.”
“Not only can students earn a business degree, but they can couple it with many of our other degrees like Agriculture or Communications to earn a degree in Ag Business or Business Communications. This provides new options for our bachelor’s degree students,” he said.

Related article:
www.mysouthwestga.com
http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=1023138#.UzLgDigrseV
ABAC introduces new bachelor’s degree

www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2014/03/ga-tech-is-no-3-on-list-the20-public-colleges-with.html
Ga. Tech is No. 3 on list “The 20 Public Colleges with Smartest Students” (SLIDESHOW)
Carla Caldwell, Morning Edition Editor
Georgia Tech is ranked No. 3 on a new list of “The 20 Public Colleges with the Smartest Students” compiled by Business Insider. Says BI, “With the rapidly rising price of college tuition, many top students are realizing you don’t need to pay an arm and a leg for a quality education, and that state schools are just as great.”

Related article:
www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/public-colleges-with-smartest-students-2014-3
The 20 Public Colleges With The Smartest Students

RESEARCH:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/campus/uga-researches-alternative-fuel-sources-to-replace-coal-fired-boiler/article_9b0fbaaa-b2e9-11e3-b5e8-0017a43b2370.html
UGA researches alternative fuel sources to replace coal-fired boiler
Daniel Funke
The University of Georgia is in the process of seeking a replacement for the last remaining coal-fired boiler on campus, including a number of sustainable alternatives including biomass and natural gas. The 48-year-old boiler is used as a supplemental source of heat for campus during the winter months. According to a press release written by Ryan Nesbit, vice president for finance and administration, UGA will probably replace the boiler within the decade. “The University has been proactively exploring possible replacement steam generation technologies utilizing a variety of fuel sources, including biomass and natural gas,” he said in the release.

www.onlinathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-03-24/uga-leads-nasa-funded-study-ice-sheet-runoff’s-impact-ocean
UGA leads NASA-funded study on ice sheet runoff’s impact on the ocean
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
Runoff from melting glaciers in West Greenland is producing dramatic changes in its ice sheet, though scientists don’t yet understand the effects these changes will have on the surrounding ocean. A new $1.49 million interdisciplinary science grant from NASA will support efforts by University of Georgia faculty in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences departments of geography and marine sciences to measure the effects of climate change on biological productivity in the ocean. The three-year research project on “From the Ice Sheet to the Sea: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Impact of Extreme Melt on Ocean Stratification and Productivity Near West Greenland” is a collaboration between UGA and scientists from the City College of New York, Rutgers University and Stanford University.

www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/sunday-review/spreadsheets-and-global-mayhem.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Spreadsheets and Global Mayhem
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
In this age of fine-grained prediction, a variety of algorithms hover around us all the time to divine what we might buy, whom we might mate with, and whom we are likely to vote for at election time. Now social scientists are using some of these same tools to predict when we are likely to do horrible things to one another … Michael Best, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, helped develop a tool for Kenyan elections last year that mined reports of political violence on Twitter and Facebook.

www.cnet.com
http://www.cnet.com/news/can-aspirin-prevent-heart-attacks-this-device-may-know-the-answer/
Can aspirin prevent heart attacks? This device may know the answer
Taking personalized medicine to an extreme, a device with artificial arteries analyzes blood flow to help doctors know exactly how well drugs like aspirin work to prevent heart attacks.
by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore
Today, if researchers want to know how well a drug like aspirin works at preventing heart attacks, the traditional approach is to test that drug on as many people as possible and try to consider a variety of contributing factors, such as age, gender, race, and heart health. But a prototype microfluidic device being tested at Georgia Tech could enable researchers to instead run a sample of a patient’s blood through artificial arteries and, instead of estimating how well the drug should work in most patients, determine exactly how well it works in that very patient’s body.

www.41nbc.com
http://www.41nbc.com/story/d/story/georgia-tech-student-from-warner-robins-aims-to-re/38707/dxZTBeQZpU-2d_o3wRUD5Q
Georgia Tech student from Warner Robins aims to revolutionize how we learn music
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – One Georgia Tech senior from Warner Robins has a new idea that he says will revolutionize the way we learn how to play music.
Garrett Wade and three of his classmates have come up the “Enlighten Music Trainer.” Here’s how it works, you can put your favorite songs in an SD card slot, and the trainer programs notes to show on LED lights on a removable sleeve, where you play them.

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ledger-enquirer.com
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/03/26/3021684/charlie-harper-human-reality-behind.html?sp=/99/178/
Charlie Harper: Human reality behind the office
There was a lot of news made during last week’s conclusion of the Georgia General Assembly. Many more stories will be written on what happened and what didn’t, including some here. …I spent much of the morning sitting in the press row at the back of the Senate chamber. I was unaware of the agenda of the day, but managed to catch the rare occasion of the Senate presenting a resolution honoring a member of the House. In this case, it was the Dean of the House, Representative Calvin Smyre of Columbus. While Smyre was officially being recognized for his induction into the Civil Rights Walk of Fame, the honors and related speeches had a lot more to do with his 40 years of service to the Georgia legislature. …And with that, it was a reminder that for all the trappings those of us who don’t spend regular time at the capitol project on the members, there is the stark reality that most serve long, thankless hours for the salary of $17,000 per year. They are asked to solve problems that we as a citizenry don’t want to invest the time to understand. They are expected to be at civic breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners — and on weekends, too — and are expected to let us tell them that all of our problems are their fault. There’s experience with most of these members. There are human qualities in all. And while there are often highly publicized examples of those who abuse power and privilege, the vast majority are those who are giving time away from their families and businesses to try to make our state a better place. Sometimes, we just need a slow day to remind us of those stories we’re usually too busy to report, because we were all too busy to observe.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/mar/26/we-want-hear-georgia-students-common-core/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Write on: The AJC wants to hear from Georgia students on Common Core State Standards
Whenever I talk to student groups, I urge them to send me possible op-eds but few do — which is surprising given how many tell me they want to be writers. I always give them the same advice: If you want to be a writer, write every chance you get and try to get published. Here’s an opportunity. I am hoping that high school teachers may be able to find some students willing to write for an upcoming AJC Sunday editorial page package. The topic is Common Core, which may require research by the students. (Most students tell me they have no idea what Common Core is.)

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/mar/26/speaking-student-debt-georgia-state-creates-new-vi/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Speaking of student debt, Georgia State creates new video on how it’s helping students stay in school
Georgia State University has been a leader in smartly done videos promoting its successes and telling its story. Here is an example of a potent video message from GSU:

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/mar/26/rising-student-debt-college-unaffordable-or-gradua/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Rising student debt: Is college unaffordable or is graduate school overpriced?
The New America Foundation released a report today on rising graduate school debt, something we tend to overlook in our discussions of soaring student debt loads. The report found that the largest changes in student borrowing are taking place in graduate education. It cautions that policymakers could make the wrong decisions by failing to distinguish debt due to graduate programs rather than undegraduate degrees, stating:

www.saportareport.com
http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/03/john-portman-donates-2-5-million-to-georgia-tech-agrees-to-have-deans-chair-named-after-him/
John Portman donates $2.5 million to Georgia Tech; agrees reluctantly to have dean’s chair named after him
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta architect John Portman has always had a soft spot in his heart for Georgia Tech — the institution where he received his architectural degree in 1950. Going back several years, Portman let it be known that he would be interested in supporting Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture in a significant way financially. What about supporting a chair for the dean of the College of Architecture, Georgia Tech officials proposed. Portman agreed, but he did not really want any recognition for his $2.5 million gift, according to Mickey Steinberg, a senior advisor and long-time colleague of John Portman. But college officials and Steinberg finally convinced Portman that the dean’s chair should be named after him — for the good of the school.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/amherst-a-leader-among-elite-colleges-in-enrolling-students-who-need-pell-grants/2014/03/25/9df8ab6a-b414-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
Amherst a leader among elite colleges in enrolling students who need Pell grants
By Nick Anderson, Published: March 25 E-mail the writer
Most of the nation’s elite colleges and universities fall short of a benchmark that Amherst College surpassed five years ago: More than one-fifth of its students come from families poor enough to qualify for federal Pell grants. The share of Pell grant students at top-tier schools resonates now for at least two reasons.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/24/ex-yale-president-to-head-coursera-mooc-site/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss
Ex-Yale president to head Coursera MOOC site
Former Yale University President Richard C. Levin is taking on a new role in education. The man who lead Yale for 20 years will in mid-April become the chief executive officer of the two-year-old online MOOC provider Coursera.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/25/why-teachers-salaries-should-be-doubled-now/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss
Why teachers’ salaries should be doubled — now
Nínive Calegari is a former classroom teacher who founded and serves as the president of The Teacher Salary Project, an organization aimed at improving the salaries of America’s teachers. She is also the co-producer of American Teacher, an award-winning film narrated by Matt Damon that documents the lives of four teachers based on a book she co-authored called Teachers Have it Easy; the Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. And she is the co-founder (along with Dave Eggers) of a network of literacy organizations working to help students improve their writing called 826 National. In this post, she writes about why she thinks it is imperative for teachers’ salaries to be raised.

www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/26/who-should-decide-who-is-college-material-and-who-isnt/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss
Who should decide who is college material and who isn’t?
College, of course, isn’t for everybody, but who should decide — and how and when — which students should go and shouldn’t? In this post, Kevin Welner and Carol Burris ask whether the decision should be made by policy makers and school officials or parents and students after young people have had equitable opportunities to learn in elementary and secondary school.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/03/20/dealing-with-student-loans-one-mess-at-a-time-hasnt-worked/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Dealing With Student Loans One Mess at a Time Hasn’t Worked
by Joel and Eric Best
Americans are beginning to realize that student loans pose a big problem. Total student-loan debt is now well over a trillion dollars (and is predicted to hit two trillion around 2020). About a third of young people who are supposed to be making payments on their loans are delinquent, and there is every reason to suspect that a large chunk of what is owed will not be repaid, with taxpayers picking up the tab. How did we get in this mess?

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/curricular-optimization
Curricular Optimization
Steven Mintz
At a time when higher education faces escalating demands for accountability, affordability, and access, two questions receive increasing attention. First, are campus faculty, higher education’s most precious resource, used as effectively as possible? Second, does it make sense to systematically optimize course offerings to reduce duplication, trim instructional costs, and utilize facilities more efficiently, while better meeting student demand?

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/To-Reach-the-New-Market-for/145499/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
To Reach the New Market for Education, Colleges Have Some Learning to Do
By Jeffrey Selingo
A few weeks ago, I moderated a panel discussion at the South by Southwest education conference, in Austin, Tex. Known as SXSWedu, the gathering is in only its fourth year and already draws some 6,500 entrepreneurs, educators, investors, and policy makers, easily surpassing the attendance at many of the annual meetings held by the various higher-education associations. Many of the education providers who showed up in Austin were relatively new players in the field. They don’t yet have the brand names of traditional colleges that have built their reputation over generations by offering degrees and certificates through the factory-model, one-size-fits-all delivery method of modern higher education. But what these new entrants have been able to do relatively quickly is divide the massive higher-education market into segments based on what students want and need, and then create offerings that appeal to only a slice or two of the overall market.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/03/24/a-plan-for-the-modern-college/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
A Plan for the Modern College
By Jerry Harp
As is commonly known, American higher education depends for its existence on the cheap labor of adjunct faculty members. According to recent reports, adjuncts make up as much as 70 percent of college instructors. The average yearly salary for those adjuncts is around $25,000, just above the poverty rate for a family of four, so these members of the professoriate, having put in their years working on advanced degrees while providing cheap labor as graduate students, have learned very well what to expect and really have nothing to complain about; but we academics are a discontented lot, so we do complain. However, I have hit on a proposal that might take some modest steps toward addressing the problem.
The idea has been before us for years, so it’s difficult to believe that no one has proposed it already: We should hire adjunct deans.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2014/03/26/essay-how-get-job-nursing-professor
Joining the Nursing Faculty
By Regina M. Cusson and Thomas Lawrence Long
Unlike some science fields, there is no glut of nursing professors with doctorates. In fact, it’s often a challenge for schools of nursing to recruit faculty. However, early-career nursing scholars would be wise to understand that finding the appointment that they want is not guaranteed. Because most nursing professors earn their doctorates and enter academe later in life, after years in clinical settings, learning the culture of higher education is essential to their professional success. Here we offer some advice from the perspective of a dean and of a faculty member for increasing the probability of success on the job market and early career.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Trouble-Recruiting-Top/145495/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Trouble Recruiting Top Faculty? Promote Collaboration
By Chase F. Robinson
At the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the last week of February began with the announcement that Cathy N. Davidson and Ken Wissoker, from Duke and Duke University Press respectively, would be joining our faculty. It ended with the news that Paul Krugman, from Princeton University, would be doing the same. …”How did you recruit them?” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been asked the question, nearly always posed in a tone of incredulous wonderment. The fact is, we recruit from the Dukes and Princetons as a matter of course. Over the last five years, for example, we’ve welcomed faculty members from every Ivy League institution save Dartmouth and Columbia. But only academic insiders know this, and I freely concede that it’s a reasonable question. Opposite moves—from public to private—occasion no such surprise. It is little wonder, I suppose. In wealth, compensation, and status, the data document clear disparities between private and most public research universities.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Plans-for-Free-Community/145481/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Plans for Free Community College Meet Resistance in Several States
By Eric Kelderman
The first two months of this year’s state legislative sessions were a heady time for advocates of community colleges across the country. Among this year’s batch of higher-¬education bills were proposals for free community college in Mississippi and Tennessee, and a legislative study of that idea in Oregon. Legislators in California have proposed offering baccalaureate degrees at community colleges, and Colorado has passed such a law this year. Bills meant to improve working conditions for adjunct faculty members at community colleges, or give them collective-bargaining rights, have been filed in at least three states, including Colorado, Maryland, and Washington. But several of those measures have run into difficulty as lawmakers grapple with competing demands in a still-tenuous economy.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Lack-of-Public/145489/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
The Lack of Public Intellectuals at Community Colleges
Fear and disrespect keep faculty members from speaking out on major issues
By Rob Jenkins
Nicholas Kristof offended many academics recently when he declared, in an essay in The New York Times, that public intellectuals among the professoriate had gone the way of the landline telephone. “There are,” he wrote, “fewer public intellectuals on college campuses than there were a generation ago.” Not only is Kristof wrong, I believe, but it seems to me that exactly the opposite is true: With the rise of social media and, in particular, of personal blogs, more professors than ever are adding their voices to the public debates of the day (sometimes to their detriment, as I noted last month in a column about faculty members’ getting into trouble on social media).

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/law-policy-and-it/internet-security-sisyphean-task
Internet Security: A Sisyphean Task?
By Tracy Mitrano
As the Director of IT Policy at Cornell University for over twelve years I estimate that I spent the majority of my time working on security-related issues. I began work, inauspiciously, on April 1, 2001. …Under Polley’s watch, Cornell transitioned its “security coordinator” into one of the first full-fledged directors of IT security in the country. That role, unlike its predecessor, had university-wide responsibilities. It also began to acquire a number of F.T.Es who operated as security engineers to do scans, analysis, forensics, integrate technical controls into network, operations and information services as well as work with me on policy, help educate leadership at the university, stakeholders and the community about the need for improved security practices. I do not know of a college or university that did not follow suite one way or another.

Education News
www.independentmail.com
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2014/mar/26/emory-univ-receives-1m-grant-tibet-effort/
Emory Univ. receives $1M grant for Tibet effort
Associated Press
ATLANTA — A trust founded by the Dalai Lama has awarded $1 million to support the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative at Emory University. University officials announced the grant this week, saying it will help support an ongoing partnership focused on incorporating modern science into the monastic education of Tibetan monks and nuns. Each summer, Emory science faculty travel to India to offer intensive course work as part of a broad effort to establish a science curriculum for all Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61386/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=7019b8fa9f0d4836922688fc5f5b3fc1&elqCampaignId=250
Educators Say GPAs Better Indicator of College Success
by Jennifer Edwards, TimesDaily
FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) – The item given the most importance in granting academic scholarships isn’t the best predictor of college success. Higher education officials said it is actually a student’s high school grade point average, not a standardized test score, that is the best predictor of how that student will perform in college. Dr. Thomas Calhoun, vice president of enrollment management at the University of North Alabama, said research indicates a student’s performance in high school tracks better with that student’s college performance.

www.floridatrend.com
http://www.floridatrend.com/article/16940/changing-class-size-limits-in-florida-best-for-students-taxpayers
Changing class size limits in grades 4 through 12 could save Florida $10 billion, says a new report from Florida TaxWatch. Florida should revisit the class size reduction law in grades 4 through 12 to maximize the use of the state’s education funding, according to a report from Florida TaxWatch. The independent analysis in “Taking A Fresh Look At Florida’s Class Size Limits” finds that investing in other educational practices could yield higher student achievement than restricting money to reducing class size, and could save the state up to $10 billion over ten years.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61349/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=842217d7398e4a4882c26e7438d16c7c&elqCampaignId=173
Fla. Students Helping to Court Young Adults for ‘Obamacare’ Enrollment
by Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press
MIAMI—As federal health officials are aggressively courting young adults to sign up for health insurance with celebrity endorsement and social media campaigns, they are also getting significant help from the very demographic they’re targeting. Busy medical, nursing and law students across Florida are getting certified as counselors and are staffing enrollment events as the March 31 deadline to sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act looms.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61374/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=7019b8fa9f0d4836922688fc5f5b3fc1&elqCampaignId=250
Elite California Universities Partner to Recruit Minorities in STEM
by Lydia Lum
University of California, Berkeley doctoral student Sidney Hill is certain that his career lies in science. Hill’s love for science dates back to first grade when, during a presentation, he explained to classmates the differences between a solid, a liquid and gas. He remains uncertain, however, of whether to pursue job opportunities in academia or industry. Next month, Hill hopes to explore more of the pros and cons of both career options during a Stanford University retreat targeting underrepresented, Ph.D.-seeking minorities in specific STEM fields.The retreat is the first major event by a new consortium consisting of UC-Berkeley, Stanford, the University of California, Los Angeles and the California Institute of Technology that aims to increase the number of underrepresented minorities entering the postdoctoral and faculty ranks in STEM disciplines at top-tier universities.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61388/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=7019b8fa9f0d4836922688fc5f5b3fc1&elqCampaignId=250
New Report Estimates Half of Vets on GI Bill Graduate
by Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
WASHINGTON—A little more than half of the veterans who got college money under the GI Bill since 2009 eventually graduated, though many took longer to do it, a new study estimates. The report released Monday estimated that 51.7 percent of student veterans earned a degree or certificate for some kind of higher education. That’s slightly lower than the graduation rate for traditional students, who generally enroll out of high school, but higher than for veterans’ nontraditional peers—those students who also tend to be older and have families and jobs.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61408/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0041b9e62f6c4bbd85c8242f5a0cfe21&elqCampaignId=173
Univ. of Baltimore Paying Students to Graduate on Time
by Alissa Gulin, The Daily Record
BALTIMORE—There’s nothing like free money to incentivize hitting the books—at least, that’s what the University of Baltimore hopes. To encourage incoming undergraduate freshmen to graduate within four years, university officials are promising to pay their final semester’s tuition, which is likely to be about $3,300 for in-state students and $9,000 for out-of-state students. The new program—named Finish4Free—would be the first of its kind in the country, according to university President Robert L. Bogomolny, who unveiled the pledge Tuesday.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61413/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0041b9e62f6c4bbd85c8242f5a0cfe21&elqCampaignId=173
Mississippi College Savings Plan to Reopen Enrollment
by Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss.—A board has voted unanimously to re-open enrollment this fall in the Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program. The state-backed savings plan had been closed to new enrollees since the fall of 2012 because of concerns about a funding shortfall. State Treasurer Lynn Fitch says in a news release that when the board voted Monday to reopen enrollment, members agreed new contracts “must be priced appropriately” and not add to the shortfall.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61380/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0041b9e62f6c4bbd85c8242f5a0cfe21&elqCampaignId=173
Diverse Conversations: 5 Questions for Securing the Perfect Internship
by Matthew Lynch
You may think that it’s too early to start thinking about summer internships in the cold of winter, but the competition for placement is already heating up. Companies have already begun accepting applications for summer, so students vying for top spots need to start preparing now. This can be easier said than done—students have more choices but also greater competition.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/25/education-dept-publishes-new-rules-gainful-employment
Education Dept. Publishes New Rules on Gainful Employment
The U.S. Education Department this morning formally published its proposed regulations requiring vocational programs at for-profit institutions and community colleges to show that they are preparing graduates for “gainful employment.”

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Nations-Only-For-Profit/145497/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Nation’s Only For-Profit Medical School Seeks Exemption From Gainful-Employment Rule
By Kelly Field
As the White House forges ahead with its controversial “gainful employment” rule, the nation’s only for-profit medical school is waging a lonely fight for an exemption from the measure. Officials at Rocky Vista University worry that the proposed rule, which would cut off federal aid to programs whose graduates struggle to repay their debt, will force the college to abandon its mission of producing primary-care doctors, or perhaps put it out of business altogether.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/25/new-america-report-provides-snapshot-rising-debt-burdens-graduate-students
Grad Student Debt Rising
By Michael Stratford
The amount of debt that graduate and professional students are incurring to pay for their education has surged over the past several years, according to a New American Foundation report released today.

Related article:
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Grad-School-Debt-Is-Said-to/145539/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Grad-School Debt Is Said to Rise Rapidly and Deserve More Policy Attention

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/26/college-charlestons-next-president-politician-confederate-sympathies-faculty-and
Charleston Divided
By Ry Rivard
Trustees at the College of Charleston are facing heat from faculty and students for picking South Carolina’s lieutenant governor as the college’s next president. In the process, critics say, the trustees brushed aside warnings that Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell’s promotion of Confederate history could damage Charleston’s reputation and turn away prospective students and donors. In picking McConnell, the public liberal arts college’s trustees reportedly ignored its own search committee, which did not recommend the politician — who has never worked in higher education — for president.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/25/civil-rights-office-investigates-florida-scholarship
Civil Rights Office Investigates Florida Scholarship
The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether Florida’s Bright Futures scholarship program illegally discriminates against black and Latino students, The Miami Herald reported.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/25/report-federal-aid-rules-stall-competency-education
Report: Federal Aid Rules Stall Competency Education
Federal student aid is not conducive to competency-based education, according to a new report, because the current system is designed to fund education that occurs within structured, discrete time periods.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/25/faculty-industry-analysts-highlight-challenges-facing-u-arkansas-online-institution
Lessons Learned
By Carl Straumsheim
The University of Arkansas System’s new online institution will face a crowded field of distance education providers when it launches in 2015. While its backers say they are mindful of other states’ missteps, faculty members and industry analysts are already questioning the institution’s chances.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/25/mooc-providers-coursera-and-edx-announce-new-leaders
New Leaders for MOOC Providers
By Carl Straumsheim
The massive open online course providers Coursera and edX made competing top-level executive announcements Monday afternoon: Wendy Cebula, former COO of Vistaprint, was named president of edX, while Richard C. Levin, the former president of Yale University, will join Coursera as the company’s new CEO. The announcements would perhaps not have surprised anyone if they were reversed. EdX, a nonprofit consortium, picked a president with private sector experience; the for-profit Coursera tapped an experienced academic as CEO.

Related article:
www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/education/former-yale-president-to-join-online-education-venture.html?ref=education
Ex-Yale President to Join Online Education Venture

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/26/custom-courseware-providers-xanedu-and-academicpub-merge
Strength in Numbers
By Carl Straumsheim
The custom courseware platforms XanEdu and AcademicPub will merge as quickly as the two parties can sign the paperwork — a response to a textbook market still clamoring for an all-of-the-above solution to course materials. The merger captures yet another snapshot of the market as it inches away from traditional textbooks and toward an indeterminable future. But that transition is nowhere near complete, which leaves providers such as XanEdu and AcademicPub attempting to address the calls for a suite of products that colleges and universities can plug into learning management systems, sell through campus bookstores and open to students — yet somehow alternatively offer as a physical textbook.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/26/state-regulators-express-concern-over-education-departments-new-draft-state
Fight on State Authorization
By Michael Stratford
WASHINGTON — The Education Department’s first draft of new regulations for online programs operating across state lines is concerning some state regulators, who say the proposal is going to impose substantial burdens on their offices. The department is looking to reinstate a requirement — which a federal judge struck down in 2012 for procedural reasons — that providers of online education obtain approval from state regulators in each and every state in which they enroll students.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/26/rethinking-californias-master-plan
Rethinking California’s Master Plan
California’s storied Master Plan has led to a structure and financing of public higher education that is out of sync with the needs of students and the state, according to a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy (IHELP) at California State University at Sacramento.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-syllabus-archive-opens-the-curricular-black-box/51285?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
New Syllabus Archive Opens the ‘Curricular Black Box’
By Marc Parry
Course syllabi are a potentially valuable source of information for teaching and scholarship. Their contents could shed light on the evolution of fields (How has Foucault’s popularity changed over time?) or help professors develop new courses (What are best practices for teaching digital humanities?). But gathering and sharing syllabi can be a messy business. Privacy concerns, legal uncertainty, fragmented and inconsistent sharing practices—all present challenges. A group of scholars is taking a fresh crack at the problem. Called the Open Syllabus Project, their effort aims to build a large-scale online database of syllabi “as a platform for the development of new research, teaching, and administrative tools.”

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/25/union-event-focuses-adjuncts-role-changing-their-own-working-conditions
‘Critical’ Organizing
By Colleen Flaherty
WASHINGTON – Hoping to reach an estimated 1 million adjunct professors nationwide, Service Employees International Union on Monday officially launched its new Adjunct Action Network website. The union marked the occasion with a “national town hall” event for adjuncts at Georgetown University here. If a million adjuncts sounds like a lofty goal, it is. But adjuncts and organizers in attendance said they’d been encouraged by the fact that SEIU’s Adjunct Action organizing campaign is on the ground in nine cities, and that more than half the adjuncts in Washington, the campaign’s original city, have now either formed or filed for elections for unions affiliated with SEIU.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Educators-Suggest-Ways-to/145551/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Educators Suggest Ways to Improve Federal Oversight of Teacher Preparation
By Kelly Field
Washington
Congress should focus its reporting requirements for teacher-preparation programs on whether colleges are preparing candidates for the classroom, a panel of educators told lawmakers on Tuesday. Testifying at a hearing before the Senate education committee, witnesses called for a “common set of concise but meaningful measures,” as Jeanne M. Burns, associate commissioner for teacher and leadership initiatives at the Louisiana Board of Regents, put it.

www.sun-sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/ask-marcia/sfl-snaith-economic-forecast,0,3706104.story
Florida now a ‘front-runner’ for U.S. economy, economist says
By Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel
Florida’s economy in 2014 is leading the nation in job growth and the overall recovery, despite once being a straggler, said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith in his first quarter economic forecast released Tuesday.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/25/hillary-clinton-outlines-goals-higher-education-globally-and-us
Hillary on Higher Ed
By Scott Jaschik
IRVING, Tex. — Hillary Rodham Clinton, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, outlined here Monday a vision for higher education globally and in the United States that would focus more on the disadvantaged and those who need postsecondary training, but not necessarily a four-year degree. …In her review of the needs of higher education in the developing world, Clinton strongly endorsed the idea of partnerships between American colleges and universities and their counterparts in other countries, and of online education. But she cautioned that new approaches to higher education may be needed at home and abroad, and that there may be limits (at least today) on the quality of online education.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/25/globalization-higher-education-new-compilation
Globalization of Higher Education: A New Compilation
Inside Higher Ed is today releasing a free compilation of articles — in print-on-demand format — about the globalization of higher education. The articles reflect long-term trends in the recruitment of foreign students, study abroad, internationalization of the curriculum, online education and more. The articles aren’t today’s breaking news, but reflect long-term trends and some of the forward-looking strategies that colleges are adopting.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/National-News-Outlets-Expand/145511/
National News Outlets Expand Higher-Education Coverage
By Megan O’Neil
Higher education is getting more media attention lately, especially online. As many as half a dozen major news organizations have expanded their education coverage in the last year, providing their audiences with additional, varied sources for education news, at the national level at least. Among the outlets beefing up education reporting are Politico, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, and NPR.

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/03/25/jury-convicts-founder-university-visa-fraud
Jury Convicts Founder of ‘University’ of Visa Fraud
A federal jury in California on Monday convicted Susan Su, the founder and president of Tri-Valley University, of 35 counts related to visa fraud, The San Jose Mercury News reported. The counts relate to charges that the unaccredited university was a fraud, designed to get money from foreign applicants who wanted certification to obtain student visas.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/ncaa-board-could-expand-beyond-college-presidents/74851?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
NCAA Board Could Expand Beyond College Presidents
A new proposal calls for expanding the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors to include an athletic director, a faculty athletics representative, and a student, each of whom could gain voting rights alongside college presidents and chancellors, the NCAA announced on Tuesday.