University System News

USG NEWS:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2014-03-30/georgia-college-enrollment-drops?v=1396185106
Georgia college enrollment drops
By Lee Shearer
Morris News Service
Georgia may reach the goals of a “Complete College Georgia” initiative launched by Gov. Nathan Deal two years ago — which calls for an additional 250,000 college and technical school graduates over present rates by 2020 in a push to create a more educated Georgia workforce. But meeting that goal is far from assured. Enrollment in both the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia declined in the past two years. Officials in the systems expect to see enrollment rebound, but are also witnessing mounting financial pressures on families as college costs rise, state funding is cut and family incomes decline.

www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/03/30/3021447/education-notebook-middle-georgia.html?sp=/99/148/198/
Education Notebook: Middle Georgia State to open $21.5 million wellness center
Middle Georgia State College expects to open a new $21.5 million Recreation and Wellness Center on its Macon campus April 7, though the date will be confirmed following a final inspection. The complex will include an aquatics center; fitness area; basketball, volleyball and racquetball courts; interactive gaming area; bowling alley; and indoor walking track, according to a news release. It is funded by a $140 per semester fee paid by students who take classes on the Macon campus.

www.mdjonline.com
http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/24844495/article-KSU-transitions-veterans-from-the-battlefield-to-the-boardroom-with-business-bootcamp?instance=home_top_bullets
KSU transitions veterans from the battlefield to the boardroom with business bootcamp
by Rachel Gray
KENNESAW — A business boot camp designed to transition military veterans from the battlefield to the boardroom was conducted for the first time by Kennesaw State University last week. The Georgia Advancing Veterans Education, or GAVE, program was created by the Coles College of Business to assist military veterans who are aspiring entrepreneurs. “Being an entrepreneur takes discipline. It takes guts. You are risking a lot,” said Sheb True, director of the GAVE initiative, about why so many veterans are interested in starting small business that are “the backbone of the U.S.” …The free program, including more than 80 hours of in-class instruction, materials, hotel accommodations and meals, gave participants a chance to learn from Coles College of Business faculty, small business owners and successful entrepreneurs who volunteered time to teach workshops and lead discussions on how to develop business plans and presentation skills. There were sessions on technology, problem solving, financials and government contracts from industry experts.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/blueprint/2014-03-20/uga-student-speaks-us-house-representatives-hearing
UGA student speaks at U.S. House of Representatives hearing
University of Georgia student Tess Hammock testified at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing recently on behalf of 7 million 4-H’ers in America. The hearing, held before the subcommittee on horticulture, research, biotechnology and foreign agriculture chaired by Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), recognized Cooperative Extension’s centennial year. Hammock is an agricultural communications major in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

www.times-herald.com
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20140330-College-Campus-Smoking-Ban
Tobacco Ban On Ga Campuses
by BRADLEY HARTSELL
The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents has voted unanimously to ban all tobacco use on public college campuses beginning Oct. 1. Under the ban approved at the Regents’ meeting March 18, all forms of tobacco including smokeless tobacco – and electronic cigarettes – will be prohibited on campus property. The new ruling applies to students, faculty and visitors on campuses, including parking lots and off-site locations. The restriction only applies to schools under the Board of Regents, meaning West Georgia Technical College is not subject to the tobacco ban, but the Carrollton-based University of West Georgia is. UWG officials declined to comment on the prohibition that will be effective on campus in just over six months. Ashley Copeland, editor-in-chief of UWG’s school newspaper, “The West Georgian,” commented on how the tobacco restriction would affect campus life. According to Copeland, student and faculty response regarding the ban has been quiet.

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/georgia/police-man-dead-after-shooting-at-ga-university/nfN58/
Police: Man dead after shooting at Ga. University
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A man was shot and fatally wounded by campus police on Sunday near student apartments at Georgia’s Columbus State University after they responded to reports that someone had been seen loading a gun, campus authorities said. No one else was hurt and the campus in western Georgia, about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta, was never put on any lockdown during or after the shooting episode, campus officials said. They added that the man wasn’t a student at the school.

Related article:
www.cbsatlanta.com
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/25112757/gunman-on-campus-shot-wounded-by-csu-police
Columbus State Univ police shoots, kills gunman on campus

www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/two-georgia-colleges-make-list-of-most-on-campus-a/nfNBh/
Report ranks Emory No. 3 in on-campus forcible sex offenses
By Janel Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A report released this week ranks Emory University third among U.S. campuses for the rate of reported forcible sex offenses on campus. Only Princeton and Brown universities had more forcible sex offenses per 1,000 students in 2012, according to Rehabs.com. …The Rehabs.com report includes institutions with an enrollment of at least 5,000 students and residence halls on their campuses. It was compiled using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education for all colleges receiving any federal financial aid. The federal Clery Act requires colleges to track and report on-campus crime data. Other areas covered in the report included on-campus arrests per 1,000 students for alcohol and drug use in 2012, and the University of West Georgia and Southern Polytechnic State University were both ranked among the top 50 in at least one of those categories.

USG VALUE:
www.albanyherald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2014/mar/29/pheobe-and-georgia-regents-university-growing/
Phoebe and Georgia Regents University growing rural doctors
Finding doctors to practice in rural areas a growing concern being addressed by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Georgia Regents University
By Brad McEwen
ALBANY — …One of the biggest challenges facing both the United States as a whole and Southwest Georgia is scarcity of physicians, something both Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Georgia Regents University’s Albany campus is working to combat. Phoebe Putney, through it’s Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency program, trains incoming physicians and in doing so hopes to expand the overall network of physicians in the region. …That strategy has begun to pay off for the program, as this year the school not only got its top two choices, it filled four of the five slots with students that were able to claim some tie to Georgia: one from GRU, one from Mercer, one from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a campus in Atlanta, one from Morehouse College, and one student from Boston University who is originally from Georgia. …As mentioned by Fredrick, the presence of the Albany GRU campus has also done a lot to help funnel doctors into Southwest Georgia, something the university’s associate dean, Dr. C. Granville Simmons, feels is an integral part of the campus’ mission and one of the main reasons GRU chose to open a Southwest Georgia location.

www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=273129
UNG Q&A: Using satellites to seek missing airliner
By Staff
In recent weeks, a multitude of different technologies have been used in attempts to locate Malaysian Airlines flight 370 (MH370), which disappeared on March 8. Chris Strother and Zac Miller, two experts from the University of North Georgia’s Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis (IESA), explain satellite technology and remote sensing and how both have been used in the search for MH370.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/business/2014-03-29/uga-sponsor-grant-seminar-small-businesses
UGA to sponsor grant seminar for small businesses
The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center will sponsor a seminar on Proposal/Grant Writing Techniques for small businesses 10 a.m. to noon April 10. This seminar is designed to help existing small businesses seeking government contracts, but may encounter problems responding to RFP (request for proposal), the RFQ (request for quote), or the IFB (invitation to bid). The program will cover the proper format, administrative procedures, and specific requirements. And it may be beneficial to those seeking government grants, also.

www.chron.com
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/fortbend/news/article/Land-Use-Forum-set-for-April-3-5358309.php
Land Use Forum set for April 3
A free Land Use Forum session titled “Sustaining Vibrant Communities Through Redevelopment” will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at Sugar Land City Hall. According to a Sugar Land press release, “The session is intended to help the community better understand the opportunities and benefits of redevelopment. The session will cover the causes of decline in retail and commercial areas, strategies available to revitalize areas to ensure they remain vibrant, and the role cities play in guiding redevelopment. The keynote speaker will be Ellen Dunham-Jones, an architect and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and an authority on suburban redevelopment.

www.myfoxatlanta.com
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/25115318/microbes-from-ga-tech-dancers-sent-to-space#axzz2xXrxTByH
Microbes from GA Tech dancers sent to space
By Eden Godbee, Digital Editor
Members of the Georgia Tech dance team swabbed the bottoms of their shoes, their cell phones, and even underneath the seats at Bobby Dodd Stadium to collect microbes. So what are they going to do with all that “gunk”? Believe it or not, the Georgia Tech dancers will load all that material up, and launch it into space!…”The purpose of this whole experiment is to see how diff microbes grow in space versus how they grow here on earth,” said dancer Shelby Bottoms. Bottoms is also an aerospace engineering student at Georgia Tech. “We swabbed railings, we swabbed seats where students sit during the games, we swabbed where the football players sit,” Bottoms said.

GOOD NEWS:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/campus/new-degree-appeals-to-double-majors/article_22fc1f54-b537-11e3-a00e-001a4bcf6878.html
New degree appeals to double majors
Lauren McDonald
The University of Georgia may soon offer a major in neuroscience, a degree program that would be welcomed by the hundreds of students who are double majoring in biology and psychology to achieve the same end. Mark Farmer, chair of the Division of Biological Sciences, said he recognized the interest students have in this field about three years ago.

www.fivethirtyeight.com
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/study-names-colleges-with-the-best-return-on-investment/
Study Names Colleges With the Best Return on Investment
By WALT HICKEY
Payscale, a company that tracks salaries in the U.S., is out with its annual report on collegiate return on investment. (Payscale was kind enough to send us an early copy of the data, available here.) The schools that did the best weren’t a huge surprise. Topping the list is Harvey Mudd College, a leading engineering school. The remaining institutions in the top 10 are elite colleges with expansive alumni networks (Harvard, Princeton) and top-notch technical schools (MIT, Caltech). … Here are the top 10 public schools, based on in-state tuition: Public College Return on Investment — Class of 2013 …2. Georgia Institute of Technology

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/business/2014-03-29/georgias-most-innovative-companies-honored
Georgia’s most innovative companies honored
By WALTER C. JONESMORRIS NEWS SERVICE
Imaginative Georgia companies creating new services and jobs got a moment in the spotlight last week at the Technology Association of Georgia’s Technology Summit. For Athens-based Interactive Science in 3D, the event already opened doors. “We’ve made a lot of connections today,” said Tom Robertson, a University of Georgia researcher turned chief executive officer… Georgia Tech students had a company of their own, Partpic Inc., a sort of facial-recognition software for do-it-yourselfers trying to find a replacement for a plumbing or electrical part.

RESEARCH:
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/science_health/researchers-find-greener-way-to-make-blood-thinner-compound/article_7137388a-b536-11e3-80f1-001a4bcf6878.html
Researchers find greener way to make blood thinner compound
By Jeanette Kazmierczak
Around 2 million people a day take blood thinners to prevent blood clots, and one of the most common anticoagulant medications is warfarin. University of Georgia researchers have discovered a greener way to produce 4 hydroxycoumarin, an important molecule in warfarin normally produced using a petroleum-based chemical synthesis.

www.spectrum.ieee.org
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/video-friday-quadrupeds-fotokite-robots
Video Friday: Squishy Quadrupeds, Fotokite Drone, and Robots From the 1990s
By Evan Ackerman
This is your final warning: National Robotics Week in the United States is coming up fast, starting next Saturday. Why are we giving you a warning? Ever since the U.S. House of Representatives passed resolution H.Res. 1055, officially designating the second full week in April as National Robotics Week, anyone who doesn’t celebrate said week will heretoforethereby be hung, drawn, quartered, burned at the stake, thrown into a pond, fined, jailed, and given a stern talking to reminding them how great robots are and how it’s their moral, ethical, and patriotic duty to celebrate robots in all of their glory… Georgia Tech’s GRITS Lab is experimenting with how to use a small swarm of robots to best observe some interesting stuff (a spot of light, in this case) if said stuff keeps moving around:

Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/03/30/3020128/editorial-on-gov-deal-can-prevent.html?sp=/99/203//
EDITORIAL: On Gov. Deal can prevent Georgia from going to the extreme
The National Rifle Association has finally achieved its holy grail in Georgia. House Bill 60 covers a wide swath, leaving almost no stone uncovered as to who can get a gun carry permit and where a person with a license can carry his or her weapon. We are Second Amendment advocates, but House Bill 60 goes far beyond that amendment’s meaning.

www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/opinion/2014-03-29/guest-editorial-georgia-gets-gun-laws-it-deserves#.UzlzjCgrseU
Guest editorial: Georgia gets the gun laws it deserves
By Los Angeles Times (MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 27:
Fifteen months ago, as the nation recoiled in horror from the massacre of 20 children and six adults by a mentally ill man armed with three semiautomatic weapons, there were firm proclamations that this time would be different. The violence at that Newtown, Conn., elementary school, it was said, would finally lead the nation to come together and embrace some reasonable gun control laws. Well, that didn’t last long. If anything, the national gun frenzy, fueled by the irresponsible lobbyists at the National Rifle Association, has intensified. Though some states have adopted laws tightening access to guns since Newtown, others have actually loosened their gun control regulations. The latest state to move in the wrong direction is Georgia, where the Legislature last week approved the most extreme — indeed bizarre — set of gun laws in the nation. The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.

www.usnews.com
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/03/21/parents-should-encourage-kids-to-work-in-modern-manufacturing
Making Manufacturing Cool
Parents should inform their children that modern manufacturing is the path to a great future.
By Penny Pritzker and G.B. “Bud” Peterson
This is an open letter to parents across America. As hard as it may be to believe some days, research shows you actually have a lot of sway over your children’s classroom and career choices. That is great news for parents, like you, who want their children to find careers that pay well, offer interesting life-long challenges and make our country stronger. And it is why we are asking you to encourage your children to consider a career in modern manufacturing-a fast-growing and science-based sector full of rewarding, high-tech careers that pay on average far better than non-manufacturing jobs. …For example, the Commerce Department and Georgia Tech are part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a public-private collaboration dedicated to making sure the United States remains the most desirable place to make sophisticated products. One of the partnership’s recommendations was to create the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, an initiative launched by President Obama in 2012. This growing network of regional manufacturing hubs will ensure the most important technological and commercial breakthroughs take place in America-and benefit American workers.

www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-03-28/nesmith-georgias-high-tech-guide-low-tech-world-nature
NeSmith: Georgia’s high-tech guide to low-tech world of nature
Since the Russians shot their Sputnik into space, my generation has watched the mad dash to see who can introduce the next gee-whiz gadget. Some of us grew up thinking high-tech was a pop-up toaster or a TV remote control. That’s why we are easily dazzled by what galloping technology has produced, but we are rarely surprised. …With the help of Georgia State University’s geosciences gurus, the DNR-Google effort, creating the interactive Georgia Outdoor Map, is what the DNR chairman believes is a first of its kind in the nation.

www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/opinion-columns/2014-03-30/grus-new-confucius-institute-offers-immersion-chinese-culture
GRU’s new Confucius Institute offers an immersion into Chinese culture
By Gary Tom
Guest Columnist
As a native Augustan and fourth-generation Chinese-American, I am excited about the opening of the Georgia Regents University Confucius Institute on March 28. …N JULY 2013, GRU’s application for a CI was granted, making it the newest of about 400 worldwide CIs. GRU’s CI is the first to be affiliated with a comprehensive academic health center, and the first in the Western Hemisphere with a focus on traditional Chinese medicine. …The CI will establish GRU as a national leader in traditional Chinese medicine programs.

www.gwinnettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/mar/29/jenkins-debunking-some-common-myths-about-dual/
JENKINS: Debunking some common myths about Dual Enrollment
By Rob Jenkins
Dual enrollment is one of those things that sounds almost too good to be true — except, of course, that it is true. And yet it might just be the best-kept secret in America (although I’m pretty sure the NSA knows all about it). But in case you don’t work for the NSA and therefore have no idea what I’m talking about, dual enrollment is a program that allows qualified high school seniors (and some juniors) to take college courses for college credit while still in enrolled in high school. Students can then transfer those credits to the college or university of their choice. And perhaps the best thing, for parents, is that the state picks up most of the tab. Heck, who wouldn’t be interested in dual enrollment?

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/response-to-todays-conversation/nfLF4/
Response to today’s conversation
BY MAUREEN DOWNEY – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog debated a new report that finds, despite parent complaints to the contrary, American students spent only about an hour per night on homework. Here is a sampling of responses under each poster’s chosen screen name. Liberal4Life: Schools do not teach students how to study. Too many students mistakenly believe doing homework is the same thing as studying. As a result, if there is no homework, there is nothing to study. We need to teach students how to study, which may include doing additional practice problems or reading an assigned article… Grumpster: I rarely took a book home, yet made mostly A’s with an occasional B. I took mostly advanced classes. Then I started Georgia Tech and didn’t have a clue about how to study.

www.dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20140328-can-twitter-predict-global-mayhem.ece
Can Twitter predict 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. Australian researchers say they have developed a mathematical model to predict genocide. A Swiss sociologist has sifted through a century of news articles to predict when war will break out — both between and within countries… A handful of projects are trying to deploy predictive tools in real time. 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. Nigeria has agreed to let the researchers sit in the election security headquarters when its voters go to the polls next year: They will mine social media for hate speech, using automated tools, and combine the results with the findings of election monitors on the ground.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/grad-student-debt-rivals-undergrad-debt
Grad student debt rivals undergrad debt
New America Foundation
A New America analysis of recently available Department of Education data reveals that much of America’s student debt problem may be a result of expensive graduate and professional degrees—not unaffordable undergraduate educations. In fact, around 40 percent of recent federal loan disbursements are for graduate student debt, suggesting that a large chunk of the ubiquitous “$1 trillion in outstanding federal student debt” number is, in fact, graduate debt.

www.pressconnects.com
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20140326/VIEWPOINTS02/303260040/Guest-Viewpoint-Permanent-endowment-would-help-improve-SUNY-CUNY-colleges?nclick_check=1
Guest Viewpoint: Permanent endowment would help to improve SUNY, CUNY colleges
Written by Frederick E. Kowal
A college degree opens doors to personal opportunity and success. But years of budget cuts to New York’s public university system have made the path to a diploma even more challenging for students — and not in a positive way. By the end of this month, state lawmakers will finalize the 2014-15 state budget. The governor’s executive budget proposal gave public higher education institutions little to cheer about. His spending plan froze support for State University of New York state-operated campuses and City University of New York campuses for the third consecutive year. SUNY and CUNY have endured $2 billion in state budget cuts over the last five years. …It’s time to reinvest in our public colleges and universities to ensure qualified students a quality, affordable, accessible education. It’s time to create an endowment to hire more full-time faculty and professional staff while also providing a pathway for adjunct faculty to achieve full-time status.

www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stoller/in-defense-of-public-high_b_5022829.html
In Defense of Public Higher Education
Paul Stoller
In recent months waves of ignorant criticism have flooded the airwaves with a great deal of blather about the nature of higher education at public universities and colleges. Consider the case of Ohio State Representative Andrew Brenner (R) who recently suggested that public education is socialism. Other such critics have said that our colleges are much like indoctrination campus that steer our young people away from “family” values and “free market” ideology. Taking their cue from the more neoliberal wing of conservative thought, a growing group of state legislators have used the rationale of “living within our means” to cut funding for public universities and colleges. Feeling the squeeze, public universities and colleges have trimmed “unproductive” programs like philosophy, music and foreign languages, and have replaced expensive retiring professors with inexpensive temporary instructors.

www.wshingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/28/the-koch-brothers-influence-on-college-campus-is-spreading/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
The Koch brothers’ influence on college campus is spreading
There’s been a flurry of recent stories (here, here and here, for example) about the role the billionaire Koch brothers are playing in politics by backing conservative political candidates through a number of organizations that they fund. …But it’s not just in politics that the Koch brothers have a presence. They’ve been influential in higher education, too. Here’s a look at the Koch role in higher education, by Dave Levinthal of The Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations that reveals abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by public and private institutions.

www.gazette.com
http://gazette.com/guest-column-rapidly-changing-higher-education-landscape-requires-some-tough-decisions-from-within/article/1517096#8Hl4t35xvRIXprXP.99
GUEST COLUMN: Rapidly changing higher education landscape requires some tough decisions from within
By Gene Budig and Alan Heaps
Those who question the fundamental value of a college degree need to stand back and accept undisputed facts. The truth is the worth of a college degree is rising. Today, young adults with just a high school diploma earn 62 percent of the typical salary of college graduates. In 1965, those with just a high school diploma earned 81 percent of the salary of college graduates. And this is only part of the story as told by the Pew Research Center and reported to the country by The Associated Press.

www.nytimes.com

Students See Many Slights as Racial ‘Microaggressions’
By TANZINA VEGA
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A tone-deaf inquiry into an Asian-American’s ethnic origin. Cringe-inducing praise for how articulate a black student is. An unwanted conversation about a Latino’s ability to speak English without an accent.0 This is not exactly the language of traditional racism, but in an avalanche of blogs, student discourse, campus theater and academic papers, they all reflect the murky terrain of the social justice word du jour — microaggressions — used to describe the subtle ways that racial, ethnic, gender and other stereotypes can play out painfully in an increasingly diverse culture.

www.centralfloridafuture.com
http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/opinion/mental-illness-stigma-biggest-barrier-for-help-1.2861718#.UzmBwSgrseV
Mental illness stigma biggest barrier for help
By Chelsea Aldrich
Guest Columnist
The thing that I love most about UCF is the amount of significance placed on mental health and wellness. Need to de-stress? There are workshops, biofeedback sessions, massage parlors and yoga classes to relax you. Psychiatric care is remarkably affordable at the health center, and counseling sessions are free. Whether you need help with time management or are going through a crisis, UCF has your back and will do whatever it takes to help you be healthy. More impressive is the lengths that UCF students go through to help their fellow Knights.

www.ubspectrum.com
http://www.ubspectrum.com/opinion/transparency-and-cooperation-outside-president-s-purview-1.3154642#.UzmBYygrseV
Transparency and cooperation ‘outside president’s purview’
President Tripathi refuses to pursue greater UB Foundation budget clarity
With a proverbial shrug of the shoulders and turn of the cheek, UB President Satish Tripathi has casually committed to maintaining UB Foundation’s lack of transparency.
Tripathi has denied a December call from the UB Faculty Senate to make public the budget of the UB Foundation (UBF), the private organization that controls nearly $1 billion of UB assets and endowment funds. As reported in The Spectrum Wednesday, Tripathi released a dismissively short, vague letter responding simply that calling for UBF’s budget to be public was “outside of [his] purview.” Never mind that Tripathi sits on the UBF’s board of trustees and compensation committee. The Faculty Senate’s letter requesting greater transparency in how UBF funds are distributed is certainly merited.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Don-t-Rob-the-Social/145611/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Don’t Rob the Social Sciences of Peer Review and Public Dollars
By Edward Liebow
Legislation making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives would significantly reduce National Science Foundation funds for the social sciences and interfere with the agency’s peer-¬review process. The alarming proposal, known as the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology Act of 2014, or FIRST Act, threatens to dismantle social- and behavioral-science research in the United States. Under the bill, Congress would, for the first time, fund each individual directorate in the NSF rather than the agency as a whole.

www.oregonlive.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/03/dont_pay_college_athletes_inve.html
Don’t pay college athletes, invest in their education: Root opinion
Print By Syndicated columns
By Charles D. Ellison
The campaign to generate salaries for college athletes is a standard rant that always accompanies the storied brackets of the annual NCAA March Madness basketball tournament — and the heat just got turned up on the issue, now that a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Northwestern University student-athletes can unionize.
The debate about poor, lowly servants on the court sweating their way into Final Four legend is becoming as commonplace as trash talk over players’ on-court picks. Advocates for athlete pay want to convince viewers that salaried point guards somehow level the playing field in an industry that raked in more than $1 billion in TV ad revenue last year.

Education News
www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/03/30/3021447/education-notebook-middle-georgia.html?sp=/99/148/198/
Report: Georgia is a leader in Common Core
Georgia is a leader among several states in implementation of the Common Core, according to a recent report by the Southern Regional Education Board. The report, which tracks progress in 15 states, benchmarked five areas of implementation, identifying leading states and strong states, according to a news release from the Georgia Department of Education.
Georgia was named a leading state in two areas: teaching resources and accountability.

www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-school-board-could-approve-new-teacher-princ/nfL5r/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1
State school board could approve new teacher-principal evaluation system
BY WAYNE WASHINGTON – THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Flunked that end-of-course math test? Sleepwalked through the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test? Starting next school year, that might not be a worry just for students; it could be a problem for their teachers as well. The state Board of Education could give final approval this week to a new evaluation system for teachers and principals that formally includes the academic performance of students. And those teachers whose students do poorly might face the possible loss of their teaching certification. The new system, developed after Georgia won a $400 million federal education improvement grant, would be a departure from the way teacher performance is measured now, which is largely through subjective observation by an administrator.

www.cronkitenewsonline.com
http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2014/03/asu-dean-testifies-to-senate-panel-considering-teacher-preparedness/
ASU dean testifies to Senate panel considering teacher preparedness
By WHITNEY OGDEN
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – The dean of Arizona State University’s teachers college told a Senate panel Tuesday that better academic performance in kindergarten through high school begins with better teacher-preparedness programs at higher education institutions. “It takes an entire university, an entire community, to prepare a teacher,” Mari Koerner told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Koerner, dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, was one of five experts testifying at a nearly two-hour hearing on ways to reduce the number of unprepared teachers.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61478/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=ce06d1183f334bb591ab5dc30bc58dae&elqCampaignId=173
University of Idaho Preparing for Guns on Campus
by Associated Press
MOSCOW, Idaho ― The University of Idaho is taking steps to comply with a new state law that allows people with an enhanced concealed-carry permit to bring a concealed weapon on campus. The law takes effect on July 1. New University of Idaho president Chuck Staben sent a letter to the school community last week. It announced the formation of a task force to recommend policy changes the school should make to ensure campus safety while adhering to state law. The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports the university currently does not allow guns on campus and that policy will remain in effect until July 1.

www.voanews.com
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-college-entrance-exam-revisions-could-hamper-foreign-students/1879119.html
US College Entrance Exam Revisions Could Hamper Foreign Students
Pamela Dockins
The company that administers one of the two most widely-used U.S. college admissions tests recently announced its first major revisions to its test since 2005. The College Boards’ changes to the SAT exam drop infrequently used vocabulary words and the mandatory essay, and add passages referencing U.S. historical documents. When Howard University students from Nigeria and Jamaica were applying to college, they were among the approximately 100,000 foreign students each year who took the SAT. Now, some have mixed emotions on whether the newly-announced changes will help or hurt international students interested in U.S. schools.

www.usnews.com
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2014/03/21/online-graduate-degrees-hit-a-sweet-spot-of-quality-convenience
Online Graduate Degrees Hit a Sweet Spot of Quality, Convenience
From full master’s degrees to professional certificates, online classes offer a wide variety of styles and subjects.
By Cathie Gandel
While distance learning is hardly new, technology has now made it possible – and attractive – for hundreds of highly regarded U.S. institutions to offer their postgraduate degrees to students around the world. While some doctoral programs are being offered online – usually in professional fields like health sciences – the real growth in online graduate education has been in master’s degrees, says Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the improvement and advancement of graduate education.

www.watchdog.org
http://watchdog.org/134484/mpact-red-ink/
Mississippi’s prepaid college tuition plan awash in red ink
By Steve Wilson | Mississippi Watchdog
The Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Plan is open for business again, but questions remain about its financial stability. The program was re-opened to new enrollments Monday after an unanimous vote by its board of directors. New enrollments were discontinued in 2012 so the plan’s finances could be audited, which showed its balance sheet in serious disarray. State Treasurer Lynn Fitch said the plan is $82 million in the red and is in danger of running out of money in less than a decade. By law, the state — and its taxpayers — would be liable to cover the shortfall.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/utah-regents-mulling-4-percent-statewide-tuition-increase
Utah regents mulling 4 percent statewide tuition increase
Deseret News
The Utah System of Higher Education is recommending a statewide tuition increase of 4 percent for the 2014-15 academic year, according to a memorandum issued last week by Commissioner David Buhler. The Board of Regents is expected to consider the increase during its meeting Friday in St. George, as well as school-specific increases for the University of Utah, Utah State University and Snow College.

www.articles.courant.com
http://articles.courant.com/2014-03-25/news/hc-ctm-uconn-budget-20140325_1_uconn-president-susan-herbst-tuition-hike-further-tuition-increases
UConn Faces Budget Deficit; Tuition Hike, Aid Cuts Possible
By JACQUELINE RABE THOMAS, The Connecticut Mirror, The Hartford Courant
The University of Connecticut is facing a $46.2 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1 — a 4 percent shortfall in the funding needed to continue existing programs. Further tuition increases, cuts to research funding, scaling back financial aid and stalling faculty hiring have not been ruled out to close the gap, a university spokeswoman said. …University officials are looking to close about three-quarters of the anticipated deficit through cuts, according to a one-page “confidential” budget update prepared for staff. It was provided to The Connecticut Mirror following Freedom of Information Act requests.

www.miamiherald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/29/4027763/tuition-tracker-database-shows.html
Tuition Tracker database shows rising college costs hitting poor students the hardest
BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ
Just about everybody knows that college has gotten more expensive, but a comprehensive new analysis reveals that those costs are rising faster for some — mainly the poorest families who already face huge hurdles to higher education. The compilation of federal student data — both “sticker price” and what students actually pay out of pocket after factoring in grants and scholarships — shows Florida schools generally following a nationwide trend of cost shifting triggered by cuts in federal grant programs and shrinking state budgets. At the same time, schools have increasingly awarded financial aid dollars to wealthy students. It all adds up to this: All students are paying more, but the ones who most need financial help have seen costs rise at a higher clip.

www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/61480/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=ce06d1183f334bb591ab5dc30bc58dae&elqCampaignId=173
University of Kansas Chancellor Upholds Rejection of Student Fee
by Associated Press
LAWRENCE, Kan. ― University of Kansas students will not have to pay a $25-per-semester fee for athletics, but they will have to pay two other new fees in the fall, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said. The chancellor said Thursday that she would uphold a March 12 vote by the Student Senate to eliminate the $25 fee that began in the late 1970s to support women’s and non-revenue sports. The fee raised about $1.1 million in 2013 for the Kansas athletics department. However, Gray-Little also said students will be charged $12 per semester to pay off debt on the Student Recreation Fitness Center and $7 to support university athletics programs, The Lawrence Journal-World reported.

www.wjla.com
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/03/longwood-university-raises-tuition-but-lowers-mandatory-student-fees-101658.html
Longwood University raises tuition, but lowers mandatory student fees
By The Associated Press
FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) – Longwood University says a reduction in mandatory student fees will largely offset a tuition increase for the 2014-2015 academic year. Longwood’s Board of Visitors on Saturday approved a 7.4 percent increase in undergraduate tuition. The board also cut mandatory fees by 4.9 percent. In-state undergraduates will pay $11,580 in tuition and mandatory fees, based on a full 30-credit course load. Out-of-state undergraduates will pay a total $25,350. The university said Sunday that many students also will pay lower auxiliary fees under a new, simplified fee structure.

www.adn.com
http://www.adn.com/2014/03/26/3394266/skill-builders-enrolling-in-college.html
‘Skill builders’ enrolling in college, but not for the degree
BY EDDIE SMALL
The Hechinger Report
SANTA ROSA, CALIF. — Kevin Floerke has been down this road before. A student at Santa Rosa Junior College in Northern California, Floerke, 26, already graduated in 2010 from UCLA, where he majored in archaeology. This time, however, unlike many other people in his field, he’s not interested in getting yet another degree. He’s just trying to master a set of techniques and technologies that will help him verify the details he finds while doing fieldwork. “I’m really there to learn the program itself and be able to use it in a professional setting,” he said. Floerke, who leads tours for the National Geographic Society, is part of a group of students known as “skill builders,” who are using conventional colleges in an unconventional way: not to obtain degrees, but simply to learn specific kinds of expertise without spending time or money on courses they don’t think they need.

www.wisbusiness.com
http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=319501
‘New kids’ on the UW technology transfer block discuss their mission
The University of Wisconsin System’s technology transfer efforts have gotten a major boost in recent weeks, thanks to the addition of four leaders who are heading programs aimed – in large part – at turning ideas into companies and jobs. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, calls the four – all of whom come from outside the UW System – “talented new kids on the block who will help lead economic development efforts to a new level of sophistication.

www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/university-of-pennsylvania-suicide_n_5044412.html
University Of Pennsylvania Kept Student’s Suicide Under Wraps For Weeks
Tyler Kingkade
The University of Pennsylvania is facing criticism over how it responded to a recent spate of student suicides, in one case waiting months to confirm publicly that such a death had occurred. At least four students have taken their own lives at the Ivy League school in the current academic year, three of them since Christmas. In February the university responded by establishing a task force on mental health. However, Penn faces criticism for not including any students, or a representative from the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), as part of that group.

www.oregonlive.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2014/03/portland_state_university_work.html
Portland State University, working to avert strike, offers faculty bigger raises, more long-term contracts
By Betsy Hammond
Portland State University’s administration, working to avert a messy faculty strike, sweetened its offer this week in two areas of greatest concern to union leaders: pay raises and long-term contracts for faculty members without tenure. It now is offering yearly raises as high as 3 percent to 7.5 percent to faculty members and academic professionals who make less than $50,000, up from the 2 percent raises it had said were the highest it could afford. Union leaders called the new offer the first “significant movement” by the administration toward meeting faculty union priorities.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Pay-Increases-for-Academic/145617/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Pay Increases for Academic Professionals Outpace Inflation
By Benjamin Mueller
The median base salary of professional staff members on college campuses rose by 2.1 percent this academic year, outpacing the 1.5-percent rate of inflation, according to an annual report being released this week by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. For the first time since 2009-10, median salaries for professionals at public institutions climbed at a pace equal to that at private institutions, according to the report, suggesting that the effects of the economic recovery are spreading to more institutions.

Related article:
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/31/professional-base-pay-higher-education-21#ixzz2xXmomgzs
Professional Salaries Up 2.1%

www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/31/appeals-court-backs-miami-u-racial-discrimination-tenure-suit#ixzz2xXmeSrME
Who Gets to Decide?
By Scott Jaschik
A divided federal appeals court this month upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Miami University that charged racial discrimination against a black faculty member in the tenure process. A key argument in the lawsuit was that a chair showed racial bias by rejecting potential candidates for the external review who were at historically black colleges. But the majority in the case, noting that a majority of those on the external panel were black, rejected that argument and accepted the possibility of other, legitimate reasons for rejecting those candidates.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Debate-Over-Faculty-Power/145635/
Debate Over Faculty Power Flares Before Federal Labor Board
By Peter Schmidt
Washington
The American Association of University Professors has joined other advocates of academic labor in urging the National Labor Relations Board to abandon the assumption that faculty members at private colleges have too much influence on the management of their institutions to join unions.

www.lehighvalleylive.com
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/03/lehigh_university_named_top_pa.html
Lehigh University offers best return on investment among party schools, rankings say
By Sara K. Satullo
Lehigh University is the top party school worth your money, according to Business Insider. A degree from the South Side Bethlehem university is going to cost you $219,200, but the return-on-investment for the degree is going to be a whopping $526,900.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/usm-trustees-approve-facilities-improvements-it-program
USM trustees approve facilities improvements, IT program
The Bangor Daily News
The University of Maine System board of trustees approved facilities upgrades at three campuses and agreed to a new information technology program at the University of Southern Maine during its meeting Monday. Also during the meeting at UM-Machias, Chancellor James Page acknowledged protests that have taken place at the University of Southern Maine over the elimination of programs and faculty positions in order to cut the university’s budget.

www.bangordailynews.com

University of Maine to cut 61 positions, dip into savings to address $9.7 million shortfall

University of Maine to cut 61 positions, dip into savings to address $9.7 million shortfall
By Nell Gluckman, BDN Staff
ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine will eliminate 61 positions and use $5.3 million of its savings to account for a $9.7 million shortfall in next year’s budget, university officials announced Friday. The cost-reduction plan on the Orono campus calls for eliminating 30 faculty positions — all of which are vacant or will become vacant because of retirements and attrition — and cutting an additional 31 nonfaculty positions, at least five of which will involve layoffs.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/west-chester-looks-secede-analysts-point-drop-public-higher-ed-funding
As West Chester looks to secede, analysts point to drop in public higher ed funding
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the mid-1990s, leaders of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities asked the Legislature to boost its dollar support for public higher education, only to be told they should rely less on taxpayers and more on themselves. Grow campus fundraising and your foundations, those leaders were told. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Two decades later, one of those foundations has gone way outside the box, hiring a lobbying firm to promote legislation that would enable West Chester University and other state-owned universities to secede from the State System of Higher Education.

www.universitybusiness.com
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/senates-budget-cuts-debt-building-projects-adds-cash-ky-universities
Senate’s budget cuts debt, building projects, adds cash for Ky. universities
Kentucky.com
The Kentucky Senate passed its version of the $20.3 billion, two-year state budget on Monday, containing more cash for state universities but less debt and fewer building projects than the House version approved last week. Senate budget chairman Bob Leeper, a Paducah independent, said he was “very proud” that his chamber cut $1.51 billion in general fund and agency bond debt compared to the House version and stashed $25 million more in the state’s “rainy day” reserve fund. But this isn’t the final word. Budget negotiations could begin as early as Tuesday evening between the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House and could continue for the next week.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Recent-Big-Data-Struggles-Are/145625/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Recent Big-Data Struggles Are ‘Birthing Pains,’ Researchers Say
By Marc Parry
In 2009, David Lazer sounded the call for a fresh approach to social science. By analyzing large-scale data about human behavior—from social-network profiles to transit-card swipes—researchers could “transform our understanding of our lives, organizations, and societies,” Mr. Lazer, a professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern University, wrote in Science. The professor, joined by 14 co-authors, dubbed this field “computational social science.”

www.scpr.org
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/03/26/16193/report-higher-education-office-in-governor-s-cabin/
Report: Higher education office in governor’s cabinet could be fix for public colleges
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
An education think tank in California is calling for the creation of a cabinet level position in the governor’s office to help fix the state’s higher education problems. In a study released Wednesday, the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy recommended creating an office of higher education that is part of the administration and reports directly to the governor.

www.hotair.com
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/03/30/northwestern-university-football-players-to-receive-maternity-coverage-under-obamacare/
Northwestern University football players to receive maternity coverage under Obamacare
BY JAZZ SHAW
Some weekends, the stories just seem to write themselves. You probably heard by now that the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB), in their infinite wisdom, put the stamp of approval on college football players being treated as full time employees with the right to unionize. Well, I suppose everything comes with a few unintended consequences, as reported by Rare. Northwestern University became the first school in the nation to deem its football players full-time employees, thus making them eligible for union representation and health insurance benefits including maternity coverage. …The kicker is that under Obamacare, the Evanston, Ill.-based team, comprised of more than 50 “employees,” is considered a “large employer” and Northwestern must provide pregnancy-related health care for the all-male team.