USG NEWS:
www.gwinettdailypost.com
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/jul/28/georgia-gwinnett-college-rolls-out-new-parking/?news
Georgia Gwinnett College rolls out new parking lots, traffic flow pattern
By Keith Farner
LAWRENCEVILLE — A new parking and traffic flow pattern was rolled out on Monday at Georgia Gwinnett College as the school took another step to be more pedestrian-friendly. Four new gravel parking lots and 823 additional or re-opened student parking spaces were rolled out on Monday because of the growth of the school’s enrollment to about 11,000 students and the finished construction of the Allied Health and Sciences building.
www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=277629
UGA Pharmacy students plan tobacco cessation class
By The Associated Press
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) Pharmacy students at the University of Georgia College are planning sessions to help people quit smoking or chewing tobacco as the campus prepares to go tobacco free. University System of Georgia officials approved the system wide tobacco ban this spring. The ban starts Oct. 1. The students will hold their first six-week session for 20 UGA employees or Athens residents starting Aug. 26.
www.atlantamagazine.com
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/agenda/2014/07/28/money-magazines-new-college-rankings-are-out-and-they-do-not-favor-georgia-schools
Money magazine’s new college rankings are out, and they do not favor Georgia schools
The latest alternative to U.S. News & World Report attempts to determine “the most bang for your tuition buck.”
by Cameron Albert-Deitch
For years, nervous parents and curious high school students have flocked to the annual U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings. However much or little the rankings actually mean, they’re certainly fun to look at—and other media outlets have been getting into the game. The latest to come out with a college ranking is Money magazine, which attempts to determine which “four-year colleges offer the most bang for your tuition buck.” …Money’s rankings are not kind to Georgia schools, only two of which made the top 100 (Georgia Tech at No. 42 and the University of Georgia at No. 62). Emory University checks in at No. 156, followed by Agnes Scott College (No. 307), Georgia College & State University (No. 359), and Georgia State University (No. 382). …For comparison’s sake, Emory takes Georgia’s top spot in the 2014 U.S. News & World Report rankings at No. 20, followed by Georgia Tech at 36 and UGA in a tie with Texas’ Southern Methodist University for 60.
RESEARCH:
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2014-07-28/grants-will-help-uga-researchers-understand-stress-chronic-disease
Grants to help UGA researchers understand stress and disease connection
By LEE SHEARER
University of Georgia researchers will use a pair of grants from the National Institutes of Health to better understand how stress in the early years of a person’s life contributes to lifelong health problems — and to develop prevention programs that can reduce those problems. Part of the $7 million grant package will fund a continuation of research that the UGA Center for Family Research has been conducting for years with African-American children and adolescents in Georgia.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/business/georgia-ports-post-record-year/ngpj8/#2ab1acdb.3566685.735443
Port traffic record a boost for Atlanta
By Dan Chapman – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s ports posted record traffic the last fiscal year, providing a healthy boost for metro Atlanta’s economy. Savannah, for the first time, imported or exported more than 3 million containers — the steel boxes that carry the world’s manufactured goods — the Georgia Ports Authority announced Monday. …While relatively high unemployment and spotty job growth still cloud the region’s economy, port traffic fuels metro Atlanta. Movement of goods to or from the ports supports an estimated 100,000 metro area jobs, according to a University of Georgia study.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/07/28/get-politics-out-of-the-common-core/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Get Politics Out of the Common Core
by Mark C. Taylor
There can be no significant reform of higher education without a major overhaul of primary education and extensive changes in secondary education. One of the reasons students are graduating without being prepared to compete in today’s workplace is that far too many arrive at college without the knowledge and background to do college-level work. They have to spend their time catching up rather than taking the courses they need for their degree programs. …Acknowledging that what we are doing is not working and that change is urgently needed, more than 200 leaders in higher education recently formed a coalition, Higher Ed for Higher Standards, to support the adoption of the Common Core, a set of standards for precollegiate education.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jul/28/bad-student-writers-you-get-what-you-pay/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Bad student writers: You get what you pay for
University of Georgia professor and frequent AJC Get Schooled contributor Peter Smagorinsky had a strong and immediate reaction to fellow academic Rick Diguette’s blog essay today on how ill prepared college freshmen are in writing. And Smagorinsky put that reaction into a column. His piece will only make sense if you read Diguette’s essay as well.
By Peter Smagorinsky
In “Has freshman year in college become grade 12½?” Georgia Perimeter College English instructor Rick Diguette explains his dissatisfaction with his community college student writers. His theme is that the Complete College Georgia initiative puts too many underprepared students in remedial courses, students who have been subjected to “The subpar job our public schools do of preparing students for college.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/getting-most-mooc#sthash.esORUk2I.dpbs
Getting the Most from a MOOC
Jonathan Haber
When MOOCs are contrasted with traditional residential courses, such comparisons are often based on individual components (video vs. live lectures, online forums vs. classroom discussion, multiple-choice tests vs. graded papers, etc.). While such comparative analyses are worthwhile, they may miss the most important element of learning success: the motivation level of a student. A personal analysis of this phenomenon derives from my Degree of Freedom project, which involved an attempt to learn the equivalent of what a student would get from completing a four-year liberal arts BA program in just twelve months using only MOOCs and other forms of free learning.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/07/29/essay-new-approach-shared-governance-higher-education#sthash.ZIGCzAXr.dpbs
Shared or Divided Governance?
By Brian Rosenberg
Few people appear happy with the state of shared governance at American colleges and universities. Faculty members complain that they are being disempowered by administrators and trustees who are creating an increasingly “corporatized” academic environment and who are more concerned with budgets than with quality. Administrators lament the extent to which faculties seem oblivious to the fiscal realities threatening the status quo and to the need for significant or even radical change. …And legislators seem baffled by the whole system — though in my experience bafflement is actually one of the less dangerous states in which legislators might find themselves. It is when they think they understand things that I get worried. I am inclined to believe that many of these concerns are overblown.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Location-Location-Location-/147931/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Location, Location, Location. Urban Hot Spots Are the Place to Be.
By Jeffrey Selingo
A large banner hanging outside the student center on Fordham University’s campus in the Bronx proclaims, “New York Is My Campus. Fordham Is My School.” It’s more than just a catchy marketing message. What’s long been said about real estate is increasingly true for colleges as well—it’s all about location. The American higher-education system is the envy of the world for its diversity, from two-year community colleges to four-year research universities. Location has been crucial to that success, particularly in offering easy access for place-bound students.
Education News
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/07/29/white-house-gathers-experts-boost-college-counseling#sthash.bmHunhqa.dpbs
Push on Counseling
By Michael Stratford
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — The White House’s higher education summit in January, as some critics described it, was all about appealing to the cameras. The event, to be sure, drew mainstream headlines as President Obama exercised his “convening authority” to summon to the White House dozens of college presidents — many of whom seemed pretty excited to come to Washington and snap photos of the president and first lady. But the administration’s first public event following up on that summit, hosted here on Monday, was decidedly less publicity-focused. It was about digging into the trenches on school counseling: best practices in college counseling, how to better-train counselors, and how to harness new technology to help students.
Related article:
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/65948/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=6e23f1500ff14cb298ed78f9a5d557eb&elqCampaignId=358
Guidance Counselors Key in Bid to Increasing Overall Access to College
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/07/29/clearinghouse-report-identifies-31-million-who-attended-college-didnt-complete#sthash.lTqx8N4n.dpbs
Within Striking Distance
Paul Fain
Americans who attended college for a while but never earned a credential might be the key to achieving the ambitious college completion goals the White House and influential foundations have set. It’s a big group. More than 31 million people enrolled in college during the last two decades but left without earning a degree or certificate and have not returned to higher education for at least 18 months, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Related article:
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Focus-on-Specific-Dropouts/147955/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
A Focus on Specific Dropouts Can Help Colleges Raise Completion Rates
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/07/29/report-work-study-students-more-likely-graduate#sthash.MHFOb5wi.dpbs
Report: Work-Study Students More Likely to Graduate
Students who participate in the federal work-study program are more likely to graduate and be employed six years after college than their similar counterparts who don’t participate in the program, according to a new study.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/65955/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=6e23f1500ff14cb298ed78f9a5d557eb&elqCampaignId=358
Professors Object to FAA Restrictions on Drone Use
by Joan Lowy, Associated Press
WASHINGTON ― University and college professors are complaining that government restrictions on the use of small drones are likely to stifle academic research. In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday, 30 professors said a clarification the agency issued last month on what rules model aircraft hobbyists must follow would eliminate the ability of researchers to use small, unmanned aircraft on low-altitude flights over private property.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/07/29/new-book-argues-faculty-governance-under-threat#sthash.oBMg5gZk.dpbs
Clarion Call
By Colleen Flaherty
Strong shared governance hasn’t always been a defining feature of the American higher education system – powerful external governing boards and presidents differentiated American colleges from the European university early on. But slowly, over several centuries, American faculty members gained primary control over the curriculum and personnel matters, and a seat at the table during other important institutional discussions. Shared governance as an ideal and a practice peaked in the mid-20th century, just as American colleges and universities achieved world-class status. And although faculty input wasn’t the only reason for the system’s preeminence, it was a major factor, since professors are best-positioned to make academic decisions. …But along with this detailed accounting of the past comes Gerber’s warning about the future: Shared governance is eroding due to the rise of adjunct faculty employment and an increasingly corporate style of management – both of which threaten the entire U.S. System.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/07/29/new-data-decline-state-support-2001-11#sthash.A2HPw2gE.dpbs
New Data on Decline of State Support, 2001-11
New data from the Delta Cost Project, for the American Institutes of Research, show how much the states withdrew support from public higher education during the decade that ended in 2011.