University System News
USG NEWS:
www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2014/09/03/3283494_fort-valley-state-announces-layoffs.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1
Fort Valley State announces layoffs, cuts after enrollment shortfalls
BY MARK VANDERHOEK
Fort Valley State University, facing a huge enrollment decline and a resulting loss of $7 million in revenue, is laying off 14 people and taking other “tough measures” to reduce costs.
The university’s enrollment declined about 25 percent from the 2013 fall semester — and 38 percent from a high of 3,896 students in fall 2011. For fall semester 2013, Fort Valley enrolled 3,186 students, but projected enrollment this fall is just 2,400, according to a university announcement Wednesday.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2014-09-02/uga-hold-dedication-bolton-dining-commons
UGA to hold dedication for Bolton Dining Commons
The University of Georgia will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony 10 a.m. today to dedicate the newest and largest meal plan facility on the Athens campus. Construction on the 1,000-seat Bolton Dining Commons concluded in July and opened its doors on Aug. 18 for the start of fall semester classes, setting a UGA serving record as it fed 9,500 people.
www.globalatlanta.com
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/27117/georgia-state-masters-for-foreign-attorneys-to-aid-arbitration-center/
Georgia State Master’s for Foreign Attorneys to Aid Arbitration Center
by Trevor Williams
Georgia State University’s law school next fall will launch a master’s degree program to help lawyers trained in overseas jurisdictions gain eligibility to practice law in the United States.
The move will coincide with the first semester in the College of Law’s new $82.5 million building, which will house the Atlanta Center for Commercial Arbitration and Mediation on its fourth floor.
www.tiftongazette.com
http://www.tiftongazette.com/news/article_59df3770-339c-11e4-bc42-0019bb2963f4.html
UGA president makes stop in SE Ga.
Clint Thompson
TIFTON — University of Georgia President Jere Morehead is making the state’s No. 1 industry a top priority. As part of a farm tour coordinated by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Morehead visited agricultural industries and UGA Extension agents in southeast Georgia on Wednesday. The daylong tour highlighted a focus Morehead has placed on learning more about agriculture and its impact throughout the state.
GOOD NEWS:
www.forest-blade.com
http://www.forest-blade.com/news/education/article_cafe322a-2d58-11e4-ad4b-0019bb2963f4.html
EGSC and STC sign agreement regarding transfer options
By 2020, it is projected that over 60 percent of jobs in Georgia will require a certificate, associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree. Presently, approximately 42 percent of the state’s young adults, our upcoming workforce, are prepared at this level. To remain competitive, Georgia must not only maintain current graduation levels, but also produce an additional estimated 250,000 graduates in the coming years. Under the direction of Governor Nathan Deal’s Complete College Georgia initiative, the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia address this critical need in Georgia’s Higher Education Completion Plan. Three areas of primary focus of the initiative include: partnerships and accountability, performance, and college readiness and access.
RESEARCH:
www.forest-blade.com
http://www.forest-blade.com/news/education/article_6a147d8a-32de-11e4-877f-001a4bcf887a.html
EGSC’s Dr. Stracher quoted in Pennsylvania’s E-Trib
Exuding passion and tireless energy day after day as a research scholar, professor, and author may be exhausting for some, but for Dr. Glenn Stracher, East Georgia State College professor of geology and physics, it’s simply a way of life. For more than fifteen years, Dr. Glenn Stracher has been working diligently on the enormous coal and peat-fires research project, gathering information for it from all over the world. Dr. Stracher recently he was contacted by Pennsylvania’s E-Trib, a digital new edition, on his research dealing with coal fires of that state.
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/uga-researchers-investigate-causes-of-child-poverty-deadbeat-dads/article_4dcb601a-33ad-11e4-9dab-001a4bcf6878.html
UGA researchers investigate causes of child poverty, “deadbeat dads”
Mariana Viera and Lauren McDonald
According to a recent University of Georgia study, “deadbeat dads,” or fathers who do not pay child support, are a leading cause of poverty in the U.S. And in order to understand what underlies the problem of single motherhood and deadbeat fatherhood, researchers at UGA have created a “perfect enforcement” model to find solutions.
www.agweb.com
http://www.agweb.com/usfr/article/university_of_georgia_scientist_to_research_heat_stress_NAA_University_News_Release/
New UGA scientist to research heat stress on dairy cattle on Tifton Campus.
By: Clint Thompson, University of Georgia
Georgia’s hot and humid climate presents challenges for the state’s dairy farmers. A newly hired University of Georgia scientist hopes to find some solutions. Sha Tao, a dairy scientist who specializes in heat stress physiology, joined the UGA Department of Animal and Dairy Science on the Tifton Campus on July 1. He was hired to study heat stress nutrition, management and physiology. Seventy-five percent of his time will be spent conducting research and 25 percent will be spent sharing his findings through UGA Extension.
www.examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/article/uga-research-examines-fate-of-methane-following-bp-oil-spill
UGA research examines fate of methane following BP oil spill
This afternoon, Sept. 2, a new paper in the September 2014 issue of BioScience featuring important research from the Gulf of Mexico went live. The paper has been authored by Drs. Samantha Joye, Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia, Andreas Teske Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Joel E. Kostka, Professor of Biology at Georgia Institute of Technology. “Microbial Dynamics Following the Macondo Oil Well Blowout across Gulf of Mexico Environments” describes the various impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon/Macondo blowout on Gulf of Mexico pelagic, benthic and coastal seashore microbial communities.
Editorial/Columns/Opinions
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/On-the-Immense-Good-Fortune-/148541/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
On the Immense Good Fortune of Higher Education
By Kevin Carey
Six years ago, I wrote my first Think Tank column. This is the last. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way. America is blessed by its colleges and universities. I get to visit them sometimes. Looking out over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County from the administration building’s rooftop with Freeman Hrabowski; watching a crew team slice through the waters of Madison’s Lake Mendota; shivering while walking across Grinnell’s perfect miniature city in midwinter—these images last.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/09/04/essay-reports-idea-course-dead
The Course is Dead. Long Live the Course
By Dan Butin
With the start of the academic year upon us, it may be surreal to suggest that the college course is going the way of the dinosaur. Twenty million postsecondary students are streaming back onto college campuses, filing into lecture halls, and bracing for yet another semester of study. Sure, a fair portion of them will be doing this on their laptops. But even then, they’ll still have a professor and all the trappings (a syllabus, an overarching theme, a grade that gets put on their transcript) of a traditional semester-long course. And yet, “The very notion of a ‘class’ may be outdated.”
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/lets-talk-about-learning-not-technology
Let’s Talk About Learning, Not Technology
By Joshua Kim
Talking about learning, however, is a different matter altogether. Our discussions should start and end with learning. Faculty have a strong interest in student learning. Every educator that I know is interested in what their students are learning, how they learn best, and what they can do to facilitate improved student learning.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/09/03/how-syllabi-can-help-combat-sexual-assault/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
How Syllabi Can Help Combat Sexual Assault
by Nadia Dawisha and Karen Dawisha
While we deal with students primarily in the classroom, we are not insensitive to their larger struggles. As a new academic year approaches, one scourge in particular stands out: the epidemic of sexual violence on campus. Is there anything professors can do to complement the work done by counseling centers? There is—and it involves adding only one paragraph to your syllabi.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/we-could-all-use-little-tenure
We Could All Use a Little Tenure
By John Warner
If I had tenure, I’d be doing something else right now. I’ve got a couple of writing projects I’m dying to do and tenure would help me do them. People outside academia resent tenure. In fact, it’s so terrible, Campbell Brown wants to get rid of it for K-12 teachers as well. But at its core, it seems to me that tenure is a necessary protection from the whims of the marketplace. Tenure allows academics to do work that could (but might not) turn out to be important.
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-09-02/farmer-tracking-science-behind-ebola-drug
Farmer: Tracking science behind Ebola drug
By MARK FARMER
“My family and I thank César Milstein for the role he played in saving my life.” That’s not what Dr. Kent Brantly said when recently walked out of Emory University Hospital, completely cured of Ebola. But perhaps that’s part of what the 33-year old American physician should have said. It’s true that many people had a hand in helping Brantly survive an infection that claims more than half of its victims. But perhaps none played a larger role than a quiet scientist from Argentina who died in 2002.
Education News
www.accessnorthga.com
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=279093
Morehouse College students robbed at gun point
By The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta police are searching for suspects in two daylight robberies of Morehouse College students. Police say they were called to the Atlanta campus around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, where a student said he was walking from a Walmart store on Martin Luther King Dr. Drive when a man with a gun approached and demanded his belongings. The student turned over his wallet. WSB Radio reports (http://bit.ly/1ultM0N ) that officers responded to a second call five minutes later, where another student reported being robbed while walking from a McDonald’s restaurant on Burress Drive.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/report-unintended-consequences-lottery-based-scholarships-and-how-fix-them
Gambling on the Lottery
By Paul Fain
A growing number of states are using lottery money for college scholarships. But the politically popular lottery funds often fail to live up to their expectations, according to a new report from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The report breaks down how 11 states have earmarked lottery revenue for higher education. Eight states, mostly in the South, use the money for merit-based scholarships (see graphic). …Georgia’s lottery-based scholarship program was the trend-starter. Created in 1993, the Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) scholarship initially covered the full tuition at in-state public institutions or provided a set amount for private colleges in the state. Georgia students with a minimum high school grade-point average of at least 3.0 are eligible.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/goucher-will-create-new-option-admissions-two-minute-video
Transcript-Free Admissions
By Scott Jaschik
Can an applicant explain why he or she would thrive at a given college in two minutes? If the applicant wants to enroll at Goucher College, that is pretty much all it will take under a new admissions option being announced today. Applicants can now submit a two-minute video instead of all the traditional requirements, such as test scores, transcripts and essays.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/kentucky-state-u-hbcu-drops-quarter-its-students-unpaid-bills
Kicked Out for Nonpayment
By Ry Rivard
Kentucky State University is kicking out a quarter of its students for failing to pay their bills. The public historically black university announced Wednesday that 645 current students with unpaid bills are responsible for a $7 million deficit. So those students — about 25 percent of the college’s population — are being dropped two weeks into the school year. Kentucky State’s interim president, Raymond Burse, who started the job in July, blamed broken policies at the university. Students have been allowed to attend, leave with unpaid bills and then re-enroll without paying up
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/nanodegree-program-offers-alternative-to-four-year-college-education/article_88e78498-2e36-11e4-84cd-001a4bcf6878.html
Nanodegree program offers alternative to four-year college education
Taylor West
In an effort to meet the rising need for skilled workers, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, AT&T has partnered up with the educational organization Udacity to create an online nanodegree program. Nanodegrees, which could serve as an alternative to a traditional college education, are taught online in a massive open online course format with the added benefit of online mentoring, coaching and career services. They are intended to quickly and affordably qualify students for entry-level, software-based jobs.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/online-education-platform-edcast-puts-universities-charge-their-content
A Platform for All Purposes
By Carl Straumsheim
The online education platform provider EdCast, Silicon Valley’s latest contribution to the ed-tech space, wants to be simultaneously massive and intimate, private and public — and preferably to stay out of the spotlight. In simple terms, EdCast is a service provider built on top of Open edX, the Cambridge, Mass.-based MOOC provider’s open-source initiative.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Campuses-Can-t-Talk/148615/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Why Campuses Can’t Talk About Alcohol When It Comes to Sexual Assault
By Robin Wilson
At the beginning of every academic year, college freshmen are quickly introduced to two hallmarks of campus social life, drinking and hooking up. But while statistics show that alcohol and sex can be a dangerous combination—at least half of students involved in alleged sexual assaults were drinking—campus officials are reluctant to put the two in the same sentence.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/idaho-state-u-professor-accidentally-shoots-self-in-foot-in-class/85329?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Idaho State U. Professor Accidentally Shoots Self in Foot in Class
By Nick DeSantis
A professor at Idaho State University was wounded in the foot on Tuesday when his concealed handgun accidentally discharged in a classroom where students were present, the Idaho State Journal reported. The police responded to a report of a university employee who had accidentally shot himself in a classroom of the university’s physical-science building. They discovered the wounded instructor, who had an enhanced concealed-carry permit. The weapon was in his pants pocket. …In March, Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter signed legislation allowing concealed guns to be carried on the state’s public-college campuses. The law took effect in July.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/central-michigan-faces-charges-retaliation-against-professor
University May Have Retaliated
By Doug Lederman
Central Michigan University and its president must defend themselves against allegations that they retaliated against a former professor and her husband because the latter — then a student — initiated a successful no-confidence vote against the president, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/u-of-texas-will-pay-405000-and-offer-vip-parking-pass-to-settle-olympic-suit?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
U. of Texas Will Pay $405,000 and Offer VIP Parking Pass to Settle Olympic Suit
By Andy Thomson
The University of Texas at Austin has settled a legal dispute over a historical archive of the Olympics by forking over $405,000 and a VIP campus-parking pass. The university set out to digitize the archive, among other things, but later dropped its plans, citing privacy concerns. The Foundation for Global Sports Development sued over the reversal.