USG Institutions:
Athens Banner-Herald
UGA profs’ pay last in Southeast, data shows
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-02-21/uga-profs-pay-last-southeast-data-shows
Lee Shearer
University of Georgia full professors make less money than those at any other Southeastern flagship universities, according to data UGA President Jere Morehead submitted to University System of Georgia officials.
Salary raises for faculty, staff and graduate students are Morehead’s number-one priority this year, the UGA president said this week.
Marietta Daily Journal
KSU s new analytics data Ph D program one of first in country
http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/26484409/article-KSU-s-new-analytics–data-Ph-D–program-one-of-first-in-country
A new Ph.D. program at Kennesaw State University will teach students how to analyze and understand the “tsunami of data” being generated every day. Jennifer Lewis Priestley, the director of the Center for Statistics and Analytical Services at KSU, will be the director of the new Ph.D. program in analytics and data science, one of the first in the country.
Medical Xpress
UGA researchers discover potential treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-02-potential-treatment-drug-resistant-tuberculosis.html
by James Hataway
Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a new small molecule drug that may serve as a treatment against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a form of the disease that cannot be cured with conventional therapies. They describe their findings in a paper published recently in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Nine million people contracted tuberculosis in 2013, and 1.5 million died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization. While standard anti-TB drugs can cure most people of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, improper use of antibiotics has led to new strains of the bacterium resistant to the two most powerful medications, isoniazid and rifampicin.
The White House Blog
White House ceremony honors women of the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/02/20/honoring-women-civil-rights-movement-both-past-and-present
In 1957, Carlotta Walls, a 14-year-old African American girl living in Little Rock, Arkansas, elected to attend Little Rock Central High School. One of the nine students who desegregated the school, Carlotta was subjected to constant bullying, physical abuse, and violent attacks — her parents’ home was bombed in February of 1960. Shortly after, she earned her high school diploma. In 1961, Charlayne Hunter became the first African American woman to attend the University of Georgia. Enduring everyday bigotry and racial slurs, and bottles and bricks thrown at her windows, Charlayne went on to get her degree — which has since propelled her to a successful career as a journalist with NPR, PBS, CNN, and the New York Times.
WABE 90.1 FM
How Beach Bacteria Responded To The Gulf Oil Spill
http://wabe.org/post/how-beach-bacteria-responded-gulf-oil-spill
Think the beach gets too crowded during spring break? Be glad you’re not counting microbes. There are a billion bacteria per gram of sand on the beach, according to Joel Kostka, a microbial ecologist at Georgia Tech.
Higher Education:
USA Today
College-specific Snapchat accounts raise legal concerns
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/21/college-specific-snapchat-stories-stir-legal-concerns/
You take a selfie of your night and send it to your best friends with the expectation that it will disappear in a matter of seconds. Since social-messaging platform Snapchat rolled out their Stories feature, campus-specific conversations are going far beyond simple self portraits. In the past year, Stories have presented universities with legal concerns, specifically at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), Iowa State University and East Carolina University (ECU).
Inside Higher Ed
Competency-Based Education 2.0
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/competency-based-education-20
For years, accreditors, employers and a host of educational reformers have sought an outcomes-oriented education with explicit learning objectives and rigorous assessments to evaluate and certify students’ knowledge and proficiencies. Convinced that grade inflation and a diluted liberal arts curriculum have eroded the value of a traditional college degree, a growing body of thought has come to favor an approach that emphasizes demonstrated mastery of essential competencies.