University System News
www.dailyreportonline.com
Georgia AG, Regents Say Bill Waives Too Much Sovereign Immunity
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/home/id=1202716783640?kw=Georgia%20AG%2C%20Regents%20Say%20Bill%20Waives%20Too%20Much%20Sovereign%20Immunity&et=editorial&bu=Daily%20Report&cn=20150202&src=EMC-Email&pt=Afternoon%20News
Kathleen Baydala Joyner, Daily Report
Georgia’s attorney general and university system governing board want to trim a bill that would waive the state’s sovereign immunity in certain cases. During a hearing Monday morning at the Capitol, representatives from the Law Department and the Board of Regents told lawmakers they didn’t disagree with the intent of House Bill 59—to undo the effects of a 2014 Georgia Supreme Court ruling that said sovereign immunity blocked all lawsuits seeking injunctive relief from the state.But they argued the bill, which says sovereign immunity would be waived “as to any action brought in the courts of this state by an aggrieved person seeking declaratory judgment or injunctive relief,” was too broad.

www.ajc.com
State’s startup fund has trouble getting started
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/states-startup-fund-has-trouble-getting-started/njz6W/
Greg Bluestein and Matt Kempner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A fiscal tug-of-war is taking shape over an ambitious state campaign that uses government dollars to attract venture funding for homegrown startup firms that can generate new jobs.
Gov. Nathan Deal didn’t include money for the program, called Invest Georgia, in his proposed budget. And securing the $15 million that supporters want could trigger a battle over competing priorities this legislative session. The initiative was launched in 2013 by supporters who hoped that ponying up state dollars could attract enough venture capital to help transform Georgia into a tech hub. Entrepreneurs have long lamented that Georgia doesn’t have the financing network to keep promising startups from being pulled to places like Boston or Silicon Valley. Since then, though, the program’s champions learned how hard it is to start up a program — in state government. …“There’s no sense in crying over the year we missed. We are underway,” said Frazier, who predicts the first investments will be made by June. “We want to set an example and make it a high economic development priority for the state of Georgia.” …The funding is designed to only invest in Georgia businesses in tech, life sciences, health care and other high-demand sectors. …Lawmakers set a target to stock $25 million in the fund by now with another $15 million to be added this year. Instead, the fund sits at $10 million. And even that took some budgeting jujitsu. After lawmakers couldn’t agree to put the initial investment in the state budget last year, Deal helped arrange for the University System to set aside the money.

www.statesboroherald.com
Inside Bulloch Business with DeWayne Grice
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/65593/
Business Ticker
• The City of Swainsboro and the Swainsboro-Emanuel County Chamber of Commerce will hold a “Starting a Business” workshop from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at the Sudie A. Fulford Community Learning Center on the campus of East Georgia State College. The workshop will walk entrepreneurs through the steps of starting a business, including conducting market research, estimating start-up costs and cash flow projections, securing financing, developing business plans, and determining a legal structure for the business. The workshop will be presented by the Small Business Development Center, a division of the University System of Georgia’s SBDC Network which provides business consulting and training for Georgia entrepreneurs

Editorials/Columns/Opinions:
www.insidehighered.com
DOCS not MOOCs
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/docs-not-moocs
By Joshua Kim
DOCS: Digital Open Courses at Scale.
MOOC: Massive Open Online Course.
This effort is going to fail. The term MOOC is probably too entrenched to change now. But I’m going to give it a try.
D – Digital: We replace the 2nd “O” – Online – with Digital. Why? Because very quickly we will witness a flip where the majority of the minutes that learners spend in one of these courses will occur in an app, not a browser. On a smart phone, not a computer. The course content, especially any courses videos, is as likely to be downloaded to the app as streamed. The course will therefore be a mix of online interactions (as the learner needs to be connected to the web to interact), and offline activity via downloaded content. The word “digital” captures both of these modalities.
O – Open: Open stays.

www.chornicle.com
Outlook for iOS and Android: An Email App Administrators and Staff Will (Really!) Love
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/outlook-mobile-email-for-administrators/59059?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Jason B. Jones
Yesterday, Microsoft released Outlook for iOS and Android. This is a real email/calendaring app, not a warmed-over frontend for Office365 or Outlook.com: it supports Exchange Server, Exchange Online, Outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud, and Yahoo! Mail. (Well, real-ish, anyway.) It features all the latest features from apps like Inbox or Maibox: it has a “Focused Inbox,” for emails it thinks you’ll actually interact with, and an “Others” one, for that very important update from X. It also has all the customary swipe features that apps released in the last 15 months or so have: swipe to defer/archive/delete, etc. It also has one absolutely killer feature: It lets you access your calendar and send available times to someone right from an email.

USG Institutions:
www.onlineathens.com
UGA students saving thousands wtih e-textbooks
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2015-02-02/uga-students-saving-thousands-wtih-e-textbooks
By LEE SHEARER
The University of Georgia has added two history courses to the list of classes UGA students can take with free online textbooks. UGA first began offering free digital textbooks, or e-textbooks, in 2013, using a $25,000 University System of Georgia grant to UGA’s Center for Teaching and Learning to get started. The first textbooks were for students in big introductory biology courses, replacing a text that would have cost students $97 each. The e-textbooks got good reviews from students and instructors, and have saved students tens of thousands of dollars over the past two years.

Related article:
www.noodls.com
Information technology on track to save students $1 million over five years at UGA
http://www.noodls.com/viewNoodl/26751453/the-university-of-georgia/information-technology-on-track-to-save-students-1-million-

www.redandblack.com
Parental leave and modified duties proposal tabled based on cost estimate
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/parental-leave-and-modified-duties-proposal-tabled-based-on-cost/article_84056bd0-aa72-11e4-95af-0f0ce402ddaa.html
Mollie Simon
In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama discussed his push for paid parental leave for federal employees and funds for states to explore establishing paid leave funds. But, while the issue is getting put under a national spotlight, it is being placed on the back burner at the University of Georgia. …Nesbit said his office found the cost of implementing eight weeks of paid parental leave for UGA employees would be approximately $1,719,581, a number that UGA President Jere Morehead has deemed too high at the moment. …Charlie Sutlive, vice chancellor of communications for the University System of Georgia, said in an email to The Red & Black that the fiscal demand caused by the leave would be unfeasible. “Our first budget priority remains salary increases for faculty and staff. While the University System respects the dialogue of the University Council, we cannot support this new proposal in the current budget climate,” Sutlive said.

www.wjcl.com
Georgia Southern online program ranked 12th in U.S.
http://wjcl.com/2015/02/02/georgia-southern-online-program-ranked-12th-in-u-s/
By Staff report
STATESBORO, Ga. (WJCL) — The Georgia Southern University Online Accounting program (WebMAcc) was ranked twelfth in the Top 30 Online Master’s in Accounting Degree Programs 2015 by online-accounting-degrees.net. In its second year of existence, the WebMAcc offered within the Georgia Southern College of Business Administration School of Accountancy helps students earn a graduate degree without much interruption to their personal and professional lives.

Higher Education:
www.savannahnow.com
College completion gap between rich, poor widens
http://savannahnow.com/latest-news/2015-02-03/college-completion-gap-between-rich-poor-widens
By Christine Armario | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The gap in bachelor-degree attainment between the nation’s richest and poorest students by age 24 has doubled during the last four decades, according to a report released Tuesday. The percent of students from the lowest-income families — those making $34,160 a year or less — earning a bachelor’s degree has inched up just 3 points since 1970, rising from 6 to 9 percent by 2013. Meanwhile, college completion for students from the wealthiest families has risen dramatically, climbing from 44 to 77 percent.

www.insidehighered.com
Study: Close Education Gaps and Economy Will Improve
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/02/03/study-close-education-gaps-and-economy-will-improve
A new study by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a research organization that focuses on income inequality, argues that efforts to close education inequality would have a huge impact on the economy.

www.insidehighered.com
Vulnerable to Measles
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/03/22-states-dont-require-measles-immunizations-college-students
By Jake New
Students at three California campuses — Moorpark College, California State University at Channel Islands and California State University at Long Beach — are now believed to have contracted measles, joining more than 90 other people in the state who have contracted the largely eradicated disease. California students are within their legal rights to come to campus without having been vaccinated — the state is one of 22 that does not require college students to be vaccinated against measles. As a result, many California colleges, including the 10 campuses of the University of California System, do not require students to receive immunizations before enrolling.

www.chronicle.com
App Gives Students an Incentive to Keep Their Phones Locked in Class
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/app-gives-students-an-incentive-to-keep-their-phones-locked-in-class/55647?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Casey Fabris
Resisting the urge to pull out your phone in class is quite difficult for many students, apparently. There are texts to answer, emails to read, snapchats to send, and rude comments to post on Yik Yak. But two students at California State University at Chico have created something they hope will persuade students to keep their phones tucked firmly in their pockets: An app that rewards them with coupons for local businesses when they exhibit self-control and leave their phones untouched during class.

www.chronicle.com
California Makes Progress in Easing Transfer From 2- to 4-Year Programs
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/california-makes-progress-in-easing-transfer-from-2-year-to-4-year-programs/93317?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Charles Huckabee
The number of community-college students in California who earned special degrees that are designed to ease transferring to California State University grew significantly last year, but too many students still are unaware of or confused about the transfer program, says a new report from the state legislative analyst’s office. According to the report, as described in an article by the Los Angeles Times, nearly 12,000 students earned the new “associate degrees for transfer” in 2013-14, double the number from 2012-13 and up from about 800 students in 2011-12.

www.chronicle.com
Community Colleges in Pa. to Offer Credit for Previous Experience
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/community-colleges-in-pa-to-offer-credit-for-previous-experience/93271?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Andy Thomason
Pennsylvania’s community colleges have begun a statewide project to let adult learners earn college credit for previous training or work experience, the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges announced on Monday in a news release. The initiative, called “College Credit FastTrack,” also sets up common standards for awarding credits across the state.

www.diverseeducation.com
East Carolina Fraternity Suspended After Rape Report
http://diverseeducation.com/article/69258/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=c24ca665ed644216a0d50f1cddea60b7&elqCampaignId=415
by Associated Press
GREENVILLE, N.C. — A fraternity has asked its chapter at East Carolina University to suspend activities after a woman reported a rape last week. Multiple media outlets reported that the national office of Sigma Phi Epsilon asked its chapter at the Greenville school to suspend operations while the allegation is investigated.

www.chronicle.com
Colleges Underreport Sexual Assaults, Even After They’re Fined, Study Concludes
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/colleges-are-underreporting-sexual-assaults-even-after-theyre-fined-study-concludes/93299?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Chronicle Staff
Report: “Concealing Campus Sexual Assault: An Empirical Examination”
Author: Corey Rayburn Yung, a law professor at the University of Kansas
Organization: American Psychological Association
Summary: Mr. Yung analyzed the numbers of on-campus sexual assaults reported by 31 large colleges and universities (each with more than 10,000 students) during U.S. Department of Education audits conducted from 2001 to 2012. While the universities were being scrutinized, assault reports jumped by an average of 44 percent. But once the audits were over, the numbers fell back to pre-audit levels. That was true even when universities were fined for noncompliance.

www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/princeton-review-strips-missouri-university-of-its-controversial-ranking?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Andy Thomason
Princeton Review will remove the University of Missouri at Kansas City from its 2014 list of the 25 best entrepreneurship-education programs nationally, The Kansas City Star reports. The decision follows an outside review into data the college submitted to the test-preparation company for inclusion in its rankings, among other things. The review found data submitted to Princeton Review was false or flawed, but did not evaluate whether the ranking for the university’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management was deserved. This is the first time the publication has stripped an institution of its ranking.

www.insidehighered.com
Obama Seeks Funding Boost
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/03/obama-seeks-boost-higher-education-spending-and-proposes-some-loan-reforms-have
By Michael Stratford
WASHINGTON — President Obama sent Congress a budget request Monday that would increase federal spending on many higher education programs and also aims to reap savings for the government by changing some student loan and repayment options.

www.insidehighered.com
Replenishing Research
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/03/budget-proposal-includes-increase-research-funding
By Kaitlin Mulhere
WASHINGTON — Science and research advocates welcomed President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal Monday, which would give the National Science Foundation a “vigorous, healthy budget,” according to its director. Overall, the president’s budget would increase federal spending on research and development by 5.5 percent across a series of agencies.