University System News:
www.macon.com
EDITORIAL: Finally, a name we can all settle on: Middle Georgia State University
http://www.macon.com/2015/03/20/3649417_finally-a-name-we-can-all-settle.html?rh=1
The Board of Regents, the organization charged with running the University System of Georgia’s 30 colleges and universities, decided Wednesday to strip the moniker of “college” from Middle Georgia State’s name. As of July 1, the school will be officially elevated to university status. The school has come a long way since it was Macon Junior College. And for a time it looked as though the school would forever remain a “junior.” First the school dropped the “junior,” but little else. The university system went through a competitive period 30 years ago when various state schools competed against each other. Every school was trying to do the same thing in the same areas and resources were limited. …The majority of jobs now and into the future will require some college education, and Georgia is well-positioned with its system of technical colleges, colleges and universities to fill that need and — in the case of Middle Georgia State University — at a very affordable cost.
www.myajc.com
Immigrants lacking legal status lose appeal seeking in-state tuition
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/immigrants-lacking-legal-status-lose-appeal-seekin/nkZ4W/#f5d751fc.3566685.735680
By Jeremy Redmon – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected an appeal aimed at making immigrants who were illegally brought here as children eligible for in-state college tuition. In rejecting the appeal, the court upheld a Fulton County Superior Court’s ruling from June that says state law bars such lawsuits through sovereign immunity.
www.myajc.com
Georgia Senate approves budget, setting stage for negotiations
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/georgia-senate-approves-budget-setting-stage-for-n/nkbhM/#fd1d3124.3566685.735680
By James Salzer – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Senate approved a $21.8 billion budget for the upcoming year on Friday that would spend a little bit more in a lot of areas and makes clear that the state’s post-recession fiscal picture is brightening. Now it will be up to House and Senate leaders to negotiate a final spending deal for fiscal 2016 — which begins July 1 — before the session ends in early April. The House passed its version of the budget, House Bill 76, earlier this month. The budget would provide 1 percent raises for about 90,000 state and University System of Georgia employees.
www.redandblack.com
Vaccine policies effective, still growing
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/vaccine-policies-effective-still-growing/article_2c3cc802-cdb9-11e4-ae42-e356a253fdcb.html
Taylor West
In light of the recent upsurge in infectious disease outbreaks in the U.S., most notably the measles, recommendations have been made by a group of University System of Georgia health center directors that the vaccine requirements be made more rigorous. “All of these vaccine-preventable diseases are emerging again because people aren’t getting vaccinated,” said Executive Director of the University Health Center Jean Chin. “Requirements are not as rigorous as they used to be.” While the measles, a potentially fatal and highly contagious disease, has gotten the most attention due to the multi-state outbreak, Chin said there have also been outbreaks of a number of vaccine-preventable diseases in recent years, including the Mumps and Meningococcal B. The Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine is just one on a short list of required immunizations set by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia aimed at minimizing student exposure to dangerous infectious diseases, but Chin believes more can be done and is working to get changes established. The Regents Advisory Committee for Health, comprised of USG health directors, met Friday to discuss the policy and make recommendations.
USG Institutions:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State presidential candidates down to four
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/03/19/3625951_csu-presidential-candidates-down.html?rh=1
BY MARK RICE
The search for the next president of Columbus State University is down to four candidates.The Columbus State University Presidential Search and Screening Committee announced Thursday it has recommended to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents the following candidates for consideration to be the fifth president in CSU’s 57-year history: Randy Hanna; Chris Markwood; Carl Stockton; Jose-Marie Griffiths …Now, the decision is beyond local control, because the search and screening committee isn’t allowed to rank the candidates it recommends. The Special Regents’ Search Committee will recommend an unspecified number of finalists to chancellor Hank Huckaby, who will recommend his top choice to the full board. The final decision is expected to be made next month.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Georgia Gwinnett College financial departments have reason to celebrate
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2015/mar/19/georgia-gwinnett-college-financial-departments/
By Keith Farner
The folks who run Georgia Gwinnett College’s finances have reason to celebrate after they were honored this week for how they handle financial reporting. The award came from the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and it’s given annually in the form of a Certificate of Achievement for Excellent Financial Reporting. Brad Freeman and Tommy Harp, deputy directors with the Education Audit Division of the DOAA, presented the award to GGC President Stas Preczewski and Ruth Berger, senior associate vice president for Financial Operations/Controller.
www.americustimesrecorder.com
GSW expands online courses through state program
http://www.americustimesrecorder.com/news/local_news/gsw-expands-online-courses-through-state-program/article_c3ca8cf6-cf10-11e4-9703-871d15074ae2.html
CARROLLTON — Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) is now an affiliate institution of the University System of Georgia’s eCore Collaborative Program (USG eCore). By affiliating with the state-wide program, GSW will be able to offer students greater online class availability beginning fall 2015. USG eCore, which began in 2000, allows students to take the first two years of their college curriculum online and offers general education courses in English, mathematics, science, history and the social sciences. The program supports the state’s Complete College Georgia and Go Back Move Ahead initiatives by increasing access to quality higher education across Georgia.
www.economist.com
The log-on degree
College in America is ruinously expensive. Some digital cures are emerging
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21646219-college-america-ruinously-expensive-some-digital-cures-are-emerging-log
…The notion that online degrees are inferior is starting to fade. Top-notch universities such as Pennsylvania State and Columbia now offer them in many subjects. Georgia Tech has had an online-only master’s degree in computer science since 2014, which it considers just as good as its campus version. Minerva, a “virtual” university based in San Francisco, offers online seminars to students who hop from city to city gaining work and cultural experience.
www.accessnorthga.com
UNG expanding four-year nursing degree to Gainesville campus
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=286528
By The Associated Press
OAKWOOD – To address a critical need for healthcare workers, the University of North Georgia (UNG) will expand its four-year nursing program to the Gainesville Campus in a move that eventually could double the number of UNG nursing graduates. The first cohort will begin in spring 2016, and applications already have exceeded the number of slots available.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
CCGA receives grant to teach math through gastronomic methods
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/ccga-receives-grant-to-teach-math-through-gastronomic-methods/article_5a20490a-e986-50ad-ba48-57a0e16f929f.html
By ANNA HALL The Brunswick News
Not all students love math, but odds are, most of them enjoy food. Which is why the College of Coastal Georgia’s School of Education and Teacher Preparation has tapped into gastronomic methods to help current and future teachers create a love for learning in students. It was announced this week the school of education has been awarded a state Improving Teacher Quality grant. The funds will be used to launch an innovative outreach proposal, one that will assist teachers in providing practical math lessons in the classroom through cooking and food science.
www.jbhe.com
Fort Valley State University Partners With Albany Technical College
Fort Valley State University Partners With Albany Technical College
Fort Valley State University, the historically Black educational institution in Georgia, has signed an agreement with Albany Technical College. Under the agreement, students who earn an associate’s degree in the electronic engineering technology program at Albany Tech will be able to enroll at Fort Valley State University with their earned credits applying to a bachelor’s degree in same discipline.
www.globalatlanta.com
Georgia Tech and Liberia Share ‘Go Fix It’ Attitude
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/27495/georgia-tech-and-liberia-share-go-fix-it-attitude/
by Michael Best
The Georgia Institute of Technology has granted Michael Best, who teaches in the university’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and College of Computing, a four-year leave of absence so he can assume the position of director of a newly formed United Nations institute in Macau, China.The United Nations Institute of Computing and Society focuses on the key challenges faced by developing societies in the field of computing and information technologies. The Institute seeks to enhance capacities in computing and the innovative application of information technology through policy-relevant research programs as well as doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships. Dr. Best’s commentary follows. “Go fix it. That’s a call to everybody. Go fix it.” So extolled Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a recent NPR interview. She was speaking about the Ebola scourge on her country, now mercifully in decline, but she could have been speaking about hundred of other challenges facing that West African nation.
www.atlantamagazine.com
Hi, Robot: Meet 5 models from Georgia Tech
These helpful bots can deliver meds, pick up stuff you dropped, and navigate your home
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/hi-robot-meet-5-models-from-georgia-tech/
Tony Rehagen
Outsiders may envision Georgia Tech as some futuristic mothership where super-intelligent scientists-in-training walk side by side with robots. And they may be right. In recent years, professors and students at the Midtown campus have developed artificial intelligence that can feed you, bathe you, and practically tuck you in. Someday they may take over the world—in a good way. If not, meet your future overlords.
www.wsbtv.com
College student suffers severe head injury after falling out of bed while sleeping
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/college-student-suffers-severe-head-injury-after-f/nkcXY/
By Rachel Stockman
ATLANTA — Friends and family are coming together to support a Georgia Tech student injured during a freak accident at his fraternity. Family says Clark Jacobs, 20, fell out of his bed at his fraternity while he slept and suffered a severe head injury. “We thought he had the flu or meningitis because he did not look like someone who had a brain injury at first. He was completely cognizant, conversational,” said his father, Ron Jacobs. His father said that at first Clark Jacobs didn’t realize he’d fallen out of the bed. “He just climbed back into bed while sleeping,” Ron Jacobs said. His condition quickly worsened after the Jan. 10 fall.
www.onlineathens.com
UGA student found dead on campus; fifth student death this year
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-03-20/uga-student-found-dead-campus-fifth-student-death-year
By JOE JOHNSON
Not even three full months into the year and the University of Georgia on Thursday registered its fifth student death of 2015. Mikal Ghirmazghi, 21, died Thursday evening in her Russell Hall dorm room, possibly from a preexisting medical condition, according to Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson.
www.myajc.com
North Georgia newspapers online at UGA
http://www.myajc.com/news/lifestyles/north-georgia-newspapers-online-at-uga/nkSXL/#a9392b94.3566685.735680
By Kenneth H. Thomas Jr. – For the AJC
The Digital Library of Georgia, part of the vast amount of materials online via Galileo at the University of Georgia, has added several newspaper titles from North Georgia.
Charlie, I only added this article because it mentions GALILEO, other than that I would not have included. I do not remember when we have had any articles mentioning GALILEO.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
GRU found in violation of Animal Welfare Act
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2015-03-20/gru-found-violation-animal-welfare-act
By Tracey McManus
Staff Writer
Georgia Regents University was found this year to have committed five violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in its research labs, several of which are repeat offenses from previous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections. During a routine inspection Feb. 26, the USDA found that only six of 45 macaques in one lab were housed in pairs, and the university had minimal documented proof of attempts to place the others in social groups, according to the inspection report.
www.wsfa.com
GRU says allegations of animal abuse are false
http://www.wsfa.com/story/28565327/gru-says-allegations-of-animal-abuse-are-false
By Tiffany Takahashi
AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) – Georgia Regents University is under fire from a watchdog group that said the university mistreated animals at its research facilities, but the university said those allegations are false. SAEN (Stop Animal Exploitation Now) leaders said the group filed a complaint Thursday, March 19 2015 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking for an in-depth investigation into GRU and a fine for the university. A USDA spokesperson said that they have not yet received that complaint and do not have an open investigation into GRU.
Higher Education News:
www.jaybookman.blog.ajc.com
If education is the key, why is Georgia doing this?
http://jaybookman.blog.ajc.com/2015/03/23/if-education-is-the-key-why-is-georgia-doing-this/
Jay Bookman
U.S. Sen. David Perdue had harsh words for President Obama after Obama’s visit to Georgia Tech earlier this month. The president had come to highlight the importance of education and his administration’s efforts to make college more affordable, but Perdue was having none of it. “It’s ironic that President Obama continues to say that something must be done about higher education,” Perdue, a Georgia Tech graduate, said in a release. “On his watch, college costs have skyrocketed. We can all agree that college should be more accessible, and we cannot continue to burden our children with more debt, but President Obama’s strategy won’t work.” …So let’s take up that challenge. Let’s see how decisions made at the state level here in Georgia might have influenced both the cost of higher education as well as the debt-load level that Georgia students are forced to take on in order to get a college degree: Because of budget decisions made by our state Legislature, state funding of the University System of Georgia was slashed by $2,600 per college student between 2008 and 2013, according to data compiled by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Until recently, state funding covered 75 percent of the cost of a college education; today, it covers 50 percent of that cost.
www.wsj.com
Today’s Anxious Freshmen Declare Majors Far Faster Than Their Elders
Weak job market and high debt loads prompt broad shift away from intellectual exploration
http://www.wsj.com/articles/todays-anxious-freshmen-declare-majors-far-faster-than-their-elders-1426818334?KEYWORDS=higher+education
By DOUGLAS BELKIN
For decades, many American teenagers went to college to find themselves and then look for a career. Post-recession, more are launching the job search from day one. Instead of spending their first couple of years dipping into a range of intellectual pools, the class of 2018 was much more likely to declare an academic major during freshman year than their counterparts before the recession, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from a dozen randomly chosen colleges nationwide, both large and small.
www.chronicle.com
Students’ Requests for Their Admissions Records Prompt Colleges to Purge Documents
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/students-requests-for-own-admissions-records-prompt-colleges-to-purge-documents/95831
by Peter Schmidt
Yale University has acknowledged that its law school responded to a wave of student requests for their application evaluations by discarding all such records — an action that has prompted an advocacy group to warn colleges not to destroy potential evidence in admissions lawsuits. Yale Law School’s destruction of the records, first publicized by one of its own students on Sunday in a column for The New Republic, occurred after several students submitted requests for copies of their application evaluations under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or Ferpa. In a statement that Yale sent to The Chronicle on Thursday, Asha Rangappa, the law school’s dean of admissions, said it had routinely discarded such information at the end of every admissions cycle until 2001 — when its admissions process became fully electronic — and had decided to revert to the old practice in response to the new records requests.
www.diverseeducation.com
Colleges and Universities Must Make an Effort in Order for Study Abroad Numbers to Increase
http://diverseeducation.com/article/70961/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=9d66e98bce114880b752065f834e2556&elqCampaignId=415&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=0571ba7bb7d4463eab52d89762e6b54b
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
New York — Colleges and universities can greatly increase the number of students who study abroad—including those from disadvantaged or underrepresented groups—if they make a concerted effort to do so. That was the heart of the message delivered by leaders at three institutions of higher learning that were recognized Friday for boosting the proportion of students who participate in their campus study abroad programs.
www.insidehighered.com
The End of College?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/23/kevin-carey-talks-about-his-new-book-end-college
By Paul Fain
A growing number of books about higher education’s ills have hit the market in recent years. But few have drummed up the attention, both positive and negative, that Kevin Carey’s has received. Carey directs the education policy program at New America, a Washington-based think tank. His book, The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, came out earlier this month. The End of College takes the long view in diagnosing a higher education business model that Carey says is desperately flawed.
www.diverseeducation.com
Janet Napolitano Apologizes for Disparaging Student Protest
http://diverseeducation.com/article/70943/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=cdbfc6488d0f45b384c48f14a13aa77d&elqCampaignId=415&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=700e0af740294eb5bfd09ba58ce81ba8
by Kristin J. Bender, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — University of California President Janet Napolitano apologized Thursday for calling chants by students protesting tuition hikes “crap,” a remark picked up by an open microphone at a Board of Regents meeting. Napolitano opened the second day of a regents meeting by expressing contrition, a day after the university’s recording captured her saying, “Let’s go. We don’t have to listen to this crap,” when she leaned over to board Chairman Bruce Varner, who had just activated his microphone.
www.diverseeducation.com
Penn State President Says Fraternity System May Need Review
http://diverseeducation.com/article/70941/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=cdbfc6488d0f45b384c48f14a13aa77d&elqCampaignId=415&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ccc0f9dbe9174302958fbdead855c30d
by Mark Scolforo, Associated Press
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State’s president has told the university community an investigation into the Facebook posting of nude photographs by a now-suspended fraternity could lead to a re-evaluation of the overall fraternity system. Eric Barron sent a statement late Wednesday night to faculty, staff and students that said some senior university leaders believe there is a need for such a review.
www.nytimes.com
A Look at How Residential Colleges Work at Some Schools
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/22/us/ap-us-changing-campus-culture-residential-colleges.html?_r=0
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colleges are confronting the related problems of sexual assault and drinking with a mix of solutions, some aimed at changing an ingrained culture that encourages irresponsible behavior. Dartmouth College appears to be the only school responding by completely overhauling its housing into a system of “residential colleges” — a concept that goes back centuries in England but exists at only about 30 U.S. schools.