USG Institutions:
www.savannahnow.com
Ga. House, Senate budget funds for planning local facilities
http://savannahnow.com/news/2015-03-23/ga-house-senate-budget-funds-planning-local-facilities
By Morris News Service
ATLANTA — The Senate’s version of next year’s budget that passed Friday adds funds to what members of the House included for local building projects at colleges and libraries, a seawall in Savannah and railroad bridges. …Here are the local projects added by the legislature beyond what Deal already recommended:
• College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, $2 million for library renovation and expansion.
• Georgia Regents University in Augusta, $1.5 million to upgrade electrical equipment.
• University of Georgia’s Tifton campus, $5 million to design, construct and equip a dairy building.
• Armstrong State University in Savannah, $1.8 million to design the health-professions classroom.
www.bizjournals.com
Two Georgia schools among Top 25 to study game design
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2015/03/two-georgia-schools-among-top-25-to-study-game.html
Carla Caldwell
Morning Edition Editor- Atlanta Business Chronicle
The Princeton Review’s sixth annual rankings of the Top 25 undergraduate and graduate schools to study game design include two Georgia schools. … Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta is listed at No. 23 on the list of best graduate programs for game design.
www.redandblack.com
Bye bye, boiler: UGA coal burner to shut down early Tuesday morning
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/bye-bye-boiler-uga-coal-burner-to-shut-down-early/article_12262696-d1d0-11e4-b5ad-8f6e3596d428.html
Allie Dean
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the University of Georgia’s coal-fired boiler is expected to spew its last, ashy breath into the night sky. The coal boiler will finish off the last shipment of coal from December — 3,000 tons — and be officially shut down after more than 50 years of operation. Robert McCurley, foreman at the steam plant, said it is a bittersweet end for the coal boiler. …The coal boiler is being replaced with an electrode boiler that runs off of electricity, which is going to be a much cleaner and efficient energy source for campus. The electrode boiler is estimated to save UGA $500,000 a year in fuel savings, and keep 275 tons of sulfur dioxide from reaching the atmosphere annually.
www.eurekalert.org
New cystic fibrosis research could help develop treatments to improve muscle function
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/w-ncf031915.php
WILEY
People suffering from cystic fibrosis have less ability to uptake and use oxygen in their muscles, which leads to exercise intolerance, a study published today in Experimental Physiology concluded. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease affecting multiple organs, in which, primarily the lungs and digestive system, become obstructed by mucus, causing difficulties in breathing and digesting food. Researchers have now found that people suffering from CF have limited ability to uptake and use oxygen in their muscles, which gets worse with age. …In their study, the team of researchers used Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) as a new method to evaluate skeletal muscle oxidative capacity in patients with CF. …The NIRS device was placed on the middle of the thigh and a blood pressure-like cuff was placed on the upper thigh. The pressure cuff was inflated on the thigh to measure muscle tissue oxygen response over time. Dr Ryan Harris, Director of the Laboratory of Integrative Vascular and Exercise Physiology in the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University and senior author of this study says, ‘This study is extremely relevant to people affected by CF. The ability to measure the capacity of muscles to use oxygen non-invasively using NIRS is a big plus. …Prof Kevin K. McCully from the University of Georgia and investigator of the study commented, ‘Exercise is not only important to improve life quality in patients with CF, it is also an effective tool to measure the progression of the disease.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Alexander’s Higher Ed Act Agenda
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/24/alexander-weighing-new-accountability-tools-better-data-higher-ed-act-rewrite
By Michael Stratford
WASHINGTON — The leading Republican in the Senate who is working on a rewrite of the Higher Education Act is weighing new ways to hold colleges accountable for their students’ success and is considering a federal database to keep track of student outcomes. Senator Lamar Alexander on Monday released three policy papers outlining ideas on making colleges share in the financial risk of the federal loans they provide students, overhauling accreditation and changing how the federal government collects data from colleges.
www.bostonglobe.com
After building boom, UMass $3 billion in debt
Tab could hinder future growth, but trustees are undaunted
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/21/after-building-boom-umass-sizes-debt/rnbYFtGVZsp11mZn9buJAM/story.html
By Laura KrantzGLOBE STAFF
From a gleaming science center in Boston to an honors college in Amherst, the University of Massachusetts has enjoyed an unprecedented building boom over the past decade, with new classrooms and dorms and long-delayed infrastructure improvements across its five campuses. But all that spending has also left UMass with $3 billion of debt. And that cloud could present a challenge as it seeks to continue the growth that in recent years helped bolster enrollment and raise the university’s profile from an affordable “safety” school for many students to a more expensive, desirable, and highly competitive one.
www.chronicle.com
Online or In-Person? One College Lets Students Switch Back and Forth
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-or-in-person-one-college-lets-students-switch-back-and-forth/56265?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Casey Faabris
When you register for a course, you often have a choice: in-person or online. But at Peirce College, you don’t have to pick one or the other. All students will soon get access to both formats in the same course.
Peirce, a college in Philadelphia that caters specifically to adult learners, plans to allow its students to switch back and forth between attending class in person or online, based on which is more convenient for them on a given week. The flexible delivery model will be offered in certain programs this fall and it will be extended to the college’s entire curriculum by September of 2016. The initiative is part of the college’s 2015-2018 strategic plan.