University System News:
www.ajc.com
New state budget will keep construction crews busy in Metro Atlanta
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/new-state-budget-will-keep-construction-crews-busy/nknGZ/
James Salzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not everybody was happy with the way the 2015 General Assembly session ended Friday morning, but contractors, road-builders and the people who supply equipment to government and school facilities scored big this year, particularly in metro Atlanta. …Meanwhile, the separate bond project lawmakers approved includes a lengthy list of K-12, college and other government construction and equipment projects.
$11.5 million to build an academic building at Georgia Gwinnett University; $4.9 million to plan, design, build and equip a classroom building addition at Georgia State University; $4.9 million for an English building renovation and addition at Kennesaw State University; $700,000 to design a student services building at Atlanta Metropolitan College; $1.4 million to fund renovations at Clayton State University; $500,000 to design the expansion of labs at Georgia Perimeter College’s Alpharetta campus; $5 million to modernize and expand Georgia Tech’s chilled water system; the University of Georgia also got big money in the bond package. Lawmakers approved $43 million for the second phase of a business facility at UGA, $17 million for a center for molecular medicine, and $3.3 million to buy equipment for a new science center.

USG Institutions:
www.myajc.com
Ga. Tech inventors compete for cash, patent
http://www.myajc.com/news/business/ga-tech-inventors-compete-for-cash-patent/nkk2Y/
By Matt Kempner – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Knowing that the coolest new business ideas could be birthed in college dorm rooms, universities are scrambling to see what bright ideas their students can come up with. But Georgia Tech claims to have the nation’s largest undergraduate invention competition, with its InVenture Prize. Its finals were held last week and aired on public television. Now in its seventh year, InVenture offers a $20,000 top prize plus a free U.S. patent filing by the university. “We are looking for the next Steve Jobs, the next Thomas Edison,” said Chris Reaves, Georgia Tech’s director of undergraduate research and student innovation.

www.albanyherald.com
Albany State University celebrates its 112th birthday
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2015/apr/03/albany-state-university-celebrates-its-112th/
Founder’s Day speaker Darryl Chapman urged students build on strong foundations of the past
By Terry Lewis
ALBANY — Albany State University celebrated its 112th birthday Friday, marking the founding of the university by Joseph W. Holley. Keynote speaker Darryl Chapman, class of 1980, began his speech with a song and ended it with a poem, all connected to the school’s annual Founder’s Day Commemoration’s theme of “One Past. One Future. One ASU.” …“Founder’s Day offers an opportunity to reflect on Albany State’s history, celebrate its accomplishments and prepare for its future,” said ASU Interim President Art Dunning. “Dr. Holley laid the foundation, and each of us plays a unique and crucial role in carrying on his tradition of excellence.”

www.nbc26.tv
Georgia Regents University optimistic about campus master plan
http://www.nbc26.tv/story/28718269/georgia-regents-university-optimistic-about-campus-master-plan
Written by Janny Rodriguez, Reporter
RICHMOND COUNTY, Ga. – Georgia Regents University officials are continuing the conversation about a campus master plan to make improvements and expand its student body. “We’ll need additional parking if we move a college down there so parking has been a crucial part of the plan we’ve got a lot of feedback from folks,” said Tony Wagner, Vice President of the University and Health System. Apart from parking, the proposed ten-year plan also includes moving one of its Summerville schools to the Health Sciences Campus. …Although the plan is in its early stages, officials are optimistic about the public’s response to the future changes. “The thing we’ve really learned the fast few days is how excited people are about this plan that will be integral to really becoming the fourth comprehensive research university of the University System of Georgia,” said Wagner. Officials hope to have a finalized plan sometime by the summer of 2015.

www.mdjonline.com
Engineering college recognized as best value in annual ranking
http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/26560963/article-Engineering-college-recognized-as-best-value-in-annual-ranking
by MDJ staff
Kennesaw State University’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology ranked 8th among all engineering colleges in the nation as a best value by salary information company PayScale. The engineering program moved up from a 16th place rank in 2014.

www.daltondailycitizen.com
Legislature ends session with a bang
http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/opinion/legislature-ends-session-with-a-bang/article_da2d9d9a-db44-11e4-9f0d-57b9c6f101bd.html
The Daily Citizen
“No man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session.” — Mark Twain
The 2015 session of the Georgia Legislature ended as those sessions almost always do. Most of the major bills are rammed through at the last minute with a number of changes that surprise even lawmakers and leave the rest of us struggling to figure out what impact they will all have. In the final days, lawmakers approved a $21.8 billion 2016 fiscal year budget. That represents an increase of almost $1 billion from fiscal 2015, which ends on June 30. …While conservatives may grumble about the amount of spending in the budget, local residents can’t deny there are items in there that will benefit the Greater Dalton area. The 2016 budget includes $4 million in bonds for the expansion of the student center at Dalton State College, a project long desired by college officials.

www.onlineathens.com
UGA retirees pack health insurance meetings Friday, but some questions still unanswered
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-04-03/uga-retirees-pack-health-insurance-meetings-friday-some-questions-still-unanswered
By LEE SHEARER
Hundreds of University of Georgia retirees flooded into the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Friday to hear about upcoming changes to their health insurance — so many that University System of Georgia officials added a third meeting in the UGA center’s 200-seat Masters Hall to the two they’d already scheduled for the day. As many as 300 people may have been in the auditorium at the 10 a.m. meeting; retired employees that included ex-vice presidents as well as faculty and staff lined the walls, sat on the floor and even overflowed onto the low stage where representatives of the University System and a private health exchange outlined how their health insurance will change beginning next year.

www.wtoc.com
Armstrong State to offer in-state tuition to Border State students starting Fall 2015
http://www.wtoc.com/story/28717901/armstrong-state-to-offer-in-state-tuition-to-border-state-students-starting-fall-2015
By WTOC Staff
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – Armstrong State University announced on Friday the university will offer in-state tuition to residents of Florida, South Carolina and Alabama starting in the fall. The new initiative will help residents of Border States a lot because out-of-state tuition rates paid by non-Georgia residents at Armstrong, and many Georgia universities, can be significantly more expensive than in-state tuition rates.

www.metrogazette.com
Darton State College to Offer In-State Tuition for Alabama, Florida and South Carolina
http://www.metrogazette.com/article/darton-state-college-offer-state-tuition-alabama-florida-and-south-carolina
Special to the Metro
ALBANY, GA – Darton State College will offer in-state tuition to residents of Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina who meet the admission requirements beginning Fall 2015 semester. “We’re extremely pleased to be able to offer in-state tuition to students in these neighboring states. Darton offers many high-quality academic programs, and we are excited that students from our neighboring communities will have an opportunity to earn a degree at Darton for an affordable price,” said Frank Malinowski, interim vice president for enrollment management.

www.wsfa.com
Georgia Southwestern among schools waiving certain out of state fees
http://www.wsfa.com/story/28696229/gsw-waives-certain-out-of-state-fees
By Wright Gazaway
AMERICUS, GA (WALB) – Students in Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama now have a cheaper option for education in Southwest Georgia. Georgia Southwestern is one of the schools approved to waive out of state fees for these students. In some cases, it could save almost $15,000 a year. The Board of Regents and Chancellor of the University System of Georgia approved the plan in last month’s meeting.

www.statesboroherald.com
Dual enrollment on the rise
Colleges, high schools coordinate efforts to show huge benefits of program
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/66915/
BY Al Hackle
(Note: First of two parts. Coming Tuesday, a closer look at how Georgia Southern University, Ogeechee Technical College and East Georgia State College are focusing more on attracting dual enrollment students.)
Advanced students – and professors’ kids – such as Micah Kartchner are in growing company as a larger number of more typical high students dual-enroll, earning both college and high school credits for the same courses. …Bulloch County’s three public high schools saw the number of their students dual-enrolled or joint-enrolled at a college or university rise from 201 in the last school year to 387 this year. That’s a 92.5 percent increase – almost double.

www.macon.com
Nursing shortages continue as need grows in Middle Georgia
http://www.macon.com/2015/04/05/3678770/nursing-shortages-continue-as.html
BY LINDA S. MORRIS
For years a shortage of nurses — especially registered nurses — has been a problem, so one would think maybe it had been resolved. That’s not the case nationwide nor in Middle Georgia. The shortage is created by a number of factors. …“The biggest nursing shortage is for RNs, specifically those in acute care hospital settings that require 24-hour coverage, including nights, holidays and weekends,” Navicent Health Chief Nursing Officer Tracey Blalock said in an email. …Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville admits about 56 students twice a year into its nursing program, said Deborah MacMillan, interim director for the School of Nursing. The problem is they often have more than 100 applicants. Students who don’t make it in reapply the next semester, “or they get a minor in something else, like community health, while they wait,” MacMillan said. Or students may try to get into another school’s nursing program. The main reason the school can’t allow more students in the program is because it needs more nurse educators. “We have a severe shortage of faculty,” MacMillan said. The University of Georgia did a study of this problem and found “the number of faculty retiring in the next few years is staggering,” she said. Georgia College has committed to train people to be nurse educators to help improve the situation, she said.

www.nique.net
No students punished yet under Tobacco Ban
http://nique.net/news/2015/04/03/no-students-punished-yet-under-tobacco-ban/
By David Raji
Six months after the implementation of the tobacco and smoking ban, not a single referral has been made regarding a violation. The policy was passed by the University System of Georgia’s (USG) Board of Regents last March and it went into effect in October later that year. …Tech’s implementation involved collaboration between Facilities Management, the Department of Housing, the Office of Legal Affairs, the Office of Student Integrity (OSI) and Stamps Health Services. Violators would be dealt with through OSI via the Student Code of Conduct. “To date, OSI has not received any referrals regarding violations of this tobacco-free campus policy,” said Rachael Pocklington, Communications Officer for Facilities Management. Pocklington did not deny that smoking continues to occur on campus, but encouraged patience and understanding that the policy may take time before it is fully adhered to. “Tech is taking an enforcement light approach, relying on awareness of the policy and education about the available resources to help members of the community kick the habit,” Pocklington said. Student outlook was less optimistic than that of administration.

www.campustechnology.com
Higher Ed Canvas Grants Aim To End ‘Lossless Learning’
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/06/higher-ed-canvas-grants-aim-to-end-lossless-learning.aspx
By Michael Hart
Instructure has given its 2015 Canvas Grants to six college and university educators who demonstrated in their submitted proposals the best ways to develop innovative programs and improve education. The winners, who were announced during the recent SXSWEdu conference March 9-12 in Austin, TX, will each receive $10,000 grants to accomplish the tasks they have set out to achieve. Stein said the theme reflects one of his company’s goals, which is to eliminate the loss of information in the learning process — lost instruction, participation, engagement or assessment… “Tracing Learning Interaction Paths as a Guide to Design Lossless Learning” at Georgia Tech Research Corporation;

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
U.S. Names Remaining Colleges Under Scrutiny
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/06/education-department-names-remaining-colleges-monitoring-list-‘severe’-audit
By Michael Stratford
Officials at the U.S. Department of Education on Friday released the names of 20 colleges whose access to federal funds they have restricted because audits of those institutions uncovered various problems, most of which were “severe.” The department named the remaining colleges that it had redacted from the list of colleges facing extra scrutiny known as heightened cash monitoring. Officials initially balked at releasing those names, citing ongoing investigations at those colleges.

www.chronicle.com
Why Universities Alone Aren’t Going to Save Your Economy
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Universities-Alone-Arent/229083/?cid=at
By Karin Fischer
Colleges claim they’re the last hope for revitalization. But can they really revive struggling towns and cities?
Economic engine. Powerhouse. Transformative force. Today, college after college, urban and rural, from the tiniest liberal-arts institution to the sprawling research university, is pitching itself as a driver of economic revitalization, its region’s greatest competitive asset. Universities’ very presence, the rhetoric seems to suggest, can spur a metamorphosis from decaying factory town to 21st-century knowledge hub. At a time when the dominant narrative casts the value of college in purely personal terms — an advantage that accrues to the individual graduate — the economic-development pitch comes off as refreshingly retrograde, a throwback. It posits the university as a benefit to the broader community, not just the collegegoer. It’s one last go at the public-good case for higher education.