University System News:
www.bizjournals.com
Gov. Deal signs fiscal 2016 budget
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/05/gov-deal-signs-fy16-budget.html
Dave Williams
Staff Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
Gov. Nathan Deal signed a $21.8 billion state budget Monday with only one line-item veto. The $21.8 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 increases state spending nearly $1 billion over the fiscal 2015 spending plan Georgia lawmakers adopted a year ago. Highlights include nearly $500 million in new revenue for K-12 education, money local school systems can use to restore instructional days, eliminate teacher furloughs and raise teacher salaries. The budget also gives state employees 1 percent pay raises, puts $19.7 million toward the governor’s criminal justice reforms and kicks in an additional $5 million for the state Department of Economic Development’s “deal-closing” fund. Specific projects funded through the budget include the new Georgia Film Academy, an initiative to train workers for high-demand jobs in Georgia’s rapidly growing movie industry, and planned clinical trials of cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive marijuana derivative used to treat seizure disorders. The $1.1 billion bond package includes nearly $600 million in building projects and other capital improvements at state university and technical college campuses,

www.statesboroherald.com
Budget bonus for Georgia Southern
Manufacturing engineering, classroom building get funded
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/67666/
BY Al Hackle
The state budget that Gov. Nathan Deal ceremonially signed Monday on Georgia Southern University’s Sweetheart Circle includes $1 million for the university’s new manufacturing engineering degree program and financing for a $33-million classroom building. This was the second consecutive year that Deal held such a budget-signing event in front of the Marvin Pittman Administration Building with GSU President Dr. Brooks Keel and other university officials. The area’s state representatives were in Atlanta, but Sen. Jack Hill attended, and Keel noted that the governor had been in the same place one year and 13 days earlier. “We call on higher education, both in our college and university system and in our technical college system, to help us prepare the workforce of today and certainly the workforce of tomorrow,” Deal said Monday. “For those institutions of higher learning, we continue to provide financial support.”

www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State breaks ground for new dorm
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/05/11/3714281_columbus-state-breaks-ground-for.html?rh=1
By MARK RICE
During the groundbreaking ceremony Monday to mark the official start of the $25 million student housing project at Columbus State University, Interim President Tom Hackett noted those living on the third floor will have an impressive view of the quad. “Maybe we can charge more for that dorm,” Hackett joked, and the standing-room-only crowd in the tent joined him in laughter. The 121,000-square-foot building is scheduled to open by the fall 2016 semester. It will be constructed atop a hill bordered by Clearview Circle. The complex will be the closest student housing to main campus and will comprise: … The CSU project is part of the $517 million contract the University System of Georgia awarded in competitive bidding to Corvias Campus Living of Cary, N.C., to develop new dorms containing 3,683 beds and scheduled to open in fall 2016, as well as manage existing dorms comprising another 6,195 beds for nine institutions during the next 65 years.

USG Institutions:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Georgian of the Year to speak at CSU graduation
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/05/10/3713254_georgian-of-the-year-to-speak.html?rh=1
By MARK RICE
The Georgian of the Year will be Columbus State University’s spring 2015 graduation speaker. University System of Georgia Chancellor Henry “Hank” Huckaby, given the honor by Georgia Trend magazine earlier this year, is scheduled to address the crowd tonight in the Columbus Civic Center, where CSU expects to award nearly 900 degrees, starting at 6:30 p.m. The commencement ceremony is free and open to the public.

www.onlineathens.com
UGA says it will help retirees with health insurance change
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-05-12
By Lee Shearer
The University of Georgia’s Human Resources Department will train workers to help retirees switch over to private health insurance as the University System of Georgia backs out of providing health insurance directly and begins providing retirees a yearly sum to help pay for insurance. The university may even rent space off-campus and hire new employees to help UGA retirees through the process of choosing a co-insurance plan (for medical costs not paid by the federal Medicare program), said Juan Jarrett, UGA’s new associate vice president for human resources.

www.bizjournals.com
Three Georgia universities among ‘The 50 Most Powerful Alumni Networks’
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/05/11/three-georgia-universities-among-the-50-most.html
Staff
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Best College Values released a list of the 50 Most Powerful Alumni Networks and making the grade were Emory University (No. 19), Georgia Tech (No. 35) and The University of Georgia (No. 41).

www.ledger-enquirer.com
Sunday Interview with Jimmy Blanchard: ‘I think your reputation is made over a long period of time by what you do and who you are’
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/05/09/3711514_sunday-interview-with-jimmy-blanchard.html?rh=1
By Chuck Williams
Over nearly a half century, Jimmy Blanchard has been in critical business and civic leadership positions in Columbus. …You think whitewater is that big? Yeah, I think it’s big. And then Columbus State coming down to the central business district in Uptown. That’s so big. You had the hotel — it was the Hilton then — and you had a lot of other events that occurred, then you had the TSYS campus. You had these two anchors and then all of a sudden you started filling in between, and then, lo and behold, you end up with a lot of people there because of Columbus State. … You are no longer officially tied to Synovus, right? Right. Kessel Stelling is the chairman and CEO now. You have a good relationship with Kessel and talk with him on a regular basis, right? Yes. He’s a good friend. He has been very considerate of me having been the CEO for 35 years. He’s very thoughtful in my part in the history of the company, and he has been very quick to ask my opinion — I guess, advice. He’s his own man; he’s got a great sense of leadership and vision for the company. But I would say I have enjoyed a very nice, pleasant and, I think, productive relationship with him. … If you look, Columbus State University is obviously a public university, part of the University System of Georgia. But the Columbus State University we see today doesn’t exist without philanthropic efforts from Columbus, right? Right. … Columbus State University, outside of the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State — the three big research universities — has the strongest record of support financially from the community of any of the other 30 — or whatever the number is these days — universities in the system.

www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/05/12/opinion-we-are-urging-georgia-students-to-attend-college-while-making-it-harder-for-them-to-do-so/
Opinion: We are urging Georgia students to attend college while making it harder for them to do so
Jessica Cooke was a lecturer with the English Department at the University of North Georgia. She recently resigned her position to protest the ongoing tuition increase in Georgia, including a 5 percent tuition hike at UNG. In a note to her students, she explained:
I have to walk away from higher education now because I can no longer be a part of this industry which simultaneously capitalizes on your aspirations and spits on them. Yes, a college/university education may be the primary means to career opportunity and advancement because the American myth still lingers heavily like a bad perfume in a cramped elevator, but the race is hardly a fair one when many of you must leverage your futures to secure those opportunities. After graduation, because some of you will be tethered to outrageous student loan debts, you will begin your life’s journeys from well behind the starting line. That’s not fair, and that’s not the higher education system I signed up to work in.
In this essay, Cooke focuses on the impact of rising tuition and crushing college debt on one of her students, a young woman who delayed college and could not apply for HOPE.

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Anxiety, Depression and More
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/12/survey-notes-conditions-those-seeking-care-campus-counseling-centers
By Scott Jaschik
For the fifth year in a row, anxiety is the top condition of students seeking care at campus counseling centers, according to a survey released Monday night by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. Before the last five years, depression was the top condition for which students sought treatment, but that now is a strong second. And many students of course come to counseling centers with multiple conditions. The survey (for 2014) provides a snapshot, through data provided by the centers, of the mental health of college students and the issues they (or at least those seeking help at the counseling centers) are facing.