University System News:
www.universitybusiness.com
Corvias Campus Living secures $548M for U. System of Ga.
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/corvias-campus-living-secures-548m-u-system-ga
Submitted by Stefanie Botelho
Corvias Campus Living, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corvias Group, today announced that it has successfully secured $548.3 million in private financing to fund the initial phase of an innovative public-private partnership (P3) with the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG). Under the terms of the 65-year partnership, Corvias Campus Living will significantly improve on-campus student housing at nine of the USG’s 30 campuses, including the development, construction, management and long-term maintenance of 3,753 new beds and 6,195 existing beds. This agreement marks the first time that a state system has privatized student housing across a portfolio of campuses.
www.universityworldnews.com
New global survey picks fastest-improving universities
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150514091940458
David Jobbins
Four US and two UK universities are among the most improved in the world over the past five years in an analysis of Thomson Reuters academic reputation surveys. King’s College London and New York University are the most significant climbers over the survey period from 2010 to 2014, dramatically improving their relative positions in the top 50 universities in the surveys, which Thomson Reuters says includes the insights of 65,000 academics and is representative of 6,500 universities and 105 areas of study. The other “most improved” universities are ETH Zurich, the National University of Singapore, Duke University, Northwestern University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Manchester, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Munich.
USG Institutions:
www.myajc.com
Kennesaw State adviser seen in viral video placed on leave
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/kennesaw-state-advisor-seen-in-viral-video-placed-/nmHRC/
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An academic adviser at Kennesaw State University has been placed on administrative leave after a complaint over an interaction with a student seen in a viral video. Abby Dawson, director of advising and internships in KSU’s Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management, is on leave during an investigation that is expected to take two weeks, according to a statement sent out by the school late Friday. The complaint stems from an interaction Dawson had with KSU student Kevin Bruce.
www.onlineathens.com
Michael’s Law aimed at enforcing alcohol rules in Georgia
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2015-05-18/michaels-law-aimed-enforcing-alcohol-rules-georgia
By Bill HendrickAssociated Press
ATLANTA | Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill that could force bars — mainly in college towns and rural areas where alcohol laws are often lax — to change their ways or go out of business. The seed for the bill, now called Michael’s Law, was planted Aug. 15 when Michael S. Gatto, 48, of Cumming, dropped off his son Michael J. Gatto, 18, at a dorm in Statesboro to begin his freshman year at Georgia Southern University. Two weeks later, the young Gatto was dead, the victim of a beating in Rude Rudy’s, a now-defunct bar. The man accused of assaulting him — Grant J. Spencer, then 20 and a GSU student from Johns Creek — has been held without bond since in the Bulloch County jail, charged with felony murder and aggravated battery. …Under the new law, bars, cities and municipalities must report violations within 45 days. The lawmakers also had “to define for the first time what a bar is in Georgia,” Duncan said. Now, “if sales of the place are 75 percent alcohol, you can’t enter unless you’re 21. And bouncers have to be 21. And bartenders.”
www.businessinsider.com
23 of the most powerful women engineers in the world
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-powerful-women-engineers-in-2015-2015-5?op=1#ixzz3aUXUIIP0
Julie Bort
No. 19: Zyrobotics’ Ayanna Howard
Ayanna Howard, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Zyrobotics. Howard is a professor at Georgia Tech specializing in the intersection of machine learning and robotics, (she has a a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering). She spent 13 years in robotics R&D for places like the National Science Foundation and NASA until 2012. That’s when she co-founded Zyrobotics, a Georgia Tech spin off .
www.henryherald.com
Studio opens for Clayton State film industries, digital media program
http://www.henryherald.com/news/2015/may/15/studio-opens-for-clayton-state-film-industries/
By Johnny Jackson
JONESBORO — Students congregated inside the former aircraft hangar, where the walls have been painted black and the mechanical equipment has been replaced by bright studio lights. State officials joined the crew-in-training on the sound stage in Clayton State University’s Film and Digital Media Center to celebrate the May 12 opening of the Lucy Huie Hall Film Studio, part of the Film and Digital Media Center in Jonesboro. The studio, named after local civil rights activist Lucy Huie, will facilitate hands-on training for students in Clayton State’s digital film technician training program.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
Georgia State research paves way for early detection of liver cancer
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/294002.php
Led by Georgia State University, researchers have developed the first robust and noninvasive detection of early stage liver cancer and liver metastases, in addition to other liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and liver fibrosis. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Buying Outsiders
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/18/report-criticizes-public-colleges-use-funds-recruit-out-state-students
By Kellie Woodhouse
Public universities are using non-need-based aid to recruit out-of-state students, at the expense of low-income and in-state students. That’s the thesis of a report released today by New America. Public colleges that provide substantial amounts of what they call merit aid to students tend to enroll more nonresident students — and have experienced a greater decline in resident students over the past 15 years — than their peers that don’t use that strategy, the report found. They also tend to enroll fewer students with Pell Grants and charge low-income students a higher average net price than colleges that provide little merit aid.
www.chronicle.com
The Growth in College Costs Is Slowing, Particularly for Poorer Families
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2015/05/13/the-growth-in-college-costs-is-slowing-particularly-for-poorer-families/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
by James L. Doti
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, President Mitch Daniels of Purdue University said, “For decades college tuition has outpaced inflation, forcing students to increase their borrowing.” While this sort of hyperbole is rampant in the media, it’s disconcerting, to say the least, coming from a college president. Daniels claims “tuition has outpaced inflation” for decades. What tuition? Is it tuition at public or private colleges? Is it published tuition or net tuition? And what about the fact that most students pay different tuition rates based on family income? A blanket statement that tuition increases exceed overall price changes has consequences. Growing regulatory pressure on higher education can be traced to the general view promulgated by the media that colleges pass out-of-control costs along to students in the form of rapidly increasing tuition. The resulting escalation in tuition, it is alleged, hits low-income students particularly hard, since they are least able to afford it.
www.chronicle.com
The Challenge of the First-Generation Student
Colleges amp up efforts to retain them, but hurdles remain
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Challenge-of-the/230137/?cid=at
By Katherine Mangan
Tae-Hyun Sakong would love to be able to tell his parents why he decided to major in neuroscience, and what it was like to help his biology professor probe a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. The Trinity University undergraduate also wishes he could tell them about the anxiety and depression that overwhelm him when he compares himself with classmates who attended elite prep schools and spend spring breaks in Cancun. But his parents, who never went to college, speak little English, and he speaks his native Korean at a grade-school level. “I would kill to be able to explain to them what I do,” he says. …As colleges seek to diversify their student bodies and patch up their leaky pipelines for disadvantaged students, many are expanding efforts to connect students who are the first in their families to attend college with supportive classmates, advisers, and professors. Some colleges have formal, longstanding programs in place, while others offer scholarships or informal support groups. But despite the fact that a growing number of first-generation college students are arriving on their doorsteps, many other colleges are doing little to meet their needs, either because they have trouble identifying such students or because their budgets are strained.
www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/05/17/as-morehouse-and-spelman-graduate-consider-fate-and-funding-of-hbcus/
As Morehouse and Spelman graduate, consider fate and funding of HBCUs
Carolyn Ash, Ed.D. is Managing Director of Ash Consulting Group, which helps guide the efforts of schools and other organizations committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D. is in the Milano School for International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy and the Department of Economics at The New School, and president-elect of the National Economic Association. Alan A. Aja, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College (CUNY). William Darity, Jr., Ph.D. is in the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Departments of African and African American Studies and Economics at Duke University. In this essay, the four explore the status of Historically Black Colleges and Universities:
While most state colleges can experience ebbs and flows of financial challenges tied to federal funding cuts in higher education, HBCUs have been particularly vulnerable in the era of austerity politics. Their situation has become grim over the last five years. After the U.S. Department of Education made changes in 2011 to the length of time Pell Grants can be used by college students, followed by more stringent parameters attached to the Parent Plus Loan program in 2012, the damage to HBCUs had already been done. Not only were enrollment figures adversely affected, with some students forced to drop out mid-semester, but the changes may end up costing HBCUs’ limited school endowments hundreds of millions of dollars. As punitive reforms continue to permeate U.S. education policy, the general attitude seems to be if HBCUs cannot support themselves independently, they should just be eliminated entirely. If they are to survive, the underlying sentiment is to rely on alumni giving to avoid financial disaster.