USG Institutions:
www.tiftongazette.com
ABAC graduates most students in history
http://www.tiftongazette.com/news/abac-graduates-most-students-in-history/article_fc75442a-f5ac-11e4-8018-4336d1fc44e1.html
Special to The Gazette
TIFTON—More students than at any point in the 107-year history of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College completed their requirements for graduation in the annual spring commencement ceremony on Thursday in Gressette Gymnasium. ABAC President David Bridges said a record-breaking 409 students completed the requirements for graduation at the end of the spring term. Over 300 of them participated in the ceremony. A total of 117 graduates received bachelor’s degrees, shattering the previous high of 67. The Stafford School of Business also set a record by awarding 24 bachelor’s degrees in business and economic development.

www.ccdaily.com
Ga. college celebrates its 50th — and final — graduation
http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Campus-Issues/College-marks-its-50th-and-final-graduation.aspx
By Kysa Anderson Daniels
​Lots of intense studying and sacrifice have paid off for nursing major Ada Holloway. With exuberance and dignity, the honor student talked about graduating as part of the 50th and final class from Georgia Perimeter College (GPC). “It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it,” she said of her accomplishment. “I couldn’t ask for anything else — and then this is history, too.” Shelley Nickel, University System of Georgia vice chancellor for planning and implementation, delivered the keynote speech at the commencement on May 8 at the Georgia World Congress Center. She saluted the 2015 graduates, while assuring them that next year’s consolidation of GPC with Georgia State University will mean more of a good thing. “A name change, a leadership change, but still the same mission,” Nickel said.

www.charlotteraleigh.citybizlist.com
Value Colleges Releases 2015 Ranking of Top 50 Best Value MBA Programs
http://charlotteraleigh.citybizlist.com/article/267919/value-colleges-releases-2015-ranking-of-top-50-best-value-mba-programs
Value Colleges (www.valuecolleges.com), an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate college education, has released its 2015 ranking of the Top 50 Best Value MBA Programs at http://www.valuecolleges.com/rankings/best-value-mba-programs/.Value Colleges’ Top 50 Best Value MBA list is a guide to the colleges and universities that give students the best return for their investment: colleges that meet the ideal combination of affordability and excellence, with high ROI and low debt. These fifty schools represent the most secure investment for students hoping to improve their education and status with a convenient, flexible degree program. … Georgia Institute of Technology, Scheller College of Business; University of Georgia, Terry College of Business

www.albanyherald.com
EDITORIAL: Long wait for Albany State University students will soon be over
After a decade, funding for a $19.8 million education building is approved in state budget
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2015/may/12/editorial-long-wait-for-albany-state-university/
By The Albany Herald Editorial Board
After 10 years of repeated hopes and disappointments, a badly needed multipurpose center for Albany State University is finally on the way. Gov. Nathan Deal, who became the first governor to visit the ASU campus since the Flood of 1994, said in his remarks Tuesday: “Education always eats up the largest part of the budget and we’ve spent more on education than any governor in the past 50 years. It pleases me that we were able to include $19.8 million in funding for a new fine arts center at your fine institution.” The funding for the $19.8 million in state bonds was inked in along with the overall $21.6 billion in state spending for the upcoming fiscal year as Deal conducted signed of the state spending plan Monday on campus at Albany State.

www.myajc.com
State Democrats correct about scholarship cash and transit funding
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/state-democrats-correct-about-scholarship-cash-and/nmFMc/
By Nancy Badertscher – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
… This includes funding in 2016 of scholarships for minority students pursuing degrees in engineering, said Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Steve Henson of Tucker. A curious reader contacted PolitiFact weeks after the legislative session ended April 2, asking us to check if this were really true. “Where is it in the state budget?” she asked. PolitiFact promised to take a look. It took until Monday of this week, the day the governor signed the 2016 budget, for us to finally see the full picture. There is indeed money to fund scholarships for minority students who want to pursue degrees in engineering. There’s $3 million in fact. The money will be available in Fiscal Year 2016, which starts July 1, through the Georgia Student Finance Commission, best-known as the state agency overseeing the popular HOPE scholarship program. Qualifying minorities include females, African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians. These scholarships will be available to students at Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern, Mercer University and the University of Georgia, as well as qualifying dual-degree program students.

www.times-herald.com
Ribbon cutting held for UWG Newnan
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20150513-City-holds-ribbon-cutting-ceremony-for-UWG-Newnan
by Celia Shortt
Tuesday was a historic day for the city of Newnan, as it held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new University of West Georgia (UWG) Newnan campus at the site of the old Newnan Hospital. “We’re here today to embrace the past and to prepare for the future,” said Newnan Mayor Keith Brady at the ceremony. “We’re also here today because this community said yes.” The new UWG Newnan campus is a collaborative effort among the city of Newnan, UWG, the Newnan hospital board and the Georgia Board of Regents. Several other city, county, and university officials were also involved.

www.macon.com
Middle Georgia State expanding in Warner Robins
http://www.macon.com/2015/05/12/3742348_middle-georgia-state-expanding.html?rh=1
By WAYNE CRENSHAW
WARNER ROBINS — Middle Georgia State College is expanding its Warner Robins campus. The state budget signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday includes $5 million for a science, technology, engineering and math building. The 16,100-square-foot building will include a high-tech classroom and labs for cyber security and nursing, as well flexible lab space for various sciences, according to a statement from the college. It will be the fourth building on the Warner Robins campus, which opened in 2003. It will be the first new building for the campus since 2007. Middle Georgia State is set to become a university as of July 1.

www.walb.com
New science buildings, equipment planned for SSU
http://www.walb.com/story/29045408/new-science-buildings-equipment-planned-for-ssu
By WTOC Staff
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – Savannah State University has been approved for funding for a two College of Sciences and Technology buildings. The $20.5 million project received a green light for its second installment by the Georgia state legislature in their latest session. The project consists of two related portions. The university purchased property on Livingston Avenue where a new marine sciences laboratory facility will be constructed. The property was formerly a banquet hall known as the Italian Club. The existing building is slated for removal. … On the main campus, there will be a new two-story, 30,000 square foot building to house engineering technology and chemistry laboratories. The building will be comprised of labs and faculty space.

www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Opinion: Even though teacher pension bill killed, allow fiscal impact study to proceed
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/05/13/opinion-even-though-teacher-pension-bill-killed-allow-fiscal-impact-study-to-proceed/
C. S. Thachenkary is an associate professor in the Department of Managerial Sciences at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. In this piece, he delves into proposed changes to the Teachers Retirement System. He references a recent AJC story. For background, here is an except of that AJC story:

www.midtown.11alive.com
Ga. Tech researchers create painless vaccine
http://midtown.11alive.com/news/news/1847022-ga-tech-researchers-create-painless-vaccine
Submitted by 11Alive News Staff
ATLANTA — Imagine a vaccine that causes no pain, requires no refrigeration and can be easily disposed once given. It’s not too far in the future. Researchers at Georgia Tech and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are developing a device that will do just that. They created a patch of needles smaller than the height of a credit card, with the hope it will be able to deliver life-saving vaccines for illnesses like measles. “We first got started with the general idea 20 years ago,” Georgia Tech chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Mark Prausnitz said. “We have scaled down the idea of a needle and made it very small, made it microscopic small, less than a millimeter in length.” Think of it as a syringe and needle condensed into a Band-Aid. When it is applied and removed, it leaves behind a vaccine.

www.healthcanal.com
Scientists Regenerate Bone Tissue Using Only Proteins Secreted by Stem Cells
http://www.healthcanal.com/medical-breakthroughs/63425-scientists-regenerate-bone-tissue-using-only-proteins-secreted-by-stem-cells.html
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Scientists have discovered a way to regrow bone tissue using the protein signals produced by stem cells. This technology could help treat victims who have experienced major trauma to a limb, like soldiers wounded in combat or casualties of a natural disaster. The new method improves on older therapies by providing a sustainable source for fresh tissue and reducing the risk of tumor formation that can arise with stem cell transplants. ..“These limitations motivate the need for more consistent and reproducible source material for tissue regeneration,” says Dr. McDevitt, who conducted the research while he was a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “As a renewable resource that is both scalable and consistent in manufacturing, pluripotent stem cells are an ideal solution.” Other researchers on the study include Ken Sutha, Zvi Schwartz, Yun Wang, Sharon Hyzy, and Barbara Boyan from the Gladstone Institutes, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

www.foxnews.com
Want to control a swarm of robots? Georgia Tech has the answer
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/05/12/want-to-control-swarm-robots-georgia-tech-has-answer/
FoxNews.com
Researchers at Georgia Tech have built a tablet-based system that lets people control a fleet of robots with just the swipe of a finger. The system uses a beam of light on the floor, according to Georgia Tech. The ‘swarm’ robots, which are in constant communication with each other, roll toward the illumination, and decide how to evenly cover the lit area. Researchers say that when someone swipes the Apple iPad to drag the light across the floor, the robots follow. If, however, the person puts two fingers in different locations on the tablet, the machines split into teams and start the ‘swarm’ process again.

www.nola.com
6 things AOL co-founder Steve Case had to say about New Orleans startups
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2015/05/aol_steve_case_new_orleans_sta.html
By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
AOL co-founder and venture capitalist Steve Case was in New Orleans Friday (May 8) to meet with local startups and get a firsthand look at the entrepreneurial community … Here are six observations Case had to share about New Orleans, its startups and the community that surrounds them … New Orleans needs more engineers. Case said New Orleans needs to figure out a way to attract more talent, particularly software engineers and experienced executives who can grow companies. He pointed to Atlanta where Georgia Tech provides a steady stream of local engineering talent. “The engineering side needs some attention in New Orleans,” he said.

Higher Education News:
www.effinghamherald.net
Georgia gets students moving on
http://www.effinghamherald.net/section/2/article/30584/
By Russ Moore
While you were distracted by this year’s transportation funding or Opportunity School District debates — or possibly ignoring the Legislature entirely — Gov. Nathan Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, and both parties in both chambers unanimously set a tiny pebble rolling from the top of the mountain known as public education. That pebble may become an avalanche leading to an earthquake or, as we policy geeks like to say, a “Paradigm Shift.” Fortunately, the tectonic plates crumbling are irrelevance, dropouts and waste, and the new Himalayas rising will be named relevance, graduation and productive citizenship. The context: For years, Georgia has ranked near the bottom of states in the quality of public education. Say what you will about the fairness or folly of the reporting; it’s there and it must be dealt with. Economic developers say the quality of the workforce is the No. 1 factor for employers choosing a location, and education is the No. 1 factor defining the workforce. A great education will lead to the best possible workforce. … The new laws not only change and solidify the method by which school systems receive full funding for high school students in dual enrollment, they also eliminate all college costs for students and their parents. Further, they define with crystal clarity how students may graduate from high school by taking only dual enrollment college courses after 10th grade. So now a 16-year-old entering 11th grade who wants to be a welder or a computer game designer or an English professor can finish high school by enrolling in a technical college or a University System of Georgia college or university, take two years of courses for free, and graduate from his or her home high school at age 18 with a two-year college degree or diploma chock full of transferrable college credits … and no debt. For those who want a job right out of high school, the new law is even better: A student enrolling in a technical college only has to earn two Technical Certificates of Credit (TCCs) and an industrial certification — all in the same field — to finish high school. That can be done in less than two years.

www.chronicle.com
LSU Chancellor Fights Budget Cuts With Candor and Swagger
http://chronicle.com/article/LSU-Chancellor-Fights-Budget/230109/
By Eric Kelderman
Louisiana politics is known for colorful personalities and big attitudes. It’s not usually the place where a guy with a doctorate in education policy makes a splash. But F. King Alexander, chancellor of the Louisiana State University system, is making a name for himself as an outspoken critic of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed budget, which recommends a mammoth 82-percent cut in higher education. The chancellor — who is also president of the system’s flagship — has found an effective way to get his message out, grabbing headlines with warnings about the dire consequences of those cuts, said Jeremy Alford, the publisher of LaPolitics.com, a website that covers the state political scene.

www.insidehighered.com
A Liberal Arts Take on Tech
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/13/four-liberal-arts-colleges-early-mooc-scene-form-online-education-consortium
By Carl Straumsheim
The first four liberal arts colleges to join the massive open online course provider edX are forming a consortium to improve teaching both online and on campus. Administrators, faculty members and staffers from the four colleges — Colgate University, Davidson College, Hamilton College and Wellesley College — met at Davidson’s campus in North Carolina in February to discuss a potential consortium. At a follow-up meeting Monday at Wellesley, a women’s college in Massachusetts, the colleges signed a memorandum of understanding forming the as yet unnamed consortium, laying the groundwork for closer collaboration between the liberal arts colleges.

www.diverseeducation.com
States Vary in Success at Improving High School Grad Rates
http://diverseeducation.com/article/72671/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=d2dc9e45cbc0462897b5a72c026531e0&elqCampaignId=415&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=3bf8162ee930473b92a9e5554a0c1d53
by Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press
WASHINGTON ― The record high American graduation rate masks large gaps among low-income students and those with disabilities compared to their peers. There are also wide disparities among states in how well they are tackling the issue. “This year, we need to sound a stronger alarm,” said Gen. Colin Powell and his wife, Alma Powell, in a letter released Tuesday as part of an annual Grad Nation report produced in part by their America’s Promise Alliance organization. The report is based on 2013 rates using federal data, the most recent available. The nation’s overall graduation rate has reached 81 percent, a figure frequently touted by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Duncan said Tuesday in a statement that the gains are encouraging, but “we know that more hard work remains to truly prepare all ― not just some ― students for success in college.” …Gains have been fueled, in part, by large growth in some of the nation’s largest states, including California, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

www.chronicle.com
Minority Ph.D.’s Find Career Success in STEM
http://chronicle.com/article/Minority-PhD-s-Find-Career/230043/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Francis M. Leslie
In response to a recent article in The Chronicle on the Council of Graduate Schools’ report on “The Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion,” a number of readers commented that universities do minority students no favors by encouraging them to obtain doctorates in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math — where they are unlikely to find employment. In fact, this apparently widespread view is wrong. First of all, it is important to understand that, according to recent data from the National Science Foundation, only 7.25 percent of doctorate degrees in those fields are awarded to underrepresented minorities, far below their 30 percent representation in the general population. Furthermore, over 70 percent of science and engineering jobs are held by white men and women, while only 11 percent are held by underrepresented minorities. Why does this disparity matter? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that recipients of Ph.D.s and professional degrees have the lowest unemployment rate and highest full-time earnings in the country. So the dearth of underrepresented minorities with Ph.D.’s in STEM not only represents a substantial financial inequity but also reduces their potential impact on the nation’s economic strength. Given these findings, it seems clear that universities should make a substantial effort to support underrepresented minority students in STEM graduate education. Challenges abound, however.