University System News:
www.ajc.com
Ga. Supreme Court to hear tuition case for undocumented immigrants
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/ga-supreme-court-to-hear-tuition-case-for-undocume/nmfKD/
The Georgia Supreme Court agreed this week agreed to hear oral arguments in a case involving in-state tuition at Georgia’s public colleges for certain immigrant students. The case involves a lawsuit filed against the state’s Board of Regents by a group of 39 immigrant students over its policies requiring students to have “lawful presence” in the state to pay the cheaper in-state rates. The students and their attorney have argued that being accepted into the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, makes them lawfully present in the country.
www.myajc.com
Brazil’s innovation labs inspire Georgia leaders
http://www.myajc.com/news/business/economy/brazils-innovation-labs-inspire-georgia-leaders/nmfcF/
By Greg Bluestein – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On a heavily-guarded island near Rio de Janeiro’s fabled beaches, Georgia’s leaders see validation for their shift in higher education strategy. …Georgia officials, who visited the site as part of a weeklong trade mission to Brazil, said it was an encouraging sign to push forward on a strategy that focuses on “experiential” learning in college systems and closer collaboration with corporate leaders. …“The number one thing everyone we visit talks about is workforce,” said Chris Carr, the state’s economic development commissioner. “We preach collaboration. And helping the university system and the technical college system is critical.”
USG Institutions:
www.onlineathens.com
UGA officials considering purchase of electric buses
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-06-17/uga-officials-considering-purchase-electric-buses
By Lee Shearer
University of Georgia bus stops might soon become considerably less noisy and more environmentally friendly. UGA officials are considering replacing part of the university’s bus fleet with electric buses. … UGA could buy 16 of the vehicles if the federal Department of Transportation approves an $11.5 million UGA grant application, Hamlin said. UGA would add $5 million to the grant.
Higher Education News:
www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/06/17/report-public-colleges-will-yield-increasingly-higher-financial-return-for-grads-than-private/
Report: Public colleges will yield increasingly higher financial return for grads than private colleges
PayScale.com looked at the net return on investment in a public and private college education through the year 2025. Its finding: The financial return to public college graduates is higher than grads of private schools, and the gap is widening. (One fact does not change. A college degree is still a sound investment.)
www.cnbc.com
Can these fixes make college more affordable?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102762612
Tom Anderson
Rising student debt levels certainly seem unsustainable. Over the past 10 years, student loan debt has more than tripled from $360 billion in 2005 to more than $1.2 trillion today, making it second only to outstanding mortgage debt. Meanwhile, student loan delinquencies have surged from 6 percent a decade ago to more than 11 percent at the end of last year, far higher than the delinquency rate for any other type of debt.
www.chronicle.com
Universities Ban Smart Watches During Finals
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/universities-ban-smart-watches-during-finals/57003?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
by Mary Ellen McIntire
Some Australian universities warned students this month not to wear wristwatches during final exams, amid concerns that increasingly popular wearable technology, like the Apple Watch, could foster cheating. La Trobe University, in Melbourne, and the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, both issued warnings at the start of their final-exam periods that students would have to remove their watches before testing began. The University of New South Wales required students to put all wristwatches in clear bags under their desks. La Trobe students could place traditional watches on their desks while taking exams, but they could not have smart watches in an exam room. Such policies are likely to be in place soon at American universities, said Eric Klopfer, director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
www.chronicle.com
Another Challenge on Campus Sexual Assault: Getting Minority Students to Report It
http://chronicle.com/article/Another-Challenge-on-Campus/230977/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Colleen Murphy
Reporting a campus sexual assault can be difficult, even traumatic, for any student. But for minority students who have been assaulted, speaking up can be an especially daunting prospect. Many of those students may simply not know how to go about reporting an assault. Many more may not feel that the conversations about sexual assault that have cascaded across campuses over the last year even apply to them, experts say. Increasingly, advocates for sexual-assault victims wonder: Are colleges doing enough to bring those minority students into the fold?
www.insidehighered.cpm
Finding a New Compass
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/18/act-drops-popular-compass-placement-test-acknowledging-its-predictive-limits
By Paul Fain
ACT decides to drop its popular Compass placement test, with a nod toward research showing that Compass funnels too many community college students into remedial courses. Community colleges and nonselective four-year institutions rely heavily on Compass and Accuplacer, a similar test from the College Board. Both assessments are low-cost, computerized and relatively quick ways of assessing students’ abilities in reading, writing and mathematics.