USG e-clips from May 27, 2015

University System News:
www.gainesvilletimes.com
Tom Crawford: It pays really well to be a university president in Georgia
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/24/article/109967/
By Tom Crawford
The state Board of Regents, which makes the decisions on how the University System is operated, voted on April 14 to raise tuition rates at Georgia’s public colleges by as much as 9 percent. It was not an unusual event; the regents have raised tuition rates every year for more than two decades. A recent study showed that Georgia had raised college tuition rates more than any other state except New Mexico over the preceding five years. There is a valid reason for many of those increases. During the long economic slowdown, the General Assembly imposed substantial funding cutbacks on the University System. Higher tuition rates have made up for many of those reductions. You would logically expect that the money raised from higher tuition rates would be used to hire instructors, maintain classrooms and provide a positive learning environment for students. If you thought that, you would be partly wrong. One month after they voted to raise tuition, the Board of Regents met again and voted to give salary increases to the presidents of Georgia’s colleges and universities.

www.onlineathens.com
UGA president Morehead will make 43 percent more under new contracts
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-05-27/uga-president-morehead-will-make-43-percent-more-under-new-contracts
By Lee Shearer
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead will get a retroactive pay raise of about $170,000 this fiscal year and a second raise of nearly $74,000 beginning July 1. He plans to give a “significant” portion back to UGA, however, he said. After the two raises, Morehead’s pay will be $811,375.68 in the 2016 fiscal year, including deferred compensation of $204,013.83 Even with that 43 percent salary increase over the two fiscal years, Morehead ranks as only the third highest paid public college president in the state after the Board of Regents last week also approved big raises for the presidents of Georgia Tech and Georgia State University. Both Georgia State’s Mark Becker and Tech’s Bud Peterson will make more than $1 million a year.

USG Institutions:
www.coastalcourier.com
Liberty Center to offer master’s degree
http://coastalcourier.com/section/5/article/73626/
Special to the Courier
SAVANNAH — The Armstrong Liberty Center, which serves as the Hinesville location for Armstrong State University, will offer a new master’s degree in Professional Communication and Leadership starting in the fall. Courses at the Liberty Center will be offered in a seven-week “minimester” format, with evening and online options that accommodate working adult students. The Professional Communication and Leadership degree prepares working professionals and college graduates for workplace communication, critical thinking and leadership.

www.professu.com
How Do We Attract More African-American Men to STEM? Georgia Tech Answers the Call
http://www.professu.com/how-do-we-attract-more-african-american-men-to-stem-georgia-tech-answers-the-call/
Georgia Tech held a roundtable on Capitol Hill, in an effort to discuss ways in attracting African American men to STEM:

www.mdjonline.com
WellStar, Georgia Tech design safer splint
http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/26651757/article-WellStar–Georgia-Tech-design-safer-splint?sp-tk=6F9DCC0D94E1C87D57AF9B2EE9934B75E2EDEC1E12DC385C66517FFF346EE652BB9C157A5C0F037BC5010D6B23F776C0E79315999DD43B481E0FD982136E1D4903190B9A90FDFB77BF030515EE084134B761068D131625F95E66DBCFE8EB4EDFBF447BC2E8FA318BAF74005FE93E2664F7BA5372A7D899C656F7AE886F54816F1435DA3743C5F27F1BB11CCD9B536AE73556C359
By MDJ staff
The Center for Health Transformation, the research arm of WellStar Health System collaborated with Georgia Tech students in the research and design of a 3D scanning and printing, auto applying splint and cast device. The device would ideally reduce the margin of error, provide faster application time and decrease the inconveniences of living with a cast or splint. “Fiber glass casts are not comfortable and they are not waterproof,” said Mark Miller, a Georgia Tech student. “So if you take a shower or go outside and sweat, that water isn’t going anywhere. That’s going to create mold and it’s going to get stinky.” Miller and fellow engineering students presented their innovative devices at the Student Design Expo, one of the largest student engineering design expos in the United States. The cast Miller and his team designed uses a honeycomb structure to increase the durability of the cast and is also waterproof. This allows the patient wearing the cast to function with minimal limitations.

www.11alive.com
UNG investigates students claims of retaliation
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2015/05/26/university-north-georgia-gabriela-batista-retaliation-continuing-education-cover/27974979/
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A student fired from two of her on-campus jobs at the University of North Georgia, and let go from a third, says she’s still waiting for an apology. She believes the decisions were made in retaliation for her public comments against a controversial catalog cover published by the school’s Continuing Education Department. It showed two white men leading a race, while a black man struggled to finish. The caption on the page said, “Why follow when you can lead.” The University immediately changed the cover, and ruled the incident a “learning opportunity.” The day after 11Alive started asking questions about the timing of the catalog cover and Gabriela Batista’s termination, the University hired its own law firm to investigate.

Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
How student debt became a presidential campaign issue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-student-debt-became-a-presidential-campaign-issue/2015/05/24/1463948e-f41c-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html
By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
The $1.3 trillion burden of student debt is becoming an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign as candidates court the millions of Americans grappling with the high cost of college. Congressional Democrats are advocating for debt-free public higher education and pushing party front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton to take up the issue in her campaign. White House hopefuls Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley have already backed the plan, with Sanders proposing his own federal program to make four-year public college free. Republican contenders have not laid out any specific positions, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush have framed the issue as a barrier to economic mobility in recent speeches.

www.usnews.com
Private Colleges Target Community College Grads
With enrollment declining, longstanding barriers to transfers are falling.
http://www.usnews.com/news/college-of-tomorrow/articles/2015/05/27/private-colleges-target-community-college-grads?int=a14709
By Jon Marcus
Adam Brown started his higher education at a community college in his home state of North Carolina. By the time he was ready to go on to get a bachelor’s degree, however, he found that public universities there wouldn’t accept those credits. Brown was in his mid-30s, with a family and a job at a company that manufactures parts for light-rail electric trolley buses, which had agreed to pay for him to go back to school. But the institutions said his earlier credits were too far out of date. He found a solution in an unlikely place: the University of Mount Olive, a private, nonprofit liberal arts college in Mount Olive, North Carolina, that went out of its way to pursue him. …Transfer students like Brown aren’t just finding their credits suddenly being accepted by small, private colleges and universities that once turned up their noses at them; as the number of conventional high school graduates begins to slide, they’re being actively – even aggressively – recruited.

www.insidehighered.com
Asking Too Much, or Not Enough?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/27/language-sexual-assault-surveys-criticized-students-triggering
By Jake New
This spring, institutions that administered the campus sexual assault survey created by the Association of American Universities found some unexpected critics: students who had been assaulted and their advocates on campus. Advocates have long told colleges that they should conduct anonymous “climate surveys” to better assess the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses.