University System News:
www.nbc26.tv
Georgia Board of Regents chair talks future of GRU
http://nbc26.tv/2015/07/27/georgia-board-of-regents-chair-talks-future-of-gru/
By NBC 26 Staff
AUGUSTA, Ga. – The chair of Georgia’s Board of Regents was in Augusta Monday, and he talked about Georgia Regent University’s future. Neil Pruitt addressed the Augusta Rotary Club Monday afternoon. He says there is a plan in place to improve housing and research at GRU, and the money is now available thanks to the state’s public private partnership and recent school consolidations.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
GRU President Keel pledges to work together with Augusta
http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2015-07-27/gru-president-keel-pledges-work-together-augusta
By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer
Georgia Regents University and Augusta are on a “two-way street” where they should work together to become great, new GRU President Brooks Keel said. Speaking Monday before the Rotary Club of Augusta, Keel touted his deep roots in Augusta education, which extend back to first grade at Monte Sano Elementary School and extend through the two schools that were later consolidated to create GRU – Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences universities. “You don’t get much more Augusta-educated than me,” he said. Although he is just in his second week in the job, he is already excited about the potential of that consolidated school, calling it “one unbelievable opportunity we have here in Augusta.”
USG Institutions:
www.ajc.com
Making the Grade: KSU program helps freshmen ‘Thrive’
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/making-the-grade-ksu-program-helps-freshmen-thrive/nm7D7/
H.M. Cauley
For the AJC
Faith Mohr’s college experience was the sort other students often aspire to. To begin with, she earned her communications degree from Kennesaw State in four years. She made life-long friends as well as mentors among the faculty and staff she met. And she kept the HOPE scholarship, which left her with only one student loan that she expects to pay off in the next two years. The 22-year-old May grad credits those accomplishments to Thrive, a free KSU program designed to support first-year HOPE students so they can keep the scholarship.
www.ajc.com
UGA using $4.4M to shrink class sizes, add course sections
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/uga-using-44m-to-shrink-class-sizes-add-course-sec/nm7W7/
Janel Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students attending the University of Georgia will see smaller class sizes over the coming year as the institution hires more faculty and adds more than 300 new course sections. UGA is using $4.4 million toward the initiative. Reducing class sizes highlights UGA’s commitment to putting students first, President Jere Morehead said in a statement. “Reducing the number of large class sections in critical instruction areas will improve student learning and success and further enhance our world-class learning environment.”
www.onlineathens.com
Judge dismisses UGA prof’s lawsuit against attorney general, UGA officials
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-07-28/judge-dismisses-uga-profs-lawsuit-against-attorney-general-uga-officials
By LEE SHEARER
A Fulton County State Court judge has dismissed a University of Georgia professor’s lawsuit against former UGA President Michael Adams and the university. In a separate lawsuit, a Fulton County Superior Court judge has refused to reconsider his dismissal of another lawsuit the professor filed against state and university officials. Dezso Benedek alleged in the lawsuits that Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Adams and others at the university conspired to destroy his reputation and academic career during a 2010 tenure revocation proceeding against the comparative literature professor. The officials knowingly hid evidence that would have exonerated Benedek during the tenure revocation proceeding, according to complaints filed by Benedek and lawyer Stephen Humphreys in 2013 and 2014. University officials said Benedek violated rules about academic integrity in bringing the tenure revocation proceeding.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Colleges’ Summer Programs Don’t Influence Admissions
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/07/28/colleges-summer-programs-dont-influence-admissions
Many elite college open their campuses for various summer programs for high school students who want a taste of college life. WGBH News reported that the programs are popular and expensive ($5,500 for a three-week noncredit course at Brown University, for example). While the programs make no promises about a student being admitted as a freshman later, the program notes that many participants hope that will be the case.
www.insidehighered.com
The Complexity of Accountability
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/28/renewed-obama-push-higher-ed-accountability-echoes-entrenched-politics
By Michael Stratford
BALTIMORE — Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s call on Monday for a greater focus on student outcomes at colleges was an effort to pivot away from discussions that he said are focused too narrowly on the burden of student loan debt — discussions administration officials feel are crowding out the debate over structural flaws in America’s higher education system. The refocusing of attention on accountability, though, again exposed contentious political fault lines that tend to emerge when the federal government tries to use its hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of leverage to reward and punish colleges and states, as Duncan proposed.