University System News:
www.bizjournals.com
How constant change is transforming state’s universities
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2015/08/07/how-constant-change-is-transforming-state-s.html
Maria Saporta
Contributing Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
When Hank Huckaby was asked in 2011 to cut short his four-month-long tenure as a state representative to join Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration as the chancellor of the University System of Georgia, he asked the governor one question. “Are you willing to make significant changes?” Huckaby asked Deal. The governor said yes. That exchange explains how Huckaby has become a statesman-like, change-agent within Georgia’s university system. The biggest change? The consolidation of several state universities and colleges. During the four years that Huckaby has been chancellor, the number of public colleges and universities in Georgia has dropped from 35 to 30. Plus when the proposed consolidation of Georgia State University and Georgia Perimeter College is approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Board of Regents (possibly in January 2016), that number will be 29. That consolidation will place Georgia State among the 10 largest public universities in the country. But Huckaby is not done making changes.

www.11alive.com
Georgia increases education options for film industry
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2015/08/07/georgia-increases-education-options–film-industry/31097121/
Jennifer D Bellamy
(WXIA) — With plenty of lights, a single camera and lots of action, students at Clayton State University are working to prepare for future careers in Georgia’s movie and film industry. Interest vary among students, but they’ve all got one goal in mind…making a place for themselves in the business.

www.myajc.com
Faculty at Ga. colleges want pay gap closed, decision making shared
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/faculty-at-ga-colleges-want-pay-gap-closed-decisio/nnFGM/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajcpremium#25965ec5.3566685.735817
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Faculty in the state’s university system want more of a say in financial and salary decisions, and they want system leaders to close the pay gaps between Georgia college faculty and national and regional competitors. The requests are part of a resolution the Faculty Council of the University System of Georgia sent this week to system Chancellor Hank Huckaby and the state’s Board of Regents. The faculty group, which includes a voting member from each of the 30 schools in the system, also asks that the Regents suspend any further systemwide increases in tuition and fees pending financial reviews of faculty pay.

www.onlineathens.com
Final candidate for UGA medical campus dean post to speak Monday
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2015-08-06/final-candidate-uga-medical-campus-dean-post-speak-monday
By LEE SHEARER
One more finalist for the campus dean position at the Georgia Research University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership will give a public presentation on his candidacy this Monday, Aug. 10. Dr. Michael Kozal, now an infectious diseases professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, will speak at 6 p.m. in room 228 of Russell Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus. …Three other candidates have already come to Athens for to meet faculty, staff and students and give public presentations — Dr. Charles Wiener, professor of medicine and physiology and director of international education and training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Dr. Frederick “Rick” Barr, the Suzan B. Thames Professor and chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and Dr. Klea Bertakis, professor and chair of the department of family and community medicine at the University of California, Davis. A search committee chaired by Houston Davis, the chief academic officer of the University System of Georgia, announced the four finalists in July.

www.wabe.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net
SCAD Atlanta Announces New Program In Film, Television
http://wabe.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/post/scad-atlanta-announces-new-program-film-television
By GABBIE WATTS
As Georgia grows as a film hub, universities and colleges in the state are looking to create or expand their film programs. Georgia State University is starting a new degree program that will help students find jobs in the film industry, and last month, SCAD announced that it was adding film and TV to its bachelor’s degree in fine art program on its Atlanta campus. “What you are seeing is a school with several locations responding to the fact that Atlanta is growing so much in the media landscape,” said Shawn Kasinger, SCAD Atlanta’s chair of television and film.

USG Institutions:
www.bizjournals.com
UGA’s incoming freshmen smartest ever
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/08/06/uga-s-incoming-freshmen-smartest-ever.html
The University of Georgia’s incoming freshmen are brighter than ever. Some 5,300 first-year students start fall semester on Aug. 17. With them, they bring an average GPA of 3.91 and an average SAT score of 1301, UGA reported. That’s the highest average GPA and SAT score in UGA history.

www.onlineathens.com
Average SAT tops 1300 for incoming UGA freshmen
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2015-08-06/average-sat-tops-1300-incoming-uga-freshmen
By LEE SHEARER
The average SAT score for University of Georgia topped 1300 for the first time ever. The incoming class of about 5,300 first-year students also posted a record high school grade point average of 3.91, according to an announcement from UGA. As the state’s population has grown, along with UGA’s academic reputation, gaining admission to UGA has grown increasingly difficult. This year the university’s admissions office received more than 22,000 applications, another record.

www.bryancountynews.com
GSU honored for professional-sales education
http://www.bryancountynews.com/section/4/article/38507/
Special to the News
STATESBORO — The Georgia Southern College of Business Administration has been recognized as one of the top universities for professional sales education in the country by the Sales Education Foundation. In the ninth edition of the foundation’s annual magazine, SEF listed Georgia Southern as one of the programs that provides a university sales education while preparing and placing future talent in professional selling roles.

www.gwinnettdailypost.com
HEALTH BRIEFS: First class of internal medicine residents arrives at Gwinnett Medical
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2015/aug/06/health-briefs-first-class-of-internal-medicine/
From staff reports
Gwinnett Medical Center recently welcomed their first class of internal medicine residents as part of the system’s medical education program. There are five first-year residents in the program and one second-year resident, and they are all natives to the southeast. … GMC’s graduate medical education program began in 2014 and also includes a family medicine residency that is now in its second year with 10 residents. The program is designed to address the current shortage of physicians in the Atlanta metro community. …GMC’s internal medicine residency program is affiliated with the Georgia Campus of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and The Georgia Regents University/The University of Georgia Medical Partnership in Athens.

www.cio.com
Obama pushes tech startup community for more diversity
http://www.cio.com/article/2960713/government/obama-pushes-tech-startup-community-for-more-diversity.html
By Kenneth Corbin
If startups in the tech sector and other high-growth industries are going to continue to emerge and thrive, the business landscape must become a more inclusive environment, one that is more welcoming of women, minorities and regions outside major urban and university centers, the White House is warning. “We’ve got to make sure that everybody is getting a fair shot,” President Obama said this week in remarks at the White House. “The next Steve Jobs might be named Stephanie or Esteban. They might never set foot in Silicon Valley. We’ve got to unleash the full potential of every American — not leave more than half the team on the bench.”… Several leading players in the tech sector joined with the White House effort, offering various pledges to enhance diversity in the workforce. Amazon, Microsoft, Pinterest and Xerox, for instance, are each committing to consider a diverse range of candidates when interviewing for senior leadership positions. Intel pledged to invest $5 million over the next five years in a partnership with Georgia Tech to fund research projects aimed at drawing women and minorities into the engineering field.

www.pcmag.com
Intel: Refer a Woman, Double Your Referral Fee
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2489083,00.asp
BY STEPHANIE MLOT
If you work at Intel and refer a woman, minority, or a veteran, you could receive double the referral bonus you might normally receive. According to the Wall Street Journal, Intel will pay up to $4,000 to those who refer people who help the company accomplish its diversity goals… Intel is teaming with the Georgia Institute of Technology to reach out to approximately 1,000 high school and college students with training, financial aid, mentoring, and job searches. “It is a national imperative that the U.S. continue to enhance the engagement of students of all backgrounds in STEM fields to create a more robust economy,” Georgia Tech College of Engineering dean Gary May said in a statement. “The higher education and private sectors must combine forces to achieve the impact that is necessary.”

www.bloomberg.com
Icefin Deep-Sea Vehicle Has an Eye on Outer Space
An undersea craft practices in the Antarctic for a mission to one of Jupiter’s moons
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-06/icefin-deep-sea-craft-practices-in-antarctic-for-space-mission
by Jennifer Chaussee
Innovators: Britney Schmidt and Mick West. Ages: 33 and 48 Physics professor at Georgia Tech, senior research engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute Form and function: Icefin, a seafaring robotic vehicle, uses specialized materials and modular parts to collect data and video from the floor beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, a proxy for the geography of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

www.globalatlanta.com
GSU Scholars Investigate Structural Pressures in the Internet’s Foundation
‘The Real Cyber War’ provides an overview of how the Internet is perceived globally.
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/27739/gsu-scholars-investigate-structural-pressures-in-the-internets-foundations/
by Shawn Powers
Dr. Powers is an assistant professor of communication at Georgia State and Mr. Jablonski is an attorney and presidential fellow in communication at Georgia State. In the following two-part interview, they explore the extent of the ongoing fight for control of the information that flows over the Internet.

www.wrdw.com
Gun accidentally fired at Ronald McDonald house at GRU
http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Accidental-shooting-at-Ronald-McDonald-house-at-GRU-320995621.html
By: Staff
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW) — Georgia Regents University confirms there has been an accidental shooting inside the Ronald McDonald house on campus. GRU says there were no injuries and there were no arrest made.

Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
What the Public Wants From Accreditation
http://chronicle.com/article/What-the-Public-Wants-From/232243/
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Accreditation is at a pivotal point, facing growing scrutiny from Congress and the public about its effectiveness in assuring quality and its relevance in an era when new models of higher education are beginning to emerge. In recent weeks, lawmakers have questioned whether accrediting bodies have the ability ­— and the will — to regulate colleges found to have misrepresented their job-placement rates, and at least one newspaper investigation has challenged the “watchdog” value of a system that allows colleges to remain accredited even though many of their students fail to graduate and default on their student loans. Coming changes in the federal law governing higher education are also likely to include some shifts in the accreditation process.

www.chronicle.com
Pioneer of Ed-Tech Innovation Says He’s Frustrated by Disruptors’ Narrative
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/pioneer-of-ed-tech-innovation-says-hes-frustrated-by-disruptors-narrative/57159
by Jeffrey R. Young
George Siemens is a key innovator in higher education, having coined the term “MOOC” and worked to study the effectiveness of online learning. So it’s no surprise that he was invited to a recent closed-door gathering at the White House to discuss “innovation and quality in higher education.” Though he isn’t able to divulge details of what transpired, he wrote about the meeting on his blog, in a post filled with strong feelings about some of what he heard there. The post uses such words as “stunned,” “exceptionally irritated,” and “disappointed.” His frustrations ran in all directions. Some leaders in higher education, he wrote, remain uninformed about “what’s brewing in the marketplace as a whole” — such as shifts in demand for education and the emergence of “code academies” — which will change higher education “dramatically.” And some for-profit players are unnecessarily “antagonistic” to higher education, he argued, failing to recognize that colleges serve other missions beyond operating efficiently, like educating well-rounded citizens and broadening access to education in underserved communities.

www.genprogress.org
Frequently Cited Campus Sexual Assault Study Called Into Question
http://genprogress.org/voices/2015/08/06/38574/frequently-cited-campus-sexual-assault-study-called-into-question/
BY VIVIAN NUNEZ
A study published in 2002 is being called into question by Reason, a libertarian magazine, after an interview with the credited researcher, David Lisak, left questions unanswered. Many who cite Lisak’s study do it to reinforce the notion that not only is sexual assault rampant on campuses, but also to highlight that those who commit the sexual assaults are likely repeat offenders. The data that was taken from the study suggests that 90 percent of campus sexual assaults are committed by the same small group of men, with each repeat offender averaging about six sexual assaults. But according to Linda LeFauve, a writer for Reason, Lisak’s paper is based on studies that were not sufficiently targeted to the college demographic to support such claims.

www.jbhe.com
The Vast Majority of Black High School Graduates Are Not Prepared for College
http://www.jbhe.com/2015/08/the-vast-majority-of-black-high-school-graduates-are-not-prepared-for-college/
The United Negro College Fund and the American College Testing Program have released a new report, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2014: African American Students. The report finds that African American high school graduates are less prepared for college-level curriculum than students from any other major racial or ethnic group.

www.jbhe.com
More than 190,000 African Americans Earned Credentials From Four-Year Colleges in 2013-14
http://www.jbhe.com/2015/08/more-than-190000-african-americans-earned-credentials-from-four-year-colleges-in-2013-14/
A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers preliminary data on higher educational degree awards in the 2013-14 academic year. According to the report, four-year Title IV degree-granting institutions made 3,248,544 degree or certificate awards in the 2013-14 academic year. Of these 57.6 percent were bachelor’s degrees and 23.2 percent were master’s degrees. Less than 5 percent of all awards were certificates. African Americans earned 190,279 degrees and certificates from four-year institutions in the 2013-14 academic year. They made up 10.4 percent of all individuals who were given degrees or certificates from four-year institutions.