University System News:
www.chronicle.augusta.com
IGRU fundraiser still works for Augusta University
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2015-09-17/igru-fundraiser-still-works-augusta-university
By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer
The campaign logo was made obsolete by the renaming of Augusta University earlier this week, but the chairman of its annual community campaign expects the name change to help boost this year’s effort to reach its goal of $1 million. The IGRU campaign held its kickoff luncheon Thursday at Augusta Country Club even though the school is no longer officially called Georgia Regents University. The logo stands for, “I’m Giving. Are You?” Even if they need a new theme next year, the switch to Augusta University should help, said Rick Toole, an Augusta native who is heading the IGRU campaign for the second consecutive year. “I honestly believe it will have a positive impact on our fundraising activities,” he said. “I believe the name change will generate enthusiasm in the community.” The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents chose the GRU name in 2012 over widespread protests in Augusta over the name. AU President Brooks Keel conceded it probably turned off some alumni of the former Augusta State University and some in the community who wanted “Augusta” in the name. Toole said he never saw evidence of that directly.
www.metrospirit.com
What does Augusta University really mean?
http://metrospirit.com/what-does-augusta-university-really-mean/#.VfwiNN9VhBc
For many people throughout this area, the announcement that Georgia Regents University has been renamed Augusta University was cause for massive celebration. It was like sunshine, rainbows, fluffy kittens, warm apple pie, a soaring bald eagle and a pot of gold all wrapped up in one big shiny bow. However, there is another large segment of this community that is completely baffled by the Board of Regents decision this week. That segment of the community is looking back at the last three years and seeing wasted time, wasted effort and wasted money. Those local residents remember all the pain and discord that occurred under the merger of Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University led by former GRU President Ricardo Azziz. …But, more importantly, they remember the division between the two schools.
www.redandblack.com
Georgia ranks among worst states for student debt, despite HOPE Scholarship
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/georgia-ranks-among-worst-states-for-student-debt-despite-hope/article_6cf9325a-5c9c-11e5-b27f-7bb2474327fe.html
Katelyn Umholtz
There may be financial aid like the HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships, but with additional fees piling on, many University of Georgia students worry about their financial future. Sandra McGill, a freshman health and medical journalism graduate student from Stockbridge, said she has $60,000 worth of debt. “I’m very nervous about having to pay back that debt,” McGill said. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I would like to be a health communications officer at CDC in Atlanta. If that doesn’t happen, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” And McGill is not alone. A WalletHub study revealed that the state of Georgia ranked as one of the worst states for student debt, coming in at No. 47.
USG Institutions:
www.savannahnow.com
Update: Police investigate shot fired in Armstrong State University dorm; classes to resume as normal
http://savannahnow.com/latest-news/2015-09-18/savannah-chatham-police-investigating-shot-fired-armstrong-state-university
By Savannah Morning News
At approximately 3 a.m. Friday an individual entered the Compass Point 8000 Building on Armstrong State University’s campus and fired a single shot. In an email to students faculty and staffm Armstrong Pres. Linda Bleicken said no one was injured and the preliminary investigation “indicates this was an isolated incident, which does not pose a larger threat to our campus community. It was not the act of a random shooter.”
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Georgia Gwinnett College celebrates 10 years with convocation, Kaufman painting unveiling | PHOTOS
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2015/sep/17/georgia-gwinnett-college-celebrates-10-years-with/
By Keith Farner
LAWRENCEVILLE — A living artifact from another era, Dan Kaufman stepped to the microphone with the same infectious enthusiasm that he used to open that “unnamed state college.” That was the temporary name of the school Kaufman was hired to run 10 years ago nearly to the day when he answered an advertisement in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The charter president of the school now known as Georgia Gwinnett College shared some memories on Thursday at a convocation on campus wearing the same shoes he wore on Sept. 19, 2005. …An official portrait of Kaufman was unveiled at the event, which came after a biographical sketch from Presczewski, who still refers to Kaufman as “Boss” even though Kaufman’s now the president of the Gwinnett Chamber. Presczewski called Kaufman the school’s chief visionary and founding father.
www.athensceo.com
UGA College of Public Health to Celebrate 10th Anniversary
http://athensceo.com/features/2015/09/uga-college-public-health-celebrate-10th-anniversary/
Staff Report From Athens CEO
In honor of its 10th anniversary, the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health will welcome students, alumni and community guests to the UGA Health Sciences Campus Oct. 5. A full slate of afternoon events open to the public will be punctuated by a 5 p.m. program and reception at Miller Parade Grounds. The 10th anniversary celebration will include a keynote address from Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush, as well as comments from Harrison Spencer, president of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.
www.athensceo.com
UGA Receives National Diversity Award
http://athensceo.com/news/2015/09/uga-receives-national-diversity-award/
Staff Report From Athens CEO
The University of Georgia has received national recognition for its efforts to foster an inclusive, diverse campus for the second year in a row as a 2015 recipient of the INSIGHT Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. The HEED Award is the only designation of its kind awarded to institutions that exhibit outstanding efforts and success in the area of diversity and inclusion throughout their campuses.
www.education.tmcnet.com
Higher One Announces 15 Recipients of its Annual Financial Literacy Counts Grant
http://education.tmcnet.com/news/2015/09/17/8248107.htm
Higher One, a leader in providing financial services and data analytics to more than 1,900 college and university campuses across the U.S., is pleased to announce 15 recipients of its Financial Literacy Counts grant program. A total of $50,000 will be distributed to winning colleges and universities in the program’s fifth year, which saw more than 125 applications from two- and four-year public and private institutions across the country. …The 15 colleges and universities selected to receive Financial Literacy Counts grants include: Middle Georgia State College
www.jacksonville.com
Georgia universities collaborate on health research despite distances
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2015-09-16/story/georgia-universities-collaborate-health-research-despite-distances
By Walter C. Jones
ATLANTA | Georgia universities are stepping up their cooperation in efforts to tackle medical problems, experts said Wednesday during the regional Health Connect South conference at the Georgia Aquarium. They handed out awards and campaigned for new projects. A showcase project includes the collaboration between the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on influenza. Emory and Tech have a unique joint biomedical engineering center, and Augusta University works closely with Emory on cancer studies.
www.myajc.com
Grant to fund study of Georgia Tech expansion
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/grant-to-fund-study-of-georgia-tech-expansion/nnhL2/
By J. Scott Trubey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The board of Atlanta’s development arm on Thursday approve grant funding to help Georgia Tech study a possible expansion of its Technology Enterprise Park. Invest Atlanta’s $100,000 grant will add to more than $500,000 in federal and Georgia Tech funds to study expanding the enterprise campus into a health sciences and bioscience complex. The current park is about 14 acres, but the study area will include about 60 acres of property controlled by Tech, the city, Atlanta Housing Authority and other interests. Georgia Tech officials said the university wants to emulate the best attributes of Technology Square, the complex at Spring and Fifth streets that reconnected Tech with the rest of Midtown.
www.bizjournals.com
Atlanta to join cutting edge of ‘net zero’ buildings
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2015/09/18/atlanta-to-join-cutting-edge-of-net-zero-buildings.html
Maria Saporta
Contributing Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech has received a $30 million grant from the Kendeda Fund to develop the most environmentally-sound building ever constructed in the Southeast. The “Living Building Challenge 3.0” education and research center that will be built on Georgia Tech’s campus is so important to the anonymous donor behind the Kendeda Fund that she has agreed to go public with her identity. She is Diana Blank, the first wife of Arthur Blank, a co-founder of The Home Depot Inc. and owner of the Atlanta Falcons.
www.albanyceo.com
Karen Fite on the Challenges of Workforce Development in Manufacturing in Georgia
http://albanyceo.com/video/2015/09/challenges-workforce-development-manufacturing-state/
Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Partnership Karen Fite discusses the challenges of filling in the workforce of Georgia’s manufacturers. She also discusses new opportunities for Georgia’s Manufacturers as they look towards the future.
www.athensceo.com
Research Funding Surges 7% at UGA
http://athensceo.com/news/2015/09/research-funding-surges-7-uga/
Staff Report From Athens CEO
Buoyed by strategic investments in health-related research as well as determined efforts to attract more funding from private foundations, research expenditures at the University of Georgia climbed 7 percent in the 2015 fiscal year. Research and development funding provided by federal agencies has been declining in real dollars for the past several years. Federal funding for research at UGA held steady from fiscal year 2014 to 2015, but support from private foundations rose dramatically to boost overall research expenditures 7 percent to $154.6 million.
www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Is it time to shut down annual UGA beach party on St. Simons?
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/09/16/is-it-time-to-shut-down-the-annual-uga-beach-party/
The Florida-Georgia game is a legendary rivalry but the beach party on St. Simons Island that precedes the football contest is apparently a legendary nightmare. A story that appeared in the AJC last month noted: The annual college football rivalry between the universities of Georgia and Florida is played traditionally on neutral ground in Jacksonville, but the social setting for the weekend’s associated parties is typically centered on St. Simons Island and in the Golden Isles. On the Friday before game day, hundreds of college students converge on St. Simons’ East Beach for a raucous party that transforms it into a litter-strewn stretch known as “Frat Beach.” But Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering has vowed to crack down on illegal behavior surrounding this year’s game, which kicks off Oct. 31. Doering said he has committed a team of 60 officers to policing underage drinking, littering and foul behavior.
Higher Education News:
www.bizjournals.com
Louisiana film boss: Georgia is taking our business
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/09/17/louisiana-film-boss-georgia-is-taking-our-business.html
Ellie Hensley
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Louisiana has named Robert Vosbein the new president of its Film and Entertainment Association, and his first order of business will be to try to recover some of the productions the state is losing to Georgia, according to wwl.com. “People that have come here from all parts of the country to work in our industry are now seeing that we don’t have the jobs, we don’t have the production, so they’re switching over to Georgia,” said Vosbein, CEO of Silver Screen Group. “We’ve got to stop that.” Vosbein wants to work with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to remove the cap on the state’s film and television production incentive to better compete with Georgia, which has an uncapped incentive program.
www.onlineathens.com
Reform group wants to change Georgia teacher pay system, school funding model
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2015-09-17/reform-group-wants-change-georgia-teacher-pay-system-school-funding-model
By LEE SHEARER
Gov. Nathan Deal’s Education Reform Commission will recommend changes in the way Georgia teachers are paid — probably. But as of Thursday, none of the commission’s tentative recommendations are set in stone, according to Susan Andrews, director for education reform in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget. “Anything I say to you is subject to change,” Andrews said during a talk at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Thursday. The 35-member commission does have preliminary consensus on some points, however, she said. The group is slated to have final recommendations on how to change Georgia public schools, including the knotty question of state funding, by Dec. 18. One point the group has consensus on is the way Georgia teachers are paid should change, said Andrews, speaking to educators at the University of Georgia College of Education’s annual “State of Education in Georgia” conference. Now, teacher pay is based on how much education they have and how many years of experience.
www.chronicle.com
What Actual High Schoolers Think of the New College Scorecard
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Actual-High-Schoolers/233205/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
By Beckie Supiano
Pinecrest, Fla.
The federal government’s new College Scorecard has been catnip for higher-education wonks, who’ve spent the week crunching the new trove of data that arrived with it, building and sharing tables and opining on Twitter. One group that we’ve heard less from are the very people the new tool is meant to help: prospective college applicants, most of whom don’t yet know about it. To get a student reaction, The Chronicle organized an informal focus group with a handful of sophomores and juniors at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, a public school in this suburb of Miami.
www.insidehighered.com
Going Back to School
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/17/study-finds-first-time-enrollment-graduate-school-35-percent
By Colleen Flaherty
First-time graduate school enrollment was up 3.5 percent in 2014 from the year before, the biggest annual increase since 2009, according to a report out today from the Council of Graduate Schools. “I was surprised that that number was as big as it was,” said Jeff Allum, assistant vice president for research and policy analysis for the council and co-author of its “Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2004 to 2014” study. “We’ve had several years of very small increases or decreases in enrollment, so 3.5 percent is a very good number for this particular survey.”
www.chronicle.com
Another Research Gender Gap: Men Get More Start-Up Money
http://chronicle.com/article/Another-Research-Gender-Gap-/233177/
By Mary Ellen McIntire
It’s no secret that women seeking to get a foothold in STEM fields often face serious impediments. Here’s another potential one: Junior male medical researchers are more likely than their female peers to land sizable start-up packages from some of the nation’s top research institutions and hospitals, according to a study released on Wednesday.
www.chronicle.com
Can a Debate About Who Should Decide Campus-Rape Cases Change Minds?
http://chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Debate-About-Who-Should/233207/
By Sarah Brown
New York
Just before four law professors take the stage here to debate whether courts or colleges should decide sexual-assault cases, the ABC News correspondent John Donvan polls the audience of about 250 people. Should all rape allegations involving college students be handled by the criminal-justice system? Or should campuses continue to use a separate disciplinary process, with different standards and sanctions, and give students who allege such incidents a choice of how to proceed?
www.insidehighered.com
Adult Supervision Required
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/18/u-michigan-urges-fraternity-chapters-hire-live-advisers
By Jake New
In August, administrators at the University of Michigan met with representatives from more than 30 national Greek letter organizations and pitched an idea that they hope will improve the behavior of unruly fraternity chapters: bring back live-in advisers. The all-hands-on-deck meeting, which lasted more than seven hours, was scheduled after a tumultuous year for Michigan’s fraternities.
www.insidehighered.com
Were the Vetters Vetted?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/17/parker-executive-search-under-scrutiny-recent-searches
By Kellie Woodhouse
An executive search firm that specializes in higher education has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after assisting in two controversial appointments. The Georgia-based Parker Executive Search assisted in the University of Iowa’s recent presidential search, which led to the selection of businessman Bruce Harreld. The search process has been criticized by students and faculty members, some of whom question Parker’s vetting of Harreld after he revealed his résumé inaccurately listed his current employment. Parker has also come under fire for helping the University of Minnesota select Norwood Teague as its athletic director in 2012. Teague was ousted in August over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple people, and Minnesota President Eric Kaler faulted Parker for not uncovering a past complaint during the search process three years ago.