University System News:
www.savannahnow.com
Armstrong health building gets design team
http://savannahnow.com/news/2015-10-14/armstrong-health-building-gets-design-team
By Morris News Service
ATLANTA — The $29 million health-professions building at Armstrong State University moved a step forward Tuesday when the Board of Regents approved the hiring of a design firm. The board that oversees the state’s public universities approved contracting with S/L/A/M Collaborative of Atlanta based on its proposal compared to the 18 other firms seeking the job. The board approved the project in September which triggered the advertisement that the firms responded to. The project includes constructing up to 75,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices on four acres in the northwest section of the campus. It also includes renovations to 46,000 square feet in Ashmore Hall.
www.myajc.com
University of Georgia requests honorary degree for Ryan Seacrest
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/uga-requestes-honory-degree-for-ryan-seacrest/nn2kP/
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Entertainment mogul Ryan Seacrest is a step away from getting the one thing that he has not yet received, a degree from the University of Georgia. UGA is requesting an honorary degree for Seacrest, who attended UGA as a journalism major but dropped out of the state’s flagship institution before completing his degree years ago to begin his career in Hollywood. A committee of the state’s Board of Regents approved the degree Tuesday during the group’s monthly meeting, held this month at Kennesaw State University. The full board still has to vote on the degree tomorrow. …UGA President Jere Morehead said Seacrest is expected to be UGA’s undergraduate commencement speaker in May.
USG Institutions:
www.topix.com
UGA graduates rank No. 6 on Georgia salary list, according to website’s ranking
http://www.topix.com/state/ga/2015/10/uga-graduates-rank-no-6-on-georgia-salary-list-according-to-websites-ranking
The University of Georgia usually gets high scores when publications compile “best value” lists of colleges, but a new listing puts UGA way down on the list. According to company called “SmartAsset,” UGA is only the sixth-best value in Georgia, and much further down the list on a regional or national scale.
www.myajc.com
Needy UGS students get $1 million scholarship fund from Orkins
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/needy-uga-students-get-1-million-scholarship-fund-/nn3CF/
By Christopher Quinn – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sanford and Barbara Orkin, whose holdings include Orkin pest control company, are giving $1 million to establish a University of Georgia fund for scholarships for low-income students. The scholarships will provide financial support for tuition, books, room and board, and other living expenses incurred by outstanding, academically talented students who come from low-income families.
www.wfxl.com
Federal grant to help migrant students returns to ABAC
http://wfxl.com/news/local/federal-grant-to-help-migrant-students-returns-to-abac
BY TOSIN FAKILE
A federal grant that helps migrant first-year college undergraduates returns to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC). The college received a five-year federal grant worth $2.125 million for the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) after not receiving it for a year. Javier Gonzalez, Director of Multicultural Education Programs at ABAC said The successful grant application was a joint effort by the Office of Multicultural Education programs and ABAC’s Office of Sponsored Programs.
www.tigersroar.com
New Science Buildings being added to Campus
http://www.tigersroar.com/news/article_222027c4-71ec-11e5-a781-a36a606d40c7.html
By Rekyia Clayton
Over the last decade, Savannah State University has added new facilities coupled with renovations to the infrastructure. These buildings include three new residential facilities and a new eating facility for students. Since October 2014, the College of Science and Technology has been putting together designs for two new buildings.Additional facilities on campus enhance the quality of education. Dr. Jonathan Lambright, Dean of the College of Science and Technology says one of the facilities will be located off campus. “That building is dedicated to the Marine Science program and is located off campus because it’s actually on deep water. We can dock our boats there and faculty, staff and students can conduct their research on the rivers and the waterways at any point in time during the day,” Lambright said. Expected to break ground in the Spring 2016, the new facilities will include more tools to ensure academic growth in STEM majors.
www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Opinion on guns on campus: We protect students in football stadiums. Why not classrooms?
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/10/13/opinion-we-protect-college-students-in-football-stadiums-why-not-college-classrooms/
Writer Rick Diguette, a frequent Get Schooled contributor, teaches at a local college. In this column today, he discusses guns on campus in the wake of the massacre at a college in Oregon.
By Rick Diguette
In the wake of the shooting rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, I’ve been giving some thought to classroom safety. Although there’s a fairly robust security presence on the metro Atlanta campus where I teach, it would be easy for anyone ― student or otherwise ― to gain access to one of my classrooms and open fire. To make matters even worse, all of my classrooms have only one way in and the same way out. The debate about allowing guns on this country’s college campuses divides along a recognizable fault line. In one camp are those arguing that colleges have been targeted by shooters for one obvious reason: deranged gunmen know they will encounter little armed resistance until well after they’ve started killing people. And this, so the reasoning goes, is why guns should be allowed not only on our campuses but in our classrooms as well. On the other side of this fault line are people like me. I don’t agree more guns in more hands in more places will reduce or effectively address the problem of gun violence. Instead, I think we should do more to prevent people from having guns where they can inflict maximum damage in a minimum amount of time.
www.wsfa.com
SSU officials investigating after alleged armed robbery
http://www.wsfa.com/story/30251840/ssu-officials-investigating-after-alleged-armed-robbery
By Elizabeth Rawlins
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – Savannah State University students sharing their concerns Tuesday after two men busted into an apartment and demanded cash from a sleeping student. This incident happened in the middle of one of the biggest weeks: homecoming. There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of folks who are going to be coming on-and-off campus, so students are worried. Savannah State police are investigating after an armed robbery happened at this gated apartment complex on campus early Tuesday morning. Sources tell WTOC a student was asleep in building 12 at University Commons when two men busted open the front door and demanded more than $150 in cash.
www.wfxg.com
ASU Police warn students, visitors after campus robberies
http://www.wfxg.com/story/30253432/asu-police-warn-students-visitors-after-campus-robberies
By Jim Wallace
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Officers are warning students to be on guard after two Albany State University students were robbed at gunpoint Tuesday. University Police warn that criminals see students as potential targets, especially during homecoming week. Most of the law enforcement agencies in Dougherty County and Albany are teaming up to make sure the thousands of visitors coming for Albany State’s homecoming don’t become crime victims. It was just after midnight when 18-year-old Albany State student Hunter Foster said he was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a convenience store on Radium Springs Road, just beside the campus.
www.wsfa.com
Fire breaks out in Performance Arts Building at SSU
http://www.wsfa.com/story/30255982/fire-breaks-out-in-performance-arts-building-at-ssu
By WTOC Staff
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – Savannah Fire and Southside Fire/EMS responded to Savannah State University overnight. Officials say that at around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, fire crews arrived and found heavy fire and smoke in a storage room used for the band in the JFK Performing Arts Building. Sources tell WTOC the fire could possibly be arson. The fire marshal will investigate. Firefighters were able to get the fire out quickly and stop it from spreading to the rest of the building, but the room was heavily damaged.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
A Boon to Boot Camps? U.S. Extends Aid to Campus Deals With Nontraditional Programs
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Boon-to-Boot-Camps-US/233742?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=3efba9a955b349859cb059e8d66ea549&elqCampaignId=1603&elqaid=6559&elqat=1&elqTrackId=35b6220a131a456cad4877298c40d848
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Education Department is cracking open the door to federal financial aid for students enrolled in nontraditional education programs — and trying out alternatives to accreditation in the process. On Wednesday the department will announce a pilot program that will allow federal grants and loans to flow to educational-technology companies that team up with colleges and third-party “quality-assurance entities” to offer coding boot camps, MOOCs, short-term certificates, and other credentials. The experiment has two chief aims: to make nontraditional programs more accessible to low-income students, and to test new ways of measuring program quality that are based on students’ outcomes.
www.insidehighered.com
A New Route to Student Aid
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/14/education-department-will-experiment-aid-eligibility-boot-camps-and-moocs?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bb9297680-DNU201510014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bb9297680-197515277
By Paul Fain
The U.S. Department of Education today announced an experimental pathway to federal aid for partnerships between colleges and nontraditional providers, including ones that run skills boot camps or offer unaccredited online courses. As part of the long-awaited project, the department will waive a ban on colleges outsourcing more than half of their course content and instruction to a nonaccredited entity. The feds have that authority under the experimental-sites initiative, which allows for flexibility in testing the disbursement of financial aid.
www.insidehighered.com
Survey Finds High Stress Levels of Freshmen
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/10/14/survey-finds-high-stress-levels-freshmen?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bb9297680-DNU201510014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bb9297680-197515277
A new national survey of freshmen found that 50 percent of them reported feeling stressed most or all of the time and 36 percent did not feel as if they were in control of managing the stress of day-to-day college life. Those reporting feeling unable to control stress were also among those with lower grades. The survey, conducted for the JED Foundation, which works on the mental health issues of college students, was of first-year students in their second semester and taking at least some in-person classes at two- or four-year colleges.
www.insidehighered.com
Women Now Lead Men in College Attainment
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/10/14/women-now-lead-men-college-attainment?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bb9297680-DNU201510014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bb9297680-197515277
For the first time in the 75 years that the U.S. Census Bureau has tracked college attainment, women are more likely than men to have a bachelor’s degree. The shift has been going on for years, but women took the lead in 2014. In that year, 30.2 percent of women aged 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree, compared to 29.9 percent of men.
www.diverseeducation.com
MSIs Need to Embrace Competency-Based Learning Strategies
http://diverseeducation.com/article/78325/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=1d8bc25b8dc5409f92957ce30f604379&elqCampaignId=771&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=9247036b3f4c48d8ade6e8f1a5135d73
by Katrina S. Rogers and Mike Goldstein
In 2009, citing statistics that showed the United States ranking 12th in the world in degree attainment, President Obama charged American colleges and universities to produce eight million more graduates by 2020. This is a legitimate and, indeed, essential goal. However, we believe that it cannot be met with a continuation of academic policies and pedagogies that have been largely unchanged for many generations. Faculty and administrators at institutions of all types, from community colleges to research universities, need to advance pedagogies that focus on students’ demonstration of learning, both inside and outside of classrooms. Competency-based education or competency-based learning (CBL) connotes the primacy of the learning process, which is vital in securing the economies and effectiveness that are increasingly demanded of higher education.
www.diverseeducation.com
Experts Cite Critical Need to Better Serve Hispanic Learners
http://diverseeducation.com/article/78322/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=1d8bc25b8dc5409f92957ce30f604379&elqCampaignId=771&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqTrackId=4742e0975b2948e58b88cef5e3e7f7b1
by Jeffrey Pierre
MIAMI BEACH ― American Federation of Teachers Vice President Louis Malfaro said on Monday that a growing concern for educators across the country is finding innovative ways to work with Hispanic students. In the last 10 years, Hispanic students have improved in terms of high school completion and college enrollment, but still struggle to earn a degree and fill higher-paying jobs. Malfaro, who spoke at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities’ 29th Annual Conference at the Fontainebleau Hotel, said the United States is in a “crucial period of public education reform” and struggles to address the needs Hispanic learners ― who are poorer than their White counterparts and often fall victim to a system based heavily on standardized testing. …Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) are 12.1 percent of nonprofit colleges and universities, yet enroll 20 percent of all students and 58.9 percent of all Hispanic students, according to a Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) report. The Department of Education also provides HSIs ― or schools where 25 percent of full-time students are Hispanic ― with academic grants.