University System News:
Bloomberg
NCR Holds Official Groundbreaking Ceremony for New State-of-the-Art World Headquarters Campus in Atlanta
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/markets/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201511050550M2______EUPR_____a943000003e54928_3600-1
NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), the global leader in omni-channel solutions, today announced the groundbreaking of its new world headquarters campus in Midtown Atlanta. The new headquarters will be a state-of-the-art campus designed to attract top talent, showcase NCR’s technology solutions and serve as an iconic landmark for the City of Atlanta. …”Our new world headquarters campus is truly a watershed moment for the future of NCR and the City of Atlanta,” said NCR Chairman and CEO Bill Nuti. “We are partnering with the City of Atlanta, State of Georgia and the University System of Georgia to create an environment that will inspire passion, collaboration and innovation. It’s going to be one of the most dynamic tech communities in the world.”
The Augusta Chronicle
University System of Georgia wants cybersecurity center in Atlanta
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2015-11-04/university-system-georgia-wants-cybersecurity-center-atlanta
By Walter C. Jones
The University System of Georgia asked Gov. Nathan Deal Wednesday for funds to create a cybersecurity center to address employers’ growing demand for graduates. If Deal agrees to put funding for the project in his spending request to the legislature, the center would be located at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. But it would draw on academic experts from Augusta University and other schools, and its courses would be available online to students in Augusta and other campuses around the state.
www.insidehighered.com
Between Consortia and Mergers
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/04/strategic-alliances-are-more-expansive-consortia-less-risky-mergers
By Doug Lederman
The idea that relatively few colleges and universities can thrive entirely on their own has taken hold in several quarters recently, as financial and demographic woes squeeze many institutions’ bottom lines. But while predictions of mergers and consolidations proliferate, so too does evidence that combining colleges — and even close collaboration — is hard to pull off even when it seems to make good sense. …At last week’s SUNYCON meeting sponsored by the State University of New York, a panel of campus leaders and others discussed their efforts to make public university systems more efficient and effective, and why they did (and didn’t) turn to mergers as a strategy. Even Hank Huckaby, who as chancellor of the University System of Georgia has much more aggressively (and, so far, successfully) consolidated campuses, warned others that mergers are “not the panacea for everything” and described them as “very, very difficult, which is why so many efforts have failed.” Huckaby said there were “800 to 900 discrete decisions” that had to be made in each of the six, two-institution mergers his system has undertaken so far.
USG Institutions:
The Covington News
Georgia State names Dean of Perimeter College
http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/200111/
Peter Lyons, Georgia State University’s associate provost for institutional effectiveness and a professor of social work in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, will become the first vice provost and dean of the new Perimeter College after the Board of Regents approves the consolidation of Georgia State and Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) in January.
Flagpole.com
Tiny Houses Could Be Huge, but Rules Stand in the Way
By Sarah Anne Perry
Tiny houses have entered the Pinterest daydreams of many an American over the last few years. Television programs like HGTV’s “Tiny House, Big Living” and “Tiny House Hunters” showcase the benefits of living in small spaces—often smaller than 300 square feet—and tiny house communities have sprung up outside of progressive cities throughout the U.S. UGA is even offering a course on tiny house construction this semester.
AJC.com
Georgia Tech gathers predictions about our cool future
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/georgia-tech-gathers-predictions-about-our-cool-fu/npF5h/
By Matt Kempner
Georgia Tech, which is pretty much the hottest job magnet in metro Atlanta these days, recently held a symposium on cool ways computers will change our world even more. Get ready for gee-whiz stuff, from ways to fix our limitations (bye-bye color blindness?) to high-tech clothing that senses and changes with our moods to tiny microbes that build stuff for us (apparently some are already making scents for the perfume industry).
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Recession-Era Woes Subside
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/04/new-college-board-report-shows-continued-borrowing-decline-and-slow-net-price
By Kellie Woodhouse
Though far from ideal, student debt levels and tuition pricing continue to level out since the recession. During the recession, college prices increased steeply while borrowing rose rapidly. Loan defaults increased, too. Now borrowing has declined slightly for the fourth straight year, defaults have steadied and tuition increases at public universities over the past three years have been at their lowest levels since the 1970s, according to the College Board’s 2015 “Trends in Higher Education” reports.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Another Commission Will Take On the Future of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/Another-Commission-Will-Take/234047
By Goldie Blumenstyk
The “future of higher education” landscape — already ringing with cacophonous predictions from all manner of task forces, books, conferences, and self-styled disruptors — is about to get another. This week the American Academy of Arts and Sciences will announce its own Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. The commission, which will include more than two dozen leaders from academe, business, and politics, has given itself an ambitious goal: to examine “the vast — and expanding — array of learning options” now available to students and to identify the challenges and opportunities higher education will confront in the next 20 to 25 years.