University System News:
www.therepublic.com
Gwinnett Tech to offer pilot certification classes in Georgia Film Academy
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/19379fd8fc3a454b9d2bfc4b40f5f70c/GA–Gwinnett-Tech-Film-Academy
By KEITH FARNER – Gwinnett Daily Post
LAWRENCEVILLE, Georgia — Gwinnett Technical College is joining the film industry. Starting in February, the school announced this week that it will offer pilot classes for the first semester of the Georgia Film Academy. Gwinnett Tech joins Clayton State and Columbus State universities, which will offer classes in January. There are plans to expand the courses to additional campuses, and Pinewood Studios in Fayetteville. The Georgia Film Academy is designed to train people for jobs in the film industry is a partnership with the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia. The state hosted 248 film and television productions in the state last fiscal year.

www.wmbfnews.com
Columbus filmmakers excited about CSU’s new film training
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/30720352/columbus-filmmakers-excited-about-csus-new-film-training
By Georgia Ellyse
COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) – Only three schools are sanctioned by the Georgia Film Academy to provide on-set film certifications, and on Thursday CSU announced they are among that list. Through a partnership with the Springer Opera House and the State of Georgia, courses for the new certification will be offered for the first time by CSU in January 2016. The film industry in Georgia is striving with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2,” “Ant-Man” and “The Walking Dead” being a few of the films produced in the state this year, but independent filmmakers in Columbus say most of the action is happening in Atlanta. “Majority of my crew they come out of Atlanta,” says Ty Manns, owner of CME Films based out of Columbus. …Braxton says once students complete the two on-set film production courses they get a certificate in film production from CSU that can be taken to the GA Film Academy. This will give them certification to work on any TV or film set in the country and certification to join the union.

www.ledger-enquirer.com
Welcome to ‘Y’allywood’ (also known as Columbus, Georgia)
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article49094135.html
KYLE NAZARIO
If all goes well, Columbus is going into show business. Columbus State, the Springer Opera House and the state of Georgia are starting a special program to train Georgians to work on the sets of movies and TV shows. Springer artistic director Paul Pierce said film has become a $6 billion industry in Georgia because of the state’s generous tax credits. With 157 feature films produced in this state in fiscal year 2015, Pierce said, there are more jobs in the movie industry than ever before. However, there aren’t enough Georgians to fill these jobs. …Deal invited Pierce to bring the Georgia Film Academy to Columbus. In just four weeks, a task force with representatives from CSU, the Springer, Columbus Tech, Columbus CVB, the Columbus Film Office and the Muscogee County School district put together a plan to meet the need for film-trained workers, according to Richard Baxter, dean of the College of the Arts at Columbus State. In January, CSU will offer a six-credit hour class starting Jan. 11 training 60 students in the basics of the film business. The class will use the Springer facilities. When students have learned about working on a set and know some of the equipment, they’ll spend a second 12-credit hour class working at Pinewood Studios in Fayette County on an actual film.

USG Institutions:
www.georgianewsday.com
Armstrong Liberty Center in Hinesville officially opens
http://www.georgianewsday.com/news/savannah/374469-armstrong-liberty-center-in-hinesville-officially-opens.html
STAFF WRITER
HINESVILLE, GA (WTOC) – There are some pretty excited students in Hinesville as the new Armstrong Liberty Center officially opened! It has a lot to offer, including state-of-the-art science labs with tables that raise and lower. “There are some knock your socks off science labs,” said President Linda Bleicken, Armstrong State University. “Adjustable lab surfaces so that if you’re standing you can use them or if you’re sitting you can use them.” Crews broke ground on the new building September 2014 and students and faculty are happy it’s
now complete. …Thursday was the official ribbon cutting ceremony and folks got to take a tour. There was a good turnout including Hinesville Mayor James Thomas, Jr, Georgia State Senator Jack Hill and University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby.

www.wfxg.com
ASU to begin fine arts center construction in 2016
http://www.wfxg.com/story/30720208/asu-to-begin-fine-arts-center-construction-in-2016
By Aaryn Valenzuela
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Construction will start next year on a long-awaited fine arts center at Albany State University. It comes not long after ASU announced its getting rid of several fine arts majors, at least temporarily. Music students have managed to work in Holly Hall, but are looking forward to having more space in a new fine arts center. The idea has been in the works for a long time, but now it’s coming to life. As part of ASU’s master plan, leaders wanted to build on the upper campus, out of the flood plain.

www.wbtv.com
Dr. Jones says farewell as he leaves for Fort Valley
http://www.wbtv.com/story/30720585/dr-jones-says-farewell-as-he-leaves-for-fort-valley
By Kelsey Rountree
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Dr. Paul Jones gave his farewell speech at Darton State College today as he leaves to become president at Fort Valley State College. Jones served as Darton’s interim president for two years. He says he’s excited to help Fort Valley State grow. …Dr. Jones will take over at Fort Valley next week.

www.redorbit.com
Emergency? This website helps you find the fastest, best ER in your area in seconds
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1113411314/emergency-this-website-helps-you-find-the-fastest-er-in-your-area-in-seconds-121015/#jlJ3LRywWFkqwvvr.99
by Christopher Pilny
Have you ever needed to go to the ER, perhaps for less life-threatening issues, and thought, I better bring a novel because it’s gonna be a while? Well, now there’s a way to figure out the best and fastest ER in your area without having to visit every one and test them out. This is thanks to a new site called FindED, which sounds like a dating site for those interested (for some odd reason) in men with erectile dysfunction, but is actually a tool that uses collected hospital data to let patients find the best care options in their areas… If you’re in the state of Georgia, where this was created (by Georgia Tech students), you can also see what insurances they accept.

www.courier-journal.com
Students rise to city’s urban heat challenge
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2015/12/10/students-rise-citys-urban-heat-challenge/77088244/
James Bruggers
Students across Louisville will become “citizen scientists,” collecting weather data to study the city’s documented problem of urban heat and helping authorities chart a cooler course. The project launches Friday with a youth summit at Jefferson Community & Technical College… At issue is something called the urban heat island – the difference between city temperatures and surrounding rural areas, which can vary in the double digits. Three years ago, research out of the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology found that Louisville’s heat island was growing at one of the fastest rates in the country.

www.pddnet.com
Hygenic Toilet Provides Water-Conserving Facilities for Refugees
http://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/12/hygenic-toilet-provides-water-conserving-facilities-refugees
by Megan Crouse, Real-Time Digital Reporter
Jasmine Burton, a student at Georgia Institute of Technology, has an idea that could improve sanitation for refugees and other underserved populations. She and her team invented the SafiChoo sanitary toilet and launched Wish for WASH, a line of sanitation relief products, with the help of Sanivation, the Georgia Center for Innovation for Manufacturing and local manufacturers. Wish for WASH focuses on culturally-specific WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) products, the first of which is a sanitary toilet that allows for a variety of postures and behaviors. Burton became interested in the project in 2011, when she attended a women’s leadership conference as a freshmen at Georgia Tech. Her mentor, Susan Davis of Improve International, told her that nearly half of all people in the world don’t have access to a toilet, with women and girls facing disproportionate access.

Higher Education News:
www.onlineathens.com
Teach for America gets better results than colleges
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2015-12-10/teacher-america-gets-better-results-colleges
By WALTER C. JONES MORRIS NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA | Classroom instructors who take a summer training course produce better students than those who graduated from traditional teacher-preparation colleges, according to a new state report. The study released Tuesday said the Teach For America program that offers an alternative route into the classroom is more effective in preparing educators, regardless of the experience of the teachers compared. A major drawback, it showed, is that the Teach For America graduates give up on the profession quicker than the college-prepared educators. The analysis was done by the Department of Audits and Accounts, the agency that evaluates state agencies. It was done at the request of the House Appropriations Committee.

www.chronicle.com
The Challenge of Restoring the ‘Public’ to ‘Public Higher Education’
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Challenge-of-Restoring-the/234578?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=21ccbaec91cb4782b7d41560a2ae5278&elqCampaignId=2049&elqaid=7205&elqat=1&elqTrackId=6dfe808a06ab4af8970fc94ceb68d5c7
By Eric Kelderman
AUSTIN, TEX.
Advocates for public colleges know a degree has value beyond increased wages for their graduates. Now they are trying to convince everyone else. How to make that argument is the theme here at the annual conference of higher-education lobbyists representing public two- and four-year colleges — members of the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Members of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education also attended. Central to the discussions was the growing movement to more broadly define the value of public colleges, which for more than a decade has focused on the financial payoff of earning a degree.

www.insidehighered.com
The Leaky Pipeline
Improved transfer pathways from community colleges to four-year institutions may be the best answer to America’s college completion woes, say three influential groups that will prod states and colleges on transfer.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/11/groups-band-together-improve-transfer-pathways-community-college-students?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=aca9b71838-DNU20151211&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-aca9b71838-197515277
By Paul Fain
The national college completion push has stalled, with graduation rates now going the wrong direction. Perhaps the best way to turn the tide, a new coalition argues, is to fix the inefficient and often neglected transfer pipeline from community colleges to four-year institutions. … “This is relevant to the entire spectrum of four-year colleges,” Wyner said. “We’re starting to engage the four-year sector. And transfer is the natural place to start.” The timing is right, in part because of the spread of performance-funding formulas (at least 33 states have those formulas in place) and the financial pressures most public colleges are facing, said both Wyner and Jenkins. As a result, many public universities need transfer students to boost their enrollment numbers — not to mention the tuition dollars those students bring. And four-year institutions need transfer students to stick around and graduate to avoid being dinged on funding formulas.

www.insidehighered.com
A Degree When ‘Life Happens’
For some colleges, reverse transfer isn’t just a way to hand out degrees to boost completion numbers.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/11/reverse-transfer-plans-go-beyond-handing-out-degrees?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=aca9b71838-DNU20151211&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-aca9b71838-197515277
By Ashley A. Smith
The growing number of reverse-transfer policies popping up at universities and colleges across the country seems to go hand in hand with national pushes to ease transfer pathways for students and to help more earn college degrees. Reverse transfer gives community college students who have transferred to four-year institutions the ability to send credits back to their two-year institutions in order to receive associate degrees. Multiple national foundations have helped 15 states create initiatives to encourage reverse transfer programs, including efforts in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Last year the National Student Clearinghouse announced it would create a national automated system for exchanging reverse transfer student data.

www.bloomberg.com
Four Ways Student Debt Is Wreaking Havoc on Millennials
College loans are likely cutting into savings and delaying marriage and families for young people.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-10/four-ways-student-debt-is-wreaking-havoc-on-millennials
by Natalie Kitroeff
Navient, the country’s largest student debt servicer, put out a report Wednesday that suggests young people are doing just fine with their finances. The study surveyed 3,000 millennials and concluded that they are happily taking out mortgages, starting families, saving money, and managing their budgets. “Young adults are not only financially healthy but also actively focused on saving,” the report said. Navient may be overstating things. Here are four reasons you should not be convinced that things are going that well for young people who took out student loans.

www.chronicle.com
At U. of Kentucky, Faculty Look to Deepen a Campus Conversation on Race
http://chronicle.com/article/At-U-of-Kentucky-Faculty/234553
By Lee Gardner
Student voices have dominated protests and discussions about the racial climate on college campuses this fall, with professors sometimes standing in solidarity but keeping their own opinions relatively quiet. At the University of Kentucky that usual dynamic was upended this week after more than 150 faculty and staff members signed an open letter to senior leaders offering ideas for improving the racial climate at the flagship.
The letter offers Eli Capilouto, the president, and other top leaders a list of “concrete steps the university can take if it is sincere in its stated goal of improving the experience” of black students, faculty, and staff. Before the letter, students had already raised concerns about the campus’s racial climate. But Melynda J. Price, a professor of law and director of African-American and Africana studies, says it was important for faculty members to contribute to the conversation since “faculty of color have similar hostile experiences as students of color.”