University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia colleges’ online degree programs among tops in the nation
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgia-colleges-online-degree-programs-among-tops/np3pW/
Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s colleges and universities have some of the best online degree programs in the country, according to the latest rankings by U.S. News and World Report. The University of Georgia ranked fifth among all colleges for best online bachelor’s degree programs. The state’s flagship institution also earned high marks for its online graduate programs in education, ranking third among all schools. …The Savannah College of Art and Design (24th) and Georgia College and State University (49th) also ranked in the top 50 schools for best online bachelor’s programs. …Georgia institutions also placed well among master’s degree programs in business administration and other graduate programs. Georgia College and State (22nd), Georgia Southern University (28th) and Kennesaw State University (28th) ranked among the top 50 online MBA programs.
www.ajc.com
Board of Regents approves $875K purchase by KSU
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/board-of-regents-approves-875k-purchase-by-ksu/np3mD/
Carolyn Cunningham, For the AJC
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved last week the purchase of property east of Kennesaw State University’s Kennesaw Campus to be used in KSU’s future development. The Board of Regents will acquire 1.02 acres at 3051 George Busbee Parkway from Cobb County for $875,000. Formerly occupied by Kids R Kids, the property includes a 12,320-square-foot, one-story building and adjacent parking area. Funding for the property acquisition will come from state bonds earmarked for infrastructure expansion at Kennesaw State. With this latest land acquisition, the university’s Kennesaw campus will occupy 384 acres, and the Marietta campus (formerly Southern Polytechnic State University) will occupy 197 acres.
USG Institutions:
www.insidehighered.com
Out of the Stacks
Georgia Tech and Emory’s plan to build shared library collection begins in earnest this month. Partnership could lay the foundation for library consortium in Atlanta area.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/13/georgia-tech-emory-university-begin-work-tie-libraries-together?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=04bb443969-DNU20160113&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-04bb443969-197515277
By Carl Straumsheim
If you take the books out of a library, is it still a library? That’s the question the Georgia Institute of Technology pondered — and eventually answered in the affirmative — when administrators, faculty members and librarians there in 2013 began to define their vision of what the institute’s library should look like by 2020. The most symbolic part of that transition is starting this month. Virtually all of the books in Georgia Tech’s collection — more than 95 percent of them — are headed to a cold storage facility, creating a shared collection with neighboring Emory University. But the more prominent changes are less visible, including a transformation of the library from a “big box filled with books” to a service organization with a large online presence. The institute’s partnership with Emory could even lay the foundation for a library consortium in the Atlanta area.
www.wtvm.com
CSU bans hoverboards due to campus safety concerns
http://www.wtvm.com/story/30945244/csu-bans-hoverboards-due-to-campus-safety-concerns
By WTVM Web Team
COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) – Columbus State University has banned hoverboards from campus due to the recent concerns by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission and the potential impact the devices may have on campus and fire safety. CSU made this announcement Tuesday morning that stated they plan to monitor the ongoing federal investigation regarding hoverboard safety. The university has also added hoverboards to the list of items not allowed in CSU residence halls.
www.beforeitsnews.com
This electric generator is only a few atoms thin
http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and-technology/2016/01/this-electric-generator-is-only-a-few-atoms-thin-2-2805116.html
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology report the first experimental proof of piezoelectricity and the piezotronic effect in an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). This makes it the thinnest electrical generator in the world.
www.myajc.com
Georgia Tech researchers to test effectiveness of senior services
http://www.myajc.com/news/lifestyles/health/georgia-tech-researchers-to-test-effectiveness-of-/npymT/
By Laura Berrios – For the AJC
The National Aging in Place Council is looking to Atlanta to help change the way people think about growing old. First of all, members want to put some weight behind the buzz phrase: aging in place. It’s used often when speaking of the elderly, but it is rarely understood, council leaders say. “People say, ‘What is it?’ Well, to us, it’s more than a cliche. It’s a system,” says National Aging in Place Council Executive Director Marty Bell. Proving this system is where Atlanta comes in. The national council, based in Washington, D.C., is partnering with Georgia Tech Research Institute’s HomeLab for a pilot program here that will track outcomes from older adults who use services and information available to help them remain independent as they age. These seniors will be compared with those who choose not to access services.
Higher Education News:
www.myajc.com
More Ga. colleges added to federal sexual assault investigations
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/more-ga-colleges-added-to-federal-sexual-assault-i/np35h/
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The number of Georgia colleges under federal investigation for their handling of cases of sexual violence has tripled over the past year and a half, according to a database released this week by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Two institutions — Spelman and Morehouse colleges — were added to the the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigation’s list in November, the same month students at the historically black schools petitioned administrators to better address sexual violence on their campuses. Oglethorpe University also made the list in mid 2015, for a complaint relating to the handling of one case of alleged sexual misconduct.
www.insidehighered.com
Cost Share Shift
A new report from the Delta Cost Project reveals how much more heavily institutions rely on tuition dollars since the recession.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/13/delta-cost-project-report-outlines-trends-college-spending?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=04bb443969-DNU20160113&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-04bb443969-197515277
By Kellie Woodhouse
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to how much of a financial burden students and families are shouldering for a college education. The good news? The share of tuition that covers educational costs at institutions didn’t go up much in 2013, the most recent year studied by the Delta Cost Project in its new report “Trends in College Spending: 2003-2013,” released Tuesday. The bad news? Students and families, through tuition, have been shouldering a much larger portion of educational costs ever since the recession hit in 2008. The increase is, on average, 10 percentage points.
www.insidehighered.com
Public Shaming
U.S. representative shares a previously confidential report about sexual harassment by an astronomy professor who went on to teach elsewhere and announces plan to require colleges to tell other institutions about such findings.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/13/politician-proposes-law-prevent-harassers-being-passed-one-institution-another?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=04bb443969-DNU20160113&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-04bb443969-197515277
By Colleen Flaherty
U.S. Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, is no stranger to women’s issues and has previously advocated for more accountability for colleges and universities concerning campus sexual assaults. So it was perhaps unsurprising that she weighed in on a matter of increasingly public concern — that of sexism in science and, in particular, some institutions’ tendency to quietly allow professors who sexually harass students to move on to other institutions. The phenomenon has been called “pass the harasser.” Specifically, Speier proposed legislation that would require colleges and universities to reveal the findings of investigations of alleged violations by students, faculty and staff under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 — which prohibits sex-based discrimination — to their new institutions.
www.chronicle.com
What’s So Controversial About Saying the Police Should Handle Campus Rape?
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/whats-so-controversial-about-saying-the-police-should-handle-campus-rape/107780?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=c253a6812a5a442e85b290b6d6b7f731&elqCampaignId=2218&elqaid=7518&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f1642a0c6432438ea317b0ab61b4b97b
by Andy Thomason
A common refrain in the debate over how to respond to campus sexual assault is that the investigation of reported rapes should be carried out only by law-enforcement officials. On its face, that sounds like common sense. Why would anyone else investigate a violent crime? The Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders endorsed that view at a candidates’ forum on Monday night, saying, “If a student rapes another student, it has got to be understood as a very serious crime, it has to get outside of the school and have a police investigation and that has to take place,” The Hill reported. The U.S. senator from Vermont added that “too many schools” were handling cases of sexual assault. …What Know Your IX is alluding to in that tweet is the legal responsibility of colleges to resolve reports of sexual assault under Title IX, the landmark gender-equity law enacted in 1972. Various court decisions have in recent decades established that sexual harassment (including assault) constitutes gender discrimination that can limit a student’s educational opportunity. Colleges, because they receive financial aid from the federal government, must protect students’ civil rights — and that means responding to, investigating, and resolving reported rapes.