University System News:
www.thesylvesterlocal.com
Georgia Public Library Service provides assistive technology to Worth County Library

Georgia Public Library Service provides assistive technology to Worth County Library

By Cari Colby
As a key component of the new model for Georgia’s provision of library services to the blind and others whose physical abilities require the use of books and magazines in audio format or braille, Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS) is supplying a suite of assistive technology devices to every public library system in the state. “We are committed to the goal that every library will become a member of the Georgia Libraries for Accessible Statewide Services (GLASS) network, and that they will be equipped to make library programs, services and collections accessible to all users,” said State Librarian Julie Walker. The GLASS network of talking book libraries gives Georgians ready access to materials from the free national library program that is supported and administered by the Library of Congress and the National Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (NLS).

www.examiner.com
Georgia entertainment industry grows in 2015 but not everybody benefits
http://www.examiner.com/article/georgia-entertainment-industry-grows-2015-but-not-everybody-benefits
Follow the money and it will tell you its own tale. If you heard nothing else about Georgia’s growth in the television, film, entertainment and technology industries, you most certainly heard that FY15 was the best to date with revenues soaring over $6 billion dollars. However, this dollar amount is not the all-encompassing face that Georgia will want you to believe. The image says big stars equal big money, bringing in big business for big payoffs. To a degree this is truer, but some of what’s really happening is not being reported. No matter how hard they try, Georgia will never be the next Hollywood. However, the state is managing to carve a niche unto itself by attracting those out-of-state production companies that find it financially rewarding through tax incentives and other perks that will make it seem like Hollywood. …Businesses ranging from distribution to production companies and filmmakers are rightfully concerned that they are not a part of the grandiose plans to expand the Georgia film and television industry. Some feel they have done well before and in spite of the recent industry build up Georgia raves about. In all fairness, Georgia is reaching out, however slowly, in order to include those disadvantaged individuals who have no access to the industry. Applause goes out to Georgia Film Academy certification programs that are designed to teach craft services as a marketable skill through a few colleges, and job placement is a good start.

USG Institutions:
www.covnews.com
Our Thoughts: Welcome, GSU
http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/200526/
By Staff Report
Newton County has long been home to colleges such as Oxford College of Emory University and Georgia Piedmont Technical College, but now it can boast an asset we feel is as valuable as some of the big industries that often makes the front page of this publication — Georgia State University. Wednesday marked the official unveiling of Georgia State University’s Perimeter College – Newton Campus, bringing many of the benefits of one of Georgia’s top universities to our home town. Students enrolling at what used to be Georgia Perimeter College will now have a direct path to Georgia State’s main campus in Atlanta and all the degrees available there. Previously, a student graduating from Georgia Perimeter College with an Associate’s degree would have to have their transcripts transferred to a four-year university and wait to see if all their credits would arrive with them. Now, students going from any of Georgia State’s Perimeter College campuses to its Atlanta campus will just have to wait for the ride into Atlanta and not fear their transcripts will get stuck in traffic.

www.thebrunswicknews.com
College of Coastal Georgia campus buzzing with start of spring semester
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/college-of-coastal-georgia-campus-buzzing-with-start-of-spring/article_7cc8ce8e-1397-56ac-ad5c-c4a31a81ac28.html?_dc=774049249710.5151
by Anna Hall
Enrollment at College of Coastal Georgia for the spring semester is up. The new student population, around 3,000, reflects about a 4 percent increase over last spring, said John Cornell, director of public affairs for the college. As much occurred this past fall, when enrollment hit 3,131 students. That included 1,105 new students, an increase of 15 percent over the previous fall semester. The gradual increase in enrollment didn’t occur by happenstance. A variety of programs and partnerships have come into play to create a solid foundation for its growth for both traditional and nontraditional students, Cornell said.

www.styrk.com
Additional classes offered in Kingsland campus
http://www.styrk.com/posts/additional-classes-offered-in-kingsland-campus
Gordon Jackson
KINGSLAND — Students attending College of Coastal Georgia in Kingsland will no longer have to make the long drive to the Brunswick campus to take the necessary classes to earn all four-year degrees. That’s been the reality for students in Kingsland ever since the college made the transition from a two-year institution in 2008. Starting in the fall semester, however, students at the Camden campus seeking a bachelor’s degree in general business or general psychology will be able to take all required classes without having to attend a class at the main campus in Brunswick. Tracy Pellett, vice president for academic affairs at the college, said it’s the first time students in Kingsland have had the opportunity to earn a four-year degree without traveling to Brunswick. “The whole idea is to be more accessible,” Pellett said. “We’re very excited about it.” The two majors are among the most popular among students at both campuses.

www.myajc.com
Wrongly accused of rape? Students question their expulsions from Tech
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/wrongly-accused-of-rape-students-question-their-ex/np59z/
By Janel Davis and Shannon McCaffrey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Perhaps no school in the state has been as aggressive in punishing alleged sexual assailants in recent years as Georgia Tech. With campus rape grabbing national headlines, Tech has expelled or suspended nearly every student it has investigated for sexual misconduct in the past five years, records show. And at Tech, officials finding a student responsible for “non-consensual sexual intercourse” must either expel the student or explain why they did not. The school has also cracked down on fraternities, handing out a stiff sentence for a house where members were accused of hurling racial slurs at black female student. But in its zeal to punish wrongdoers there are signs Tech has pushed too far.

www.techtimes.com
Georgia Tech Building New Lab To Offer Researchers Remote Access To Robots
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/125034/20160116/georgia-tech-building-new-lab-to-offer-researchers-remote-access-to-robots.htm
By Dianne Depra
The Georgia Institute of Technology is coming up with a new laboratory facility that will let robotics researchers from all over the United States conduct remote experiments. Roboticists from other schools, even students in middle school, can schedule experiments, upload programming code, view real-time video feeds of robots and receive the data they need. No other facility exists in other universities at the moment like the “Robotarium,” which is expected to accommodate up to 100 aerial and ground robots, because many institutions don’t have the resources for building and maintaining such a lab. Without facilities to work on, roboticists and those just starting in the field could be disheartened. “We need to provide more access to more people in order to continue creating robot-assisted technologies,” said Magnus Egerstedt from Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

www.chronicle.augusta.com
Texas school wants to drop Grady name
http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2016-01-16/texas-school-wants-drop-grady-name
Staff and wire reports
HOUSTON — Texas’ largest school district has joined the national debate over whether communities should cut their ties to the Confederacy by renaming buildings or removing monuments. The Houston Independent School District board voted 5-4 on Thursday night to rename four campuses named after Robert E. Lee or others — including Henry W. Grady, the famous Atlanta newspaper editor for whom the University of Georgia’s journalism school is named. The board issued a statement afterward saying the decision was made “in order to represent the values and diversity of the school district,” which has about 215,000 students at 283 schools.

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
FAFSA Trouble
New online identification system for federal financial aid sacrifices ease of use for security, critics say, hurting low-income students.
FAFSA Trouble
By Josh Logue
The federal government has in recent months made several changes to the application process for federal financial aid, in an effort to make it easier and more straightforward. But one change — switching from a four-digit PIN for online access to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to a more standard and secure log-in identification and password — may be having the opposite effect. “We are getting more complaints on this issue from our members than we’ve ever gotten on anything,” said Elizabeth Morgan, director of external relations for the National College Access Network, an association of nonprofit groups and other organizations focused on expanding college access for low-income and first-generation college students. Morgan said the group has received complaints from more than 40 of its member organizations, including several state agencies that administer state financial aid.

www.insidehighered.com
Pushing on Pell
The Obama administration wants to bring back year-round Pell Grants and create a $300 bonus for Pell recipients who take at least 15 credits per semester.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/19/white-house-plan-restore-year-round-pell-grants-and-create-new-bonus?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=7ec17b9c86-DNU20160119&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-7ec17b9c86-197515277
By Paul Fain
The Obama administration wants to expand the federal Pell Grant program by bringing back year-round eligibility for the grants, which was eliminated four years ago, and by creating a $300 annual bonus for Pell recipients who take at least 15 credits per semester. The two proposed changes announced today would cost $2 billion in the next fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Education said. Both would require approval by the Republican-led U.S. Congress, which will be a tall order for the White House. However, the push to restore so-called year-round Pell recently has picked up some bipartisan backing. It has a chance of returning this budget season, said supporters of the plan.

www.insidehighered.com
Has Obama Let Down Historically Black Colleges?
President’s answer to a question from a Southern University student frustrates some HBCU advocates and sets off debate on the administration’s priorities.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/18/obama-comments-southern-u-student-set-debate-president-and-black-colleges?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=84002272f5-DNU20160118&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-84002272f5-197515277
By Scott Jaschik
The last question President Obama took at a town hall meeting at a Louisiana high school Thursday came from a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The president’s answer has set off a debate over how his administration has treated historically black colleges — a sore point for some black educators who took great pride in the election of the first black president of the United States.

www.ajc.com
Justice Scalia, Black students can thrive at elite campuses
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/justice-scalia-black-students-can-thrive-at-elite-/np59h/
Maureen Downey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The U.S. Supreme Court recently took up affirmative action in college admissions, revisiting the case of Fisher vs. University of Texas. Abigail Fisher is a white student who said she lost a spot at the University of Texas at Austin because of her race. Under Texas’ “talented 10” policy, students in the top 10 percent of any state high school are assured admittance to any state institution of higher learning. Seventy-five percent of students admitted to the UT Austin campus reflect the “talented 10” policy. Fisher did not make the cut for the remaining 25 percent of admissions based on multiple considerations, including race. While questioning a lawyer during last month’s hearing, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested the practice of considering race might undermine black students by putting them into an academically demanding environment for which they are not prepared.

www.insidehighered.com
In Defense of Useless Degrees
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/defense-useless-degrees?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=7ec17b9c86-DNU20160119&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-7ec17b9c86-197515277
By Danielle Marias
During both my undergraduate and graduate experiences, I have been asked, “So what are you going to do with that degree?” At each stage of my life–when I no longer wanted to be a doctor during my BA and when I no longer wanted to be a professor during my PhD–I cringed inside when I couldn’t provide a concrete answer. I recently came across Time Magazine’s list of CEOs who prove liberal arts degrees are not worthless, contrary to the opposite opinions I had heard. This reminded me of the flavor of resources I had read about the value of a PhD in non-traditional careers outside the tenure track. It also reminded me that both my BA and PhD training (that, cumulatively, I have spent a third of my life pursuing) can be applied to careers that may not take a traditional, straight and narrow path. A liberal arts degree may seem broad, but my liberal arts training focused on critical thinking, problem solving, effective writing, global stewardship, and leadership. These skills are useful in a majority of careers (for example, tech companies favor liberal arts thinking). Courses ranging from Photography, East Asian Politics, Francophone Cultures, and Earth Climate History all honed these transferable skills that have widespread value, even if the BA doesn’t spell out your future.

www.chronicle.com
Building a New Research-University System
http://chronicle.com/article/Building-a-New/234906?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=71d7b22ee194458e958386fad94b292d&elqCampaignId=2240&elqaid=7556&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b7b40d5dec06431f81c8c20838a8933f
By Jonathan R. Cole
American research universities are clearly the finest in the world. As of 2015, and for at least 40 years, the United States has had by far the greatest system of higher education in the world. By most reckonings, we have roughly 80 percent of the top 20 universities, 70 percent of the top 50, and 60 percent of the top 100. We win the majority of Nobel science and economics prizes and other internationally prestigious awards for scholarly achievement. Research produced by our universities dominates most fields. The majority of the educated American public, however, think of our universities in terms of teaching and the transmission of knowledge rather than the creation of knowledge, and most critiques of higher education focus on undergraduate education. Let me be emphatically clear: Excellent teaching of undergraduates and graduate students is crucially important and an integral part of the mission of great universities.

www.chronicle.com
What an Elite French Institute Can Teach American Colleges About Diversity
http://chronicle.com/article/What-an-Elite-French-Institute/234948?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=71d7b22ee194458e958386fad94b292d&elqCampaignId=2240&elqaid=7556&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5cae2c5d69e14bf18de3c60a1b4b55ca
By Katherine Mangan
Ilyssa Yahmi’s daily commute from her home in Garges-lès-Gonesse to the Institute of Political Studies is just over 10 miles, but the two places seem worlds apart. The 20-year-old Algerian immigrant is attending the prestigious public university commonly known as Sciences Po under an admissions plan that draws heavily from the impoverished immigrant suburbs, or banlieues, on the outskirts of Paris. Students admitted under the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Program, which began in 2001, now make up 10 percent of each entering class. Coupled with those admitted via the regular track, the portion of the total student body that comes from disadvantaged backgrounds has climbed from 6 percent to about 27 percent since the program began. That’s more than double the share at France’s other grandes écoles, or elite colleges. Some affirmative-action experts say American colleges that struggle to enroll low-income, minority students can learn from the Sciences Po model. Its focus on socioeconomic factors, they argue, offers a better way to diversify campuses than race-conscious admissions programs do.

www.chronicle.com
Transparency in College Admissions Is Key to a Fair Policy on Race
http://chronicle.com/article/Transparency-in-College/234949?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=71d7b22ee194458e958386fad94b292d&elqCampaignId=2240&elqaid=7556&elqat=1&elqTrackId=2978d4ffc9d24f4e8689ada835beb9dc
By Rebecca Zwick JANUARY 17, 2016
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court considered “Fisher II” — the court’s second hearing of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. Abigail Noel Fisher, a white applicant who was denied admission to UT-Austin, sued the university in 2008, arguing that its admissions policy was discriminatory because it allowed consideration of race. In 2014 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the university’s policies for a second time, leading Fisher to petition the high court once again. Although we won’t know the Supreme Court’s decision for several months, the lawsuit itself serves to shed some light on an admissions process called holistic review, used at UT-Austin to admit up to 25 percent of its student body. What is holistic review? According to an amicus brief supporting the university, “holistic review is a cornerstone of the admission process for many institutions of higher education,” which typically includes “documented admission criteria; consideration of a mix of many academic and nonacademic factors to evaluate individual applicants in line with institutional goals,” and a review process that gives “attention both to each applicant and to the overall makeup of the admitted class.”