University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia colleges announce closings, early dismissals
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgia-colleges-announce-closings-early-dismissal/np9dy/
Janel Davis,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Several Georgia colleges and universities are closed or closing early Friday as a winter storm moves through the area. All campuses of the University of North Georgia are closed today. Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Kennesaw State universities will close campuses at noon. Georgia Gwinnett College will also close at noon. Emory and the University of West Georgia will close at 2 p.m., and the University of Georgia in Athens will end campus activities at 2:30 p.m. Several schools have also cancelled Saturday classes and activities.
www.atlantaintownpaper.com
Update: Winter weather prompts early school closings around Atlanta
http://www.atlantaintownpaper.com/2016/01/winter-weather-prompts-early-school-closings-around-atlanta/
By collinIN The Loop
Local school systems, colleges and government offices are playing it safe ahead of Friday evening’s predicted winter weather. Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and state offices in North Georgia announced Thursday that they will close at noon tomorrow. Emory University is closing at 2 p.m.
www.wabe.org
Atlanta Named Best Big City For Film Industry Workers
http://news.wabe.org/post/atlanta-named-best-big-city-film-industry-workers
By JOHN LORINC
Atlanta is the best big American city for people working in the film industry this year, according to an annual report from MovieMaker Magazine, an industry trade journal. The magazine cites the city’s atmosphere and restaurant culture among the factors that help the industry thrive. A flexible attitude has also helped. “There’s a bunch of technical infrastructure now that’s available that wasn’t here 10 years ago,” says Dr. Richard Neupert, a film professor at the University of Georgia. “But it’s also you’ve got these new studio people building space and saying ‘What do you need … we will adapt it for you.'” The state’s tax incentives are attractive to film companies, but that’s not the only financial benefit. “It’s easy to work here and it’s easy to live here,” says Lee Cuthbert, a location specialist with the Georgia Film Office. “The cost of living here compared to either coast is pretty favorable.”
USG Institutions:
www.thegeorgeanne.com
Georgia Southern on course to select new president this semester
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_fa0727bf-004e-5395-88d5-8be8a9e04d29.html
By Tandra Smith The George-Anne staff
As the Spring semester begins, Georgia Southern continues to be on track to select a new president by July 1 of this year as interviews with top candidates begin next month. …On January 6, the website, georgiasouthern.edu/president-search/, dedicated to the presidential search was updated, adding a few new dates to its timeline. On February 17 and 18, the first round of interviews with the search committee will take place and the weeks of February 29 and March 7, the semi-finalists will visit the campus to meet with various staff, faculty, and students. Due to state law, the exact names of the individuals applying for this job are not allowed to be revealed. However, the search committee still plans to let the campus meet each of the semi-finalists.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Augusta University brings back the ‘A’ in new branding (video)
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2016-01-21/augusta-university-brings-back-new-branding-0
By Travis Highfield
Staff Writer
The school was renamed by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents in September.
www.nbc26.tv
Augusta University reveals new logos
http://nbc26.tv/2016/01/21/augusta-university-reveals-new-logos-on-facebook/
By Barclay Bishop
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Augusta University has taken to social media, revealing their new logos for athletics and academics. Thursday, the school will be having “Swag Stop” stations from 11 am until 2 pm. At the “Swag Stops” faculty, staff and students can exchange their Georgia Regents University gear for the newly minted AU merchandise. Those stops will be set up at the Student Center on the Summerville Campus, and next to the Student Center on the Health Sciences Campus.
www.middlegeorgiaceo.com
President’s State of the University Address: Middle Georgia State in Positive Transition
http://middlegeorgiaceo.com/news/2016/01/presidents-state-university-address-middle-georgia-state-positive-transition/
Staff Report From Middle Georgia CEO
As Middle Georgia State enters its first calendar year as a university and welcomes its first graduate students, President Christopher Blake updates the community on the State of the University.
www.wrgarome.com
GHC enrollment continues to increase
http://www.wrgarome.com/common/page.php?feed=1&id=67061&is_corp=1
Georgia Highlands College kicked off the new year with a jump in spring semester enrollment. Classes resumed last week with a noticeable increase over last year’s spring semester numbers.
www.wtvm.com
VSU opens new Exercise Medicine and Rehabilitation center
http://www.wtvm.com/story/31026105/vsu-opens-new-exercise-medicine-and-rehabilitation-center
By Caitlyn Chastain
VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) – Valdosta State University held the grand opening for their new state-of-the-art Center for Exercise Medicine and Rehabilitation on January 21st. The approximately 150,000-square-foot building, full of new state-of-the-art equipment, is worth around $32 million. The facility is split into two sections, athletic training and fitness and wellness. Directors say it will provide students with real life practice on actual patients. However, the new facility won’t just benefit students it will also help the community.
www.albanyceo.com
Darton State College Receives an ADHA Institute for Oral Health/Wrigley Company Foundation Community Grant
http://albanyceo.com/news/2016/01/darton-state-college-receives-adha-institute-oral-healthwrigley-company-foundation-community-grant/
Staff Report From Albany CEO
Darton State College Department of Dental Hygiene is honored to receive The American Dental Hygienists’ Association Institute for Oral Health/Wrigley Company Foundation Service Grant for 2016. This $5,000 grant will support the College’s annual participation in The Farm Worker Family Health Program. For the past ten years, Darton State College Department of Dental Hygiene has participated in The Farm Worker Family Health Program. This program addresses urgent primary healthcare needs of migrant farm workers and their families. “Working with The Farm Worker Family Health Program allows our students to obtain service learning experience, gain clinical and cultural insights and give back to the Southwest Georgia region,” says Darton State College Director of Dental Hygiene Dr. Stacey Marshall.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
CSU stages mock active shooter scenario as part of emergency drill
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article55914775.html
SARAH ROBINSON
Columbus State University staged a mock active shooter scenario on campus today to test the response of its police department and local public safety. The scenario played out in the Frank G. Lumpkin Jr. Center, where authorities controlled two “active shooters,” diffused a “bomb,” and pulled one “wounded” and two “deceased gunshot wound victims” from the scene. Simulated gunfire was exchanged between police and both mock shooters, leaving one suspect “dead” and an officer “injured.” Meanwhile, other emergency management personnel on campus were meeting at the command center and addressing the situation, which included using an emergency notification system to alert the faculty, staff and students about the “threat.” … The other agencies who participated in the drill were the Columbus Police Department and the Columbus Emergency Management. Stanelle said it’s vital that the agencies unite to execute this drill as a team, so they’ll know how to work together in case an actual life-threatening incident were to happen on campus.
www.ajc.com
Police release sketch of suspect in Georgia State library robberies
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/police-release-sketch-of-suspect-in-georgia-state-/np87X/
Lauren Foreman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Somehow, police said Thursday, a suspected robber last week entered a Georgia State University library not once, not twice, but three times. And at least one of those times, on Jan. 14, he was armed. A week after that armed robbery, police on Thursday released a sketch of a man wanted for questioning in that incident and two others. All of the crimes occurred inside Library North at the intersection of Decatur and Courtland streets.
Higher Education News:
www.ajc.com
Atlanta students: Apply for college scholarships worth up to $20,000
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/atlanta-students-apply-for-college-scholarships-wo/np9CK/
Molly Bloom
Atlanta high school students can soon apply for college scholarships worth up to $20,000 under a new program from Achieve Atlanta, a nonprofit working to double the number of low-income Atlanta students who earn a degree or other credential after high school. Achieve Atlanta expects to award nearly $4 million in scholarships this year to students attending four-year colleges, two-year colleges and technical schools.
www.chronicle.com
New Book Accuses Education Dept. of Fudging Numbers on Student-Loan Defaults
http://chronicle.com/article/New-Book-Accuses-Education/235016?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=f1883f1e58144e4c8055f9670d06a86b&elqCampaignId=2280&elqaid=7602&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a8403ca912ba48c0b3ce3c16403cbe93
By Kelly Field
Has the Education Department deliberately deceived the public and policy makers about student-loan default rates in the for-profit sector and its own student-lending program? Mary Lyn Hammer, a default-management expert who has served on three federal rule-making panels, thinks so, and she has the ear of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a book released on Friday, Ms. Hammer says she has evidence that the department has overstated the number of defaults among borrowers at proprietary colleges and in the defunct bank-based student-loan program, while undercounting defaults at public colleges and in the direct-loan program. The agency’s alleged motive: to kill the for-profit sector and cover up its own mismanagement of student lending.
www.insidehighered.com
Five More States to Create Student Success Centers
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/22/five-more-states-create-student-success-centers?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197515277
Five additional states will create statewide student success centers in an effort to help more community college students earn a credential. The announcement this week means the total number of states with such centers in place will grow to 12. This approach, begun five years ago in Michigan and Arkansas, seeks more coordination and cooperation across institutions and systems and among state policy makers on strategies that work to boost college completion.
www.insidehighered.com
Progress on Remediation
New report from Complete College America gives a first look at how pairing additional resources with introductory college courses can help students who need remediation.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/22/new-complete-college-america-data-remediation-show-progress?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197515277
By Ashley A. Smith
College and state officials in Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and other places where they’ve been working to reform remedial education are seeing dramatic increases in students completing college-level courses.
Those are the findings in a new report from Complete College America, a nonprofit group that advocates for one approach to improve remedial education known as corequisite remediation. CCA released a report Thursday showing significant gains in states that have partnered with the organization to eliminate traditional remediation.
www.chronicle.com
Why More Colleges Are Emulating Deals Like the ASU-Starbucks Alliance
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-More-Colleges-Are/235013?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=f1883f1e58144e4c8055f9670d06a86b&elqCampaignId=2280&elqaid=7602&elqat=1&elqTrackId=07448c09257e45c19842073c76687882
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Arizona State University’s deal with Starbucks to give baristas a discount on the university’s online courses is inspiring imitators — and that’s not surprising. Colleges see the deals as a way to reduce their costs of providing distance education. That’s because, in theory, deals with companies can help colleges more efficiently reach and enroll bigger pools of students, which can lower the cost. But the jury’s still out on how effective the tactic is. In business it’s common for companies to measure what it costs them to win each new customer, or cost per acquisition. Historically, that hasn’t been true for higher education. Many colleges “have no idea of that cost,” says Kim Taylor, co-founder and chief executive of Ranku, a company that advises colleges on distance-education recruitment. In traditional higher education, she adds, “no one measures it.” But clearly, colleges are becoming increasingly aware of the potential for cost-of-acquisition savings made possible by giving discounts to a company’s employees.
www.insidehighered.com
The 2016 Inside Higher Ed Survey of Chief Academic Officers
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/2016-inside-higher-ed-survey-chief-academic-officers?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197515277
By Scott Jaschik
At a time of intense pressure on academic leaders, provosts are worried about the future of liberal arts education — not just at liberal arts colleges, but at all institutions that provide general education to students.
They have real doubts about their budget situations, some new MOOC-inspired forms of higher education and the ability to preserve academic integrity when pursuing big-time athletics. But amid these and other problems, the provosts generally feel good about the academic health of their institutions. And the provosts are generally becoming more open to competency-based education (a form of higher education of which many academics were skeptical just a few years ago). On trigger warnings, one of the hotly debated issues in academe in the last year, the provosts are divided (but leaning toward dubious). On tenure — of keen interest to many faculty members — the provosts aren’t pushing for change, but are quite open to long-term contracts as an alternative.
www.insidehighered.com
Florida Holding Off on Campus Carry Law, Again
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/22/florida-holding-campus-carry-law-again?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197515277
Florida campuses will remain gun-free for at least another year, reported the Tampa Bay Times, now that a controversial bill permitting guns on campuses has stalled in the state’s Senate.
“I don’t think this is a Second Amendment issue,” said Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has now stopped the bill from moving forward for the second time in as many years. “I think what we’re talking about here is campus safety and the best way to address that issue and whether the proposed cure is worse than the disease.”
www.insidehighered.com
Research Universities Call for Studies of Gun Violence
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/22/research-universities-call-studies-gun-violence?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197515277
The Association of American Universities is urging Congress to overturn a ban on federal funding of health-related research about gun violence.
The research university group said in a statement: “While there can be honest disagreement about the most effective means of addressing gun violence, there should be no doubt that, like any other public health issue, the more we know about causes, about trends and about potential remedies, the stronger basis we will have for effective action.”