University System News:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
University System freezes tuition for 2016-17
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/education/university-system-freezes-tuition-for/article_65722031-1b22-5175-bf4e-2da92513b9d0.html
By Keith Farner
A year after tuition at state colleges and universities rose between 2.5 percent and nine percent, the University System of Georgia announced this week that there will be no tuition increase for the 2016-17 academic year. The announcement applies to all USG students, and means they will pay the same tuition at all 29 USG institutions for the 2016-2017 academic year as they did this academic year. The announcement comes days after Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, proposed legislation that increases in tuition or fees should not exceed the rate of inflation. Last year, for the third straight year, tuition went up by at least 2.5 percent at 27 colleges and universities across Georgia.
See also:
College tuition will not increase in Georgia next school year
http://www.wyff4.com/news/College-tuition-will-not-increase-in-Georgia-next-school-year/38036774
No tuition increase for Georgia’s public colleges next year
http://www.forsythnews.com/section/3/article/29416/
No tuition increase for Georgia’s public colleges next year
http://www.georgianewsday.com/news/atlanta/388519-no-tuition-increase-for-georgia-s-public-colleges-next-year.html
University System of Georgia Announces No Tuition Increase for the 2016-2017 Academic Year
http://albanyceo.com/news/2016/02/university-system-georgia-announces-no-tuition-increase-2016-2017-academic-year/
No tuition increase for Georgia’s public colleges next year
http://coosavalleynews.com/2016/02/no-tuition-increase-for-georgias-public-colleges-next-year/
No tuition increase for Georgia’s public colleges next year
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/No-tuition-increase-for-Georgia-s-public-colleges-6834471.php
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Holding the line (2nd article)
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/opinion/article60900797.html
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents had some very good news Tuesday for tens of thousands of Georgia college students and their families: For the first time in 14 years, tuition will not be increased at the state’s 29 public colleges and universities. The speed at which the cost of higher education has continued to soar past the general inflation rate has of course been a source of nationwide frustration and outrage for years. In Georgia, the “cushion” provided by the early years of the HOPE scholarship program in the flush economy of the 1990s threw another wrinkle into the equation.
www.ajc.com
Georgia House committee backs ‘campus carry’ gun bill
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/georgia/georgia-house-committee-backs-campus-carry-gun-bil/nqRXz/
ATLANTA — A Georgia House committee has approved a bill allowing guns on state college campuses with little notice. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://on-ajc.com/24a3hxQ) reports that the House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee approved the “campus carry” bill Tuesday. The state’s university system has long opposed changes to existing law that prevents weapons on its campuses. Democrats protested Tuesday’s vote because the bill was not included on the committee’s agenda for the day; committee chairs typically can add bills unannounced. The bill now goes to the House Rules committee, which is responsible for determining when bills receive a vote.
www.albanyherald.com
DARREL EALUM: Georgia Legislature passes halfway point
LEGISLATIVE REPORT: Georgia’s FY 2017 budget will be largest in state’s history
http://www.albanyherald.com/opinion/columnists/darrel-ealum-georgia-legislature-passes-halfway-point/article_d380a00b-15f4-58ca-90f7-499eafd1b867.html
By Darrel Ealum
Day 20 of our 2016 legislative session has come and gone, and we are now over halfway through this year’s 40-day session. This week, our FY 2017 budget is creating the normal angst in the Capitol as we draw closer to a final budget draft. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we will pass our House budget version this week and immediately send it to the Senate for their revision. This year’s FY 2017 proposed budget of $23.7 billion is the largest budget in Georgia’s history. Thanks to an improving economy and increased revenue generated through our transportation bill (HB170), this budget will be approximately one billion dollars more than our FY 2016 budget. Our delegation continues to pursue funding for several local projects including our Northwest Library branch expansion, Phase II of the Carlton Construction Academy at Albany Technical College, renovation and new projects at Darton College, and funding for fixtures and equipment for our new Albany State University Multi-Purpose Academic Building. I should be able to send out an update on these projects on Friday. …As you all know, education is my passion, and I get especially excited about actions that would bridge our skills gap and lead to jobs in the workforce. House Bills 801 and 402 that we have passed in the House would make significant moves in that direction. HB 801 would enhance the GPA weight system for HOPE Scholarships, and students would receive extra HOPE recognition for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses. For HOPE scholarship students attending college, HB 801 would direct the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to select bachelor-level STEM courses that would be given extra GPA calculation weight for HOPE scholarships. Under HB 801, a student completing a class selected for extra weight would have 0.5 added to his or her HOPE scholarship GPA.
USG Institutions:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State adds dance minor, envisions major program with own department
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article60881612.html
BY MARK RICE
Columbus State University students will be able to minor in dance, starting in the fall 2016 semester. CSU announced the additional program Wednesday. The dance minor will begin in the CSU Department of Theatre, but department chairman Larry Dooley told the Ledger-Enquirer, “It may become its own major and its own department some day.” …”The addition of dance to our curriculum broadens the opportunities for students to receive training in the arts while enhancing the complexity and quality of our musical theatre productions,” Richard Baxter, dean of CSU’s College of the Arts, said in a news release. “This program adds to the vibrancy of the College of the Arts, and our faculty and students are most appreciative of the donors who made this possible.”
www.bizjournals.com
Midtown’s Technology Square gets new “collaborative space” (SLIDESHOW)
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/atlantech/2016/02/midtowns-technology-square-getsnew-collaborative.html
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Midtown’s Technology Square has a new co-working and event space aimed at the tech companies, students and researchers who cluster in the the eight-block mixed-used development.
Sandbox Communities has launched The Garage — a nearly 10,000-square-foot collaborative space at Square on Fifth, a 25-story apartment building aimed at GeorgiaTech students.
www.atlantamzagazine.com
Four Georgia science teams share one mission: Getting us to Mars
Behind the scenes with the Georgia Tech researchers who discovered flowing water on Mars, the county vying to become a commercial spaceport, and two companies working on methods to transport and house astronauts
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/four-georgia-science-teams-share-one-mission-getting-us-to-mars/
Candice Dye
When Lujendra “Luju” Ojha was growing up in Nepal, he didn’t own a telescope, frequent a planetarium, or devour science fiction. He did, however, gaze up at the stars and ponder big questions. “I had this sense of wonderment,” he says, “and wasn’t content with the theological answers I was getting about where we come from.”… Ojha resumed other projects related to geophysics and seismology before enrolling in grad school at Georgia Tech, which boasts one of the largest aerospace engineering programs in the country.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech receives EPA grant
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2016/02/georgia-tech-receives-epa-grant.html
Carla Caldwell
Morning Edition Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Institute of Technology is the recipient of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant for proposed projects to develop new, sustainable products and strategies. A student team at Georgia Tech will, along with teams at more than 30 other schools, receive a People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant. Each team will receive up to $15,000 for their proposals.
www.businesstravelerusa.com
TED and Delta soar to new heights
http://www.businesstravelerusa.com/news/ted-and-delta-soar-to-new-heights
Delta’s partnership with TED is hitting new heights. To launch TED2016, a Delta charter flight is heading from LA to Vancouver with some of the world’s brightest minds for a brainstorming and networking session at 30k feet. Delta’s commitment to innovation and TED’s 2016 theme of “dreaming the greatest dreams we are capable of dreaming” will bring epic collaboration to TED2016. Delta will launch – The Hanger. And the story of The Hanger will be told at TED2016. The Hangar is a collaborative research center at Georgia Tech and is the first of its kind in the airline industry.
Higher Education News:
www.myajc.com
Ga. governor signs midyear budget with $1.1 billion in new spending
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/ga-governor-signs-midyear-budget-with-11-billion-i/nqRs5/
By James Salzer – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Senate gave final passage Wednesday to a midyear budget, adding $1 billion in new state spending — most of it for k-12 schools and road construction. The 53-0 vote sent the midyear plan — which takes the state through June 30 — to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature, the first major bill to win final passage in the 2016 legislative session. Deal quickly signed it into law.
www.insidehighered.com
Study: When Colleges Fall in Rankings, Tuition Goes Up
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/18/study-when-colleges-fall-rankings-tuition-goes?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=9d24ca3bd4-DNU20160218&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-9d24ca3bd4-197515277
When colleges move down in the rankings, they respond by raising tuition, according to a new study. Using data from U.S. News & World Report rankings between 2005 and 2012, researchers found that colleges are likely to set tuition higher after a sharp decline in status — especially if their rivals are already charging higher tuition, and if they appeal widely to prospective students.
www.insidehighered.com
New America’s Plan for Higher Education Financing
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/18/new-americas-plan-higher-education-financing?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=9d24ca3bd4-DNU20160218&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-9d24ca3bd4-197515277
In most states, public funding for higher education has not recovered in the wake of the last recession. And odds are that state disinvestment will get worse after the next economic downturn, according to New America. That, in turn, means more picking up slack by the federal government. The think tank this week proposed a broad set of fixes to what it says is an “irreparably broken” financial and regulatory bargain between the federal government, states and colleges. New America’s report, dubbed “Starting From Scratch,” described the group’s plan to change the current federal higher education funding structure from behaving like a voucher program, where aid follows students, to one based on formula-funded grants. It would eliminate federal student aid programs and replace them with grants to states.
www.chronicle.com
New Paper Proposes Starting All Over on Federal Student Aid
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/starting-all-over-on-federal-student-aid/108717?elqTrackId=b7cbf6818974494a8c9cceb33cf5c332&elq=b71c4473464c4d6c8e7842147f5e843b&elqaid=7938&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2465
by Kelly Field
Nearly everyone agrees that the federal student-aid system is broken, perhaps irreparably so. The Pell Grant hasn’t kept pace with rising tuition, students are saddled with too much debt, and many states have shifted the burden for financing colleges onto the federal government and families. At the same time, the system’s reliance on vouchers has made it hard for lawmakers to hold colleges accountable without hurting students in the process. So what if instead of reforming the system, we blew it up? That’s the premise behind a new paper by the think tank New America, appropriately titled “Starting From Scratch.” It proposes scrapping the decades-old student-aid system and replacing it with formula grants to the states.
www.insidehighered.com
Recommendations for the College Scorecard
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/18/recommendations-college-scorecard?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=9d24ca3bd4-DNU20160218&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-9d24ca3bd4-197515277
The Obama administration should improve its College Scorecard by imposing higher standards for calculating loan repayment rates and breaking down earnings data by program, a new report by the Center for American Progress recommends. The analysis of the U.S. Department of Education’s Scorecard concludes that while much of the data is helpful, there are a number of policy and technical changes that could improve the consumer tool.
www.chronicle.com
How a ‘Syllabus Commons’ Could Change Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/How-a-Syllabus-Commons-/235330?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=65161292ae4d4aa1b46285cd45c76d70&elq=b71c4473464c4d6c8e7842147f5e843b&elqaid=7938&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2465
By Joe Karaganis
In late January, I was part of a group of scholars at Columbia and Stanford Universities who unveiled the Open Syllabus Explorer — an online tool that aggregates data from over one million syllabi collected from college and university websites. So far the Syllabus Explorer does only a few things: It shows how often works are taught, what works are taught together, and where and in what field they’re taught. But we think it has the potential to evolve into something more powerful: a tool that can help us better reflect on what colleges teach and improve the quality of higher education globally. The Explorer provides a rich empirical account of teaching across colleges and universities and — when the data is good enough — at a state-by-state and institution-by-institution level.
www.chronicle.com
U. of Texas President Finalizes Plan to Carry Out Guns-on-Campus Law
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-texas-president-finalizes-plan-to-carry-out-guns-on-campus-law/108704?elqTrackId=7fd26e949b024f8d97bcfe893bf4d91b&elq=b71c4473464c4d6c8e7842147f5e843b&elqaid=7938&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2465
by Nick DeSantis
The University of Texas at Austin’s president on Wednesday finalized a task force’s recommendations for carrying out a new campus-carry law that has drawn widespread criticism from faculty members. The president’s plan, like the task force’s proposals, largely bans concealed firearms from on-campus dormitories and prohibits them from being carried in laboratories where their presence could be especially dangerous. But the plan does not exclude concealed guns from classrooms, a proposal that has left many faculty members wary. Gregory L. Fenves, the president, suggested that adopting such a provision would have violated the law’s intent. …The law will take effect on August 1. The university system’s Board of Regents can amend the campus’s rules within 90 days with a two-thirds vote, the university said.
www.diverseeducation.com
Montana Settles Ex-player’s Claim; Won’t Revive Rape Case
http://diverseeducation.com/article/81357/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elqTrackId=0a0d42cf6cdb4912b0034feb7343832d&elq=7eb7b5ae4ed2482892647d518e6b760c&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=771
by Matt Volz, Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. ― The state decided to settle claims that the University of Montana mishandled the investigation of a former school quarterback accused of rape rather than re-open the widely publicized case, an attorney representing the state said Wednesday. The decision was made even though the state believes school officials acted properly, said attorney Dale Cockrell, who was hired by the Montana Department of Administration’s Risk Management and Tort Defense Division. Under the agreement, the state will pay Jordan Johnson $245,000 to drop his claims that school officials had predetermined his guilt after the rape accusation was made in 2012 and ran a biased investigation that resulted in a recommendation of expulsion. Johnson was not expelled, and a jury in 2013 acquitted him of rape.