University System News:
www.macon.com
No tuition increase for Georgia’s public colleges next year
http://www.macon.com/news/state/georgia/article60682646.html
The Associated Press
ATLANTA
The cost of an education at Georgia’s 29 public colleges won’t be going up this fall. The Board of Regents announced Tuesday that it has decided not to increase tuition for the 2016-2017 school year. Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, said the decision shows the board is “listening to students, their families and legislators” who have voiced concerns about year-over-year tuition hikes in Georgia. Until this year, the Board of Regents had approved some form of tuition increase every year since at least 2002.
www.middlegeorgiaceo.com
University System of Georgia Announces No Tuition Increase for the 2016-2017 Academic Year
http://middlegeorgiaceo.com/news/2016/02/university-system-georgia-announces-no-tuition-increase-2016-2017-academic-year/
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announced there will be no tuition increase for the 2016-2017 academic year. “We carefully assess the tuition rates for our institutions and are committed to keeping college as affordable as possible for students and their families,” said Chairman Kessel Stelling. “As part of our commitment to college affordability, the Board of Regents has decided there will be no tuition increase for all USG institutions for the 2016-2017 academic year.”
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Augusta University tuition hike plan on hold
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2016-02-19/augusta-university-tuition-hike-plan-hold
By Tom Corwin, Staff Writer
A University System of Georgia freeze on tuition hikes next school year means Augusta University will have to put on hold its multiyear plan to raise undergraduate tuition, a university official said. But the university agrees with the decision and is hoping a trend of students taking more hours continues to add revenue and that new residential beds will bump up enrollment, Chief Business Officer Tony Wagner said. The Board of Regents announced the decision Tuesday. Augusta University is currently in year three of a seven-year plan that would have raised its undergraduate tuition to the same level as the other research universities in the system by 2019 but the university will now take a year off from that plan, he said.
www.vsuspectator.com
Tuition freeze in Georgia for upcoming school year
http://www.vsuspectator.com/2016/02/19/tuition-freeze-georgia-upcoming-school-year/
Written by Julia Rodriquez, Asst. Opinions Editor
No increase in tuition will occur for the 2016-2017 academic year, according to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. College expenses can be overwhelming for some students and no increase in tuition could greatly benefit a lot of people. “We carefully assess the tuition rates for our institutions and are committed to keeping college as affordable as possible for students and their families,” said Chairman Kessel Stelling in USG’s news release. Most students were happy to hear the news and gave positive responses when asked how they felt about this tuition freeze.
www.myajc.com
New effort to allow guns on Georgia campuses nears key vote
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/new-effort-to-allow-guns-on-georgia-campuses-nears/nqSW7/
By Janel Davis and Kristina Torres – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House is likely to vote next week on a bill that would legalize guns on Georgia’s college campuses after a committee brought the measure up and passed it without public notice. The move was a wake-up call for critics of the legislation who didn’t anticipate the stealth attack. But recent robberies at nearby Georgia State University have given backers ammunition they hope will allow them to beat back opposition from the state’s public college system. “This bill allows Georgians not to be victims on Georgia’s college campuses,” said state Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, the chief sponsor of House Bill 859 — a piece of legislation he considered dubbing the state’s Campus Safety Act. “It will allow those who choose to, to defend themselves.” College campuses and the Capitol itself are two of the last places in Georgia that still ban guns.
USG Institutions:
www.gcsunade.com
Arrests Made During Non-violent Sit-ins
http://gcsunade.com/2016/02/18/arrests-made-during-non-violent-sit-ins/
By Alaina Minshew
Police arrested Georgia College’s Resident Student Association president, Jonathan Garcia on Feb. 1. Garcia, along with many other college students, were arrested in Athens for protesting a policy which states that undocumented students are banned from some public universities and prohibited from qualifying for in-state tuition. According to freedomuniversitygeorgia.com, Georgia is the only state in the country to not allow undocumented students to attend certain universities and not allow these students to get in-state tuition. Freedom University is a “modern-day freedom school based in Atlanta” that not only allows undocumented students to attend college-level classes, but also does not require them to pay tuition. “These students recognize that higher education is a human right that should be equally accessible to all on the basis of academic merit, not social status,” Laura Emiko Soltis, the executive director of Freedom University, said. …Students from the University of Georgia, Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology planned sit-ins in order to bring awareness to the undocumented students that were banned from the university’s classrooms. Undocumented and documented students from 12 different universities took part in these non-violent protests.
www.bryancountynews.com
Armstrong State to offer free registration Friday
http://www.bryancountynews.com/section/4/article/42625/
Special to the News
Armstrong State University will host a one-day registration event for new students to apply, be admitted and sign up for Spring Mini-mester classes. Designed to kick-start careers in growing fields including information technology, business economics and health science, this event is tailored to working professionals, though traditional students are also welcome. All application fees will be waived for the event.
www.coosavalleynews.com
GHC now offering nursing assistant training courses
http://coosavalleynews.com/2016/02/ghc-now-offering-nursing-assistant-training-courses/
Posted By: Tony Potts
Georgia Highlands College was recently approved by the Georgia Medical Care Foundation to begin its own certified nursing assistant program (CNA). Additionally, GHC has incorporated the new CNA program as a natural progression for students wishing to join the GHC nursing program. GHC Health Sciences Advising Specialist Marjorie Frazier stated that holding a CNA gives students more career and employment opportunities when they graduate.
www.noodls.com
Georgia Southern ROTC wins third MacArthur Award
http://www.noodls.com/viewNoodl/32189280/georgia-southern-university/georgia-southern-rotc-wins-third-macarthur-award
The U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, announced Tuesday that Georgia Southern University’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program was one of the eight winners of the prestigious MacArthur Award for the 2014-2015 school year. Georgia Southern was selected as the top program from 6thBrigade Army ROTC, which includes 39 programs from six states and Puerto Rico. This marks the Eagle Battalion’s third MacArthur Award since 2009. Lt. Col. Erik Kjonnerod, professor of military science, praised the Battalion for its recent accolades.
www.nsf.gov
President Obama honors early career scientists with top White House award
Twenty-one researchers nominated by the National Science Foundation receive awards for innovation, outreach in scientific community
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=137709&org=NSF
President Barack Obama today named 106 researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), granting them the U.S. government’s highest award for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The National Science Foundation (NSF) nominated 21 of the awardees. This year’s NSF recipients are: Antonius Dieker, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, For outstanding research on the stochastic behavior in engineered and physical systems; and for educational activities involving high school, undergraduate and graduate students; Daniel Krashen, University of Georgia, For his work on local-to-global principles, organizing conferences and workshops, training graduate students and serving as a role model to underrepresented minorities in mathematics; Joachim Walther, University of Georgia, For building research capacity in engineering education by defining quality in qualitative research methods and leading communities of practice in this research, germane to and commonly used in broadening participation efforts.
www.wtoc.com
Federal Grant Strengthens ASU’s Social Work Program
http://www.wtoc.com/story/31259523/federal-grant-strengthens-asus-social-work-program
By Andrew Gorton
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – A federal grant is giving students at a southwest Georgia university the opportunity to have their tuition paid for in addition to receiving a job offer after graduation. The Title IV- E Program is back at Albany State University, and it is giving some students the opportunity to get a degree and a job with very few student loans to pay off. These students are in the Social Work Program at Albany State University. They have been accepted into the Title IV-E program which will help pay their tuition. “This year we have 10 undergraduates and six graduate students,” said Department of Social Work Chair member, Dr. Marilyn Spearman. Students must go through an application and interview process to be selected for the program.
www.growingalabama.com
USDA $200,000 Grant Aims to Help FVSU Professor Zap Peanut Plant Pest
http://growingalabama.com/news/2016/02/usda-200000-grant-aims-help-fvsu-professor-zap-peanut-plant-pest/
A new USDA-funded research project by a Fort Valley State University professor will focus on helping peanut farmers throughout the southeastern United States protect their crops from damage and avert enormous financial losses. Georgia peanut farmers have been plagued by burrower bug damage in the past: the most severe outbreak on record occurred in 2010. The black insect feasts upon the internal pods, damaging them. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded Fort Valley State University professor Dr. George Mbata, a Fulbright scholar, chair of the biology department, and an entomologist at the Agricultural Research Station, a $200,000 grant to study integrated approaches to managing infestations of Pangaeus bilineatus, commonly known as the burrower bug. The pest infests peanut crops causing major financial losses for Georgia and southeastern peanut farmers.
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.bizjournals.com
Atlanta Institute of Music and Media shifts as film explodes in Georgia
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/02/18/atlanta-institute-of-music-and-media-shifts-as.html
Phil W. Hudson
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
With Georgia’s recent film boom, the Peach State’s music industry is looking to cash in on Yallywood’s growth. Atlanta Institute of Music and Media (AIMM) in Duluth, Ga. reported with the booming film and television industry in Georgia, it is teaching students the technology and production side of music and sound while refining their instrument skills and talent… But AIMM isn’t alone in advancing its offers. Georgia Tech has also added a new tune to teach its students about music technology. Georgia Tech will launch a four-year bachelor’s of science program to develop the next generation of designers, developers, and entrepreneurs in music technology. “For us, music technology is not just about learning how to use music technology, audio engineering, and recording and production,” said Jason Freeman, who helped craft the proposal, which was approved by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents Jan. 6. “It’s about making the next generation of software and hardware production and services that can transform the music industry.”
www.washingtonpost.com
Scientists created a three-armed cyborg to play the drums like no human can
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/02/18/scientists-created-a-three-armed-cyborg-to-play-the-drums-like-no-human-can/
By Matt McFarland
Georgia Tech researchers have built a robotic arm that attaches to a drummer’s shoulder and plays along. This allows drummers — now equipped with three arms — to play sequences that two-armed humans can’t even attempt. “It’s a richer and more sophisticated rhythm because you can hit one more thing,” said Gil Weinberg, director of the Center for Music Technology at Georgia Tech. The robotic arm is capable of hitting a drum up to 20 times per second, a rate that’s impossible for humans. And it never needs a break.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
What’s the Best Way to Lead After a Racial Incident on Campus?
http://chronicle.com/article/What-s-the-Best-Way-to-Lead/235371?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=051498b3fc354fb7ab6c6e3b247ac3b1&elq=e582cddea4cc407a8e214b0bd7190b41&elqaid=7957&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2473
By Lee Gardner
After a racist incident on his campus, Michael K. Young has, by many accounts, done a lot of things right. The Texas A&M president has apologized personally, using “I” when saying “I am sorry” for an incident last week in which university students made racially charged remarks to a group of visiting high-school students. He has apologized in person, traveling from the campus, in College Station, to Uplift Hampton Preparatory, the charter school in Dallas from which the students came. He has met with student leaders at his own institution. And he has used the incident as a platform to publicize the efforts his administration has made to improve diversity and inclusion across the university since he took office last year. But he faces more challenges. Whether to expel the students who verbally harassed the high-school visitors is one of them. Even deeper challenges lie in how a college leader, and everyone on a campus, can confront the troubled campus climate an incident like this exposes, and in what a university community can do to prevent future incidents.
www.insidehighered.com
On the Hook in Louisiana
Louisiana won’t fund its merit-based scholarship program for the rest of this academic year, requiring universities to make up the difference.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/19/la-freezes-payments-state-grant-program-colleges-pick-slack?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e1ece37d00-DNU20160219&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e1ece37d00-197515277
By Ellen Wexler
Facing a $940 million budget deficit, Louisiana will stop funding its merit-based scholarship program for the rest of the year. And if the Legislature doesn’t find new sources of revenue by June, Louisiana’s commissioner of higher education warned, the state’s public colleges and universities will have to suspend operations. Louisiana universities are facing the largest midyear cut in state history, Governor John Bel Edwards said in a televised speech last Thursday. Even if the Legislature can find additional revenue, higher education will need to cut $42 million this year. Louisiana’s total higher education budget is $769 million, and if the Legislature cannot raise more revenue, higher education could face a $200 million cut.
www.insidehighered.com
Plan Would Lower Tuition, Change Names at NC HBCUs
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/19/plan-would-lower-tuition-change-names-nc-hbcus?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e1ece37d00-DNU20160219&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e1ece37d00-197515277
Legislators in North Carolina are drafting plans that would dramatically cut tuition and change the names of some of North Carolina’s public historically black colleges, The News & Observer reported. The draft bill would also seek to increase the “student diversity” of these institutions, which are predominantly black and some of which have suffered enrollment declines in recent years. One of the institutions is Fayetteville State University, which under the draft legislation would become the University of North Carolina-Fayetteville.
www.chronicle.com
Education Dept. Defends Its Approach to Title IX in Face of Senate Pressure
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Defends-Its/235370?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=b60fe8bbf69744079cfbef2dc2d7b928&elq=e582cddea4cc407a8e214b0bd7190b41&elqaid=7957&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2473
By Peter Schmidt
The Education Department is standing by its controversial guidance to colleges on sexual harassment and sexual assault in response to questions raised by a prominent Senate critic. Catherine E. Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, defended her agency’s actions in a letter on Wednesday to Sen. James Lankford, who, as head of the Senate’s subcommittee on regulatory affairs and federal management, had accused the department of overreach in pressuring colleges to fight sexual discrimination to comply with the gender-equity law known as Title IX. Ms. Lhamon’s response to Senator Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, appears to set the stage for a clash between the Education Department and the Senate over the department’s powers, Darrell (D.J.) Jordan, a spokesman for the senator, said on Thursday. The letter “raises further concerns for Senator Lankford, and he is now contemplating several measures to continue this oversight,” Mr. Jordan wrote in an email. He added, however, that “we’re not ready to confirm our next steps just yet.”