University System News:
www.wsbradio.com
Opponents of campus carry bill speak out
http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/opponents-campus-carry-bill-speak-out/nqLyz/
By Sandra Parrish
Opponents of a bill that would allow guns on college campuses express their concerns to state lawmakers. Clergy members as well as professors, students, and campus police gathered to say the bill by Rep. Rick Jasperse (R-Jasper) increases the potential for deaths on Georgia’s college campuses. “I know from the research on this subject, that bringing guns into an environment will increase the risks of accidental and intentional deaths from suicide, homicide, and accidents,” says Emory University professor Thomas Remington. The bill would allow anyone who is at least 21-years-old with a legal carry permit to bring their gun onto campus with the exception of dormitories, sororities or fraternity houses, and sporting events. Sean Wallace, a third student at Georgia State University, says it’s not the potential for crime on the downtown Atlanta campus he’s worried about but the prospect of his fellow classmates carrying guns.

www.13wmaz.com
Groups speak out against guns on college campuses
http://www.13wmaz.com/story/news/local/georgia/2016/02/08/groups-speak-out-against-guns-on-college-campuses/80026424/
11Alive Staff and Matthew Pearl, WXIA
ATLANTA – Several groups joined together Monday to speak out against proposed legislation that would allow guns onto Georgia college campuses. Back in 2014, the state substantially loosened gun laws two years ago. The 2014 “Guns Everywhere” bill has allowed firearms in a variety of locations in Georgia, from restaurants and bars to most public spaces. It originally included a provision that would have allowed guns on campus, but that aspect was eventually removed. Now, some lawmakers are considering a series of bills that would allow firearms onto campuses. House Bill 859 would allow weapons in buildings owned or leased by public postsecondary education. It would not apply to buildings used for sporting events or student housing, including fraternity and sorority houses. Another bill would allow stun guns on campuses. On Monday, representatives from GunSense Georgia Coalition, the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus and Outcry, Interfaith Voices Against Gun Violence met at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta to voice concerns with the bills.

www.creator.wework.com
Atlanta Is Becoming a Filmmaking Powerhouse
https://creator.wework.com/inspiration/atlanta-is-becoming-a-filmmaking-powerhouse/
by Crystal Kang
Babacar Ndiaye recalls how daunting it was to get into a film school in Atlanta. With little more than a desire to “tell other people’s stories through a visual medium,” he applied to Georgia State University’s program for film, television, and digital production. The rejection that he received really stung. So he called the film department to ask what he could do to improve his chances for the following year. The admissions committee was so impressed that it reviewed his portfolio and accepted him into the program. …By any measure, Atlanta’s film industry is booming. And the rest of the state is benefiting as well. Georgia’s film and entertainment industry brought in $6 billion last year, up from $5.1 billion from the previous year, according to the MPAA. That makes it one of the country’s filmmaking powerhouses, just behind Los Angeles and New York. …What’s unique about Atlanta is that it’s got a program for up-and-coming filmmakers. Governor Nathan Deal helped to create the Georgia Film Academy, which has been operating in three schools since the pilot program launched in January. This job-training program offers two-course certification, equipping students with a basic level of on-set film production skills and putting them on the fast track to finding film and TV jobs.

USG Institutions:
www.wtoc.com
College students benefit from GED passing score change
http://www.wtoc.com/story/31171380/college-students-benefit-from-ged-passing-score-change
By Kelsey Rountree
The GED passing score has dropped from 150 to 145 this year and students at Bainbridge State College are already benefiting from the change. “I was thrilled I was so happy,” said Bainbridge student Shuddondra Wimberly. According to the GED testing service, any student who took a GED test class since January 2014 and earned a 145 or higher will pass the test and won’t have to re-take it. Bainbridge State College student Shuddondra Wimberly says she scored a 145 on reading and language arts. She’s happy she won’t have to re-take the test.

www.georgianewsday.com
Jury selection underway in Savannah rape, murder trial
http://www.georgianewsday.com/news/savannah/386600-jury-selection-underway-in-savannah-rape-murder-trial.html
STAFF WRITER
Jury selection is underway in Savannah for an accused murderer and rapist. Torrey Scott is accused of raping two Savannah State University students and a pregnant woman working for a private practice at Candler Hospital. He is also facing charges of raping and murdering his neighbor while her husband, a soldier, was stationed overseas.

www.onlineathens.com
Teen charged in robbery and shooting of UGA student, warrants obtained for adult alleged accomplice
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-02-08/teen-charged-robbery-and-shooting-uga-student-warrants-obtained-adult-alleged
By JOE JOHNSON
Athens-Clarke County police arrested a teenager for the armed robbery, kidnapping and shooting last week of a University of Georgia student while he was attempting to make a delivery for Papa John’s Pizza. Police Monday morning identified the suspect as 16-year-old Christopher Burnett, who was charged as an adult for the incident Thursday night in which he and an accomplice allegedly robbed the 19-year-old UGA student at gunpoint, forced him into the trunk of his own car and drove him to a place where they shot him. Warrants were obtained for a second suspect, identified by police as Termedric Faust, a 32-year-old convicted felon.

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Why Is Tuition So High?
A new study asserts that increased student aid, not faculty salaries or state cutbacks, drives prices higher.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/study-increased-student-aid-not-faculty-salaries-drives-tuition?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8bca58981a-DNU20160209&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8bca58981a-197515277
By Ellen Wexler
College tuition has risen too quickly, and debt is unmanageable for increasing numbers of students; that much is clear. But to contain college prices, education leaders will need to answer a contentious question: Why does the price keep rising? Higher education’s critics tend to blame high prices on overpaid professors or fancy climbing walls. At public colleges, lobbyists tend to blame reductions in state support. But a new study places the blame elsewhere: the ready availability of federal student aid. Student aid accounts for most of the tuition increases between 1987 and 2010, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The more money students can borrow, the idea goes, the more colleges can charge.

www.chronicle.com
Boom in Online Tutoring Means Another Cost for Many Students
http://chronicle.com/article/Boom-in-Online-Tutoring-Means/235236?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=6dd4b56c70ec4a77b67e46df6f528c15&elqCampaignId=2398&elqaid=7830&elqat=1&elqTrackId=8238ae74109e450d928e5c9fb1e055dc
By Jeffrey R. Young
For-profit tutoring companies are targeting students with online ads these days, and the message is tempting. Why spend so long studying, the ads say, when paid tutors or study guides can help you get better grades with less work? …Tutoring college students has long been a largely low-key and low-tech affair, involving small campus centers with free services or entrepreneurial students who post signs on bulletin boards and charge small fees for help. Lately, though, helping college students do homework and prepare for tests has become big business, with for-profit online services scoring millions in investment and in-person tutoring centers near some campuses expanding because of increased demand. It could be called the “grade-enhancement industry,” and while it’s not completely new, it seems to be heating up. “There’s a groundswell of activity right now,” said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures, a consulting company. The tutoring services offered by many colleges, he said, tend to be small and seem “hidden away,” so students turn to commercial services to fill the void. Meanwhile, demographic shifts among those coming to campuses mean there could be more need than ever for increasing academic-support services.

www.insidehighered.com
Babson Bids Good-bye to Enrollment Numbers
The 13th and final annual report on online education enrollments by the Babson Group shows how much the market has grown since 2002 — and how little it has changed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/babson-group-reflects-final-report-online-education-enrollments?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8bca58981a-DNU20160209&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8bca58981a-197515277
By Carl Straumsheim
The Babson Survey Research Group is ending its influential report on the number of students who study online and how chief academic officers feel about the delivery method, citing a “coming of age” of the online education market. Yet the 13th and final annual report, released today, shows that perceived skepticism among faculty members toward online education remains, and that many colleges continue to have no interest in online courses. With the federal government now including distance education students in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS, the Babson Group said it will shift its focus away from estimating how many students take online courses.

www.diverseeducation.com
Billions of Free Federal Grant Money Go Unclaimed
http://diverseeducation.com/article/81039/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elqTrackId=c7bf5b5b5ccb4c43880d16d07876f956&elq=b2d5e66d309046f0bd3c42f47432d586&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=771
by Jamal Eric Watson
More than $2.7 billion in free federal grant money went unclaimed during the past academic year, according to a yearly analysis of incomplete or unsubmitted Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms by NerdWallet, the personal finance website. According to NerdWallet, a total of 1,445,732 high school graduates didn’t fill out a FAFSA application in 2014. Of those, 747,579 are believed to have been Pell eligible and would have allowed these students to earn federal Pell Grant money. “This figure includes all high school graduates, although some will choose not to attend college immediately or at all. Our calculations included the grads who don’t go on to college to show the scope of students who would be eligible for federal aid if they did apply,” read the report that was released last week.

www.diverseeducation.com
Are Colleges Doing Enough to Close the Achievement Gap?
http://diverseeducation.com/article/81036/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elqTrackId=1d86102fa28548d68eb80bf01f8ecc25&elq=b2d5e66d309046f0bd3c42f47432d586&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=771
by Matthew Lynch
There’s a lot of talk in P-12 learning about how exactly to best close the achievement gap or the space that separates traditionally advantaged students with those who have historically been at-risk where academics are concerned. By the time students get to college, the emphasis shifts slightly to focus more on the diversity of who is on a university campus and less on outcomes. Without the stringent assessments that are now synonymous with the P-12 process, colleges have an easier time simply making appearances when it comes to the true success of all students on their campuses.

www.insidehighered.com
Obama Crackdown on College Fraud
A new team at the Education Department will investigate and punish colleges that mislead students or otherwise violate federal laws.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/education-department-creates-new-office-crack-down-fraud-colleges?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8bca58981a-DNU20160209&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8bca58981a-197515277
By Michael Stratford
The Obama administration is creating a new office at the U.S. Department of Education dedicated to investigating and punishing illegal activity at colleges and providing debt relief to defrauded federal loan borrowers.
Officials on Monday announced a new “enforcement unit” that will be charged with investigating misconduct at colleges, imposing administrative actions against colleges and resolving student loan debt relief claims linked to fraud. “This new unit will allow us to respond more quickly and efficiently to allegations of illegal action by higher education institutions,” said Acting Education Secretary John B. King Jr.