University System News:
www.accesswdun.com
As session ends, Georgia lawmakers check off key bills
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/3/380012/as-session-ends-georgia-lawmakers-check-off-key-bills
By Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) Georgia lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to bills setting strict timelines for testing rape kits and creating state-funded grants to pregnancy resource centers that won’t provide or discuss abortion as an option for pregnant women.
Thursday marked the 40th and final day of the legislative session, and lawmakers worked past midnight to send bills to Gov. Nathan Deal. Any bills that don’t pass both chambers before adjournment must start all over again next year, and final passage of several hot-button issues lingered to the last minute. …Other measures sent to the governor Thursday would: allow college students who are at least 18 to carry stun guns on state campuses.
www.bizjournals.com
Lawmakers pony up $10.6M for Invest Georgia
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2016/03/25/lawmakers-pony-up-10-6m-for-invest-georgia.html
Dave Williams
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
For the first time in its brief history, Georgia’s state-run venture capital fund is poised to land an ongoing home in the state budget. The $23.7 billion fiscal 2017 budget given final passage by the General Assembly March 22 includes $10.6 million for Invest Georgia, the VC fund the legislature created in 2013. Subject to Gov. Nathan Deal’s approval, Invest Georgia — which received a one-shot appropriation of $10 million two years ago — would become a line item in the spending plan when the fiscal year begins July 1. Senators countered that it’s in Georgia’s interest to provide funding to incentivize the tech startups hatched in Georgia by the high-quality academic research at Georgia Tech and other institutions to stay in the Peach State.
www.valdostatoday.com
VSU Interim President pens letter to governor opposing ‘campus carry’
VSU Interim President pens letter to governor opposing ‘campus carry’
VALDOSTA – Cecil P. Staton, Interim President of Valdosta State University, has sent a letter asking Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to veto House Bill 859 which would allow students to carry firearms on college campuses
Dear Governor Deal,
www.eschoolnews.com
Georgia students leverage Parchment to improve college access
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/03/25/georgia-students-leverage-parchment-to-improve-college-access/
High school and college students across the state of Georgia are leveraging simple solutions every day to improve their access to their next educative journey. Parchment, a leading academic credential management service, works with more than 65 high schools and 72 college admissions offices across Georgia to create a robust network that helps to simplify the college application process for Georgia learners. By delivering and processing electronic credentials with Parchment, member schools are breaking down barriers in the college access process. …Higher education institutions in Georgia are using Parchment too. College admissions offices in the Peach State have elected to receive digital transcripts through Parchment to streamline processes, often resulting in faster admissions decisions. In 2015, postsecondary institutions in Georgia leveraged Parchment to receive and process nearly 60,000 digital credentials. In the fall of 2015, the University System of Georgia announced a relationship with Parchment on a program, “Credit When It’s Due” to help award the thousands of Georgia citizens who have some college, but no degree, with an associate degree they may have unknowingly earned.
USG Institutions:
www.myajc.com
These 4 Georgia colleges doing the best with low-income students
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/these-4-georgia-colleges-doing-the-best-with-low-i/nqr4f/
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday issued a report highlighting public and private colleges and universities that have been successful at helping enroll low-income students and getting them through school and graduated. Four Georgia institutions were highlighted in the report: 2. Georgia State University – The large urban institution has become a national model for succeeding with low-income and minority students. U.S. Secretary of Education John King visited Georgia State last week to learn more about the intensive advising and student tracking that has helped the school improve its retention and graduation rates for those students, and the Obama administration has given the school a $9 million grant to share its strategies nationally. Thursday’s report emphasized Georgia State’s partnership with 10 other institutions on these efforts.
www.onlineathens.com
UGA may get new ‘visual identity’
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-03-24/uga-may-get-new-visual-identity
By LEE SHEARER
The University of Georgia may soon get a new look with a possible update of the university’s “visual identity,” or logo. Back in 1988, UGA adopted rules governing how UGA and its logos should appear on stationery, business cards and other official printed materials. But those rules haven’t applied to the Internet, where units were largely left on their own to design the logos greeting web visitors, resulting in a wild profusion of sometimes strikingly different logos and typefaces — partly because the official UGA logo doesn’t easily translate to the web. The official UGA logo includes the famous Arch, the name of the university and numbers for the year UGA was chartered, 1785. …New UGA Vice President for Marketing & Communications Karri Hobson-Pape launched a university-wide review of the UGA look, which could result in a more uniform visual identity, and one that’s simple and easy to use, she said. Of 60 universities reviewed by the department, Hobson-Pape said, each one has a unified visual identity, including all UGA’s peer and aspirational institutions (universities to which UGA is comparable or aspires to be more like).
www.11alive.com
Storms bring damage, outages to metro Atlanta
http://www.11alive.com/weather/storms-bring-damage-outages-to-metro-atlanta/100531339
Christopher Buchanan, WXIA
While storms hitting metro Atlanta may seem to have only brought rain in some areas, others reported trees down and power outages in others. 11Alive has confirmed that a tree has fallen on the Couch building at Georgia Tech. At this point, campus police say only that this was not a residential area and that there are no injuries. Severity of the damage has not been reported so far but crews on the scene spoke with witnesses who said the falling tree was just one room away from a $70,000 grand piano. But Georgia Tech isn’t the only area reeling from the afternoon winds.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
CCGA service learning project donates to CIS Backpack Buddies
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/ccga-service-learning-project-donates-to-cis-backpack-buddies/article_1ee27324-12f6-5387-a6d9-a727448f76a8.html
By ANNA HALL The Brunswick News
For nearly three months, a group of nursing students from the College of Coastal Georgia have worked to collect pantries full of food for students in need in Glynn County. Through its service learning project, the students reached out to college peers, community partners, churches, the Southeast Georgia Heath System and individual donors to gather not only boxes of donated non-perishable food products, but also funds, which they on Thursday unloaded in the Communities in Schools station at Burroughs-Molette Elementary School. …Coordinated by Glynn County’s Communities in Schools, which is part of the nation’s leading dropout prevention network that provides student support on multiple levels, Backpack Buddies is a program which provides students in need with a bag of food every Friday, to ensure students “have enough to eat over the weekend so they can come back to school rested, motivated and with energy to learn on Monday,” said Earlene Dickson, site coordinator for Communities in Schools. When the group of nursing students learned about the school systemwide program, they knew they had found their next venture in service learning, which is part of the nursing program’s rotational community health unit.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech to host TEDx event
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/03/24/georgia-tech-to-host-tedx.html
Phil W. Hudson
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech has a few “ideas worth spreading.” On April 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the school will host TEDxGeorgiaTech in the LeCraw Auditorium of the Scheller College of Business. The event will feature several short talks, with topics ranging from scientific breakthroughs to inspiring human stories, Georgia Tech said. This year’s theme is “Raise Your Ideas to the Next Power.” “It’s all about amplifying ideas — taking something simple and exponentiating it,” co-director Yamini Nambiar said in a statement. Through TEDx, organizers hold events to spark intellectual conversations and connect people from within their community. The events are planned independently with a free license granted by TED. The school said the goal of TEDxGeorgiaTech is to showcase ideas from the community and foster further innovation at Tech. Past speakers have included photographers, social business owners and doctors.
www.news.wabe.org
Ga. Tech Project Provides Cubans Faster Access To Internet
http://news.wabe.org/post/ga-tech-project-provides-cubans-faster-access-internet
By TASNIM SHAMMA
President Barack Obama called on the Cuban government to expand Internet access for its citizens in a speech in Havana on Tuesday. In Cuba, less than about 5 percent of the population has open Internet access. That’s slowly changing as the government adds a few Wi-Fi hotspots and foreign companies work to update the digital infrastructure. Cubans just want access to information: entertainment, news, sports, technology updates. They are a lot less concerned about talking about political issues or controversial topics. But in the meantime, a Georgia Tech initiative is helping Cubans access information more quickly. Michaelanne Dye is a doctorate student at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing… “What we found in the study is that it was a lot easier for people in Cuba to access email than it was for them to search Google or get online,” Dye said. “So Cuba Intercambio is like a Google search, but it all happens through email.”
www.douglascountysentinel.com
Two more suspects in studio shooting arrested
http://www.douglascountysentinel.com/regional_news/two-more-suspects-in-studio-shooting-arrested/article_84f515ad-6a94-5d2f-bf8a-7892942cb92b.html
By DONNY KARR THE TIMES-GEORGIAN
Carrollton police arrested two more suspects on Thursday who they say are connected with a shooting that occurred at a local music studio on March 13. According to investigators, the two suspects are members of the Bloods criminal street gang from the Atlanta area. …Police identified Tariq Ameer Jones, 19, of Ellenwood, as one of the suspects immediately following the incident. Jones, who is a student at the University of West Georgia, turned himself in to authorities on March 17 after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Higher Education News:
www.diverseeducation.com
ED Secretary: U.S. Higher Ed Becoming ‘Caste System’
http://diverseeducation.com/article/82809/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elqTrackId=1acfdce8c4b24a6483d681455d1996aa&elq=cc523cefd2e3458792757dfbcaed5fb7&elqaid=88&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=771
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King praised colleges and universities that do an exceptional job when it comes to admitting and graduating students who rely on Pell Grants but also called on leaders of those institutions to do more to encourage others to follow suit. The newly minted education chief also warned that the United States is becoming a “caste system of colleges and universities” in which more affluent students get personalized counseling, college prep courses and enjoy higher rates of admittance to elite universities, while poorer students too often “get shortchanged on these things.” “When it comes to affordability, we need to recognize that when poor students borrow at least half their annual household income just to attend college, we are dangerously close to college obstructing, rather than driving, social mobility in this country,” King said.
www.diverseeducation.com
New $48 Million Scholarship Program for African Americans in STEM Fields
New $48 Million Scholarship Program for African Americans in STEM Fields
The Fund II Foundation of Austin, Texas, has the stated mission “to preserve the African-American experience; safeguard human rights; provide music education; preserve the environment while promoting the benefits of the outdoors; and sustain critical American values such as entrepreneurialism.” To fulfill its first stated mission the philanthropic organization vows “to share the diverse and stirring stories of people of African descent, we support organizations that illuminate the richness of Black history and culture.” Now the Fund II Foundation has teamed up with the United Negro College Fund to establish a new scholarship program to help African American students seeking careers in STEM fields.
www.chronicle.com
After String of Incidents, Berkeley Announces Changes to Fight Sexual Misconduct
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/after-string-of-incidents-berkeley-announces-changes-to-fight-sexual-misconduct/109759?elqTrackId=9f3dddcd590d4b6cafebb42bf119c7bf&elq=93cbb6377c5140ccaad321f80d8f24b8&elqaid=8406&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2751
by Andy Thomason
The University of California at Berkeley has unveiled a slew of new initiatives to combat sexual misconduct on its campus, in response to a string of high-profile harassment cases. In a message to the campus, the university’s chancellor, Nicholas B. Dirks, laid out the new measures.
www.chronicle.com
Coaches Must Now ‘Step the Heck Out’ of Sex-Assault Investigations of Players
http://chronicle.com/article/Coaches-Must-Now-Step-the/235839?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=6a9f54ad952d41689ebff621a41abc6b&elq=93cbb6377c5140ccaad321f80d8f24b8&elqaid=8406&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2751
By Robin Wilson
Its first appearance at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in more than 50 years wasn’t a good moment for Yale University’s team to be without its captain. But he wasn’t there. Jack Montague was expelled last month after being accused of sexual assault. His expulsion highlights questions about how colleges handle such allegations against athletes and whether the process is impartial. Yale hasn’t disclosed exactly what the former captain was accused of or found responsible for. But he has spoken out through his lawyer, sharing details of his relationship with a female classmate, saying the two had had consensual sex, and arguing he had been unfairly expelled. He plans to sue Yale. The spotlight shines brighter on athletes than on other students, particularly regarding alleged sexual misconduct. But colleges haven’t always used their formal disciplinary process for players. Until 2008, for example, the University of Iowa has allowed its athletics department to take “informal action” on reports of sexual misconduct by athletes without first consulting campus investigators. More recent incidents have involved allegations that institutions brushed off charges against athletes or let athletics officials control or influence an investigation.