University System News:
www.onlineathens.com
UGA president: Wreck that killed 4 students is something university hasn’t faced before
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-04-28/uga-president-something-university-hasnt-faced
By LEE SHEARER
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead asked for thoughts and prayers for the families of four UGA students killed in a traffic accident Wednesday night in a somber Thursday morning press conference. ”Let us draw together as a UGA family and care for each other,” said Morehead, who added he’d “not really” slept since learning of the accident on Georgia Highway 15 in Oconee County shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday. Morehead said the students, all young women, were “actively involved in our campus community” in Greek and religious organizations, but did not identify them nor their specific activities. He said it would be best to leave it to their families to tell about their activities.
www.ajc.com
Hundreds at vigils mourn death of UGA students
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/hundreds-at-vigil-mourn-death-of-uga-students/nrDb5/
Janel Davis and Craig Schneider
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATHENS – Hundreds of University of Georgia students and employees gathered at multiple vigils Thursday evening to mourn the loss of the UGA students involved in a Wednesday night car crash that left four of them dead and one in critical condition. Like an impromptu vigil in the early afternoon, an evening service at UGA was full of emotion, made even more impactful by comments from fellow students, sorority sisters and family members who knew the women involved in the crash. “To end this year this way is so painful,” said Houston Gaines, UGA’s student government president. “We lost four incredibly strong, inspirational women last night and are fighting for the other in the hospital.”
See also:
www.wsbtv.com
Vigils honor UGA students as honorable women, already missed by community
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/clarke-county/vigils-honor-uga-students-as-honorable-women-already-missed-by-community/248134622
www.news.wabe.org
Expected Ga. Law Shift Could Affect Immigrant Students’ Suit
http://news.wabe.org/post/expected-ga-law-shift-could-affect-immigrant-students-suit
By MARTHA DALTON
A group of students who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children is suing each member of Georgia’s Board of Regents. The group is fighting to pay in-state college tuition rates. The students say they have a “legal presence” in the U.S. through a federal program that temporarily shields them from deportation. In February, the state Supreme Court rejected a similar case filed by the same students against the board as a whole. The Court said the board had “sovereign immunity” and couldn’t be sued. Fred Smith, a visiting Emory Law professor who specializes in sovereign immunity cases, says suing the Regents individually may not lead to a different outcome for the students. “There is some case law in Georgia – not a lot – but there’s some case law suggesting that when someone’s acting in their legislative capacity, then they’re entitled to legislative immunity,” he says.
www.mdjonline.com
KEVIN FOLEY: State Rep. Earl Ehrhart’s ‘war on university women’
http://www.mdjonline.com/opinion/kevin-foley-state-rep-earl-ehrhart-s-war-on-university/article_9f6f548a-0d9f-11e6-9f64-d343ebc6eb34.html
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, is sending exactly the wrong signal to college men inclined to engage in a little “non-consensual sexual activity” — also known as rape. Our daughters and sons should be free of the threat of sexual violence or harassment on Georgia’s college and university campuses. To make sure they are, Title IX of the Equal Opportunity in Education Act empowers the Department of Education to enforce gender equality at institutions receiving federal funding… Ehrhart is apparently troubled over a case involving a Georgia Tech student who was expelled after being accused of homosexual rape. Later, the allegation was judged to be false and the student was reinstated by the Board of Regents. “There is something amiss at Georgia Tech,” pronounced Andrew Miltenberg, the accused student’s attorney. “It is a monument to everything that is wrong with these kinds of disciplinary cases.”
USG Institutions:
www.savannahnow.com
Police: 5 students robbed at gunpoint at Savannah State University
http://savannahnow.com/crime-courts-news-latest-news/2016-04-28/police-5-students-robbed-gunpoint-savannah-state-university
By Savannah Morning News
Police: 5 students robbed at gunpoint at Savannah State University
Savannah State University police are investigating a home invasion robbery they say happened about 1:30 a.m. Thursday in a University Commons apartment. According to preliminary reports, the victims are five students who were inside the apartment socializing and playing video games. They heard a knock at the door but did not open the door because the peephole was covered. About 20 minutes later, the students decided to leave and when they opened the door, the suspects were standing in the doorway, armed with handguns. The suspects took money, jewelry, and electronic devices. There were no injuries. One of the three suspects has been identified, according to university spokeswoman Loretta Heyward. The investigation is ongoing.
www.thegeorgeanne.com
GS offers new minor in public administration
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_f2870eb9-84f5-5118-870a-e1da30451372.html
By Blakeley Bartee and Tandra Smith The George-Anne staff
For students interested in the study of public and nonprofit management, the Georgia Southern University Institute for Public and Nonprofit Studies (IPNS) will offer the new undergraduate minor in public administration by fall 2016. According to Trenton Davis, public administration associate professor and director, the minor will be taught by faculty from the public administration graduate program, and will introduce students to many topics within the field of nonprofit management. “The minor is for any major or student who is interested in a career in government or the nonprofit sector, or a career that might work with the government or nonprofit sector,” Davis said. “For instance, even journalism majors, who may be covering local government or city council meetings and that sort of thing, knowing something about how the government or how public administration works can be very helpful.” According to the GS website, the minor requires 15 credit hours in courses covering topics such as public budgeting and finance, administrative law and management.
www.globalatlanta.com
Georgia Tech, Foreign Investors Honored for ‘Global Impact’
Trevor Williams
When Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson began rattling off his university’s international credentials, it was hard to envision his opponents recovering. And it’s not as though they were anyone to sneeze at: The Midtown Atlanta technology powerhouse was pitted against First Data, the world’s largest payment processing firm, and Incomm, a “company of firsts” that prides itself on its cutting-edge role in the prepaid category, including being the first company to put digital music on a physical iTunes card. But having innovation centers from the likes of Delta Air Lines and ThyssenKrupp, students from 100-plus countries, and study-abroad programs, faculty exchanges and research partnerships dotting the globe made the university hard to compete with for an innovation honor at the Metro Atlanta Chamber‘s Global Impact Awards April 20. Georgia Tech also has campuses or logistics institutes in France, Singapore, China, Panama, Costa Rica and elsewhere.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech sensor startup Lumense cuts workforce, loses CEO
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/04/26/georgia-tech-sensor-startup-lumense-cuts-workforce.html
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta sensor technology startup Lumense Inc. has scaled back its workforce and market focus and co-founder and CEO Mike Slawson left the company a couple weeks ago, Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned. Lumense Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ken Johnson now leads the company. Lumense, which has raised about $6 million in equity investments and and R&D grants, develops chemical and biological sensors targeted for use in the poultry, food and beverage, and water quality industry. In late 2013, the startup based at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center raised $2.6 million from the GRA Venture Fund, The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), Intelligent Systems Corporation (NYSE: INS) and angel investor Leland Strange.
www.bizjournalsc.om
Saluting our nation’s best: National Small Business Week hits Atlanta
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2016/04/29/saluting-our-nation-s-best-national-small-business.html
Cassius F. Butts
Every year since 1963, the president has officially designated a National Small Business Week for our nation to celebrate our unsung heroes: our nation’s entrepreneurs. This year, we are fortunate to celebrate this national occasion right here in Atlanta — for the first time in history. This year, National Small Business Week will occur from May 1-7, 2016. The theme this year is Dream Big, Start Small (#DreamSmallBiz). The Atlanta National Small Business Week celebration will be held on the campus of Georgia Tech at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The event includes a fireside chat with SBA Deputy Administrator Doug Kramer and a team of experts to discuss the small business climate and trends of today. Following the discussion will be sessions covering the topics of the Tech Explosion, Hollywood South (how to create business with the film industry) and Globalization — how to become part of the global economy. This event and all of the national events will be available for viewing live on sba.gov/nsbw.
www.thehill.com
Under Contract
By The Hill staff
… The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded two contracts worth up to a total of about $10 million to provide research and proposals on how to defend against distributed denial of service attacks on computer networks, a common tactic among hackers. “Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems,” documents say. Georgia Tech Research Corporation and Raytheon BBN Technologies each won a contract.
www.washingtonpost.com
Professors hate online education. To save colleges, they have to learn to love it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/04/27/professors-hate-online-education-to-save-colleges-they-have-to-learn-to-love-it/
By Henry C. Lucas
Like many professors, Henry C. Lucas was skeptical of online education. Lucas, now the chair of the decision, operations and information technologies department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, now believes it’s essential. Online education presents great opportunities for colleges and universities, but also great threats. As this disruptive technology spreads, some universities will become better, and rise in stature. Others will go out of business. What will separate the winners from the losers? You might think the answer is money, to invest in new technologies… I view MOOCs as the utility infielder of education, something that can be deployed in all sorts of ways. Georgia Tech is offering an MS in Computer Science on the MOOC delivery format for around $6,600.
www.e360.yale.edu
From Mass Coral Bleaching, A Scientist Looks for Lessons
For climate scientist Kim Cobb, this year’s massive bleaching of coral reefs is providing sobering insights into the impacts of global warming. Yale Environment 360 talked with Cobb about the bleaching events and the push to make reefs more resilient to rising temperatures.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/from_mass_coral_bleaching_scientist_looks_for_lessons_kim_cobb_el_nino/2987/
by katherine bagley
Twice a year, climate scientist Kim Cobb travels to Christmas Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to collect core samples from coral reefs. The data help in reconstructing past climate records and improving predictions of future global warming. But when Cobb, a research scientist and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, arrived on the island earlier this month, she was stunned. The corals she had spent the past 18 years studying were largely dead or dying… In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Cobb talked about the recent bleaching event, the race to make reefs more resilient to rising global temperatures, and how coral records could change the way scientists project short-term climate impacts for the coming decades. “What you think reefs might be experiencing in 20 years, they’re experiencing now,” Cobb says. “It took a very large, record-breaking event to bring that to our doorstep, but it is something that you always knew was coming. It has also encouraged us to make sure we are using this event to the best scientific end possible, to understand what we can about the vulnerability of coral reefs, and what governs resilience.”
Higher Education News:
www.wsj.com
Just 37% of U.S. High School Seniors Prepared for College Math and Reading, Test Shows
Results from Nation’s Report Card show slight dip from two years earlier
http://www.wsj.com/articles/just-37-of-u-s-high-school-seniors-prepared-for-college-math-and-reading-test-shows-1461729661
By LESLIE BRODY
Only 37% of American 12th-graders were academically prepared for college math and reading in 2015, a slight dip from two years earlier, according to test scores released Wednesday. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” said that share was down from an estimated 39% in math and 38% in reading in 2013. Educators and policy makers have long lamented that many seniors get diplomas even though they aren’t ready for college, careers or the military. Those who go to college often burn through financial aid or build debt while taking remedial classes that don’t earn credits toward a degree. Bill Bushaw, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the test, said the board was pleased that high school graduation rates were rising, but disappointed in the lack of progress in boosting students’ skills and knowledge.
www.chronicle.com
In Fight Over UC-Davis Chancellor’s Future, Where Does the Faculty Stand?
http://chronicle.com/article/In-Fight-Over-UC-Davis/236297
By Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
Before the news broke late Wednesday that Linda P.B. Katehi, chancellor of the University of California at Davis, had been removed from her post and placed on leave, the embattled leader had boasted of her faculty support. As rumors swirled on Wednesday that the university system’s president, Janet Napolitano, had asked Ms. Katehi to step down, more than 300 faculty members signed a letter condemning any “pre-emptory action” to remove the chancellor. That same day, Ms. Katehi wrote in an email to deans that she was “100 percent committed” to remaining chancellor, and that she appreciated “the strong outpouring of support I continue to receive from the campus community.” Ms. Napolitano placed Ms. Katehi on paid administrative leave for 90 days, pending an investigation into allegations that she violated university policies, according to a statement from the president. Concerns focused on possible conflicts of interest stemming from the university’s employment of Ms. Katehi’s son, daughter-in-law, and husband; a potential misuse of student fees; and the accusation that Ms. Katehi knew more about consulting-firm contracts than what she told reporters, according to a letter to Ms. Katehi from Ms. Napolitano.
www.insidehighered.com
Duke U President Will Step Down Next Year
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/04/29/duke-u-president-will-step-down-next-year?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=67d533c6dd-DNU20160429&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-67d533c6dd-197515277
Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead, who has served in that position for 12 years, announced Thursday that he will step down on June 30, 2017. Duke’s announcement noted many efforts to improve undergraduate education, research and Duke’s global programs.