USG Institutions:
www.onlineathens.com
UGA moves up to No. 17 on Forbes list of top 25 public U.S.
By UGA NEWS SERVICENEWS
The University of Georgia moved up one spot to rank No. 17 on the Forbes “Top 25 Public Colleges 2016” list released this week. Forbes ranked 660 public and private colleges and universities using factors that the publication says favor “output over input. Our sights are set directly on return on investment: What are students getting out of college.” “As the University of Georgia continues to gain recognition as one of the nation’s top public universities, students and alumni can be more confident than ever in the value of a UGA education,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Significant investments to enhance the learning environment and provide students with the support they need to succeed are clearly paying dividends, and the future of this institution is very bright.” The only other SEC school on the public school list was the University of Florida at No. 13. Georgia Tech also was ranked in the top 25 at No. 15
www.forbes.com
America’s Top Colleges
http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/#e1147684f28c
The University of North Georgia (UNG) was named one of the nation’s top higher education institutions by Forbes Magazine this month in its annual “America’s Top Colleges” ranking. This is the first time UNG has been named to the list, and UNG is one of only six public universities in Georgia to be included.
www.wtvm.com
New president introduced to 69-year-old Georgia Southern tradition
By Dal Cannady, Reporter
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) – Georgia Southern University’s new president got introduced to a summertime tradition on campus. Dr. Jaimie Hebert helped slice up watermelon for crowds of faculty, staff and students. The July tradition started 69 years ago when only a hundred or so students took summer classes and the school grew the food for the cafeteria. Dr. Hebert officially started last Friday. He says the more he sees and learns about Southern, he likes it even more. “A tradition like this – you see the excitement around here. It helps morale. It brings to life everything this wonderful university is,” said Dr. Hebert. Friday marks the first public event for the new president. He says this university has seen more triumphs and trials than any of those folks back then could have ever imagined. “This place is just amazing. The heritage of this institution is just phenomenal,” said Dr. Hebert. He says he hopes to help broad the experiences of students, through research in the classroom, life on campus and more and likes what he sees so far. “That I’ve made one of the best decisions of my life coming here,” said Hebert.
www.metroatlantaceo.com
UGA SBDC Announces Special Program for the Underserved in Metro Atlanta
http://metroatlantaceo.com/news/2016/07/special-program-underserved-metro-atlanta/
Staff Report From Metro Atlanta CEO
The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center announced an exclusive new program created to help minorities, women, veterans, and people with disabilities understand business loans and how to get financed. The Credit School is a full-day intensive boot camp designed to teach prospective and existing owners about business loans and credit. It will be held in five convenient metro-Atlanta locations. “Last year, the UGA SBDC helped small business owners obtain over $100 million in capital infusion. We are very excited to present this innovative program with the assistance of the U.S. Small Business Administration Atlanta District office at five metro-Atlanta locations,” stated Lloyd Atkins, Director of Minority Business at the UGA SBDC.
www.albanyherald.com
Young Scholars Program life-changing for students, mentors
The program is offered on all three UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences campuses
By Michael Pannell
TIFTON — High school students are not the only ones benefitting from the University of Georgia Young Scholars Program on the UGA Tifton Campus. Watching students grow in knowledge and experience makes Glen Rains’ work as a mentor during the six-week internship worthwhile. “My favorite part is learning where they go after [the Young Scholars Program],” said Rains, a UGA agricultural engineer who has served as a mentor every year the program has been offered at UGA Tifton. Rains also keeps in touch with most of the Young Scholars he has mentored. He is currently mentoring Bailey Veeder, a rising junior from Clarke Central High School in Athens, Georgia. The job of each mentor is to help a young student or students with their research and to make sure the students’ summer project is completed correctly. The Young Scholar depends on their expert for advice and guidance, and they gain very valuable experience. …The Young Scholars Program is offered on all three UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences campuses: Tifton, Athens and Griffin. Teri Hughes, assistant coordinator of the Young Scholars Program on the UGA Tifton Campus, said the scientists involved are all volunteers. They give of their time to have an impact on the career path a student chooses.
www.georgiapolicy.org
Georgia Must Correct Dental Care Disparities
http://www.georgiapolicy.org/2016/07/georgia-must-correct-dental-care-disparities/
By Nicoleta Serban
More than 58 percent of Georgia’s children – about 1.5 million youngsters – qualify for public dental benefits through the state’s Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids programs, according to a new Georgia Tech study. Unfortunately, of the 3,872 licensed dentists providing provide preventive services in Georgia, just 337 – 8.7 percent – accept public insurance for children, according to InsureKidsNow.gov. Research conducted by scientists in the Health Analytics Group at Georgia Tech details the extreme oral health care disparities between children eligible for public insurance and those whose families can afford care through other financial means. Considering common access barriers, there are roughly 865,000 Medicaid- or PeachCare-eligible children in Georgia who need to travel to reach a dental provider for preventive care services more than the state standards … Dr. Nicoleta Serban of the Georgia Tech School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, an author of the Georgia Tech study, wrote this commentary for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
www.washingtonpost.com
The mysterious syndrome impairing astronauts’ sight
By Shayla Love
In 2005, astronaut John Phillips took a break from his work on the International Space Station and looked out the window at Earth. He was about halfway through a mission that had begun in April and would end in October. When he gazed down at the planet, the Earth was blurry. He couldn’t focus on it clearly. That was strange — his vision had always been 20/20. He wondered: Was his eyesight getting worse? … Phillips case became the first widely recognized one of a mysterious syndrome that affects 80 percent of astronauts on long-duration missions in space. The syndrome could interfere with plans for future crewed space missions, including any trips to Mars … Ross Ethier, a biomedical engineer at Georgia Tech, is using models to simulate what happens in the body when intracranial pressure goes up. He is looking at a potential mechanical solution: a device that could draw fluid back down to the legs in space.
Higher Education News:
www.getschooled.blog.myaj.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Should your high school student take ACT or new SAT? And where are those June SAT scores?
My twins are rising seniors and face the question of whether to focus on the SAT or the ACT. Like many of their metro Atlanta peers, they took both tests in June. While ACT scores from the June 11 test date came back in 10 days, students are still waiting for their SAT scores from June 4. In talking to the founder of an Atlanta-based test prep company, he asked why it was ACT could turn around scores in well under two weeks while SAT will not return scores until July 21. He also told me he’s telling clients to take the ACT because the new SAT is an unknown and it’s uncertain how colleges will regard it. A second SAT/ACT prep coach in Atlanta told me the same thing. She is advising students to focus their energies on the ACT this year. I asked a college admissions officer her view on the new SAT vs. ACT. She said the class of 2017 is in a bind because colleges are unsure what the new SAT scores mean in terms of student performance in college. But she said a high score is still a high score, and students will not be penalized for submitting the SAT.
www.chronicle.com
Flagships Must Create New Models to Preserve the Public Good
By Nicholas B. Dirks
By far the best thing about America is its universities. Not Harvard, Yale, e tutti quanti: though marvelous, they are not distinctively American — their roots reach across the ocean to Oxford, Heidelberg, and beyond. Nowhere else in the world, however, can boast such public universities.
—Tony Judt
The late Tony Judt — a distinguished British historian — was hardly alone in remarking that the best thing about America is its public universities. Each campus represents the enormous significance of scholarship, learning, and research, and the ubiquity of these campuses across the country makes real the promise of education, at the highest level, for all people — not just the elite. In no other domain did the twin commitment to excellence and democracy seem so natural and critical for the new nation. And yet, the fate of our great public universities is increasingly under threat, hanging in the balance between diminished funding and the need to invent a new model that recaptures Abraham Lincoln’s belief that higher education should be seen as a public good, not merely the domain of the private sector. Today we typically think of the public good as referring to those basic goods that should be available in equal measure to all citizens, from potable water to health care. As a society we have come to acknowledge the importance of education as a public good because we know that citizens will not become productive members of the economy without significant knowledge and that becoming a full citizen of a democracy requires more than a narrow skill set for a vocational goal.