University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia Tech settles two lawsuits involving sexual assaults
Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The University System of Georgia has settled two lawsuits by Georgia Tech students who claimed they were expelled unfairly after being wrongly accused of sexual assault. The settlements, released through an open-records request, were completed in June and July. In the first case, system officials agreed to pay a male student $125,000 to settle a case in which he had been accused by another male student of sexual assault. In January, the school was ordered to reinstate the student after it had found him responsible for non-consensual sexual intercourse. The reinstatement was the only time in the past five years the state Board of Regents had overturned any public college in a sexual assault case, records showed. In the second suit, filed by a male student accused by a female student of rape, system officials agreed to allow him to receive his diploma from Georgia Tech but prevent him from attending Tech or any other school in the University System. The settlement upholds his expulsion, but modifies his disciplinary record to include only the code number and name of each charge against him. Those charges included non-consensual sexual contact, non-consensual sexual intercourse and coercion. His record will also include a notation that he sued Georgia Tech and the Board of Regents alleging he was denied due process and had been wrongfully found responsible for the alleged offenses. The document also notes that nothing in the settlement agreement should be deemed as an admission of guilt or liability.
See also:
www.law.com
Two Campus Rape Suits Against Georgia Tech Settle
http://www.law.com/sites/articles/2016/07/22/two-campus-rape-suits-against-georgia-tech-settle/
www.myajc.com
State workers grow in number as demands on Georgia’s government rise
By James Salzer – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DALLAS, GA. — The first major wave of state government hiring since the Great Recession came at just the right time for Amanda Scott.
The mother of four boys spent 13 years at Wal-Mart, rising to assistant manager. But she’d grown tired of the irregular hours of retail and never having holidays off, and she was looking for a change. When the Department of Driver Services opened a new office in her hometown, she jumped at the chance to run the place, which is a three-minute drive from her home. …Scott is one of thousands of new state and school district employees who have been hired or will be in the next several months as the state of Georgia starts back-filling from years of job and service cutbacks brought on by the recession. Some lawmakers say that the cutbacks have made state government leaner and forced agencies to focus on what they were originally designed to do. …Full-time employment grew in a few areas, such as in the University System of Georgia, which added more than 3,000 staffers. The Board of Regents raised tuition to make up for lower state funding during the recession, so it had an alternative source of revenue to pay for the facilities and classes needed to handle growing enrollment.
www.times-herlad.com
Dual enrollment numbers rising
http://times-herald.com/news/2016/07/dual-enrollment-numbers-rising
By CELIA SHORTT
With the growth of dual enrollment, more high school students in Coweta County are earning college credit before graduation through Move on When Ready. The Georgia Department of Education recently re-titled dual enrollment as Move on When Ready, and the Georgia General Assembly passed Senate Bill 132 which opened it to more students and reduced their costs. Move on When Ready allows freshman through senior students in high school to attend a postsecondary institution and earn high school and college credit at the same time. With Senate Bill 132, students also don’t have to pay tuition or fees for the college credit at participating schools. Both West Georgia Technical College and the University of West Georgia have campuses in Coweta County and offer dual enrollment classes. According to Dr. Bob Heaberlin of the University of West Georgia, the school currently has more than 700 students enrolled in Move on When Ready for the 2016 fall semester. Approximately 120 of them will be enrolled at the Newnan campus. Heaberlin said he expects those numbers to increase.
www.news.heartland.org
Georgia District: No Education Degree Required to Teach
Ashley Bateman
To fill 450 open teaching positions for the 2016–17 school year, the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) in Georgia has expanded eligibility to applicants who do not have an education degree. As enrollment in college education programs continues to decline, Georgia schools are forced to find non-traditional teachers to head their classrooms. Heather Bilton—the talent, acquisition, and retention coordinator for SCCPSS—said, “Even if we hired everybody from our two local universities, we would not have enough people to fill our vacancies.” To be eligible for Savannah-Chatham’s Alternative Pathways to Teaching certification program, an applicant must pass a background check, possess a bachelor’s degree or higher, have a minimum overall GPA of 2.5 if the degree was obtained in the past 10 years, and pass two educator assessments. …Eric Wearne, assistant professor at the Georgia Gwinnett College School of Education, says teacher certification does not make much of an impact. “Certification itself doesn’t seem to matter much at all,” Wearne said. “There’s a lot more variation among teachers who are certified and among teachers who are not certified. There are really good certified teachers and really good uncertified teachers.” Bilton says the alternative pathways program has allowed SCCPSS to diversify the classes they can now offer students.
www.myajc.com
Ex-inmate loses leg, blames shoddy prison medical care
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/ex-inmate-loses-leg-blames-shoddy-prison-medical-c/nr4CK/
By Rhonda Cook – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When former prison inmate Kimery Finger nicked her toe while trimming her nails, it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But the small cut on her big right toe slowly turned into a blister, then a black spot and eventually an oozing sore. Four months later, doctors would be forced to amputate Finger’s lower right leg. The amputation could have been prevented but shoddy medical care at Pulaski State Prison allowed the infection to reach her bones, despite her repeatedly asking prison medical staff for care, documents and medical records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution allege. …Finger plans to file suit but first had to provide written notice outlining the allegations, following a Georgia law designed to give local or state government agencies time to take steps to avoid litigation. It was in her notice that Finger alleged the sub-par treatment she received at Pulaski. Her story reflects broader troubles of poor medical care for dozens of inmates at the prison brought to light by an AJC investigation. The AJC stories, lawsuits and a subsequent study by Augusta University, which staffs prison medical clinics, criticized the care Dr. Yvon Nazaire, the prison’s former medical director, provided inmates. Finger was one of his patients. …Augusta University, which provides medical care to the prison through a subsidiary, Georgia Corrections Health Care, released a report last December that said the poor medical care Nazaire gave three inmates contributed to their deaths. Since then, Georgia Corrections Health Care has implemented many of the recommendations in the report, which was prompted by the AJC investigations into the deaths, according to a spokesman. Nazaire was fired before the report was released.
USG Institutions:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Sandra Deal to speak at Georgia Gwinnett College graduation
By Keith Farner
Georgia’s First Lady will be the keynote speaker at next month’s Georgia Gwinnett College graduation, the school announced on Friday. About 150 students are expected to receive bachelor’s degrees and hear from Sandra Deal at the event at 10 a.m. on Aug. 2 at the Infinite Energy Center arena in Duluth. Deal was a teacher for more than 15 years and retired from teaching sixth grade in Hall County.
www.bizjournals.com
Three Georgia universities make top 100 worldwide patents list
David Allison
Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Three Georgia universities have made a new list of the top 100 worldwide universities that were granted U.S. patents last year. The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) on July 12 announced the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2015. The rankings are compiled by calculating the number of utility patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which list a university as the first assignee on the printed patent. Coming in at No. 25 is Georgia Tech Research Corp. Also on the list are University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc. at No. 80 and Emory University at No. 91.
www.usnews.com
12 Colleges That Have Produced the Most Astronauts
A lot of astronauts’ careers blasted off at these schools.
By Darian Somers
Many children around the country dream of taking off into outer space. A lucky few had that opportunity, but if you’d like to get be one of them, you’ll have to head to college first… Georgia Institute of Technology. Number of astronauts: 14. U.S. News Rank: 36.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech’s biz incubator Advanced Technology Development Center gets new chief
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/07/20/atdc-gets-new-chief.html
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Jennifer Bonnett has been named general manager of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a business incubator at Georgia Tech. Founded in 1981, the ATDC helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build technology companies by providing coaching, connection and community-building services. The program has helped kick-start more than 140 companies.
www.wjcl.com
Georgia Southern to vacate football wins over SSU, St. Francis (Pa.) and UL-Monroe
Eagle wins came in 2013 and 2014
STATESBORO, Ga. — As part of a recently completed two-year NCAA investigation of its football program, the Georgia Southern University Department of Athletics will vacate three football games from the 2013 and 2014 seasons. As a result of the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ ruling in July, the University must vacate all victories in which a student-athlete competed while ineligible during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and vacate ineligible student-athletes’ statistics. All eligible student-athletes’ statistics will remain.
www.foxnews.com
Georgia man tells police he shot his 19-year-old stepson
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/25/georgia-man-tells-police-shot-his-1-year-old-stepson.html
Associated Press
WOODSTOCK, Ga. – A Georgia man has been arrested and charged with murder after authorities say he told officers directing traffic after a church service that he had shot his stepson. Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Watkins tells local news outlets Carl Lewis approached Woodstock police officers Sunday afternoon who were working traffic at Woodstock First Baptist Church north of Atlanta and told them he had shot his stepson and didn’t know if he was still alive. Woodstock police and Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies responded to Lewis’s home and found 19-year-old Bryce McCallum dead of a gunshot to the head. McCallum had just finished his freshman year at the University of West Georgia.
www.myajc.com
Macon anchor Taylor Terrell was bright light to friends, family
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/macon-anchor-taylor-terrell-was-bright-light-to-fr/nr4Zy/
By Shelia Poole – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taylor Terrell wanted to celebrate her upcoming birthday in the North Carolina mountains with a close friend. The 24-year-old, who anchored the 41NBC News at Daybreak and 41Today in Macon, was an avid hiker and loved the outdoors. The getaway wasn’t long in the planning, but that was Taylor Terrell. She loved being spontaneous. …Terrell was wading in the stream above but some distance away from the edge of Rainbow Falls when she lost her footingand was swept over the falls by the current, according to news reportsand officials. …Taylor Terrell graduated from Heritage High School in 2009 and, later, Georgia Southern University.
www.macon.com
ACC focusing on player safety
http://www.macon.com/sports/college/acc/georgia-tech/article91578957.html
BY STAN AWTREY
The ACC has taken additional steps to protect the conference’s football players from vicious hits by strengthening its targeting protocol. A change invoked this year allows replay officials to call targeting from the booth in cases where targeting is considered “egregious.” Dennis Hennigan, the ACC’s coordinator of football officiating, showed two examples of egregious targeting during a rules session at the ACC Football Kickoff meeting last week. One example occurred in the Georgia Tech-North Carolina game when Yellow Jackets defensive lineman Adam Gotsis was ejected for helmet-to-helmet hit on Tar Heels quarterback Marquise Williams. Hennigan debated several audience members who questioned whether the call was actually targeting or whether Gotsis simply got to the quarterback before either could react. Hennigan said the hit was a blatant example of targeting and certainly fell within the egregious category.
www.savannahmagazine.com
Fort Pulaski
More than 150 years after Cockspur Island heard its final shot, Fort Pulaski National Monument still finds itself fighting on the front line. N.W. Gabbey and Emma N. Hurt go back in time to get a sense of our future.
http://www.savannahmagazine.com/2016/07/21/fort-pulaski/
Last October, late in the month, U.S. Highway 80 East disappeared. No one was able to get from the mainland to Tybee Island, or vice versa, and residents were, quite literally, marooned for several hours until the water retreated and U.S. 80 re-emerged. The extreme flooding that morning was caused by the atmospheric collusion of a supermoon, a king tide, excessive on-shore winds and rising sea levels—a freak convergence, but one that certainly caught our collective attention. Jackie Jackson, a comprehensive planner with the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, was born and raised in Savannah. Speaking as part of a “Rising Tides” panel for an Emergent Savannah community discussion earlier this year, Jackson said she didn’t recall 80 being so covered by water, not even when she was a child. On that same panel, Dr. Clark Alexander Jr., a coastal geologist for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO), questioned what the past could tell us about what we might expect in the future. “Sea level rise has been happening for millions of years,” says Alexander, “but how fast and how high and how much are we contributing to it are the questions people are discussing.” The only primary tide gauge in the state of Georgia is at Fort Pulaski National Monument, located behind the Savannah Bar Pilot House at the entrance to the Savannah River. Data on tides, sea level trends and extreme water levels have been recorded continuously here since 1935, not long after the fort was transferred to the National Park Service. Extrapolating those 80-plus years of data, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency’s graphs show a sea level rise of just over a foot in the last 100 years. Although 12.5 inches might not grab the attention of those without waterfront property, Dr. Alexander says that this rate of rise is “not natural” and is “very sobering.”
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
‘I Want to Get This Right’: Scenes From a Conference on Campus Sex Assault
http://chronicle.com/article/I-Want-to-Get-This/237239
By Sarah Brown
The case was familiar to everyone in the room: Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman earlier this year. A projected PowerPoint slide highlighted some of a judge’s reasons for sentencing Mr. Turner to just six months in jail for committing three felonies — a decision that sparked a national uproar. Alcohol shouldn’t be an excuse for Mr. Turner’s behavior, the judge explained in the statement, but it was a factor. That affected his sentencing decision … Mr. Milnor’s session was part of the National Center for Campus Public Safety’s first conference, held here all last week at George Washington University, at which the center unveiled a new curriculum for college officials and police officers focused on conducting “trauma informed” sexual-assault investigations … The center was established in 2013 through a funding agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Margolis Healy, a campus-safety consulting firm … the center has solicited feedback from federal agencies — including the Office for Civil Rights, which has waged a strong campaign against campus sexual assault — and run several pilot offerings of the curriculum, tweaking its content and design based on responses from campus officials and others.
www.insidehighered.com
Feds Soften Distance Ed Rule
Education Department releases proposed rule on state approval of online programs, cutting a provision that would require states to review of all out-of-state colleges.
By Carl Straumsheim
The Obama administration on Friday released its latest proposal on how colleges that offer distance education programs to students in other states should be regulated. The rule requires distance education providers to follow state laws governing how they become authorized to offer courses and programs to students in states other than where they are located. A university in Illinois that wishes to enroll students residing in Wisconsin in its online programs, for example, has to apply to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board and pay a fee to be approved. In what observers called a “significant” departure from previous drafts, however, the proposed rule does not require states to conduct an “active review” of out-of-state colleges — a provision that was in previous drafts that many distance education groups criticized for placing an undue burden on states but consumer protection groups argued was important to prevent fraudulent colleges from taking advantage of students.