University System News:
www.insidehighered.com
Vermont’s Merger Map
Experts praise a proposed arrangement — which system officials avoid calling the “M-word” — but faculty members on the affected campuses worry about local identity.
By Rick Seltzer
The Vermont State Colleges’ move to fold two of the state’s northern colleges into one institution reflects increasing interest in mergers throughout higher education, particularly as many state systems continue to struggle with budget crunches and declines in enrollment. It also shines a light on the difficult issues raised by combining institutions. Faculty members at the affected institutions worry about their campuses’ identities. Administrators must walk a difficult line between using mergers to drive cost savings and repositioning colleges to recruit students in the future. They also must find ways to persuade faculty members to buy in and win support from communities and politicians — or risk having the plans derailed. …Recent history shows huge variations in results when public institutions pursue consolidations, whether those consolidations are closing campuses or combining presidencies. The University System of Georgia is widely seen as far ahead in aggressively and successfully consolidating. It has merged several of its campuses, most recently combining Georgia State University and Georgia Perimeter College in January. The move gave it a record of consolidating 12 of its institutions into six under a campus consolidation push dating to 2011. The system now has 29 institutions.
USG Institutions:
www.bizjournals.com
How educated is Atlanta?
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/07/26/how-educated-is-atlanta.html
Phil W. Hudson
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta may not need a “Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too” after all. According to a new report from the personal finance website WalletHub, metro Atlanta is the No. 24 most educated city in the United States. Ann Arbor, Mich., took the No. 1 spot… “Atlanta is home to fourteen public high schools, forty-two private schools, and more than thirty colleges and universities,” it said. “These include Georgia Tech University, Georgia State University, and Emory University, as well as the largest college consortium of historically black colleges and universities, among which are Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Interdenominational Theological Center.”
www.jacksonville.com
College of Coastal Georgia commuters no longer have to buy meal plan
By The Times-Union
BRUNSWICK | College of Coastal Georgia students who live off campus could save some money this year after the college exempted commuters from the campus meal plan requirement. The change in policy could reduce the total cost to commuting students by more than $750,000, said Jason Umfress, vice president for student affairs. “We heard our students loud and clear. Our commuting students use their meal plan at varying levels and don’t want to have to pay for a plan if it doesn’t fit their schedule or lifestyle,’’ Umfress said. The meal plan requirement has been an issue for some students especially for those who still live at home locally and married adults. That is just one of the areas where cost reductions and avoidance could save some students up to $1.8 million collectively in the upcoming 2016-17 academic year, the college said.
www.daily-tribune.com
GHC enrollment continues to climb
http://www.daily-tribune.com/newsx/item/5942-ghc-enrollment-continues-to-climb
Written by Donna Harris
The numbers just keep climbing for Georgia Highlands College. For the third consecutive semester, GHC has seen a significant increase in enrollment from the previous year. The summer semester enrollment jumped almost 10 percent over last summer — from 1,979 students to 2,175 students — following a 6.3 percent increase for spring semester and a 7.1 percent increase for last fall. According to the University System of Georgia’s Fall 2015 Semester Enrollment Report, GHC had the third-highest enrollment increase in the state last year.
www.streetinsider.com
Georgia State Sets Research Funding Record of $120 Million
Georgia State University has set a research funding record, receiving awards of $120.2 million in fiscal year 2016. The total exceeds the previous record set last year when faculty earned $101 million in research support. Georgia State’s research funding has grown by nearly $40 million in the past two years. “The increase in research awards is a testament to the strength and competitiveness of our faculty, staff and students,” said James Weyhenmeyer, vice president for research and economic development at Georgia State.
www.11alive.com
Developer sets sights on historic landmark for convenience store, gas station
Deborah Tuff, WXIA
The old Engineer Bookstore building on Georgia Tech’s campus was built back in the 1930’s, but if a local developer has his way it’ll be torn down and replaced. Preservationist Bill Gould got his hands on the proposed site plan. “It shows the building being demolished and a free-standing convenient store up against this historic building here, which is the Roxy hotel, now apartment homes,” Gould said. “They would be living next to a convenience store with a four pump island.”
www.omaha.com
UNO releases details on new IT research institute
By Emily Nohr / World-Herald staff writer
A new research institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha will temporarily reside inside the Scott Technology Center until moving into a First Data building within the next two to three years. UNO on Tuesday released more information about the Nebraska Applied Research Institute, which the NU Board of Regents has included in a state funding request to the Legislature… It’s modeled after applied research institutes at other universities, including at Georgia Tech and Wright State University, UNO spokesman Charley Reed said.
Higher Education News:
www.wsj.com
Colleges Nudge Students to Graduate Within Four Years
Slow graduation rates hurt schools’ reputations and add to tab for ‘super seniors’
http://www.wsj.com/articles/colleges-coax-students-to-graduate-sooner-1469471690
By MELISSA KORN
College administrators are sending a message to their students: Hurry up. Low graduation rates hurt a school’s reputation, and staying enrolled for extra years adds to the tab for students. So dozens of schools and statewide systems are trying to cut back on the number of “super seniors” milling about campus. Schools have embraced marketing gimmicks like “Class of ’17” bumper stickers to rally students around their graduation year. But they also are changing how they price a semester to make it easier to stay on pace to graduate, notifying students eligible to graduate that they should do so soon, and altering the classes offered in a given term to help students take the courses they need. …Nationally, four in 10 students who entered college for the first time as full-time freshmen in 2008 graduated within four years. The six-year rate hovers around 60%.
www.chronicle.com
A University Makes a Rare Call to Ditch Its Title IX Exemption
http://chronicle.com/article/A-University-Makes-a-Rare-Call/237267
By Gabriel Sandoval
Early this year Pepperdine University’s president quietly sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The subject line was nearly identical to that of a letter that a previous president had sent, in 1976: “Pepperdine University’s Title IX Exemption.”
But the two letters had opposite goals. In 1976 Pepperdine had asked to be made exempt from Title IX, a law that bans sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funds. Now, four decades later, the university was taking the unusual step of asking to waive that exemption. “Please accept this letter as Pepperdine University’s withdrawal of its 1976 request for an exemption from certain provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” wrote Andrew K. Benton, president of the university, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ, in the January letter. Within two months, Catherine E. Lhamon, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, acknowledged the request, promising to “take steps to ensure that Pepperdine’s status will be accurately reflected.”