University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia State, partners reach deal to buy Turner Field for $30 million
Janel Davis, Ernie Suggs and J. Scott Trubey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia State University and its development partners have agreed to a deal to purchase Turner Field, the 20-year-old former Olympic stadium and soon-to-be former home of the Atlanta Braves. The downtown university and real estate partners Carter and Oakwood Development plan to convert the Ted into a new football stadium for the Panthers and transform surrounding parking lots into a mixed-use community and southern extension of Georgia State’s campus. The deal is worth $30 million and should close by the end of the year. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Georgia State President Mark Becker, Carter President Scott Taylor and Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority chief Keisha Lance Bottoms made the formal deal official at a press conference this morning, bringing a measure of certainty to an area clouded by the Braves’ decision nearly three years ago to leave after this season for a new ballpark in Cobb County. “Turner Field may no longer be a baseball field, but it will still be a field of dreams,” Reed said. …Georgia State’s acquisition of Turner Field must still be approved by the state’s Board of Regents, which governs the University System of Georgia. People familiar with the matter said in recent weeks that they expect a deal to close before the end of the year.
www.wsbtv.com
EXCLUSIVE: Georgia State University buys Turner Field
by: Dave Huddleston
ATLANTA – Channel 2 Action News has exclusively learned that Georgia State University has struck a deal with the city of Atlanta to purchase Turner Field when the Braves leave the facility at the end of the season. The city announced negotiations with GSU in January. Now, the paperwork has officially been signed. ATLANTA – Channel 2 Action News has exclusively learned that Georgia State University has struck a deal with the city of Atlanta to purchase Turner Field when the Braves leave the facility at the end of the season. The city announced negotiations with GSU in January. Now, the paperwork has officially been signed. …The school will take ownership as soon as the Braves move out on Dec. 31. Reed says GSU plans to convert Turner Field into a football stadium, build a new baseball stadium, student housing, shops, restaurants and academic buildings. He says GSU has committed at least $200 million in redevelopment of the 70-acre site. …Georgia State hopes to open their football stadium by the 2017 season.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
Nathan Deal’s office raises questions about Turner Field deal
Greg Bluestein
The recently-announced deal from Georgia State University and its development partners to purchase Turner Field might not be in the clear yet. Gov. Nathan Deal’s top aide suggested Thursday his office wasn’t always in the loop on the proposed deal to convert the Ted into a new football stadium and turn the sea of parking lots surrounding it into a new campus for Georgia State. “The governor is excited to learn more about this project but anytime a project of this magnitude can move forward without any state funds we should encourage,” said Chris Riley, Deal’s chief of staff. It’s not immediately clear whether the proposal struck today by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves and Georgia State officials requires state funding, but the officials in the past signaled they wouldn’t rely on state funding. Our AJC colleague Janel Davis asked Georgia State president Mark Becker Thursday whether the project needs state funds, and he declined to answer.
USG Institutions:
www.onlineathens.com
New science building will change future for UGA, state, speakers say at dedication
By LEE SHEARER
The University of Georgia’s new Science Learning Center will not only change the future of the university, but of the state, predicted speakers at a dedication ceremony for the $48 million building. Far from “the cavernous auditoriums that I remember from my days of undergraduate teaching,” the new classroom and teaching lab building is full of natural light and designed to encourage interaction among students and between students and teachers, UGA President Jere Morehead told a crowd of nearly 300 people gathered outside the building for the ceremony Wednesday morning. The building opened on the first day of fall semester after work crews worked overtime to put in the final touches, such as the new landscaping plants outside. …Gov. Nathan Deal couldn’t make it Wednesday, but University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, a former state legislator and UGA senior vice president for finance and administration, spoke. The new building, and those who teach and learn in it, will be important to the future “quality of life and economic viability of the state,” he said. Wednesday is likely to be the final time Huckaby helps dedicate a building on the UGA campus. He is retiring at the end of this year, and the first person he hired as chancellor, former UGA administrator Steve Wrigley, will take over. “I probably won’t be back for another ribbon-cutting as chancellor, but I’ll be sitting out there with Gordhan Patel (a former UGA graduate school dean who was in the audience),” Huckaby said.
www.middlegeorgiaceo.com
Middle Georgia State University Preparing to Launch New Master’s Degrees in Business and Education
Staff Report From Middle Georgia CEO
Middle Georgia State University is rolling out two new graduate programs – a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master of Science in Management – in 2017, pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Both programs, which would bring to four the number of graduate degrees offered by Georgia’s newest state university, were recently approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. MGA hopes to offer the Master of Science in Management as early as January 2017 and the Master of Arts in Teaching beginning the following summer.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
New Augusta University certificate focuses on nonprofit work
By Damon Cline
Staff Writer
In this era of public-private partnerships, corporate-minded charities and government outsourcing, today’s business- and public-administration grads are more likely than ever to work with – or for – a nonprofit. And Augusta University wants to make sure its MBAs and MPAs are prepared. Beginning this academic year, which started Wednesday, the university will give those graduate students the opportunity to earn a “Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership.” The 13-credit-hour program aims to help future business and government leaders more effectively communicate and collaborate with nonprofits, or possibly even lead them. “The way things are going with the various sectors today – public, private and nonprofit – the lines are really blurred,” said William Hatcher, an AU associate professor and director of its Master of Public Administration program. “Even if you’re working in a private industry, you may be interacting a lot with nonprofits and government.” And vice versa, Hatcher said, noting
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Here’s what’s new at Columbus State for 2016-17
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article96278812.html
BY MARK RICE
Columbus State University started its 2016-17 school year this week, so it’s a good time to report about what’s new at CSU. Courtesy of assistant vice president for university relations John Lester, in consultation with interim provost Tina Butcher, here are CSU’s top six developments:
1.Re-opening of Arnold Hall; 2. Opening of Clearview Hall; 3. Opening of Center for Education and Nursing; 4. Focus on problem-solving; 5. Additional professional development; 6. Date Improvement Initiative
www.ajc.com
Reports: Swimmer fought with security on night of alleged Rio robbery
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/2-american-olympic-swimmers-detained-at-airport/nsHXd/
Ellen Eldridge and Ana Santos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Brazilian police say four American Olympic swimmers — including one from the University of Georgia — fabricated their story of being robbed at gunpoint, according to news reports. The source said video footage showed at least one of the Olympic swimmers breaking down the door of a restroom and fighting with a security guard on the night of the alleged incident. The Associated Press reported that gold medalist Ryan Lochte and the three other swimmers stopped at a gas station in a suburb of Rio at 6 a.m. on Sunday and were confronted by a security guard after they broke the bathroom door. The guard had a gun but did not draw it, the AP reported. The manager then arrived and asked the atheletes to pay for the damaged door. Following a discussion, they paid him an unknown amount of money and left. Lochte had said the four swimmers were robbed at gumpoint at the gas station, although his story shifted slightly in an interview Wednesday night with NBC. UGA swimmer and Atlanta native Gunnar Bentz was one of two Olympic swimmers detained at the airport by authorities in Brazil on Wednesday as they attemped to return home to the United States. He remains in Rio, his lawyer said. The pair will not be returned to the United States until they provide testimony about the robbery, the lawyer said.
www.wsbtv.com
UGA student 1 of 2 Olympic swimmers detained at Rio airport
by: The Associated Press
The USOC says American swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the U.S. by Brazilian authorities Wednesday night, hours after a judge ordered gold medalist Ryan Lochte and teammate Jimmy Feigen stay in the country as police investigate their claim they were robbed during the Olympics. Bentz is a student at the University of Georgia. United States Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky confirmed the swimmers were detained but had no other details. mLochte and his three teammates said they were held up at gunpoint in a taxi as they returned to the athletes village from a party, several hours after the last Olympic swimming events were held. Police have found little evidence so far to support their accounts, and say the swimmers were unable to provide key details in police interviews.
www.barnesville.com
First week of classes at Gordon marred by armed robbery
By Walter Geiger
The first week of fall semester at Gordon State College was marred by an on-campus armed robbery that occurred late on Aug. 11, the second day of classes. A Gordon student was sitting on a wall near The Village housing complex at about 11:30 p.m. when he was accosted by two black males, one of whom brandished a handgun. The student forked over a small amount of cash but was unhurt.
www.onlineathens.com
Veteran UGA police officer killed in car crash
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-08-17/veteran-uga-police-officer-killed-car-crash
By JOE JOHNSON
A veteran and well-respected University of Georgia police officer was killed Tuesday evening in a two-vehicle collision in Jackson County. Jeff Whitfield, 56, was on his way home to Jefferson when his car struck another vehicle while rounding a curve. He was pronounced dead at the scene and the other driver was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville with non-life-threatening injuries, according to a Georgia State Patrol spokesman who said the collision was under investigation. A police officer for more than three decades, Whitfield had a unique and varied career both within and outside of UGAPD.
www.walb.com
ABAC Choir prepares for Braves Performance
http://www.walb.com/story/32784056/abac-choir-prepares-for-braves-performance
By Mike Fussell, Reporter
Choir members at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College are preparing to represent their school at Turner Field. The ABAC Choir will be performing the National Anthem at the Atlanta Braves game Saturday. The venue will also feature a special section for ABAC students and alumni.
Higher Education News:
www.forsythnews.com
Study: Hope Scholarship funding could be in jeopardy
Assumptions aren’t likely to ‘play out,’ Lanier Tech president says
http://www.forsythnews.com/section/1/article/30769/
By Ron Bridgeman / Gainesville Times
A new study of the Hope Scholarships program, which is funded by the Georgia lottery, contends the program could run out of money for the broad base of students who now receive the funding. However, the study includes a number of assumptions to reach its conclusion, and Ray Perren, president of Lanier Technical College, noted all of those assumptions “probably are not going to play out exactly the way they assume.” The study done by the Committee to Preserve Hope Scholarships concludes, “that portion of Hope that supports the state’s average students — those for whom the program was created — will be out of money” by 2028. The committee assumes annual increases of 7.5 percent in tuition at state colleges, a 2.5 percent annual increase in lottery funds and a 6 percent annual increase in the number of Zell Miller Scholars, who get full tuition. If those assumptions were true and no changes were made in the scholarship program, the Hope Scholarship money would have a deficit of $70 million in 2028. Perren pointed out the lottery for fiscal year 2016, which ended June 30, provided $1.1 billion for Georgia scholarships. According to the study, that level of funding would be reached in fiscal year 2018. He added, “I don’t know that it (Lanier Tech tuition) has ever gone up 7.5 percent” in one year. He said tuition has not increased at all in a couple of years.
www.chronicle.com
Free Entrance Exams Open a Path to College
By Peter Olsen-Phillips
The words “college-entrance exam” send shivers down the spines of many American high-school students. Most collegebound students see them as necessary hurdles to enrolling in a four-year college, but for some, the process of registering, preparing for, and taking an ACT or SAT is the ultimate obstacle to realizing their college hopes. A growing number of states, however, are making sure that all of their high-school students have easy access to the tests. …Researchers are working to untangle the question of whether underserved students are more likely to enroll in college as a result of a free entrance exam. …One study of college enrollment in three states with mandatory ACT or SAT testing suggested that the policy re-sorted students among different types of institutions.
www.diverseeducation.com
HBCUs Still Providing Students Extra Nudge Toward Success
by Lois Elfman
While still maintaining high standards and stellar graduation rates, some HBCUs have created programs that allow promising students who may not meet the traditional requirements to enter and flourish.
www.chronicle.com
With a Sudden Vacuum at the Top, What’s Next for Berkeley?
By Sarah Brown and Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
The University of California at Berkeley is hiring. Successful candidates for the position should be able to solve a $150-million budget crisis, crack down on sexual harassment, and spearhead fund raising at one of the most prestigious — and controversy-laden — campuses in the world.
After three years, Nicholas B. Dirks, Berkeley’s current chancellor, found this was a job he could not do anymore. On Tuesday Mr. Dirks announced he would resign after just three years, once a successor is named, and join the faculty. …Mr. Dirks’s decision also means that, for the foreseeable future, the campus will be led not only by a lame-duck chancellor but also an interim provost; Claude M. Steele, the former provost, left under a cloud of controversy four months ago.
www.insidehighered.com
Berkeley Paid $200,000 to Improve Chancellor’s Image
The University of California, Berkeley, paid $200,000 to consultants to improve the national and international image of Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, who announced Tuesday that he was stepping down, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The contracts with a primary consultant and a subcontractor were for the companies to “‘increase exposure and awareness’ of Dirks’s vision for higher education, elevate the chancellor ‘as a key thought leader,’ and ‘form key partnerships’ so that potential donors would understand his philosophy,” the article said.