University System News:
www.gainesvilletimes.com
Eighth-graders can start college funds, get extra help in REACH program
Both Gainesville, Hall systems start program to help families afford college
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/118643/
By Ron Bridgeman
Ten Hall County and Gainesville eighth-graders could be selected to receive college scholarships that could be $20,000 or more by the time they graduate — especially if the students might be the first in their families to attend college. Both school districts are starting in REACH: Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen. Both began in the spring. Both expect to name the first group of eighth-graders by the end of September. REACH is a state program, part of the Complete College Georgia Initiative, and will provide $10,000 per student for the first year. In subsequent years, local school systems must raise $3,500 per student from private sources. The state will provide the additional $6,500. They are among more than 40 school districts in the state participating in the scholarship program. …Brad Bryant, vice president of REACH, said the organization has agreements with institutions in the University of Georgia System “to match dollar for dollar the REACH scholarship and several have agreed to double match.” He also said, “For many of the institutions, the REACH scholar taps into a recruitment pipeline for academically promising low-income students.” The REACH Georgia Foundation is operated by the Georgia Student Finance Commission, and money for the students selected will be held in the University System of Georgia Foundation until the student graduates from high school. Bryant said the state legislature approved $2 million in fiscal year 2015 and 2016 and $2.75 million in 2017.
www.times-herald.com
Georgia Says
http://times-herald.com/news/2016/08/georgia-says
It’s not very often a community, an area, a city, a state can say that it has a facility that is like none other in the world. That’s what came out time and again Tuesday morning at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first of its kind $10 million Georgia Veterans Education Career Transition Resource Center (VECTR) It is a true partnership between the Georgia General Assembly that provided the money and the ongoing financial support; the University System of Georgia and its Board of Regents; the Technical College System of Georgia; and the city of Warner Robins that provided the 44 acres of land where the center sits. Middle Georgia State University and Central Georgia Technical College will offer programs for veterans in the facility and staff to run it. This center will provide ongoing educational transitional support for vets from all branches of the military and it is long overdue. One of the speakers commented that we spend a minimum of eight weeks training soldiers in basic training and some up to 18 months transitioning them into military life, but on the other end we expect them to revert and sort out civilian life in a week. … Though none of the speakers, which included Chancellor of the University System of Georgia Hank Huckaby, Commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia Gretchen Corbin or featured speaker Judge Larry O’Neal — who as a legislator convinced Gov. Nathan Deal to include the funds for VECTR in his budget — mentioned it, this type of commitment to our nation’s veterans will score a number of positive points on the BRAC scale the next time it comes rolling through Congress. That’s not why the effort was made. It was made because our veterans deserve it. However, it’s not a bad ancillary benefit.
USG Institutions:
www.mdjonline.com
Kennesaw State’s Internal Auditing Education Program earns recognition
MDJ Staff
Kennesaw State University has attained the prestigious Center of Excellence level in the Internal Auditing Education Partnership program of the Institute of Internal Auditors. KSU is only the fourth university in North America and seventh in the world to earn the Center of Excellence, the top status from the IIA. “We are so honored to achieve this level of recognition from the Institute of Internal Auditors,” said Richard Clune, director of the Internal Audit Center. “At the same time, being a Center of Excellence comes with it the responsibility to be a distinctive leader in the field of internal audit education, providing students with an education to prepare them as future leaders of the internal audit profession.” The IIA identified KSU as “a forward-thinking university that recognizes the importance of the internal audit profession as a career choice.” The organization also commended KSU’s commitment to supporting an internal audit curriculum, which includes educating undergraduate and graduate students, conducting applied research and engaging with the internal audit community.
www.daltondailycitizen.com
Dalton State faculty contribute to college affordability
Everyone seems to agree that a college degree helps ensure a higher quality of life and better career options. Yet, nearly every day I read an article expressing concerns regarding the affordability of attaining a college degree. Parents are worried about saving enough money to pay for tuition, fees, books, housing and other college-related activities. Students are concerned about student loan debt and repayment. Elected officials are concerned about containing costs of a public entity that the state and federal governments must subsidize with limited taxpayer funds. College and university administrators worry about finding the right balance of affordability and amenities to meet both the financial needs and the service expectations of their prospective customers. As a parent of a college student, I am very cognizant of the cost of higher education, but I am also proud of the affordability of public higher education opportunities in Georgia. …Dalton State College was recently cited as one of the most affordable college degree options in the nation for the sixth straight year, and we’ve just been named the four-year college with the lowest student loan debt in the nation. Dalton State provides a high quality education that is accessible to students in northwest Georgia. …I remain proud every day of the work of the faculty and staff at Dalton State College who dedicate their careers to serving the needs of our students and community. Their effort to contain textbook costs for our students is merely one example of why I admire our faculty. We are all reminded occasionally to “thank a teacher.” I hope you will include our faculty when you have a chance to acknowledge such service.
www.daltondailycitizen.com
Dalton State remains one of most affordable colleges in the nation
For the sixth consecutive year, Dalton State College has been named one of the most affordable public four-year colleges in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Dalton State remains on the U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center’s list of lowest net price, which is the average cost of college attendance for full-time students after grants and financial aid. The ranking is based on the 2013-14 academic year. “It is no surprise to anyone who knows Dalton State that we remain one of the most affordable colleges in the country,” said President Margaret Venable. “I am pleased and honored that Dalton State can efficiently serve the needs of this community while striving for our goal of becoming a first-choice destination college.” Dalton State’s net price was $6,256 for that school year. The figure includes tuition and fees, as well as other costs associated with being a student, such as books, supplies, room and board, and transportation. The national average net price for the 2013-14 school year was $11,913. Dalton State’s tuition and fees for a student taking 15 credit hours a semester are $4,116 for the 2016-17 school year.
www.albanyherald.com
GSW enrollment eclipses 3,000 for first time since 2011
GSW Officials: We are on the cusp of a transformation for Georgia Southwestern
From Staff Reports
AMERICUS – Early reports show that Georgia Southwestern State University’s Fall 2016 enrollment has increased by 5.9 percent (169 students) from a year ago. Georgia Southwestern’s current enrollment stands at 3,039 students – 2,635 undergraduate students and 404 graduate students “The growth we are experiencing is a testament to the planned visioning by the university and members of the community to become a destination campus for students,” said GSW interim President Charles Patterson. “We are on the cusp of a transformation for Georgia Southwestern, and we’ll see the university’s growth continue in years to come.” Much of the increase can be attributed to Southwestern’s participation in the out-of-state tuition waiver program for students from Alabama, Florida and South Carolina; growth in dual enrollment through the state’s “Move On When Ready” program; a 21 percent increase in graduate enrollment; a 24 percent increase in new freshman, and a total cost that makes the Americus institution one of the most affordable universities in the state.
www.news.wabe.org
GSU, Georgia Tech Set Records With New Freshman Class
http://news.wabe.org/post/gsu-georgia-tech-set-records-new-freshman-class
By AMY KILEY
Monday is the first day of class at Atlanta’s largest universities and Georgia State University and Georgia Tech both report a record number of applications this year. GSU says they’re up 29 percent from last year. That’s produced the school’s largest freshman class ever with more than 3,500 new Panthers. …Georgia Tech says this is the first year it has received more than 30,500 applications. Its freshman class is about the same size as last year’s at roughly 3,000. A record number of new Yellow Jackets are female, at 42 percent.
www.times-herald.com
UWG Newnan enrollment on the rise
http://times-herald.com/news/2016/08/uwg-newnan-enrollment-on-the-rise
By THE NEWNAN TIMES-HERALD
The first day of fall semester got off to a big start for the University of West Georgia’s Newnan campus, where student enrollment was up 6.6 percent. UWG Newnan has 772 students on the rolls this semester, including 136 who are utilizing the Move On When Ready program to earn college credits while working toward their high school diplomas. …Students were welcomed with events organized by a new student service team that focuses on students and their college campus experience. The team also helps students with financial aid, health services, career services and counseling. …Overall, UWG expects to have another year of record enrollment after preliminary estimates show 13,400 students at all campuses. This is a 4 percent increase from last year’s overall enrollment and would mark the seventh consecutive year the university has seen record enrollment.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
CCGA freshmen move into residence halls
By LAUREN MCDONALD
…Freshmen and their families were offered plenty of assistance unloading cars packed to the brim with clothes, towels, bedding, televisions and all the other essentials for a college dorm room. College staff and other community members showed up Saturday eager to help. President Greg Aloia, pushing a giant bin on wheels, greeted students and their families in the residence hall’s parking lot and offered to help carry the students’ belongings up to their new rooms. He met the Davis family right as they pulled up, offering a helping hand with their son Shuvon’s bags. As they were loading the bin, he asked about Shuvon’s major and hometown. Then he introduced himself as the college’s president. Shuvon’s dad, Eric Davis, said that despite the big transition, he felt comfortable leaving his son in the capable hands of the college staff and administration. “We’re happy and we’re blessed to have a child attend here,” he said.
www.wjcl.com
Ga. Southern introduces LiveSafe App
http://www.wjcl.com/article/ga-southern-introduces-livesafe-app/1462302
With today’s technology becoming more and more sophisticated, Georgia Southern University is taking advantage of those new advancements. A new app on the market is helping keep its students safer. Students are once again out in full force on the Georgia Southern campus. With an enrollment of over 20,000, keeping those students safe is a top priority. A new app is helping do just do that. The new LiveSave app allows students who find themselves in danger to get in touch with campus police with the touch of a button. “Once they push that button on that application it automatically starts tracking where the phone is is,” said Ga. Southern Police Chief Laura McCullough. “So it gives us a location of where that phone is, if they’re not able to actually call or text something that call will still come into us, we’ll have a location and be able to send officers to that location.”
www.securitysales.com
Georgia State Bolsters Security With 500 More Video Surveillance Cameras
The video surveillance cameras are part of a major security upgrade that comes after several criminal incidents on campus.
http://www.securitysales.com/article/georgia_state_adds_500_security_cameras#
By SSI Staff
ATLANTA — After a series of robberies, Georgia State University has added around 500 security cameras to its campus to improve security. Most of the cameras were installed inside and outside of a new residence hall and at the library, reports wfxg.com. The campus now has approximately 1,500 cameras around campus, including more than 200 in the library. “We’re particularly glad to have complete coverage in all the stairwells,” acting Police Chief Carlton Mullis says. “It was the president’s top priority that we get these initiatives started and completed.”
www.walb.com
Olympic experience helps GSW professor
http://www.walb.com/story/32785495/olympic-experience-helps-gsw-professor
By Re-Essa Buckels, Reporter
AMERICUS, GA (WALB) – A former Olympic swimmer discusses how her experience helps her in the classroom. Catalina Casaru is an Assistant Professor of Health and Human Performance at Georgia Southwestern State University. Prior to becoming a professor, she competed for her home country of Romania in the 1996 Atlanta games and won more than 200 national titles. Casaru said her experience as a competitive swimmer helps her as a professor. “Students they connect with me easily and they can relay the material better if I give them examples…practical examples,” said Casaru.
www.11alive.com
Georgia Tech’s Chaunte Lowe finishes fourth in high jump final
Alec McQuade, WXIA
RIO DE JANEIRO — Former Georgia Tech athlete Chaunte Lowe finished fourth in the high jump final at the Olympic Stadium Saturday, the best finish of any American. Former University of Georgia athlete Levern Spence (St. Lucia) finished sixth. Lowe and three other jumpers were the only ones to make it to the final round with a 2-meter bar clearance. All of the jumpers failed on their first two attempts. Lowe was the final jumper, and the other three missed their third attempt. If she had cleared it, she would have won the gold. She failed to do so, pushing her to fourth because of the two failed attempts in the third round. …As for Lowe, she was competing in her fourth Olympics. She was the first female track and field athlete from Georgia Tech ever to go to the Olympics. Lowe is the American record holder in high jump.
www.wsbtv.com
UGA swimmer releases statement apologizing for Rio incident
ATLANTA – Olympic team member and UGA swimmer Gunnar Bentz wrote an apology Friday for his role in late-night incident at a Rio de Janeiro gas station. Bentz, who is an Atlanta native, was among four U.S. swimmers, including teammate Ryan Lochte, who were confronted by security guards at a gas station in Brazil after using the restroom. Brazilian authorities say at least one of the swimmers caused damage to the station. When they tried to leave, video shows the four were confronted by the security guards with guns who demanded payment for the damage. Bentz returned home to Atlanta on Friday and released this statement explaining what happened that night: “I want to offer a sincere apology to the United States Olympic Committee, USA Swimming, the extraordinary women and men of Team USA, and the University of Georgia. …
www.accesswdun.com
UNG receives $1.5M to support High School Equivalency Program for migrants
By AccessWDUN staff
Funded by $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s High School Equivalency Program, the University of North Georgia will launch its own five-year program that will enable 50 migrants to attain a high school education free of cost. Individuals who meet the following criteria will be eligible for the program:
www.myajc.com
Turner Field sale becomes transformative moment for neighborhood, GSU
By Janel Davis, Ernie Suggs and J. Scott Trubey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On a chilly day in November 2013, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed stood in his office in the same stunned silence that gripped everyone else when news broke that the Atlanta Braves were leaving the city and the then 17-year-old Turner Field. Reed, never one to shy away from a street fight and fresh off of a deal to keep the Falcons downtown in a new football stadium, steeled himself to meet the press. “Everybody’s view on that day was that the sky was falling, nobody was going to take this on and that this was going to turn into something bad for the city,” Reed said Thursday. “I looked everyone in the eye and said I would not let that happen.” It was sunnier on Thursday when Reed stood next to the iconic statue of Hank Aaron on the Turner Field plaza to announce a $30 million deal to sell Turner Field and surrounding parking lots to Georgia State University and partners Carter and Oakwood Development. The city and developers expect that the deal will set in motion unprecidented growth at Georgia State and fulfill long-broken promises of urban renewal in the area.
www.ajc.com
Turner Field only latest redevelopment deal for Georgia State
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/turner-field-only-latest-redevelopment-deal-for-ge/nsHsM/
Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia State University’s deal to close, with partners, on $30 million worth of property at Turner Field and turn it into a $300 million development may seem like big news. But it is just the latest in a long line of in-town deals the university, led by President Mark Becker, has completed. In the past 17 years, GSU completed the following projects, many after Becker came on board in January 2009:
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Exxon, Georgia Tech find way to cut carbon emissions for chemicals
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil and Georgia Tech researchers published findings of a breakthrough in the journal Science on Thursday, saying they had devised a way to slash carbon emissions from chemicals manufacturing by using reverse osmosis instead of heat to separate molecules. Reverse osmosis, which has been widely used for decades in desalination plants that turn seawater into drinking water, has long been seen as having applications for the oil and chemicals industry. Now researchers have finally come up with a specially treated polymer that can serve as the semipermeable membrane needed to do reverse osmosis for chemicals manufacturing at room temperature.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
College Selectivity and Income
Graduates of the most selective institutions earn more — even when controlling for factors that earlier made some doubt such findings — but maybe not as much more as many think.
By Scott Jaschik
With regularity, various groups issue reports on the colleges whose graduates earn the highest postgraduation salaries. Typically, those are colleges that are among the most competitive in admissions. The Obama administration’s College Scorecard, while not ranking colleges, includes a postgraduation earnings figure that many others have used to compare colleges. Harvard University graduates, per the federal database, are earning on average $87,200 10 years after entering college, while the figure of nearby University of Massachusetts at Boston is just under $46,000.
Such data result in countless clickbait articles such as “The Best Five Colleges to Attend if You Want to Be a Millionaire.” (Spoiler alert: Harvard is on the list, UMass Boston is not.) But there is another category of popular article on colleges and success in life that might be summarized by this headline: “Forget Harvard and Stanford. It Really Doesn’t Matter Where You Go to College.”
www.chronicle.com
A Wider Lens on the ‘Match’ Between Students and Colleges
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Wider-Lens-on-the/237519
By Beckie Supiano
The plight of high-achieving, low-income students who “undermatch,” enrolling in less-selective colleges than their grades and test scores suggest they could, has gotten a lot of attention. At least one prominent effort is underway to provide advising and information to help such students get into and through top colleges. Now a new book intends to expand the definition of match to include factors beyond selectivity and to extend the concept to a broader group of students. The book, “Matching Students to Opportunity,” is full of research that examines the role college and government policies play in increasing — or reducing — the match between students and the colleges where they enroll. The Chronicle spoke with Jessica S. Howell, one of the book’s editors. The conversation with Ms. Howell, executive director of policy research at the College Board, has been edited and condensed.
www.nytimes.com
Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opinion/sunday/conquering-the-freshman-fear-of-failure.html?_r=0
David L. Kirp
…Regardless of their credentials, many freshmen doubt that they have the necessary brainpower or social adeptness to succeed in college. This fear of failing hits poor, minority and first-generation college students especially hard. If they flunk an exam, or a professor doesn’t call on them, their fears about whether they belong may well be confirmed. The cycle of doubt becomes self-reinforcing, and students are more likely to drop out. The good news is that this dismal script can be rewritten. Several recent research projects show that, with the right nudge, students can acquire ways of thinking that helps them thrive.
www.insidehighered.com
More Faculty Diversity, Not on Tenure Track
Colleges hire more minority and female professors, but most jobs filled are adjunct, not tenure track, study finds.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/22/study-finds-gains-faculty-diversity-not-tenure-track
By Colleen Flaherty
Diversifying the professoriate has long been a priority on many campuses, and such goals have only grown more urgent in light of recent national and local discussions about race. Yet college and university faculties have become just slightly more diverse in the last 20 years, according to a new study from the TIAA Institute. Most importantly, as faculty jobs have become more stratified with the growth of non-tenure-track positions over the same period, most gains for underrepresented minority groups have been in the most precarious positions. That is, not on the tenure track.