University System News:
www.ajc.com
Former Regent Lori Durden named tech college president
Janel Davis
Lori Durden, a former member of the Georgia Board of Regents, was appointed president of Ogeechee Technical College. The appointment was announced Thursday at the Technical College System of Georgia’s monthly meeting. Durden had served as acting president of the Statesboro college for the past month. She replaced Dawn Cartee, who had served as president of the school since January 2007. Cartee resigned June 30 to take a position leading the Georgia Center for Continuing Education at the University of Georgia. …She was appointed to the Board of Regents in 2013 by Gov. Nathan Deal, and was replaced on the Board by Statesboro attorney Laura Marsh, who was appointed in June. ..Durden will assume her duties as president on Friday.
www.statesboroherald.com
It’s official: Durden new OTC president
State removes ‘acting’ from her title
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/75590/
From staff reports
After serving as acting president of Ogeechee Technical College for the past month, Lori Durden has been named the new president of OTC. Commissioner Gretchen Corbin announced Thursday that the state board of the Technical College System of Georgia voted during its monthly meeting to accept her recommendation of Durden to the position. Board member Tommy David made the motion to accept the recommendation, and the full board voted unanimously to approve the appointment. Durden assumes her duties as president on Friday. “It is an honor to assume the presidency of Ogeechee Tech,” Durden said. “I look forward to continuing to serve the citizens of Bulloch, Evans and Screven counties and the entire region, and working with both faculty and students to continue the success of OTC.” …In 2013, Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, representing the 12th Congressional District. Deal selected Statesboro attorney Laura Taulbee Marsh to succeed Durden on the Board of Regents.
www.ajc.com
Is your university one of Georgia’s most diverse?
http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/college/your-university-one-georgias-most-diverse/nr9Kt/
Marin Guta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How much of a cultural melting pot is your college campus? Niche, a tracking and review website, found the most diverse colleges in Georgia based on key statistics and student reviews. Analysts ranked the colleges by assessing the socioeconomic diversity, ethnic and geographic diversity and student gender ratio, according to Niche’s website. …Georgia State University (No. 6); Georgia Institute of Technology (No. 7); Kennesaw State University (No. 10); Columbus State University (No. 11); Georgia Gwinnett College (No. 12); Clayton State University (No. 13); Southern Polytechnic State University (No. 15); Georgia Southwestern State University (No. 16); Valdosta State University (No. 19); Georgia Southern University (No. 20); Armstrong Atlantic State University (No. 23); University of West Georgia (No. 24); Savannah State University (No. 26); University of Georgia (No. 28); Albany State University (No. 35); Georgia College & State University (No. 36); Fort Valley State University (No. 37)
USG Institutions:
www.fox5atlanta.com
Georgia Tech’s oldest living alumnus had wish fulfilled
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/185267113-story
Sam Ledbetter is Georgia Tech’s oldest living alumni at age 104. According to Georgia Tech’s post on Facebook, when Georgia Tech found out that Sam had never gotten the opportunity to ride in the Ramblin’ Wreck, they immediately knew that had to be changed! Sam spent many years on campus and returned many times. Sam has never had the opportunity to ride in the Ford Model A Sport Coupe that has become an iconic symbol of Georgia Tech’s student body. ccording to the University, the Alumni Association went to work setting up a tour of campus, with the Ramblin’ Wreck serving as the official coach. During the ride Sam pulled up right beside Tech Tower for a visit with President G.P. “Bud” Peterson, who helped complete the guest of honor’s wardrobe with a Georgia Tech pin. Below is video of Sam’s ride in October 2015 when he turned 103. (w/video)
www.mdjonline.com
Former Georgia first lady Betty Sanders still creating art at 90
Ross Williams
Betty Sanders calls herself “the paintingest first lady” Georgia has ever seen. “Art has been the vehicle of my life,” she said. “I’m not famous like some artisans, but it has been the vehicle behind everything I’ve done in my life, from politics down to this day.” Now 90 years old (her birthday was Aug. 6), the Buckhead resident’s love of art, and of her home state, still take up plenty of space in her heart. The wife of the late former Gov. Carl Sanders graduated from the University of Georgia’s art program in 1947. She said the skills she learned came in handy when her husband became governor in 1963. …As first lady, she helped convince her husband to create the first Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanities and build four fine arts buildings at colleges across the state, including one at Georgia Southern University’s campus in Statesboro, her hometown. In the years since, Sanders has contributed to the art program at Georgia Southern through scholarships, donations of artwork and a permanent display of works by Georgia artists at the school’s art center. The university named its art department in her honor.
www.augustaceo.com
Augusta University Ranked a Most Affordable Colleges With Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs
Staff Report From Augusta CEO
OnlineCollegePlan.com knows the importance of affordability in higher education. Americans are currently 1.26 TRILLION in student loan debt. Students who graduated this year will carry an average of over $37,000 in student debt along with them into their new careers. Nobody wants that, and in fact, many recent graduates simply can’t afford to repay their student loans – evidenced by the 11% that are delinquent. The very best way students can avoid this burden is to borrow less. That’s where quality affordable online bachelor’s degree programs come in. …The oldest school in OnlineCollegePlan.com’s ranking is Augusta University (Augusta, Georgia), although it was originally founded in 1828 as Georgia Regents University. Augusta University ranks at #23 with an extremely reasonable yearly average net price of $7,667; …Dalton State College #9
www.meroatlantaceo.com
Clayton State Summer Enrollment Reaches its Highest Total Since 2013
http://metroatlantaceo.com/news/2016/08/summer-enrollment-reaches-its-highest-total-2013/
The school year does not end in spring for many students at Clayton State University who are making the most of their education. The University posted its highest summer enrollment for the year since 2013. The University hosted 3,113 students for summer 2016, up by 12.3 percent from the previous school year. Just 2,771 students attended classes during the summer semester in the 2014-2015 school year. Summer enrollment reached its peak back in 2013, when 3,444 students attended Clayton State. Course enrollment also experienced an uptick. Students posted 20,228 hours for the summer, compared to 17,687 in 2015. That represents an increase of 14.4 percent in one year.
www.bizjournals.com
UGA research funding sets record
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/08/04/uga-research-funding-sets-record.html
Dave Williams
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
A two-year surge has brought research funding at The University of Georgia to a record level. UGA brought in $175.3 million for a wide variety of research efforts during the last fiscal year, an increase of 14 percent over fiscal 2015. That came on the heels of a 7 percent rise in research funding the previous year. “As the university’s research productivity continues to increase, so does our ability to make a positive impact on our state, nation and world,” UGA President Jere Morehead said. “I am grateful to our outstanding faculty, whose commitment to excellence is helping to strengthen UGA’s position among the top public research universities in the country.”
www.ajc,com
Tech’s Peterson elected chair of NCAA board of governors
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/techs-peterson-elected-chair-of-ncaa-board-of-gove/nr9p7/
Ken Sugiura, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson does not lack for demands on his time, but he’s added another. Peterson has been elected the chair of the NCAA’s board of governors, the organization’s highest governing body. The school made the announcement Thursday. Peterson had been serving on the board since May as the representative of the ACC. The board, comprised of 16 school presidents from Division I, II and III schools, oversees issues that span the NCAA and aims to ensure that each of the divisions operates within NCAA policies and principles. Beyond his duties to the institute, Peterson has also been a member of the National Science Board and the Knight Commission, the latter of which is a reform-minded group aiming to emphasize the educational mission of college athletics. He is also on the Division I board of directors, that division’s top governing body, since January 2015.
www.washingtonpost.com
NCAA asks school leaders to look at sexual violence measures
By Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA’s Board of Governors is asking leaders in all three athletic divisions to consider legislation to deal with athletes accused of sexual violence. Board members believe a previous resolution could serve as the basis for new rules that would address topics such as compliance with campus authorities as well as state and federal laws, proper reporting protocols and more education within the athletic department about prevention and intervention. The board also wants university presidents and chancellors to sign a diversity pledge for hiring. Members also chose Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson as its new chairman and named University of Minnesota President Eric Kalera as the next Division I Board of Directors chairman.
www.savannahnow.com
Armstrong softball moves on, hires new coach
Ex-head coach Evans appealing termination to school
http://savannahnow.com/news-sports/2016-08-04/armstrong-softball-moves-hires-new-coach
By Savannah Morning News
Armstrong State has its new softball coach. Six weeks after the school fired former head coach Ted Evans, it announced the hiring Thursday of Kim Dean to take over the program. Prior to ASU, Dean served as the assistant softball coach at Southern Indiana under head coach Sue Kunkle. Southern Indiana has an overall record of 193-146 and has earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four seasons. “Early in the process, Kim Dean rose to the top of a very talented candidate pool for our head softball position,” Armstrong State athletic director Lisa Sweany said according to a press release. “It became clear that Kim was the best fit to take over the leadership of our program, and her coaching experience and leadership ability will ensure the continuation of our on-field successes while also helping to develop our student-athletes academically and personally. …Armstrong dismissed Evans on June 21 after the school investigated him for creating ‘a hostile and discriminatory environment,’ according to records in Evans’ personnel file obtained by the Savannah Morning News through an open records request. In June, Evans told the Savannah Morning News in a phone interview that he was accused of discriminating against gay athletes. On Thursday, Evans told the Savannah Morning News he was appealing his termination to the school.
www.bizjournals.com
How Tech Square is conquering Midtown
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/08/05/how-tech-square-is-conquering-midtown.html
Ellie Hensley
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Today Georgia Tech’s Tech Square is the heart of the local technology community and a thriving part of Midtown. It’s hard to believe that just 15 years ago, the land it stands on was one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. Technology Square, or the area at Fifth and Spring streets that abuts the Downtown Connector, is now a vibrant district with 15 corporate innovation centers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies, multiple incubators and accelerators and over 150 startups. With the addition of private-sector companies like NCR Corp., which is relocating its global headquarters to Tech Square, moving into the space, total investment in the eight-block campus will soon reach $1 billion. …In June, Georgia Tech Foundation announced it would buy the 290,000-square-foot historic Biltmore building for about $64 million, people familiar with the deal said. Georgia Tech had wanted to buy the Biltmore for years, but its foundation couldn’t afford it at the time Tech Square was being developed. The building is nearly 100 percent occupied by engineering firms, energy companies and late-stage startups. Peterson said as leases expire, it will focus on selecting new tenants with a desire to have a long-term relationship with Georgia Tech.
www.ajc.com
Burst of growth for Georgia factories, KSU says
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/burst-of-growth-for-georgia-factories-ksu-says/nr9cH/
Michael Kanell, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia manufacturing rebounded last month, after three months of decline for the sector, according to a report today from the Kennesaw State University Econometric Center. The center surveys companies on a series of questions and calculates purchasing managers index intended to sum up the direction of the manufacturing sector. Any PMI above 50 indicates growth. In July, the PMI for Georgia increased 3.2 points to 52.5 — the first time since April that the index has been above 50. That PMI reflects an increase in five of the six categories measured, according to the KSU Econometric Center.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia State study tracks decline in manufacturing jobs
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/08/04/georgia-state-study-tracks-decline-in.html
Dave Williams
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Between the outsourcing of jobs overseas and technological changes in the production process, Georgia business recruiters may no longer find manufacturing worth pursuing. That’s the conclusion of new study from the Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The report found that manufacturing jobs in Georgia declined by 27.5 percent between 2000 and 2014, a trend interrupted only by a bump immediately following the Great Recession. “We’ve got limited resources,” said David Sjoquist, an economics professor at Georgia State and the study’s author. “We’ve got to decide whether to spend them pursuing manufacturing or some other type of effort.” Sjoquist said the trends dampening the creation of manufacturing jobs in Georgia are at work across the country, including the movement of jobs overseas by companies seeking low-wage workers and technological developments that let manufacturers replace workers with robots. …The Georgia State study suggests that if state policy makers decide high-paying manufacturing jobs still are worth pursuing, a more proactive approach to workforce training would be needed to equip Georgians with the skills necessary for today’s advanced manufacturing technology. Rather than waiting for plants to close before offering training to unemployed workers, it suggests developing programs to prepare existing manufacturing workers for expected changes in required skill levels for new jobs.
Higher Education News:
www.hechingerreport.org
Strapped for students, nonprofit colleges borrow recruiting tactic from for-profits
Conventional schools are hiring sometimes-controversial lead-generator middlemen
by JON MARCUS
ORLANDO — In a convention hall echoing with words like “leads” and “starts” and “business” — all, in this case, meaning “students” — Vivek Zaveri is describing how he helps colleges and universities drum up customers. Zaveri’s company, Lead Mantra, operates websites with names such as “CollegeFinder” to which consumers are steered when they search online for information about various careers. Getting a degree in health services “is an intelligent choice for those seeking steady employment with a constant flow of income,” one reads. Promises another: A business degree “can be the boost that your career needs to propel you to the heights of the business world.” The sites collect web users’ email addresses, phone numbers, fields of interest, and veteran status, among other things. Entered into a form called “Use Our Steps [to] Find Your Degree,” that’s then handed over to college and university clients targeting those kinds of prospective students, or that the consumers choose themselves from lists provided on the sites. In sales circles, this is known as a “warm transfer.”
www.insidehighered.com
Risks of Risk Sharing
As bipartisan consensus emerges in Congress that colleges should share the burden of students who can’t repay loans or find jobs, higher ed leaders consider how such a plan would work and whether it would discourage them from educating the disadvantaged.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
Congress will have its fair share of contentious issues in higher ed in January, beginning with debt-free-college proposals backed by a growing number of Democrats. But a bipartisan consensus appears to be forming behind measures to hold colleges and universities more accountable for student financial outcomes like loan repayments. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have introduced legislative proposals to introduce risk-sharing measures that would hold institutions accountable for student outcomes. The idea is that colleges and universities should have a greater stake in the outcomes of the student borrowers they graduate — if large numbers of students graduate and are unable to pay back their student debt, their institutions could see access to federal programs restricted.
www.texarkanagazette.com
For many universities, those application fees mean revenue
by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
August officially kicks off college application season. Rising high school seniors will begin inking their essays and submitting their grades and test scores to more than 4,000 U.S. colleges and universities. During the month, many students begin using the Common Application—an undergraduate admissions application that students may use to apply to any of its 625 members. For some colleges, application fees have become a steadily growing stream of additional revenue. Take Penn State University, where the application fee is $50. With 53,472 undergraduate applicants each year, the school reels in hundreds of thousands of dollars in application fee revenue. (For students who are financially eligible, their fees are waived.) It’s not alone. At UCLA, which receives more applications than any college in the U.S., more than 90,000 undergraduate applications flood the system—although only about 20 percent get admitted and only one-third of those actually enroll. So UCLA generates millions of dollars from its applicants, many of whom pay the $70 fee but do not enroll. The business of college applications is complicated. Schools argue that it takes a lot of time and technology to sort through that avalanche of submissions. In fall 2015, about 20 million students attended American colleges and universities, an increase of 4.9 million since 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. … For public universities eligible to receive state and federal funding, states have reduced spending on public higher education by 17 percent since 2008. Meanwhile, tuition has risen 33 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. …Dropping the test requirement increases the average number of applications a school receives, according to a 2014 University of Georgia study. But many test-optional schools do not award students who don’t submit scores with the same academic scholarships that test takers get.