University System News:
www.ajc.com
This is how much alumni at Georgia colleges make on average
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/education/how-much-alumni-georgia-colleges-make-after-gradua/nsbSm/
Fiza Pirani, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Graduates from one Georgia school can make up to an average of $112,000 a year, according to the latest college salary report from data-driven salary profile database PayScale. To come up with the master list, PayScale analysts used a sample size of 1.4 million degree holding, full-time, civilian employees in the U.S. and compiled 2015-2016 data from employees who successfully completed PayScale’s survey. PayScale defines “salary” as the base annual salary or hourly wage, including bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable. Alumni with a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology make an average of $65,800 per year in their early careers, but can potentially make up to $115,000 annually — placing the research university at No. 1 in the state and No. 22 among the nation’s four-year colleges. In addition, 48 percent of Georgia Tech alumni reported they believe their career work makes the world a better place.
The top 10 four-year Georgia schools with the highest average alumni salaries (bachelor’s degree), according to PayScale:
- Georgia Institute of Technology – $65,800 early career pay; $115,000 midcareer pay; 48 percent high meaning
- Southern Polytechnic State University – $53,800 early career; $90,800 midcareer; 43 percent high meaning
- University of Georgia – $48,800 early career; $86,000 midcareer; 51 percent high meaning
- Kennesaw State University – $44,500 early career; $77,100 midcareer; 48 percent high meaning
- North Georgia College and State University – $40,000 early career; $75,000 midcareer; 57 percent high meaning
- Georgia State University – $45,800 early career; $72,100 midcareer; 54 percent high meaning
- University of West Georgia – $43,800 early career; $72,000 midcareer; 55 percent high meaning
www.washingtonpost.com
At top public universities, a mixed record for women in engineering
By Nick Anderson
Women earned about a third of all engineering degrees at the University of Virginia in 2015, making the state flagship first on that measure among prominent public schools nationwide. But reaching gender parity in engineering could take many years for U-Va. and other public universities. Federal data show women earned a majority of bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2015 at two private schools with sizable programs. At Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, their share was 53 percent, and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology it was 51 percent… Georgia Tech, with nearly 2,000 engineering graduates a year, has one of the largest programs in the country. It produces more engineering degrees than all of the above-named private schools combined, and the female share of its engineering graduates was 26 percent in 2015, up nearly 5 points in five years.
www.hubga.com
TAG Unveils Finalists for 2016 Excalibur Awards
http://www.hubga.com/tag-press-release/tag-unveils-finalists-for-2016-excalibur-awards/
Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) to select winners on October 21st
ATLANTA (September 20, 2016) – The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the state’s leading association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of Georgia’s technology industry, today announced the Finalists for the 2016 Excalibur Awards. The Annual Excalibur Awards celebrates Georgia companies and organizations that demonstrate the best use of technology, typically provided by a third-party, to solve complex issues and processes in business and education. Tech-enabled companies that develop their own non-commercial technology solutions to enhance their organization are also considered for the awards which are presented by TAG in collaboration with the Business and Technology Alliance of TAG (B&TA). Platinum Sponsors for the event includes ASAP Solutions Group.
This year’s Excalibur Awards Finalists were selected in 5 categories:
PUBLIC/NON-PROFIT
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Kennesaw State University – Division of Academic Affairs
MOST CREATIVE SOLUTION
Georgia State University
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech Pres. Bud Peterson says more innovation center announcements to come
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/09/20/georgia-tech-pres-bud-peterson-says-more.html
Ellie Hensley
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Biotech UCB Inc. announced Sept. 19 it will be the 14th innovation center to locate at Georgia Tech’s Tech Square, and at a luncheon Sept. 20, Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson hinted there will be more innovation center announcements to come. “We’re continually talking to other companies about different ways to engage, whether it’s simply a master research agreement or physically locating here in this area,” Peterson said. “We’re seeing more and more growth.” Peterson could not say how many companies the university is in talks with, but in a July interview with Atlanta Business Chronicle he said it was talking to three. One of these was UCB, a Brussels-based company that makes drugs to treat diseases of the immune and central nervous systems. A handful of Fortune 500 and 100 companies already have innovation centers at Tech Square, including The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), Southern Co. (NYSE: SO), Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).
www.atlantamagazine.com
These Georgia Tech physicists helped prove Einstein right
Physics professors Deirdre Shoemaker and Laura Cadonati thrive in a male-dominated field
Sidney Perkowitz
Deirdre Shoemaker has known from the time she was a 12-year-old science fiction fan that she wanted to spend her life studying black holes. But when she came to Georgia Tech in 2008 as a founding faculty member of the university’s Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, she found few other female postgraduates. “You see women in biology, life sciences, and even math, but physics is still lagging for whatever reason,” says the bubbly Shoemaker, who in 2013 became director of the center, which researches cosmic mysteries like dark matter and particle physics. This past February, Shoemaker and Laura Cadonati, a veteran researcher who joined Tech last year, were part of the international team that confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, a long-elusive cosmic feature first predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
www.emanuelcountylive.com
EGSC leads USG in summer enrollment growth
http://emanuelcountylive.com/2016/09/egsc-leads-usg-in-summer-enrollment-growth/
by KATELYN MOORE
On August 16, 2016, University System of Georgia Board of Regents released a report outlining enrollment for Summer 2016. In the 30 institutions in the USG, there was an overall increase of 1.9% (or 2,610 students) over 2015’s Summer enrollment. East Georgia State College had the distinction of having the largest percentage of growth in the state with an increase of 15.3%, or 119 students. The second-highest percentage of growth was Georgia Southwestern State University at 14.3%. While Summer enrollment continued to increase for the second consecutive year, the report noted that Summer enrollment numbers peaked in 2011 with 155,886 students in the USG. Pre-recession figures from Summer 2008 are most comparable to the current Summer enrollment totals.
www.douglascountysentinel.com
Online bachelor transfer option with UGA now available for GHC students
Georgia Highlands College students now have the opportunity to transfer into an online completion program provided by the University of Georgia’s College of Education.According to UGA’s Amber Atkinson, the program coordinator, the online Bachelor of Science in Special Education from UGA is “the only online B.S.Ed. in the Southeast.” It is a unique opportunity for those who seek a degree and certification to teach Special Education General Curriculum for preschool through 12th grade students with mild disabilities, she explained. The program is designed for transfer students with associate degrees as well as career-changers looking to enter the high-need field of special education. “GHC already has an online associate degree option with a transfer pathway in education, particularly middle grades education. The online components of that program are excellent preparation for the work in the online B.S. Ed. from UGA,” GHC Dean of eLearning Diane Langston said.
www.thegeorgeanne.com
Public Safety offers new crime prevention courses
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_d8e91759-7843-5379-b3e8-010699af2c53.html
by Taisha White the George Anne staff
The Georgia Southern University Public Safety Crime Prevention Team is now offering more crime prevention courses in order to educate the GS community. Courses include Cyber Crime, Emergency Planning and Response and the Rape Aggression Defense Class (R.A.D), which is dedicated specifically to women. “We initially started with just alcohol and drug courses over a decade ago. Once time went on, there became a need for other crime courses like sexual assault courses and identity theft,” Danny Garrigus, crime prevention coordinator and investigator, said. “So what we decided was to add courses that cater to the needs of what is going on right now and what is needed around campus.” Each course is free and will be held either in the Russell Union theatre (Active Shooter), in a classroom (Identity Theft) or in the RAC combat studio (R.A.D). Hunter King, junior finance major, believes that all students should take a crime prevention course in order to be better prepared at a moment’s notice.
www.goldenisles.news
MCG students stop in Brunswick during statewide tour
By LAUREN MCDONALD
In a change of pace this year, medical students from the Medical College of Georgia stepped out of the classroom and onto a bus that is taking them around the state this week as they learn about public health issues in Georgia. Nearly 185 second-year medical students from MCG stopped by Brunswick on Tuesday to tour Southeast Georgia Health System’s hospital and to hear about previous health scares Glynn County has faced. “We’ve got the entire second-year class, and we’re knocking out all the regional campuses,” said Greer Falls, dean of the second-year class at the medical college. The purpose of the tour is to allow the students to see the college’s regional campuses and to learn about public health issues facing each of the communities they visit. “They get to see where a lot of things significant to public health in Georgia are,” Falls said. “In Savannah, for instance, they received a talk on yellow fever and the history of yellow fever in Georgia.” As second-year medical students, they will be transitioning next year out of the classroom and into their residencies, doing rotations at hospitals, including the Southeast Georgia Health System’s hospital in Brunswick.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
AU on road to getting new building
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2016-09-21/au-road-get-new-building?v=1474435161
By Tom Corwin, Staff Writer
Without fanfare, Augusta University took a small but significant step last week to getting a new building that will allow the school to move forward on its Campus Master Plan and grow four of its colleges. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved $4.5 million as part of its Fiscal Year 2018 Capital Request for design of a College of Science and Math Building. The money must still be included in Gov. Nathan Deal’s budget and must still be approved by the Georgia Legislature, said Tony Wagner, the chief business officer for AU. Still, “it’s a really important first step,” he said. The college would move from the Summerville campus to the Health Sciences campus in what the school calls the “Move One to Grow Four” strategy in its master plan.
www.wtvm.com
Ogeechee River study presented by GSU faculty
http://www.wtvm.com/story/33142025/ogeechee-river-study-presented-by-gsu-faculty
By Dal Cannady, Reporter
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) – Think back to the fish kill on the Ogeechee River. Remember those images from 2011? Professors from Georgia Southern University are putting the Ogeechee River under the microscope. The three-year study combines professors of geology, geography and biology. They’re examining everything from drought to rainfall impacts on the water levels, to people and the environment. Anything that affects the Ogeechee. “It’s a resource for the region and it has impacted all the way to the coast as it delivers sediment there. All the rivers that drain from the Coastal Plain are very important,” said Dr. Jeffrey Underwood, Professor and Dept. Chair, Geology and Geography Department at Georgia Southern.
www.mdjonline.com
Police: Student hacked system to alter grades
Staff reports
A Kennesaw State University student was arrested Monday after police say he hacked into the university’s network to change his grades and the grades of four other students. Charles Arthur Hughes, of Marietta, allegedly had the login information, including passwords, for 36 KSU faculty members in a notebook and used the information to change the grades, according to a warrant for his arrest. In May, Hughes allegedly changed two of his grades from B’s to A’s and changed the grades of four others from three F’s and a C to A’s as well, the warrant states. Hughes is charged with computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy and computer forgery, all felonies, the warrant states.
www.insidehighered.com
Kennesaw State U Student Arrested for Hacking
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/09/21/kennesaw-state-u-student-arrested-hacking
A student at Kennesaw State University has been arrested after he accessed the university’s student information system to change grades and steal the personal information of several students and professors this summer, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
Higher Education News:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
REACH scholarship to make college dreams reality
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article102925257.html
BY MARK RICE
When she moved to the United States from Mexico five years ago as a third-grader, Alexsandra Casanova-Chavez couldn’t speak English, and the thought of going to college seemed to be an elusive goal. Now an eighth-grader at Eddy Middle School, she speaks fluent English and is on track toward a college education. And thanks to a state program called REACH (Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen), she is one of eight Muscogee County School District eighth-graders who won’t have to worry about affording college if they keep meeting high standards. REACH is a four-year-old, needs-based mentorship and scholarship program implemented for the first time this year in Columbus. …REACH Scholars are paired with a mentor and an academic coach to support them through high school. The students must maintain a grade-point average of at least 2.5 and good behavior and attendance to continue in the program. They must use the scholarship at any HOPE-eligible institution in Georgia, which may match or double-match the scholarship amount of $10,000 ($2,500 per year) in addition to any other scholarship or grant the student receives. Georgia first lady Sandra Deal was among the dignitaries in attendance. Her husband, Gov. Nathan Deal, initiated REACH in 2012. Since then, 69 of Georgia’s 181 school districts have joined the program.
www.myajc.com
Advice to college grads on finding jobs and colleges on helping them
By Maureen Downey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite many college students lamenting they can’t find jobs, few of them take advantage of an available resource: their college career center. A survey of more than 5,000 recent college grads shows that only 20 percent of college seniors actively use career services. In fact, almost half say they visit career services “rarely” or “never.” Given mounting student loan debt and a still-choppy job market, you’d think graduating seniors would be flocking to career services in droves, says Bob LaBombard, CEO of Minneapolis-based GradStaff. Writing in the AJC Get Schooled blog, LaBombard says both students and colleges have to work harder in the area of job placement. He says, “College seniors are sold on the idea that social media networking and job search techniques are the most effective ways to get good jobs. In fact, job seekers are increasingly more likely to conduct a job search from their dorm rooms, than they are to walk the 50 or 100 yards to visit career services.
www.diverseeducation.com
College Board: Reform Institutions to Curb ‘Undermatching’
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
WASHINGTON — For the past several years, the discussion on college match has focused on helping low-income, high-achieving students avoid “undermatching” and to get the information they need to pursue some of the more selective colleges they are academically qualified to attend. The idea is that by attending institutions with higher completion rates, such students enhance their own chances of graduation. At a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday, the College Board helped launch a new book that seeks to take the discussion on college match to the next level and bring about what one expert referred to as “Match 2.0.” In Match 2.0, according to Jessica Howell, executive director of policy research at The College Board, the emphasis is less about providing students with the information they need to choose the best college and more about widespread institutional improvement so that students have a much broader selection of colleges that are considered good. …Improving college match will improve degree completion rates, but reforming institutions rather than just shifting students to the best ones is key, Howell said.
www.insidehighered.com
Zero Correlation Between Evaluations and Learning
New study adds to evidence that student reviews of professors have limited validity.
By Colleen Flaherty
A number of studies suggest that student evaluations of teaching are unreliable due to various kinds of biases against instructors. (Here’s one addressing gender.) Yet conventional wisdom remains that students learn best from highly rated instructors; tenure cases have even hinged on it.
What if the data backing up conventional wisdom were off? A new study suggests that past analyses linking student achievement to high student teaching evaluation ratings are flawed, a mere “artifact of small sample sized studies and publication bias.”
www.chronicle.com
Regional Accreditors Will Push to Improve Graduation Rates
by Katherine Knott
The Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions has announced a plan to give more context to colleges’ graduation rates — numbers that have attracted the attention of think tanks, lawmakers, and others. The council, an umbrella group for the seven regional accrediting commissions for educational institutions in the United States, said in a news release on Wednesday that during the accreditation process, its member agencies will expand their focus on graduation rates. The agencies will also pay special attention to four-year institutions whose graduation rates are at or below 25 percent, as well as to two-year institutions whose rate is at or below 15 percent.