University System News:
www.albanyherald.com
House study committee pushes for diversity in state’s film industry
By Terry Lewis
ALBANY — State Representative Mable Thomas, D-Atlanta, chairwoman of the House Study Committee on Georgia Minority Participation in the Film and Television Production Industry, conducted a meeting at Albany State University on Tuesday. The meeting centered around boosting minority participation in Georgia’s newly burgeoning film industry. Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, hosted the study committee meeting. The meeting’s agenda included presentations from Art Dunning, president of Albany State University, as well as film industry executives Craig Dominey, who is senior location specialist of the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office, and Jeffrey Stepakoff, executive director of the Georgia Film Academy. “There are many thing we want to discuss today,” Dukes said. “This study commission speaks to minority participation in the film and television industry. There is a feeling minorities have been excluded from the industry, but it’s my feeling that the entire Southwest Georgia region has been excluded. While it’s important that certain people be included in the process, it’s equally important for our part of the state to be able to take advantage of the opportunities and jobs offered by this new industry. “It’s also important that we are able to have our local schools position themselves to train our students to qualify for these new jobs.”
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech launches a regional energy center
Georgia Tech has started a new regional energy center that will operate out of its Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) to provide “an unbiased and interdisciplinary framework for informing energy policy and systems analysis for the Southeast.” Georgia Tech said the center will tap into regional expertise within academia, think tanks, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and research facilities. “Our region depends on us to help address our unique energy challenges,” Georgia Tech President G. P. “Bud” Peterson said, in a statement. “I can think of no better way to explore solutions to these challenges than to bring together the best minds and resources in the region. We look forward to working with experts in regional utilities, academics, industry, national labs and the Department of Energy to deliver pragmatic solutions with maximum impact in the Southeast.”
www.times-georgian.com
JFK exhibit opens at UWG
Melanie Boyd/Times-Georgian
The “Hidden History of the John F. Kennedy Assassination” exhibit debuted Monday at the Ingram Library on the University of West Georgia campus. The exhibit, which will be up through Nov. 22, will include a free presentation by Lamar Waldron on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 11 a.m. at the library.
www.accesswdun.com
LISTEN: UNG creates community clinic led by Physical Therapy students
By Afternoon News Wrap
UNG Physical Therapy Professor, Dr. Don Walsh, Associate Professor of Clinical Education, talks about the new Physical Therapy clinic run by students that helps local residents while providing hands-on experience for the grad students.
www.publicnow.com
Armstrong State University Introduces New Semester Abroad Program In Siena, Italy
http://www.publicnow.com/view/F2AF8CFB652E41B0B1EB210C81ED5D17BEC4775D
Beginning in the spring semester 2017, Armstrong State University will offer a new semester abroad program in Siena, Italy. Students will take classes via Armstrong’s long-time partner, the Dante Alighieri Institute. The 12-week program, which runs from January 22 through April 14, 2017, is open to all Armstrong students, as well as University System of Georgia transient students, and offers a full roster of semester credits. ‘Students will have the opportunity to learn from English-speaking faculty in the heart of the birthplace of culture and the Renaissance,’ notes Armstrong Assistant Professor of English, Jane Rago, Ph.D., who will act as the director in residence for the program. ‘Armstrong’s Department of International Education is proud to offer such a dynamic learning experience.’
www.onlineathens.com
UGA looks for new director for growing online programs
By LEE SHEARER
Finalists to become the director of the University of Georgia’s Office of Online Learning are coming to the campus this month to make their pitches, including a public appearance, for a job increasingly important to the university’s fortunes. Two came earlier this month; a third is scheduled to appear Oct. 31 to talk about where he or she might lead the university’s online efforts in four years. Keith Bailey, who led the office for the past three years, left UGA this summer for a job as dean of online learning and continuing education at West Virginia University. UGA was a latecomer to online learning compared to many universities, but now has more than two dozen online courses in business, education and other colleges, and hundreds of online courses.
www.insidehighered.com
Impact and Nonimpact of Online Competition
Paper finds growth of fully online degree programs led to increased spending and falling enrollments at some place-based colleges, but had little impact on tuition rates.
By Carl Straumsheim
A federal rule change that opened the door to more fully online degree programs has not made college tuition more affordable, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, but at some place-based institutions, enrollment has declined and instructional spending has increased as a result… In related news, a separate paper released by the NBER explored enrollment trends in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s low-cost online master’s degree program in computer science. The study found (as Inside Higher Ed previously reported) little overlap between applicants to the program and the residential program it was based on, suggesting Georgia Tech had tapped into a population of potential students not served by existing master’s degree programs.
www.myajc.com
GSU officials say new police chief will improve campus safety
By Marlon A. Walker – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia State University officials announced a new police chief Tuesday, months after the university’s president suggested the former chief was removed because of issues regarding communicating about crimes on campus. Atlanta Police Department Deputy Chief Joseph P. Spillane, who leads the department’s strategy and special projects division, will begin Nov. 28, university officials said. “I know he will use the working relationships he has developed over his career to build and strengthen collaboration between Atlanta police and our department, a partnership that is fundamental to our deep commitment to campus safety,” Georgia State President Mark Becker said in a release. “The communications skills he has demonstrated throughout his career will be central to building relationships among our students, faculty and staff and providing parents, families, the news media and others with timely, accurate and useful campus safety information.”
www.11alive.com
Georgia State student accused of multiple rapes at gunpoint
http://www.11alive.com/news/crime/georgia-state-student-charged-in-rapes/341504934
Kristen Reed and Valerie Hoff, WXIA
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia State University student was arrested and charged with two separate rapes in DeKalb County. Dominic Terrell Lawton, 30, is facing two counts of sexual assault and two counts of kidnapping in the incidents. Police accuse him of raping one woman at Exchange Park in Dekalb County in May, and another woman at the same park in September. They say in both cases he arranged to meet the victims, then raped them at gunpoint in his red pickup truck. Initially Lawton was arrested on Oct. 16 and charged in one rape. After a lineup, DeKalb police charged him the other. Georgia State University released a statement saying Lawton was placed on “interim suspension” pending the criminal investigation.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Borrowing Falls as Prices Keep Climbing
Student borrowing drops for the fifth straight year as the rate of tuition increases slows.
By Rick Seltzer
Tuition pricing, financial aid and student debt levels are still in their postrecession mold. Prices followed a continuing pattern of slowing growth between 2015-16 and 2016-17 while still increasing more quickly than financial aid availability and family incomes, according to two College Board reports released Wednesday, “Trends in College Pricing” and “Trends in Student Aid.” Meanwhile, total education borrowing decreased for the fifth consecutive year as undergraduates relied less on loans to finance their education. It’s a stark difference from what happened during the Great Recession itself, when borrowing spiked and tuition prices turned sharply upward. But the trends are a continuation of those that have been in place since the recession ended, according to Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who co-wrote the reports. “There’s no dramatic change this year,” she said. “Borrowing is continuing to decline per undergraduate student. Sticker prices are continuing to increase, but not at a really rapid rate.”
www.insidehighered.com
Still Waiting for Recovery
Campus Computing Survey finds lingering IT budget issues dating to the financial crisis colliding with demands for new technology and services.
By Carl Straumsheim
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Nearly a decade after the financial crisis began, many college and university IT offices are reporting that their budgets still haven’t recovered, according to the results of the 2016 Campus Computing Survey. The survey, which has tracked IT trends in higher education for more than two decades, this year found 63 percent of the chief information officers and senior IT officers surveyed — representing 339 two- and four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. — said their departments are still struggling with the fallout from the worst recession since the Great Depression. At many colleges, IT offices are still seeing budget cuts. About three out of every 10 respondents (29.5 percent) said they started this academic year with a smaller budget than the year before, and about one-quarter (24.7 percent) reported a midyear budget cut during 2015-16 — the average size of which is growing, according to the survey.