University System News:
www.middlegeorgiaceo.com
MGA Supports Georgia’s ‘Apply to College’ Month
http://middlegeorgiaceo.com/news/2016/11/mga-supports-georgias-apply-college-month/
Staff Report From Middle Georgia CEO
Middle Georgia State University, already the most affordable public state university in Georgia, is even more of a bargain for anyone who applies for admission in November. Gov. Nathan Deal has proclaimed November “Georgia Apply to College Month.” Throughout the month, the Georgia Student Finance Commission and other state education agencies will invest extra effort in providing high school seniors an opportunity to apply to college using GAfutures.org. In particular, the effort with a focus on providing assistance to first generation students, minorities and students from rural areas. Many colleges and universities, including Middle Georgia State, are supporting the effort by, among other things, waiving the admissions application fee for all those who apply during the month.
www.wtoc.com
Darton dedicates fountain to former student
http://www.wtoc.com/story/33635206/darton-dedicates-fountain-to-former-student
By Andrew Gorton
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Darton State College dedicated a fountain today to a former student who passed away in 2013. Nearly 100 of Ben Richards friends and family members from across the country came to the dedication ceremony. Ben’s family is appreciative Darton dedicated the fountain in his honor because it is a peaceful reminder of how loved he was by the Darton community.
www.wgauradio.com
UGA student sues over police beating
http://www.wgauradio.com/news/news/local/uga-student-sues-over-police-beating/ns5P5/
A University of Georgia student sued Athens-Clarke County a year after he was brutally beaten by a police officer, according to a media report. Michael Roquet is suing for an unspecified amount after former Senior Police Officer Jonathan Fraser brutally beat him outside a hotel. The incident was recorded on Fraser’s body camera. Fraser responded to a call in June 2015 about a drunk Roquet trespassing at the Marriott Courtyard Athens Downtown. Fraser told Roquet to leave the property, but when he didn’t Fraser took out his baton and beat Roquet with it. Roquet sustained a concussion in the incident.
www.ajc.com
Georgia State could spend $48 million on Turner Field deal
Molly Bloom Scott Trubey The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia State University could spend $47.8 million to buy and renovate Turner Field and nearby properties, converting the baseball stadium into a new football stadium as part of a mixed-use development and extension of Georgia State’s campus. In total, the university portion of the project would cost $52.8 million, including $47.8 million from Georgia State’s own accounts, $1.3 million from the school’s athletic association and $3.8 million in private money. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is set to vote on key pieces of the deal Wednesday.
See also:
www.bizjournals.com
Regents to vote on Georgia State purchase of Turner Field (SLIDESHOW)
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/11/07/regents-to-vote-on-georgia-state-purchase-of.html
www.georgiafilmnews.com
Insights from Executive Director Jeffrey Stepakoff On the Georgia Film Academy
by Mollee D. Harper, Senior Editor
Georgia Film News brings this special showcase of the Atlanta-based Georgia Film Academy with insights from Founding Executive Director Jeffrey Stepakoff, MFA. Stepakoff is a highly-accomplished 30-year veteran in the entertainment industry with far-reaching contributions in all forms of media from Emmy-winning television and Disney movies to interactive gaming and best-selling novels. In our one-on-one interview with Stepakoff, he shares how the Georgia Film Academy has intensified its focus to meet the growing demand for highly-skilled film crew talent in Georgia.
www2.ljworld.com
KU vice chancellor is finalist for president of Valdosta State
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/nov/07/ku-vice-chancellor-finalist-president-valdosta-sta/
By Sara Shepherd
University of Kansas vice chancellor for public affairs Tim Caboni is one of four candidates to become president of Valdosta State University, Valdosta State has announced. Caboni is scheduled to visit the campus Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 to meet with students, faculty, staff and presidential search committee members, according to Valdosta State. The other three finalists’ campus visits are scheduled this week and next. Valdosta State, a regional university in Valdosta, Ga., has about 10,700 undergraduate and graduate students, according to the school’s website. It’s part of the University System of Georgia. This is at least the second university president job for which Caboni has been a publicly announced finalist. He was in the running for the presidency at the larger Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga., though another candidate for that job was chosen in April.
www.albanyherald.com
DAVID BRIDGES: Solving a health care need in South Georgia
GUEST COLUMNIST: The South Georgia region is vastly underserved in respect to health care
By David Bridges
Is a medical school really coming to South Georgia? Is that medical school going to be located in Moultrie? What is PCOM? These are questions I have been asked since the recent press conference concerning a possible satellite campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine at Colquitt Regional Medical Center. Who, why, what, when, and where? These are five of the most common and simple questions one can ask. Here are the answers as I understand them. …This past year ABAC celebrated 50 years in the nurse education business. Guess what? A retrospective study of the ABAC nursing program revealed that over the 50 years more than 80 percent of ABAC nursing graduates stayed in South Georgia, contributing an estimated $2 billion to the economy – and don’t forget they greatly contributed to your health care, well-being, and quality of life. So let’s face it, we are an unhealthy, underserved people who need all the care and help we can get.
www.mdjonline.com
Case against Olens’ Kennesaw State presidency pending judge’s decision
Mary Kate McGowan
ATLANTA — The first hearing on Monday in a lawsuit aimed at ousting Kennesaw State University President Sam Olens from his position resulted the judge agreeing to review whether state officials may be sued. Athens-based attorney Stephen Humphreys, representing a group that wants to see Olens removed from his position, and Russell Willard, a state senior assistant attorney general, faced off in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday over the issue. It was the first hearing before Judge Tom Campbell in response to an injunction Humphreys filed on Oct. 28 against Olens, the University System of Georgia, the Board of Regents and Gov. Nathan Deal. The injunction calls for the Board of Regents to revoke Olens’ presidency at KSU, and for the university to host a “real search for a non-political appointment to the presidency,” Humphreys said. He said KSU Provost Ken Harmon should serve as interim president until a new president is found. Olens officially took over the KSU president’s office Nov. 1.
www.dailyreportonline.com
Hearing on Lawsuit Seeking Olens Ouster Postponed
Greg Land, Daily Report
Newly-installed Kennesaw State University President Sam Olens’ job is safe for at least another week after a Fulton County judge postponed a hearing seeking to oust the former attorney general. Last week, a group of KSU faculty, alumni and students sued Olens, Gov. Nathan Deal and the state Board of Regents, arguing that Olens’ appointment without conducting a national search or considering anyone else violated the Regents’ own policies in an illegal “quid pro quo” for his help covering up investigations into alleged “corrupt practices” by the Regents. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Athens solo Steven Humphries, has long been involved in litigation against the Regents, the state and Olens stemming from other suits he filed on behalf of university system employees. The new complaint accuses Olens and the other defendants of racketeering and seeks a permanent injunction barring him from the KSU position. At Monday’s hearing before Judge Tom Campbell, Senior Assistant AG Russ Willard said the suit was barred by sovereign immunity and was a “waste of legal resources.”
www.wtoc.com
KSU corruption case handed over to FBI
http://www.wtoc.com/story/33652019/ksu-corruption-case-handed-over-to-fbi
By Astrid Martinez, CBS46 Reporter
COBB COUNTY, GA (CBS46) – A lawyer for a whistleblower against Kennesaw State University says a corruption case against the university has now been turned over to the FBI. Attorney Mike Puglise said his client, David Katz, revealed a well-planned scheme of inside information leaking a competitors bid before his former employer Compass Group USA got the contract. Compass Group is a KSU contracted food vendor. Puglise said Katz uncovered a series of emails between his former employer and former higher ups at KSU. “What he provided to me was astonishing it was a series of emails between the higher-ups at Compass Group USA, the vice president and Mr. Coltek. It was an ongoing bidding process for who would win the contract.” Katz worked for Compass Group USA during the time Gary Coltek was KSU’S dining services director and Dan Papp was President of the university. Puglise says the emails reveal that Compass Group was leaked information about a competitors bid before they even got the contract.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
The Past and Future of Higher Education
The Chronicle’s 50th anniversary is an occasion to take stock of the world we cover. What ideas and arguments might shape the next 50 years?
This month marks the 50th anniversary of The Chronicle, a fitting occasion to step back and take stock of the world we cover. We wanted to know what keeps people in higher education up at night, to assess the major transformations that have taken place over the past 50 years, and to glimpse the ideas and arguments that might shape the next 50. Here, in a series of charts, we present the results of a survey sent to 1,000 Chronicle subscribers to solicit their views on the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the academic enterprise. Nearly 250 people responded. We promised anonymity in exchange for candor. And below, nearly 50 faculty members, presidents, administrators, and higher-education thinkers respond to a questionnaire about those issues:
www.insidehighered.com
Push for Year-Round Pell
Democrats, higher education groups and consumer advocates renew their push for Congress to restore year-round Pell Grants and strengthen the program during a lame-duck session after the election.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
A large group of congressional Democrats last week joined a chorus of higher education associations and consumer advocates who have been pressuring appropriators to preserve funding for the Pell Grant program and restore year-round use of the federal grants. The Pell Grant is one of the rare higher education programs that receives wide bipartisan support, from Democrats like Virginia Representative Bobby Scott to Republicans like Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander and North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx.Yet restoring year-round Pell Grant funding — which would allow students to use the grant funds in the summer — is not a sure thing in the lame-duck session, despite support from members of both parties. That’s because members of the appropriating committees in both the House and Senate are juggling multiple priorities in a government funding bill for fiscal year 2017.
www.insidehighered.com
Shopping for Transfers
New company hopes to increase number of community college transfers by offering a marketplace for students and four-year institutions to better understand degree paths.
By Ashley A. Smith
Losing credits and pursuing a four-year degree can be daunting and expensive for some community college students. But a new public benefit corporation is hoping to ease the transfer process for community college students and drive four-year institutions to compete for these students. The Affordable College Public Benefit Corporation is a network, marketplace and app that helps students transfer from community colleges with more credits to the university that fits their career and degree goals.
www.insidehighered.com
‘Supposed to Be Our Brothers’
Colleges describe male and female athletes as having a familial bond. That’s being questioned after sexist traditions at Harvard have been revealed, and female athletes elsewhere have reported being assaulted by male athletes.
By Jake New
For years, Harvard University’s men’s soccer team created an annual “scouting report” in which they evaluated, in sexually explicit terms, the freshman members of the women’s soccer team. When Harvard officials learned that the tradition had continued up until this year, they canceled the rest of the men’s season. Now, Harvard officials are investigating reports that the men’s cross-country team created a spreadsheet about members of the female cross-country team using similar language.
That the comments seem to be a tradition among the same male athletes that the women have practiced alongside, traveled with, cheered on and supported over the years made the revelation particularly upsetting. Those who study the role gender plays in college sports say the documents at Harvard point to a larger culture where the actions of male athletes behind closed doors don’t always match up with how they behave toward female athletes in public, and where women’s athletics are frequently treated as an afterthought. “We feel hopeless because men who are supposed to be our brothers degrade us like this,” the women’s soccer team wrote in a statement last month. …That familial notion of male and female athletes being brothers and sisters is common on college campuses. This is especially true for athletes playing nonrevenue sports — such as cross-country, soccer and track — who frequently travel together and share practice facilities.
www.chronicle.com
What if a President Really Did Shut Down the Dept. of Education?
By Sarah Brown
For several decades the Department of Education has been a popular target for Republican political candidates eager to slash the size of the federal government. …In fact, ever since the department was created in 1979 politicians have had it in the cross hairs. The law establishing it barely passed the House of Representatives, said Christopher T. Cross, a former assistant secretary of education under George W. Bush, and some critics viewed it as a “payoff” from Jimmy Carter to the National Education Association in exchange for the group’s endorsement in the 1976 presidential election. “The opposition to the department goes back 40 years,” Mr. Cross said. “It was very deep and very bitter at the time.”