University System News:
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Both Georgia Tech and University of Georgia rank in top 10 for public college value
Georgia Tech ranks 9th among public campuses in providing a quality education at an affordable price, followed immediately by the University of Georgia in 10th place, according to Kiplinger’s 2017 list released today. …Kiplinger explains its process this way: For each list, we start by examining academic measures, including how competitive admission to a school is and how efficiently it gets students to their degree. (The majority of schools on our lists have four-year graduation rates that are above the average of 33% for public schools and 53% for private schools.) From there, we look for schools with reasonable price tags, generous financial aid or both. Because the best value for your family may be a public college or university outside your state, we use out-of-state cost figures for public colleges on our combined list but rank the schools using in-state costs for our public schools list. …About Tech, Kiplinger wrote: …About UGA, Kiplinger said:
www.emanuelcountylive.com
EGSC earns Military Friendly® Award
http://emanuelcountylive.com/2016/12/egsc-earns-military-friendly-award/
by KATELYN MOORE
East Georgia State College’s Military Resource Center was recently named among the 2017 Military Friendly® Schools and Employers by Military Friendly. The college also earned a Gold Award for being a small public university with outstanding programs and support for the nation’s veterans and their families. The Gold Award is presented to those organizations that scored within 20% of the last-ranked (10th) organization. “East Georgia State College is proud to provide educational opportunities to military personnel and their families,” said EGSC President Bob Boehmer. “Our new Military Resource Center, located on our Swainsboro campus and directed by Stacey Grant, is a major step forward in our efforts to continually expand those opportunities. Under Stacey’s leadership, I am confident that the coming year will take yet another major step forward.”
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
GGC celebrates pinning of 24 new nurses
By Keith Farner
The number of nursing alumni from Georgia Gwinnett College is expected to more than double this week, and festivities to honor them have already begun. GGC on Tuesday held a pinning ceremony for the second half of its charter nursing class. The group of 24 nursing students are expected to graduate on Thursday at GGC’s fall commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Infinite Energy Center Arena in Duluth. They’re graduating from Georgia’s first concept-based nursing program. Only up to 32 students are accepted into the program each fall and spring semester. Applicants must have completed their first two years of college and have an excellent academic record.
www.mdjonline.com
Presidential: Olens leads first graduation ceremonies at KSU
Mary Kate McGowan
Kennesaw State University’s newest president Sam Olens kicked off KSU’s 186th round of commencement ceremonies by leading his first graduation ceremony Tuesday morning. Olens — who took office on Nov. 1 — applauded the graduates’ work during the College of Humanities and Social Science’s graduation ceremony — the first of five ceremonies for the university that will end today. “Obviously, you are an impressive and diverse group of graduates. This morning, it’s your time to celebrate what you’ve accomplished,” he said. More than 2,450 KSU students are expected to graduate this week from the state’s third largest university that enrolls more than 33,000 students, said KSU Provost Ken Harmon.
www.universitybusiness.com
Georgia Tech to make college more accessible
https://www.universitybusiness.com/news/georgia-tech-make-college-more-accessible
The Georgia Institute of Technology is collaborating with 29 other universities across the country to help more students from lower-income families earn a college degree. The new American Talent Initiative (ATI), which was announced today, allows the country’s most respected public and private higher education institutions to share strategies to substantially increase the number of talented students from low- and moderate-income families who successfully complete college. The founding members seek to attract, enroll and graduate the most qualified students, regardless of family income. They will also contribute to research that will help other colleges graduate more high-achieving, lower-income students.
www.athensceo.com
Department of Commerce Award to Help Fund UGA New Materials Innovation Center
Staff Report From Athens CEO
Thanks in part to support from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the University of Georgia will create a New Materials Innovation Center, which will fulfill the local and regional need for a large-scale testing facility for new materials being developed by entrepreneurs, startups and researchers. UGA is one of 35 organizations selected from a pool of more than 215 applicants to receive funding through the Economic Development Administration’s Regional Innovation Strategies program. The i6 Challenge award of nearly $500,000 will be matched by UGA to create the new facility.
www.myajc.com
Georgia Tech, Portman launch Coda in Midtown
http://www.myajc.com/business/georgia-tech-portman-launch-coda-midtown/RvgOhcd3WVnlUyVIoSrXGN/
- Scott Trubey – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech and its development partner Portman Holdings turned dirt Tuesday to mark construction of the second phase of Technology Square, a $375 million tower known as Coda. The ceremonial groundbreaking was two decades in the making, dating to when former Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough considered buying what were then lonely parking lots near Fifth and Spring streets. The research university, backed by its foundation, would buy up blocks of land in Midtown and leap over the Downtown Connector, an investment that has turned the area into one of the hottest crossroads for tech innovation in the nation.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Do UGA and other colleges weight GPA more than test scores? Should they?
I’ve been skeptical of the claim by colleges they care more about grades than test scores, but the University of Georgia may turn me into a believer. UGA says its main criteria are the rigor of the courses and the grades. I’ve talked to several kids admitted early action into UGA last month on the strength of their GPAs, which were all 4.0 or better, rather than their test scores. How do I know their GPAs outpaced their test scores? Because these teens are taking the SAT or ACT again in an effort to raise their scores enough to qualify for the Zell Miller Scholarship, which covers full tuition. To earn Zell, a Georgia student has to have at least a 3.7 GPA in core courses and earn a minimum combined score of 1200 on the math and reading portions of the SAT or a minimum composite score of 26 on the ACT. The catch — they have to do it in single sitting; they cannot mix and match the best scores from several sittings, known as super scoring, as they could for admissions. To further build the case about UGA putting more faith in GPA, consider these recent Reddit and College Confidential comments from high school seniors disappointed not to be admitted early action despite strong test scores. They were deferred into the regular admission pool and will find out in the spring if they are admitted:
www.ajc.com
Jobless rate for Georgia: What you ought to know
Mike Kanell The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.3 percent in November from 5.2 percent in October, the state labor department said today. The state added 9,900 jobs during the month. So the overall picture is mixed. Job growth along with a rising jobless rate – and the rate was going up, because more people are in the labor force, looking for work. “For the third consecutive month, strong growth in our state’s labor force caused a slight increase in our unemployment rate,” said Mark Butler, the state’s labor commissioner, in a statement. “However, in those same three months, we’ve seen more than 56,000 people become employed.” The department said 21,761 more people came into the labor force during the month, and 15,697 of them found work. Since the beginning of the year, the labor force has surged by 186,888 – generally a sign that people who have been on the sidelines are encouraged by what they see of hiring to think it’s worth another try. The growth is part of a longer, positive trajectory in an expansion that is now nearly seven years old and shows no signs yet of reversing, said Mekael Teshome, economist at the PNC Financial Services Group. …On Wednesday, the annual University of Georgia forecast projected solid growth for 2017, but did say the risk of recession will rise.
www.ajc.com
UGA forecast: Ga. growth to stay ahead of nation’s
Michael E. Kanell The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The coming year will probably extend the long economic expansion in Georgia, but the odds of a recession are rising, according to the annual University of Georgia forecast issued Wednesday. The state’s economy, which has grown for nearly seven consecutive years, will continue to surge through 2017 faster than the national average, adding roughly 93,000 jobs, according to the report by Benjamin C. Ayers, dean of UGA’s Terry College of Business. “Many of the same forces that contributed specifically to Georgia’s growth in the past two years will be even stronger in 2017,” Ayers said. “Job growth will be very balanced.”
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
Enrollment Goals Remain Elusive for Small Colleges
By Eric Hoover and Sara Lipka
Everything depends on those two numbers. They hover over cabinet meetings, they keep presidents up at night. Each year colleges chase one goal for enrollment and another for net tuition revenue. Hitting those targets is crucial; missing them can lead to crisis. Rare institutions, blessed with wealth and prestige, have five or 10 applicants, many with the ability to pay, for every spot. But on most campuses, there’s suspense until the last deposits roll in and the freshmen show up. Then comes celebration — or panic. As the number of high-school graduates dwindles, and their demographics shift, many colleges are struggling to attract enough students and cover expenses. More than four in 10 private colleges and almost three in 10 public ones missed their goals for enrollment and tuition revenue this year, according to the fourth annual Chronicle survey of small colleges and midsize public universities. In cooperation with the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, The Chronicle polled 1,063 colleges, of which 447 responded: 315 private and 132 public campuses. The share that missed both goals hasn’t changed markedly in the past four years:
www.chroncle.com
Most Colleges Will Change Overtime Policies Despite Judge’s Blocking of New Rule
by Shannon Najmabadi
A majority of colleges will proceed with at least some of the changes they’d planned to comply with a new federal rule on overtime pay that was blocked last month by a federal judge, according to a survey of 495 institutions by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. The new rule, which had been expected to take effect on December 1, would increase the pool of employees eligible for overtime pay, from those earning up to $23,000 annually to those earning up to a threshold around $47,000. Colleges spent much of the past year identifying which of their employees would become eligible for overtime pay under the new rule, and how to budget for those changes accordingly. But when the judge blocked the rule, saying the Labor Department had exceeded its authority and ignored the intent of Congress in issuing the policy, colleges were left with a few options: Move forward with changes they’d planned to comply with the rule, or delay them. The survey by the human-resources association found that 28 percent of institutions intended to carry out all changes they’d planned. Thirty-two percent said they would make some changes and delay others, and nearly 32 percent will delay all changes. Only 8 percent said they’d roll back or reverse some or all planned changes. The survey results also show that public institutions are more likely to reverse planned changes than are private institutions, and least likely to carry out all changes.