University System News:
www.wtoc.com
Ga Southern, Armstrong State consolidation committee holding first meeting in Atlanta
By Jennifer Lifsey, Digital Producer
By Marla Rooker, Reporter
ATLANTA (WTOC) – University officials will be in Atlanta on Wednesday, Feb. 1 to talk about the Georgia Southern University and Armstrong State University consolidation. The consolidation implementation committee will be there to start the process of working with the two schools. This will be the consolidation committee’s very first meeting. They will meet with the University System of Georgia Chancellor in Atlanta to come up with the new mission statement for the combined schools taking on the name and other associations of Georgia Southern University.
www.savannahnow.com
Armstrong, Georgia Southern consolidation committee to work on mission statement Wednesday
By Dash Coleman
The next major step in the process to consolidate Armstrong State University in Savannah with Georgia Southern University in Statesboro takes place Wednesday. The 41-member Consolidation Implementation Committee will meet with University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley in Atlanta to be formally charged with creating a mission statement for what will be a new, combined university that inherits Georgia Southern’s name and president. The committee, which has 20 members apiece from Armstrong and Georgia Southern as well as one member of Savannah State University’s administration, is primarily composed of senior management officials, although two students and a few professors are represented. USG officials have said the overall process should take about 18 months. After committee members are charged by Wrigley, they will begin meeting locally. So far, no dates have been set. Over the next few months, the committee is expected to create several working groups that will involve non-committee members to focus on specific topics. “There could be anywhere from 800-900 specific tasks, action items and focus areas that have to come together,” USG spokesman Charlie Sutlive said last week. What comes next is a long process of finding answers to questions raised by members of the Armstrong and Georgia Southern communities. …USG officials argue that consolidation will cut administrative costs that can then be funneled to academic programs, increase college graduation rates in southeast Georgia and ultimately expand resources for students. This is the eighth time the USG has combined schools since a consolidation policy was put into action in 2011. This consolidation, which is expected to take about 18 months, would create the fourth largest public university in the state at about 27,000 students. …Two senior USG officials and the presidents of Armstrong and Georgia Southern held question-and-answer sessions two weeks ago in Savannah and Statesboro. Panelists at those meetings offered some assurances — such as that scholarships will be honored — but indicated that most specifics about what the combined school will look like have yet to be decided. Those are all things that are expected to be figured out during committee and work group meetings. …In the meantime, updates about the process, including answers to frequently answered questions, are being posted to consolidation.georgiasouthern.edu.
www.ajc.com
Tech students get with the program; adviser’s intelligence is really artificial
There’s something different about Jill Watson, a teaching assistant for Georgia Tech professor Ashok Goel’s Masters in Computer Science class. She answers questions for students, and seems to them, based on those online answers, like any other teaching assistant they don’t see in person. Seeing Jill in “person” isn’t actually possible, though, because of what makes her different. “Jill Watson” is really a computer program of artificial intelligence.
www.globalatlanta.com
Atlanta University Presidents Reassure Foreign Students In Light of Trump Travel Ban
PHIL BOLTON
President Trump’s executive order limiting nationals from seven countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days has presented concerns for university and college administrators, as well as faculty and students who may have been traveling abroad. Global Atlanta has learned that at least one student from Georgia State University may have been kept from boarding her flight to Atlanta in the wake of the Jan. 27 order. “Our International Student and Scholar Services office (ISSS) is in contact with the student, and we urge members of the Georgia State community who is affected by the executive order to contact isss@gsu.edu or call 404-413-2070,” said GSU President Mark Becker in a statement. Steve Wrigley, the University System of Georgia’s chancellor, issued a statement to all of the presidents in the system that Tammy Rosner, director of international education, is to be the point of contact for any questions concerning this order or any others that may follow throughout the spring affecting the 28 institutions in the system.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Wednesday is Augusta region’s day at state capitol
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/2017-01-31/wednesday-augusta-region-s-day-state-capitol
By Susan McCord Staff Writer
Mayor Hardie Davis, members of the Augusta Commission and other regional elected officials will travel to Atlanta on Wednesday for Greater Augusta Day at the state capitol. Coordinated by the Augusta Metro, Columbia County and Burke County chambers of commerce, the day will include briefings on the Atlanta Beltline and public- and private- sector development by Atlanta lobbying firm Dentons U.S. LLC; lunch with the Leadership Augusta Class of 2017 and Gov. Nathan Deal and a discussion about the Georgia Technology Authority and Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center. The afternoon will include meetings with the University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley, House Speaker David Ralston, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle,
www.myajc.com
Making the Grade: Tech professor blends music, computer coding
By H.M. Cauley – For the AJC
ducation experts know that meeting kids on their level is often the best way to teach concepts – particularly if those concepts are perceived as being bland and boring. That’s often the way young students look at coding, a fundamental step in learning how computers think and function. But by connecting the seemingly dull with an activity most kids can relate to, Jason Freeman is changing attitudes about technology. Freeman, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Music, helped develop EarSketch, a coding program that allows users to produce original music. It’s become an attractive way to get kids involved in learning and using technology.
www.myajc.com
Most Georgia college endowments lost money in 2016
By Christopher Quinn
Most colleges and universities across the U.S. spent more from their endowments despite poor or even negative returns on their investments. The Data from the 2016 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments show that 805 participating institutions’ endowments, including Georgia’s premier colleges and universities, returned an average of -1.9 percent for the 2016 fiscal year. Despite the decline in investment gains, 74 percent of study respondents increased the dollars spent from their endowments to support their institution’s mission. …The Georgia institution with the largest endowment is Emory University, with $6.40 billion, down from $6.68 billion in 2015, according to NACUBO research. Georgia Tech came in second with $1.84 billion, down slightly from $1.85 billion in 2015. The University of Georgia was one of the institutions showing a slight gain of 1.2 percent in the value of its endowment at just over $1 billion.
www.myajc.com
Kennesaw State provost to remain, bows out of Fla. college chief race
By Ben Brasch – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For now, Kennesaw State University’s Ken Harmon is staying right where he is in Cobb County. The school’s current provost and vice president of academic affairs rescinded his application Thursday to become president of Florida Gulf Coast University. “My decision was not about anything negative at FGCU,” Harmon said in a statement. “Instead, I have had quite formative discussions with President (Sam) Olens about staying here, and I love KSU and this community. After significant discussions with my family, we decided this was where we wanted to be.” According to local reports out of Florida, it was down to Harmon and one other person for the position. …”Harmon was an impressive presidential candidate, and it’s not surprising Kennesaw would want to keep him,” Evans said. We wish him all the best, and hope to see him at FGCU-Kennesaw athletic competitions in the Atlantic Sun Conference.”
www.ajc.com
Georgia Tech student cracks mystery of frog’s powerful tongue
Ben Guarino The Washington Post
…Yet how, exactly, frogs could maintain their grip on insects during such speedy attacks was not fully understood. Scientists knew the tongues were super-adhesive; one 2014 study revealed that a frog tongue could heft objects 1.4 times the animal’s own body weight, relying on a mechanism that the Los Angeles Times likened to the glue on the back of a Post-it note. Others have compared the tongues to rolls of sticky transparent tape. But it would not be until Alexis C. Noel, a biomechanics PhD student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, watched a video of an African bullfrog crushing digital bugs with its tongue (the pet frog was playing the mobile game “Ant Smasher,” the stuff multimillion-view YouTube clips are made of) that she began to wonder if researchers had missed a trick. That trick turned out to be frog spit, Noel found.
Higher Education News:
www.news.wabe.org
Georgia Lawmakers File A Protest Bill Against Travel Ban
http://news.wabe.org/post/georgia-lawmakers-file-protest-bill-against-travel-ban
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic minority lawmakers filed a protest bill in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration. The bill filed Tuesday read that no person possessing a valid visa “shall be detained or rejected from entry into the United States,” and is largely symbolic in the Republican controlled state Legislature. It was sponsored by Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, and cosigned by Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who both spoke out against the executive order the previous day and attended a protest at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport over the weekend.
www.gpbnews.org
What Immigration, Refugee Orders Mean For Georgia
http://gpbnews.org/post/what-immigration-refugee-orders-mean-georgia
By CELESTE HEADLEE & SEAN POWERS
Over the weekend, federal immigration officials detained and later released 11 lawful permanent residents at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. They were returning from a trip to Iran, one of seven predominantly Muslim countries where there is now a three month ban on travel to the United States. That’s the result of an executive order signed by President Trump. We talked with Atlanta immigration attorney Sarah Owings about the impact of the order on Georgia.
www.chronicle.com
Why Colleges’ Pledges to Shield Data on International Students Don’t Mean Much
by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
President Trump’s executive order to bar all refugees from entering the United States, as well as citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, had college leaders scrambling over the weekend to respond. Many colleges released statements saying they would not turn over confidential student records to law-enforcement agencies beyond the federal government’s current requirement. For example, in a written statement, Richard H. Brodhead, Duke’s president, said, “Duke University cannot and will not share confidential student records with law-enforcement agencies — local, state, or federal — without a subpoena.” …But while those messages may be reassuring, it’s hard to tell how much of a difference they might make. First, Friday’s executive order doesn’t require colleges to volunteer such information. And even if it did, colleges are already required by federal law to turn over substantial amounts of information about their international students. International students are some of the foreign visitors most closely monitored by the federal government.
www.chronicle.com
Why the Travel Ban Probably Hits Iranian Professors and Students the Hardest
By Ian Wilhelm
As reports of the impact of the Trump administration’s travel restrictions emerge, one population in higher education seems disproportionately affected: Iranian academics and students. To some, that may come as a surprise. For almost four decades, Iran and the United States have had difficult, even hostile relations. But America has long been — and remains — a popular destination for Iranian students to study and for Iranian scholars to pursue their careers. Here’s a snapshot of the higher-education ties between the nations, how the links developed, and what President Trump’s executive order, which temporarily limits entry for Iranians, among others, may mean for them.
Current Ties
Of the seven Muslim-majority countries that the Trump administration’s order targets — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — Iran by far sends the most students to American colleges. In 2015-16, more than 12,000 Iranians studied in the United States, with a majority of them — almost 78 percent — in graduate programs, according to the Institute of International Education. Iraq sent the next-largest cohort — 1,901.
www.insidehighered.com
Boycotting the U.S.
Amid concerns over entry ban, calls to boycott academic conferences in the U.S. begin. International Studies Association, which will meet in Baltimore next month, is criticized for not condemning Trump’s actions.
By Elizabeth Redden
More than 3,000 academics from around the world have signed on to a call to boycott international academic conferences held in the United States in solidarity with those affected by Trump’s executive order barring entry by nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries. The ban on entry into the U.S. has left some students and scholars with valid visas stranded outside the country while others are stuck inside it, unable to leave the U.S. for personal or professional reasons for fear they won’t be let back in. The entry ban, which affects nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, has been widely condemned as discriminatory and as undermining values central to American higher education such as inclusion, openness and internationalism. Civil rights groups have described it as a pretext for banning the entry of Muslims, which Trump explicitly called for during his campaign. “When we saw the recent news about what’s been dubbed the Muslim ban, we questioned what we could do as academics,” said Nadine El-Enany, a lecturer in law at Birkbeck School of Law at the University of London and an organizer of the call to boycott conferences. …Signatories to the document calling for a boycott of international conferences held in the U.S. pledge not to attend them while the ban is in place. The document goes on to state, “We question the intellectual integrity of these spaces and the dialogues they are designed to encourage while Muslim colleagues are explicitly excluded from them.” Academics abroad have been publicly weighing an academic boycott on social media and in newspaper commentaries in recent days.