University System News:
www.savannahnow.com
Savannah State president heads to Washington for HBCU meeting with legislators
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-02-24/savannah-state-president-heads-washington-hbcu-meeting-legislators
By Dash Coleman, Jenel Few
Savannah Morning News
Savannah State University President Cheryl Dozier will head to Washington next week for a daylong conference on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The Tuesday conference is being held at the Library of Congress, and about 85 HBCU presidents and chancellors are scheduled to attend, according to one of the congressional offices coordinating the event. On the agenda are panels discussing the educational value of HBCUs and maintaining their relationships with federal legislators and executives. The controversial new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, will be the keynote speaker. In an interview Thursday, Dozier said she welcomes an opportunity to “have conversation with those who make higher education funding decisions.” More than 90 percent of Savannah State’s 4,900 students receive some form of scholarship or financial aid. Savannah State receives funding from the Department of Education for multiple programs that benefit students, and Dozier said she views the meeting as a way to advocate for students seeking affordable education. “I will tell our story,” Dozier said. “I want to share with them how crucial it is for us to have those resources for our students. Over 60 percent of our students are the first generation in their families to complete college. A larger number, (86 percent), come from Georgia, and most will stay.
www.insidehighered.com
Trump Vows to Support Historically Black Colleges
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/27/trump-vows-support-historically-black-colleges?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=68b8e567dc-DNU20170227&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-68b8e567dc-197515277&mc_cid=68b8e567dc&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Scott Jaschik
In his Saturday address, President Trump focused on black history and issues facing black people. He offered praise to historically black colleges and said they “do a fantastic job.” He said black colleges “are not given the credit that they deserve and they are going to start getting that credit.” The discussion of black colleges starts around 2:50 of the video below. Both the White House and congressional Republicans have been reaching out to black college leaders of late.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Lawmakers depict campuses as dangerous and in need of guns. Crime reports show otherwise.
Lawmakers depict campuses as dangerous and in need of guns. Crime reports show otherwise.
I continue to be amazed by the exaggeration of crime on our public colleges and universities by state lawmakers trying once again to overrule common sense and University System policy by forcing guns on Georgia’s campuses. Listening to the wild commentary by campus carry advocates about crime threats and predatory professors, you’d think lawmakers never visited an actual college campus but formed their views after binge-watching “Scream 2” and “Sorority Row.” I just spent several days in Athens and saw two obvious areas where legislators could improve campus safety if they were serious about it and not just seeking to win points with the gun lobby: Figure out a way to slow down the cars and pickup trucks careening around Broad Street and stop the underage drinking. Matthew Boedy, an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, addresses the new scheme by the Georgia House to resurrect the campus carry bill. Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a “campus carry” gun bill in May, saying it would not improve campus safety. Neither will this new version, House Bill 280. Boedy looks at the outcome of the “campus carry lite” bill enacted last year legalizing stun guns and Tasers on campuses. …Here is what he found:
www.myajc.com
State audit finds financial errors at Atlanta Metropolitan college
http://www.myajc.com/news/local-education/state-audit-finds-financial-errors-atlanta-metropolitan-college/fYRwdu7x8olio9MhBDK3JO/
By Eric Stirgus – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Metropolitan State College finance officials made multiple accounting errors that could make the school susceptible to “misappropriation of funds,” state officials wrote in a recent report.
The 40-page report completed earlier this month by the state’s Department of Audits and Accounts found numerous problems such as:
· the college could not provide adequate documentation for numerous items reflected in its financial statement including $2,718,431.
· it could not provide adequate supporting documentation for $2,999,822 of building additions.
· the college could not provide any HOPE Scholarship Program information that was properly reconciled with the Hope Scholarship Program balance reported on its financial statements.
· the Food Services fund reported had a deficit of $1,183,434.
· a revenue shortfall in the school’s new Student Center.
· the college performed a physical inventory during the year under review and could not locate six items totaling $63,670.
The auditors said they did not discover any missing funds, but worry the sloppy bookkeeping could allow an employee to take money from the college.
www.savannahnow.com
Armstrong State senior earns volunteer award
http://savannahnow.com/news/your-good-news/2017-02-24/armstrong-state-senior-earns-volunteer-award
Andrew Jones has received the Annie F. Oliver Award for Volunteer of the Year awarded by Savannah Speech and Hearing Center. Jones, a senior at Armstrong State University, volunteered more than 85 hours at the center and its Sound Start School. The Annie F. Oliver Award recognizes excellence and a strong commitment to volunteering for the betterment of the center’s community. Jones was honored with the award at a special volunteer reception. The award was created in 1979 to honor Annie F. Oliver, an administrator of the center from 1962 to 1978 and a community volunteer. Thus far, there have been 35 recipients. …Jones will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders. His goal is to attend Armstrong’s communication sciences and disorders master’s program and later become a Speech-Language Pathologist.
www.mdjonline.com
Kennesaw State University student honored at convention
http://www.mdjonline.com/news/local/kennesaw-state-university-student-honored-at-convention/article_dd7727f0-fb9a-11e6-a3a1-03fa7600e1e1.html
Mary Kate McGowan
Kennesaw State University student Christopher Roper’s research presentation on wind turbines blew through his competition at a recent research conference. Roper, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering from Lawrenceville, and eight other KSU students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math — STEM — fields were honored for their top-notch research at a convention in Savannah earlier this month.
www.macon.com
Aviation school offers in-state tuition to Ala., Florida and S.C. residents
http://www.macon.com/news/local/education/article134988514.html
BY ANDREA HONAKER
Students from bordering states now can pursue a career in aviation at Middle Georgia State University for a fraction of the cost. Starting this fall, residents of Alabama, Florida and South Carolina can get in-state tuition rates for the School of Aviation. The program is expanding and trying to make flight training more widely available to in-state and out-of-state students, according to a release. The School of Aviation’s headquarters is at the university’s Eastman campus. A satellite location was recently created at the Macon Downtown Airport, and the goal is to create other satellite locations in the future.
www.highbeam.com
Mining a Different Kind of Gold: University of North Georgia Expanding ROTC Studies
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-4316873131.html
It is fitting that a Georgia school originally located in a former U.S. Mint in a town that experienced one of America’s first gold rushes is trying to capture a different kind of treasure. While embracing its golden past, the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega is creating a different sort of enrichment by expanding its year-old Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies into more than just a place that shapes future Army officers. It wants to mold leaders for intelligence, cyberwarfare and global engagement as part of a wide expansion into national security topics.
www.facilitiesnet.com
In Higher Education, Changing Styles of Learning Require Rethinking Traditional Facilities
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/educationalfacilities/article/In-Higher-Education-Changing-Styles-of-Learning-Require-Rethinking-Traditional-Facilities–17077
By jason-emery groën and dathe wong
The only thing constant is change. There is no exception to this rule when it comes to higher education. Technology, curriculum, student demographics, student expectations, campus policies and procedures — all of these are constantly evolving to respond to the challenges and needs of the time. Physical space, however, has often been slow to change. Even as research into educational psychology and adult education has been highlighting the need for new types of learning environments for decades, many academic institutions have been unable to keep up. Today, more than ever, these institutions need to embrace innovative responses to existing and emerging pedagogies while also enhancing their overall mission and vision … Earlier this year, the Georgia Institute of Technology made the news with their Masters program for computer science that costs roughly $7,000 and is hosted entirely online. This was significant as an indication that the online learning environment is getting more sophisticated, attractive, acceptable, and normalized compared to when it was first introduced over a decade ago.
www.wjcl.com
Armstrong State University Hosts Student Forums on Merger with Georgia Southern
Several meetings to be held in the coming months
http://www.wjcl.com/article/armstrong-state-university-hosts-student-forums-on-merger-with-georgia-southern/8974959
Kirsty Hastings-Jones
The Division of Student Affairs has established student-specific forums to discuss Armstrong’s consolidation with Georgia Southern. The forums provide an opportunity for students to voice their concerns on the merger. Several leadership groups are expected at the forums including members of the Vice President for Student Affairs Office, and members of operational work groups that are being established. All forums will be held on campus. …Several more are expected over the summer and fall semesters. The forums are for students only.
www.wjcl.com
Armstrong State University students ask university officials about consolidation process
Students at Armstrong State University had the chance on Friday to ask university officials about the consolidation process with Georgia Southern and what exact form it will take.
http://www.wjcl.com/article/armstrong-state-university-students-ask-university-officials-about-consolidation-process/8977795
Students asked if the name “Armstrong” will be on their degrees upon graduation and if the consolidation could possibly hurt their chances getting jobs moving forward. “When someone doesn’t know your school they want to double check that. And if they double check that and they can’t find it, well then your’re in a world of trouble,” said Reese Shellman, a graduate student at ASU who attended the student forum on Friday. University officials say no matter what name is on the degree when students graduate and no matter what exact form the consolidation process takes, future employers will know current ASU students graduated from a “fully accredited university.” University officials say the consolidation committee is continuing to finalize details about the consolidation and more questions will be answered in the future.
Higher Education News:
www.hechingerreport.com
Despite family and work commitments, student veterans outpace classmates
Veterans using GI Bill benefits achieve success rates slightly higher than the average
Despite family and work commitments, student veterans outpace classmates
by JON MARCUS
De spite often having to juggle schoolwork with jobs and families, veterans attending college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill are finishing at rates slightly higher than their classmates, a new report shows. The report says 53.6 percent of veterans using GI Bill benefits who arrived on campus in the fall of 2009 had graduated within six years, compared to 52.9 percent of students overall. Another 18 percent were still enrolled. In all, the GI Bill — which costs $11 billion a year, according to the General Accounting Office — paid for all or part of 450,000 degrees earned by 340,000 students between 2009 and 2015, the study found. Some of those veterans earned more than one degree. The research proves that “many veterans truly excel in the academic environment,” Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman Terry Jemison said.
www.insidehighered.com
Title IX Enforcement and LGBT Students
Obama administration guidelines for LGBT student protections under Title IX remain in place, and the student codes at Liberty and Bob Jones Universities appear to violate them.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/27/liberty-and-bob-jones-universities-may-run-afoul-obama-title-ix-protections-lgbt
By Paul Fain
The Trump administration last week generated plenty of headlines by withdrawing guidelines issued by the Obama administration regarding Title IX’s protections for transgender college students.
Remaining unnoticed, however, is an apparent conflict between two prominent religious universities’ takes on student sexuality and the 2014 guidelines on preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity. And that guidance was not affected by the White House action last week.