University System News:
www.publicnow.com
Did You Know?
http://www.publicnow.com/view/8044ED247677C9E95A6043DD60926215A7DAEDF5
…UGA’s establishment started a movement that continues to shape our Nation by providing educational opportunities to Georgia residents. As we approach the bicentennial of the organization of Gwinnett County, our residents and visitors can appreciate how closely intertwined academia and public life are. Public colleges and universities-like UGA-educate around 15 million students each year. About 300,000 students are enrolled in institutions that make up the University System of Georgia. Here in Dacula, we are ideally located to serve and to take advantage of these opportunities. Located in Georgia’s Innovation Crescent, Dacula is just minutes from nearly three dozen fine public universities and colleges including Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State-and located just 6 miles away our newest Georgia Gwinnett College. These institutions can provide almost any choice of careers and courses of study.
www.macon.com
Local education majors could save $300 on textbooks next year
http://www.macon.com/news/local/education/article139203878.html
BY ANDREA HONAKER
Education majors at Middle Georgia State University will be able to save some money next year. The school has received a $24,900 grant from Affordable Learning Georgia to create free digital and hands-on resources for three education courses. For the 2017-18 year, about 420 students won’t have to buy materials for those classes, a savings of about $321 per student. The school has received several other Affordable Learning Grants since 2014. The current grant was authored by School of Education faculty Loleta Sartin and Molly Kimsey, who will also create the materials. Other University System of Georgia institutions eventually will be able to access these resources too.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech to renovate one of its most historic buildings
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/03/19/georgia-tech-to-renovate-one-of-its-most-historic.html
David Allison
Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech is planning to renovate one of its most historic buildings. The school is now seeking to hire a construction firm to renovate the Savant building, which was constructed in 1901 as the first electrical engineering building and one of the earliest campus buildings. “As such it is historically significant representing the first stage of campus development,” notes a March 13 request for qualifications for a construction manager for the project.The project budget is $1.9 million. The Savant building retains its overall architectural and historic character though much of the original historic fabric has been lost through successive renovations, including the replacement of historic windows and exterior doors with modern units. The Savant building is a contributing resource in the Georgia Tech National Register of Historic Places Historic District,” the RFQ notes. The building is located at 631 Cherry Street. The proposed project will renovate approximately 7,771 square feet on the first floor and provide infrastructure for future renovations to the second and third floors.
www.daltondailycitizen.com
Margaret Venable: Civility, kindness are important virtues
http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/opinion/columns/margaret-venable-civility-kindness-are-important-virtues/article_78196285-d309-5d71-9f66-86b29e815fca.html
The curriculum for a University System of Georgia institution such as Dalton State includes a liberal arts core. As someone with a liberal arts undergraduate degree in chemistry, I understand firsthand the value of such an educational foundation. Although my coursework focused strongly on chemistry and closely-related subjects, I also had the opportunity to study other subjects such as history, art and literature. I tell students this is how I was able to become a college president. My educational background was broad enough to allow me to experience a variety of subjects and perspectives on the world and it helped prepare me for the myriad of life experiences I have encountered in the decades since my graduation. An important part of a liberal arts education is learning how to process and analyze information and then synthesizing it into knowledge and wisdom that can be applied productively. For many students, college is the place where they see and hear different perspectives, maybe for the first time, perhaps shaking the foundations of what they had previously thought and known. This is an essential part of the college experience which shapes our students into educated men and women. Even if what we hear does not change our position on a subject, I believe we must actively analyze our values and beliefs in order to fully embrace them. In fact, respect and collegiality are among our core values for Dalton State.
www.savannahnow.com
Armstrong State lab applies science to weightlifting
http://savannahnow.com/news/sports/2017-03-18/armstrong-state-lab-applies-science-weightlifting
By David Osborne
There is no doubt that successful athletes in all areas have common characteristics, but identifying those characteristics is often difficult. Some of those questions may have been answered last week at Armstrong State University. Dozens of weightlifters from across the country descended upon Armstrong’s Biodynamics and Human Performance Center to participate in a series of tests designed to study performance characteristics of high-caliber athletes. These are not just the traditional young athletes; they range from 35 years old to 80. The tests consist of blood work, balance, agility and range of motion. A staff headed by professors Bryan Riemann and David Hooper conducts the tests. This is believed to be the largest study in the country on performance characteristics of master weightlifters.
www.ajc.com
UGA donors worry about athletics’ ‘master plan’
http://www.ajc.com/sports/college/uga-donors-worry-about-athletics-master-plan/OfCdA2UwmTWcClMAMNa48H/
Seth Emerson DawgNation
ATHENS – When it comes to the subject of football spending and facilities, Jon Stinchcomb is in a unique position. As a former Georgia player, he knows what the team needs and wants. As a current member of Georgia’s athletic board, he has a vote and a say in how and what money is spent. Over the past month, Stinchbomb has cast a vote agreeing to a project that will cost the school and donors $63 million. He’s also had numerous conversations with friends and donors about what more needs to be done. And what the plan is. And if there isn’t one, what it should be. …Based on conversations with several donors, most of whom did not want to be named, there is a concern over whether Georgia has an institution is spending enough to keep up in the SEC and national facilities arms race. But the overarching concern is whether there is a master plan, or whether the school simply playing whack-a-mole, moving deliberately from one project to the next.
www.dailytechwhip.com
NASA signs up four research teams to study the Solar System
http://dailytechwhip.com/nasa-signs-up-four-research-teams-to-study-the-solar-system/
While NASA already has plenty of scientists, it still regularly works with research teams from various universities and non-profit orgs. It even created the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to oversee some of its collaborations. In fact, the agency has added four new teams looking to study the moon, near-Earth asteroids and Martian moons Phobos and Deimos to SSERVI’s roster. The first group from the University of Colorado plans to conduct a study on robotics, cosmology, astrophysics and heliophysics with the intention of advancing manned space exploration. Another team working on a project called “Toolbox for Research and Exploration” or TREX will develop tools and methods for the manned exploration of celestial bodies coated in fine-grained dust, such as asteroids and the moon. The third group from Georgia Institute of Technology will explore how radiation affects human-made composite materials. They’ll also look into how real-time detectors can help minimize astronauts’ exposure to harmful radiation.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Georgia Tech research says global climate change may worsen China’s severe air pollution problems
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article139498923.html
BY LARRY GIERER
Work done by researchers at Georgia Tech says severe winter air pollution problems in China may be worsened by changes in atmospheric circulation prompted by Arctic sea ice loss and increased Eurasian snowfall – both caused by global climate change. According to a report on the school’s website, modeling and data analysis done at Georgia Tech suggest sea ice and snowfall changes have shifted China’s winter monsoon, helping create stagnant atmospheric conditions that trap pollution over the country’s major population and industrial centers. Those changes in regional atmospheric conditions are frustrating efforts to address pollution through emission controls. In the report, Yuhang Wang, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Science, says “Emissions in China have been decreasing over the last four years, but the severe winter haze is not getting better. Mostly, that’s because of a very rapid change in the high polar regions where sea ice is decreasing and snowfall is increasing. This perturbation keeps cold air from getting into the eastern parts of China where it would flush out the air pollution.” The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency.
www.savannahnow.com
Facing deadline, Georgia lawmakers still talking campus guns, budget
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-03-19/facing-deadline-georgia-lawmakers-still-talking-campus-guns-budget
By KATHLEEN FOODY and EZRA KAPLAN The Associated Press
Georgia lawmakers head into the final two weeks of the legislative session with a lot of unfinished business, including a state budget for the coming financial year. The General Assembly plans to adjourn on March 30, with only five days of floor votes scheduled by the House and Senate before wrapping up the session. Here’s a look at some of the closely watched proposals:
GUNS ON CAMPUS; 2018 BUDGET; CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT
www.gordon.allongeorgia.com
Georgia Looks at Changing Prosecution Process for Campus Felonies
http://gordon.allongeorgia.com/georgia-looks-at-changing-prosecution-process-for-campus-felonies/
The Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill that requires campus officials to report crimes to campus or local law enforcement, with the exception of health providers and counselors. House Bill 51 states that investigation of a reported felony will not “be undertaken by the post-secondary institution unless such investigation is done by a campus law enforcement agency staffed by law enforcement officers who are certified peace officers by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.” The bill encompasses all felonies but only singles out sexual assault cases. When the crime involves sexual assault, the victim is not required to cooperate in investigations or have their name specified in reports. However, no student will be placed under interim punishment pending the investigation for conduct violations without a hearing for the accused student. Law enforcement decides whether to inform the proper prosecutor’s office of the crime and post-secondary schools are not permitted to conduct their investigation until law enforcement has completed their own.
www.macon.com
Budget, tax questions lined up for last days of state Legislature
http://www.macon.com/news/local/article139241098.html
MAGGIE LEE
The Georgia House and Senate will soon finish negotiations on the only thing they are required to do every year: pass a budget. But in the closing days of the session, they’re pondering something else: millions of dollars in tax breaks or cuts. Georgia’s budget will come to about $25 billion for the year that begins in July. The House, the Senate and Gov. Nathan Deal have all made their own slightly different budget proposals, but they’re united on some marquee expansions: $160 million in teacher raises, more staff to work in foster care support, 20 percent raises for state law enforcement officers. Education, counting pre-kindergarten through college, will still get the biggest piece of the state pie.
www.ajc.com
Opponents to Georgia’s ‘campus carry’ gun bill appeal to Deal to block it
http://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/opponents-georgia-campus-carry-gun-bill-appeal-deal-block/3lEuqTl8lCqB3ggsD65KgN/
Kristina Torres The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opponents of a bill to allow firearms on Georgia’s public college and university campuses have upped their campaign urging Gov. Nathan Deal to reject the measure, releasing a letter Monday in which they try to lay out arguments bolstering Deal’s veto of a similar measure last year. The sponsor of House Bill 280, state Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, has repeatedly made the argument that students have a right to protect themselves in a legal manner on campus just as they can off it. She said the bill only applies to students 21 years and older who receive permission to have a concealed carry permit in Georgia. To get the permit, they are required to be fingerprinted and pass a background check. The bill additionally exempts some areas from weapons, including dormitories, sorority and fraternity houses, athletic events and on-campus child care centers. But the New York-based Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus in its letter argues that the Second Amendment has not historically protected carrying concealed weapons on campus.
www.ajc.com
Is there any evidence guns will make Georgia college campuses safer?
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/there-any-evidence-guns-will-make-georgia-college-campuses-safer/madlVfuy1z5NHeK89LSILI/
Maureen Downey The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In pushing through another bill to allow guns on Georgia public college campuses, lawmakers argue that college students need a way to defend themselves. A University of North Georgia professor put that contention to the test and found it lacking. Writing in the AJC Get Schooled blog, Matthew Boedy said,”Advocates of campus carry – that policy inscribed in House Bill 280 now before the Georgia Senate that would permit concealed guns on college campuses – continually tell us about other states who has passed similar laws. They put great emphasis on Utah and Colorado, the two states that have allowed guns on campus for some years.” Boedy asked campus police chiefs from the two largest universities in Utah for reports from 2004 to 2016 of a victim using a firearm to stop a crime in progress. Neither university had a single example.
www.savannahnow.com
Editorial: Say no to guns on campus
http://savannahnow.com/opinion/editorial/2017-03-18/editorial-say-no-guns-campus
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: College campuses are supposed to be safe places for learning. They become more dangerous if people are allowed to pack heat along with their books and slipping handguns into classrooms. Pandering to constituents with an overly-generous view of the Second Amendment, Georgia lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would allow people aged 21 or older to carry firearms onto campus if they are licensed to do so, with some exceptions. …Student housing is one of the places guns would still be forbidden. Athletic facilities and preschools, some preschools, at any rate, would also stay gun-free. …These guys don’t give up. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, ignited a political firestorm last year when he vetoed a similar campus carry bill. We applauded him for sticking to his, well, principles. One of his concerns then was that there was no exemption for preschools. To assuage that, lawmakers this year wrote such wording into HB 280. Sort of. Under the version that went to committee on Friday, if the campus has more than three buildings that house space for the toddlers, there is no exemption. This makes no sense. Apparently you can have too many preschoolers on campus, but not too many guns. Never too many guns. …If you believe college presidents and police chiefs should have some say so over public safety at their own universities and colleges, urge your legislator not to pass this bill. And if that doesn’t work, let the governor know you want him to nix this bill, again. He could use the backing.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Minority Students at Greater Risk of Sexual Assault
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/03/20/minority-students-greater-risk-sexual-assault?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=51acf0a2c5-DNU20170320&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-51acf0a2c5-197515277&mc_cid=51acf0a2c5&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Emily Tate
Not only are racial, sexual and gender minority groups more likely to be victims of sexual assault, students who consider their colleges inclusive and tolerant are less likely to be victims, two new complementary studies found.
Published recently in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Prevention Science, the studies reveal how populations with intersecting minority identities may be at greater risk of sexual assault, emphasizing the need for more sexual assault research and prevention and treatment programs that address specific marginalized groups. One study, led by a team from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, was based on surveys from over 70,000 undergraduate students attending 120 higher education institutions between 2011 and 2013. The team found that women were 150 percent more likely than men to be sexually assaulted, but that transgender people were at much greater risk — 300 percent more likely than cisgender men to be sexually assaulted. Gay, bisexual and black men all had higher odds of being sexually assaulted than heterosexual and white men. Black women were more likely than white women to be sexually assaulted, but Asian and Latina women were less likely. Black transgender people were more likely than white transgender people to be assaulted as well. The lead author of both studies said this is the first research of its kind to identify ways that intersecting marginalized populations are at greater risk of being sexually assaulted.