University System News:
www.bizjournals.com
General Assembly sends fiscal 2018 budget to governor
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/03/22/general-assembly-sends-fiscal-2018-budget-to.html
Dave Williams
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The General Assembly gave final passage Wednesday to a record $25 billion state budget, sending it to the governor’s desk at the earliest point in the legislative session in decades. On Day 37 of the 40-day session, the Georgia Senate approved the spending plan 52-0, and the House of Representatives signed off on it 172-1. The joint House-Senate conference committee that crafted the final version of the budget didn’t start meeting until Monday. Coming up with a compromise wasn’t difficult because Gov. Nathan Deal, the House and the Senate agreed on 98.4 percent of the spending recommendations going into the negotiations, said Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn.
www.onlineathens.com
Georgia lawmakers OK $49 billion budget with teacher raises
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-03-22/georgia-lawmakers-ok-49-billion-budget-teacher-raises
By Kathleen Foody Associated Press
ATLANTA | Georgia teachers and other state employees would get a 2 percent salary increase while staff overseeing child welfare cases will see a 19 percent raise under a state spending plan approved Wednesday by the General Assembly. The $49 billion budget includes about $25 billion from state sources particularly income taxes; the rest is largely provided by the federal government. The spending plan for the year starting July 1 now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal, who has broad power to veto individual line-items before signing it.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
State budget includes funding for Columbus State building projects
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/politics-government/article140125443.html
BY CHUCK WILLIAMS
A year later than anticipated, Columbus State University now appears to have the state funding to finish a science lab building and begin design work on a renovation of the library thanks to the budget that was passed Wednesday by the General Assembly. The $25 billion budget approved a week before the current General Assembly session ends, includes $2.5 million for two Columbus State main campus projects. There is $2 million for the completion of a new lab sciences building adjacent to LeNoir Hall and $500,000 for the planning of a major renovation to Schwob Library. The budget passed by legislators must be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal before it goes into affect on July 1. Deal has the line-item veto authority, which means he can cut the budget when it gets to his desk.
www.onlineathens.com
UGA students in England safe, Morehead says
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-03-22/uga-students-england-safe-morehead-says?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=1fa2f13e05-eGaMorning-3_23_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-1fa2f13e05-86731974
By Lee Shearer
University of Georgia students in London are safe and accounted for, UGA President Jere Morehead said Wednesday afternoon in the aftermath of what police were describing as a terrorist attack there in which four people were killed and 40 were injured.. The university operates a year-round residential study-abroad program for its students in cooperation with Oxford University’s Trinity College, and owns a residence for students in the city, about 50 miles from Wednesday’s suspected terror attacks in London.
www.wmbfnews.com
P&G helps ASU students learn about sustainability
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/34979350/pg-helps-asu-students-learn-about-sustainability
By Zachary Logan, Reporter
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – On Wednesday, March 22, 2017, Procter and Gamble (P&G) donated $10,000 to Albany State University’s (ASU) Global Sustainability Project. “Good universities cannot prosper very well without partners like P&G,” ASU President Dr. Art Dunning. The project focuses on energy sustainability efforts taking place throughout the world and teaches students about the mass communications careers relating to global sustainability, like an environmental journalist. “It’s about helping the public have a better understanding of how important sustainability is to our mother earth,” Albany State University Mass Communication Associate Professor Jianchuan Zhou said. Dr. Zhou said the program also includes a study abroad component which allows students to go out and actually see the efforts happening throughout the world.
www.djc.com
Georgia Tech wants a Living Building, but can designers beat the heat?
Atlanta’s hot and humid climate requires turning to cooling strategies different from green buildings in Seattle.
http://www.djc.com/news/en/12098667.html
By MARC BRUNE and DAVID MEAD
The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta is aiming to build the world’s next Living Building, one of a handful of such buildings on a college campus. The building will meet the high standards of the Living Building Challenge 3.1, the built environment’s most rigorous and ambitious performance standard. The LBC requires buildings to operate annually on a net-positive energy basis. This means that the building must produce 105 percent of its own energy each year.
www.wtoc.com
Georgia Southern students, professors react to proposed campus carry bill
http://www.wtoc.com/story/34975744/georgia-southern-students-professors-react-to-proposed-campus-carry-bill
By Dal Cannady, Reporter
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) – For the second year, Georgia lawmakers are debating on whether or not to allow gun owners to carry on college campuses. This year’s bill includes some changes from last year, but the pill has polarized sides on campuses around the state. Georgia Southern University does not have an official position, but nearly everyone on campus has an opinion. The debate remains as fervent this time around as it was a year ago. Most students have formed an opinion one way or the other. Zach Carter believes the presence of legal gun carriers could help deter campus shootings, where the current ban doesn’t phase criminals. …Michelle Haberland has rallied other professors in the state to oppose the bill. She doesn’t put much stock in campus citizens stopping any violence.
www.cemag.us
New Projects Create a Foundation for Next-Gen Flexible Electronics
http://www.cemag.us/news/2017/03/new-projects-create-foundation-next-gen-flexible-electronics
Four projects set to move forward at the Georgia Institute of Technology aim to lay the groundwork for manufacturing next-generation flexible electronics, which have the potential to make an impact on industries ranging from health care to defense. The projects, which will take place over the next two years and have a budget of more than $9 million, are backed by NextFlex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a group of private companies, universities, several state and local governments and not-for-profit organizations with a mission to advance flexible electronics manufacturing in the United States. Researchers at Georgia Tech are partnering with Boeing, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, General Electric, and DuPont as well other research institutions such as Binghamton University and Stanford University on the projects.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Turning Down Top Choices
About 40 percent of students who decided not to go to their college or university of first choice cited reasons related to costs.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/23/study-shows-how-price-sensitive-students-are-selecting-colleges?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0b1af9a37f-DNU20170323&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0b1af9a37f-197515277&mc_cid=0b1af9a37f&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Rick Seltzer
Every year, prospective students receive offers to attend their college or university of choice. And every year, some of them turn down those offers. Common wisdom holds that cost is a major factor in those students’ decisions. And new data from a private company provide insight into how much of a role costs play in turning students away from their top choice for college. Almost one-fifth of students who were admitted to their top choice of college or university in 2016 but decided not to go there turned it down because of the cost of attendance, according to new data from Royall & Co., the enrollment-management and alumni fund-raising arm of EAB. Cost of attendance was cited on a survey by 18.6 percent of students who turned down their first choice. Nearly twice as many students pointed to cost of attendance as pointed to the next most commonly cited reason, the campus environment, which was cited by 9.4 percent of students. Many other students who opted not to go to their college of first choice said they did so for other reasons that were still related to cost.
www.diverseeducation.com
California State University Board Votes to Raise Tuition
http://diverseeducation.com/article/94041/?utm_campaign=DIV1703%20DAILY%20NEWSLETTER%20MAR23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
by Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — California State University’s governing board Wednesday approved the first tuition increase in six years for the system’s 23 campuses, drawing chants of opposition from students who said they’re already struggling to afford the cost of education. The board of trustees voted 11-8, approving a proposal that will increase undergraduate tuition by $270 for the 2017-18 school year. Current tuition is $5,472 a year. Chancellor Timothy White had urged the trustees to approve the increase, saying the nation’s largest public university system needs to hire more faculty and add more classes to accommodate growing enrollment and insufficient state funding. “I don’t bring this forward with an ounce of joy, I bring it out of necessity,” White told the board, which held its meeting at his office in Long Beach. The increase will generate $77.5 million in net revenue and go toward hiring 400 new faculty, add 3,000 course sections and expand academic and student support services, said CSU spokeswoman Toni Molle.