University System News:
www.myajc.com
Georgia campus rape bill dead for the year, sponsor says
http://www.myajc.com/news/local/georgia-campus-rape-bill-dead-for-the-year-sponsor-says/hEu4Asvtx1pGbsT1locgDJ/
By Rhonda Cook – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Weary after hours of often emotional discussion, a Senate committee voted Thursday to kill for this year what had come to be known as the “campus rape bill.” “This is truly a complicated matter,” said state Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I think the proper thing to do at this point … I’d like to table this bill.” State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, agreed. “I sense some unreadiness in the room,” he said. “I have the same unreadiness.” With only three legislative days left in the 2017 session, the committee voted unanimously to hold on to House Bill 51, bringing tears of happiness to the eyes of sexual assault victims and their advocates who had been aggressively fighting the bill since state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, introduced it in January.
www.accesswdun.com
Georgia Senate panel halts bill on campus assault hearings
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/516599/georgia-senate-panel-halts-bill-on-campus-assault-hearings
By The Associated Press
A Georgia Senate committee has halted a bill overhauling colleges’ disciplinary processes in reports of sexual assault. The Senate Judiciary committee used a legislative maneuver to put the bill on hold on Thursday, halting its progress with only days left before lawmakers adjourn. …Opponents also said the bill would put Georgia at odds with federal guidance laying out specific requirements for campuses under civil rights law. Ehrhart told committee members that he’d continue working on the issue before next session.
www.ajc.com
Lawmaker: Legislature may pass 3 bills that will hurt higher education
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/lawmaker-legislature-may-pass-bills-that-will-hurt-higher-education/GB1USV9WcUuLelfwNLxzZO/
Maureen Downey The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An Atlanta legislator says three pending bills — campus carry, campus rape and no sanctuary campuses — are misguided and damage the universities, students and reputation of higher education in Georgia. Writing in the AJC Get Schooled blog, state Rep. David Dreyer, D-Atlanta, saysthe bills severely undermine higher education. “Instead of harming our colleges, we should focus on supporting our colleges with initiatives like need-based HOPE scholarships and creative programs to reduce the cost of attendance,” he says. “At a minimum, the General Assembly should not interfere with the pursuit of excellence at our colleges and universities, and these bills must be stopped to protect our institutions of higher learning.”
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Why is Georgia Legislature so intent on arming college students with guns?
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2017/03/24/why-is-georgia-legislature-so-intent-on-arming-college-students-with-guns/
Why does the Legislature keep pushing guns on Georgia college campuses? Polls repeatedly show students, parents and university officials don’t want armed 21-year-olds on the state’s public campuses. To build a case that armed students are safer students, gun advocates in the Georgia Legislature evoke crime-ridden campuses and predatory professors. But the data doesn’t support that dystopian view. When you look at violent crime statistics, college campuses remain among the safest places in Georgia. Who steps onto the campuses of University of Georgia, Kennesaw State or Georgia Southern and wishes they had a gun in their waistband? Most of us probably wish we were 18 again. Yet, state Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, contends her bill, House Bill 280, is vital to ensuring students are not defenseless from the threat of a rising crime wave. Her bill would allow students 21 and older with conceal carry permits to be armed everywhere on campus except dormitories, sorority and fraternity houses, athletic events, on-campus child care centers and buildings that house high school classes. Most of the sexual assaults Ballinger cites in support of campus carry occur in social settings where the victim knows the offender. Half involve alcohol. If lawmakers wants to protect students from sexual assault, equip them with information on alcohol abuse, date rape and affirmed consent, not with firearms.
www.accesswdun.com
UNG kicks off participation in University System’s health challenge
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/516222/ung-kicks-off-participation-in-university-systems-health-challenge
By AccessWDUN staff
The University System of Georgia has launched a system-wide health challenge, inviting all institutions to participate. Dubbed HealthTrails, the initiative officially began at the University of North Georgia with a Kick-off Walk on March 20 on all five campuses. UNG President Bonita C. Jacobs led the walk on the Dahlonega Campus, beginning at Price Memorial Hall and making a loop around the Gen. William “Lipp” Livsey Drill Field. That same afternoon, Dr. Richard Oates, vice president of UNG’s Gainesville Campus, Jerry Sullivan, interim CEO of the university’s Oconee Campus, Sandy Ott, director of the Blue Ridge Campus, and Lyne Hitt of UNG’s Cumming Campus also led walks on their campuses. So far, 352 faculty and staff at UNG have signed up for the challenge. More than 120 participated in the Kick-off Walk across the university. “We are all excited about this event; we know that when we are well and fit, we are more productive,” Jacobs said prior to leading the Kick-off Walk. “This is a great new initiative, especially considering the opportunity for participants to progress in small steps.”
www.onlineathens.com
UGA won’t shorten academic calendar as state intervenes
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-03-23/uga-won-t-shorten-academic-calendar-state-intervenes
By Lee Shearer
The University of Georgia won’t be moving to a shorter academic calendar for 2018-2019. UGA’s University Council had been scheduled to vote on a revised 2018-2019 academic calendar at its meeting on Wednesday. The calendar that was proposed by the council’s executive committee would have exactly matched the one adopted by Atlanta’s Georgia State University. Administrators at UGA, though, said it wouldn’t fulfill federal, state and accrediting requirements for contact hours between faculty and students. …But now state administrators have stepped in with a plan to resolve discrepancies among the calendars of UGA, Georgia State, Georgia Tech and other University System of Georgia colleges and universities, UGA President Jere Morehead told council members as Wednesday’s meeting began. The system’s chief academic officer wrote to Morehead and Janet Frick, chair of the council’s executive committee, asking that the council not approve the shorter calendar, Morehead said, citing an email from Robert Anderson, the university system’s interim executive vice chancellor and chief executive officer. “I strongly believe that my office needs to examine closely the impact of calendar policies on classroom instructional time,” Anderson wrote. “As a component of this examination, I want to understand better the current practices at both Georgia Tech and Georgia State. With these next steps in mind, I have requested of President Morehead that he not entertain a 15-week calendar at the present time. I also respectfully ask the same of you and the University Council. This request is made with a promise that this issue will be resolved in the coming year and Board policy will reflect the outcomes of this analysis.”
www.accesswdun.com
UGA plans public meeting after human remains found on campus
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/516610/uga-plans-public-meeting-after-human-remains-found-on-campus
University of Georgia officials say they plan a public talk about human remains found during a campus construction project, and about the history of slavery at the institution.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
‘The Library Has Never Been More Important’
Arizona State U, known for rejecting norms of traditional campuses, will invest more than $100 million in its library, seeking to serve on-campus and a growing online study body.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/24/arizona-state-u-library-reorganization-plan-moves-ahead
By Carl Straumsheim
Arizona State University will spend “well more than $100 million” over the next few years to renovate and rethink its libraries, the clearest indication yet of how the library fits into the institution’s plan for the public research university of the future.
The university later this year plans to close the Hayden Library on its Tempe campus for a two-year renovation. At the same time, the university will continue to work on expanding the library resources and services available to its roughly 26,000 degree-seeking online students and the hundreds of thousands more taking at least one class online from the university. “The library has never been more important,” President Michael M. Crow said in an interview. “The library turns out to be absolutely central to our logic of building our educational enterprise — central in the sense that it is the tool which connects our students wherever they are.”