USG eclips for March 29, 2017

University System News:
www.news.wabe.org
Georgia Senate Approves ‘Campus Carry’ Bill
http://news.wabe.org/post/georgia-senate-approves-campus-carry-bill
By ELLY YU
The Georgia State Senate voted Tuesday to let licensed gun owners carry concealed weapons on most places on public college campuses. The state Senate voted 32-22 on the bill, which needs final agreement by the state House before being sent to the Governor for his signature. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed the measure last year, referring in his veto statement that colleges had long been treated as “sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed.” State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Atlanta, echoed Deal’s veto statement.

www.ajc.com
Advocates worry about guns in preschools on college campuses
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/advocates-worry-about-guns-preschools-college-campuses/KrhngEG6dTjsg4AQSGO3NN/
Maureen Downey  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With the Senate passage of the campus carry bill Tuesday, guns may become a reality at Georgia’s public colleges and universities. Will they also become a reality in some childcare centers on those campuses? This year’s version of the bill cites a few places on campus where guns still would be banned, including preschools, which was a concern last year of Gov. Nathan Deal. Deal vetoed a campus carry bill in 2016, but has not said whether he will do so this year if the new bill reaches his desk. However, while House Bill 280 lists childcare centers as one of the places where firearms would still be outlawed, the legislation has loopholes that worry advocates. Among them: If there are more than three childcare sites on the campus, then guns would be permitted. The bill states: “Not apply to preschool space ….if such public institution of postsecondary education has more than three buildings on the campus housing preschool space.” After the passage of the bill, one of the most prominent early childhood advocacy organizations raised concerns.

www.ajc.com
House revives campus rape bill as session winds to a close
http://www.ajc.com/news/local/house-revives-campus-rape-bill-session-winds-close/lPV7lwMaS1Xi7bzpTt2wjO/
Rhonda Cook  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House has again approved a so-called campus rape bill, just days after a Senate committee voted to kill the measure for this legislative session. The House on Tuesday night voted 102-56 for the bill sponsored by state Rep. Earl Ehrhart. Designed to provide better due process protections to those accused of sexual assault at Georgia colleges, it is opposed by some rape victims who have lobbied against the bill almost daily at the state Capitol. The Georgia Legislature is in the 39th day of its 40-day legislative session and the House on Tuesday stripped Senate Bill 71, dealing with health savings accounts, of all its language and substituted the text of the campus rape bill instead. The sponsor of SB 71 bill is Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro. He is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that last week tabled Ehrhart’s bill amid concerns from sexual assault victims. …The rewritten SB 71 must go back to the Senate for another vote before the 2017 session ends Thursday.

www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Back from the dead and in new form, campus rape bill lives another day. Anyone got a stake?
Back from the dead and in new form, campus rape bill lives another day. Anyone got a stake?
…The resurrected bill doesn’t always look so good. But limping and ragged, it’s still on the field. That’s what happened in the House late Tuesday with the campus rape bill that a Senate committee appeared to have killed last week. House Bill 51 mandates more due process rights to the accused while also drastically limiting the ability of the state’s public colleges to investigate and punish allegations of rape. Sponsored by the former House Rules chair but still influential state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, the bill was criticized as an over correction by those who work with sexual assault victims, only a small percentage of whom ever report what happened to them. Unlike the House, which belittled the concern of sexual assault survivors that the bill would cause even fewer victims to come forward, the Senate Judiciary Committee decided the issue was too complex and the implications too unclear to act. The committee unanimously voted to table the bill, and Ehrhart promised to work with them to improve the bill. Instead, the House Rules Committee seized on Senate Bill 71 — legislation dealing with bankruptcies and health savings accounts — and gutted it Tuesday. Then, House members swapped in the language of the moribund HB 51. …Senate Bill 71 must go back to the Senate for another vote, which will be a crunch given the session ends Thursday.

www.accesswdun.com
Near session’s end, lawmakers rush on taxes, education bills
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/518325/near-sessions-end-lawmakers-rush-on-taxes-education-bills
By The Associated Press
State lawmakers worked late into the evening Tuesday, rushing to pass legislation affecting Georgians’ income taxes, treatment for opioid addiction and a strategy to turn around the state’s lowest performing schools.  Tuesday marked the 39th day of the 40-day legislative session. Lawmakers plan to adjourn on Thursday. The rush to pass bills before the end of the 40th day can lead to dramatic last-minute changes to legislation either accidental or intentional amid the chaos.  Here’s a look at some of the closely watched measures still moving through the legislature: SEX ASSAULT ON CAMPUS … OPIOID ADDICTION

www.goldenisles.news
Potential federal cuts could impact coastal programs, protections
http://goldenisles.news/news/local_news/potential-federal-cuts-could-impact-coastal-programs-protections/article_f08ab323-d47b-5ab3-b6fd-d5b24d126e5b.html?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=9e88396fe8-eGaMorning-3_29_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-9e88396fe8-86731974
By WES WOLFE
While it is generally accepted a presidential budget is only a guideline in the best of times, the issuance of President Donald Trump’s budget this month did raise some eyebrows — especially considering the disarray among House Republicans on the American Health Care Act indicates the majority party is not exactly experiencing widespread policy cooperation. The White House’s extraordinary departure from 2017 appropriations can be seen in the 2018 discretionary overview — a 20.7 percent cut at the Department of Agriculture, a 15.7 percent cut at the Department of Commerce, a 31.4 percent cut at the Environmental Protection Agency. When it comes to the Georgia coast, commerce — through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and the EPA have a significant footprint, in jobs and money that tend to flow through and to state sources. Those sources include the University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, along with other programs and activities carried out through the state Department of Natural Resources.

www.goldenisles.news
College takes part in fitness challenge
http://goldenisles.news/community_life/college-takes-part-in-fitness-challenge/article_303db863-105a-5919-a196-155eaf1e1299.html
Brittany Tate
College of Coastal Georgia faculty, staff and students recently participated in the President’s Walk Kick-Off to join in the University System of Georgia well-being program, HealthTrails. The wellness program was created to reinforce healthy habits with fun, friendly competition that emphasizes the overall goals of HealthTrails.

www.bizjournals.com
Forbes: Atlanta No. 3 U.S. city poised to become tech mecca
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/03/28/forbes-atlanta-no-3-u-s-city-poised-to-become.html
Phil W. Hudson
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta could soon become one of the world’s most elite tech cities. According to a new report from Forbes, Atlanta is the No. 3 American city poised to become one of tomorrow’s tech meccas… The article gives a nod to three of the city’s startup hubs — Atlanta Tech Village, Switchyards Downtown Club and Advanced Technology Development Center — and two of the city’s universities — Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University — as a two of the main boosters of Atlanta’s tech boom.

www.bizjournals.com
International search underway for Georgia Tech engineering dean
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/03/29/international-search-underway-for-georgia-tech.html
Jessica Saunders
Managing Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
An international search is underway for the next dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. The current dean, Gary May, is leaving to become the seventh chancellor of University of California Davis. Georgia Tech Provost Rafael Bras has named a 15-member search advisory committee for a new College of Engineering dean. It is made up of faculty and staff, as well as the current undergraduate and graduate student body presidents. The committee will be chaired by Julia Kubanek, associate dean for Research, College of Sciences; professor of Biological Sciences; and professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The search director is Jennifer Herazy, Tech’s associate provost for Operations.

www.daltondailycitizen.com
GA-FL At a Glance
http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/news/ga_fl_news/ga-fl-at-a-glance/article_bf7c0218-4bc1-5da3-8620-0a9c7606d12f.html
CGTC, FVSU sign engineering articulation agreement
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Central Georgia Technical College (CGTC) President Dr. Ivan H. Allen and Fort Valley State University (FVSU) President, Dr. Paul Jones have created educational pathways for students by signing multiple credit course transfer agreements, including a first-of-its-kind agreement for engineering. The engineering agreement has been marked as the first-ever, local two-year to four-year articulation agreement in engineering and serves to significantly advance higher education opportunity in the central Georgia area.

www.forsythnews.com
Educational partnerships touted in Cumming’s Alliance Academy
http://www.forsythnews.com/section/3/article/32515/
By Isabel Hughes
A “state of the schools” meeting held on the University of North Georgia’s Cumming campus Monday morning focused on the partnership between UNG, Lanier Technical College and Forsyth County Schools. The event, the first of its kind, featured FCS Superintendent Jeffrey Bearden, FCS Director of College and Career Development Valery Lowe, Lanier Tech President Ray Perren and UNG President Bonita Jacobs. Mary Helen McGruder, chairwoman of the UNG Foundation, also spoke at the event. Though each panelist gave an update on the status of their individual system, the theme of the morning was collaboration between the three entities.

www.ajc.com
Kennesaw State’s game design ranks high
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/kennesaw-state-game-design-ranks-high/fSJwCvSUWR3W2QUhGwNe0N/
Christopher Quinn
The Princeton Review ranks Kennesaw State University for the second consecutive year as one of the top 50 schools in the high-tech field of game design. KSU is ranked No. 32. Princeton Review’s  “Top Game Design Schools” list ranks both undergraduate and graduate programs around the world from the 150 institutions that offer game design degree programs and courses. Metro Atlanta has already become a center for financial technology, with Georgia Tech being a magnet for drawing companies who need the type of graduates the school churns out.

www.ajc.com
Kennesaw State opens Data Science Research Lab
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/kennesaw-state-opens-data-science-research-lab/f46thXyq8dPxqpYVnUvI5J/
Eric Stirgus
Kennesaw State University officials recently announced the school has opened a laboratory dedicated to studying consumer and commercial data. The Equifax Data Science Research Lab is part of the university’s efforts to train students how to translate large, structured and unstructured, complex data into information to improve decision-making. …Equifax contributed a $75,000 research grant for the lab.

www.atlanta.curbed.com
In Midtown Atlanta, Georgia Tech digs deep for CODA
Construction on new office, research center tower has a long way up
http://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/3/28/15081410/georgia-tech-coda-construction-pit
BY MICHAEL KAHN
The old adage says, “What goes up must come down,” but in the case of CODA, there’s a lot of going down before it goes up. Georgia Tech’s new high-power computing center + laboratory space + mixed-use development started construction nearly six months ago. But rather than tower cranes jutting from the ground to show for it, a massive pit fills the block between Spring and West Peachtree streets at Tech Square. Construction crews have dug to new depths—nearly three floors below street level—to prepare for the new high-rise. The soil removed equates to roughly 20,000 dump truck loads.

www.wtoc.com
‘Snakes in the Stacks’
http://www.wtoc.com/story/35018010/snakes-in-the-stacks
By Alex Weaver, Reporter
It’s not snakes on a plane and it is a whole lot less a dramatic. ABAC hosted it’s second annual “Snakes in the Stacks.”  Dr. Vanessa Lane is an assistant wildlife professor. She has made it her mission to teach students that most snakes are safe. In ABAC’s library, she hosted an educational talk that allowed students and the general public to ask questions. Some even conquered their fear of touching or holding a snake.

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Anxiety on the Rise
Survey of campus counseling centers finds increased demand for services, as well as additional positions and more diversity in hiring.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/29/anxiety-and-depression-are-primary-concerns-students-seeking-counseling-services
By Emily Tate
More than half of the college students who visited their campus counseling centers during the 2015-16 academic year reported symptoms of anxiety, according to a survey by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors.
This marks the seventh year in a row that anxiety has been the top complaint among students seeking mental health services. This year, 51 percent of students who visited a counseling center reported having anxiety, followed by depression (41 percent), relationship concerns (34 percent) and suicidal ideation (20.5 percent). Many students reported experiencing multiple conditions at once. Since 2009, when anxiety overtook depression as the No. 1 concern among college students, the number of students experiencing anxiety has steadily increased.

www.nytimes.com
Fix the College Dropout Boom

David Leonhardt
The college dropout phenomenon exacts a terrible price on American society. More than 25 percent of people in their 30s who have attended college at some point have no degree — neither a community-college degree nor a bachelor’s degree. They fare vastly worse in the job market than their counterparts who do graduate (despite all the overwrought commentary claiming that education is overrated). A typical college graduate working full-time earns 54 percent more than a full-time worker who attended some college but has no degree. And that statistic understates the gap, because college graduates are also much more likely to have full-time jobs. So how can the United States help more college students finish what they started? That question is the subject of a two-part Fixes column, by Tina Rosenberg, that she has just finished. Her first installment looked at the importance of small infusions of cash to lower-income students. Her latest piece examines the upside of inflexibility:

www.insidehighered.com
Degrees Lead on Wages
Associate degrees can lead to far greater wage earnings than certificates, a new report shows.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/29/wages-earnings-increase-significantly-associate-degree-holders?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=094f010213-DNU20170329&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-094f010213-197515277&mc_cid=094f010213&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Ashley A. Smith
While some states and colleges are focused on boosting certificates as a way to increase work force development, associate degrees continue to increase graduates’ earnings more than shorter-term credentials.
A new paper from the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment at the Community College Research Center, at Teachers College of Columbia University, found that women on average receive a boost of about $7,200 a year for an associate degree, about 26 percent more than the earnings of women who have some college but no degree. For men, the earnings premium is about $4,600, 18 percent more than men with some college and no degree. The earnings gains and the time frame for when they appear for both men and women vary depending on the career.

www.insidehighered.com
Alumni Power in Statehouses
Each additional legislator who has attended public college in a state is worth about $3.5 million in state funding for higher ed, study says.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/29/study-finds-connection-between-alumni-legislators-and-public-higher-ed-funding?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=094f010213-DNU20170329&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-094f010213-197515277&mc_cid=094f010213&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Rick Seltzer
It pays to have friends in high places — and for public colleges and universities, it pays to have alumni in state legislatures. A new study from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business found a positive relationship between state funding levels for higher education and the share of legislators who attended the public colleges and universities in their states. In other words, legislatures where more lawmakers have ties to in-state colleges and universities provide more funding to those public institutions. In fact, every legislator who has attended an in-state public college or university is associated with an additional $3.5 million in funding, according to the study’s authors.

www.insidehighered.com
White House Calls for More Cuts to Pell
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/03/29/white-house-calls-more-cuts-pell?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=094f010213-DNU20170329&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-094f010213-197515277&mc_cid=094f010213&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Paul Fain
The Trump administration has called on the U.S. Congress to cut $3 billion from the U.S. Department of Education’s budget as part of $18 billion in new proposed cuts to social programs for the current fiscal year, according to news reports. The White House previously called for a $9.2 billion (or 13.5 percent) cut to the department for next year.
The new round of slashing would include a $1.3 billion reduction to the Pell Grant program’s $10.6 billion surplus, according to Politico, which would be followed by a proposed cut of $3.9 billion next year.
Some congressional sources told Politico that it is too late in the budget process to follow through on Trump’s requested slashing for this fiscal year.
Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and ranking member on the Senate’s education committee, called the new White House proposals “absurd” and “absolute nonstarters” for her party.

www.chronicle.com
Moody’s Calls Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts a Credit Negative for Higher Ed
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/moodys-calls-trumps-proposed-budget-cuts-a-credit-negative-for-higher-ed/117465?cid=wcontentlist_hp_latest
by Adam Harris
Steep cuts in research funding and the elimination of some programs in President Trump’s budget blueprint would be a credit negative for the higher-education sector, according to a report released on Tuesday by Moody’s Investors Service. In the “skinny budget” released this month, President Trump called for a $9-billion cut at the U.S. Department of Education, reductions at academic research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and the elimination of several programs aimed at helping low-income and minority students. “The budget proposal signals reductions as well as potentially large shifts in the administration’s research-funding priorities,” Susan Fitzgerald, an associate managing director at Moody’s, said in a news release.