University System News:
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia film chief: State’s No. 1 location ranking is “a big deal”
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/05/30/georgia-film-chief-states-no-1-film-location.html
Ellie Hensley
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia is now the No. 1 filming location worldwide, according to a study released last week by FilmL.A., and the head of the state’s film office didn’t see it coming. “We certainly know and you can see from Box Office Mojo that we have a a lot of the top grossing films right now,” said Lee Thomas, deputy commissioner of Georgia’s Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “But I didn’t know we’d blow everyone away.” FilmL.A. analyzed the top 100 grossing films at the U.S. box office in its study, and 17 of these were filmed in Georgia. The U.K. took the No. 2 spot with 16 films, followed by Canada (13), California (12), Louisiana (6) and New York (6). …
Georgia officials put on an annual “Georgia Night in L.A.” to make their case for why productions should come to the state to film, and this years event, held May 23, drew a larger crowd than ever before. …Thomas said the event, which was attended by Governor Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, helps reassure industry members that the state’s leaders are in it for the long haul when it comes to the film tax incentive and support for the industry. “We’ve seen a lot of people that have moved from other markets to live in Georgia, or at least have a second home in Georgia,” Thomas said. “I think it’s a big contender, and with all the sound stages we have now, we’ve got to keep up this level of business. We have a lot of people invested in this market.”
www.georgiatrend.com
Political Notes
http://www.georgiatrend.com/June-2017/Political-Notes/
By Susan Percy
Tuition Hike: The University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents voted to raise tuition by 2 percent at all 28 public colleges and universities for the 2017-2018 academic year. There was no increase for the 2016-2017 year. The USG said in a press release that tuition increases have averaged 2.2 percent annually over the last five years and that its schools rank sixth lowest in tuition and fees for four-year institutions among the 16 states that make up the Southern Regional Education Board. …The USG says the 2017-2018 tuition change will mean an increase of $27 to $98 per semester for a full-time instate undergraduate student.
www.wjcl.com
Graduates file complaints regarding SSU Social Work program
http://www.wjcl.com/article/graduates-file-complaints-regarding-ssu-social-work-program/9959082
Steven King
Reporter
Graduates of the Master of Social Work program at Savannah State University are raising concerns after they say their degrees turned out to be invalid and the program itself failed at times to teach students how to be social workers. Two graduates who received their degrees this month had a meeting with Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dr. Julius Scipio as well as Director of Graduate Studies Dr. Nat Hardy. Graduates say some of their core classes were labelled “special topics,” which made their transcripts invalid. “What we found when we reviewed those transcripts was that they had completed the coursework necessary to earn their degree. How those courses were numbered, the nomenclature is what we’re working on,” said Dr. Scipio. “I was pretty devastated. I put in a lot of hard work these last two years and I don’t have anything to show for it,” said Shaneka Riley, who graduated from the program in May. Crystal Harris says she brought this issue to the attention of university officials in the Fall of 2015 and nothing was done. …Harris says action needs to be taken against faculty and staff members responsible for these issues. Harris reached out to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia regarding these complaints, and officials at the Board of Regents told Harris they can only possibly take action after grievances are denied by the campus president. At this time, that has not happened.
www.mdjonline.com
Kennesaw State University marketing vice president Arlethia Perry-Johnson is elected chair of advisory council
http://www.mdjonline.com/news/education/kennesaw-state-university-marketing-vice-president-is-elected-chair-of/article_9b91a32a-464e-11e7-942e-3b5a4eb91d41.html
Staff reports
Arlethia Perry-Johnson, Kennesaw State University’s vice president for marketing, was recently elected chair of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Advisory Council for Communications and Public Affairs. The advisory council is composed of chief communications officers representing AASCU member institutions from throughout the United States. According to Susan Chilcott, AASCU’s vice president for communications, “One of AASCU’s purposes is ‘to promote broad public understanding of the essential role of public higher education in our society and of the specific responsibilities and contributions of AASCU institutions.’ A key strategic initiative in support of these purposes,” she said, “is to increase public awareness and understanding of the distinctive and diverse missions of AASCU institutions. The council provides advice in these areas. They also support our annual communications conference and the council chair is instrumental in selecting the conference chair and working with the planning group.” Perry-Johnson’s term in office is one year, and she may be re-elected for an additional year. …Before joining Kennesaw State, Perry-Johnson served for 11 years as the chief communications officer for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. She headed the board’s communications operation as associate vice chancellor for Media and Publications from February 1995 to October 2006. In 2002, Perry-Johnson assumed a leadership role as the founding project director for the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative. The initiative has become a national model for its work to increase the numbers of African-American males who enroll in and graduate from college within the USG. She continues to head the AAMI project for the University System, and has raised millions of dollars in external funding to support the program.
Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
Second Thoughts About Higher Education Decisions
Most former college students say they would change either their major, college attended or credential pursued if they could do it all over again, survey finds.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/01/survey-finds-regrets-among-most-former-college-students-belief-quality-their?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b2cb0d326a-DNU20170601&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b2cb0d326a-197515277&mc_cid=b2cb0d326a&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Paul Fain
A majority of Americans who attended college say they received a quality education. But half would change at least one of these three decisions if they could do it all over again: the type of degree they pursued or their choice of major or institution.
Those are among the key findings from a new annual survey conducted by Gallup and Strada Education Network, the former USA Funds. While 51 percent of the nearly 90,000 respondents said they would change one big decision, the most common regret was their choice of major, with 36 percent saying they wish they’d chosen differently. …Over all, 28 percent of respondents said they would choose a different institution, while 12 percent said they would pursue a different level of degree. The report said these findings suggest that people’s regrets about higher education are not driven entirely by their thoughts about the colleges they attended.
www.chronicle.com
To Counter Opioid Crisis, NIH Pushes Researchers to Invent More Drugs
http://www.chronicle.com/article/To-Counter-Opioid-Crisis-NIH/240219?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=3845192bb55c442bb28052cadfc79a7d&elq=ac9ee7105602414a9c65d5f1dc7a29bd&elqaid=14140&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5932
By Paul Basken
At a time when opioid abuse is killing tens of thousands of Americans a year, government-funded university scientists are now being asked to pursue a solution many of them find deeply misguided: Invent even more drugs. After private consultations with drug-industry leaders, National Institutes of Health directors proposed a strategy on Wednesday that centers on new medications and devices to manage pain and counter addictions. More than a dozen invited drug companies are eager to help, the NIH’s director, Francis S. Collins, said of his agency’s new opioid strategy. “They have all responded with a great deal of enthusiasm,” he said. But academic experts in opioid abuse are aghast, saying the NIH plan appears to greatly overemphasize the prospect of meaningful help from the drug companies — which the scientists blame for creating the crisis in the first place — to the near exclusion of nonpharmacological treatments, including lifestyle changes and economic development. …But the NIH plan, published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine and written by Dr. Collins and Nora D. Volkow, director of the drug-abuse institute, spoke almost exclusively of ideas for developing new drugs and devices to improve upon and replace opioids, to vaccinate against the effect of opioids, and to improve post-overdose treatment.
www.chronicle.com
What if the Treasury Dept. Handled Student Loans?
http://www.chronicle.com/article/What-if-the-Treasury-Dept/240218?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=d1ae726ff14f4a36b0756388f1ce48b2&elq=ac9ee7105602414a9c65d5f1dc7a29bd&elqaid=14140&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5932
By Adam Harris
The departure last week of James W. Runcie, who was chief operating officer of the Federal Student Aid office in the U.S. Education Department, sparked headlines — but one paragraph in his resignation letter flew relatively under the radar. Mr. Runcie wrote to his colleagues that senior managers in the office had met with officials in the U.S. Treasury Department to discuss “transferring all or a portion of FSA to Treasury.” The shift could provide “some value,” he said, “but it will certainly divert critical resources and increase operational risk in an increasingly challenging environment.”