University System News:
Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Voter records still open to hackers
http://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/Articles/2017/06/15/Georgia-vote-record-hack-6-15-17
By Frank Bajak, Associated Press
A security researcher disclosed a gaping security hole at the outfit that manages Georgia’s election technology, days before the state holds a closely watched congressional runoff vote on Tuesday. The security failure left the state’s 6.7 million voter records and other sensitive files exposed to hackers and may have been left unpatched for seven months. The revealed files might have allowed attackers to plant malware and possibly rig votes or wreak chaos with voter rolls during elections. Georgia is especially vulnerable to such disruption, as the entire state relies on antiquated touchscreen voting machines that provide no hardcopy record of votes, making it all but impossible to tell if anyone has manipulated the tallies.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia considers dropping its longtime elections data center
http://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/georgia-considers-dropping-its-longtime-elections-data-center/zA2qZd5u4paDjeRYnmeRPP/
Kristina Torres
The Kennesaw State University center that has helped run Georgia’s elections for the past 15 years may lose its contract in a matter of weeks because of concerns over security lapses that left 6.5 million voter records exposed.
USA Today
Wildfire pollution much worse than thought, study says
https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/06/15/study-wildfire-pollution-much-worse-than-thought/102882646/
Doyle Rice
Monstrous wildfires not only devastate communities and sometimes kill dozens each year in the U.S., but they also release a toxic brew of hazardous pollution, a new study found. That pollution, often in the form of microscopic specks known as aerosols, is “a hazard to human health, particularly to the lungs and heart,” said study lead author Greg Huey from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In fact, the study found that fires emit these fine particles — which are much smaller than a grain of sand or a human hair — into the air at a rate three times as high as standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Atlantic
Is This the End of the Crusade for Gender-Equal Curricula?
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/06/is-this-the-end-of-the-crusade-for-gender-equal-curricula/530493/
The book came in the mail without a jacket, its yellowed, crackling pages enveloped in stiff brown paper.
For Patricia Bell-Scott, it told a story that both eased her loneliness and changed the course of her life. This was the late 1960s, and Bell-Scott was among a handful of African American women undergraduate science majors on the recently desegregated University of Tennessee campus.
The Washington Post
GOP congressional candidate Handel ignored election integrity report, Georgia professor says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/06/14/gop-congressional-candidate-handel-ignored-election-integrity-report-georgia-professor-says/?utm_term=.f5092ced9d7e
David Weigel
Eleven years ago, after Karen Handel had been elected as Georgia’s first Republican secretary of state since Reconstruction, Richard DeMillo, head of the Office of Policy Analysis and Research at Georgia Tech, got a call about an important project. The state’s election system, updated with new machines, needed a hard look. “They said: Take a look at our processes, take a look at our technology, and give us your opinion,” DeMillo said. “I assigned some people from our Information Security Center to work on it.” In May 2008, the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and Office of Policy Analysis and Research released its report, “A Security Study of the Processes and Procedures Surrounding Electronic Voting in Georgia.” A number of potential problems came up, from the transportation of election machines by prison laborers to password protection of machines and poll-watcher training.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Student Evaluations of Professors That Might Help
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/16/aaup-discussion-centers-many-benefits-embracing-students-both-learners-and-teachers?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=89d9359eb2-DNU20170616&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-89d9359eb2-197515277&mc_cid=89d9359eb2&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Colleen Flaherty
The case for student evaluations of teaching is obvious: students are (hopefully) at each class session, with a front-row seat to the good, the bad and the ugly of instruction. They may also have clear goals about what they want from a course. Yet the validity of formal, end-of-semester teaching evaluations by students is politically fraught and empirically challenged: advocates say well-designed evaluations work, while opponents say most questionnaires reveal more about student biases than teaching. There are concerns, too, about how students’ evaluations should inform high-stakes personnel decisions about faculty members, such as tenure and promotion.
The Atlantic
Can Scientists Help End the Teacher Shortage?
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/06/can-scientists-help-end-the-teacher-shortage/529860/
CAROLYN JONES
Two years ago, LaTeira Haynes was working in a quiet laboratory at UC San Diego finishing up her doctorate in biomedical engineering. Now, she’s teaching a 9th-grade biology class in South Los Angeles that is so large she uses a microphone to be heard over the constant din of teenage chatter, rustling worksheets, and the zipping and unzipping of backpacks. But to her, there is no sweeter sound.