University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia Lt. Gov. candidate proposes locking in college tuition for incoming freshmen
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/georgia-gov-candidate-proposes-locking-college-tuition-for-incoming-freshmen/l8t8mJFBf9EbrzZRCeOMEP/
Eric Stirgus
A Republican candidate for lieutenant governor is proposing a plan to reduce costs for students at Georgia’s colleges and universities that includes locking in tuition for incoming freshmen. Tuition for incoming freshmen will be locked in as their per-credit cost for four years, said Rick Jeffares, a state senator from Henry County. He’s also proposing reducing costs for online classes and that core curriculum credits can be transferred between Georgia colleges and universities. Jeffares said in a statement his plan would preserve the HOPE Scholarship for future generations. “The existence of the HOPE Scholarship should not be an excuse for college tuition and fees to skyrocket year after year,” Jeffares said. “Not every kid gets HOPE and slower growth in costs protects us from HOPE cuts in the future.” Georgia had a “Fixed for Four” plan that began in 2006 to control tuition costs, Jeffares noted, but it ended in 2009. The state’s Board of Regents voted in April to raise tuition by 2 percent at 28 state colleges and universities.

www.thebrunswicknews.com
‘Move on When Ready’ program renamed ‘Dual Enrollment’
http://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/move-on-when-ready-program-renamed-dual-enrollment/article_8e7e3adb-76f7-5c33-9016-b0e782ad399d.html
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced earlier this month the state’s Move on When Ready program, which allows students to earn college credit while in high school, has a new name. The program will be rebranded as “Dual Enrollment,” according to a letter written by Deal to University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley on Aug. 3. “This change will make it clear to parents and students the opportunities this program affords, and will benefit the state in helping to further increase participation in the program moving forward,” Deal wrote. The number of students served in the program has more than doubled since fiscal year 2015, Deal said. …A growing number of Glynn County students are participating in the program at College of Coastal Georgia and at Coastal Pines Technical College. At CCGA, early numbers show that around 400 students are participating in dual enrollment this semester. In the fall of 2016, there were 308 students enrolled.

www.hbcudigest.com
Albany State Yields $289 Million in Economic Impact for Southwest Georgia in 2016
https://www.hbcudigest.com/albany-state-yields-289-million-in-economic-impact-for-southwest-georgia-in-2016/
A new study released Aug. 21 by the University System of Georgia showed the new Albany State University (ASU) had a $289 million economic impact on the Albany region in 2016. The total amount includes employment, as well as direct and indirect spending. The university’s annual economic impact increased by $4 million, compared to the 2015 combined economic impact of ASU and the former Darton State College, prior to consolidation. Much of the university’s economic impact is attributed to student spending, personnel services and operating expenses. A breakdown of the dollars showed that the university employed 3,256 people for a total of $121 million in labor income for the region, as described by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. Student spending was valued at $140 million, with output for operating expenses at $41 million. The study reviewed data from both institutions from July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016. Area counties included in the study were Dougherty, Lee, Worth, Mitchell, Terrell, Colquitt, Baker, Sumter, Calhoun and Tift.

www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Georgia Gwinnett College touts $451 million impact on Gwinnett County’s economy
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/georgia-gwinnett-college-touts-million-impact-on-gwinnett-county-s/article_0be565dd-fe08-5d4d-8665-d42bc2eee7f0.html
By Curt Yeomans
Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into Gwinnett County because of Georgia Gwinnett College in fiscal year 2016 — and, no, that’s not the money spent by the state to operate the school. It’s the impact the school had on the county’s economy. The college announced on Tuesday that the University System of Georgia’s annual analysis of the economic impact its school have on their communities showed GGC’s impact totaled up to $451 million. That marks an increase of nearly $35 million from the year before, giving college officials reason on cheer. “GGC has become a catalyst for job creation in the county,” Georgia Gwinnett College President Stas Preczewski said in a statement. “Expanding our reach within the community we serve allows for positive and sustainable economic development.” …For some perspective, Georgia Gwinnett County employed 4,596 people. During the year that was looked at for the research, the college’s student spending impact was pegged at $238.7 million while operating expenses totaled $68.4 million and personnel services rang up to a total of nearly $144.6 million. Meanwhile, the school continues to grow, causing its officials to expect future growth in the college’s economic impact.

www.times-herald.com
Newnan enrollment up 32% at UWG
http://times-herald.com/news/2017/08/newnan-enrollment-up-32-at-uwg
By Walter Jones
Fall enrollment at the Newnan campus of the University of West Georgia soared by nearly one-third over last year, according to figures administrators released last week. The 979 students signed up for the 83 classes at the campus is 31.5 percent higher than the 744 in place last fall. The number is edging toward the school’s 1,000 interim goal.  “I’m so excited about the growth,” said Provost Michael Crafton. “The rate is fantastic.” The most popular majors are early childhood development, community health and sport management. The community health courses are new to Newnan and already well-attended, he told members of the university’s local advisory board Thursday. Nursing is also a popular major, with 159 students in the program and another 140 pre-nursing students taking core courses.

www.gpbnews.org
Composing An Eclipse Soundtrack For The Visually Impaired
http://gpbnews.org/post/composing-eclipse-soundtrack-visually-impaired
By Sam Whitehead
The video playing on Bruce Walker’s computer screen looks ordinary enough: a few fish flit around in a small aquarium. But the soundtrack is anything but normal. Tones pile up, sputter, and jump in random, atonal bursts… The piece is from Walker’s Accessible Aquarium Project: an effort to make places like aquariums, zoos, and science centers more engaging for the visually impaired. It’s one of the many projects Walker has created at Georgia Tech’s Sonification Lab, a joint effort of the university’s psychology and interactive computing departments. Sonification uses sound to convey information. In his lab, Walker and his team work on helping people who can’t see (i.e., the visually impaired) and can’t look (e.g., people using their eyes for tasks like driving) interact with the world around them. Recently, they’ve undertaken a project of astronomical proportions: a soundtrack for the upcoming solar eclipse. “Our hope was to try to take what’s happening between the sun and the moon and represent that in a way that allows a blind person to share in the experience,” Walker said.

www.insidehighered.com
‘Disrupt This!’
Georgia Tech professor discusses her book questioning the premises and promises of disruptive innovation in higher ed and urges professors to play a more vital role in deciding when, where and how to use technology.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/23/author-disrupt-discusses-role-technology-higher-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e7c2356f77-DNU20170823&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e7c2356f77-197515277&mc_cid=e7c2356f77&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Doug Lederman
Don’t let the subtitle of Disrupt This! — “MOOCs and the Promises of Technology” — fool you. Yes, massive open online courses have already come and (largely) gone as a phenomenon. So, you might ask, what can I possibly learn reading about a craze that has already been through the Gartner Hype Cycle? Because other trends have already followed, and more are certainly to come, says the author, Karen Head, an associate professor (and incoming associate chair) at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Media and Communication. Pick a buzzword — personalized learning, predictive analytics, competency-based education, adaptive learning — and you can find companies and pundits promoting it as the next big thing to transform higher education. And most of them can be summed up by the central keyword in the book’s title, the idea that colleges and universities are facing a giant wave of disruption that will, depending on one’s point of view, potentially save or destroy higher education. Head, who also directs Georgia Tech’s Communication Center, isn’t a Luddite, and Disrupt This! is not a screed against the use of technology in the teaching and learning process. It is, however, a warning about the “near-religious faith” that some institutions have in the promise of new technologies (fueled by Silicon Valley investment and the rhetoric of some high-profile futurists) and an appeal to professors to play a more central role in when and how their institutions bring technology into the learning process. In the exchange below, Head answered questions via email about Disrupt This! and its lessons for faculty members and administrators alike.

Higher Education News:
www.news.wabe.org
Report: States Should Restore Funding To Public Colleges And Universities
http://news.wabe.org/post/report-states-should-restore-funding-public-colleges-and-universities
By Martha Dalton
Most states, including Georgia, have cut funding to public colleges and universities since the recession. As a result, many schools have had to raise tuition rates. Now, a new report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says fewer students will be able to go to college if states don’t stop the trend. According to the study, tuition at Georgia’s public schools has increased 75 percent since 2008. (Adjusted for inflation.) In January, lawmakers asked University System Chancellor Steve Wrigley about Georgia’s rising tuition. He said officials have tried to keep cost increases low. “Tuition in Georgia, compared to peer states, I think is 24-25 percent less,” Wrigley said, referencing a state audit. Michael Mitchell, who co-authored the CBPP report, said Georgia didn’t cut per-pupil funding as much as some states did.

www.chronicle.com
How to Make Orientation Stick
Colleges try to ensure that crucial lessons on sex assault, racial diversity, and other issues take hold.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-New-Improved-Orientation/240978?cid=cp139
By Kathryn Masterson
…So how do colleges make sure those messages — many crucial to a student’s safety and academic success — sink in? A mix of techniques and program formats are called upon. Orientations can vary as much as colleges and universities do, and what works on one campus can fall flat at another. What colleges have had success with, say administrators who run orientations, are programs led by students themselves, tailored to the specific student body, and lasting over a longer period of time than a few days. …At Oregon, the orientation period stretches over a six-week period the university calls “the starting block.” Other colleges extend orientation a few months, a semester, or even a year through classes and programs called first-year experiences. “We see great success with extended orientations,” says Joyce Holl, executive director of NODA, the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. According to a 2017 member survey that asked what kind of orientation programs colleges offered, 29 percent of respondents had some form of extended orientation or camp. At Oregon, part of the extended orientation is a program aimed at sexual-assault prevention, called Get Explicit. It’s led by three students and focuses on consent and healthy boundaries in relationship. It follows a skit shown at the university’s two-day summer orientation for new students called “It Can’t Be Rape,” which covers situations that might otherwise be dismissed as misunderstandings. .

www.chronicle.com
Colleges Go Online to Help Orient Nontraditional Students
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Go-Online-to-Help/240979?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=e45c9685f7d344179c32bc152997f4bc&elq=3095c90ba18a4153b3740926f4c4bbaf&elqaid=15264&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6512
By Kathryn Masterson
As the number of nontraditional students grows, colleges may find that the usual in-person orientation programs don’t always work. More colleges are creating online orientations for these students, says Joyce Holl, executive director of NODA, the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. California State University-East Bay is one of those institutions. It has developed an online orientation for transfer students, who tend to be older and have more family or work responsibilities. The university also offers an in-person, three-quarter-day orientation for transfer students. But many students have said it is difficult to take the time for that, says My-Lan Huynh, assistant director of student life and leadership programs. Now they can choose the online option.

www.theatlantic.com
Why Universities Are Phasing Out Luxury Dorms
In recent decades higher-education institutions have tried to lure students with extravagant amenities, but some are finding that these attempts can actually threaten enrollment and retention.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/why-universities-are-phasing-out-luxury-dorms/537492/
Jeffrey Selingo
…By the turn of this century, colleges had an increasing appetite for campus luxuries. A surge of students from the millennial generation were graduating from high schools nationwide, and many colleges found the simplest way to compete for attention in a crowded market was to build fancier facilities. Construction cranes became ubiquitous on campuses, and often the most high-profile projects involved student amenities—rock-climbing walls in recreation centers, swanky student unions with first-rate food services, and luxury “residence halls” with private bathrooms—usually financed by borrowing. Between 2001 and 2012, the amount of debt taken on by colleges rose 88 percent, to $307 billion.

www.insidehighered.com
White House Rejects Calls to Delay HBCU Event
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/08/23/white-house-rejects-calls-delay-hbcu-event?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e7c2356f77-DNU20170823&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e7c2356f77-197515277&mc_cid=e7c2356f77&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Andrew Kreighbaum
The White House will go ahead with the planned schedule for its annual HBCU conference next month, despite calls over the last week to postpone the event and warnings that some leaders of historically black colleges would no longer attend. Those calls appeared to reflect ongoing frustrations with the administration’s approach to historically black colleges as well as concerns that the White House response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va., would distract from the conference.