University System News:
www.ajc.com
Student debt up as Georgia’s HOPE scholarships shrank
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/student-debt-georgia-hope-scholarships-shrank/4rwlsX9uKwto0cGR9pNNhI/
Christopher Quinn  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The HOPE scholarship funds that have helped thousands of Georgians go to college has piled up more than $1 billion in surpluses while the cost of college in Georgia rose. Between 2006 and 2015, college costs in Georgia increased 77 percent. The state must keep $500 million in the reserves to make sure the scholarship program can pay if another economic downturn occurs. But some are beginning to ask if the $500 million excess in the reserves ought to be spent. That could help Georgia students reduce loan debt. The average Georgia student now graduates with $27,754 in loans, one study group found. And some students, even with HOPE scholarships which cover on average about 65 percent of the cost of tuition, drop out because they cannot afford it.

www.myajc.com
$500M in HOPE reserves idle while students drop out, drown in loans
http://www.myajc.com/news/500m-hope-reserves-idle-while-students-drop-out-drown-loans/yyRVOvXi5xsYBuFBpxTk0I/
By Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner – The Hechinger Report in collaboration with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution    2
More than half a billion dollars in surplus lottery funds, meant for Georgia’s college students, is sitting unused in the state’s coffers even as many drop out of school, unable to afford to continue. Top lawmakers say the reserves guarantee the stability of the state’s hallmark aid program. But some question the need for holding such a large amount, arguing it could be better used to boost college completion rates and keep student debt down. Altogether, the state has more than $1 billion in reserves for the HOPE Scholarship and pre-K programs. Nearly $500 million is restricted to use only in the event of a funding shortfall. Beyond that, officials have quietly grown a second pot of reserve money from $160 million in 2011 to $524 million in 2016 that has no restrictions. The government could use it to give larger scholarships or grants to students in state universities, colleges and technical schools. As that fund grew, Georgia’s university system sustained significant budget cuts and pushed more of the cost of college onto families. That helped raise student debt to record levels, and thousands of students have dropped out because of their inability to pay.

www.athensceo.com
www.ajc.com
Cousins Foundation gives UGA $5 million for needs-based scholarships
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/cousins-foundation-gives-uga-million-for-needs-based-scholarships/knbLxXuSzP2vEaM5M5W2WP/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
Eric Stirgus
A prominent philanthropic organization has agreed to donate $5 million to the University of Georgia that will be used for needs-based scholarships and for its swim and diving coach position. The Cousins Foundation made the gift to UGA, the university announced Thursday. The money will be awarded to 24 service-minded students who demonstrate significant financial need. The four-year program will welcome six new students each year, with the first cohort beginning in fall 2019.

www.forbes.com
25 Top Public Colleges With The Highest-Earning Graduates
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinesimon/2017/08/02/25-top-public-colleges-with-the-highest-earning-graduates/#2bf8e86523e0
Caroline Simon,  Contributor
The Ivy gates of America’s oldest universities certainly have their appeal, but smart college consumers realize a variety of public colleges that can rival their exclusive counterparts — often at a much lower price. Tech and engineering majors round the ranks of careers that are both smart and affordable. Others, like military academies, offer low-cost or free tuition for students but also come with a caveat: “You still have to think about that service requirement and whether that’s something that’s going to be consistent with your objectives,” says Ian Fisher, director of educational counseling at College Coach. Forbes crunched the numbers to find which public colleges and universities — from history-steeped University of Virginia to sea-specific California State University Maritime Academy — graduate students with the highest mid-career salaries. If you’re aiming for a lucrative career that begins with an affordable education, these schools are a great place to start… No. 7: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA – Mid-Career Earnings: $112,000 – For students interested in science and engineering, Georgia Tech offers a full slate of nationally recognized academic programs, in addition to 12 interdisciplinary research institutes.

www.southeastproduceweekly.com
UGA, Clemson Among Schools Receiving USDA Pest Research Grants
https://southeastproduceweekly.com/2017/08/03/uga-clemson-among-schools-receiving-usda-pest-research-grants/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By SPW Staff
A University of Arizona researcher is seeking to better understand how the insect-killing nematode benefits from friendly bacteria to help develop tools to make nematodes more effective insect pest control agents. A Cornell University researcher is studying how encounters between insect pests and predatory insects dramatically lower the pests’ appetite for potatoes. Those are just two of the projects the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has provided funding for — now there’s a new round of money on the table for pest control research, including projects at Clemson and the University of Georgia, as well as a University of New Hampshire project to determine if pesticide seed treatments inadvertently protect weed seeds in the soil from being attacked by naturally occurring invertebrate and fungal species. …The 2017 grant recipients are: …University of Georgia Research Foundation, Athens, GA, $25,000

www.ajc.com
UGA investment in research and development grows to record $458 million
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/uga-investment-research-and-development-grows-record-458-million/KIowyrcvv9LprV8tdXrRbM/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
Eric Stirgus The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Investment in research and development by University of Georgia students and faculty is continuing to rise, officials say, to record levels. The fiscal year 2017 totals surpassed $458 million, the fourth consecutive year it has been at an all-time high, the university announced this week. UGA officials said they were pleased by the total, noting a decline in federal funding of higher education research and development.

Summer Successes: UGA Enrollment Reaches New High
http://athensceo.com/features/2017/08/summer-successes-uga-enrollment-reaches-new-high/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
Staff Report From Athens CEO
Whether on-campus, online or around the world, summer enrollment at the University of Georgia is on an upward trajectory. Total summer enrollment has risen for the third consecutive year and in 2017 reached a record 16,447. That figure is a 4 percent increase over last year’s record and a 22 percent increase over summer 2014. “Increasing summer enrollment is a critical part of our strategy to elevate student success and completion at the University of Georgia,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I am grateful to the vice president for instruction and his team-as well as the deans-for their leadership on this important institutional priority.” The year-over-year increases in summer enrollment are the result of a concerted effort involving several units across campus.

www.onlineathens.com
UGA off party school list for second consecutive year
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-08-03/uga-party-school-list-second-consecutive-year?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Lee Shearer
For the second consecutive year, the University of Georgia has failed to make Princeton Review’s list of top party schools. Just seven years ago, UGA topped the party list, and two years ago remained on the list at no. 8. That’s one ranking UGA administrators are happy to be absent from, but Georgia did make the charts in two other Princeton Review rankings, one of which administrators will like – “lots of hard liquor,” at no. 4, and “best alumni network,” at no. 20.

www.chronicle.com
Wait, Will Anyone Investigate Legacy Admissions?
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Wait-Will-Anyone-Investigate/240850?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=a78560189c-eGaMorning-8_4_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-a78560189c-86731974&mc_cid=a78560189c&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Eric Hoover
…Like most everything in the oft-reviled realm of admissions, questions about legacies are complicated. Sure, tales of millionaires and billionaires buying their children entrance to the Ivy League stoke outrage, and understandably so. Of course, most colleges have little in common with Harvard, and many legacies are solid students who don’t fly around on private jets. Even some advocates for underrepresented students say legacies are easy scapegoats for all the inequities in higher education. And colleges aren’t likely to stop coveting the offspring of alumni unless forced to do so, a prospect that, for better or worse, seems unlikely. Many selective public universities and private colleges have long considered an applicant’s legacy status as one of many factors in admission. Yet “legacy conscious” practices have received less scrutiny than race-conscious ones. …Fairness isn’t just a constitutional question for black-robed judges. Lawsuits aside, admissions officials have a moral responsibility to examine the consequences of their legacy preferences, says Liliana M. Garces, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Texas at Austin. “They should think of their legacy policy in way that’s conscious of their diversity goals. It requires a really serious look at how that might be undermining those goals.” …Rick Clark agrees. He regularly studies enrollment data to gauge whether his office’s consideration of legacies is “responsible.” Making sure that legacy and nonlegacy students who enroll are just about equally qualified (as measured by grades and test scores) is one way of doing that. “Without question, it’s valid to challenge the equity of it all,” he says. Mr. Clark is director of undergraduate admission at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where nearly one-fifth of this fall’s incoming freshmen are legacies. …Even so, a college could easily get carried away in justifying its consideration of legacies. At institutions that have long embraced that tradition, the prospect of abandoning it might seem as absurd as chopping down all the trees on the quad. Yet somehow institutions that have stopped considering legacies altogether (such as Texas A&M University and the University of Georgia) manage to survive, increase selectivity, and raise money for new dorms, libraries, and basketball arenas. Then again, going legacy-blind might hinder some institutions more than others.

www.edtechmagazine.com
Entrepreneurship Opportunities Give Students a Leg Up for Future Tech Careers
Programs that foster innovation and create startups allow students to develop business skills.
https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/08/entrepreneurship-opportunities-give-students-leg-future-tech-careers
By Meghan Bogardus Cortez
Colleges are often at the forefront for innovation, with diverse minds coming together to explore new ideas. This culture of untethered exploration is why University of California President Janet Napolitano declares that colleges are the perfect incubators for startups… Other universities have embraced entrepreneurship programs to pique the interest of millennial students who want to prepare for the job market. The Georgia Institute of Technology has opened an entrepreneurial lab designed for undergraduates to play around with their innovative ideas, CNBC reports. “The reality is most people at a university are generally the undergraduates,” says Keith McGreggor, the director of the college’s VentureLab. “New ideas could really come from anywhere. So to ignore the largest population of people on your campus is kind of a nutty idea, but we certainly did for a long time.”

Higher Education News:
www.insidehighered.com
What’s Next on Title IX
Universities and advocates instead hope the regulation-averse Trump administration releases new language clarifying existing guidelines. Education Department says it is weighing numerous proposals before shifting federal policy.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/08/04/little-appetite-rollback-obama-guidelines-campus-sexual-assault?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4e4eeeaab8-DNU20170804&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4e4eeeaab8-197515277&mc_cid=4e4eeeaab8&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Andrew Kreighbaum
Betsy DeVos, who plans to put her stamp on federal policy governing campus responses to sexual harassment and assault, is in the midst of an extended period of deliberation and gathering input on potential changes. But there’s little appetite from any corner for the Department of Education to completely rescind 2011 Obama administration guidelines that have been at the center of ongoing controversies over how the feds enforce civil rights violations involving gender discrimination. Instead, colleges and universities have asked for more clarity on areas of Title IX policy not addressed by the 2011 Dear Colleague letter or subsequent guidance documents. And representatives of accused students have pushed for more transparency in campus proceedings. From the perspective of advocates for sexual assault survivors, DeVos’s tenure at the department has so far been filled with setbacks. A leaked internal memo in June showed that Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Candice Jackson had instructed regional investigators not to automatically pursue systemic investigations of civil rights abuses. And the department has been noncommittal on whether it will maintain a public listing of campuses under investigation for Title IX violations.

www.insidehighered.com
Saying You’re Sorry
University presidents often seem to struggle to issue apologies in controversial cases, but some say they tend to have reason to be cautious.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/08/04/university-presidents-cant-always-be-quick-apologize-recent-cases-show?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4e4eeeaab8-DNU20170804&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4e4eeeaab8-197515277&mc_cid=4e4eeeaab8&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Rick Seltzer
For college and university presidents, the process of apologizing after high-profile missteps can seem to take as long as a tortoise walking a mile. As a result, the actions Wednesday of University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Howard Gillman stand out as noteworthy. Days after news broke that the university revoked admission offers from 499 students, Chancellor Howard Gillman issued a public statement offering a personal apology. The university would admit all accepted students except for those who dropped below its academic standards, he said. The relative speed and decisiveness with which Gillman acted raise the question of why more university presidents don’t step in so swiftly. Higher education’s recent history is littered with instances of leaders who seemingly hesitated to offer forceful apologies. Instead of pleasing the public by uttering two little words and a promise to fix things, such presidents have been seen as incompetent, stonewalling or hemming and hawing. For presidents, however, apologizing isn’t as simple as saying “I’m sorry.” At a complex institution like a college or university, a sincere apology can only come after a process of gathering information and weighing risks to the institution, according to experts who have been in crisis war rooms. That process is under strain in a world where rapid societal changes collide on college campuses and where students have a louder voice than ever because of social media.

www.bizjournals.com
New UC Davis chancellor from Atlanta wants a Tech Village for Sacramento
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/08/02/new-uc-davis-chancellor-from-atlanta-wants-a-tech.html
Victor A. Patton Reporter Sacramento Business Journal
New UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said establishing a center of innovation, technology and business in the Sacramento region will be among his goals during his tenure at the university. May, 53, spoke about those plans during a media meet-and-greet on Tuesday as part of his first day on the job, taking the leadership reins from Linda P.B. Katehi, who resigned last year after an investigation found she had violated university policies. May, who most recently was dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, told the Business Journal he envisions a location similar to Atlanta’s Technology Square, a 1.4 million-square-foot, mixed-use development that’s home to startups, technology companies, researchers and a variety of innovation industries. “I am envisioning something like that here. Maybe not a complete duplication because we have different situations and cultures, but I think that could be a real beneficial situation for UC Davis and Sacramento,” May said.

www.insidehighered.com
A Key (State) to Completion
California’s public colleges are partnering more with foundations to achieve completion goals, and while resistance among faculty members remains, the previously rocky relationship appears to have improved.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/08/04/california-embraces-completion-agenda-while-foundations-play-bigger-role?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4e4eeeaab8-DNU20170804&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4e4eeeaab8-197515277&mc_cid=4e4eeeaab8&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Ashley A. Smith
Foundations and reformers who want to increase the number of Americans with a college degree or certificate are turning to the state with the largest population of college-going adults — California. The state has become a testing ground for groups like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation to encourage the latest education innovations in an effort to improve college completion. But it wasn’t long ago that groups advocating for reforms were viewed as antithetical to a liberal education and kept a low profile in the state. The California Community College and California State University systems both have set high-achieving goals to raise completion rates in the next few years, and they’re welcoming reforms like guided pathways, accelerated remediation and incentives to get students through faster. The urgency to increase completion is driven, in part, by the fact that the state is facing a work force skills gap.