University System News:
www.hechingerreport.org
DEBT WITHOUT DEGREE: Students drown in debt despite a $524 million state surplus
“It’s just sitting there,” as thousands of Georgia students drop out with loan debt

DEBT WITHOUT DEGREE: Students drown in debt despite a $524 million state surplus

by Meredith Kolodner  and  Sarah Butrymowicz
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.insidehighered.com
Could Georgia Tech Use Online to Shave Time Off Bachelor’s Degrees?
University uses model from closely observed master’s in computer science on undergraduates for first time, finds notable success and sees path to shaving a year or more off in-person instruction.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/07/georgia-tech-plans-extension-undergraduate-online-computer
By Mark Lieberman
Georgia Institute of Technology’s online, MOOC-inspired master’s degree in computer science has many educators watching closely. This spring, the university tried a similar approach for undergraduates and found it so successful that it’s continuing along a path to shave off up to a year and a half of in-person instruction for students pursuing a bachelor’s degree. Fifty-nine students enrolled in the experimental Intro to Computing online course this spring, while approximately 350 students took the course in person. The university found no significant difference in grades or accumulated knowledge, based on test scores, between students in the two course models, according to a report compiled by the online course’s instructor, David Joyner, a lecturer at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing who also teaches several courses in the university’s online computer science master’s program … Galil maintains that the institution has no plans to establish a full online degree program in computer science; the residential college experience is too precious to sacrifice, he said.

www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Four classes every college student should take
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2017/08/06/four-classes-every-college-student-should-take/
Here is another provocative piece by AJC intern Martha Michael, a recent University of Georgia graduate with a degree in journalism and minors in political science and Spanish … In this piece, she cites four courses colleges ought to mandate for all students, including computer coding and personal finance … Computer Science – Basic coding skills should no longer been viewed as an accessory, but a crucial skill in today’s job market. Technology is integrated into nearly everything we do – even resumes have turned into online portfolios. In the Internet Age, knowing how to build and run a website, create graphics, model data and quickly adapt to a variety of software is useful in any work environment. So why wouldn’t we require a class that teaches us more about tools we are already using? Providing all students a hands-on opportunity to engage with the basics of computer science will give them solid technological footing on top of whatever else they’re studying. (Note: Although I’m a die-hard Dawg fan, this is one situation where Georgia Tech has us beat: They already require students to take Introduction to Computing.)

www.accesswdun.com
University of North Georgia-administered grant aimed at changing lives in Gilmer County
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/8/566357/university-of-north-georgia-administered-grant-aimed-at-changing-lives-in-gilmer-county
By AccessWDUN staff
The University of North Georgia and Gilmer County Charter Schools believe the university’s Upward Bound program will change lives in Gilmer County. It is change in the form of an academic lifeline, for students who previously could only imagine an education beyond high school. In addition to creating opportunity for students, area leaders believe it will strengthen the community’s workforce and economy.  “The University of North Georgia began a Regional Education and Economic Development – REED – initiative a couple of years ago to increase educational attainment and help strengthen our community and regional economies,” UNG President Bonita Jacobs said at the July 27 signing event for the program. “In alignment with our goals, the Upward Bound program will open doors to college and career opportunities by providing a path to high school graduation and college access for first-generation students in Gilmer County.”

www.onlineathens.com
UGA law school clinic to help veterans
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-08-05/uga-law-school-clinic-help-veterans?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=8c2c3d4cab-eGaMorning-8_7_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-8c2c3d4cab-86731974&mc_cid=8c2c3d4cab&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Lee Shearer
The University of Georgia School of Law plans to launch a clinic devoted to the legal needs of veterans, especially those who received denials or deferrals for veteran benefits. A lead gift from Columbus plaintiff’s lawyer James E. Butler Jr. will partially fund the clinic, with help from Butler’s law partner, Joel Wooten, and three other Columbus lawyers — Kenneth Henson Jr., Sanders Griffith II and Pete Robinson. All but Robinson are UGA Law graduates; Robinson graduated from Mercer University’s law school. …The Veterans Legal Services Clinic will provide first-rate service training for UGA law students, as well as providing much-needed services to veterans and lawyers who represent veterans, according to UGA School of Law Dean Bo Rutledge.

www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech asks state to approve financing for $62M Cobb County campus
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/08/07/georgia-tech-asks-state-to-approve-financing-for.html
David Allison Editor Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech is asking the state to approve a nearly $63 million financing plan for a big expansion in Cobb County. In a proposal scheduled to be voted on by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia at its Aug. 8 meeting, Georgia Tech will use lease revenue bond financing to acquire and renovate a portion of the Lockheed South Campus in Marietta with a total project cost of about $62.8 million. In 2016, Georgia Tech entered a contract with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) to buy four buildings and 52 acres on the aerospace giant’s south campus in Marietta. The facilities once housed operations for the F-22 Raptor program, which was ceased in 2013. Under the proposal before the Board of Regents on Aug. 8, GT Real Estate Services, LLC, an affiliate of Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV), would purchase approximately 32 acres of property on the northern portion of the 52-acre Lockheed South Campus, adjacent to Dobbins Air Force Base and the existing Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Cobb County campus. The improvements include 755,000 square feet of office, high bay, and warehouse space in four buildings and associated roadways and parking lots.

www.bizjournals.com
‘Living Building’ at Georgia Tech to be named for Atlanta foundation
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/08/07/living-building-at-georgia-tech-to-be-named-for.html
David Allison Editor Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech is proposing to name its new “Living Building” as “The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design” in recognition of the generosity of The Kendeda Fund, the family foundation which gave Tech $25 million in 2015 to design and build the facility. The naming proposal is scheduled to be voted on by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia at its Aug. 8 meeting. The 42,000-square foot facility, which will be built on Tech’s campus, is currently in the design phase. The building is anticipated to be the most environmentally advanced research and educational building ever constructed in the Southeast.

www.savannahnow.com
Savannah State’s marine scientists start school year with new facility
Better labs, dock will aid students’ trips to sea, nearby rivers
http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-08-06/savannah-state-s-marine-scientists-start-school-year-new-facility
By Dash Coleman
As the skiff moved down the Herb River in late June, college students pointed toward the sky and to trees along the edge of the marsh, calling out the names of animals they spotted. Herons and egrets made appearances. When the boat made it into the larger Wilmington River, the occasional dolphin could be seen, and an osprey swooped with precision to pluck a fish from the water. The students, all affiliated with Savannah State University’s Marine and Environmental Sciences Department, were on a mission to document predator and prey animals in and around the rivers’ confluence. They didn’t rely solely on their eyes. A professor used a laptop to pull up acoustic survey results showing life below the surface. The trip was one of many Savannah State’s marine researchers conduct throughout the year. And starting in the fall semester, the growing program will have a new research facility and a better dock for its boats.

www.ajc.com
Will Georgia make a play for a Toyota-Mazda factory?
http://www.ajc.com/business/will-georgia-make-play-for-toyota-mazda-factory/nE8UsLiL4FiNzvOF6MZpWI/
Scott Trubey The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Toyota and Mazda on Friday announced a joint venture to build a new factory in the United States, a move sure to trigger a bidding war among job-hungry states. The companies did not name a location for the new facility, but they said the $1.6 billion complex would employ 4,000. A number of car companies — particularly ones from overseas — have picked Sun Belt states for new car plants. Economic development experts told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Southern states, including Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina are likely to be among the leading competitors for the factory … Georgia and South Carolina, with Georgia Tech and Clemson University, respectively, are leaders in research for connected car technology, Boyd said, and Atlanta boasts a globally-connected airport. “The center of gravity for the auto industry is in the Southeast,” he said. “All the usual suspects are in the running for this factory.”

www.ajc.com
Georgia State’s video board will be eighth largest in college football
http://www.ajc.com/sports/college/georgia-state-video-board-will-eighth-largest-college-football/AZOCDKqzHAW0lTQLfrlkbJ/
When the 2017 college football season kicks off this month, the Panthers will open Georgia State Stadium with one of the biggest video boards in the game. The 71-foot-by-79-foot screen was installed in 2005 by the Atlanta Braves in what was known as Turner Field. What was once the world’s largest outdoor high-definition display will ONLY be the eighth largest in college football.

www.albanyherald.com
Albany has a deadly week with murder, possible hit and run
Albany law enforcement officials investigate deaths
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/local/albany-has-a-deadly-week-with-murder-possible-hit-and/article_d9b383b1-d6fb-51c0-82f6-ad6b50bfcab1.html#utm_source=albanyherald.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1501934416&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
By Jon Gosa
This past week proved to be a deadly one in Albany as law enforcement officials continue to investigate Thursday’s shooting death of an Albany State University graduate student at Shoreham Apartments and Friday’s “fatality wreck” that took the life of a 22-year-old woman on Moultrie Road. According to the Albany Police Department, officers responded after reports of gunshots were called in early Thursday morning. When officers arrived, they found ASU student Ashley Boggs, 28, of Savannah, slumped over the steering wheel of her car at Shoreham Apartments on the 2200 block of Champaigne Lane shortly after midnight. …Boggs was transported to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, where she was later pronounced deceased. After performing an examination, Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler said, “There were approximately six gunshot wounds to Boggs’ body.” …So far, no suspects have been named and the investigation is continuing.

www.onlineathens.com
SBDC: 40 years of helping small businesses
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/business/2017-08-04/sbdc-40-years-helping-small-businesses?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=8c2c3d4cab-eGaMorning-8_7_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-8c2c3d4cab-86731974&mc_cid=8c2c3d4cab&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Red Denty
The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center is celebrating 40 years of service to small businesses in the state. Modeled after agricultural cooperative extension programs, the SBDC began as a pilot program in the 1970s among eight American universities, including UGA, and has since grown into a network of nearly 1,000 service centers at colleges across the country. “Small business is a big segment of the U.S. economy and they fail in high percentages,” said SBDC State Director Allan Adams. “We’re taking the educational resources of the university, and applying them to small business owners to turn their businesses into viable, thriving organizations.”

www.statesboroherald.com
Free screenings part of concussion research
Clark Medical, Parks & Rec help Georgia Southern with project
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/81071/
From staff reports
Researchers from Georgia Southern University’s School of Health and Kinesiology have teamed up with Statesboro-Bulloch County Parks and Recreation and Clark Medical Group to offer free concussion baseline and post-injury screenings to young athletes and others. …Nicholas Murray, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology, and Barry Munkasy, Ph.D., associate professor of kinesiology, are coordinating the screening effort as part of the university’s ongoing concussion research.

Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
Federal Sex-Assault Investigations Are Being Resolved More Often. These 11 Cases Show How.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Sex-Assault/240848?cid=wcontentgrid_hp_2
By Nick DeSantis
Since President Trump took office, one of the most closely watched issues in higher education has been his Education Department’s shifting approach to enforcement of campus sexual-assault policy. Candice E. Jackson, acting assistant secretary for the department’s Office for Civil Rights, directed her staff to sharply scale back the scope of sexual-violence investigations under the gender-equity law known as Title IX. Her instructions sought to cut down on a backlog of cases that the department said had “exploded” under President Barack Obama. Mr. Trump’s presidency is still young, but signs have emerged already that the department is delivering on that pledge. Sexual-violence investigations are still being opened at a rapid pace — this week, the department acknowledged six new ones, for a total of 350 active cases. But resolutions have grown more frequent, too, with two more announced this week. So far, 11 sexual-violence cases have been resolved in the Trump era. Here’s what we know about them:

www.washingtonpost.com
U.S. universities draw the brightest minds from across the world. Let’s stop sending them home after they graduate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/08/06/u-s-universities-draw-the-brightest-minds-from-across-the-world-lets-stop-sending-them-home-after-they-graduate/?utm_term=.6c9620e5e5c5
By Peter McPherson
In an era of divided politics, Americans across the political spectrum agree our immigration system is badly broken. Last week, the Trump administration backed new legislation that would aim to fix it by transitioning the United States to a skills-based immigration system. This approach falls far short of what is needed. Over a decade, the proposal would halve the number of legal immigrants admitted to the United States, including refugees seeking the freedom and opportunity that many of us take for granted. This isn’t consistent with our nation’s history or its needs. The legislation also fails to address the biggest problem with employment-based visas: There simply aren’t enough green cards available. If we’re going to tackle this problem, we have to increase the opportunities available to skilled immigrants who are vital to ensuring America’s workforce and businesses are the world’s most productive and competitive. (Piece by Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.)

www.nytimes.com
Affirmative Action Policies Evolve, Achieving Their Own Diversity

By VIVIAN YEE
Just a year ago, after the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions program by a single swing vote, the question seemed to be edging, at last, toward an answer: Colleges could, the justices ruled, consider race when deciding whom to let through their gates. “I thought this was settled,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, an economist at Georgetown University who studies affirmative action. “I thought it was done.” Only for the moment. A series of lawsuits and complaints have continued to challenge such practices, and last week, President Trump’s Justice Department joined the chorus, signaling that it would marshal lawyers to investigate and perhaps sue colleges over “intentional race-based discrimination” in admissions … But even without federal intervention, a look at affirmative action policies in 2017 shows that they have achieved their own kind of diversity, evolving from the explicitly race-based quotas of decades ago into a range of approaches that occasionally, not always, near the melting-pot ideal, often by giving preference to low-income students instead of minorities.

www.myajc.com
The real issue of college access isn’t race, it’s income
http://www.myajc.com/news/opinion/the-real-issue-college-access-isn-race-income/CU8UF52RQcHjIpngHO6cxH/
By Christine Emba – The Washington Post
The 200th day of Donald Trump’s presidency draws near, and his legislative failures have become all too apparent. What better time to change the conversation and re-energize the base? And what better way than by raising the lightning rod that is affirmative action? According to a memo leaked to the New York Times, the Trump administration is planning to redirect Justice Department resources to investigate and potentially sue colleges that use “intentional race-based discrimination” in admissions. The project was quickly understood to be targeting affirmative action policies that many on the right see as “discriminating” against white applicants – in particular, ones that might give black and Latino students an edge. This move comes despite the Supreme Court upholding the use of affirmative action to diversify campuses just last year. Justice Department officials attempted to play down the initiative after the story broke, stating that they planned to investigate a single complaint involving Asian American applicants, not whites. But it barely mattered. The message was sent.

www.bostonglobe.com
The majority of Harvard’s incoming class is nonwhite
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/02/harvard-incoming-class-majority-nonwhite/5yOoqrsQ4SePRRNFemuQ2M/story.html
By Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff
This article was updated on August 5. A correction is appended.
The majority of students accepted into the incoming freshman class at Harvard University are not white, the second year in a row an institution that prides itself on educating future presidents, CEOs, and world leaders has reached that milestone. But Harvard’s push to broaden the diversity of its student ranks comes as the Trump administration intensifies its focus on affirmative action policies and suggests it will investigate how colleges shape the racial makeup of their campuses. The US Justice Department is preparing to redirect resources from its civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, The New York Times reported this week. On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it had no broad plans to investigate whether college and university admissions programs discriminate against students based on race and that it was looking into a single complaint from a coalition of Asian-American groups filed in 2015. The coalition filed an administrative complaint against Harvard University, alleging that the school and other Ivy League institutions are using racial quotas that shut out high-scoring Asians.