University System News:
www.myajc.com
Georgia Tech tries to return to normal after shooting, protest
http://www.myajc.com/news/crime–law/georgia-tech-tries-return-normal-after-shooting-protest/qzrkLfv2eZesWikV6kAHCO/
By Eric Stirgus and Alexis Stevens – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech administrators and student leaders scrambled Tuesday to respond to Monday’s campus vigil that turned into a violent protest that injured a campus police officer. Tech’s president, G.P. “Bud” Peterson, scrapped an appearance with Gov. Nathan Deal and Honeywell officials Tuesday morning to send a letter to students, faculty, employees and others accusing “outside agitators” of causing the problems. He said they purposely worked to roil the vigil for Scout Schultz, 21, a fourth-year student shot and killed late Saturday in a confrontation with campus police. …Flowers lay at the parking deck where Schultz, an engineering student and president of Tech’s Pride Alliance, was shot. The shooting and subsequent unrest remained the talk of the 25,000-student campus, along with upcoming exams. Many students walked the campus in business attire Tuesday for career day. Lawal, a transfer student from Kennesaw State, said many students were looking for the most appropriate way to express their grief. Most students she’s talked to believe Beck didn’t have to shoot Schultz.
www.myajc.com
Confrontation at Georgia Tech ended 1 life, changed another forever
http://www.myajc.com/news/confrontation-georgia-tech-ended-life-changed-another-forever/J5azFCj6vZhldskP8g9fyH/?ref=cbTopWidget
By Christian Boone – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One was just making his way in the world, 23 years old, fresh out of college. The other, two years younger, was only a few months shy of graduating and was already taking courses for a post-graduate degree.
Both were raised in Gwinnett County and chose careers aimed at helping others — one in law enforcement, the other designing biomedical devices. On Saturday night their paths intersected on the Georgia Tech campus. And in a split second, everything changed. The GBI on Tuesday released the name of the officer who fired the single gunshot that killed 21-year-old Scout Schultz. That officer, Tyler Beck, of Dacula, had joined the Tech police department in the spring of 2016. He had yet to undergo crisis intervention training designed to assist officers in dealing with mentally ill suspects.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Opinion: People too quick to assume police at fault in Georgia Tech shooting
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2017/09/19/opinion-people-too-quick-to-assume-police-at-fault-in-georgia-tech-shooting/
Rick Diguette is a local writer and retired college instructor who often writes about higher ed issues for this blog. Today, he raises concerns about the early news reports on the Georgia Tech shooting and how they may have shaped the narrative that police were at fault.
By Rick Diguette
On Saturday night, a man placed a 911 call to Georgia Tech campus police alerting them to “a suspicious person on campus,” and describing this person as a white male with long blond hair, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans and possibly armed with a knife or gun. Soon after campus police confronted a man fitting the description and ordered him to drop his weapon. He refused to comply, instead challenging them to “Shoot me!” Again he was ordered to drop his weapon and again he failed to comply. Eventually, as he advanced toward one of the officers, he was shot and killed. As everyone now knows that man was Scout Schultz, who, at the time of his death, was a 21-year-old student at Georgia Tech majoring in computer engineering. When the story broke, no one knew the 911 caller and the “suspicious person” were one and the same. Perhaps if that had been part of the initial narrative, the police wouldn’t have come in for so much instant criticism. Perhaps Scout Schultz’s bereaved father would not have asked the police “Why did you kill my son?” at his Monday news conference. And perhaps violence wouldn’t have erupted during an otherwise peaceful protest on the Georgia Tech campus last night. Perhaps.
www.ajc.com
Georgia Tech president: Unrest mainly caused by ‘outside agitators’
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/georgia-tech-president-unrest-mainly-caused-outside-agitators/2blvarTCiZOjW1B8ivmykN/
Eric Stirgus
Georgia Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson said “outside agitators” were mainly to blame for the unrest that took place on campus Monday night. Peterson said in a letter to students, faculty and alumni Tuesday that a vigil held for a student shot and killed a Tech police officer Saturday night was disrupted “by several dozen others intent on creating a disturbance and inciting violence. We believe many of them were not part of our Georgia Tech community, but rather outside agitators intent on disrupting the event.” Peterson added they did not honor the memory of the student who was killed, Scout Schultz, with their actions.
www.ajc.com
3 arrested during protest at Georgia Tech to make first court appearances
http://www.ajc.com/news/crime–law/arrested-during-protest-georgia-tech-make-first-court-appearances/M2v4CHmaLzCC2Dv0QvjXeJ/
Alexis Stevens The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The three people arrested during a protest on the Georgia Tech campus are expected to make their first court appearances Wednesday morning at the Fulton County jail. Vincent Castillenti, 31, of Decatur; Jacob Wilson, 22, of Atlanta, and Andrew Monden, 20, of Marietta, a Georgia Tech student, were arrested Monday night as a violent scene erupted. What began as a peaceful memorial to a student shot and killed by a campus officer evolved, fueled in part by outside protesters, Tech’s president, G.P. “Bud” Peterson said Tuesday. Castillenti was charged with felonies including aggravated assault on an officer, along with willful obstruction of an officer by use of threats or violence. Wilson was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault against a police officer, and three misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass. …Monden, who registered and is still listed by Georgia Tech as Cassandra Monden, jumped up and down on a police vehicle and attempted to smash the front windshield, according to an arrest warrant.
www.washingtonpost.com
Audio released of 911 call by Georgia Tech student killed by police
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/09/19/violence-erupts-at-georgia-tech-after-police-kill-student/?utm_term=.a3a0e9e1f3fd
By T. Rees Shapiro, Avi Selk, Wesley Lowery and Rachel Chason
A police cruiser was torched, protesters were arrested, and at least one Georgia Tech officer was evacuated by ambulance Monday night — just two days after a student was fatally shot by campus police outside a dormitory building. “The events of the past few days have been incredibly difficult and challenging for the entire Georgia Tech community,” G.P. “Bud” Peterson, president of the school, wrote in an open letter Tuesday that mourned Scout Schultz and blamed “outside agitators” for hijacking the student’s memorial. The evening began with candles and eulogies in memory of Schultz, 21, who identified as “nonbinary and intersex” — neither male nor female — and was known around campus for leading an equality group called Pride Alliance. Police said Schultz, who preferred the pronouns they and them, was suicidal and armed with a knife when police shot them. …Police released audio on Tuesday from a caller they identified as Schultz. “Hey, I’m over at West Village,” the caller told police, according to audio published by BuzzFeed News. “It looks like there is somebody like skulking around outside. It looks like he’s got, he’s got a knife in his hand. I think he might have a gun on his hip.” The caller described a man with long blond hair who was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. “It looks like he might be drunk or something.” Then the officer asked for the caller’s identity. “Uh, sure,” the caller said. “Scout Schultz.”
www.onlineathens.com
Officer who shot Ga Tech student had been on job 16 months
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-09-20/officer-who-shot-ga-tech-student-had-been-job-16-months
By Kate Brumback Associated Press
The officer who fatally shot a Georgia Tech student had been with the campus police department for about 16 months, according to state records. Officer Tyler Beck shot and killed Scout Schultz, 21, Saturday night after the fourth-year student called 911 to report an armed and possibly intoxicated suspicious person, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. Beck is on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Georgia Tech said on its website. Beck became an officer with the campus police department on May 21, 2016, according to records from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, or POST, which certifies law enforcement officers in Georgia. Georgia Tech has refused to release any personnel records for Beck.
See also:
Georgia Tech police officer who shot Scout Schultz wasn’t trained in crisis intervention; 911 call audio released
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/georgia-tech-police-officer-shot-scout-schultz-identified-article-1.3506558
www.11alive.com
Law enforcement expert on Georgia Tech shooting: Officer had no other choice
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/law-enforcement-expert-on-tech-shooting-officer-had-no-choice/476832808
Andy Pierrotti, WXIA
Law enforcement experts say the recent shooting death of a Georgia Tech student illustrates a problem called “suicide by cop.” It’s when a suspect initiates a threat with the sole purpose of forcing an officer to kill them. Vince Champion, the Southeast Director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, watched the video of a Georgia Tech police officer fatally shooting 21-year-old Scout Schultz, as he held a knife yelling, “Shoot me!” Champion firmly believes the officer had no choice but to shoot Schultz because he refused he stopped moving toward officers. “When you’re coming at you with a deadly weapon, the officer is going to take whatever needs to stop the threat and that’s what officers are trained,” Champion told 11Alive’s Andy Pierrotti via Skype. “We are not trained to kill. We are trained to stop the threat and if the threat is approaching to us, and they only way for us stop them is to fire our weapon…that’s what the officer did.”
www.savannahnow.com
Editorial: Tragedy at Georgia Tech
http://savannahnow.com/opinion/editorial/2017-09-19/editorial-tragedy-georgia-tech
All Georgians were disturbed by Saturday’s shooting of Georgia Tech student Scout Schultz by a campus police officer who apparently thought the young man was brandishing a knife in a threatening manner. Also troubling were the riots that broke out Monday on the campus in the heart of downtown Atlanta after what began as a peaceful vigil in memory of the slain student devolved into mayhem and the torching of a police cruiser. Two officers were injured. These awful events are not representative of Georgia Tech, one of the nation’s preeminent engineering schools with a deserved reputation for academic excellence. Indeed, Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson has said “outside agitators” were mainly to blame for Monday night’s unrest. Three people were arrested after the melee and charged with inciting a riot and battery of a police officer. At the same time. Tech students should be commended for trying to promote healing after these horrific incidents. For example, Phillip Yamin, an electrical engineering major in the class of 2019, has launched an online fundraising effort on Facebook to help campus police officers who may have been affected. As of Tuesday, the effort has raised about $2,000. …This shooting was a tragedy that could have been prevented. The consequences have caused considerable pain and hardship, but should also prompt actions that correct the potentially fatal lapse in mental health services so troubled individuals can get the help they need when they are suffering mental breakdowns.
www.bbc.com
Are US police too quick to shoot knife-wielding suspects?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41314562
By Joel Gunter
BBC News, Washington DC
On 17 November 2015, Sergeant Mickey White was driving home in his patrol car, his shift over, when a call went out about a man harassing customers at Jerry’s Country Meat and Catering, a local grocery store in Arlington, Georgia. The suspect was behaving oddly, said the employee who dialled 911, accosting people and singing a hymn – “Great is Thy Faithfulness” – as he walked up and down the aisles. Sgt White took the call. When he arrived, the man was outside sitting in his car, the door open and hazard lights on. He was Derry Eugene Touchtone, a 58-year old white man from Headland, just over the state border in Alabama. He was unarmed. As Sgt White pulled up behind Touchtone, the dashboard camera in his patrol car was recording. In the video, the officer can be heard telling Touchtone to leave the vehicle. Touchtone complies but then ignores repeated instructions to put his hands on the car. Instead he walks slowly out of shot, towards White, and begins to sing. Sgt White fires his Taser but it fails to stop Touchtone. Off camera, a tussle can be heard, followed by two gunshots. Thirty-five seconds after Sgt White had arrived, Touchtone was dead. …Two years later, and 200 miles north, another controversial police shooting in Georgia has raised questions over exactly what officers have to do to protect themselves against suspects who threaten them with fists, knives, bats or other non-firearm weapons. Scout Schultz, a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student who had battled depression, was reported to police on Sunday after being seen on campus with a knife. When officers arrived on scene, Schultz approached them holding the knife – in reality a multi-tool with a small blade, which a family lawyer says was closed. In an amateur video of the incident, Schultz can be heard saying “Shoot me!” while walking towards the officers. “Drop the knife, man, come on,” a police officer responds. “Nobody wants to hurt you,” another officer says. Schultz ignores repeated requests to drop the knife, then takes a few steps towards one of the officers. The officer opens fire, hitting Schultz in the chest. The student was transported to the Grady Memorial Hospital but died from the gunshot wound. …A series of highly publicised police shootings have drawn national attention to so-called officer-involved shootings, but the vast majority of police officers in the US still have little or no training in how to recognise and engage with a suspect suffering from a mental health crisis, or de-escalate a threat from a knife without resorting to a gun.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia Tech student: School must improve outreach and help for suicidal students
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2017/09/19/georgia-tech-student-university-must-improve-outreach-and-help-for-suicidal-students/
Duo-Wei Yang is a sophomore at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She majors in Computational Media (CM) and is a freelance reporter. She has written a thoughtful piece about how Georgia Tech ought to look at the resources and supports it offers troubled students. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans 15-24 and 25-34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2015 National College Health Assessment estimates 9.6 percent or nearly 2 million of the 20 million students attending U.S. colleges and universities experience suicidal thoughts, 1.6 percent (320,000) makes a suicide attempt, and 7.5 per 100,000 college students (1,500) die by suicide each year.
By Duo-Wei Yang
What unfolded Saturday evening was disturbing and horrifying. Thousands of us watched the video of the incident, and were left feeling unease and restlessness. However, the reason for Scout Schultz’s despair was not much of a surprise. Suicide is practically a norm here.
www.chronicle.com
At Georgia Tech, Tensions Over How to Mark a Student’s Killing by the Police
http://www.chronicle.com/article/At-Georgia-Tech-Tensions-Over/241240?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=db41837f800644a7beb5b9df803dd2ec&elq=8c668098fb0d4edaae2f74b91586c45c&elqaid=15679&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6729
By Sam Hoisington
Hundreds of people gathered on Monday night at the Georgia Institute of Technology to mourn a student who had been shot and killed by a campus police officer late Saturday night. Someone read a letter from a friend of the student, Scout Schultz. A choir sang “I’ll Be There,” by the Jackson 5. Assembled around a monument were Georgia Tech students and others in the area who knew of Scout Schultz’s activism. …But when the peaceful vigil ended, some attendees felt that the important issues surrounding Schultz’s death had not been addressed — issues that they felt would have been important to Schultz. “After the vigil, there were a few people, most of whom were Scout’s close friends, who expressed being upset with how the vigil was handled,” said Taylor Alexander, another Georgia State student who was at the vigil. “Scout was a very political person, and the vigil to them — and to a lot of people — it felt very sanitized and not in line with what Scout would’ve wanted.” Many people at the vigil said a public discussion of Scout’s death followed the ceremony.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
Gwinnett Georgia College waives application fee
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/gwinnett-georgia-college-waives-application-fee/article_fc0eb42c-5cd9-533b-afeb-3e1a0e451e0e.html
From Staff Reports
Georgia Gwinnett College is waiving the application fee for anybody who applies in the next week. GGC applicants usually need to pay a $20 fee before submitting an application. But that fee will be waived for applicants between Tuesday and Sept. 24. In order to apply, students must create an account at start.ggc.edu. “It’s a secure, convenient way to apply and provides access to the status of your application,” according to a GGC release. Applicants will be asked to complete an application, submit an immunization form signed by a physician and provide official proof of citizenship status.
www.connectsavannah.com
The New Georgia Southern: Frequently Asked Questions
How will Armstrong/Georgia Southern merger affect students?
https://www.connectsavannah.com/savannah/the-new-georgia-southern-frequently-asked-questions/Content?oid=5681604
By Rachael Flora
THIS PAST January, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted to consolidate two area universities, Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University. The decision was swift and made without input from either university’s population, leading to a lot of questions that have yet to be answered. Leaders from both communities have formed a committee to review and approve recommendations. The committee must present their work to the University System’s Board of Regents in December this year. If their work is approved, the implementation will be finalized in January 2018. Ga. Southern’s current president, Jaimie L. Hebert, will serve as the president of the new institution. How does this merger affect prospective and current students? Here’s what you need to know.
www.connectsavannah.com
Aquaponics at Armstrong
Students research the future of sustainable farming
https://www.connectsavannah.com/savannah/aquaponics-at-armstrong/Content?oid=5681564
By Jessica Leigh Lebos
THE ADAGE goes that if you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day; if you teach them how to fish, you feed them for a lifetime. If you create an affordable system that not only grows tasty fish but also a variety of fresh produce using no soil and a fraction of the water of traditional farming, you could feed generations. That’s the goal of the FORAM Sustainable Aquaponics Research Center (SARC) at Armstrong State University, a 4100-square-foot greenhouse on the north edge of the campus that contains four 900-gallon tanks swimming with tilapia and several “runways” bursting with Swiss chard, green onions and herbs. The air is swampy and smells of cilantro and basil, and the faint electrical hum can be heard throughout the clear domed building.
www.youtube.com
ABAC President Has High Expectations for School’s Future
David Bridges is in his 12th year as president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton. With a new school year underway, he shares his take on the university’s recent growth and his vision on how to make ABAC even stronger.
www.onlineathens.com
Ag commissioner: Irma caused severe crop damage in Georgia
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-09-19/ag-commissioner-irma-caused-severe-crop-damage-georgia?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=85e1260e87-eGaMorning-9_20_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-85e1260e87-86731974&mc_cid=85e1260e87&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Lee Shearer
Hurricane Irma inflicted severe damage on Georgia agriculture, although it’s not yet possible to tell the full extent. Hardest hit seem to be the cotton and pecan crops, according to Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. Black was touring northeast Georgia farms and plant nurseries with University of Georgia President Jere Morehead; Samuel Pardue, dean of UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and other officials on Tuesday.
www.wuga.org
New UGA Research Addressing the Issue of Hot Car Deaths
http://wuga.org/post/new-uga-research-addressing-issue-hot-car-deaths?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=85e1260e87-eGaMorning-9_20_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-85e1260e87-86731974&mc_cid=85e1260e87&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56#stream/0
By VICTORIA KNIGHT
Two University of Georgia researchers have found that new public health messaging could play a role in preventing hot car deaths. UGA doctoral student Castle Williams and professor Andrew Grundstein surveyed both parents and experts on the topic of hot car deaths. …Williams and Grundstein hope the results from this study can help public health researchers to craft better future messages about hot car deaths. 11 children died in hot cars across the U.S. in July 2017.
Higher Education News:
www.diverseeducation.com
Organizations Call for DeVos to Halt Student Loan Policy Changes
http://diverseeducation.com/article/101763/?utm_campaign=DIV1709%20DAILY%20NEWSLETTER%20SEP20&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
The regulatory changes being pursued by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in the student loan arena could “spell disaster for students of color who are too often exploited in consumer lending,” a group of 39 organizations said Tuesday in a letter to DeVos. “As it stands, the student loan servicing industry too often fails borrowers of color,” states the letter, sent on letterhead of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and signed by a diverse array of organizations including the NAACP, Urban League and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, or HACU. “Unfortunately, the changes recently announced by the Department of Education would exacerbate inequalities, making the already unfair and ineffective student loan servicing system even more harmful to all students and families seeking higher education,” the letter states. The letter documents and laments a series of changes that DeVos has sought or implemented in recent months — including the delay and renegotiating of the gainful employment and borrower defense rules meant to hold for-profit colleges accountable for employment outcomes and to give relief to defrauded student loan borrowers. It also criticizes the rescission of a series of Obama-era memos and the revising of regulations meant to hold loan service providers more accountable. Those regulations also were designed to provide services and information in Spanish and information about repayment options. With nearly three dozen hyperlinked footnotes, the letter stands out for the painstaking efforts its authors took to delineate the various economic disparities that student loan borrowers face along racial and ethnic lines.
www.chronicle.com
How Generations X, Y, and Z May Change the Academic Workplace
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Generations-X-YZ-/241185?cid=wsinglestory_hp_1a
By Sarah Brown
When it comes to today’s students and how they use technology, Ajay Nair always feels a step behind.
Take Snapchat, says Mr. Nair, senior vice president and dean of campus life at Emory University. Many students use the social-media app to take photos and videos — which disappear after 24 hours — of new friends, parties, all-nighters in the library, and other aspects of their college experience. For students, documenting their lives on the app is no big deal; it’s part of their routine. For Mr. Nair, a member of Generation X, it isn’t. “Snapchat is not comfortable for me, so it’s hard to incorporate it into my daily practice,” he says. Sometimes younger staff members in his office — millennials, who are sometimes labeled Generation Y — are better able to bridge communication gaps with the next generation, he adds. Colleges are starting to play host to that new cohort of students: the smartphone-wielding, social-media-addicted, financially conscious, emotionally sensitive members of Generation Z. Collectively, along with Generations X and Y, they will make up the faculty members and administrators of the not-too-distant future.
www.diverseeducation.com
Report: Higher Ed Must Factor In Growing Single Mother Student Population
http://diverseeducation.com/article/101758/?utm_campaign=DIV1709%20DAILY%20NEWSLETTER%20SEP20&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
by Catherine Morris
Two-parent households are dwindling in the United States, with four out of 10 children being born to a single mother, according to a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Between 1999 and 2012, the number of single mothers attending college has nearly doubled. “Because single mothers are a growing share of the population, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a growing share of college students raising kids alone,” said Dr. Barbara Gault, the IWPR executive director. “Single mothers’ economic situation requires that they maximize their human capital so that they can earn a living wage and support their families. College is a great way to do that.” Nearly 2.1 million students, or 11 percent of all undergraduates, are single mothers, the majority of whom are women of color.. …At the federal level, funding for the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS) program, which helps thousands of low-income parents in college afford childcare while in college, was threatened earlier this year. Budgets from the White House and the House of Representatives would have eliminated funding for CCAMPIS altogether, but the program was restored to $15 million in the Senate budget. “I think we need to dramatically increase access to childcare for single mothers in college,” Gault said. “While campus childcare programs are a small fraction of the need, we should certainly be trying to preserve those that exist.”
www.nytimes.com
Who Gets to Define Campus Rape?
Miriam Gleckman-Krut and Nicole Bedera
Who should have the right to define rape: survivors who have experienced sexual violence or those who are accused of perpetrating it? That is the core question raised by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s decision this month to replace Obama-era guidelines on how universities handle sexual misconduct complaints. In a strongly worded speech, Ms. DeVos made clear that she believed the previous administration had used “intimidation and coercion” to force colleges to adopt disciplinary procedures that deprived accused students of their rights. To come to these conclusions, Ms. DeVos and her staff appear to have given special consideration to the concerns of men accused of sexual assault. After one hearing about campus rape policies, Candice Jackson, the top civil rights official in the Department of Education, said, “The accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk, we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.’” …The ramifications of sexual assault are severe. Especially when they don’t receive services, survivors often experience post-traumatic stress, depression and suicidal ideation. They are at a higher risk of chronic health conditions, future sexual victimization and lowered academic achievement. Though they vary, the approximations of how many women have been sexually assaulted in college are always high. That should be the education secretary’s biggest concern.
www.nytimes.com
Cornell Fraternity Closes Indefinitely After Racially Charged Attack
By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
The alumni board of a Cornell University fraternity has decided to close the school’s chapter indefinitely, the school said Tuesday, after students who may have been involved in the fraternity were accused of attacking a black student, beating him and calling him by a racial epithet. A Cornell undergraduate was arrested in connection with the episode and charged with third-degree assault. The Ithaca Police Department identified him on Tuesday as John Greenwood, 19. Mr. Greenwood’s lawyer, Raymond M. Schlather, said in an email that his client was not “involved in any physical altercation of any kind.” “Nor did he commit any crime,” he added.
www.insidehighered.com
Online Abroad, and Beyond Title IX’s Reach?
Ruling in high-profile sexual harassment case suggests that foreign students in online courses have no recourse under Title IX.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/20/abroad-and-online-beyond-title-ix%E2%80%99s-reach
By Lindsay McKenzie
Online courses — and especially the special brand of massive open classes that emerged earlier this decade — have helped colleges expand their reach geographically as well as educationally; they are far likelier today than they were a decade or more ago to be educating students in, and from, other countries. An unfolding lawsuit shows that a key federal law may not be keeping up with that reality. The case in question may be familiar to Inside Higher Ed readers and fans of physics, because it involves the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus Walter Lewin, whose enigmatic teaching videos have millions of views on YouTube. However, no videos of Lewin remain on any official MIT platforms. They were removed after an internal investigation at MIT found that Lewin had sexually harassed one of his students online, and consequently his “For the Love of Physics” MOOC, and his emeritus title, were removed.