University System News:
www.ajc.com
Georgia college students being evacuated to other campuses as Irma approaches
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/georgia-college-students-being-evacuated-other-campuses-irma-approaches/Gskt6HQMqMRBy2J0ADM4hM/
Eric Stirgus
Three South Georgia campuses will be closed starting Friday as the region prepares for a potential strike from Hurricane Irma. Students from the College of Coastal Georgia, Armstrong State and Savannah State universities are being asked to evacuate the campuses. About undergraduate 15,000 students are enrolled in the three campuses. University System of Georgia officials are helping the students find housing at other campuses, such as Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Georgia College & State University and Columbus State University.

www.walb.com
ABAC opens its doors to GEMA staff
http://www.walb.com/story/36317544/abac-opens-doors-to-gema-staff
By Re-Essa Buckels, Reporter
TIFTON, GA (WALB) – Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has opened its doors to Georgia Emergency Management Agency staff.  Currently, the college is housing several staff members from GEMA’s re-entry team. These are officials with Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Transportation, and GEMA who will be staying on the campus over the next 36 hours. Initially, the college was going to bring in student evacuees from the College of Coastal Georgia, but, they are now going to stay at South Georgia College which has more housing available to accommodate the students. …More than 100 Georgia Power crews will also be using ABAC’s Museum of Agriculture parking lot as a staging area.

www.ajc.com
Hurricane Irma: Georgia school, event cancellations and closings
http://www.ajc.com/news/hurricane-irma-georgia-school-event-cancellations-and-closings/iEXd5JztXBZCZeCPpBZqLJ/
Janel Davis  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As Hurricane Irma continued its destructive path north, Georgia officials were canceling classes and postponing events ahead of the massive storm’s possible path along the state’s coast. Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in 30 counties, and ordered a mandatory evacuation beginning Saturday morning for all areas east of I-95, all of Chatham County and some areas west of I-95 that could be in the path of the potential storm surge. Here is a list of schools affected so far: Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton will be closed and classes canceled on Monday and Tuesday. Residence halls and dining operations will remain open. Valdosta State University has also canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday. The university’s Camden County campus closed at 6 p.m. Thursday and will resume operations on Wednesday, Sept. 13. The school’s residence halls will remain open and staffed.  Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville will be closed Saturday through Tuesday. Classes at its Macon and Warner Robins campuses will also be canceled. Only essential personnel should report to work.   The Savannah College of Art and Design pushed back the start of its fall semester for one week to Monday, Sept. 18 because of Hurricane Irma. SCAD began relocating students from its Savannah to Atlanta campus on Thursday. The school will be closed beginning Friday, Sept. 8 for the duration of the storm, according to its website. Georgia Southern University in Statesboro announced it was closing and canceling classes Friday, Sept. 8 through Tuesday of next week. Savannah State University began evacuating residential students on Thursday, and also canceled clases Friday through Tuesday. The campus will be closed beginning Saturday. Armstrong State Univeristy’s main campus in Savannah and the Armstrong Liberty Center in Hinesville will close at 5 p.m. Thursday. All residents students must leave campus by 9 a.m. on Friday. Classes there were also canceled Friday through Tuesday The College of Coastal Georgia canceled all classes at its Brunswick campus and Camden Center on Thursday. The college officially closes at 6 p.m. Thursday, and will remain closed through Tuesday.

www.statesboroherald.com
Irma shutters GS
Some students staying, some leaving
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/81592/
By JULIA FECHTER
Herald Intern
Students in the Russell Union at Georgia Southern University collectively cheered Thursday morning when they received an Eagle Alert canceling classes Friday through Tuesday due to Hurricane Irma. The university sent the email and phone alerts to students at 11:30 a.m. Residence halls on campus will stay open, but most university buildings will be closed through Tuesday. Also, the Dining Commons will be open each day from 8–9 a.m., 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–7 p.m. All other dining facilities at the university will be closed. Not surprisingly, many GS students said they were planning to leave after getting the notification that classes are cancelled Friday until Tuesday. “I live in Statesboro. … I’m already home, but I might be leaving a friend’s house outside of Statesboro. … I learned [from Hurricane Matthew] that don’t stay in Statesboro, and this is going to be stronger than Hurricane Matthew, so I’ll leave this time,” said Paul Allen, 19, of Statesboro. Other students decided to go home at the insistence of their parents.

www.dispatch.com
Ohio vacationers must decide: Flee Florida or wait it out
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170907/ohio-vacationers-must-decide-flee-florida-or-wait-it-out
By Bill Bush
By Marla Rose
When the Caleodis family’s plane touched down in Orlando last Friday for their trip to Disney World, nothing was on the radar but fun. But by Sunday, word started spreading that Tropical Storm Irma, still blustering around the mid-Atlantic, had been upgraded to a hurricane and might collide with their weeklong vacation. “It was kind of a long-range projection that it might come into Florida,” Andrea Caleodis, 37, an account manager for a Columbus-area firm who lives in Gahanna, said of the initial reports. “Nobody knew if it was going to make landfall.” But by Monday, when Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, Irma had the family’s full attention. The storm would grow into the most-powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic on Tuesday. And it was making a beeline for Florida, leaving devastation in its wake. …Emily Newell, 27, a Powell native, was one of those who abandoned a planned flight and drove to safer ground. She left Savannah, Georgia, at 4 a.m. Thursday and arrived at her parents home in Powell on Thursday afternoon with two cats in tow. She had been planning a trip here for the weekend anyway. She found “every rest stop packed with people,” and “Florida and Georgia plates all the way up to Virginia.” Gas stations in Savannah were running out of fuel when she left, said Newell, an assistant professor of sport management at Georgia Southern University.

www.times-herald.com
Hurricane donations accepted at St. Smyrna Baptist
http://times-herald.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-donations-accepted-at-st-smyrna-baptist
By THE NEWNAN TIMES-HERALD
Those affected by Hurricane Harvey will get a helping hand from many Cowetans, including the staff and congregation of St. Smyrna Baptist Church in Newnan. Donations are being gathered at St. Smyrna today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tamarkus T. Cook, pastor of St. Smyrna, said his church will send a tractor-trailer load of supplies to the historic St. John Baptist Church in downtown Houston. …The University of West Georgia is also helping with the drive, Cook said, and the truck will be loaded Sunday. Missionaries or volunteers are also needed to go to Houston to help with cleanup.

www.ajc.com
Four days, four federal grants for Kennesaw State
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/four-days-four-federal-grants-for-kennesaw-state/IFKCI4l3bWvZD3yl9SNx0J/
Eric Stirgus  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kennesaw State University may want to send the National Science Foundation a nice Christmas card this year. The federal agency awarded research grants to Kennesaw State on four consecutive days last month, a first for the Cobb County institution. The grants totaled nearly $840,000. “Surreal,” is how Jonathan McMurry, associate vice president for research and professor of chemistry, described it. The first grant, $118,840 …; The second grant, $160,453 …; The third grant, $390,940 …; The fourth grant, $169,496 …

www.athensceo.com
UGA Breaks Ground on Children’s Garden at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia
http://athensceo.com/news/2017/09/uga-breaks-ground-childrens-garden-state-botanical-garden-georgia/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=823439cf63-eGaMorning-9_8_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-823439cf63-86731974&mc_cid=823439cf63&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
Staff Report From Athens CEO
With the ceremonial turn of red and black spades, University of Georgia officials and dignitaries officially kicked off construction of the $5 million Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia on Sept. 1. The 2.5 acre, handicap-accessible educational environment will include a canopy walk in the trees, a treehouse, creature habitats, hands-on garden plots, an underground zone, edible landscapes, and a bog garden and pond. One component, an amphitheater in the woods, was completed in 2015. The garden is expected to be open to visitors by early 2019. “I want to thank all of the supporters who have donated to make this exciting project possible,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “Their contributions are creating not only a beautiful addition to the botanical garden but also a bridge to new partnerships and collaborations between the botanical garden, the University of Georgia and the Athens community.”

www.insidehighered.com
Is (Scaled) Online Learning an Engine for Diversity?
Underrepresented minorities and Georgia Tech’s online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMS CS) program.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/scaled-online-learning-engine-diversity
By Joshua Kim
A single factoid from a 9/5/17 PBS NewsHour story caught my attention: “Online, there are nearly twice as many of students of color than on campus.” The story was about Georgia Tech’s online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMS CS) program. This story is part of the NewsHour’s ReThinking College series.   According to Georgia Tech, the program had a spring 2017 enrollment of 4,515 students. Of these, 14.7 percent are underrepresented minorities, and 13.9 percent are women.  The online degree program is considerably larger than the residential program, with 212 students enrolled in the online computer science master’s program receiving their degrees, compared to 64 residential students. Let’s take a moment to think about this.

www.bizjournals.com
New start-up offers educational opportunities
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/feature/new-start-up-offers-educational-opportunities.html
H. Wayne Hodges
Until recently, innovation has been a solitary process. Technology changed that paradigm. With shorter product development and life cycles, companies must find more effective and faster ways to innovate and market new products. These demands have led to a new phenomenon called “open innovation,” where companies collaborate and cooperate with other firms, inventors and researchers to generate new ideas and to get new products marketed earlier. Atlanta has a successful innovation district formed around Georgia Tech; Technology Square has all the elements necessary for a successful innovation ecosystem. It includes public and private incubators and accelerators like ATDC and AT&T, engaged research and student communities, and a large cadre of technology and service-oriented companies. It also includes housing, amenities, transportation and strong professional education resources and facilities.

www.bizjournals.com
Dated Tech Park will transform into tech hub
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/feature/dated-tech-park-will-transform-into-tech-hub.html
Martin Sinderman, Contributing Writer
Work is underway to transform a famous but aging office park in Peachtree Corners into a center for business innovation. Technology Park Atlanta (nicknamed “Tech Park”) was established in 1968 as the office component of Peachtree Corners, the mixed-use planned community in Gwinnett County created by Atlanta real estate icon Paul Duke. With initial occupants that included General Electric, Hayes Microcomputer and Scientific Atlanta, the 500-acre park was intended to provide a venue for tech-based businesses and employ graduates of Georgia Tech. The park was successful in the 1970s through the mid-to-late 1990s, providing a best-of-genre Atlanta suburban office park environment in an era when that development type was highly popular.

www.times-georgian.com
Training UWG officers in campus security new chief’s first priority
http://www.times-georgian.com/news/local/training-uwg-officers-in-campus-security-new-chief-s-first/article_ead1944a-9379-11e7-8c05-2ff6fa7a4651.html
Erin McSwain/Times-Georgian
The University of West Georgia’s new police chief said his staff of officers are experienced, but it will take some time to work them into the campus law enforcement system.

Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
Citing Obama-Era Failures, DeVos Will Replace Landmark Directive on Sexual Assault
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Citing-Obama-Era-Failures/241117?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=a800255d2cc64254b7de8139c36b0a93&elq=9aa68738cd424b9196969ab3860045da&elqaid=15500&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6631
By Adam Harris and Eric Kelderman
The Education Department will begin the process of replacing a signature Obama-era piece of guidance that laid out expectations for colleges from the federal government on protecting students from sexual violence, Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, announced on Thursday during a speech at George Mason University. “The system established by the prior administration has failed too many students,” Ms. DeVos said. “Survivors, victims of a lack of due process, and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved.”  It wasn’t immediately clear on Thursday whether it was possible that a 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter on complying with the gender-equity law known as Title IX would be left in place after the department put it through a process called notice-and-comment. But a department spokeswoman later clarified that the guidance would be replaced, and that, “in the interim, the department will make clear to schools how to fulfill their current obligations under Title IX.”

www.insidehighered.com
Pledges of Continued Vigilance
After Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announces plan to change rules around campus sexual assault investigations, many college-based professionals reassure students that their commitment to preventing and punishing sexual assault remains unchanged.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/08/campus-administrators-reassure-students-protections-after-title-ix-announcement?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4bf0c49301-DNU20170908&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4bf0c49301-197515277&mc_cid=4bf0c49301&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Following Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s announcement that she will replace Obama administration guidance on how colleges should adjudicate campus rape cases, administrators across the country have begun assuring students and sexual assault victims that their rights will be protected, while awaiting the federal department’s new orders. DeVos pledged Thursday to end “rule by letter,” a reference to a Dear Colleague letter the Obama administration issued in 2011 clarifying how institutions should handle sexual misconduct cases under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law barring gender discrimination. The Education Department will accept comment before releasing new regulations, a more concrete decree than the 2011 guidance, DeVos said. In the interim, it will give more information to colleges and universities on addressing sexual assault procedures, which will likely come this month.

www.latimes.com
California colleges vow to press on against sexual assault despite any federal rollback in protections
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-sexual-assault-20170907-story.html
By Teresa Watanabe and Rosanna XiaContact Reporters
California educational leaders vowed Thursday to press on with aggressive action against campus sexual assault despite any future rollback of the federal guidelines that have prompted universities to crack down on the problem. In a speech Thursday, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos lambasted Obama-era guidelines as unfair and coercive and announced plans to review them. Later, in an interview with CBS News, she said she intended to rescind the 2011 guidelines, which laid out how campuses should investigate sexual assault cases and lowered the standard of proof needed to find the accused responsible.

www.insidehighered.com
Senate Panel Backs Increases for Pell Grants, NIH
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/09/08/senate-panel-backs-increases-pell-grants-nih?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4bf0c49301-DNU20170908&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4bf0c49301-197515277&mc_cid=4bf0c49301&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Doug Lederman
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved a 2018 spending bill Thursday that would significantly increase discretionary funds for the Pell Grant program for needy students and biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health and rejects proposed cuts in research overhead reimbursements, continuing to put Republican congressional leaders at odds with the Trump administration on programs important to higher education.