University System News:
www.ajc.com
University System of Georgia’s enrollment reaches record levels
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/university-system-georgia-enrollment-reaches-record-levels/Ee9s1I426iJUOCFvVwe7TI/
Eric Stirgus
Fall enrollment at the University System of Georgia has again reached record levels, according to data released Friday. The current enrollment is at slightly more than 325,000 students. The total was 321,549 in Fall 2016. Much of the growth appears to come from students enrolling in graduate school, which officials said increased by nearly seven percent from 2016. Georgia Tech has the highest graduate school enrollment, with 13,799 students.

www.bizjournals.com
University System of Georgia sets enrollment record — again
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/11/03/university-system-of-georgia-sets-enrollment.html
By Dave Williams  –  Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Student enrollment in the University System of Georgia is at an all-time high for the second year in a row. Enrollment for the fall semester in the system’s 28 colleges and universities stands at 325,203 students, up 1.1 percent over the fall of last year. As overall enrollment has grown, the number of students earning degrees also has increased for six consecutive years, system Chancellor Steve Wrigley said. Completing college has been a special focus of the system in recent years.

www.albanyherald.com
ASU enrollment falls by 7.6 percent; 1,400 in freshman class
Single-digit drop breaks three-year streak of double-digit decreases
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/local/asu-enrollment-falls-by-percent-in-freshman-class/article_79471fa8-3497-5f55-9a86-bbae925b202b.html
By Terry Lewis
ALBANY — The University System of Georgia released its official Semester Enrollment Report for fall 2017 on Friday. The numbers show Albany State University experienced a 7.6 percent decline in enrollment compared to last year. ASU’s fall numbers last year were 7,159, and the current number stands at 6,615. In 2016, the university’s fall enrollment fell by 12.9 percent compared to 2015. In response, Marion Fedrick, ASU’s new interim executive vice president, issued the following campus communication to faculty and staff:

www.chronicle.augusta.com
University Hospital earns top safety rating from industry group
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/2017-11-02/university-hospital-earns-top-safety-rating-industry-group
By Tom Corwin Staff Writer
University Hospital is once again the only medical center in Augusta to receive a top safety rating from an industry review group. University received an A in the fall 2017 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades and was one of only 14 in Georgia to get a top grade. Doctors Hospital of Augusta earned a C grade and AU Medical Center got a D. University is one of only two Georgia hospitals to get an A grade eight times in a row in the biannual rankings since spring 2014.

www.ajc.com
Georgia Tech begins construction on “learning laboratory”
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/georgia-tech-begins-construction-learning-laboratory/8GT28Py7tA5f4O4N38xzTL/
Eric Stirgus
Georgia Tech officials held a ceremony Thursday to being construction of a building they say will be innovative, even for them. The structure is being described as a “living-learning laboratory for students and faculty.” The Kendeda Fund is investing $25 million to privately fund 100 percent of the design and construction costs of the project as well as an additional $5 million to support programming activities, Tech officials said.

www.11alive.com
Georgia Tech student with autism fulfills ‘Jeopardy!’ dream
A Georgia Tech PhD student takes the stage at Jeopardy!, proving nothing can stop you from your dreams.
http://www.11alive.com/article/news/georgia-tech-student-with-autism-fulfills-jeopardy-dream/85-488480207
Author: Liza Lucas , WXIA
Tonight on Jeopardy!, a dream comes true for a local Georgia Tech student. A graduate of Auburn University, Kelvin Smith is pursuing his PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the institute. After years of preparation, he’ll take the stage as a contestant. “It really started when I was 14,” Smith said. “You could say my best subjects are really in the academic round. Of course, math and science, just something you would learn in school because I can adapt pretty well with that.”

www.gpbnews.org
The Last Flight Of The Cassini Spacecraft
http://gpbnews.org/post/last-flight-cassini-spacecraft
By CELESTE HEADLEE & TREVOR YOUNG
Georgia Tech is not just looking at interstellar space, it’s also traveling through it. Georgia Tech student Michael Staab is a spacecraft flight controller for NASA. He piloted the Cassini spacecraft, which traveled around Saturn and nearby moons collecting data. The spacecraft finished its mission in September, and plunged head first into its final resting place: Saturn. We catch up with Michael Staab about Cassini’s grand finale.

www.ajc.com
UGA extension office employee fired, accused of snorting cocaine in his office
http://www.ajc.com/news/crime–law/uga-extension-office-employee-fired-accused-snorting-cocaine-his-office/OfhvHP8UdNWYJkru3uOsUJ/
Lauren Foreman  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A University of Georgia employee was fired after a coworker walked in on him snorting cocaine at his desk, according to details from a UGA police report and a school spokesman. It is unclear if Michael Wheeler, a former agent with UGA’s Cooperative Extension, was arrested in the incident last Friday. He left shortly after coworker Karin Booth saw him using a rolled-up piece of paper to snort a substance police now believe was cocaine, according to the police report. Police concluded in the report, “it is reasonable to believe that Wheeler was ingesting cocaine.”

www.thebrunswicknews.com
CCGA basketball players kneel during national anthem
http://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/ccga-basketball-players-kneel-during-national-anthem/article_eae78dcb-018f-5063-a51e-dc603826e7a3.html#utm_source=thebrunswicknews.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1509703253&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
By LAUREN MCDONALD
College of Coastal Georgia’s men’s basketball team chose to take part in what’s become a national protest of police conduct and racial inequality by kneeling during the national anthem before the team’s game Wednesday night. The players’ decision drew both criticism and praise on social media.

www.espn.com
Georgia Tech’s Tadric Jackson, Josh Okogie suspended over benefits
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21268182/tadric-jackson-josh-okogie-georgia-tech-suspended-indefinitely-accepting-benefits
Jeff Borzello
ESPN Staff Writer
Georgia Tech self-reported NCAA rules violations Thursday, following an internal investigation into extra benefits received by senior Tadric Jackson and sophomore Josh Okogie of the men’s basketball team. Jackson and Okogie will be withheld from games indefinitely, pending the NCAA’s resolution. “Nothing is more important to me than having an atmosphere of compliance,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “This isolated situation can and will be a learning opportunity for our entire program. We’re moving ahead and looking forward to having Tadric and Josh back in game action early this season.” … Neither player will travel with the team to China for next Friday’s season opener against UCLA.

www.laboratoryequipment.com
Scientists Develop H3N2 Vaccine, Move Toward Universal Flu Shot
https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2017/11/scientists-develop-h3n2-vaccine-move-toward-universal-flu-shot?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=38038443cb-eGaMorning-11_3_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-38038443cb-86731974&mc_cid=38038443cb&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
by Seth Augenstein – Senior Science Writer
Influenza remains a global public health threat that cycles around the globe each year, based on seasons and strains. The viral varieties constantly mutate and change, making it a particularly elusive target for therapies and vaccines. A team of scientists from the University of Georgia and Sano Pasteur have made a vaccine that protects an entire family of influenza strains, the H3N2, which was the dominant kind in Australia’s latest flu season that ended last month. The team reports constructing 17 prototype vaccines based on genetic sequencing – and nearly complete immunity experimentally in mice and ferrets, they report in The Journal of Virology. However, the swine-based H3N2 (first reported in humans in 2011) is just one of a myriad of other strains – and the viruses still maintain the ability to constantly adapt, meaning the universal vaccine is still a ways off, they add.

www.bloomberg.com
Exxon Is Spending $1 Billion a Year to Research Green Energy
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-03/exxon-is-spending-1-billion-a-year-to-research-green-energy
By Anna Hirtenstein
One of the world’s biggest oil companies is pumping more than $1 billion a year into alternative forms of energy from algae engineered to bloom into biofuels and cells that turn emissions into electricity. The funds from Exxon Mobil Corp. are for more than a hundred of research projects on environmentally-friendly technologies in five to 10 key areas … Process intensification: Exxon is working with Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a more efficient way of refining crude oil into plastic. It involves using a membrane and osmosis rather than heat. Exxon is targeting carbon dioxide emission reductions by as much as half with the process.

Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
DeVos Falsely Suggests That Student Loans Were Federalized to Pay for Obamacare
http://www.chronicle.com/article/DeVos-Falsely-Suggests-That/241654?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=92c54ed1cc024933af17e8bdfa86049f&elq=a3ac64ef839c4a2ea928b050c7de5bc8&elqaid=16431&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7113
By Adam Harris
In an interview with Politico, Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, falsely suggested that the federal government had taken control of the student-loan market to help pay for the administration of the Affordable Care Act.
The statement reinforces the impression that Ms. DeVos is not schooled in the basics of higher-ed policy. Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California system, previously told The Chronicle that she had to explain to the secretary what a specific federal grant for low-income students — commonly known as a “SEOG grant” — was. “Her learning curve where higher ed is concerned is quite vertical,” she said. Ms. DeVos’s answer to Politico came in response to a question from a reporter on why “I pay a 2.4-percent interest rate on my Ford Explorer, but my Navient student loan I pay six and a quarter.” The secretary responded by saying it was “a good question.” The reporter then asked whether she planned to do something about it. The secretary responded:

www.chronicle.com
Republican Tax Proposal Gets Failing Grade From Higher-Ed Groups
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Republican-Tax-Proposal-Gets/241662?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=f9a5dd5c63ab4383ac16775b2d7cadcf&elq=a3ac64ef839c4a2ea928b050c7de5bc8&elqaid=16431&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7113
By Eric Kelderman
Republicans in Congress released their proposed overhaul of the nation’s tax laws on Thursday, including several measures that would place new tax burdens on colleges and students — and, critics said, could undermine charitable giving to higher education. The bill was met with immediate opposition from a number of higher-education groups, which argued that the measure would rob institutions of vital dollars and increase the price of college for debt-laden students and already-strapped families. “The House tax-reform proposal released today would discourage participation in postsecondary education, make college more expensive for those who do enroll, and undermine the financial stability of public and private two-year and four-year colleges and universities,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and under secretary of education in the Obama administration, in a written statement.

www.chronicle.com
If House Republicans Get Their Way, These Colleges Would See Their Endowments Taxed
http://www.chronicle.com/article/If-House-Republicans-Get-Their/241659?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=7ca6d1673f6942f1a09d62d5d44c7646&elq=a3ac64ef839c4a2ea928b050c7de5bc8&elqaid=16431&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7113
By Ben Myers and Brock Read
In a sweeping plan to rework the tax code unveiled on Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives floated a new strategy for raising revenue: Tax college endowments. Some college endowments, that is. Deep within the plan — look here, on Page 75 — is the language that spells out which institutions would be affected. The bottom line: Only the most-affluent colleges need worry. Colleges would be subject to the tax, set at 1.4 percent of net investment income, only if their endowment assets total at least $100,000 per student. There are further caveats. We’re talking about just private institutions here; public colleges and universities would be exempt. Institutions with fewer than 500 students would be exempt, too.

www.nytimes.com
Where the STEM Jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t)

By STEVE LOHR
The national priority in education can be summed up in a four-letter acronym: STEM. And that’s understandable. A country’s proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is vital in generating economic growth, advancing scientific innovation and creating good jobs … Much of the public enthusiasm for STEM education rests on the assumption that these fields are rich in job opportunity. Some are, some aren’t. STEM is an expansive category, spanning many disciplines and occupations, from software engineers and data scientists to geologists, astronomers and physicists. What recent studies have made increasingly apparent is that the greatest number of high-paying STEM jobs are in the “T” (specifically, computing).

www.nytimes.com
When Internships Don’t Pay, Some Colleges Will

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
As the child of a divorced, unemployed mother, Shira Eisenberg learned to get by, she says, “on the kindness of strangers.” But even she was surprised when she arrived at the University of Chicago and was told that if she jumped through a few hoops, like going to seminars on how to behave at a job interview, she would be guaranteed a paid internship, financed by the university if no other source of money was available … Internships have become a necessary credential in a highly competitive job market … But for those thinking of careers in nonprofits, public service, social services or the arts, paid opportunities are scarce. Employers often can’t afford a stipend, and many students can’t afford to work for free. In response, campuses are using philanthropy and their own funds to subsidize internships at organizations that have a mission of social change or innovation.