University System News:
www.augustachronicle.com
Deal calls opening of Georgia Cyber Center a historic day for Augusta
By Damon Cline
State officials for months have said the Georgia Cyber Center will be a “game-changer” for the state. On Tuesday, they officially put the center “in the game” with the ceremonial snip of a ribbon before a standing-room only crowd of local, state and federal leaders. Calvin Rhodes, the executive director of the Georgia Technology Authority, called the initiative “a new commitment to partnerships and collaboration, unlike anything we’ve seen in the nation.” “It is truly, truly something when you think about the number of students and lives and careers this facility is going to impact,” Rhodes said. The grand opening of the Georgia Cyber Center’s Hull McKnight Building, the first phase of a more than $100 million cyber-education and innovation complex along Reynolds Street, is the anchor for Augusta University’s Riverfront Campus. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal called the moment a historic day for Augusta. “This new facility that I have had the opportunity of touring just a little while ago is named for two of your native sons from right here in Augusta,” Deal said. “We are all going to be proud of what this building has done and what it will do.”
www.hypepotamus.com
First Look At the $100M Georgia Cyber Center: The Largest Investment in Cybersecurity By a State
BY MURIEL VEGA
In early 2017, Georgia state government made clear its commitment to growing and nurturing the state’s cybersecurity talent with the allocation of an initial $58 million, and then another $35 million, into the Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training. The campus of the Augusta-based center officially opened on July 10. “This visionary approach to cybersecurity underscores our commitment to encouraging innovation and developing a deep talent pool ready to establish Georgia as the safest state in the nation for today’s leaders in technology,” said Governor Governor Nathan Deal in a statement last year regarding the Cyber Center. Georgia currently ranks third in the nation for information security, generating more than $4.7 billion in annual revenue fed by 115+ cybersecurity companies. But this growing industry needs a pipeline of talent, and despite the many local research universities, the Georgia Technology Authority estimates that the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs in Georgia will rise to more than 10,000 by 2021. “We are all going to be proud of what this building has done and what it will do,” Governor Deal said during last night’s ribbon-cutting event. During the ceremony, the entire campus was also dedicated to Governor Deal.
www.politics.myajc.com
Georgia delegation heads to China in teeth of trade war
By Greg Bluestein
The state is sending a delegation of more than two dozen officials and business executives to China next week, a long-planned trip that happens to coincide with President Donald Trump’s escalating trade dispute with Beijing. The trip aims to build closer economic, tourism and education ties between Georgia and Chinese cities, but it comes at a delicate time. The Trump administration threatened this week to impose tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese products – days after the president imposed levies on about $34 billion of goods. The delegation takes off July 20 as part of a celebration of the new Delta Air Lines route from Atlanta to Shanghai, a prized nonstop connection between the two cities. Gov. Nathan Deal is not joining the trip, but his top aide Chris Riley and several deputies are going. So is chief Delta lobbyist David Werner, Georgia Power executive Walt Farrell and PruittHealth chairman Neil Pruitt. Board of Regents chancellor Steve Wrigley will be there, too, as will state Sens. Butch Miller and Jeff Mullis.
www.ajc.com
Study: More middle-income students squeezed from top colleges
By Eric Stirgus
Students from middle-income families are finding it more difficult to get accepted to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities, according to a study released Thursday. The report by the American Enterprise Institute found about 32 percent of students at the nation’s most selective schools are middle-income. That’s down from about 40 percent about a decade ago, the institute found. “[I]t is middle-income students, not low-income students, who are becoming less represented on these campuses,” the study said. Emory University and Georgia Tech were among the 200 selective schools researched for the report. About half of the students in those schools are from upper-income families, which was defined as those with annual household incomes exceeding about $99,000. The percentage of low-income students has increased from about 15 percent to nearly 25 percent, according to the study, as many of those schools offer more financial aid for those students. Low-income families were defined as less than about $26,000.
www.albanyherald.com
ASU to host third museum studies seminar
Lecture from George O. Davis part of Albany State museum studies seminar series
By Tessa Green
ALBANY — In hopes of creating a museum studies minor, Albany State University has held two previous seminars as part of a series at the Albany Museum of Arts and the Thronateeska Heritage Museum. ASU will host its third museum studies seminar at the Carnegie Library in downtown Albany Saturday. The seminar is a partnership with the Albany Area Arts Council, the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the Albany Museum of Art, the Flint RiverQuarium and the Thronateeska Heritage Center. Saturday’s seminar will be held at the Albany Area Arts Council. Charles Williams, professor of visual and performing arts at ASU, said that the seminar is also a way for Albany State faculty and local cultural organizations to find ways to work together and benefit each other. “It’s about developing interdisciplinary curriculum for a museum studies minor,” Williams said. “But it’s also about getting ASU faculty members and cultural organizations’ staffs around the table to discuss how we can serve each other.”
www.savannahnow.com
High school students write code, fly drones at Savannah State
By Will Peebles
The buzz of a quadcopter drone could be heard in the Savannah State University Student Union on Wednesday, but no one was holding a controller. Still, the drone moved forward slowly, lifted a few feet off the ground and performed two front flips, motors and propellers revving. The quadcopter, a Parrot AR Drone, was getting its commands from a computer program written by local high school students. More specifically, by Ty’Rae Jenkins, a 12th-grader at Beach High School, and Orelvys Nieves, a 12th-grader at Jenkins High School, who were presenting their skills to their classmates. The presentation was part of SSU’s Upward Bound/Unite program, a five-week course for local high school students interested in STEM careers. The program is funded by the U.S. Army’s Educational Outreach Program.
www.ksusentinel.com
KSU to change course scheduling practices
http://ksusentinel.com/2018/07/09/ksu-to-change-course-scheduling-practices/
Sabrina Kerns
Kennesaw State Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Linda Noble announced in an email to faculty and staff on Wednesday, July 27, that the university plans to make several changes to its course scheduling practices starting in spring 2019. According to the email, KSU’s six-year graduation rate has fallen behind that of the university’s peer institutions such as Georgia Southern University and Valdosta State University. KSU’s graduation rate is currently 42 percent compared to the other institutions’ rate of 47 percent. Noble wrote in the email that part of resolving this issue includes changing the university’s course scheduling so that students can register for and complete the courses they need “in a timely manner.”
www.connectstatesboro.com
GSU summer camps have got it all
http://www.connectstatesboro.com/news/article/15363/
By Lauren Porter
During the school year, Georgia Southern University is the place for developing mental fortitude through sleepless nights and grueling study sessions. In the summertime, though, GSU provides students and youth with fun learning experiences through a variety of camps. By enrolling in one of GSU’s summer camps, students gain developmental and social skills that will carry them through life and allow them to succeed. In July, a wide range of summer camps will be available for youth enrollment. This includes Cyber Camp. This camp utilizes the Cyber Patriot program that was created by the Air Force Association to train high schoolers in national cyber security. This program is dedicated to educating youth on the threats that exist in cyberspace, and what can be done to protect the future of online access. Another great prospect for students is GSU’s LEGO Robotics Camp, which does exactly what the name suggests. …Georgia Southern truly has something for everyone to take part in, no matter what your interests are.
www.times-georgian.com
Kids to line up for 5,000 bags of school supplies
By Erin Mcswain-Davis
Southwire’s Project GIFT will give away more than 5,000 bags of school supplies Saturday to students whose summer vacation is rapidly nearing its end. Southwire has for the last 13 years provided students from Carroll County, neighboring counties and in nearby Alabama with many of the necessities kids need as they return to class. The supplies remove much of the burden from not only parents who would otherwise have to pay for pencils, rulers and paper, but from teachers who sometimes foot the bill for their classrooms. Southwire’s 14th annual Back to School supply giveaway is scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in the Southwire corporate parking area on Dixie Street in Carrollton. Southwire is aided by other local businesses and the University of West Georgia and West Georgia Technical College in providing the supplies and promoting the event.
www.oconeeenterprise.com
Siblings achieve highest ranks in scouting
Katie Tiller
Two years after she received her Girls Scouts Gold Award, Isabel Evelyn said her most treasured pin is actually the Boy Scouts Eagle pin her brother, Will Evelyn, gave her during his ceremony this spring. “It was really touching,” Isabel said. Both of the Evelyns have achieved the highest rank possible in their respective scouting organizations. For both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America, to qualify for the rank scouts must submit a proposal for a project that will better the community they live in. Both Will and Isabel focused on education and building supplemental classrooms around Watkinsville. …Isabel, now a rising senior at the University of Georgia, where she is studying anthropology and ecology, began her Girl Scout Gold Award project during her sophomore year of OCHS. She didn’t finish the project until after graduating from the high school.
www.gainesvilletimes.com
How local efforts are reducing use of plastic straws
https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/life/how-local-efforts-are-reducing-use-plastic-straws/
Layne Saliba
Matthew Terrell was just a normal student going to college in a small North Georgia town. Terrell wasn’t all that concerned about the environment and his impact on it. He began interning with Justin Ellis, director of the Environmental Leadership Center and professor of biology at the University of North Georgia, in the fall of 2016, though, and all of that changed. He went on to join the UNG Sustains club and wanted to make some sort of difference on the environment. So he, along with the rest of the club and the university’s SCUBA club, came together and won a competition sponsored by Simply Straws, a company that sells reusable glass drinking straws as a replacement for ordinary plastic straws. “We really wanted to engage the student body and were really excited about how welcoming they were to this initiative,” Terrell said. “We’re hoping to use this in the coming semester to try to push more change on campus and in Dahlonega. If we can say all these students care … we can make a difference in our community.”
www.savannahnow.com
Skidaway Institute hosts open lab night
http://www.savannahnow.com/news/20180710/skidaway-institute-hosts-open-lab-night
By Will Peebles
Dozens of people from around the Savannah area gathered at the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on Tuesday for the lab’s second open lab night of the summer. The open lab nights aim to give non-scientists a peek behind the lab’s curtain via informal tours with the lab’s scientists. The open lab night is part of SIO’s yearlong series of public programs to celebrate the institute’s 50th anniversary. This year, SIO is holding 10 programs to celebrate its gold anniversary, most of which are lectures. Michael Sullivan, SIO’s external affairs manager, said the informal lab tours offer something a lecture cannot. “Rather than a formal, structured lecture with questions and answers and a powerpoint, it’s very informal,” Sullivan said. “People can just wander from one lab to the other, chat with our scientists about what kind of work they do, ask questions and learn what’s going in a low-key fashion.”
www.atlantamagazine.com
Georgia Tech’s Robotarium is “a shining beacon of robotic awesomeness”
Lab founder Magnus Egerstedt wants everyone to be able to engage with the technology
By Adina Solomon
There’s a Georgia Tech robotics lab so popular, its hallway viewing window could use a dedicated cleaner. “My students complain every morning that they have to wipe nose prints off the window because people are up against it, seeing these robots do stuff,” says Magnus Egerstedt, founder of the Robotarium lab. That visible nature is exactly the point. The Robotarium is an open-access lab with swarm robots, or robots in large quantities. Palm-sized robots roll—and plate-sized ones fly—over a bowl-shaped, 12-by-14-foot white table in the middle of the room. And anyone in the world can remotely run experiments on the lab’s 100 ground and 20 flying robots, simply by uploading code to the Robotarium’s website.
Higher Education News:
www.hechingerreport.org
Facts about race and college admission
Political winds may shift, but racial factors in college success statistics don’t
https://hechingerreport.org/facts-about-race-and-college-admission/
by JON MARCUS
The Trump administration has reversed Obama-era policies encouraging universities to consider race as a factor in admission. The Justice and Education departments jointly announced this week that they had rescinded guidelines encouraging colleges to racially diversify their campuses. The guidelines are nonbinding but represent the view of the departments, which said in a joint statement that they went “beyond the requirements of the Constitution.” Opponents of considering race in admission say doing so discriminates against whites.
www.educationdive.com
MBA programs recruiting students from untraditional backgrounds
Author James Paterson
MBA programs at some top universities are attempting to attract young people with liberal arts backgrounds by offering incentives and support in order to fill a growing gap in the number of applications in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reports. Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University are among the institutions that are seeking a broader array of students by recruiting more widely, providing support and adjusting admissions requirements. Additionally, in an effort to attract more students, universities are offering certificate programs that take less time to complete, as well as specialized degree tracks that focus on industries that some prospects may find more attractive and may be more marketable in some cases.