University System News:
Coastal Courier
President Nickel hosts college leaders
Georgia Southern University President Shelley Nickel recently hosted presidents and leaders of colleges and universities in South Georgia. The regional education summit focused on how the institutions can collaborate to meet the educational needs of our region to enhance the lives and livelihoods of South Georgians. Leaders attending the summit included those from College of Coastal Georgia, East Georgia State College, Georgia Southern University, Ogeechee Technical College, Savannah State University, Savannah Technical College, South Georgia State College and Southeastern Technical College.
The Tifton Gazette
Lynn, Jensen receive top awards at ABAC fall commencement
Madison Lynn from Vidalia and Ashley Jensen from Sumner received the top awards presented by the ABAC Alumni Association during the fall commencement ceremony on Thursday at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, according to a press release. Lynn, a crop and soil science major, was named the winner of the ABAC Alumni Association Award which goes to the top bachelor’s degree graduate participating in the ceremony, and Jensen, an agricultural education major, received the George P. Donaldson Award for the top associate degree graduate participating in the ceremony.Dr. Tracy Nolan, an ABAC alumnus who is the first female general surgeon at Tift Regional Medical Center, was the guest speaker at the ceremony.
Savannah Business Journal
Georgia Southern professor receives national Evolution Education Award
Savannah Business Journal Staff Report
Amanda Glaze, Ph.D., assistant professor of science education at Georgia Southern University, recently received the Evolution Education Award at the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) Conference in San Diego. Sponsored by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) center and the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, the Evolution Education Award recognizes classroom teaching and community education efforts to promote the accurate understanding of biological evolution. The award is rotated between a K-12 teacher and undergraduate educator and includes a cash award, recognition plaque and a complimentary membership to NABT.
Albany CEO
Suzanne Smith on Preparing Students for Internships at Georgia Southwestern
Georgia Southwestern provost and vice president for Academic Affairs Suzanne Smith talks about partnering with the community for internship programs.
Metro Atlanta CEO
Staff Report From Metro Atlanta CEO
To help meet the growing demand for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals, Accenture will become the first corporate donor to invest $500,000 over the next twelve months in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity (OMS Cybersecurity) degree program. The OMS Cybersecurity program will launch January 7, 2019 with approximately 250 students and is projected to scale over time to meet increasing demand and greater student needs. The online program has the same content as the on-campus program but is designed to serve working professionals who can study part-time and earn a master’s degree, which will increase the number of trained and educated cybersecurity professionals available for organizations to hire.
Athesn Banner-Herald
Royal society picks plastic figure from UGA research as stat of the year
By Leigh Beeson
A finding from University of Georgia research has been named the 2018 International Statistic of the Year by the Royal Statistical Society. More than 90 percent of plastic has never been recycled, according to research conducted by UGA College of Engineering professor Jenna Jambeck, who worked with colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Sea Education Association on the groundbreaking research. Prior to the research, it was unclear exactly how much plastic was ending up in landfills or, even more problematic, in oceans and forests throughout the world. The new statistic lends a sense of scale to the problem of global plastic pollution.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern University Recognized for Research Focus with Latest Carnegie Ranking
Staff Report From Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern University is now ranked as an “R2” high research institution, placing it in the top 6% of all institutions ranked by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The “R2” designation, the second-highest classification for research institutions, was unveiled this week. Carnegie ranked 4,424 universities and colleges — public and private, both for profit and not for profit. Of those, 120 were classified as R1 or Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity, and 139 — including Georgia Southern — were designated as R2 or Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
Senate Passes Bill to Streamline FAFSA
By Andrew Kreighbaum
The Senate on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation that would streamline applications for student aid and enrollment in income-driven loan repayment plans. The bill, dubbed the FAFSA Act, would do so by amending the tax code and the Higher Education Act to allow the IRS to share taxpayer information directly with the Education Department. Federal law doesn’t currently allow the two agencies to share taxpayer data. They launched the IRS data retrieval tool as a workaround that lets student aid applicants automatically import family income information into the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. But non-tax filers in particular are frequently subject to income-verification requirements. The legislation would do away with that process by including tax-filing status in information sharing. The bill would also allow data sharing between the IRS and the Education Department to verify the earnings of borrowers seeking to enroll in income-driven repayment. About a third of federal student loan borrowers are enrolled in those repayment plans, and they must submit documentation to certify their earnings each year. But each year, nearly 20 percent of those borrowers fail to do so on time.
Inside Higher Ed
Push for Student-Level Data the Feds Don’t Collect
Major education foundations aren’t waiting for Congress to provide data needed to better analyze and serve students. They’ve partnered to get the data themselves and are encouraging more colleges to join them.
By Ashley A. Smith
The gaps in data about the academic progress, needs and outcomes of part-time, first-generation, older and low-income college students has long frustrated higher education advocates, policy makers, charitable foundations and college administrators who want to see all students succeed. Over the last three years the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation and the National Student Clearinghouse have partnered to build a system, using a new “metrics framework” developed by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, that will fill those data gaps and help institutions, states and researchers analyze the academic performance of all college students. The partnership sidesteps the debate over, and wait for, Congress to move forward with plans to build a national student-level data system. The groups building their own system are encouraging more colleges and universities to join their partnership.