University System News:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
White House proposes changes to college student loan programs
By Eric Stirgus
The Trump administration announced Monday some proposed changes it believes will reduce student loan debt and expand Pell Grant eligibility to students pursuing careers in high-demand industries. The White House wants Congress to extend loan forgiveness to all undergraduate students after 180 months of repayment through an income-driven repayment plan. It’s proposing a 12.5 percent monthly cap of a borrower’s discretionary income. It also wants limits for Parent and Grad PLUS loan programs. The administration has been vocal in recent months about the rise in student loan debt, which it says is $1.5 trillion, an increase of more than 350 percent since 2003. …The White House stressed Monday its mission to support HBCUs in a five-page report outlining its proposed changes to the Higher Education Act. The five-page report also outlines calls for colleges to share more information about annual costs and graduation rates. Georgia public education leaders are working on efforts to improve financial literacy with information such as recommended borrowing amounts. On average, University System of Georgia students borrow about $6,200 a year, officials say.
Athens CEO
Physician Residency Program at St. Mary’s, UA/UGA MP Fills All Positions
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
For the fifth year in its five-year history, the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Mary’s Health Care System has filled all openings for its new class of medical residents. The AU/UGA Medical Partnership Internal Medicine Residency Program (IMRP) was the first new graduate medical education program in Northeast Georgia in recent years and received full accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education in October 2016. The new residents will begin practicing at St. Mary’s on July 1 under the supervision of advanced resident physicians and physician faculty from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and area community-based teaching faculty.
PR Newswire
Online College Plan Ranks Online PhDs in Curriculum & Instruction
This ranking article begins by stating that curriculum is a cornerstone in education and that couldn’t be more true. Curriculum is a broad term with multiple applications but at its simplest, it is all of the academic content in a given course or program. Every student experience in an academic year can be summarized as curriculum. Because children are our future, this key component to the field of education could always use employment candidates with the pinnacle of experience. OnlineCollegePlan did the research and has found that that experience can be gained online. In light of that, they have written a new ranking, the Top 30 Online PhD Programs in Curriculum & Instruction. You can read it here: …The research editor describes each program thoroughly, curating information to allow prospective students gain a solid understanding of their options. Each school was scored out of a possible 300 points based on affordability, freshman retention, and graduation rate. While freshman retention is not a factor in graduate-level programs, it is a good indicator of the overall quality of a school. The number one institution, the University of Florida, received a score of 271. You can view the whole list of schools in ascending order below. …22. Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, GA) 23. Columbus State University (Columbus, GA) 26. University of West Georgia (Carrollton, GA)
Savannah Morning News
Savannah: GSU to open learning center in Ireland
By DeAnn Komanecky
Savannah and her deep roots with Ireland — and especially Wexford, Ireland — are growing stronger thanks in part to enhanced scholarly connections announced at a reception on Monday. Georgia Southern University President Shelley Nickel and Shane Stephens, the consul general of Ireland, welcomed guests, including visitors from Wexford and members of Savannah’s Irish societies, to a reception held at the Armstrong Campus. Nickel first announced the university is moving the Center for Irish Research and Teaching from Statesboro to Savannah. Moving the CIRT from Statesboro to Savannah will allow student researchers to continue to explore the connection between Savannah and Ireland, further bridging the gap between the two while promoting tourism and economic development, GSU officials said. A new location on the University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah also provides a public space and improves access to the research findings for the community. Nickel also announced a first for both GSU and the United States — a Georgia Southern University Learning Center will open in Wexford. Howard Keeley, director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Irish Research and Teaching, said there are only two other American universities with similar centers in Ireland.
See also:
WSAV (with video)
Georgia Southern University to open a learning center in Ireland
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Admissions scandal fallout, Ga Tech violations inquiry
By Eric Stirgus
Several colleges and universities, locally and nationally, had some explaining to do last week after some disturbing allegations emerged about how students are enrolling into their schools. The past seven days have also included efforts to help students after their for-profit school abruptly closed, the federal government’s plans to tweak the student loan process and some interesting announcements by some Georgia colleges and universities. Here are some details in our weekly AJC On Campus round-up: The college admissions scandal Many schools went into crisis management mode last week when prosecutors announced charges against several dozen people, including two well-known actresses, for allegedly paying people to engineer an illegal scheme to get their children into some of the nation’s top colleges and universities. No Georgia schools were named in the indictment, but the AJC interviewed several students and others about the advantages privileged families have in getting their kids enrolled in acclaimed schools and the difficulties faced by the not so well-to-do to get in some of these schools. Read about it here. NCAA investigates Georgia, Tech Georgia Tech disclosed, first to the AJC, last week that the NCAA sent notice that it is investigating the school for potential high-level recruiting violations in its men’s basketball program. The notice came after a joint review by the NCAA and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech said in a statement that it will not comment on the investigation. …Atlanta Metro State’s president to retire Gary McGaha, president of Atlanta Metropolitan State College since 2007, announced last week he’ll retire, effective June 30. McGaha’s tenure has included adding more baccalaureate degree programs and increasing enrollment by 30 percent during his tenure. …The University System of Georgia will conduct a national search for his replacement. Georgia Southern goes across the pond, Georgia Southern University announced Monday it will be the first public university in the United States to establish a learning center in Ireland. The university’s Center for Irish Research and Teaching is relocating from its Statesboro campus to the Armstrong campus in Savannah, with a new learning center being established on the southeast coast of Ireland. The center is part of a partnership with the town of Wexford. ….The number of the week: 2.1 percent That’s the percentage increase in enrollment of students at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities between the fall 2016 and fall 2017 semesters, according to recent federal government data. HBCU enrollment increased from 292,083 in fall 2016 to 298,138 in fall 2017. It’s the first year since 2010 the federal government has reported an increase in enrollment among the nation’s 101 accredited HBCUs. …In Georgia, seven of its nine accredited HBCUs saw an enrollment increase, according to the 2017 data. Paine College and Savannah State University were the only two with enrollment declines.
The Red & Black
UGA researchers examine local effects of opioid epidemic
Megan Mittelhammer | Contributor
The opioid epidemic has impacted thousands of lives across the country. At the University of Georgia, professors across various disciplines are studying the national effects of opioid and other drug-related deaths on the state’s treatment options in local communities and health care policies. “There really isn’t an element of the social fabric of the state of Georgia that addiction isn’t going to touch,” said Orion Mowbray, a School of Social Work associate professor. Over the last few years, Mowbray has poured over questions surrounding prescription opioids and their misuse. His team began collecting data from local areas in and around Athens-Clarke County on the types and availability of substitute services to treat opioid addictions as well as the fatality rates from opioids. Funding for this project came from Advantage Behavioral Health Systems, which is a public health provider contracted out for 10 counties in Georgia, with a focus on Athens-Clarke and its surrounding counties such as Jackson, Greene and Barrow.
The Red & Black
CURO helps undergraduate students accelerate their academic careers through research
Vanessa Sachs | Contributor
On a campus of over 30,000 students, many are looking for their way to make a difference and leave a positive mark on the world. The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities at the University of Georgia is providing just that by allowing students to showcase research at an annual symposium in Athens. CURO isn’t as much a club or organization as much as it’s a brand for many students. This campus-wide establishment allows students to take part in faculty-mentored research projects of nearly any discipline.
Digital Trends
Body surrogate robot helps people with motor impairments care for themselves
Georgina Torbet
Robots might be coming for your job, but they can do tremendous good in the world as well. Assistive technologies can benefit people with disabilities by giving them greater independence and control over their lives, like the assistant robot developed by a team at Georgia Tech to help people who have severe motor impairments. “Our goal is to give people with limited use of their own bodies access to robotic bodies so they can interact with the world in new ways,” Professor Charlie Kemp from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech said in a statement. The system they came up with is based on a robot called a PR2 mobile manipulator manufactured by Willow Garage. It is a wheeled robot with two arms and a head, and it can manipulate objects like water bottles, washcloths, hairbrushes, or an electric shaver.
Space.com
Rovers Learn New Gait to Avoid Getting Stuck in the Sand on Other Worlds
By Meghan Bartels
Rovers, no matter what world they’re designed to explore, tend to be designed like little cars, equipped with wheels that spin on fixed axles. But that can leave the vehicles vulnerable to getting stuck, as Spirit infamously did on Mars. That’s why engineers are exploring new ways for rovers to move on the moon, Mars or other planetary bodies. One team doing just that is Daniel Goldman’s lab at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, which presented recent experiments on robot movement at the March meeting of the American Physical Society in Boston. The researchers are looking for ways to prevent future rovers from meeting the same fate as Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, which lost contact with Earth when it became stuck in a sand trap.
Albany Herald
Ag week celebrates ‘heroes who feed us’
Agriculture contributed $73.4 billion to Georgia’s economy in 2017
From Staff Reports
It’s easy to take farmers for granted. For most Americans, food is readily available and safe. When we shop, we have a wide variety of foods to choose from. We can eat fast food on the go, cook a gourmet meal with locally grown ingredients or satisfy our cravings with something in between. Georgia farmers play a big part in feeding us. How many know that Georgia farmers produce almost half the peanuts grown in the United States? Georgia farmers also lead the nation in growing broilers that become the rotisserie chickens we buy at the grocery store, enjoy as chicken tenders or in chicken sandwiches. Georgia farmers are also top growers of blueberries, pecans and sweet onions. We can also thank Georgia farmers for growing cotton and timber to clothe and house us. Agriculture contributed $73.4 billion to Georgia’s economy in 2017, according to the University of Georgia’s Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. The center says food and fiber production and the process of getting the raw materials to consumers contributed 391,300 jobs for Georgians in 2017. To celebrate farmers and the many contributions they make to the state, the Georgia Department of Agriculture has declared March 18-22 Georgia Agricultural Awareness Week.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who has the highest salaries in Georgia schools and colleges
By James Salzer
During debates on teacher pay and retirement benefits at the state Capitol each year, one of the most repeated lines is that educators don’t get into the profession for the money. They get into it because they love what they do, they say. And the money bit is certainly true for a vast majority of k-12 teachers and many college professors. The average pay for teachers in Georgia is about $55,000, and the starting salary out of college is about $34,000. But there is good money for those at the very top of the education pay scale, the big-city school superintendents, top university administrators and professors who are leaders in lucrative fields, according to figures from the state’s salary website, Open Georgia. For fiscal 2018, which ended June 30 of last year, the highest paid person in state government, k-12 schools and the University System of Georgia was University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, who Open Georgia listed as earning $6.425 million. That such coaches at nationally renowned schools make big money isn’t surprising. Below are some of the top salaries for non-athletics department coaches and staff in fiscal 2018, according to Open Georgia.
Star Gazette
New president named for Mansfield University
Jeff Murray, Elmira Star-Gazette
The Board of Governors of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education has unanimously selected Charles E. Patterson to be the next president of Mansfield University, effective July 1. Since 2017, Patterson has been senior advisor for executive outreach in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid. He previously was interim president of Georgia Southwestern State University and also held the position of vice president of research and economic development at Georgia Southern University. He began his academic career at Baylor University. The board’s action comes at the conclusion of a national search for Mansfield University’s next leader.
Inside Higher Ed
Chancellor’s Ouster Stokes Tensions at UNC
East Carolina leader’s planned departure at a university plagued by accusations and resignations causes board member to blast system chair.
By Rick Seltzer
East Carolina University chancellor Cecil P. Staton announced his pending resignation Monday, a move that was not his idea and that prompted one of the University of North Carolina system’s board members to denounce the board’s leader. The East Carolina leader will step down from the chancellorship at the beginning of May and leave the university at the end of June, becoming the third executive in the University of North Carolina system to leave or announce his departure in the first three months of this year. The system’s president, Margaret Spellings, left office in January — just as Carol Folt, chancellor of the flagship Chapel Hill, decided to tender her resignation while removing from campus the remains of the fallen Silent Sam Confederate monument. Those leadership changes, coming on the heels of a series of Board of Governors decisions seen as testing or exceeding the limits of good system governance, leave critics worried that no level of the UNC system will be left untouched by turmoil at its top. They also sharpen scrutiny of the system board’s chair, Harry Smith, who has clashed with Staton and other UNC executives and now faces new accusations of meddling in affairs normally reserved for campus leaders.
See also:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
As East Carolina Chancellor Resigns, One Board Member Accuses Chair of Forcing Him Out
Higher Education News:
The Wall Street Journal
Should All College Admissions Become Need-Blind?
Proponents say ending ability to pay as an admissions factor will restore trust in higher ed. Opponents say need-blind admissions is great in theory, but would do real damage.
The idea of need-blind college admissions is simple: Applicants are accepted or denied entry based on their merits, not on their ability to pay the tuition bill. The reality is a bit more complicated in that not all schools with need-blind admissions policies provide students with enough grants and scholarships to make the education affordable. Indeed, only 32 of the 102 colleges that currently have need-blind admissions policies for domestic applicants guarantee full financial aid without loans to all accepted students who need it, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Savingforcollege.com. The debate over whether a student’s ability to pay should be known from the start is heating up as the sticker price of attending college continues to grow.
U.S. New & World Report
White House Outlines Priorities for Higher Education Overhaul
The policy suggestions come as the Senate’s education committee has committed to overhauling the Higher Education Act, which hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008.
By Lauren Camera, Education Reporter
The White House outlined its priorities Monday for overhauling the federal higher education law, which hasn’t been reauthorized in more than a decade, as the process gets underway in Congress. The recommendations for lawmakers are outlined in a five-page memo, which places much of the blame for current deficiencies squarely on colleges and universities and pushes the higher education industry to focus on shifting workforce needs. “The rising cost of college education and the accompanying growth in student loan balances erodes the wage premium associated with a college degree,” the memo reads. “Unfortunately, many colleges and universities have been unable or unwilling to provide the necessary types of education in a cost-effective manner.” The administration wants colleges and universities to offer programs more aligned with immediate and future workforce needs and also wants to allow federal student aid, scholarships and grants to cover apprenticeships, certifications and other types of workforce training programs.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Here’s What the Trump Administration Wants to Change in Higher Ed’s Landmark Law
By Steven Johnson
The White House on Monday released its first stand-alone proposal for higher-education reform, urging the U.S. Congress to enact laws affecting accreditation, Pell Grants, and student-loan repayment. The plan repeats themes raised in President Trump’s 2020 federal budget proposal and reflects division between Democrats and Republicans over the federal government’s role in regulating the forces that shape colleges and the for-profit sector. Trump’s budget proposal for 2020, released last week, includes a $7-billion cut in the U.S. Department of Education, a changed student-loan repayment process, and the elimination of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Monday’s proposal includes requests that Congress consolidate income-driven repayment programs into one “simplified” program, allow Pell funds to be directed toward students leaving prison and toward shorter-term programs offering certificates and licenses, and create a pilot program to direct nontraditional students toward “market-driven work-force development programs.” It would define accreditors by mission rather than by geography. It would also orient federal work-study dollars toward specific career paths rather than “just subsidized employment as a means of financial aid.”
Inside Higher Ed
White House Looks to Curb Student Lending
As talks on new higher ed legislation heat up on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration weighs in with its priorities.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
The White House on Monday endorsed adding new lending caps for graduate and parent borrowers and giving campus aid administrators the authority to require loan counseling for student borrowers, among a slate of priorities for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. The wish list is the most comprehensive accounting so far of the Trump administration’s higher ed agenda. And it suggests the Trump administration sees limiting student borrowing as a top issue. The White House took a mostly hands-off approach in the last Congress as House Republicans pursued a controversial HEA rewrite that ultimately failed to get a floor vote. But with serious talks happening between Senate lawmakers and House Democrats signaling support for bipartisan legislation, the White House is weighing in on with key demands for the first update to the higher ed law since 2008.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Katherine Mangan
When U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told a young town-hall participant on CNN that she couldn’t get behind four years of free college for all, the news quickly spread. The Democratic presidential contender was breaking ranks with her party and voting “no” on free college tuition, the headlines read. Well, not exactly. The Minnesota Democrat, who has carved out a position as a centrist, was rejecting the four-year version championed by the progressive wing of her party — most notably, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont. But she supports the more limited kind of free-college proposal President Barack Obama promoted, which would have covered two years of community-college tuition. The free-college movement, which was largely pushed outside the beltway after President Trump was elected, is once again making headlines as the nation grapples with student-loan debt that has ballooned to more than $1.5 trillion. But it’s also creating confusion as presidential hopefuls stake out their positions and state and local politicians unveil their own plans. That’s because the proposals, like their sponsors, are all over the map, varying widely in scope, strings attached, and even the definition of free.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Confused About How ‘Free College’ Programs Differ? This Primer Can Help
By Katherine Mangan
Free college may be stalled on the national level, but it’s riding a wave of momentum in statehouses and city halls. It’s still seen by many as a litmus test for presidential candidates’ commitment to college affordability. But as programs and proposals proliferate, so has confusion over what exactly is meant by free. Here’s a primer to help sort through the many flavors of free among the more than 300 programs that have been rolled out so far. The programs vary in how the money is distributed. They’re generally categorized in these ways:
Inside Higher Ed
Trump Seeks to Ax Humanities Endowment
For third year in a row, he also seeks to kill National Endowment for the Arts. Congress has rejected those proposals in the past.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
White House budget documents released Monday included troubling, if familiar, proposals for supporters of humanities and the arts. President Trump for the third year called on Congress to wind down the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the two biggest backers of humanities research on college campuses as well as education programs across the country. While the humanities endowment budget is small compared to other agencies, it has played a major role in supporting research, the growth of the digital humanities and efforts to preserve historic documents. The proposal fits a broader theme in White House budgets to curtail federal support for research more broadly. At the same time, no other research agencies have been targeted for elimination like NEA and NEH, which are relatively small but have significant impact on the work of academics in humanities departments when that support is limited. Congress has ignored previous proposals from the Trump administration, however, and two letters are currently circulating among lawmakers that would call on appropriators to significantly increase the funding for those agencies.