University System News:
Albany Herald
ABAC produces Southeast’s most ag grads
From Staff Report
When 26 agricultural education graduates walked across the commencement stage at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on May 9, they represented the largest group of agricultural education graduates in the entire southeastern United States. ABAC President David Bridges said he could not be prouder of the accomplishment. “This spring marked the first time in ABAC’s 111-year history that we awarded the bachelor’s degree in agricultural education,” Bridges said. “The agricultural education program is one of our largest bachelor’s degree programs, and this first ABAC cohort is the largest ag ed cohort in Georgia, and I would say the largest in the southeast.”
Athens CEO
UGA Law School Graduates Post 100% Passage Rate for Georgia Bar Exam
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
The University of Georgia School of Law is pleased to share that 100% of first-time takers for the February 2019 bar examination passed, according to the Board of Bar Examiners and the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Office of Bar Admissions. This is the highest percentage among Georgia’s six law schools.
Tifton Gazette
Six ABAC biology students selected for pathway to medical school program
Six students majoring in the bachelor’s degree in biology at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College were recently admitted into the Southwest Georgia Area Health Education center (AHEC) Pathway to Medical School program.
Emanuel County Live
EGSC earns Tree Campus USA recognition for 2019
by WHITLEY CLIFTON
East Georgia State College was recently recognized as a Tree Campus USA for 2018. This designation from the Arbor Day Foundation are awarded to universities and colleges across the United States for promoting healthy trees and student engagement on campus. …This the second time that EGSC has been designated as a Tree Campus USA. In order to obtain this certification, EGSC successfully completed five standards, including the Arbor Day observance and the completion of a service learning project for EGSC students and the local communities.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle
New $35M business school planned at University of North Georgia
By David Allison – Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University System of Georgia plans a new $35 million building for the University of North Georgia’s Mike Cottrell College of Business in Dahlonega. Construction on the new 91,000-square-foot building is expected to begin in fall 2020 with completion expected in fall 2022. The number of floors are still being designed, UNG spokesperson Sylvia Carson told Atlanta Business Chronicle. Total enrollment within the college of business is approximately 4,600, and UNG has nearly 20,000 students in total. Mary A. Gowanwas named dean of the college of business in February.
Tech Transfer eNews
U of Georgia start-ups generate more than half a billion dollars each year, report shows
By Jesse Schwartz
Innovation Gateway, the tech transfer arm of the University of Georgia (UGA), is generating more than half of a billion dollars each year in economic value, a recent report shows. Based on data from a survey of UGA startups — for example, the number of jobs created, payroll, and operating expenses — the study shows that companies launched through Innovation Gateway have an economic impact of $531 million across the state, including $322 million in Georgia.
Fast Company
How this roboticist is advancing the art of human-robot interaction
By Sean Captain
Almost a third of a nurse’s average day “is spent on non-patient care: fetching, gathering, even taking out the trash,” says Andrea Thomaz, who, after a career spent running robotics labs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Texas, cofounded Diligent Robotics to bring her human-robot interaction research to market. In September 2018, her company launched a five-hospital beta trial of Moxi, a hospital robot assistant that completes non-patient-facing tasks such as gathering and delivering supplies and lab samples. Thomaz is also honing the robot’s social intelligence to help it better interact with humans.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NEW: Portman, Georgia Tech celebrate opening of Tech Square’s Coda
By J. Scott Trubey
Georgia Tech and developer Portman Holdings on Thursday celebrated the opening of Coda, the latest addition to Midtown’s Technology Square, hailing the tower as an epicenter for new ideas and technologies. The $375 million L-shaped tower at Spring and 4th streets in Atlanta is designed to attract corporations and serve the high-performance computing needs of researchers at Georgia Tech and partner companies. It also marks the second phase of Technology Square, the eastward expansion of Georgia Tech’s campus across the Downtown Connector, which has emerged as a magnet for corporations. n the years since Coda was announced, NCR opened its Midtown headquarters and health care giant Anthem, the parent of Blue Cross Blue Shield, announced plans to occupy two future Portman towers a block south of Technology Square. Norfolk Southern and developer Cousins Properties recently started construction nearby on the railroad giant’s new corporate home. Hundreds of student housing units also have sprouted in recent years on the blocks surrounding Tech Square.
Forbes
Forgiving Student Loan Debt Frees Consumers To Pursue Better Opportunities
HBS Working Knowledge, Contributor
Student loan debt is not only crippling Americans financially, it is holding them back from pursuing better opportunities. When student debt is erased, a huge burden is lifted and people take big steps to improve their lives: They seek higher-paying careers in new states, improve their education, get their other finances in order, and make more substantial contributions to the economy, according to a new research study Second Chance: Life without Student Debt. The study was co-written by Harvard Business School Associate Professor Marco Di Maggio, Indiana University Assistant Professor Ankit Kalda, and Vincent W. Yao of Georgia State University. The paper shines a light on a student debt crisis that Democratic presidential hopefuls have called a national emergency. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed forgiving student loan debt for millions of borrowers on a sliding scale based on income, and Sen. Bernie Sanders has pushed for eliminating undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges and universities.
Higher Education News:
The New York Times
By David Leonhardt and Sahil Chinoy
American higher education has a dropout problem. About one in three students who enroll in college never earn a degree. But a promising solution is staring us in the face: Schools with similar students often have very different graduation rates. This suggests that the problem isn’t the students — it’s the schools. Here we looked at 368 colleges arranged by what we would expect their graduation rates to be, based on the average for colleges with similar student bodies. …The chart above is based on an analysis done by The New York Times and the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy. We undertook this project because the college-dropout crisis is a major contributor to American inequality. Many lower-income and middle-class students excel in high school only to falter in college. They then struggle to get good jobs. College matters so much because it isn’t just about book learning or the development of tangible skills. It’s one of the first obstacle courses of adult life. The students who complete it typically go on to earn more and live healthier and happier lives, research shows.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why Are SAT Takers Getting an ‘Adversity Score’? Here’s Some Context
By Eric Hoover
Grades, test scores, and a list of extracurricular activities can tell you only so much. To assess an applicant’s performance, admissions officers at selective colleges also try to understand the all-important context of his or her achievements. A new tool might help them do that. As The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, 50 colleges over the last year have been using something called the Environmental Context Dashboard, which includes an “adversity score” for each applicant who took the SAT. The College Board, which oversees the exam, created the dashboard to give colleges a better understanding of test takers’ socioeconomic backgrounds — and the challenges they may have encountered. So far, at least some participating colleges report that the dashboard has helped them admit more disadvantaged applicants.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Let’s Clarify a Few Things About the New ‘Adversity Score.’ (First, Stop Calling It That.)
By Eric Hoover
Alarm. Anger. Confusion. News of the College Board’s Environmental Context Dashboard has caused all of the above. As The Chronicle reported last week, more than 50 colleges have been using a new online tool designed to give admissions offices a better understanding of applicants’ socioeconomic backgrounds — and the challenges they may have encountered. On Thursday the College Board hosted a webinar to clear up some misunderstandings. Here are five key takeaways.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Labor Agency to Propose Rule on Grad Students’ Right to Unionize
By Audrey Williams June
When it comes to ruling on graduate students’ right to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board has a history of flip-flopping based on which political party controls it. Democrats have supported grad students’ right to unionize. Republicans have not. So once President Trump had the opportunity to start appointing Republicans to the board, graduate-student unions whose institutions had refused to bargain collectively made a decision: They would avoid petitioning the NLRB so the agency wouldn’t have the chance to overturn a 2016 ruling that gave graduate students at Columbia University and other private colleges the right to bargain collectively. That strategy, however, appears to have been a short-term shield. The NLRB announced this week that it planned to propose a rule “to establish the standard for determining whether students who perform services at a private college or university in connection with their studies are ‘employees’” and can form unions. Rulemaking, as it’s called, will allow the labor board to revisit the issue without having to wait for a case to be brought up.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Texas Professors Could Be Criminally Charged if They Don’t Report Sexual Violence
By Katherine Mangan
College and university employees who learn about and fail to report complaints of sexual harassment, assault, dating violence, or stalking could face criminal charges under legislation approved this week in Texas. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joan Huffman, a Republican from Houston, would also make it a crime to file a false report about such incidents. It would apply to employees at both public and private colleges. Employees could also be fired for failing to promptly report such incidents to their Title IX administrators. The bill, approved by the Senate and then by the House, next goes to the governor for his signature, according to a staff member in Huffman’s office. The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, but his approval is expected. Texas is the latest state aiming to crack down on people who look the other way when incidents of sexual misconduct occur.