University System News:
AJC.com
UGA probe: Clemson student drew swastikas on student doors
By Eric Stirgus
University of Georgia officials have determined that a Clemson University student visiting the Athens campus is responsible for drawing swastikas on student doors inside Russell Hall last month. UGA did not identify the student but said in a statement Wednesday that he has been banned from UGA campuses. The student will not face criminal charges.“The University of Georgia has not identified any criminal charges that local authorities are able to pursue at this time,” read the statement.
Inside Higher Ed
Kennesaw State Settles Anthem Kneeling Lawsuit
By Elin Johnson
After Kennesaw State made the decision to prevent five of its cheerleaders from protesting during the national anthem, Georgia taxpayers will now be fronting the $145,000 legal settlement. In 2017 five Kennesaw State cheerleaders took a knee before a football game during the national anthem to protest the treatment of African Americans. They were subsequently prevented from being on the sidelines before following games, and the fallout led to Kennesaw’s president resigning. Now, AJC.com reports that former cheerleader Tommia Dean will be taking home $93,000 — and her attorneys $52,000 — from a settlement that the Georgia Department of Administrative Services will be paying.
Valdosta Daily Times
Moss receives VSU President’s Award
Olivia Caroline Moss of Valdosta is the recipient of the fall President’s Award for Academic Excellence for the College of Science and Mathematics at Valdosta State University. The President’s Award for Academic Excellence is presented to the graduating student with the highest grade point average in each of VSU’s six colleges – Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, College of the Arts, James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and College of Science and Mathematics, university officials said.
The Albany Herald
Sims speaker for Georgia Southwestern fall commencement
AMERICUS — Georgia Southwestern State University will hold its fall 2019 commencement ceremonies Friday in the Convocation Hall of the Student Success Center. The undergraduate ceremony will be at 11 a.m., and the graduate ceremony will be at 3 p.m., with 285 students receiving degrees across both ceremonies. Approximately 135 undergraduate students will be recognized at the morning ceremony for their academic achievements. The commencement speaker will be Georgia State Sen. Freddie Powell Sims.
The Brunswick News
State Senate study committees adopt reports on higher ed, tort reform
By Wes Wolfe
Business leaders in a number of Georgia industries in the last several years held to a common refrain — there are good jobs to be found, but not enough qualified people to fill them. State Senate study committees addressing that and the legal costs of doing business in Georgia wrapped up Tuesday and adopted reports that are to go for consideration to the General Assembly in January. The Senate Study Committee on Higher Education Outcomes came about because, according to the committee’s report, “Georgia is experiencing a gap in skilled workers in various industries, including education, health care and information technology. This gap can be attributed to many factors including an aging workforce, a decline in rural populations and an inefficient talent pipeline.” This committee set out to come up with suggestions about how to make that talent pipeline more effective in supplying the talent pool necessary to staff needed jobs. Senators agreed on three goals — increasing post-secondary enrollment, persisting and progressing in post-secondary education and preparing for the workforce and lifelong learning… The committee also recommended further giving for completion grants and emergency funding, pay-as-you-go installment plans for tuition and other costs, and expansion of the nexus degree. Nexus degrees, according to the University System of Georgia, are “college credentials that emphasize hands-on experiential learning, skilled knowledge and connections with industry in high-demand career fields.”
3Dprint.com
NASA Phase II STTR Grant: PADT, KSU and ASU Collaboration on Bio-inspired Structures for NASA
By Bridget O’Neal
Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies (PADT) will be collaborating with Arizona State University (ASU) and Kennesaw State University (KSU) in the development of stronger, more lightweight structures for space exploration. Together they have been chosen for a $755,000 NASA Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Grant—a continuation from the $127,000 Phase I grant awarded to PADT and ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in August 2018. In this joint effort, PADT, ASU, and KSU have announced in a recent press release sent to 3DPrint.com that they will be creating a simulation tool for lattice structures in aerospace vehicles. This tool is expected to assist in each phase of designing, virtually testing, and optimizing the structures, with 3D printed simulations to be 3D printed for testing prototypes in the final evaluation process. Production grade components will also be 3D printed, with the possibility for use on spacecraft. PADT, ASU, and KSU may be deriving some of their inspiration from nature too, like so many other scientists, artists, designers, and researchers around the globe. Drawing from the example of honeycomb structures from a beehive, the team may be able to learn from the natural strength and lightweight elements, using them to create suitable shapes and spacing in lattice structures for aerospace applications. Their goal now is to create a design tool that combines properties like strength and density with the proper topology and parameter optimization necessary. Due to advancements in both science and technology today, the research team expects to design a bio-inspired geometry previously not possible with conventional methods.
Brunswick News
State Senate study committees adopt reports on higher ed, tort reform
By Wes Wolfe
Business leaders in a number of Georgia industries in the last several years held to a common refrain — there are good jobs to be found, but not enough qualified people to fill them. State Senate study committees addressing that and the legal costs of doing business in Georgia wrapped up Tuesday and adopted reports that are to go for consideration to the General Assembly in January. The Senate Study Committee on Higher Education Outcomes came about because, according to the committee’s report, “Georgia is experiencing a gap in skilled workers in various industries, including education, health care and information technology. This gap can be attributed to many factors including an aging workforce, a decline in rural populations and an inefficient talent pipeline.” This committee set out to come up with suggestions about how to make that talent pipeline more effective in supplying the talent pool necessary to staff needed jobs.
Growing Georgia
Woodard Named Director of Ag Ed, FFA Chair and National FFA Advisor
By Georgia Farm Bureau
On Nov. 15, the National Council for Agricultural Education (The Council) named Dr. James Woodard the director of Agricultural Education, FFA Board chair and National FFA advisor. Woodard replaces Dr. Steve Brown, who has served as board chair and national advisor for the past 11 years. Brown recently retired from his position at the U.S. Department of Education after 39 years of service to the agricultural education profession. In this role, Woodard will serve as chairperson of the National FFA Board of Directors, where he will provide oversight for the National FFA Organization. He will advise the National FFA officers, the board of directors, and the National FFA Delegates and committees on matters of policy and will help the national officers conduct meetings. In this three-year renewable role, he will co-direct the joint governance committee of the National FFA Organization and the National FFA Foundation Board of Trustees and serve as an advocate for issues affecting FFA and agricultural education stakeholders. Woodard served as superintendent of the Morgan Charter School Systems in Madison, Ga., until his appointment. His agricultural education and FFA journey began at Nicholls High School in Georgia. He began his collegiate studies as an agriculture major at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and later completed his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education at the University of Georgia. In 2015, Woodard received his doctorate in education leadership and administration from the University of Georgia.
Higher Education News:
AJC.com
Georgia economy to slow dramatically, UGA forecasts
By: Michael E. Kanell
Georgia’s economic growth will slow dramatically next year as it runs into the headwinds of international trade disputes, but the state should continue to add jobs, forecasters said Wednesday. Unemployment likely will tick up in 2020, but Georgia should still see 21,000 new jobs, said Benjamin Ayers, dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College. That’s less than one-third of the increase this year and a slower pace than the national average, Ayers said.
“We are impacted more by the trade war than the average state in the U.S.,” he said. “We are not predicting a recession. But, obviously, the odds of recession are higher than have been in the past.”
Inside Higher Ed
Trump Signs Order on Campus Anti-Semitism
By; Elizabeth Redden
President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order focused on anti-Semitism on college campuses, drawing praise from some quarters and concerns from others about implications for free speech on campuses. The executive order instructs agencies to “consider” a definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in investigating complaints of discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The IHRA definition is controversial in higher education because it encompasses some forms of anti-Israel speech. The definition includes a list of various forms that contemporary anti-Semitism can take. Such forms include “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” or “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” The definition states, however, that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
Inside Higher Ed
By: Madeline St. Amour
Community college students appear to suffer when in the same courses as high school students in dual-enrollment programs. A new working paper from the Community College Research Center examined how exposure to higher percentages of dual-enrollment students influenced the performance of college students. The potential negative effects are concerning, given that, in 2010, 15 percent of first-time community college students were in dual-enrollment programs, and that number is believed to have increased over time. Researchers found that increasing the proportion of dual-enrollment students in a course section by 10 percentage points had a “small but significant negative effect” on non-dual enrollment students. College students were two percentage points less likely to pass a course for every 10-percentage-point increase in dual enrollment students. The course persistence rate decreased by one percentage point. The average GPA for college students was also 0.06 points lower when they were in a course with a higher proportion of dual-enrollment students. It also had long-term effects, researchers found. College students were more likely to repeat a course and also less likely to enroll in a new course in the same subject area. When the researchers divided college students up by GPA, they found that the effects were fairly consistent, regardless of the students’ prior GPAs. While the researchers point out that dual enrollment has been positive for community colleges struggling to increase enrollment, administrators and instructors need to “be aware of the possible challenges” that the programs present.
AJC.com
University of Phoenix agrees to forgive $141 million in student loan debt
The University of Phoenix and its parent company have agreed to pay $50 million in cash and cancel $141 million in student debt to settle allegations of deceptive advertisement brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The deal, announced Tuesday, settles a dispute over an ad campaign the for-profit college unrolled in 2012 touting partnerships with companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe. It suggested the school worked with those companies to create job opportunities for students, even though there was no such agreement, investigators found.
Huron
How Leaders Can Prepare For and Promote Change
The higher education industry continues to be immersed in change, with institutions navigating increasing competition, diversifying student populations and dwindling financial resources. Amid this upheaval, college and university leaders face a growing sense of urgency to prepare for the future and transform. Leaders will not be able to solve for every economic, political, social or technological variable reshaping the industry. But by rooting transformation in tangible changes to the management approaches, processes and structures that have long defined their institutions, leaders will prepare their teams to educate and impact as many students as possible – regardless of what the future holds. Together Huron, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Georgia Institute of Technology surveyed 495 leaders at four-year, nonprofit colleges and universities to understand areas of opportunity and concern and how they are preparing for future change. As the research illustrates, leaders can position their institutions through meaningful change by building upon four key dimensions of transformation readiness. Develop and empower collaborative leaders who share accountability for strategic growth and manage enterprise performance more deliberately.