CBS46 News
University System of Georgia introduces new college comparison tool
The website allows users to compare all 26 public universities and colleges in the University System (USG).
By CBS46 News Staff
The University System of Georgia just rolled out a new one-stop-shop website now available for Georgia parents and students making major college decisions. It’s called Georgia Degrees Pay. The tool, announced at the August Board of Regents meeting on Tuesday, allows users to compare all 26 public universities and colleges in the University System (USG). Many of the features allow users compare up to two schools at a time – and include categories like cost of attendance, future earnings, and student success rates. “As one of the best public university systems in the nation, the University System of Georgia is leading the nation in giving students, families and stakeholders in-depth access to data in a centralized, easy to use and transparent fashion,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said in a press release on Tuesday. Under the cost category, students and their families can find information on each school’s affordability, borrowing and the amount of debt one might take on.
See also:
Athens CEO, Savannah CEO, Mainstreet News, Online Athens (Athens Banner-Herald)
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Valdosta Today
GEER establishes career planning platform
The Governor’s Emergency Education Relief fund has been used to set up the Career Planning Resource Platform, which is accessible to all 26 institutions in the University System of Georgia.
Release:
Governor Brian P. Kemp and University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Sonny Perdue announced a new statewide career planning resource platform. Governor Kemp has awarded USG $650,000 from the Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund to set up the Career Planning Resource Platform, to which all 26 public institutions will have access. “This is just our latest effort to ensure the academic and professional opportunities of Georgia students have fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and that they are both well-prepared to meet our growing workforce needs and able to find dedicated careers which set them on a path of life-long success,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “The Career Planning Resource Platform will provide USG students with use-at-your-own pace, virtual career planning, advice, and survey tools that will help them pursue customized degrees and professional paths.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regents authorize $4.5 million upgrade of Georgia Tech building
By Vanessa McCray
A Georgia Tech building that houses lab space for the engineering and computing colleges will undergo a $4.5 million renovation. The Georgia Board of Regents this week authorized the renovation of a portion of the 30,300-square-foot Tech Way Building. The site is located off North Avenue on the school’s Atlanta campus. Planned updates include a new high-security storage space, laboratories, high-voltage electrical research laboratories and work space for graduate students. The building was previously an electrical parts warehouse.
Albany Herald
Off to College: ASU welcomes 6,000 students to campus
From staff reports
Albany State University is welcoming more than 6,000 students back to campus this week. The university’s 11 residence halls for campus housing are expected to be at capacity with approximately 2,400 students living on both the East and West Campuses. “The strategic focus we are placing on increasing student enrollment and retention is evident in the record number of students we are welcoming to campus this year,” Vice President of Student Affairs Terry Lindsay said in a news release. “As students return to ASU, we are committed to providing a positive campus life experience, including providing myriad resources that will help them achieve academic excellence, while balancing their health and well-being.” More than 1,000 incoming freshmen will reside in the residence halls for the upcoming fall semester. Many of these students will be participating in University College, ASU’s new living/learning communities program. The incoming freshmen arrive one week before classes begin to participate in RAM Success Week, a week dedicated to preparing the students for their transition to higher education.
InsiderAdvantage
Georgia Film Academy seeking new leader
by Cindy Morley
The film industry continues to set records in Georgia. In fiscal year 2022 film and television productions spent $4.4 billion in Georgia – up from the previous record of $4 billion set in fiscal 2021. The Georgia Film Office recently announced that Georgia hosted 412 productions in the last fiscal year, including 32 feature films, 36 independent films, 269 television and episodic productions, 42 commercials, and 33 music videos. Many say much of the success can be attributed to Georgia’s commitment to the industry – including the Georgia Film Academy, which is a professional organization and a unit of the University System of Georgia which was designed to lead and advance the entertainment arts industry and its workforce in Georgia. According to officials, GFA provides training in film-production, post-production and digital entertainment certification programs to high schools, technical colleges, and universities throughout the state. Students also have the opportunity to gain real-life experience through internships, working on major film and television sets and in production companies and post-production facilities. Since classes began in 2016, GFA has grown from less than 200 students at two universities and a technical college to more than 12,000 enrollments with 29 partnering educational institutions. Over 1,400 students have completed internships, and direct spending on television and film production in the state has grown from $2 billion to more than $4 billion since the organization was founded.
Albany CEO
Georgia Southwestern Looks to Propel Business Leaders with New Executive MBA Program
Staff Report
Georgia Southwestern State University will launch an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), set to begin Spring 2023. The 12-month, cohort-based program is designed specifically to prepare mid- to upper-level executives for increasingly advanced management roles within their current or future organizations leading to career advancement, personal growth and salary increase. Official approval for the new program just came from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) at their August meeting. Business and community leaders in the region expressed a high level of interest and need for an EMBA program in Southwest Georgia during GSW’s Academic Planning in 2019. …GSW’s EMBA consists of ten courses carefully designed and delivered in a convenient hybrid format to fit the needs of our region’s busy organizational leaders and move these professionals through the program in cohorts with maximum time efficiency and minimum distraction from their important duties.
Times-Georgian
Landmark structure in UWG’s ’70s building boom to be renovated
Special To The Times-Georgian
UWG’s Humanities Building to undergo renovations
An architect’s rendering shows what the Humanities Building, built in 1970 and one of the largest structures on the University of West Georgia campus, will look like when a major renovation project is completed in 2023.
Nestled in the heart of the University of West Georgia’s main campus is a visual manifestation of its strategic plan. In an effort to elevate both physical spaces and student experiences, renovations of the UWG Humanities Building are currently underway, with the demolition of interior spaces taking place this summer. “Over the next year, we will continue to transform a facility that has been a focal point of our institution — and has housed programs that are beloved by our students, alumni, faculty, staff and community for decades,” said UWG President Dr. Brendan Kelly. “I look forward to the transformation of this space, which will dramatically and elegantly expand and increase opportunities for professional and collaborative learning for UWG students,” President Kelly noted.
Government Technology
CHIPS Act Could Mean Jobs, Scholarships for Georgia Universities
Recent federal legislation gives the National Science Foundation $10 billion to create roughly 20 regional technology hubs, which could mean STEM funding and scholarships for institutions like Columbus State University.
Nick Wooten, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.
Could the Columbus-Auburn-Opelika area become a regional technology hub? Will Columbus State University get more federal grant dollars? Both are possibilities after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview. The bipartisan bill passed by Congress in late July includes more than $52 billion for U.S. companies producing computer chips with billions more in tax breaks via tax credits that incentivize chip manufacturing — a move that will help area manufacturers like KIA as well Pratt and Whitney. Beyond that, the legislation directs the National Science Foundation to use $10 billion to create roughly 20 regional technology hubs. The foundation will also receive $81 billion over five years, and a portion of those funds will be to strengthen research capacity at historically Black colleges and universities as well as other small institutions.
WALB
VSU police chief named president of Ga. Association of Chiefs of Police
By Mackenzie Petrie
Valdosta States Chief Of Police Alan Rowe Has Been Sworn In As The 60th President Of The Georgia Association Of Chiefs Of Police. He’s Been A Part Of The Campus Police For Eight Years Now And He Said He’s Honored To Be The President For The Association. …Rowe has been in law enforcement for 20 years He enjoys being campus police because he gets to be a part of the educational experience, spending time and educating students instead of traditional law enforcement roles.
Athens Banner-Herald
With students back at UGA, time to salute the members of the Lumpkin Street Phalanx
Loran Smith Columnist
Seeing all the vans and U-Haul trailers across town last weekend brought about a reminder that there is nothing like the return of the students each August for the fall semester. I had a friend call about booking a room and asked for a recommendation of a lodging facility. “No problem,” was the response. Soon, I learned there were no vacancies anywhere in Athens. Parents were accompanying offspring as they settled in for the school year. It was like trying to locate a room to rent the weekend of the Georgia-Auburn game. When the students come back — how exciting — they take over the town and nobody complains. They soon will be bringing about traffic jams. The most expeditious mode of transportation to get up and down Lumpkin Street is by bicycle. Downtown becomes as congested as Coney Island was in its heyday in the ’50s. …College life and the glory of autumn offer a combination that is without equal. Especially for those who are alumni of the Lumpkin Street Phalanx.
Valdosta CEO
VSU Joins Kingsland Revitalization, Recovery Planning Efforts
Jessica Pope
Valdosta State University faculty recently developed a needs assessment to support a Coastal Georgia community as it works towards inclusive recovery following the global pandemic known as COVID-19. Dr. Joseph Robbins and Dr. Keith Lee Jr. from VSU’s Department of Political Science said their 40-plus-question needs assessment survey went live a few days ago in Kingsland, Georgia, and residents are already responding. Robbins, who serves as professor and head of VSU’s Department of Political Science, and Lee, who coordinates VSU’s public administration and organizational leadership programs, were tapped for this potentially life-changing collaboration by Darrell Moore, director of VSU’s Center for South Georgia Regional Impact The needs assessment survey is anonymous and voluntary and takes about 10 minutes to complete. It collects basic demographic information like age, current housing situation, how many people live in the home, and gross family income.
WGAU Radio
UGA researchers find new way to detect Listeria
“Our approach is as good if not better than the competitive methods in the market in terms of their limits of detection”
By Tim Bryant
Researchers in the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering are developing a new way to detect potentially deadly Listeria contamination in food. In a new study published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, UGA scientists say they introduce a rapid diagnostic method based on electrochemical biosensing principles. The Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Research Alliance have provided funding for the project.
From Mike Wooten, UGA College of Engineering…
Listeriosis, an infection caused by eating food contaminated by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, can cause severe illness in pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. Listeria is the third leading cause of death from foodborne illness, or food poisoning, in the United States. An estimated 1,600 people get sick each year and about 260 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, Listeria contamination in food products is identified only through molecular tests conducted in diagnostic laboratories on samples taken at specific control points during the manufacturing and distribution process. Although very accurate, this method requires significant processing time, transportation of samples, and expensive skilled labor and equipment.
Science Alert
Gorillas Have Invented A Unique Vocalization to Get Zookeepers’ Attention
By Tessa Koumoundouros
In a fascinating discovery, western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at Zoo Atlanta have been caught summoning their keepers using a strange cough-sneeze hybrid. Only two other species have displayed this ability to create new vocalizations to attract our attention: zoo-housed chimpanzees and orangutans. Now, we can add gorillas to that list. Below, 24-year-old female gorilla Sukari demonstrates this gorilla equivalent to a human ‘ahem’ which researchers have called a ‘snough’. As many of us know, Koko put a spotlight on gorilla intelligence in the ’80s and ’90s with her incredible ability to communicate with humans using sign language. She was trained and worked diligently at it, but now it seems gorillas have taken it upon themselves to establish unique communication with us on their own terms. University of Georgia biological anthropologist Roberta Salmi and colleagues, ran an experiment to confirm the purpose of the ‘snough’, by placing eight of the zoo’s gorillas in three different situations.
Higher Education News:
Bipartisan Policy Center
By Kevin Miller
As the federal student debt portfolio continues to balloon, the federal government must consider stronger accountability mechanisms to protect students from low-value institutions and unsustainable debt. The Bipartisan Policy Center has a newly updated tool that allows users to search for the return on investment (ROI) for colleges and universities across the country. BPC’s modeling reaffirms that not all higher education institutions provide a positive return for students. Previous estimates have suggested that a bachelor’s degree, on average, leads to approximately $1.2 million in additional lifetime earnings, but BPC’s analysis shows that a fuller accounting of costs results in a different assessment for many institutions. The Department of Education disburses nearly $150 billion in financial aid annually to thousands of institutions across the country, and many students and their families may assume that these institutions meet quality standards. However, inadequate accountability standards mean low-performing institutions are rarely disqualified from receiving federal funds, allowing those schools to saddle students with debt yet provide no real benefit after enrollment.
Higher Ed Dive
What happened when the Common App offered college students proactive admission?
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Senior Reporter
Dive Brief:
The Common Application said Wednesday it will expand to 10 colleges a pilot program that offers students admission before they even apply, a move coming after early results from the initiative proved promising. Representatives from the Common App — an online portal enabling students to apply en masse to the more than 1,000 colleges that participate — said their research showed students were more likely to apply to an institution if they received automatic admission. They compared students who applied to colleges after being accepted proactively to those who applied through the traditional process, finding the former group was more likely to seek admission. The Common App also examined whether granting students automatic admission would translate to them applying to fewer colleges, which it said does not appear to be the case.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Online Education Is Booming, but Colleges Risk Lapses in Quality, Report Says
By Taylor Swaak
A survey of more than 300 officials at American colleges shows many are planning for long-term growth in online education, but few are consistently evaluating the quality of their mushrooming course lists. According to a newly released report on the survey’s findings — by the nonprofit group Quality Matters and Encoura’s Eduventures, a higher-education-market research firm — more than 90 percent of the “chief online officers” surveyed said they expect the typical traditional-age undergraduates on their campus would be taking courses in some kind of hybrid format by 2025. That’s a stark departure from just three years ago, before the pandemic, when 20 percent of such undergrads took hybrid courses. The vast majority of college officials in the survey — 96 percent — said they’d adopted “quality assurance” standards to guide this rapid metamorphosis. Such standards advise faculty members on how to make online learning accessible, intuitive, and engaging for students. That might mean setting expectations for offering timely, regular instructor feedback on assignments, clearly aligning activities with a course’s learning objectives, and posting transcripts of all video content.
Inside Higher Ed
Company Steps in to Ease Transfer-Credit Friction
Outlier creates a network of institutions to try to fix a broken system of transfer credit. Experts applaud the company’s efforts, but its for-profit nature may limit acceptance by some institutions.
By Susan D’Agostino
When Aaron Rasmussen was growing up in rural Oregon, his performance on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test suggested he had potential as a film director. But with four siblings and two parents living on a schoolteacher’s salary, he also had limited means for vocational training or higher education. Blue Mountain Community College was 34 miles away, in Pendleton, Oregon, but 12 of those miles were covered in ice in winter, which would have made commuting difficult. Instead, he headed to Boston University on a Pell Grant. To help minimize overall college costs, he took summer classes at Blue Mountain, though he only breathed easy once the courses credits successfully transferred to Boston University. The armed services test was not wrong. Rasmussen is best known for co-founding MasterClass, an online course subscription platform in which a wide range of experts and celebrities like Gordon Ramsey and Usher teach their crafts through pre-recorded tutorials and lectures. He is now the founder and CEO of Outlier, a company that produces cinematic college-level online courses with rockstar academics like mathematicians Hannah Fry and John Urschel. The courses, which cost $400 and grant credit through the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, offer students the opportunity to earn college credit in general education courses intended for transfer to home institutions. “Potential is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not,” Rasmussen said. “This is my shot at going back and trying to fix what I was missing growing up and making it available to other people.”
NBC News
Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college
An “alarming” number of people are rejecting college — and it could widen the fissures already polarizing American society.
By Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
Even as freshmen nervously arrive on campus for the fall semester, policymakers are grappling with what they say has become an “alarming” decline in the number of high school graduates willing to invest the time and money it takes to go to college. A little-understood backlash against higher education is driving an unprecedented decline in enrollment that experts now warn is likely to diminish people’s quality of life and the nation’s economic competitiveness, especially in places where the slide is most severe. “With the exception of wartime, the United States has never been through a period of declining educational attainment like this,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business. There are 4 million fewer students in college now than there were 10 years ago, a falloff many observers blame on Covid-19, a dip in the number of Americans under 18 and a strong labor market that is sucking young people straight into the workforce. But while the pandemic certainly made things worse, the downturn took hold well before it started.
Inside Higher Ed
OPINION – A Real Faculty Apprenticeship
A federally registered apprenticeship program would address supply-side job market problems and protect investments graduate students make in their careers, Dan Jacoby writes.
By Dan Jacoby
When universities significantly expand their enrollment of graduate students, neighboring institutions of higher education exhibit greater use of part-time faculty. That was the conclusion of a recent paper I co-authored with Jon Boyette, titled “Supply Side Fantasies and Precarious Part-time Academic Labor,” published in Education Policy Analysis Archives. In an influential 2008 book, Marc Bousquet criticized what he termed the “supply-side fantasy” and argued that decreasing the supply of graduate students would not change reliance upon contingent faculty employment. Without explaining how it would work, he did, however, indicate that a “revived apprenticeship” could be beneficial. In this essay, I will suggest that construction of a formal, federally recognized graduate apprenticeship program is both a possible and necessary supply-side solution, a remedy to the problem of too many Ph.Ds. and too few secure academic jobs.
Inside Higher Ed
A Best-Selling Textbook Is Now Free
A popular chemistry book’s jump from a publishing titan to an OER pioneer could be pivotal for the open access movement. For the author, it’s also a fitting tribute to his late son.
By Liam Knox
John McMurry’s textbook Organic Chemistry has helped millions of students across the globe pass the infamous gauntlet of its namesake class — also known among stressed-out pre-med students as “orgo” — since the book was first printed in 1984. For his bestseller’s 10th edition, McMurry has decided to part ways with his longtime publisher, the industry giant Cengage, which has published the book since the beginning. He recently sold the rights to OpenStax, a nonprofit based at Rice University that is dedicated to developing open education resources (OER), learning and research materials created and licensed to be free for the user. That means for the first time, the digital version of Organic Chemistry and its accompanying solutions manual — usually priced at almost $100 — will be available for students to download free.