University System News:
Inside Higher Ed
Higher Education Needs New Models
We must provide better and more affordable opportunities for more people, writes Matthew S. Holland, citing a “dual-mission” approach as one example.
By Matthew S. Holland
Over the last few years, we’ve heard much discussion about the disenfranchisement of the working class and our nation’s failure to educate them. The lack of skilled workers is starting to have widespread repercussions: according to a recent survey by Manpower, 46 percent of U.S. employers are struggling to fill job vacancies. And for the seventh consecutive year, employers report that skilled trade vacancies are the hardest to fill. At the same time, many people in the middle class are finding it hard to afford the cost of higher education, leaving behind more and more people who wish to earn a degree but cannot handle the financial burden. Fortunately, a spirit of reform is in the air when it comes to higher education in general and vocational education in particular. Lawmakers and higher education professionals are looking for ways to address declining enrollment numbers and skyrocketing tuition, as well as to repair the knowledge gap in today’s work force. For example, in spring of 2018, a group of university system presidents, chancellors, journalists and others working in higher education gathered at Utah Valley University to discuss alternative models to the traditional four-year institution, which many believe, while still enormously relevant, needs to explore new pathways for students. …One manifestation is merging universities with community colleges. Georgia, for example, has been combining some of its universities and community colleges, and Wisconsin began doing the same this fall. Both states saw the need to consolidate in that way when enrollment at rural community colleges started dropping as the population in those areas shrank. …Many of these models can help universities save costs and keep tuition low by sharing staff, faculty members and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the dual-mission model — or “dual function,” as Georgia calls it — gives students who start on a vocational or community college track the certificate or two-year degree they desire, while also allowing them to continue toward an advanced degree much more smoothly and efficiently than if they were to transfer to a different institution. …Steve Wrigley, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, said that since his state began combining some of its community colleges and universities, students have gotten access to more degrees and are being served better. One college once offered only four bachelor degrees, he said. After the consolidation, that institution now provides 22.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rising student loan debt a ‘crisis,’ DeVos says
By Eric Stirgus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since 2007, the amount of student loan debt held by the federal government has tripled, from about $500 billion to an estimated $1.5 trillion, according to the federal government’s top education official. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos warned an audience in Atlanta on Tuesday that this is a national problem. “We have a crisis in higher education,” DeVos said at the start of a four-day Federal Student Aid (FSA) training conference, held at the Georgia World Congress Center. “Our higher ed system is the envy of the world, but if we, as a country, do not make important policy changes in the way we distribute, administer and manage federal student loans, the program on which so many students rely will be in serious jeopardy.” DeVos also told the audience that 43 percent of student loans are considered in “distress,” meaning they’re delinquent, at risk of default or students aren’t paying enough on their loans. In Georgia, like much of the nation, students are borrowing more to attend school. In 2010-11, students who graduated from some of Georgia’s top public colleges, such as the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech, borrowed an average of $16,705, according to a recent Southern Regional Education Board report. In 2015-16, the average amount borrowed was $21,907, the report found, a 31 percent increase.
Forbes
75 Colleges With Free Or Reduced Tuition
Zack Friedman, Senior Contributor
Can you really go to college for free? The answer is yes — and these 75 colleges offer free or reduced tuition … While this list is not comprehensive, here are 75 colleges (in alphabetical order) that offer free tuition, reduced tuition or “no student loans” financial aid policies for undergraduates … 25. Georgia Institute of Technology
The College Fix
Condi Rice protested as ‘war criminal’ ahead of December grad speech at Georgia Tech
ZACHARY PETRIZZO
Students at the Georgia Institute of Technology have launched a protest against the upcoming appearance of former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the keynote speaker at the school’s upcoming December commencement ceremony. Her pending visit has prompted a group of progressive students to pepper the campus with anti-Rice fliers and launch a campaign against the first African American woman to hold the post of Secretary of State.
The George-Anne
East Georgia State College to return to Georgia Southern’s Statesboro campus
By Rachel Adams, The George-Anne staff
East Georgia State College’s Statesboro campus is expected to relocate to the Georgia Southern University Statesboro campus by spring of 2020. The Nessmith-Lane Conference Center on GS’ campus will house EGSC, and the GS Continuing Education Center, which currently inhabits the space, will move to the current EGSC campus. “EGSC actually began its history in Statesboro on the GS campus,” Deborah Vess, PhD, vice president for Academic and Student Affairs, said in an email. “Administrators from both campuses have been discussing the advantages of relocating back to the GS campus for some time now.” EGSC is a feeder institution for GS and offers classes and services to students who might not be ready to initially enter GS as freshmen. “Our goal is to prepare EGSC-Statesboro students for transfer to GS, preferably upon completion of an associate’s degree, but often after 30 or more credit hours,” Vess said.
The Athens Banner-Herald
UGA breaks ground for new science building
By Lee Shearer
University of Georgia administrators broke ground for the school’s next science building Tuesday as UGA President Jere Morehead and others tossed shovelfuls of dirt dumped in a university parking lot for the occasion. “This project will be truly transformative for our college,” said UGA College of Engineering Dean Donald Leo, one of several speakers before the ceremonial shoveling. The 100,000-square-foot structure will house research labs and offices for chemistry and engineering, and is designed to encourage collaboration between disciplines, Morehead told a crowd of more than 100 people assembled in a tent erected for the ceremony just outside the building that houses the UGA Museum of Natural History. The Interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (I-STEM) Building will cost about $65 million, plus a $10 million attached parking deck. About $45 million is state bond-financed capital funding and $20 million will come from UGA funds. The parking deck funding will come from UGA Transportation and Parking Services revenues. When the building is finished, it will free up space in UGA’s biology and chemistry buildings for renovation and repurposing, Morehead told the crowd.
University Business
UNG helping South Georgia State launch teacher education program
Oakwood, Ga. (November 14, 2018)—The University of North Georgia (UNG) is helping a fellow University System of Georgia (USG) institution train the next generation of teachers. UNG agreed to give South Georgia State College (SGSC) students a chance to earn a dual certification in elementary education and special education through a memorandum of understanding. SGSC students may complete UNG’s special education general curriculum elementary education program and qualify for teacher certification through UNG. The agreement outlines that this partnership will be implemented as SGSC seeks to develop its own program. UNG faculty will operate as consultants to assist SGSC faculty in program delivery, meeting compliance with program standards and developing SGSC’s own program.
The Tifton Gazette
ABAC students win national competition
TIFTON — Two students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College recently claimed the top prize in a national research grant competition from the Beta Beta Beta Biological Society Research Foundation. Michele Moncrief, a senior biology major from Bogart, and Corey Brooke, a senior biology major from Sycamore, won the national competition open to TriBeta students conducting mentored research from all participating chapters. Their research proposal was titled, “The effects of nicotine and niacin on chemoreception in fall army worms, a major pest of sweet corn in the Southeastern United States.” …“This is the first time that ABAC students entered this competition, and we won,” Gress said. “They will be presenting the results of this project at the TriBeta Regional Convention at the Association of Southeastern Biologists conference in Memphis in April.”
Georgia Growing America
ABAC’s Top Fundraiser Receives GEAC Statewide Award
Dr. Deidre Mercer Martin from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College received the Georgia Education Advancement Council (GEAC) 2018 Award for Excellence in Educational Fundraising at the recent GEAC annual conference in Savannah. “Giving to the ABAC Foundation has increased 196 per cent since her arrival,” Paul Williams, Vice President of External Affairs and Advancement at ABAC, said when he presented the award to Martin. “Campus participation in our annual ‘Give Back to ABAC’ campaign has increased 568 per cent. She is just phenomenal.” Martin, ABAC’s Chief Development Officer, joined the ABAC advancement office in 2015 after retiring as the Vice Chancellor for University Advancement at the University of South Carolina Aiken. She moved to the family farm in Omega, just a few miles from the ABAC campus in Tifton.
The Brunswick News
Pinova partners with college, school system to promote STEM education
By LAUREN MCDONALD
Representation matters. Children cannot dream of pursing a career of which they’ve never heard. An event held recently at the College of Coastal Georgia aimed to bring some of the career options in STEM fields to life young girls in the community. The event, titled “Expanding Your Horizons” gave the students a chance to engage in hands-on activities related to the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The event was held in partnership with Pinova, the college and Glynn County Schools. The girls also were able to meet women who work in STEM fields and to learn about the life journeys that brought these women into their careers.
Athens CEO
UGA Launches Project to Transform STEM Education
Sam Fahmy
More than 100 University of Georgia faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math will collaborate on a comprehensive research project that seeks to transform STEM education on campus and at research universities nationwide. Funded by a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, teams of faculty members will create, implement and assess active learning materials to help students better develop STEM knowledge and skills. The multi-level project also involves department heads, the Office of Faculty Affairs and Office of Instruction, who will work together to explore ways to better support, incentivize and reward effective, evidence-based STEM instruction. Research findings, at both the disciplinary level and at the department and institutional levels, will be broadly disseminated to improve student learning outcomes at UGA and at research institutions nationwide.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Feds award Georgia Tech $5.3 million for energy research
By Eric Stirgus
A federal agency has awarded Georgia Tech more than $5 million for two projects aimed at encouraging designers to develop the “next big thing” in energy. One project could improve the power density of electric motors and reduce system size and weight. The other project is aimed at designing “an autonomous, resilient and cyber-secure protection and control system distributed to each power plant and substation on the grid.” The two awards total about $5.3 million.
The Red & Black
The blueberry state: How one UGA professor helped Georgia become a leading producer of blueberries
Sherry Liang | Contributor
For a state nicknamed “the peach state,” it’s hard to imagine Georgia being known for anything else. With “peach” tacked onto the beginning of road and city, Georgia’s official state fruit is the pride and joy of farmers and peach-lovers alike. However, over the years, another fruit rose to prominence in Georgia: the blueberry. In 2014, Georgia was the No. 1 producer of blueberries in the country, due in part to the research of Scott NeSmith and his collaboration with the University of Georgia. NeSmith, a horticulture professor at the UGA Griffin Campus, began his work with agriculture as a plant scientist, and he has been working with UGA since 1990. In 1998, he took over the blueberry breeding program. …From the beginning of NeSmith’s leadership, Georgia’s blueberry production has expanded from approximately 3,000 acres to 27,000 acres as of 2017. His blueberry varieties can be found on every continent, excluding Antarctica, in climates similar to south Georgia.
WGXA
Georgia farmers, educators want the public to know ‘where your food comes from’
by Ronshad Berry
MACON, Ga. — Educators from around Georgia at Monday’s first AG Summit want to make sure the state’s agricultural future continues to grow. Less than two percent of Americans are involved in agriculture, including growing, producing food fiber and shelter. The summit at Middle Georgia State University (MGSU) was led by Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College (ABAC) with members of agriculture departments from Fort Valley State and the University of Georgia. ABAC president Dr. David Bridges said it’s important for the public to know where their food comes from.
The Augusta Chronicle
Former Augusta State Medical Prison doctor files whistleblower lawsuit
By Sandy Hodson
The former medical director at Augusta State Medical Prison who went public last year with concerns over potentially life-threatening conditions there has filed suit against his former employer and the state Department of Corrections. Dr. Timothy Young and his wife filed suit Nov. 16 in the Northern District of Georgia against the Georgia Board of Regents, which controls the Department of Correctional Healthcare, a division of Augusta University; the Corrections Department; Warden Ted Philbin; and the statewide director of Correctional Healthcare, Dr. Billy Nichols. Young alleges the defendants violated his rights under the Georgia Whistleblower Act and under the First Amendment by retaliating against him for speaking out about the conditions at the state prison. A request for comment from the university’s spokeswoman was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Higher Education News:
Inside Higher Ed
New analysis of history-major data says the field has fallen to “new low.” Can it be saved?
By Colleen Flaherty
History has seen the steepest decline in majors of all disciplines since the 2008 recession, according to a new analysis published in the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History. “The drop in history’s share of undergraduate majors in the last decade has put us below the discipline’s previous low point in the 1980s,” reads the analysis, written by Benjamin M. Schmidt, an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University. Some numbers: there were 34,642 history degrees conferred in 2008, according to federal data. In 2017, the most recent year for which data are available, there were 24,266. Between 2016 and 2017 alone, there was a 1,500 major drop-off. And even as overall university enrollments have grown, “history has seen its raw numbers erode heavily,” Schmidt wrote, especially since 2011-12. “Of all the fields I’ve looked at, history has fallen more than any other in the last six years,” he says.
Inside Higher Ed
‘Land-Grant Universities for the Future’
Authors discuss new book on evolution of a key American model of higher education.
By Scott Jaschik
An 1862 federal law, the Morrill Act, created land-grant universities. In the years since, some land-grant universities have become internationally prominent research universities, and many are crucial to their states. But the American economy and the role of higher education in society have changed dramatically since the Morrill Act. A new book, based on interviews with 27 presidents and chancellors of land-grant universities, considers where the role of these institutions is going.
The Chronicle of Higher Edcuation
DeVos Says Student Loans Have Created a Crisis. Hold On, Researchers Say.
By Chris Quintana
At a training conference on Tuesday focused on the weeds of financial-aid policy, the U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spoke in broad and bombastic terms about what she called the “crisis in higher education.” What’s that emergency? The nation’s $1.5 trillion in federal student-loan debt held by roughly 45 million borrowers. DeVos mentioned at the Federal Student Aid Training Conference, in Atlanta, that only one in four borrowers have started to pay off their loans’ interest and principal. And she said blame partly rests with the federal government’s nationalizing the federal student-aid program and essentially writing a blank check that has allowed colleges to raise the price of an education.
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
DeVos Issues Warning About Student Debt
Inside Higher Ed
What the DeVos Title IX Rule Means for Misconduct Off Campus
Colleges are likely to continue investigating off-campus sexual misconduct with implications for classroom environment despite changes advanced in proposed Title IX rule, higher ed lawyers say. But questions remain.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
A proposed overhaul of federal standards for colleges’ handling of sexual misconduct would require that institutions only investigate incidents that occur within campus-sanctioned events or activities. The fear among many advocates for survivors of sexual assault is that language would mean colleges could take a pass on investigating harassment or assaults experienced by students just outside their campuses. But lawyers who advise institutions on compliance with Title IX, the federal law governing sex-based discrimination, say colleges are likely to continue pursuing any incident that affects learning on campus. “These schools deal with off-campus conduct issues all the time outside of sexual assault,” said Scott Schneider, an Austin, Tex.-based lawyer who advises higher ed clients. “There’s a fairly lengthy history especially in higher education of extending student disciplinary codes to off-campus behavior.” The rule explicitly states that Greek housing would be considered an “education program or activity.” The implications of Title IX for other off-campus locations are less clear.