University System News:
www.ajc.com
Rep. Earl Ehrhart sues U.S over guidance to colleges on sex cases
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/rep-earl-ehrhart-sues-us-over-guidance-to-colleges/nq9hB/
Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart has taken his criticism of how colleges handle sexual misconduct cases a step further. This week, Ehrhart and his wife Virginia, sued the U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights over its guidance to colleges and universities on handling these cases. The couple says the federal department’s policies have caused colleges to spend spend taxpayer dollars unnecessarily, because they must abide by the rules or risk losing federal funding.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
If governor signs campus carry law, expect prestige of Georgia Tech and UGA to plummet
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2016/04/22/if-governor-signs-campus-carry-law-expect-prestige-of-georgia-tech-and-uga-to-plummet/
Advocates of campus carry probably don’t care that guns on campuses will push top faculty — those in highly sought-after disciplines — to leave. They are likely to say “good riddance,” believing Georgia’s public campuses are better off without opponents of guns on campus. It would be a mistake for Gov. Nathan Deal to adopt that irresponsible position as he considers whether to veto House Bill 859. The prestige of Georgia Tech has helped Georgia attract and keep tech companies. The school already cannot compete with the salaries of private colleges; the state Legislature and governor ought to listen to the concerns of faculty — folks on the campuses rather than in the gun-free halls of the Gold Dome — about armed students in classrooms. Without its celebrated computer science, math and engineering professors, Tech will not be able to attract the brilliant students who have made it world-renowned. To that end, here is a sobering assessment of what campus carry will do to Tech and the University of Georgia by Brian Stone, an associate professor in the City and Regional Planning Program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he teaches in the areas of urban environmental management, land use, and transportation planning. Stone’s program of research is focused on the spatial drivers of urban environmental phenomena, with an emphasis on climate change and air quality. By Brian Stone
www.henryherald.com
School officials await notice of Campus Carry status
http://www.henryherald.com/news/school-officials-await-notice-of-campus-carry-status/article_9ea71989-4d30-55c3-aace-7a0de20527ec.html
By Johnny Jackson and Kayla Langmaid
McDONOUGH — As citizens await Gov. Nathan Deal’s signature or veto of the controversial “campus carry” bill, school officials statewide are discussing ways to codify the legislation on their campuses should the law be enacted. House Bill 859, which passed this legislative session in both houses of the state legislature, gives some allowances to openly carry firearms on the campuses of public post-secondary education institutions. But many officials are unclear on just how the law would work. “We are aware and monitoring the legislation presently awaiting action by Gov. Deal with regards to allowing post-secondary students to carry guns on college campuses,” said J.D. Hardin, spokesman for Henry County Schools. Henry County is one of a growing number of PreK-12th grade districts in the state potentially affected by the so-called campus carry law.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia’s policy on undocumented students: ‘A practical loss and a moral failure’
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2016/04/24/georgias-policy-on-undocumented-students-a-practical-loss-and-a-moral-failure/
By Maureen Downey
Ashley Goodrich is a full-time high school social studies teacher and a doctoral student at the University of Georgia in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Theory and Practice. In this essay, she says Georgia’s policy banning undocumented students from the top research campuses and requiring them to pay out-of-state tuition at other public colleges hurts the students and the state. By Ashley Goodrich
www.ajc.com
Teacher says Georgia’s limits on undocumented students hurt state
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgias-limits-on-undocumented-students-hurt-kids/nrBTK/
Maureen Downey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aldo Mendoza has lived in Athens most of his life, graduated from its public schools and holds a worker’s permit and driver’s license through the federal policy Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. But he could not attend the University of Georgia. And that, says a teacher, is a practical loss to the state and a moral failure. The Georgia General Assembly denies in-state tuition and Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship to undocumented immigrants and bans them from attending the state’s top five public universities, including the University of Georgia. So, Mendoza attends the University of North Georgia, taking only two to three courses a semester because of the cost. Without qualifying for in-state tuition, he would have to pay $19,748 (out-of-state tuition) for a full academic year instead of $6,206 (in-state tuition).
USG Institutions:
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Columbus State administrator to be interim president elsewhere
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article73408292.html
BY MARK RICE
A Columbus State University administrator will be the interim president of another institution in the University System of Georgia. USG chancellor Hank Huckaby has named Stuart Rayfield as interim president of Bainbridge State College. She will assume those duties June 1, according to the system’s news release. Rayfield, director of CSU’s Servant Leadership Program, has been an associate professor and the Frank Brown Distinguished Chair in Servant Leadership for 10 years. She also has been serving the past several months as interim associate provost for undergraduate education. During that time, Servant Leadership Program assistant director Wendi Jenkins has been filling in for her. As interim associate provost, Rayfield’s responsibilities have included co-leading CSU’s effort to receive re-accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, as well as overseeing the Academic Center for Excellence, the dual enrollment program and the Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
www.metroatlantaceo.com
Hartsfield-Jackson Honors Local Businesses, Employees with GreeningATL Excellence Awards
http://metroatlantaceo.com/news/2016/04/hartsfield-jackson-honors-local-businesses-employees-greeningatl-excellence-awards/
Staff Report From Metro Atlanta CEO
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials honored a group of local businesses and ATL employees for their sustainability efforts at the second annual GreeningATL Excellence Awards luncheon Thursday, April 21… Georgia Institute of Technology was awarded the Sustainability Innovation Award for its use of technology to find solutions to environmental issues. Georgia Tech installed a piezoelectric carpet selfie station at ATL, generating passenger interest and engagement. Placement of the uniquely powered selfie stations is leading to discussion about how to apply the technology more broadly at the Airport.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Augusta University part of stem-cell study for heart failure treatment
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2016-04-24/augusta-university-part-stem-cell-study-heart-failure-treatment?v=1461462353
By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer
Ever since he took part in a clinical research study two years ago at Augusta University where he either got stem cells or a placebo, Gene Gray has been looking for signs that might clue him in. “I’ve had good things happen to my heart so I thought I might have got them, and I’ve had bad things happen to my heart so I thought I might not have got them,” he said. It turns out he got the placebo, but he has the opportunity to come back and get the real thing, which he plans to do soon. The 52-year-old Augustan was one of 109 patients to take part in the largest clinical trial to look at using the cells as a potential treatment for heart failure patients. The study was a double-blind randomized control trial, meaning neither the patients nor the physicians injecting the cells into their hearts know whether it was the therapy or a placebo, a necessary step to avoid bias clouding the results.
www.onlineathens.com
Chemical exposure could lead to obesity, UGA study finds
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2016-04-23/chemical-exposure-could-lead-obesity-uga-study-finds
By UGA NEWS SERVICE
Exposure to chemicals found in everyday products could affect the amount of fat stored in the body, according to a study by University of Georgia researchers. Phthalates are chemicals found in everything from plastic products to soap to nail polish—they give plastic its bendy stretch. But growing research shows that these chemicals could be harming people’s health, said the study’s lead author Lei Yin, an assistant research scientist in the UGA College of Public Health’s department of environmental health science. “Phthalate exposure can be closely associated with the rise of different types of disease development,” Yin said.
www.thegeorgeanne.com
The Athletic department will no longer be using ‘GSU’
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/daily/article_612a0669-e784-5d73-b913-43751b459505.html
By Marquietta Green The George-Anne contributor | 0 comments
Georgia Southern athletics has sent out a notice last week which banned the use of the term “GSU” in an attempt to avoid branding conflicts. An email was sent out by Georgia Southern’s athletic department explaining the last minute changes in the Eagles logo that also included that the word GSU would be replaced with just GS for branding purposes according to the website UnderDog Dynasty. Athletic Director Tom Kleinlein and others seem to be tired of the conflicts and mix-ups in reference to the schools, Georgia Southern University and Georgia State University and would like to have a clear distinction of the two. We may have come to the end of the “who is the real GSU?” debate.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
What One Student Learned by Teaching His Peers
http://chronicle.com/article/What-One-Student-Learned-by/236232
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Studies show the effectiveness of peer teaching — asking students to instruct their fellow undergraduates. The approach has proved especially effective in serving underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The approach can also pay off in many ways for the peer instructors themselves. “I understand completely why people would want to do this for the rest of their lives,” says Randy Juste, a 23-year-old chemistry major at Florida International University who teaches math as part of its learning-assistant program. He says the experience has also taught him a lot about being a better student himself. The university says it has one of the largest peer-teaching programs in the country, with 300 learning assistants, known as LAs. In several disciplines, courses are being redesigned to reflect the role of the peer instructors. For some math courses, for example, students are regularly assigned to take one class a week as a less-formal “math gym” session with their learning assistant.
www.chronicle.com
Being Melissa Click
http://chronicle.com/article/Being-Melissa-Click/236226
By Robin Wilson
Last fall, as Melissa Click yelled and pointed her way into infamy, she quickly became a caricature of a radical faculty member who represented everything conservative lawmakers and pundits hate about academe, right down to her research on Twilight. But while the video of her screaming at a student went viral, turning her into the Melissa Click, the confrontation on a quad during a protest here last year really wasn’t that remarkable, in her mind. The assistant professor of communication at the University of Missouri was just doing what other professors and administrators were doing there, too, she says. So why did she lose her job? She has one idea. Under pressure from state legislators, she says, Missouri’s Board of Curators fired her to send a message that the university and the state wouldn’t tolerate black people standing up to white people. “This is all about racial politics,” she says. “I’m a white lady. I’m an easy target.” Ms. Click has avoided the campus since she was fired in February, when she began moving out of her office in the dark so she wouldn’t run into anyone.
www.chronicle.com
U. of Texas Deals With a Law It Didn’t Want
Gregory L. Fenves, president of the U. of Texas at Austin
http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Texas-Deals-With-a-Law/236169?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=26b5232f889c4b0eb1c85b5d240b3a3d&elq=68280dff351f46d7b3e92b2e0733d733&elqaid=8806&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2984
By Eric Kelderman
regory L. Fenves, president of the University of Texas at Austin, doesn’t believe guns belong on campuses. But a new state law requires public colleges and universities to allow people with concealed-carry permits to bring those weapons into some campus buildings, including classrooms and certain administrative and faculty offices. Despite his personal opposition to the statute, Mr. Fenves has set rules for how it will be carried out while trying to respond to the safety concerns of employees and students. Transcript coming soon.
www.insidehighered.com
Monitoring the Gatekeepers
Obama administration continues to turn up pressure on accreditors, promising in new letter to measure the agencies against their peers and urging more focus on student achievement and troubled colleges.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/25/education-department-tells-accreditors-focus-more-troubled-colleges-and-standards?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8d172ea7e0-DNU20160425&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8d172ea7e0-197515277
By Paul Fain
The Obama administration on Friday told accreditors to focus more on enforcing standards that measure student achievement and to consider additional scrutiny for colleges with significant problems. The new guidance from the U.S. Department of Education is the latest in a series of attempts by the White House to encourage accreditors to tighten up in their role as gatekeepers for federal financial aid. A group of 24 U.S. Senate Democrats also weighed in on accreditation on Friday. In a letter to the department, the senators said accreditors too often allow colleges with “shockingly poor performance” to retain their accreditation. They called on the department to conduct thorough reviews of accreditors to ensure they enforce rigorous standards.