University System News:
www.ajc.com
Alabama stuns Georgia in overtime to win national championship
http://www.ajc.com/sports/college-football/georgia-loses-national-championship/PODgmeignmgoGo9YQ7OiTL/
Chris Vivlamore The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A freshman quarterback led his team to a national championship. It was Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and not Georgia’s Jake Fromm. Alabama came back from a 13-point second half deficit after switching to the young quarterback in a dramatic 26-23 overtime victory over Georgia in the college football title game Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. A freshman quarterback led his team to a national championship. It was Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and not Georgia’s Jake Fromm. Alabama came back from a 13-point second half deficit after switching to the young quarterback in a dramatic 26-23 overtime victory over Georgia in the college football title game Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
www.myajc.com
Football outweighs business as Georgia opens legislative session
http://www.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/football-outweighs-business-georgia-opens-legislative-session/0rQbv445rleyv1zu1WisYK/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=3042d44345-eGaMorning-1_9_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-3042d44345-86731974&mc_cid=3042d44345&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
By Mark Niesse and Maya T. Prabhu – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was more like a Georgia football pep rally than the start of this year’s legislative session Monday at the state Capitol. The state Senate adjourned for the day by “Calling the Dawgs.” House members watched a University of Georgia highlight reel from the chamber floor. House Speaker David Ralston waved a red pompom from the dais. Excitement about Monday night’s national college football championship game against Alabama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium peppered the day’s business in both chambers of the Legislature as lawmakers kicked off the second year of the two-year legislative session. Little work got done besides legislators deciding against taking a vacation day Tuesday to celebrate a potential Georgia victory, welcoming newly elected officials and announcing incoming political leaders.
www.wsav.com
New semester brings new era for Armstrong students
http://wsav.com/2018/01/08/new-semester-brings-new-era-for-armstrong-students/
Meredith Stutz
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Monday marked the dawn of a new era for Armstrong State University students. As of January 1st, Armstrong officially merged with Georgia Southern University. January 8th served at the first day of classes for the Spring Semester. The process began a year ago and on December 12 the Board of Regents approved the merge to come to fruition at the beginning of 2018. The new name for the site in Savannah is the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University. The campus has also adopted the blue and white colors and Freedom The Eagle mascot. The change of name and culture has some students excited for expanded resources while others are wary of giving up their Armstrong Pirate pride.
www.mdjonline.com
Atlanta Metro college foundation hands out awards
http://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/south_metro/education/atlanta-metro-college-foundation-hands-out-awards/article_fb2d209e-f4a8-11e7-897f-3fd99997376b.html
Neighbor Staff
Atlanta Metropolitan College Foundation, Inc. recently raised more than $165,000 for need-based aid at its annual fundraiser. The 2017 Celebration of Leadership Awards, in its sixth year, honored community trailblazers and highlights student success. “We are extremely grateful to our partners and the greater Atlanta community for recognizing the need of our students and stepping into the gap to help these students continue on their path to success,” college foundation chair Skip Vaughan, an executive at Pepsi Beverages Co., said in a statement. “(The college) is filled with brilliant students who fight every day to make their dreams come true. I am delighted that we can help them on their journey.”
www.thegeorgeanne.com
Mayor’s proposal for citizen’s commissions to include GS students
http://www.thegeorgeanne.com/news/article_4dd21935-1183-5369-a700-127356e4e316.html
by Matthew Enfinger The George-Anne Staff
Statesboro Mayor Jonathan McCollar plans to introduce proposals for three citizen’s commissions that will allow Georgia Southern University students to have a voice in the community. “There are things that I’ve committed to as far as the campaign is concerned and that is to address the issue of poverty, youth development, diversity and inclusion,” McCollar said. “So, we are working hard to get those initiatives underway.” Each citizen commission will reflect topics McCollar campaigned for this past year. “The commissions that we are talking about is our Statesboro works commission, which is dedicated to fighting poverty, our diversity and inclusion commission as well as our youth development commission,” McCollar said. McCollar is a native of Statesboro and a graduate of GS. Before being elected mayor, he worked as an assistant campus director for Armstrong State’s Liberty Center.
www.onlineathens.com
Athens system honored as Georgia Public Library of the Year
The Athens Regional Library System has been named the Georgia Public Library of the Year.
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/oconee/2018-01-08/athens-system-honored-georgia-public-library-year
By Staff Reports
The Georgia Public Library Service presents the award to the library whose staff “best exemplifies the qualities needed to positively impact the lives of residents in the communities it serves.” Library staff will receive the award during a public ceremony at the Athens-Clarke County Library, 2025 Baxter St., on Jan. 21 at 3 p.m. The Athens system is the first library system to win the award, after county libraries in Hart and Lee counties won the first two years the award was given. The Athens Regional Library System consists of 11 branches in five counties: Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Franklin and Madison. A committee picked the Athens system based on a strong nomination dossier detailing the library’s work and programming, said State Librarian Julie Walker. “They’ve done a lot of work to put themselves out into the community. They focus on what each individual community needs,” said Walker, a former assistant in the Athens Regional Library System. “One thing that really impressed us is how well they work together.” …The library will also be recognized in Atlanta on Jan. 30 during the Georgia Council for Public Libraries’ annual Public Library Day at the state Capitol.
www.cetusnews.com
Companies test defences against new cyber crime threat
http://www.cetusnews.com/business/Companies-test-defences-against-new-cyber-crime-threat.ryWDyypkEM.html
Companies are increasingly playing cyber war games to test their response to a data integrity attack — where information in bank accounts, contracts or spreadsheets is manipulated rather than stolen — marking a shift in security as cyber criminals have changed tack. Banks, law firms, media groups and healthcare companies have started creating playbooks to respond to these attacks, which could result in a loss of customer trust or even a doomsday scenario where confusion causes chaos. Michael Farrell, co-director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy at Georgia Tech, said attacks that undermine data integrity could damage public trust in the whole financial system. “The notion of a cyber ‘Pearl Harbor’ in terms of physical destruction is scary, but arguably not actually the worst case. If the banking system suffered a widespread, co-ordinated data manipulation attack, all hell would break loose,” he said. The companies are responding to warnings from senior intelligence leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
Editorial: This governor has changed Augusta
By believing, investing in the region, Nathan Deal has changed it forever
http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/editorials/2018-01-09/editorial-governor-has-changed-augusta
By Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
The past year, and likely the one to come, will be remembered in these parts primarily for the ongoing cyber revolution in Augusta. Recall that Fortune magazine last April named Augusta – along with such global metropolises as Washington, D.C., Boston and London – as “7 Cities That Could Become the World’s Cybersecurity Capital.” That’s pretty heady company, in a very brainy, 21st century endeavor. But this era should also be remembered for the central role that Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has taken in a bright new dawn in Georgia – and for the even larger footprint he is leaving in Augusta. When the Pentagon chose nearby Fort Gordon to be the nation’s Army Cyber Command, Deal quickly helped conceive, finance and facilitate the skyline-altering, $60 million, 167,000-square-foot Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training now under construction on the downtown riverfront. …The governor also has announced that he will call on the Georgia General Assembly to provide $49.4 million in bonds for a new $70 million College of Science and Math building at Augusta University’s downtown campus – further consolidating AU’s research university components in the city center. While the University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved the bond request last August, there was no guarantee the governor would formally request it from the legislature. But he is expected to in his State of the State address Thursday morning at 11.
www.ajc.com
UGA’s Matt Stinchcomb elected to College Football Hall of Fame
http://www.ajc.com/sports/college/uga-matt-stinchcomb-elected-college-football-hall-fame/rKY9JaVMFqFLBsZQIZZ0CN/?utm_source=eGaMorning&utm_campaign=3042d44345-eGaMorning-1_9_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54a77f93dd-3042d44345-86731974&mc_cid=3042d44345&mc_eid=32a9bd3c56
Matt Stinchcomb, a two-time All-American offensive lineman at Georgia, was selected to the 2018 College Football Hall of Fame class. Stinchcomb, who grew up in DeKalb County but played at Gwinnett’s Parkview High School, spent four seasons in the trenches in Athens, playing for two head coaches. He was a teammate of current Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart. Stinchcomb was drafted 18th in the 1999 NFL draft and spent five seasons in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stinchcomb is in the University of Georgia’s Circle of Honor as well as being included in the 2009 class of SEC Legends.
Higher Education News:
www.wsj.com
Today’s College Students Aren’t Who You Think
As the Trump administration and congressional Republicans push a variety of higher-education paths, including more vocational options, we take a look at today’s college student population
https://www.wsj.com/articles/todays-college-students-arent-who-you-think-1515240000
By Melissa Korn and Kathryn Tam
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Republicans on Capitol Hill are advocating a fundamental rethink of higher education, pushing for more vocational programs and shorter pathways to credentials. With a House bill aimed at rewriting the 52-year-old Higher Education Act introduced late last year and a Senate version expected in the spring, lawmakers have helped fuel a national discussion over who should be on the path to a college degree—and who’s there now.
www.hechingerreport.org
Even with help, Olympic athletes struggle to balance their sports with college
Their stories illustrate how, for older students, getting a degree is like skating uphill
Even with help, Olympic athletes struggle to balance their sports with college
by JON MARCUS
Olympic athletes and hopefuls may comprise only a tiny handful of the nontraditional-age adults trying to get higher educations. But their struggles with finding the money and time to do it, among other problems, offer a surprising, high-performance illustration of the problems legions of older students face in common. American higher education long ago stopped being the exclusive sphere of the 18-year-old undergraduate right out of high school, tossing a Frisbee on a manicured quadrangle. Sixty percent of undergraduates today are over 25, working full time, financially independent of their parents, or connected with the military, according to the American Council on Education. That’s nearly 16 million people.