University System News:
www.bizjournals.com
University System of Georgia to ask state for $169M for construction, design of new projects
By David Allison – Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University System of Georgia will ask the state for almost $169 million in fiscal year 2020 for construction and design of a list of new facilities, including big projects at Georgia State University, Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State University. At its board meeting on Sept. 11, the Board of Regents will present its capital outlay request for fiscal year 2020 (which begins July 1, 2019), including requests to spend $154 million on construction, more than half of which would be spent in metro Atlanta at Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University. The construction projects include:
www.bizjournals.com
State moving forward with Georgia FinTech Academy
By David Allison – Editor, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The state of Georgia is moving forward with plans for a Georgia FinTech Academy, with the goal for the state’s universities to turn out 5,000 fintech-ready professionals in the next three years and 2,000 fintech-ready professionals annually by 2023. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia will discuss the academy at its Sept. 11 meeting. The academy will be a public-private partnership between the university system and two companies, payment services provider InComm and financial software firm FIS. Scott Meyerhoff, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of InComm, and Denise Williams, executive vice president and chief people officer of FIS, are scheduled to speak at the meeting. The goal of the academy is to develop the talent that’s most in demand by employers. In a similar move, the university system in 2016 opened the Georgia Film Academy to train Georgians to work in the state’s booming film industry.
www.myajc.com
Georgia colleges score top marks on prestigious national rankings list
By Eric Stirgus – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Three metro Atlanta colleges were ranked at the top of a list of nation’s most innovative schools and another Atlanta college was named America’s best Historically Black College & University in rankings released Monday by U.S. News & World Report. Georgia State University and Georgia Tech were ranked, respectively, as the nation’s second and fourth-most innovative colleges. Agnes Scott College in Decatur was listed as the nation’s most innovative liberal arts college while Spelman College was ranked 35th. The rankings of innovative schools came from feedback from fellow college presidents, provosts and admissions deans. The area colleges were lauded for “cutting edge changes on their campuses,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Many educators and philanthropists have visited Georgia State in recent years to learn more about its use of predictive analytics to determine when students need help. Georgia Tech earlier this year completed a report exploring how it can better educate students by the year 2040 and has increased its online offerings, which has boosted enrollment.
www.bizjournals.com
UGA climbs to No. 13 in U.S. News’ ranking of public universities
By Dave Williams – Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University of Georgia has jumped three spots to No. 13 in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the best public universities in the nation. UGA’s highest ranking ever in the 2019 survey was driven by an improvement in the student-faculty ratio from 18:1 to 17:1. Other factors included improvements in the subjective category of reputation as well as the quality and performance of students. “The University of Georgia is reaching new heights of excellence in virtually every measure,” UGA President Jere Morehead said. “I want to commend our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends for their hard work and dedication.” UGA consistently fares well in the quality of its student body. This fall marked the sixth consecutive year that the entering first-year class set a record for academic excellence, as the Class of 2022 enrolled with an average high-school GPA of 4.04, an average ACT score of 30 and an average SAT score of 1365.
www.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
University of Georgia jumps in national ranking, but Georgia Tech still ahead.
U.S. News & World Report released its 2019 Best Colleges today, ranking more than 1,800 schools across the country. Georgia Tech was ranked the 8th best national public university in the country, tied with the University of Florida. Tech ranks #35 among all national universities, including private and public. Tech was also #4 in most innovative schools.
Nipping at its heels is the University of Georgia, which jumped three spots and earned the highest ranking in its history, sharing the #13 slot in top publics with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. UGA ranked 46th among national universities. The UGA trendline over the last few years has been positive; Last year, the University of Georgia ranked 16th among public campuses and 54th among all national universities. Georgia Tech slipped this year, dropping from 7th last year among public universities to 8th. It also fell one spot in national overall rankings, from #34 to #35. Still, with Emory ranked #21 in national universities, Georgia is now home to three campuses among the top 50 national public and private universities — Emory, Georgia Tech and UGA.
www.ajc.com
These Georgia colleges made the 2019 US News & World Report rankings
Did your school make the prestigious list? Find out here.
www.northwestgeorgianews.com
Rome schools to participate in REACH Georgia program
Rome City Schools was recently selected to participate in the Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen, or REACH, Georgia program beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. Assistant Superintendent Dawn Williams said the program is a needs-based scholarship opportunity for students that rewards them for self-accountability, promotes parent involvement and provides motivation and support, which are all factors that are critical in student educational achievement. …REACH Georgia works by first identifying in-need students during their seventh-grade year. These students must qualify for the free or reduced lunch program, have good school attendance and demonstrate academic promise. The program especially looks for students who are future first-generation college students, as well as students who would be able to reach this potential through extra guidance and mentorship. “Once these students are selected, the scholars are given a mentor and academic coach to encourage and guide them from their seventh-grade year all the way until they graduate high school,” Williams said. “Students will then receive $2,500 dollars per year, for up to four years, at a college within the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia or eligible private institutions.”
www.mdjonline.com
KSU’s CCPE Medical Assisting Certificate, student receive recognition from UPCEA
Staff reports
The College of Continuing and Professional Education at Kennesaw State University collected two awards from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association South region. The Medical Assisting certificate was named Program of Excellence, and Navy Veteran Kenneth Danter was honored with the Continuing Education Student Award. The awards will be presented at the UPCEA Mid-Atlantic and South Regional Conference on Oct. 1-3, in Washington, DC. The Medical Assisting Certificate is an innovative, 14-month program that focuses on patient-centered services such as reviewing medical histories, checking vital signs, performing laboratory tests, and administering injections and prepares students to perform a variety of clinical and administrative tasks in the office of health practitioners. The program includes lecture, hands-on training and clinical externships. Graduates from the Medical Assisting certificate currently maintain a 94 percent pass rate on the National Heathcareer Associations’ Certified Clinical Medical Assistant Exam.
www.thewestgeorgian.com
Admissions Office Revamps Campus Visits to Make Greater Impact on Prospective Students
By Andy Hendricks
Campus tours and visits give schools the opportunity to not only show prospective students around campus, but to also share their story and make a positive first impression. The Office of Admissions at UWG asserts that bringing potential students to campus is one of the most powerful tools they have to enroll future students. “We like to believe here that if we can get students on campus, then they are more likely to attend,” said Evan Jaynes, Associate Director of Admissions, Campus Visits and Communications. Statistics favor Jaynes’ statement, as 55 percent of overall applicants to UWG eventually choose to enroll. However, 70 percent of applicants that attend an Admissions event, such as a Preview Day, choose to enroll. UWG’s Office of Admissions is undergoing several changes to make future campus visits even more effective. Their building (the Murphy Building) is undergoing renovations to give a more modern feel and create a warmer atmosphere for visitors. They have also upgraded and retooled Preview Day to offer more access to previously overlooked academic areas, as well as including more about the City of Carrollton.
www.georgia.growingamerica.com
13 Years of Inspiration and Counting: Dr. David Bridges, President, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Ga
By: Lynne Hayes, Growing America
America’s ag colleges and land grant universities are doing their part to keep agriculture going strong by offering paths to ag-related careers through a variety of exciting majors, real-world work experiences and superb education opportunities. Our new series, Growing Ag’s Future Through America’s Ag Colleges, shines a spotlight on these institutions and the leaders committed to insuring that their schools continue to answer the needs of tomorrow’s ag students. We hope these articles will inspire you or someone you know to choose the best career in the country—agriculture. Dr. David Bridges: 13 Years of Inspiration and Counting President, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Ga – You might assume the president of a college or university measures success by how many diplomas get handed out. But not Dr. David Bridges, president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in Tifton, Ga. His focus is on what happens after the caps and gowns get tucked away….
www.augustachronicle.com
LISTEN: Georgia Southern Interim President Shelley Nickel on ‘Difference Makers’ podcast
Georgia Southern University Interim President Shelley Nickel is the latest local “Difference Maker” on our twice-monthly podcast. Nickel discusses the consolidation of Georgia Southern and Armstrong State, creating a sense of community across multiple campuses, student recruiting challenges and the future of higher education.
www.redandblack.com
Athens community protests UGA’s health insurance rate increase
Shania Shelton | Contributor
Decorated signs, loud cheers and honking cars surrounded the Arch on the University of Georgia campus on the evening of Sept. 7 in response to the university health insurance price increase. Graduate students and their spouses, professors and United Campus Workers of Georgia union members rallied against the increase in health insurance premiums for dependents of graduate students on UGA’s health insurance plan. Health insurance premiums for dependents of graduate students and assistants increased for the 2018-2019 year by more than three times the 2017 rate. “There have been steps to remedy it, but it should just be lower. The university should take on more of the burden. We already don’t get paid enough, and then we also have to pay for pretty expensive healthcare,” said Rachelle Berry, a second-year geography graduate student from California. The insurance rate hike was not unique to UGA. It was implemented at all universities by the University System of Georgia.
www.times-herald.com
Newnan 10-year-old signs special commitment letter with West Georgia
By THE NEWNAN TIMES-HERALD
University of West Georgia head football coach David Dean accepted a commitment letter from 10-year old Colin Depriest this week, as Depriest officially became a member of the UWG football program at a signing ceremony on Monday. Depriest, of Newnan, Georgia, became the newest member of the West Georgia football team during an inspirational Team IMPACT Signing Day celebration, sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He is one of 30,000 patients in the United States living courageously with cystic fibrosis (CF), a disease predominantly diagnosed in children by the age of 2. By sponsoring Draft Days of children with CF, Vertex Pharmaceuticals helps spread awareness for the disease—and the life-long, positive effects Team IMPACT has on these children.
www.statesboroherald.com
Woman reports rape in Georgia Southern University apartment complex
But declines to press charges
From staff reports
A woman reported being raped Sunday in a Georgia Southern University apartment complex, but told police she did not wish to press charges at the time.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
Drowning occurs on College of Coastal Georgia campus
By LAUREN MCDONALD
A drowning victim was discovered on College of Coastal Georgia’s Brunswick campus on Sunday night. The victim has been identified as Glynn County resident Tabahri Newberry, 22, who was not a Coastal Georgia student, said Stacy Carson, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Kingsland Office. “The body was rescued by an officer with the college police there, as well as the Brunswick police department, and I believe EMT were involved,” Carson said.
www.albanyherald.com
State archives plan Genealogy Day
Event includes information sessions, panel discussion
From Staff Reports
MORROW — The sixth annual Archives and Genealogy Day will be held at the Georgia Archives here on Oct. 6. Event planners say Track 1 of Genealogy Day is scheduled from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Track 2 is from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Archives and Genealogy Day is a free event sponsored by the Georgia Archives and Friends of Georgia Archives and History.
Higher Education News:
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The ‘U.S. News’ Rankings’ (Faux?) Embrace of Social Mobility
Methodology is adjusted, but you wouldn’t know from those at the top of the lists. Critics say institutions that serve low-income students continue to be devalued.
By Scott Jaschik
For years, critics of the college rankings of U.S. News & World Report have said that they reward prestige and wealth. The institutions that are always on the top of the rankings — places like Harvard, Princeton and Stanford Universities — enroll students who are destined to succeed, the critics say. It should be no surprise (and not worthy of praise) that the students then do well. What about the institutions that enroll students not destined to do well — those who grew up poor, who in many cases went to poorly resourced high schools and who lacked family members with the social capital to help find a good college or launch a career? It is the colleges that succeed with such students that really deserve praise, these critics say. And as a result, a number of efforts have started to look at colleges that promote “social mobility” — in other words, that help boost those from disadvantaged families into the middle class. The 2019 U.S. News rankings are out today, and the rankings powerhouse is boasting that it has changed its methodology to take social mobility into account. And indeed — if you leave the top of the heap — one can see colleges going up in the rankings, some jumping more than is the norm in any single year. But if you think this is the year that U.S. News will finally credit the California State University or City University of New York campuses for perhaps working harder and doing more than the elites do to help less wealthy, well, don’t hold your breath.
www.ajc.com
Q&A with Ga Student Finance Commission leader on HOPE Scholarship
By Eric Stirgus
Caylee Noggle is responsible for one of the most important organizations in Georgia government. As interim president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, Noggle oversees management of the HOPE Scholarship, Zell Miller Scholarship and several other programs that help pay tuition for about 170,000 students. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked Noggle some questions about HOPE as it celebrates the 25th anniversary of its first awards of student scholarships. Here are written responses to those questions, with some of the responses cut for brevity. Q: What are your thoughts on the amount of money awarded to students for FY 2018?
www.diverseeducation.com
Two Organizations Partner to Help Students Access Resources for College
by Jamie Rogers
A leading college counseling organization and an initiative started by former First Lady Michelle Obama have teamed up to form an all-new partnership focused on easing the stresses experienced by high school students and their families during the college admissions process. The 5-year partnership between Reach Higher and Collegewise, the largest private college counseling organization in the country, is designed to help underserved groups and first-generation college students in particular, access the needed resources to pursue higher education. Reach Higher’s goal is to inspire students from all backgrounds to pursue an education beyond high school by attending a four-year college, a community college or professional training program. The organization’s mission is in alignment with what Collegewise envisions for the world, said Joel Block, CEO and managing partner for Collegewise. In the 19 years since its inception, Collegewise’s staff have assisted some 10,000 students by advising them on entry testing, applying to college and lastly, selecting an institution to attend.
www.chronicle.com
Don’t Dismiss the Value of Free-College Programs. They Do Help Low-Income Students
By Sara Goldrick-Rab and Michelle Miller-Adams
Separate reports released this week by respected Washington-based think tanks miss the mark on the free-college question. The Education Trust’s “A Promise Fulfilled” and the Institute for Higher Education Policy’s analyses of two statewide college Promise programs reach the same conclusion: Free college is failing low-income students. We disagree. These reports draw attention to one feature of today’s free-college programs — almost all of them award scholarships on a “last dollar” basis, meaning that need-based grant aid is applied to tuition before students can receive money from “free college” funding. In practice, this means most students who are eligible for Pell Grants and who are already enrolled in college do not receive any additional funds. These reports focus too narrowly on this single issue and in doing so overlook not only the many other ways that free-college programs benefit low-income students, but also their value to the larger project of making college affordable.
www.chronicle.com
How a Famous Academic Job-Market Study Got It All Wrong — and Why It Still Matters
By Vimal Patel
The Bowen Report predicted lush times for humanities Ph.D.s. Nearly 30 years later, they’re still waiting. There was no shortage of news in New York City on September 13, 1989. The front page of The New York Times announced the previous night’s Democratic primary victory of David Dinkins, who would go on to become the city’s first black mayor. The historic news of the day shared American journalism’s most coveted space with an improbable item: a story about a wonky, book-length study of the academic job market. “Unless preventive steps are taken soon,” the story began, “American colleges and universities face a major shortage of faculty members starting in the next several years, according to the most comprehensive study ever conducted of the academic job market.” The study projected a cascade of openings for secure academic jobs in the years ahead, even in the humanities — especially in the humanities. There, just over the hill, lies salvation.
www.insidehighered.com
An ‘Unprecedented’ Direction for Title IX
Experts say an appeals court ruling has wide implications for due process in campus sexual assault cases.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
In an unparalleled decision and a win for those who feel due process has been shunned in campus investigations of sexual assault, a federal appeals court has ruled that universities must allow students in these cases — or their representatives — to directly question their accuser in a live hearing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s opinion, in a lawsuit against the University of Michigan, has the potential to reshape the notion of due process for campus sexual assault cases, at least for institutions in the four Midwestern states that comprise the Sixth Circuit, experts say. Also looming is the Trump administration’s imminent release of draft regulations around Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal gender antidiscrimination law barring sexual misconduct on college campuses. The appeals court decision would seem to match the direction of the U.S. Department of Education, which under new draft rules wants to mandate cross-examination. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last year rescinded Obama-era guidance on Title IX, declaring it had unfairly slanted proceedings against accused students.
www.thebrunswicknews.com
The government’s guidance on campus rape deserves another look
By George Will
Syndicated columnist
The assault on civil rights that was mandated by the civil rights division of Barack Obama’s Education Department might soon abate. Current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is moving to halt the life-shattering procedures that began in 2011, when the department sent to colleges and universities a “dear colleague” letter: To avoid costly and reputation-damaging investigations, and perhaps the loss of federal funds, institutions must embrace the department’s new interpretation of a then-39-year-old provision of federal law that said merely that no person at an institution receiving federal funds shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of sex. From this, the department began micromanaging institutions’ disciplinary practices in ways that traduce constitutional guarantees. For seven years, men accused of sexual assault, a category elastic enough to encompass “broad ranges of behavior” (read on), have been convicted, sometimes expelled, their futures blighted. Sometimes justice has been done, but injustices have been perpetrated by improvised campus tribunals orchestrated by administrators with vocational incentives to discover offenses that justify their offices. The “guidance” has mandated convictions on the basis of a mere “preponderance of the evidence” — 51 percent suffices — not “clear and convincing” proof, let alone proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The guidance strongly discouraged allowing the accused (almost always males) to cross-examine their accusers, who frequently are identified in proceedings as survivors — note the prejudgment. Accusers could appeal acquittals, exposing the accused to double jeopardy. DeVos’ improvements, still being formulated, should reflect this fact: Heather Mac Donald, in “The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine our Culture,” notes that “as of early 2018, 79 judges had issued rulings against schools’ rape trial procedures” adopted in conformity with the Obama administration’s dictates. Tellingly, they did not pressure institutions to immediately involve professionals from the criminal justice system in investigating sexual assaults. …As DeVos revises her department’s guidance, she should consult Brooklyn College law professor KC Johnson’s analysis of Yale’s just-released report on the sexual dangers on its campus: The 1.75 percent of undergraduate females assaulted in the first half of 2018 is, if accurate, appalling. …The report provides no details of 18 of the 50 victims because the allegations came from a third party and the accuser did not pursue the matter. Only five of the other 32 cases went before Yale’s adjudication panel. The report says Yale “uses a more expansive definition of sexual assault” than does Connecticut or federal law — Yale’s definition encompasses “broad ranges of behavior” — but does not say why.