Columbus State University Turner College of Business

Four graduation-related events were held at Columbus State University on May 11 and 12 to celebrate the 948 CSU students who comprise the university’s Spring 2023 graduating class.  As many as 494 graduates identified themselves as first-generation college students, while this spring’s graduating class range in age from 18 to 70 years old.  More than 88% (835 students) of the spring class hails from Georgia, with the remainder representing 21 other states and territories.  Nearly 4% (35 students) of the spring class represents 20 different countries, with the highest concentration hailing from India.  Among the graduates were 21 active-duty servicemen and servicewomen (2% of all graduates), and 38 military veterans (4% of all graduates).  This spring’s class of graduates included 294 institutional scholarship recipients, 395 HOPE Scholarship recipients, 38 athletic scholarship recipients and 158 external scholarship recipients.  These awards total more than $8 million.  This spring’s c

The “Dogs of the Dow” is a value investing strategy that selects 10 stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the basis of dividend yield.   According to ongoing research by Turner College finance professor Brett Cotten , Turner College student Autumn Wilson and Alan Tidwell of the University of Alabama, this strategy became popular during the 1980s and continues to enjoy a similar popularity today.   The new study by Cotten and his coauthors examines a recent variation of the Dogs of the Dow strategy that is referred to as the “S&P Sector Dividend Dogs.” This new strategy variant applies the Dogs of the Dow to the S&P 500 by selecting the five highest dividend yielding companies from each of the 11 sectors in the index.   Preliminary findings from raw returns suggest that Sector Dividend Dogs outperformed the S&P 500 in 12 of the 18 years analyzed.   On an annual basis, Sector Dividend Dogs earned an average raw return that was about 7.7 percentage points higher tha

Turner College MBA student Heidi Walker was the big winner of Cougar Business Pitch 2023 . The business that she pitched is called Mommy & Me Toys, Inc., which is a children's toy company that creates children's toys that spark faith and harness the power of play.   One product line offered by the company, “My Pray and Play Pal,” is a doll that says one of four special prayers once its hand is pressed.  With the win, Walker received a $3,000 grant to grow her business.  Even though the win came with a monetary prize, Walker indicated to Turner Business that the chance to simply participate in the competition was invaluable.  According to Walker, “I not only enjoyed participating in the Cougar Business Pitch Competition, I learned a lot of valuable information on how to raise capital for my business and how to start getting potential customers interested in my company's product.”  Turner Business  thanks Kirk Heriot , professor of management and holder of the Crowley

The Violet and Thomas Buck Jr. Endowment A number of stories at Turner Business have mentioned the Turner College’s Violet and Thomas Buck Jr. Endowed Chair of Economics.  The current holder of the Buck Chair is Turner College economics professor Frank Mixon .  Established by Thomas in March of 2008, the Buck Endowed Chair is named for Violet and her husband Thomas, both loyal friends and benefactors of education who made significant contributions to the Turner College and to Columbus State University.  Born in 1917 in Columbus, Thomas was a graduate of Industrial High School in 1934 and attended Georgia Military College.  He began working at a young age with his father. At one time he was President of the Buck Bottling Company, Buck Ice and Coal Company, Eelbeck Milling Company, Buck Realty, Inc. and Buck Development Company.  Thomas was very active in civic affairs in Columbus.  He was a president of Columbus YMCA, Columbus Rotary Club, Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia B

The Turner College’s Student Engagement and Recruitment Specialist, Laurie Aiken , received the 2023 Olice Embry Award at the College’s annual spring retreat on May 3, 2023.  Aiken, who joined the Turner College in 2021 after serving as a recruiter for CSU’s Enrollment Services, often visits local schools to recruit students to the Turner College’s business and computer science programs.  Her efforts have been instrumental in growing the TSYS School’s Nexus degree program in cybersecurity.  Aiken earned a B.A. in public relations from CSU.  She previously worked as a senior pharmaceutical sales representative for Merck, and before that as a marketing and public relations director for Chastain Properties.

The Olice Embry Award The Turner College’s Olice H. Embry Jr. Award is given annually to a member of the Turner College of Business and Technology who represents the values and spirit of the organization.  Embry’s own values and spirit are described by the following text from his memorial.  “To know him was to know the importance of learning as much as you can, stay positive, try hard, be early to an appointment, to laugh, ‘give someone the shirt off your back,’ and lastly to love your families and spend quality time with them.”   Olice Embry, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama, was known throughout his youth “Sonny.”  He graduated from Presbyterian College and began his career with South Central Bell.  Embry later earned an MBA and a doctorate in management, both from Georgia State University, after which he joined academia.  Embry first served on the management faculty at the University of Alabama – Birmingham, and later joined the management faculty at Columbus State University.  D