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Turner College News & Notes: September 25, 2026

The release of America's Colleges 2027 by U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday is easily the story of the week as the guide placed CSU in its "National Universities" category for the first time ever. Brad Raizner, the founder of Portal, has taken a deep dive into this year's ranking results and has come away so far with six huge takeaways. First , within the top 200 institutions, private universities were twice as likely to rise in the rankings as public universities. Second , among the top 200 institutions, the average rising private university rose nearly twice as many spots as the average rising public university. Third , the rankings formula removed the graduate debt criterion, which constituted 5%, and replaced it with an earnings by major criterion. As Raizner concludes, this reduces the incentive for universities to graduate their students with less debt. This change will not likely benefit CSU as it likely performed relatively better on the graduate debt...
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CSU Registrar Announces Major Change to Commencement Season

CSU Registrar Stephanie Speer recently announced a major change coming to CSU's commencement season. Beginning this semester, CSU graduate students will have their own commencement ceremony occurring on the same day as ceremonies for undergraduate students. On Friday, December 14, 2026, students receiving graduate certificates and degrees from any Columbus State University college, including master’s, specialist, and doctoral degrees, will enjoy their own commencement ceremony beginning at 4:00pm. Graduate students will attend only this ceremony and not both this ceremony and their college’s ceremony (unless also receiving an undergraduate degree or certificate). Faculty advisors will hood doctoral degree graduates during the ceremony, while college deans will hood master’s and specialist degree graduates. This ceremony replaces the Graduate Hooding Ceremony usually held on the Thursday evening before our Friday Commencement ceremonies. "The compelling benefit of restructuring...

How are B-Schools Assisting their Home Institutions in Moving Up the U.S. News & World Report Rankings?

With the CSU community discussing the latest news that U.S. News & World Report now includes it among the National Universities that it ranks each year, Turner Business decided to take a look at how institutions' business schools are contributing to those institutions' overall ranking by U.S. News & World Report . This examination simply involves a comparison of each university's overall ranking to that of its business school. This information for the Georgia-based National Universities is provided in the table below. As indicated in the table above, CSU's Turner College ranks higher (by 32 places) among the nation's business schools than CSU ranks among the nation's universities. As such, the Turner College is doing its share to elevate CSU among the national universities. The push up the rankings that the Turner College is providing CSU is similar in magnitude to the push provided by the Terry College of Business to the University of Georgia, as well...

CSU's 2026 Homecoming Event to Honor Turner College Grad Eboni Thomas

The schedule for CSU Homecoming 2026 is coming together, and a few events will be especially important to the Turner College community. The Alumni Weekend portion of the festivities kicks off on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 5:30pm with "Cougar Connections." This is an alumni networking event to be held at Nonic Restaurant & Rooftop Bar in Uptown Columbus.  The CSU Alumni Association Award Luncheon is set for Friday, October 16, 2026, at 11:30am in the Cunningham Center on CSU's main campus. That event recognizes the outstanding alumni, faculty, staff and university supporters whose achievements, leadership and service have made a lasting impact on CSU, their professions and their communities. Eboni Thomas , a strategic planning specialist at the Columbus Water Works who earned a BBA from the Turner College in 2009 and a Turner College MBA in 2024, will receive the 2026 Young Alumni Award. Stay connected to Turner Business for more on the Homecoming festivities.   ...

Choosing the Right Pond: A Guest Essay

CSU went to bed on the evening of September 21, 2026, as the 65th best regional university in the U.S. South. It woke on the morning of September 22, 2026, as the 422nd-ranked (worst) national university in the United States. As you know, this occurred on the release by U.S. News & World Report of its 2027 Best Colleges guide, wherein for the first time ever CSU is classified as a national university. In that classification CSU joins private powerhouse Emory University (ranked 23rd), and two relatively prominent public institutions in the Georgia Institute of Technology (ranked 29th) and the University of Georgia (ranked 52nd). Two other institutions that inhabit the University System of Georgia's "Research Universities" category are also among this group. These are, of course, Georgia State University (ranked 191st) and Augusta University (ranked 317th). The four institutions considered by the USG as "Comprehensive Universities" are also classified, and...

TSYS School's Jianhua Yang Selected for Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for Spring 2027

TSYS School professor of computer science Jianhua Yang has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for 2026–2027. As a Fulbright Scholar,  Yang is expected to spend Spring 2027 in Egypt, where he will conduct research in collaboration with Mohammed AbdelMegeed Salem and his team at the German University in Cairo, an institution that was established through cooperation with major German institutions, including the University of Ulm and the University of Stuttgart, with support from organizations including the German Academic Exchange Service and other German governmental bodies. As part of the program Yang will also teach two courses at Cairo University in Egypt. Turner Business congratulates Professor Yang on this significant professional accomplishment and  wonderful recognition for the TSYS School.

Georgia's National Universities: A Look at the Numbers

With CSU's ascent into U.S. News & World Report 's most prominent category of National Universities, Turner Business decided to provide some side-by-side comparisons on the Georgia-based institutions included in this category. The table below provides the institutional age and the U.S. News & World Report  ranking of each of these 12 institutions that call Georgia home. Of course, the oldest, at 241 years old, is the University of Georgia. The Athens-based institution is followed by August University and Mercer University, which are 198 years old and 193 years old, respectively. Emory University sits close in fourth at 190 years of age. At 38 years old, Clark Atlanta is the youngest of the Georgia-based national universities. Kennesaw State is next at 63 years old, while CSU is third youngest at 68 years old. The other columns in the table present some of the data  U.S. News & World Report  uses to rank national colleges and universities. Among these are acc...