Turner Business

The April 2026 issue Georgia Trend magazine of includes an article by Jeffrey Humphreys, Director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, arguing that Columbus is set to experience significant job growth over course of this year. Humphreys attributes the current and coming growth to defense-friendly politics favoring Fort Benning, the expansion of magnet manufacturing facilities at BioTouch, the 2024 relocation of Sierra Pacific Industries to Phenix City, the new Micromize facility in Columbus, and the expansion of operations at Pratt & Whitney. Humphreys also includes the opening of the Daesoi Ausys Georgia manufacturing facility in Harris County and the opening of AFB International's new pet food manufacturing facility in the Muscogee Technology Park. A full look at Humphreys' article is provided below.

Turner College management professor Kevin Hurt offers his students a unique research-based approach to graduate education. In addition to assigning academic readings and a research requirement in his MSOL classes, his students are also assigned movies and/or TED Talks to watch, after which they are tasked with diagnosing whether a particular leader demonstrates servant leadership. In completing this assignment, Hurt's students must go beyond a simple "yes" or "no" answer and instead link their perspective back to the academic literature to justify their positions. Students are then graded on how well they defend their positions with the academic literature, not on the correctness of their conclusion. These diagnosis papers yield the additional benefit of stimulating interesting conversations between the students. Hurt's research-approach to MSOL education also extends to the scholarship of teaching . In fact, w hen it comes to conducting research with curren...

CSU President Stuart Rayfield addressed the institution's enrollment difficulties at the March 2026 Faculty Senate meeting. During her presentation she noted that CSU's Fall 2025 enrollment decline of 3.1% was not only the largest enrollment decline among USG institutions, CSU, is the only USG institution whose Fall 2025 enrollment was down on a year-over-year basis. Rayfield also reported that CSU is likely to be the only USG institution at which enrollment is down in Spring 2026. Enrollment this semester is currently down 2.5%. These facts indicate that the enrollment situation is a "CSU problem," not a "systemwide problem." Lastly, although Fall 2026 admissions are up, applications for Fall 2026 are below the count for Fall 2025. As Turner Business has reported previously, this combination of statistics has implications in terms of the quality of incoming students. 

Throughout his brief time in the TSYS School, computer science professor Linqiang Ge has worked to achieve and maintain excellence in online teaching,  to ensure student success in the online learning environment, and to retain students in the TSYS School's academic programs. " I've embarked on a journey into online teaching, navigating through virtual classrooms and digital landscapes to deliver quality education to my students," Ge explained to Turner Business . When Ge first t ransitioned from traditional face-to-face instruction to online teaching, he made a significant adjustment in both mindset and approach. For him, that mean embracing digital tools and platforms in order to recreate the interactive learning experience that his students expected. Ge uses many different online teaching strategies to ensure that his students are engaged, satisfied with their instruction, and successful.  The first of these strategies is to develop and maintain a personal rapport...

The TSYS School, led by Rania Hodhod , announced the formation of a new advisory board at the Turner College's March 2026 meeting. Composition of the board includes a mix of industry professionals, academic experts and some of the TSYS School's top undergraduate and graduate students. The professional members of the new TSYS School Advisory Board are Curtis O'Neal , founder and CEO of Cybernetics Global, Victoria Thomas , Director of Career, Technical and Agricultural Education for the Muscogee County School District, Shea Spencer , Business Development Consultant for Global Payments, Jonathan White , Information Security Manager at Global Payments, Jose Canedo , Senior Software Developer at Global Payments, Jaden Jefferson , IT Support Specialist at Aflac, Anita Lawrence , Director of Output Services at FIS, and  Adbdelrahman Arafat , Systems Engineer at Ankerpak. On the academic side of the board are TSYS School computer science professors Yi Zhou , Jianhua Yang , Amjad H...

Twenty-four hours. Dozens of opportunities to give. That’s what awaits Columbus State University alumni and friends starting at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 6, when the university launches CSU Gives. The annual online giving drive highlights how alumni and donors can quickly impact students’ experiences and academic success through their charitable contributions. “Gifts of all sizes benefit our students every day,” said Alexis Gray , Assistant Director of Alumni and Student Engagement and 2018 graduate of the Turner College's MSOL program, who is co-leading the CSU Gives effort. “They make college affordable through scholarships and make learning from outstanding faculty possible in the classroom. They enhance the college experience through unique experiences and leadership development that help our students succeed in their studies and position them for success in their careers.” Gray explained that the 24-hour giving period will feature some competitive online “power hours” designed t...