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CSU Launches New Employer Advisory Council

A new Employer Advisory Council at Columbus State University is enhancing students’ career prospects with the region’s employers—ranging from internships and co-ops to post-graduate jobs. Its origin is part of a comprehensive university strategy that aligns academics, career coaching and experiential learning to prepare students for the evolving needs of the modern workforce.  According to Patrick Keebler, director of Columbus State’s Center for Career Coaching, the council’s main goal is to foster two-way dialogue that benefits both students and the local economy. It aims to establish a direct communication channel between the university and the region’s most influential recruiters and business leaders.  “The goal of our new Employer Advisory Council is to enhance communication between Columbus State University and the area’s leading employers that hire our graduates,” Keebler noted. “This will help us better understand their workforce needs and create more opportunities to p...
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Construction Work on Synovus Center Steadily Progressing

Work is progressing nicely on the front of the Synovus Center, home of the Turner College. The image at left, provided to Turner Business by management professor Kirk Heriot , was captured on February 25, 2026. Today, new brick covers almost all of the face of the building. Over the next few weeks that work will be completed and the construction team will focus on the interior of the building. Work on the $10 million project is expected to be completed just prior to Fall 2026. Stay connected to Turner Business for the latest news on this project.
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Turner College News & Notes

CSU President Stuart Rayfield's March 2026 Updates indicated that the recently passed FY26 amended state budget included a $2,000 stipend for all state employees, including Turner College faculty and staff. Our own February 26, 2026, post on the state budget  also discussed that element of the assembly's activities. Turner Business also reported in that post that Turner College faculty and staff are also expected income and property tax relief, ranging from $500 to $1,000 depending on marital status. This is much needed good news for both groups. Stay connected to Turner Business for more news on the FY27 budget. Yesterday's post about TSYS School computer scientist Yesem Kurt Peker 's publication in IEEE Access failed to mention that this accomplishment marked a milestone for Peker as it is her first publication in an A-rated academic journal. So, this repeat mention corrects that omission and serves as a double congrats to Peker. It is also worth repeating here tha...
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TSYS School's Yesem Peker and Students Publish New Study on Fault Detection in Smart Buildings

TSYS School computer scientist Yesem Kurt Peker  has extended her research program examining fault detection in smart buildings with a new study in IEEE Access that leverages  machine learning techniques to predict  and classify faults in energy consumption, thus providing actionable insights to proactively mitigate them. In  this study, Peker, her TSYS School students  Shashank Sekhara , Akshith Nukala  and McAndrew Okwei , and her colleagues from Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and US Ignite, Inc., propose a data engineering and machine learning framework deployed in the cloud to  predict energy consumption across multiple building types. Their dataset includes hourly energy consumption,  weather conditions and occupancy data, and results from outlier/fault detection to model prediction  provide a detailed comparative analysis on methodologies for implementing a scalable and efficient  framework for buildings’ energy man...
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CSU Soon to Kick Off $125 Million Capital Campaign

CSU President Stuart Rayfield recently informed the CSU community that the  CSU Foundation Trustees have officially voted for the University to enter the leadership (quiet) phase of a comprehensive fundraising campaign, and that the CSU administration is currently developing funding priorities that align directly with CSU's strategic plan. The current plan is that in 2028, following investments by CSU's leadership donors, CSU will publicly announce its campaign goal of raising $125 million by 2030. "This campaign will focus on positioning the university’s role in the future of Columbus, the evolving workforce our students will enter, and the technologies and innovations CSU must master to remain competitive and relevant. This is a significant step forward and a powerful vote of confidence by the CSU Foundation in the trajectory of our institution," Rayfield noted. Seeking to raise $100 million, the last campaign occurred several years ago and culminated with a $5 mill...
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More Concerning News about Enrollment and Retention

Concern over CSU's enrollment situation continues to build, and for good reason. During the January 2026 CSU Faculty Senate meeting, CSU President Stuart Rayfield reported that CSU's Spring 2026 enrollment was up 2% in terms of headcount and 2.25% in terms of student credit hour production. One month later, during the February 2026 CSU Faculty Senate meeting, she revised her prior report to indicate that Spring 2026 enrollment is down 2.28% in student headcount and by 1.89% in student credit hour production. As Turner Business noted at the time,  the updated enrollment numbers represent percentage point swings of −4.28 and −4.14, respectively, from last month's numbers.  The bad news was solidified in her March 2026 Updates to faculty staff, wherein she stated,  "Enrollment continues to trend slightly down overall; however, there are encouraging signs that we are beginning to move in the right direction. Among those are the increased and frequent interactions betwee...
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Rahmatullah Roche Scheduled to Speak at Next Lunch & Learn Event on March 10th

The next installment in the Lunch & Learn Speaker Series is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in room 206 of the Synovus Center. The featured speaker is Rahmatullah Roche , an assistant professor of computer science in the TSYS School. The title of Roche's presentation is "Harnessing AI for Innovative Predictive Modeling: Opportunities, Funding, and Academic Impact."  Roche earned a Master of Science in computer science and software engineering from Auburn University in 2021 and a Ph.D. in computer science and applications from Virginia Tech in 2024, where he received the prestigious Pratt Fellowship for the 2023–2024 academic year. He joined the TSYS School as an assistant professor in Fall 2024. Roche is passionate about teaching and is dedicated to inspiring and mentoring the next generation of computer scientists.  To ensure lunch is provided, please accept our invitation by 3:00 pm on Monday, March 9.
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