Turner Business

Nominations from the Turner College for the 2026 CSU Faculty and Staff Awards will soon be named. Each April, CSU confers awards to faculty for teaching excellence, research and scholarship, service, the scholarship of teaching, teaching innovation, graduate education, online teaching excellence, and creative endeavors. At the most recent awards ceremony in April of this year, Turner College economist Wen Shi won the CSU Teaching Innovation Award, joining Turner College accounting professor Charles Boster on the stage, who won the CSU Chappell Graduate Faculty Award. During that same ceremony, TSYS School computer scientist Yesem Kurt Peker won the CSU Teaching Excellence Award.  In April of 2025, the TSYS School's Linqiang Ge won the CSU Online Teaching Excellence Award, while Turner College finance professor Brett Cotten won the CSU Chappell Graduate Faculty Award and Turner College accounting professor Jasmine Bordere won the CSU Scholarship of Teaching Award. Stay connect...

TSYS School cybersecurity lecturer Elke Brumbaugh has departed CSU for a new position with FIS. Brumbaugh remarked on her LinkedIn account earlier this evening that she is blessed  "to start a new journey at FIS today as a Senior Mainframe Software Engineer," and that she "is grateful for her CSU journey over the past six years" and "extremely excited about this new journey." Only two hours after making her announcement this evening congratulations and well wishes were pouring in from other LinkedIn connected professionals, including officials at CSU and Turner College and TSYS School alumni. Turner Business congratulates Elke on this professional milestone and wishes her the best going forward.

TSYS School students  are taking cybersecurity learning beyond the classroom.  Faculty and students from the TSYS School recently participated in the BSides Cybersecurity Conference, connecting with cybersecurity professionals and exploring current tools, practices, and emerging challenges in the field.  Experiences like BSides give students an opportunity to learn directly from the cybersecurity community, expand their professional networks, and connect what they are learning in the classroom with real-world cybersecurity practice.  In these ways students actively engaging with the professional community and taking advantage of opportunities that help prepare them for their future careers.  Thanks are due Yesem Kurt Peker and Christopher Lovelock for their ongoing mentorship and commitment to helping students grow beyond the classroom.

With only 12 days remaining for the submission of applications, it's looking like the advertisement for a new dean of the Turner College will not make its way into either The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed , the two traditional avenues for attracting a pool of candidates for an executive position in higher education. Now, the Turner College is only about a month, if not a little less, from having finalists for the position on campus for their interviews, meetings and presentations. Our recent check of Open Georgia indicates that the previous dean, Deborah Kidder, earned a 2025 salary of $192,000 per year, as reported here recently. Comparisons with other entries at that site suggest that this figure included a stipend of unknown amount from the Bill Heard Endowment, which was established to financially support holders of the position. Missing from our recent analysis of the salaries of business school deans across the USG's regional universities was inform...

Columbus State University men's golf freshman Luke Friend has been named the Columbus State Athletics Student-Athlete of the Week, presented by Chick-fil-A on Macon Road and Manchester Expressway.  Friend tied for eighth at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Preview, finishing the three-round tournament at seven-under par with a total of 209. He opened with a five-under 67 before posting consecutive one-under rounds of 71.  Friend's performance helped Columbus State tie for third at Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club.  The Acworth, Ga., native attended North Paulding High School and is majoring in general business. His favorite team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  The Columbus State Athletics Student-Athlete of the Week award recognizes outstanding athletic and academic achievements and is presented weekly by Chick-fil-A on Macon Road and Manchester Expressway, a proud supporter of Columbus State student-athletes.

Landmark support from Jack and JoRhee Pezold is elevating CSU’s impact on STEM education, technology innovation and workforce development in Columbus, across Georgia and beyond. The University will break ground early next year on the 36,000-square-foot building that will serve as the new home for CSU’s Coca-Cola Space Science Center and its expanding robotics engineering program. After the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved it last week, the building will be named the Jack and JoRhee Pezold Center for Emergent Technology in recognition of their landmark donations to the project. The Pezolds invested $6 million in the project; $4 million of their gift will fund the building itself. Another $2 million will permanently endow a distinguished institute chair — a dynamic technologist and economic development leader to work from the building. The Pezolds chose to name the endowed chair after Jim and Nancy Buntin. “This project, and the Pezolds’ unwavering support of Colu...