Turner Business

CSU's Director of Alumni Engagement and CSU graduate Laurie Aiken recently took to LinkedIn to thank several Turner College connections for their contributions to the Chattahoochee Valley Young Professionals organization. In particular she thanked  Alexis Gray and Bailey Brado Brown for working to open the door for future networking relationships and programs between the Chattahoochee Valley Young Professionals and Columbus State University graduating seniors. Gray, a 2018 graduate of the Turner College's MSOL program, is the Assistant Director of Alumni and Student Engagement at CSU. Brown recently transitioned from Admissions Coordinator to Career Readiness Coordinator at CSU. She earned a B.A. in communication from Young Harris College in 2016, and an M.Ed. from CSU in 2023. Noting that exciting opportunities on the way, Aiken also expressed pride in CSU alumni and Chattahoochee Valley Young Professionals Board members Arianna Burden-Force , Gabby Castleberry, and Kevin Wo...

In recent days Turner Business has reported on several faculty who are nearing a Google Scholar citations milestone. The figure below highlights these and others. As indicated there, three faculty, namely TSYS computer scientist Hyrum Carroll and Turner College management professors Kevin Hurt and Mark James , are closing in on 500 Google Scholar citations. At present, research by Carroll has been cited 452 times, while that by Hurt and James has been cited 479 and 482 times, respectively.   The figure above also indicates that Turner College management information systems professor Jennifer Pitts is closing in on 1,500 Google Scholar citations. To date, her research has picked up 1,478 Google Scholar citations. Lastly, the figure above recognizes two faculty, namely Turner College management professor Laurence Marsh and Turner College marketing professor Ed O'Donnell , who have recently met certain milestones. Marsh's research recently surpassed 1,000 Google Scholar citat...

Given that official enrollment statistics are not due from the USG until next month, Turner Business has been gathering preliminary data from various reports in order to be prepared for the USG release. One source has been presentations by CSU President Stuart Rayfield to the CSU Faculty Senate. At the August meeting, Rayfield indicated that CSU's overall enrollment for Fall 2026 was down 2.8% (from Fall 2025). By the September Faculty Senate meeting that figure had climbed to 3.0%. Now, just after the October meeting, enrollment appears to be down 2.1%. Although there was modest improvement here, the situation across graduate programs enrollment appears to be getting worse. Rayfield's office reported earlier this month that overall graduate student enrollment is down more than 3.4%, due in large part to a 2.2% decrease in the number of retained graduate students. At the undergraduate level, student retention (of non-new freshmen) worsened from a drop of 6.2%, as reported at t...

Next Thursday, November 4, 2026, is another huge day for the Turner College as students and faculty will be attending the second session of the new  Distinguished Speaker Series. This session features Jason McKenzie , owner of Ride on Bikes in Uptown Columbus and a Turner College alumnus from the Class of 2009.  Under the theme “Leave Nothing in the Tank,” Jason will share insights from his entrepreneurial journey, including his experience building a successful small business, fostering community connections, and developing effective leadership skills. His presentation will begin at 11:00am in the Synovus Center Theater on CSU's main campus.  This event, organized by Turner College management information systems professor Jennifer Pitts  and sponsored by the Ray and Evelyn Crowley Endowment for Entrepreneurship , is open to all Turner College students and offers an opportunity to learn from a CSU alumnus making an impact in the local business community.

The deadline for applications to become the new Turner College dean expired several days ago and now the search committee, managed by the Buffkin/Baker search firm and chaired by Margie Yates, Dean of CSU's College of Education and Health Professions, is engaged in selecting three or four finalists. A check of HigherEdJobs reveals that in recent days the University of North Carolina — Wilmington, Catholic University, The College of New Jersey, Saint Anselm College, and Florida Institute of Technology have all entered the competition with the Turner College and other institutions listed here previously for a new business school dean. Next week ends on November 6. Given the additional deadlines, one of more of the names of the finalists should be known by then. Stay connected to Turner Business for more developments on this front. Do you have an “idea worth spreading?" Columbus State University is inviting bold thinkers, storytellers and innovators to take the stage at TEDx Co...

Columbus State University women's tennis sophomore Isabell Ek has been named the Columbus State Athletics Student-Athlete of the Week, presented by Chick-fil-A on Macon Road and Manchester Expressway. Ek teamed with Claudia De Lucas to finish as the doubles runner-up at the ITA Southeast Regional. The sixth-seeded Columbus State duo won three matches to advance to the championship and earned a berth in the ITA Division II Doubles National Championships. Ek and De Lucas opened the tournament with an 8-6 victory over Wingate's Claudia Vallejos and Honomi Watanabe in the round of 32. They followed with an 8-4 win against Young Harris' Futaba Saito and Emma Baldassari in the round of 16. The CSU pair advanced to the championship match after defeating Lander's seventh-seeded Esther Mansson and Astrid Sandwall Tornqvist 8-2 in the semifinals. Ek and De Lucas finished as regional runners-up following a 2-6, 6-4, 9-11 battle in the final. The duo will represent Columbus Sta...