Turner Business

CSU President Stuart Rayfield will welcome faculty and staff back to campus on Monday morning August 4, with the 2025-26 Fall Faculty and Staff Convocation. A continental breakfast will be served beginning at 8:30am, followed by President Rayfield's address beginning at 9:30am. Both portions of the overall event will be held in University Hall on CSU's main campus.

Crystal Harris has joined the Office of Business & Finance as CSU's new Bursar and Director of Student Financial Services. She comes to CSU with prior higher education student accounts and financial services experience, most of which she gained at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., where she served before CSU. At Gallaudet University, her responsibilities culminated in directing the university’s Student Financial Services office. She is a two-time Valdosta State University graduate and earned an Ed.D. from the University of New England.

Information from thousands of student evaluations completed during the most recent academic year (i.e., 2024-25) is in and Turner Business has compiled a table for visitors to examine the quality of teaching both across CSU's whole campus and inside the Turner College. CSU currently uses a 14-item survey asking students to evaluate professors and courses in a number of ways. Courses and professors are scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strong disagreement to strong agreement. The results are provided in the table below. As indicated in the table above, Turner College courses and professors typically score between 4.50 and 4.75, while all CSU courses and professors typically score between 4.57 and 4.81.  

Thanks to a generous donation from Jackie Hamilton, to honor her father Bill Hamilton ,   a retired professor of management   and the first MBA Program Director in the Turner College, the Turner College proudly unveiled a state-of-the-art synchronous classroom on the third floor of the Synovus Center on CSU's main campus. The room is equipped with technology that makes it possible for students joining a class remotely to have as full a learning experience as those who are physically in the room. Large screens are dedicated to each remote student with separate cameras and microphones. In addition, the classroom has several breakout rooms that allow small groups of students (both in person and remote) to hold discussions and work on projects together without the distractions of the noise from other groups. " We want to preserve what is truly special about learning at a university - the interactions between students and the faculty member teaching a class as well as the interacti...

Previous posts here at Turner Business have analyzed enrollments trends in the Turner College, particularly those involving the organization's MS program in organizational leadership. With summer semester in the books and the beginning of fall semester 2025 just around the corner, we decided to re-examine enrollment numbers (fall over fall) for the MSOL program. The table below compares tentative fall 2025 enrollments with fall 2024 enrollments. As indicated in the table, MSOL program enrollment is tentatively down 49 students, or 13.9%. In two courses, enrollment is up from 25% to 35.7%, while in three others it is holding steady or marginally higher. The remaining course enrollments are down for now anywhere from about 22% to almost 37%. With two weeks until start of fall 2025, things should improve. Stay connected to Turner Business for updates. Course  Number Course  Name Fall 2025  Enrollment Fall 2024  Enrollment ...

A new study by TSYS School computer scientist Yi Zhou and his colleagues from Jinan University and the University of Exeter points out that recently passed laws and regulations have granted users the right to be "forgotten," which, stated differently, is the right to require data controllers to delete user data. In this regard, various methods for machine unlearning have been proposed to remove individual data points. However, these do not scale to the scenarios where larger groups of features are to be removed. To address this challenge, Zhou et al. propose MAFRO, an optimal-granularity fuzzy decision rule-based classifier that accelerates unlearning via influence functions. Building on granular computing, MAFRO first selects a minimal reduct of attributes, then constructs fuzzy granules with a Gaussian membership function to extract concise decision rules and realizes unlearning through the influence function. "Specifically, instead of training with the full set of at...

Columbus State University Athletics and the Athletics Hall of Fame Committee are proud to announce the 2025 Hall of Fame class of inductees, highlighting four impactful Cougars who have represented the CSU red and blue so well.  Four former Cougars will be enshrined into the illustrious club on October 18th during the CSU Homecoming Weekend festivities. This year's Class of 2025 includes soccer student-athlete and Turner College alum Olivia Jarrell .  Olivia is one of the most decorated student-athletes to ever come through the women's soccer program, competing for the Cougars from 2015 to 2018. The four-time All-Peach Belt Conference selection, 2018 PBC Player of the Year, and 2015 PBC Freshman of the Year has left one of the most prolific legacies in CSU history, setting the standard for the women's soccer program.  The St. Augustine, Fla. native and All-Decade Team member holds the program record with 71 career goals and 171 career points, ranking fourth on the PBC's...

A new study appearing in the current issue of the Small Business Institute Journal by Turner College management professors Kirk Heriot and Neal Thomson  describes the use of field-based students consulting  projects in sections of the Turner College's Small Business Management course.  Although previous studies have observed field-based consulting over shorter periods of time, Heriot and Thomson opt for a longitudinal approach by examining course sections taught from 2006 to 2021.  Additionally, Heriot and Thomson employ  a case research design in order to observe the  evolution of the small business institute program and to explore the program in much greater detail than other research designs.  According to Thomson, "qualitative research designs [like that in our study] have previously been used to describe field-based student consulting programs." The study explains that r equiring students to work with a small business  is experien...

Columbus-born artist Ann Strub, who now resides in New Orleans, has made history with a recent multi-million-dollar estate gift to support art, music and archival programs at Columbus State University. It represents the largest single gift from an individual to Columbus State and its largest planned gift to date.  “Ann Strub’s extraordinary generosity is more than just a gift; it’s the enduring brushstroke of a visionary—painting a vibrant future for the arts and humanities at Columbus State University for generations to come,” said President Stuart Rayfield. “Her legacy will resonate in the achievements of our students, the richness of our programs and the preservation of our shared history.”  Strub’s newest commitment is part of her ongoing support of Columbus State celebrating her affinity for the arts and her Columbus roots. Those roots include her grandfather, Dr. Roland Bird Daniel, in whose memory she created Daniel Scholarships in the Department of Art and for whom she...

Last month, the Commission for Public Higher Education, a consortium of six public university systems, was unveiled. This Commission will create a first-of-its-kind accreditation model for public higher education institutions that will offer high-quality, efficient services prioritizing academic excellence, student outcomes and achievement.  “I am proud to be joined by leaders of five other public university systems to establish an accreditor that will focus on ensuring institutions provide high-quality, high-value programs, use student data to drive decisions, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the process,” said Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, State University System of Florida.  “Our work with the Commission for Public Higher Education aims to keep Georgia’s universities among the best in the nation by focusing on high standards and real value for students and families,” University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “Collaborating with neighboring states...

The TSYS School is seeking a skilled and driven M.S. student in applied computer science to serve as graduate lab assistant for fall semester 2025. The position will support undergraduate learning through lab assistance, tutoring and collaborative research. The lab assistantship is part-time position that is accompanied by a $6,000 stipend and tuition coverage (excluding fees) and provides a flexible 19-hour work week. The successful candidate will have at least a 3.0 GPA and be proficient in Java and Python, enrolled in at least 6 credit hours and pursuing the thesis track. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The start date for the position is August 11, 2025.    

This fall's Turner College Career Fair is set for September 23rd from 11:00am until 2:00pm. Due to growth of this event in recent years, this fall's event will be held in the Student Activities Center. All students majoring in business or computer science are invited to attend as this is a great opportunity to network with other students and professionals and to secure an internship or employment. At least 50 organizations will be represented. Hope to see you there.

The Turner College Business Tutoring Lab is getting ahead of start of fall semester in terms of its search for additional tutoring staff. The minimum qualifications for prospective tutors include a 3.00 GPA or higher, with B or higher in supported courses. The preferred qualifications include enrollment in a business major and junior/senior classification, although business minors with upper-level course completion will also be considered. Successful applicants will earn $15 per hour and may work up to 19 hours per week. Courses covered by the lab include Principles of Accounting I and II, Introduction to Information Systems in Business, Business Analytics I, Principles of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, Principles of Finance, Corporate Financial Analysis and Principles of Information Systems Management.  

President Stuart Rayfield has appointed Dustin Anderson as Columbus State University’s new provost, executive vice president and chief academic officer. Currently the associate provost for student success & academic programs at Georgia Southern University, Anderson officially begins his CSU tenure today.  As a senior university leader and member of the president’s Executive Leadership Team, Anderson will lead the university’s academic enterprise, overseeing a total Academic Affairs budget of $54.7 million and a team of more than 450 faculty and staff. This includes the academic colleges and deans; research, outreach and faculty development centers; and affiliated administrative units.  “Dr. Dustin Anderson brings a strong track record of academic leadership and innovation, and a demonstrated commitment to student success, after 15 years as an educator and administrator at Georgia Southern,” Rayfield said. “I am confident he will help us further advance Columbus State’s str...

An academic study by a researcher at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies that   conducts a bibliometric analysis of more than 8,600 publications (from 2000 to 2020) in the areas of economic education and education economics reports that Turner College economist Frank Mixon  has been one of the most consistent research producers worldwide.  As the study states, "The affiliations of the most prolific authors reflect strong contributions from globally renowned institutions, often located in the most research-active countries. For instance, KimMarie McGoldrick and Franklin Mixon are . . . affiliated with universities in the United States . . . [and] are among the top contributors." Both McGoldrick, who is affiliated with the University of Richmond, and Mixon are each among the 10 most prolific scholars analyzed in the study, which  appears in a recent issue of  Economics and Applied Informatics .

Two signature programs recently were reaccredited by their national review agencies, signaling a seal of approval and expertise for Columbus State University’s business and theatre programs.  These voluntary, peer-reviewed processes provide students, parents and future employers with assurances that the coursework, fieldwork, internships and other factors comprising a student’s “college experience” meet rigorous quality standards.  For business schools like the Turner College, AACSB accreditation underscores how the process ensures a quality education experience for students. AACSB accreditation is recognized worldwide as the highest standard of quality, with only 6 percent of the world’s leading business schools achieving AACSB accreditation.  “The standards for teaching and student success are consistent for all AACSB-accredited institutions,” Deborah Kidder , Turner College dean and Bill Heard Endowed Chair of Business Administration, said of the college’s extended AA...

Today we are taking a look at the Google Scholar citations garnered by the research conducted by computer scientists in the TSYS School. This analysis includes only those TSYS School faculty who have a registered Google Scholar account. Riduan Abid leads the way with 1,793 citations, followed Linqiang Ge with 1,282 citations. Ranked third, with 414 citations, is  Hyrum Carroll , followed by Yi Zhou with 366 citations. Rounding out the top five is Amjad Hossain , with 289 citations. Hossain joined the TSYS School in August of 2024. Completing the top seven are Rahmatullah Roche with 157 citations, and  Yesem Kurt Peker with 146 citations. A couple of additional metrics are also available on Google Scholar. One of these is the h-index, which is the largest number of a scholar's publications, h, that have each garnered at least h citations. Ge currently maintains the largest h-index, at 19, followed by Abid with and 18 and Zhou with a 12. Lastly, the i10-index represents the...

In gastroscopy image diagnosis, the physiological structure of the stomach and peristalsis causes interference and blurred images, which increases the difficulty of lesion identification. Anchor-based object detection technology is a method that presets anchors with specific scales and aspect ratios in the image to determine the position and category of the target object. It can quickly and accurately identify various objects in complex scenes and thus provide an important basis for subsequent analysis and decision-making. However, anchor-based object detection techniques in gastroscopy image diagnosis suffers from limited localization accuracy, high computational cost, and scale sensitivity. Advanced anchor-free object detectors such as fully convolutional one-stage object detection (FCOS) were proposed to solve these problems. Unfortunately, for gastroscope image analysis, FCOS-based detectors have three drawbacks: (1) the centrality feature may not work well if the target center doe...

Work on the exterior of CSU's Synovus Center, home to the Turner College, is progressing. According to Thomas Rice, Director of Plant Operations, the project has  entered Phase 3, which includes demolition of the exterior brick between the Synovus Center and Schuster.  During this time, pedestrian traffic will be rerouted away from the walkway between the two buildings and off the Schuster lawn to allow for safe excavation and equipment access. Emergency routes will remain open, and directional signage will be posted throughout the area. Before the front entrance is closed, the rear entrance will reopen and new emergency exit routes will be established.