Turner Business

Updated enrollment data are becoming available, and Turner Business will be putting together some posts that discuss the latest trends. One thing we have paid some attention to regarding the new enrollment reports is the list of academic majors at CSU that have been either deactivated or eliminated in recent years. This list includes some items we suspect that you, like us, were not aware had been given one of these declarations. Only a few programs in the Turner College have been impacted in this regard. The BBA in cybersecurity management was deactivated some time ago and the last three students working toward this major were cleared in 2023. The Turner College's certificate in social media marketing has also been deactivated, and there is only one student remaining in that program. The TSYS School's certificate in computer science foundations was terminated, with an end date of 08-01-2024, and only one student remains there. Lastly, the TSYS School's regular and adva...

[The View from 30,000 Feet is an occasional entry that offers a big-picture view of some of the topics covered on this blog.] A Google search of the phrase "public facing syllabi and grade inflation" returns the following AI response: "Public-facing syllabi are proposed as a way to increase transparency and potentially address grade inflation, but critics argue that public exposure could increase external pressure on instructors . . . The University System of Georgia recently mandated that all public institutions post course syllabi on public websites by the fall of 2026. Proponents argue that making syllabi public increases transparency for students, parents, and taxpayers. Public syllabi, which include course descriptions, readings, and learning objectives, allow external groups to scrutinize class materials and hold instructors accountable for course content." Besides any interest in the fact that Google AI integrated the USG's recent decision to mandate publ...

We recently reported that Turner College general business major, Victoria Trieu , was named Homecoming Queen at the end of CSU's Homecoming Week 2025. As we wrote, her campaign for the honor was masterful. We were recently able to chat with Victoria about that campaign, her noteworthy engagement in campus life, and her plans for life after graduation. The transcript of that chat is provided below. TB: ‎College and university officials often struggle to get students to consider the benefits of become actively involved in several activities while attending college. You seem to have figured out early, perhaps even back in high school, that a high degree of involvement enhances the educational experience. Did you have any role models in this regard? How did you come to this understanding? VT:  Growing up, I was surrounded by people who believed that leadership and service go hand in hand. My biggest role models were my mom and older peers who showed that being involved wasn’t just ab...

Some of the more popular posts here at Turner Business are those that analyze the Google Scholar citations garnered by the research published by Turner College faculty. This particular post contributes to those in a different way. There are currently four Turner College faculty closing in on the milestone of 500 career Google Scholar (GS) citations. This race to 500 is shown in the diagram below. Turner College associate professor of marketing Ed O'Donnell currently leads, with 479 GS citations. In second is TSYS School computer scientist Yi Zhou with 444 GS citations. The trajectory of the rise in Zhou's GS citation count gives him a chance even though he trails O'Donnell by 35 GS cites at present. Associate professor of management Mark James currently sits at 410 GS cites, nine GS cites behind TSYS School computer scientist Hyrum Carroll  at 419. The trajectory of James' rise is similar to Zhou's, so it will be interesting to see how close he comes to winning ...

A recent contribution to this series discussed the new pedestrian bridge at Mercer University that connects new student apartments on the south side of Mercer University Drive with the main campus on the north side of Mercer University Drive. This discussion provided an example of how CSU could transform the little strip mall across University Avenue that faces the main entrance to CSU. Like Mercer U, CSU also has a pedestrian bridge, as shown in the image above. CSU's pedestrian bridge connects the southern edge of the main campus to the larger northern portion of the campus. Whereas Mercer's is more of a load bearing through arch bridge, CSU's is supported by a concrete pillar situated underneath the center of the bridge.  Mercer's version of a pedestrian bridge offers the aesthetic advantage that the large arch can be lit, as in the image at left, making for a nice focal point in the evenings.  What if CSU installed a faux through arch on its own pedestrian bridge t...

Maya Schwabe took home the $20,000 grand prize at StartUp Columbus' recent LaunchCon BizPitch Competition for her app, MindMunch, which turns screen time into study time. As WRBL's Bob Jeswald explains,  the competition, co-sponsored by the Turner College and held at the Columbus Trade Center, connects local and regional entrepreneurs through workshops and seminars focused on sharing ideas and strategies for growth. As explained on its website, MindMunch is the first productivity app to integrate customizable, munch-sized quizzes into daily scrolling.  The app was developed by a global team of students who got tired of feeling unproductive, unfocused, and overwhelmed —and decided to build the solution themselves. Now they are backed by schools, accelerators, and education leaders who believe in their solution.  The company has so far used more that 500 beta testers and received more than 150,000 impressions.  Past winners were also present at the recent event sh...

Turner College graduate Ashley Becker recently moved into the role of Director of Talent and Leadership Development at the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Ashley joined the Chamber in 2020 as Program Manager. In this role she played a critical role in developing, executing, and delivering program-related content and logistics for Chamber partners, and other stakeholders. The primary programs managed by Ashley include Leadership Columbus, Young Professionals and Partners in Education. Ashley earned a BBA in management from the Turner College. During her undergraduate studies she participated with the Chamber Chorale, BSU, Teen Advisors and Grad Staff. She later went on to earn an M.S. in organizational leadership, also from the Turner College. As a graduate student, Ashley was active in Beta Gamma Sigma and the Society for Human Resource Management. Turner Business congratulates Ashley on this professional milestone.

If you've ever visited downtown Auburn, AL, you've seen the diamond-shaped granite plaques embedded intermittently into the sidewalks that recognize Auburn sports greats from years past, very reminiscent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Referred to as the Tiger Trail of Auburn, this project began in 1995 and is supported by the Auburn Chamber of Commerce and the City of Auburn. Each year a new group of four or five former sports greats is inducted and recognized along the trail in front of the shops and restaurants throughout downtown. The first class included Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, three-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Rowdy Gaines, two-time Olympic gold medal winning sprinter Harvey Glance, and three-time All American women's basketball player Vickie Orr, among others.  What if CSU installed diamond-shape granite plaques along the sidewalks of its main campus that honored members of the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame?  Each year the Hall inducts a new class o...

According to the minutes, a number of items of interest to Turner College faculty were discussed at the October 6, 2025, CSU Faculty Senate meeting. First, during CSU Provost Dustin Anderson's presentation the Senate was informed that CSU's Office of Sponsored Programs is currently being staffed by "a remote employee." Anderson also pointed out that the  Aspire meetings are set to begin, and with the goal of transparency. As part of this process, Turner College assistant professor of management Michael Rothlisberger , who also serves as CSU's   Chief Academic Strategy Officer, will visit all programs to discuss program health and growth and development. Anderson also " discussed concerns regarding academic freedom." Finally, under "Old Business," it was noted that "w e cannot add proctoring to a student's expense for a class." This seems to indicate that faculty who teach online, or at least test online, can no longer require stud...

The idea of public facing syllabi at CSU is now a reality. The syllabi can be found by clicking on the "Academics" option on CSU's homepage. Once there, the lefthand side list offers a "Syllabus Public Archive" option. By clicking that option you are taken to the "Syllabus Public Archive" page, which is shown below. Clicking on the "View Syllabus Public Archive" bar takes you to a SharePoint list of CSU's various Colleges, as shown below, that opens up in a new tab. CSU's Turner College is last on the list.  Clicking on the "Turner College of Business & Technology" link takes you to another SharePoint list, this time for Turner College Departments. From these lists visitors can access the Turner College syllabi for Fall semester of 2025. The screen below shows what you encounter by clicking on "Department of Marketing and Management." In this case, clicking on "Fall 2025" leads to an empty folder, mea...

Students from Tesa Leonce 's principles of economics course, Tom Ngo 's principles of management course, and Wen Shi 's managerial economics course recently travelled to West Point, Georgia, to visit the KIA assembly plant. According to Leonce, " Learning happens beyond the four walls in a traditional classroom with graphs on a presentation slide or whiteboard. It was my pleasure to lead a group of 50 to experience first-hand the intricacies of KIA's auto assembly process where a single assembly line is used for all the models which are produced at the plant, with a new Kia vehicle coming off the line every 51 seconds." Most of the students attending represented Leonce's revamped course,  a result of being part of the inaugural cohort of the Core Course (re)Design Institute (CCDI) led by Susan Hrach and her team at the Faculty Center. The CCDI initiative is supported and funded by the CSU President's Office. "I am truly grateful to my CCDI mentor ...

Have you been to Mercer University lately? If you have you've noticed that the once somewhat neglected side of the campus bordered by Mercer University Drive has been revitalized by the addition of a new football stadium and modern student apartments. The new apartments are positioned across the street from campus on the south side of the Drive, meaning that students are now crossing a busy roadway that they hadn't navigated before. To make this task simple the University hoisted in a pedestrian bridge that connects the multi-floor student apartments to the main campus, passing over the busy street. These student apartments now match another set of relatively new student apartments and retail shops found on the other end of campus that includes the Mercer University Barnes & Noble Bookstore.  What if the sad little strip mall across from CSU's main entrance on University Avenue were razed and replaced with a replica of Mercer's multi-floor student apartment building...

As explained by WalletHub's Adam McCann, the U.S. inflation rate hit a 40-year high in recent years but has since cooled significantly due to factors like the Federal Reserve rate hikes.  To determine how inflation is impacting people in different parts of the country, WalletHub compared 23 major MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) across two key metrics related to the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. More specifically, it compared the Consumer Price Index for the latest month for which BLS data is available to two months prior and one year prior to get a snapshot of how inflation has changed in the short and long term. To gain a deeper understanding of current inflation trends and what they mean for our economy, WalletHub also turned to a panel of experts, one of which is Fady Mansour , Director of the Sarah T. Butler Center for Research and Economic Development. Mansour explained to McCann that t he main cause of inflation is an increase in the money supply ...

The USG's Ethics Awareness Week runs from November 3rd through November 9th and one of the activities for the week is the Chancellor's Event, which will be hosted by CSU. This year's Event is a presentation by Jimmy Blanchard, retired Chairman and CEO of Synovus, titled "Leading with Integrity in a Complex World." Blanchard's talk will be held in the RiverCenter's Legacy Hall on CSU's RiverPark Campus from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

Now that Sheridan Construction is working on the side of the Synovus Center facing the Schuster Student Success Center, the company is using the lawn in front of the Schuster Center as a staging area. The movement of trucks and other equipment there has turned the lawn into a mess. That's expected for the type of construction work taking place on the exterior brick of the Synovus Center. It also represents an opportunity for something better to be done with this parcel of CSU's main campus once construction ends.   The photos accompanying this blog post show the long rectangular fountain pool at the front of the Lucas Administration Building at the entrance to the University of Southern Mississippi's main campus in Hattiesburg. Around the edge of the fountain are bricks that display the names of financial contributors to construction of the plaza surrounding the fountain. Concrete sidewalks enclose the bricked area, and as shown in the image at left there are benches availa...

At the end of the 2023-24 academic year, 186 students left CSU and enrolled in another USG institution for the 2024-25 academic year. The largest group of these, 32 students, transferred to Kennesaw State. Another two separate groups of 19 students each trekked to Georgia Southern and the University of Georgia. The fourth largest cohort of 17 students headed to Georgia State, while only slightly smaller groups of 15 and 13 landed at West Georgia and Albany State, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 USG destinations for CSU transfers are, including ties, Clayton State (8), North Georgia (8), Valdosta State (7), Georgia Southwestern State (7) and Georgia Highlands (7). Also at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, 152 students left other USG institutions and enrolled at CSU for the 2024-25 academic year. The largest group of these, consisting of 23 students, arrived from Georgia State. These were followed by groups of 18 and 15 students from Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern, respect...

Two TSYS School faculty – Rania Hodhod and Rahmatullah Roche – were recently informed by the CSU Faculty Center's Susan Hrach that they have successfully completed the  Core Course Design Institute program focused on designing introductory courses to enhance student success. According to the note, " Your dedication to not only engaging deeply with the Institute’s curriculum but also implementing meaningful changes to your course demonstrates a commendable commitment to student learning and academic excellence. The portfolio of evidence you compiled, documenting your thoughtful redesign and its impact, reflects both rigor and innovation. Passing the peer review process is a testament to the quality and significance of your work . . .  We hope this award empowers you to further explore, refine, and share your pedagogical practices."  Thank you for your leadership and for setting a powerful example of how faculty-driven initiatives can transform the student experience. We ...

A recent post  here at Turner Business  discusses the drop in enrollment that the Turner College is currently experiencing. Given the interest in that post, we collected the most recent longitudinal retention data for CSU from the USG. Four years ago, a cohort of 1,096 new students entered CSU. As the table below points out, only 711 of these students returned to CSU for a second year. By the beginning of the third year, only 540 of these students were still attending CSU. Heading into what would have been the senior year for these original 1,096 students, only 479 remained.  The next table (below) provides a deeper dive into the data concerning these 1,096 students by examining retention by race/ethnicity.  With the recent drop in overall enrollment, CSU officials will likely need to consider efforts to boost retention of students who choose to enroll.

Turner College general business major Victoria Trieu was named the 2025 CSU Homecoming Queen during last week's festivities. Victoria ran a fantastic campaign, developing the taglines "Red, Blue, & 'Trieu'" and "Project Homecoming - A Runway to Royalty. During the campaign she credited CSU on becoming her runway to growth, leadership and community, stating " I’m running for Homecoming Queen 2025 to celebrate what makes our campus real — the spirit, culture, creativity, and the students who make every space feel like home. This campaign is about more than a crown, it’s about showing up as your authentic self and making sure every Cougar feels seen, heard, and valued. Red, Blue, and 'Trieu' — let’s bring it home together!" As you can see, Victoria's campaign was truly brilliant and inspirational. Victoria is a Northside High School graduate (2023). During her high school career, she was inducted into both the  National Honor Society a...

Enrollment in the Turner College's MBA program has been a concern among the organization's faculty for some time. There has even been some discussion in recent years about dropping the program. Turner Business recently visited the USG webpages to collect enrollment data across the MBA programs in the USG's State Universities category. The data that were found are presented in the figure below. Note there that two of the nine State Universities, Fort Valley State and Middle Georgia State, do not currently offer an MBA degree.  As indicated above, CSU's Turner College and Georgia College have the lowest MBA program enrollments and are the only institutions where MBA program enrollments are lower in Fall 2024 than in Fall 2020. The relatively low MBA program enrollment at these institutions is partly due to their participation in the Georgia WebMBA program. Georgia College is also Georgia's only public liberal arts university and is located in the small town of Milled...

What happens when 2 hubs of innovation collide? They create a synergistic effect where the combined outcome is greater than the sum of their individual parts. When combined, these hubs generate a larger, more resilient, and more productive innovation ecosystem that drives faster growth and creates more opportunities for all involved.  Turner College MIS professor Yoon Lee and his students are now experiencing this effect through a partnership with Rob Scott, the  Director of Community Reinvestment and Real Estate for Columbus Consolidated Government. Lee and his students are in the process of helpi ng Scott's department develop mobile applications that seek to educate, inform and connect people in Greater Columbus with information and opportunity.

Former CSU Provost and Executive Vice President Shannon Campbell has been appointed Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University, effective October 15, 2025. According to the University's statement on the appointment,  Campbell brings extensive experience as a scholar and higher education leader, most recently serving as Provost and Executive Vice President at Columbus State University and Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Appalachian State University.  As the new Dean, she will oversee six departments across the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts — continuing A&T’s mission of excellence in teaching, research, and community engagement. The University's press release also goes on to state that  Campbell’s career also spans roles as founding associate vice president of graduate studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver and department chair at High Point University. With more than tw...

A number of readers have contacted Turner Business  both providing and seeking more information about the details provided in the recent blog post concerning the Turner College's current AACSB accreditation cycle. That post indicates that three years into the most recent and successful accreditation cycle Turner College business faculty had published 98 journal articles, and that almost three years into the current cycle there are only 69 journal publications. Additionally, the data provided in that recent post indicates that Turner College business faculty averaged 95 journal publications through the first three years of the two most recent and successful accreditation cycles. What we know is that having 95 journal publications through the first three years can be associated with an ultimately successful accreditation cycle. It is not yet known whether 69 journal publications over that time frame can also work out. A second element of the process is the distribution of journal pu...