Turner Business

In this series, Turner Business is providing space for a series of Guest Essayists to provide their thoughts on the After Action Report townhall that was held on Friday, October 30, 2026, in the University Hall Auditorium. This townhall focused on the enrollment troubles that CSU has been experiencing over multiple consecutive semesters.       According to publicly available resources, Georgia’s public high school graduation rate increased from 85.4% for the Class of 2024 to 87.2% for the Class of 2025. This represents an absolute increase of 1.8 percentage points, which is equivalent to a 2.1% relative increase in the graduation rate. Over the corresponding available college enrollment comparison, beginning freshman enrollment across the University System of Georgia (USG) increased from 54,051 in Fall 2024 to 56,020 in Fall 2025, an absolute gain of 1,969 freshmen, or 3.6%. Thus, incoming freshman enrollment grew somewhat faster than the state graduation rate, althoug...

The highly anticipated After-Action Report Townhall meeting took place this afternoon from 2:00pm until 4:00pm in the University Hall Auditorium and Turner Business was able to obtain a summary of the event from an attendee.  The townhall presentation began at 2:00pm with CSU President Stuart Rayfield welcoming attendees and introducing the stage party. Among that group were CSU Provost Dustin Anderson and CSU Chief Academic Strategy Officer Michael Röthlisberger , who is also a part of the Turner College's business administration faculty. Rayfield assured attendees that the neither the After Action Report nor the townhall meeting concerned assigning blame to an individual or group, and that attendees should not be concerned that this was the aim of report's authors. She then delved into the issue at hand, declining enrollments at CSU, by describing how summer and fall 2026 have been like a rollercoaster in the sense that in June it looked as though CSU's fall 2026 enrol...

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...

In response to discussions in the Turner College about pending retirements of faculty, late last week  Turner Business  took a look at the demographics of the Turner College's faculty. That post examined the age profile of the faculty in the Turner College as a whole, and the age profile of the faculty in the Department of Management & Marketing. This post continues that exploration by looking at the age profile of the faculty in the Department of Accounting & Finance, which is shown in the table below. Department of Accounting and Finance As indicated above, about 9.1% of this Department's faculty exceeds 64 years of age, with another 9.1% each at 63 and 61 years of age. About 27.3% of this department's faculty roster is 60 years old or older. Thus, while some retirements may come from this unit beginning at the end of this academic year and moving forward, nothing like the retirement wave that is building in the Department of Management & Marketing exists in ...

The Butler Center for Research and Economic Development has released a new report titled Columbus Regional Job Openings and Hiring Trends . This report examines employer demand, job advertising trends, and the skills employers are seeking across the Columbus, GA–AL metropolitan area. According to Jordan Mills , Public Relations Representative for the Butler Center, " Following stronger job advertising over the summer, Columbus recorded 7,375 active job advertisements in September, down 3.9% from a year earlier. In comparison, job advertisements increased by 3.8% in Georgia and 8.7% nationwide over the same September-to-September period."  The report’s yearlong analysis highlights healthcare as a leading source of occupational demand, with registered nurses topping the list of advertised occupations. It also examines leading employers, advertised wages, and frequently requested skills, including communication, teamwork, Microsoft Office, and Excel.

The University System of Georgia's Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurial Strategies Officer, Costas Spirou, recent contacted officials at each of the USG institutions to notify them of the creation of Startup Studio, a  high-impact, virtual-format program for all students across Georgia’s public colleges and universities who are curious about startups and commercialization. Through the program's 5-hour session, participants learn to test and validate real startup ideas using an evidence-based approach rather than guesswork. Thus, Startup Studio is a fast-track experience in evidence-based entrepreneurship, focused on real-world customer discovery, hypothesis testing, and value creation. Students who are interested in Startup Studio should visit here for application details. The deadline for the next iteration is November 4, at 5:00pm. " This initiative through the USG is a big deal.  The USG has created an entirely new office to spearhead a system-wide emphasis on innova...

It has been a big week for Turner College sophomore Jaydè Colson. On Wednesday, her participation in the new Aflac Co-Op program was featured in a news release from the CSU marketing and communications team. Yesterday, she had the honor to speak to the CSU Foundation Board of Trustees on CSU's RiverPark Campus in uptown Columbus about her journey as a business administration and human resources major in the Turner College. " I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share my story and for all the kind words and encouragement I received afterward. It was truly a memorable experience, and I appreciate everyone who made this opportunity possible," Colson stated after the presentation. Today marks the deadline for interested individuals to apply to be next dean of CSU's Turner College. On Monday the work of combing through the applications in an effort to select three or four finalists begins. That process is expected to culminate in early to mid-November, when the...

There has been much frustration in the Turner College concerning the lack of support from CSU's central administration when it comes to replacing faculty who either retire or depart for another institution. Several current Turner College faculty members have warned that this failure could be disastrous in the very near future, as a number of faculty are expected to retire. Turner Business recently took a look at the demographics of the Turner College's faculty. Here is part of what we learned. Turner College The table above provides information on the percentage of Turner College faculty at each of several individual ages (e.g., 60, 61, etc.) and, at the upper end, at or beyond the age of 64. Starting at the top of the table, fully 13% of Turner College faculty are beyond 64 years of age. Another 10% of Turner College faculty are exactly 64 years old. Thus, a striking 23% (almost 1.2 in 5) of Turner College faculty are 64 years old or older. Backing up just four additional yea...

Columbus State University and Columbus-based Aflac launched an innovative corporate-academic partnership last summer that provides students with an immersive, multiyear professional pathway and supports regional workforce development. The new Aflac Claims Co-op program is helping students build career-ready skills relevant to their degrees by integrating professional industry experience early in their undergraduate studies. The inaugural co-op cohort consists of 20 Columbus State sophomores majoring in business and data analytics, computer science, health sciences and kinesiology. By aligning the Columbus-based Fortune 500 company’s operational needs with Columbus State’s academic programs, this co-op provides students with the opportunity to work for Aflac for three years while finishing their degree—with the potential to extend beyond graduation into their professional careers.  “What attracted me to the co-op is being able to get real work experience in a corporate environment,...

The Turner College Awards & Scholarships Committee has been working with CSU Interim Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Kimberly Gill in an effort reinstate the annual Turner College Faculty Awards before the 2027 awards season begins. Just this week committee chair Mark James delivered a sizable spreadsheet to Gill containing all of the information CSU, and ultimately the University System of Georgia, should need to approve the Turner College's years-long practice of providing faculty award winners with a $500 stipend to go along with a certificate. Gill has since forwarded the spreadsheet to CSU Human Resources Director Tamara Wade, who is expected to create a streamlined process for including the stipend as a salary supplement in the winners' May paychecks. Earlier this month, the  Turner College Awards & Scholarships Committee voted unanimously to suspend its awards process until the stipends are distributed to the 2026 winners and reinstated for all future wi...

New research by TSYS School faculty Jianhua Yang , Linqiang Ge and Christopher Lovelock states that in order to increase the diversity of the U.S. cybersecurity workforce, teaching cybersecurity knowledge and skills to middle school girls is a promising approach. Despite most middle school students lacking basic computer science knowledge, their study, which appears in the current issue of Athens Journal of Technology & Engineering , proposes a broadening of cybersecurity awareness through outreach activities, educational games and storytelling. The curriculum they designed aims at providing interactive learning, exposure, and ongoing support to every student, encouraging engagement through accessible methods. For some background,  CSU has held a summer camp titled,  “Broadening Cybersecurity Awareness for Middle School Students via GenCyber  Outreach, Games, and Storytelling,” four times under the support of the National  Sec...

The new CSU Presidential Fellows group was formed this year as a way for CSU students and faculty to meet  with CSU President Stuart Rayfield each month to discuss how to improve CSU's culture and promote an environment of trust, inclusion and well-being for all. During the October 2026 meeting on October 19th, the Presidential Fellows discussed low CSU faculty morale and the prevailing climate of distrust, anxiety, and uncertainty on campus. Two solutions emerged from that discussion. First, although  it may be infeasible to address every single issue openly with the faculty, Rayfield noted that she and CSU Provost Dustin Anderson are happy to visit any departmental or college meeting in order to listen to the pressing issues facing that department or college. Rayfield also indicated to the group that she  would like to know which issues the faculty want her to address in a town hall setting. The Presidential Fellows decided to collect data from the faculty before their ...

As we await official enrollment numbers to be released, we recently asked Google AI to provide some of the enrollment trends and changes for fall 2026 at the University System of Georgia's institutions. That query indicated that Georgia State University 's enrollment increased by 1.24% from last fall, reaching an institution record enrollment of 54,320 students. At the University of Georgia , more than 51,600 student applications were processed for entry in fall 2026, a record for the institution. UGA projected an incoming class of 6,250 students. Georgia College & State University received more than 10,000 student applications for the first time in its history. At Fort Valley State University , 3,310 new students were welcomed this fall, representing an enrollment increase of 27% overall. Next, South Georgia State College  reported strong early-semester numbers with 2,086 students, an 8.25% year-over-year increase fueled by an 18.64% surge in new student enrollment.   Ge...

Only five days remain for the submission of applications in the search for a new dean of the Turner College. At the end of business on Friday, the final applications will have been received, and the Buffkin/Baker search firm will begin guiding the search committee, chaired by CoEHP Dean Margie Yates, through the process of combing through curriculum vitae in an effort to secure three to four finalists. As of today, the advertisement for the position appears on the Buffkin/Baker search portal, on the AACSB's webpage, and at HigherEdJobs, while it missed The Chronicle of Higher Education  and Inside Higher Ed .     

It's Friday evening and you are probably sitting down with your favorite take-out meal or are preparing to go out for dinner. To add to the enjoyment of your end-of-week relaxation time, Turner Business is now providing a new occasional series for Friday evenings called Asking Google AI. Tonight we are asking Google AI the following question: How much money do universities pay search firms for conducting searches for business deans?  Below is an image of Google AI's thorough response. As explained by Google AI, universities typically pay executive search firms between $60,000 and $250,000+ to conduct a search for a business school dean. As it adds, the exact amount is highly variable because it depends on the university's prestige, whether it is public or private, and the fee model used by the firm. Based on the first two of these, CSU likely paid closer to the low end of the above continuum. CSU also almost certainly agreed to a fixed flat-fee model, where fees range from...

A new study by TSYS School computer scientist Yi Zhou and TSYS School students Prudhvi Raj Nelapatla and Elijah Starkey  asserts that the rapid growth of large language models has made training energy efficiency  a major systems and sustainability challenge. As they explain, training requires substantial computation,  memory, communication, and electrical energy, yet the literature often treats runtime,  floating-point operations, memory, communication, cost, energy, and carbon as inter changeable indicators of efficiency. To examine these issues, the trio of researchers  critically reviewed 54 research papers and  one supporting software tool across measurement and carbon accounting, model and  numerical efficiency, memory and communication, distributed planning, GPU power con trol, carbon-aware scheduling, lifecycle design, and reliability. They classified evidence as  direct, modeled, simulated, reported-comparison, or enabling, while they in...

The Turner College Awards & Scholarships Committee is making progress to restore the financial stipends to the organization's annual faculty and staff awards. The committee chair, management professor Mark James , has been working overtime to provide the needed information to Kimberly Gill,  the Interim Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs in the CSU Provost's Office and point-person for that office on this project. As explained by Gill, under the USG Incentive Compensation and Rewards Policy, any award with a monetary value must be part of an incentive plan approved by the USG Office of Fiscal Affairs and Office of Human Resources before it may be awarded or paid. Individual college awards are not submitted to the System Office individually. Instead, they must be included in CSU's institutional incentive plan. The approval process for that to happen requires information be provided to the USG regarding (1) purpose, (2) eligibility, (3) nomination process, (4) award c...

New research by Turner College management professor Johnny Ho, Yaojie Li of the University of New Orleans, David Ang of Auburn University at Montgomery, and Tristan Shytle of Home Depot, explains that supply chain management is a dynamic business concept that continually adapts  to the evolving market landscape. Dating back to the ninth century, individuals have engaged in the trade  of goods, which requires a number of interconnected systems that revolve around the ideas of trust,  risk, and opportunity. Supply chain management addresses critical issues and frequently uncovers inefficiencies in  current models and solution approaches. To better understand and mitigate these inefficiencies, Ho and his co-authors state that  there is a growing focus on researching and implementing supply chain risk management, which  fosters transparency among all supply chain participants, enhancing the likelihood of a  seamless process with optimal efficiency. While g...

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...