Turner Business

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...

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...

Last Friday's "Asking Google AI" series entry asked what the market salary is for a business school dean at a regional university. Now that the Turner College has entered the race for a new one, the question is an interesting one. In view of that entry, Turner Business researched the business dean salaries at the other regional universities in the USG. Of course, the "Asking Google AI" entry reported that former Turner College dean Deborah Kidder earned $192,000 per year as of 2025. Now we are able to report a 2025 salary of $130,319 per year for the business school dean at Albany State U, $165,500 per year for the business school dean at Georgia Southwestern State U, $173,000 per year for the the business school dean at Savannah State U, $179,000 per year for the business school dean at Middle Georgia State U, and $197,427 per year for the business school dean at Clayton State U. Among these, the Turner College salary is the second highest. However, there are...

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: What is the market salary for a business school dean at a regional university in the U.S. South?  Below is an image of Google AI's thorough response. As explained by Google AI, the market salary for a business school dean at a regional university in the U.S. South ranges between $120,000 and $185,000 per year. For a mid-size institution, the appropriate salary range is, according to Google AI, $145,000 to $185,000 per year. CSU likely best fits this categorization. The Turner College probably belongs at the top of this salary range, or around $185,000 per year, if not a bit higher. In fact, Google AI reports that former Turner College De...

"Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking to cohorts 16 and 17 of the Cybersecurity Nexus Program at Columbus State University." These are the words of Jonathan White , a TSYS School alum and Information Security Manager at Global Payments after spending Wednesday with TSYS School cybersecurity Nexus students. He goes further, " With Cohort 16, we had an AMA-style conversation about technology, the challenges of breaking into entry-level roles, and how to find meaning and purpose in your work. With Cohort 17, I had the opportunity to follow up on the mock interviews I recently participated in and hear their reflections on the experience.  First, let me say that it is humbling to have the opportunity to spend time with these students. I don't see myself as the beginning, middle, or end of cybersecurity. I've made plenty of mistakes throughout my life and career. But there is something cathartic about telling the truth. I'm honest about where I struggled, what I...

A very recent check of both The Chronicle of Higher Education  and Inside Higher Education  revealed that as of late in the day on October 8, 2026, the advertisement seeking a new dean for the Turner College is yet to appear on either site. Turner Business can, however, confirm that the advertisement has now appeared at HigherEdJobs , as shown in the image inserted below. Of the three locations where the ad now appears, the Buffkin/Baker executive search portal, AACSB's website, and HigherEdJobs , this most recent listing in HigherEdJobs is easily the most far-reaching. Still, the most traditional for seeking to fill positions of this sort remains The Chronicle of Higher Education . Thus, those Turner College faculty who are interested in this process concluding successfully may want to reach out to qualified colleagues and other qualified professional acquaintances who would wish to be considered for the position.

The fall semester is a big one for Ehab Bedir , the former administrator of the TSYS School's cyber range. Bedir recently completed a doctoral dissertation and is receiving a Doctor of Science degree in information technology from Middle Georgia State University. His dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of an open-source AI-supported phishing awareness training workflow by measuring participants' behavior responses to legitimate and simulated phishing e-mails of increasing detection difficulty. T he  workflow established in Bedir's research describes how an open-source platform can support measurable behavioral improvement while  offering architectural flexibility for future API based adaptive extensions. The study also provides  evidence-based guidance for organizations considering open-source AI-supported phishing awareness tools  as a practical training option, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Long-time visitors to Turner Business may recall an ...

A check last night of The Chronicle of Higher Education 's job posting indicated that the Turner College's advertisement for a new dean remains forthcoming. In the meantime, two additional institutions have joined the group of colleges and universities seeking a new business school dean. As shown below, these are the University of Rochester and the University of Connecticut. The Simon Business School at Rochester offers the 34th-ranked MBA program in the U.S. according to U.S. News & World Report . The University of Connecticut's undergraduate business programs rank 47th in the U.S. according to the same source, while its online graduate programs (outside of the MBA) rank among the top 12 in the country. The Turner College ad is also yet to appear in Inside Higher Ed , which currently lists only the Schmidthorst College of Business at Bowling Green State University as seeking a new business dean. Lastly, ad placement is still yet to occur in HigherEdJobs , another outle...

The advertisement for a new dean of the Turner College hit the AACSB website last evening. It appears to be the same profile that is available through the Buffkin/Baker executive positions portal. At last check this morning, the ad has yet to appear in The Chronicle of Higher Education  or Inside Higher Ed. Sundi Rose of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer recently reported on the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, focusing on local and state universities. Rose noted that the publication places CSU in "the bottom 10% of national universities" Rose adds that Georgia Tech sits at 29th, while the University of Georgia is positioned at 52nd. In terms of other institutions in the state and region, Rose's report mentions Mercer University at 148th, and the University of Alabama at 156th. The story concludes by noting that n early 1,500 colleges and universities are evaluated, and rankings consider as many as 17 factors, including (1) academic quality, (2) outcomes, (3) gr...

CSU President Stuart Rayfield will lead a town hall meeting on CSU's enrollment declines at 2:00 pm on Friday, October 30, 2026. The CSU Faculty Senate announced the forthcoming event at its October meeting yesterday afternoon, at which time it also reported the latest enrollment headcounts for CSU. According to the latest data, CSU's overall headcount for Fall 2026 is down 2.1% from Fall 2025. Within this statistic is a 1.6% decline in undergraduate student headcount and more than a 3.4% drop in graduate student headcount. Much of the town hall presentation will center around the After-Action Report on Enrollment  that Rayfield commissioned a group of CSU faculty and staff to produce and deliver to her by September 30, 2026. As requested, that report was completed and delivered to Rayfield by that deadline. Some of the results from that report are already part of campus discussions concerning the enrollment decline.

According to reports from readers, CSU is expanding the reach of its advertising in the effort to secure a new dean of the Turner College to include placement of ads with The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed . Additionally, an advertisement on the AACSB's website is also forthcoming. These will certainly boost attempts to provide a thorough search, although time is running out for applications to be submitted for the truncated search that is expected to name a new dean in December. A check by Turner Business indicates that these new advertising outlets are not yet displaying an ad for the Turner College. Thus, prospective candidates must continue to apply through the Buffkin/Baker portal at the moment. The window for applications is scheduled to close on October 23, 2026. In other news, the Turner College Awards & Scholarship Committee has initiated contact with the CSU Office of Human Resources in hopes of expediting the return of monetary stipends accompan...

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: Where should an advertisement for a new business school dean be placed?  Below is an image of Google AI's thorough response. According to Google AI, to find a traditional academic scholar to serve as a business school dean there are three "standard, non-negotiable platforms" to utilize in the search. Two of these are The Chronicle of Higher Education  and Inside Higher Ed , and Turner Business has been discussing for some time how Buffkin/Baker opted to not utilize either of these, or the third option, HigherEdJobs . According to Google AI, these three platforms are "widely monitored by sitting deans, associate deans, and...

With only three weeks remaining for candidates to submit applications for consideration in the search for a new Turner College dean, it appears as though the advertisement for the position will not appear in either The Chronicle of Higher Education or  Inside Higher Ed , nor on CSU's employment portal webpages or the AACSB's website. Combined with the brevity of a search that is expected to have a candidate selected in December, the decision by Buffkin/Baker to make the application process available only through its website has readers of Turner Business somewhat perplexed. One reader has suggested, however, that these decisions make sense if the goal is to hire someone who is already affiliated with a USG-member institution. That sounds reasonable, and perhaps the first pool of candidates in this case would be individuals currently serving as associate deans within the business schools at the eight institutions in the top two USG institutional tiers. Among the research univer...

CSU's Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, Michael Tullier, announced on his LinkedIn page this morning that CSU is in the exciting time of searching for new deans to lead its business school and its letters and sciences college. Tullier's LinkedIn post (see below) also includes weblinks to separate CSU pages describing the search process and expectations for each opening. These are the pages that CSU Provost Dustin Anderson referred to in his Fall 2026 welcome back presentation to Turner College faculty and staff in August. Our visit to the webpage linked in Tullier's LinkedIn post provides its own link to a glossy digital brochure containing information about CSU and the Turner College.   Despite these developments, the job opening has not yet been included on the jobs portal on CSU's own website. Even more importantly, it has yet to appear in The Chronicle of Higher Education , the gold standard for announcements of executive openings in academi...

CSU President Stuart Rayfield provided a Fall 2026 enrollment update during the Sept-2026 CSU Faculty Senate meeting. According to Rayfield, enrollment has fallen by 3% since Fall 2025. Additionally, student credit hour production is down 3.4% this fall compared to Fall 2025. Within these statistics, the number of new undergraduates attending CSU rose by 7.7% between Fall 2025 and Fall 2026. The number of graduate students is up 1.6% over this same time frame. While the good news is that the retention of first-time full-time freshmen enrollment is up to 75% compared to Fall 2025's 72%, retention of all undergraduate students is down, as is graduate student retention. Both of these numbers are down 6.2%. According to Rayfield, if this trend had remained flat, CSU would have been up on recruitment. These returning students will keep CSU down for several years even if it retains students.