Dive Transient:
- Georgia Southern College is poised to take up East Georgia State Faculty after the College System of Georgia governing board accepted a merger plan Tuesday.
- The board’s vote follows USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue’s suggestion for the consolidation final week. Tuesday’s motion marks “step one in a cautious course of that can take greater than a yr,” the system mentioned.
- The brand new establishment will retain the “id” of East Georgia State, which has struggled with enrollment declines lately. On the similar time, it would turn out to be a part of Georgia Southern and might be led by the latter’s president, Kyle Marrero, in line with the announcement. The consolidation requires the approval of the establishments’ accreditor.
Dive Perception:
Perdue trumpeted the consolidation of Georgia Southern and East Georgia State as a method to put money into key larger training features — particularly pupil success and diploma entry — by saving on administrative prices and decreasing tutorial program overlap.
“By utilizing public sources as effectively as doable, we’re ensuring each greenback saved is reinvested into these packages that really empower our college students, assist our school and strengthen our communities for a brighter future,” Perdue mentioned in Tuesday’s announcement.
Georgia state Rep. Butch Parrish — who represents Swainsboro, which is residence to East Georgia State and 40 miles from Georgia Southern — praised the plan.
“It’s important that because the system streamlines and operates extra effectively, we safeguard entry to larger training within the native space and maintain the EGSC spirit going,” Parrish mentioned in an announcement.
Now that the board has greenlit the merger, the establishments plan on shortly forming an implementation staff with representatives from each schools to work out particulars, the system mentioned. That staff may also put together and submit the required paperwork for approval by their accreditor, the Southern Affiliation of Schools and Faculties Fee on Schools.
USG and the establishments plan on holding campus and group listening periods to hunt enter on the brand new establishment’s design, with the primary one slated for Wednesday on East Georgia State’s campus.
Of the 2, Georgia Southern is by far the bigger establishment. As of fall 2023, the college enrolled 26,041 college students to East Georgia State’s 1,756, in line with federal knowledge. Georgia Southern’s enrollment has been comparatively secure, declining 1.4% between 2018 and 2023, whereas East Georgia State’s fell by 40.3%.
The bigger college additionally has a a lot deeper catalog of packages in comparison with East Georgia State, which in line with its web site gives six affiliate and three bachelor’s diploma packages.
The deliberate consolidation is the most recent transfer in an effort going again almost 15 years to pare down Georgia’s state college system. Up to now, USG has undertaken 13 consolidations. From these, it has saved $30 million in administrative bills that it mentioned it has reinvested into pupil companies and college and workers hires
As soon as the Georgia Southern and East Georgia State mixture completes, USG can have 25 establishments, the system mentioned.