April 20, 2023
On Wednesday, April 19, the Board of Regents of the College Method of Georgia permitted Columbus Condition University’s ask for to rename its enterprise school as the
D. Abbott Turner Higher education of Company & Technologies.
The identify transform, Dean Deborah Kidder notes, will come soon after enter from a number of stakeholder groups—students, workforce, alumni,
companions and its advisory council customers. Collectively, these teams strongly favored
emphasizing the part the two company and engineering share in advancing the college’s
strategic and aggressive benefits.
“The adjust encapsulates the essence of our aggressive gain as a college rooted
in equally small business and engineering,” mentioned Kidder, who also serves as the college’s Invoice
Read Endowed Chair of Organization Administration. “Now much more than at any time, know-how is
at the heart of small business. For the reason that the Turner Faculty is AACSB accredited, small business and technology are intertwined as a result of our curriculum—meaning our college students
benefit from both equally disciplines all over their scientific studies.”
Kidder indicated the identify transform also indicators the high desire for technological innovation professionals—those
graduating from four-year establishments with both a small business or a computer science
track record, or if possible both of those. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ new occupation report indicated that the quantity of positions in the tech sector has steadily
amplified, with an work enhance in 2022 of 28% more than the identical time in 2021.
She sees getting the two “business” and “technology” in the college’s name as an sign
to future students, employers and associates that the Turner University curriculum
is up to date and functional.
“Stressing both equally our enterprise and technological know-how strengths in the college’s identify will help
us better current market our present and long run plans to future students,” Kidder
claimed. “Renaming the college or university in this way also emphasizes to our prospective associates
and these who will use our long run graduates our reducing-edge target as a result of our
determination to technology.”
Despite the fact that “technology” has not been in the college’s identify until finally now, technological know-how programs
have undergirded the educational knowledge for undergraduate and graduate company pupils
alike. These have incorporated on-campus and on-line systems in Management of Information Programs and Details Technology. Extra lately introduced packages in Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity Management, both of those with undergraduate- and graduate-level degree choices bridge the business enterprise
and personal computer science fields.
Like its technological know-how facet, the Turner College’s business enterprise disciplines have evolved about
the decades, Kidder pointed out. Along with review in common fields like enterprise administration,
accounting, finance, management and internet marketing, the college or university has expanded possibilities
for learners to acquire knowledge in regions that include organizational leadership
and servant management.
What doesn’t adjust is how the college’s identify pays tribute to Don Abbott Turner, a Columbus-place small business and philanthropic big for extra than 6 decades. The
well-respected president and chairman of the boards of the W. C. Bradley Organization and
of the Columbus Lender and Trust also served as a board member for Coca-Cola, Georgia
Power, the Central of Georgia Railway, and the Bibb Business. After his spouse, Elizabeth,
passed absent in 1972, Turner’s charitable help set up in her honor Columbus
State’s Centre for Continuing Instruction, which has evolved to Continuing and Professional Education and is now housed in the Elizabeth Bradley Turner Middle on CSU’s Major Campus.
The TSYS Faculty of Computer system Science, named in honor of assistance from TSYS, a International Payments Company, will carry on working
as a faculty inside of the school, with no modify. In 2015, TSYS prolonged its assist
with a $5 million philanthropic investment in the Turner College: $2.5 million to
set up and title the TSYS Centre for Cybersecurity $2 million to establish the TSYS Endowment for Excellence tutorial packages available
in the TSYS Faculty of Laptop Science, with particular emphasis on mainframe computing,
data technological know-how and information and facts methods and $500,000 to aid other educational
courses at the university.
Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the TSYS Centre for Cybersecurity ribbon-slicing occurred in November 2021—but commenced supplying the nexus cybersecurity in fintech, bachelor’s in cybersecurity and master’s in cybersecurity management (like an on the web choice) in August 2020 following they have been accepted by the Board of Regents in Oct 2019. Today, the centre is specified by the Nationwide Protection Agency as a Centre of Academic
Excellence in Cybersecurity.
The Turner Higher education of Organization & Engineering is based in the Synovus Center for Commerce
and Technology, located on Columbus State’s Most important Campus. The creating was named in honor of Synovus Economic Corp. in 2018 in recognition of its longstanding partnership with the university and precise initiatives
in the Turner University.
Columbus Point out will transform signage and other references to the college’s new identify
during the summer. It expects to publicly celebrate the college’s renaming with events
to coincide with the commence of the new tutorial 12 months in August 2023.
Media get in touch with:
Michael Tullier, APR, Government Director of Strategic Interaction + Marketing and advertising, 706.507.8729,
[email protected]