September 30, 2023

Tricia Oak

Business & Finance Excellency

Turner University renaming emphasizes Columbus State’s strengths in business, technological innovation

April 20, 2023

On Wednesday, April 19, the Board of Regents of the College Method of Georgia accredited Columbus Condition University’s ask for to rename its organization school as the
D. Abbott Turner College or university of Enterprise & Technological innovation.

The title adjust, Dean Deborah Kidder notes, comes immediately after input from many stakeholder groups—students, workers, alumni,
partners and its advisory council customers. Collectively, these groups strongly favored
emphasizing the part both equally enterprise and technological innovation share in advancing the college’s
strategic and aggressive strengths. 

“The alter encapsulates the essence of our aggressive edge as a university rooted
in the two business and know-how,” claimed Kidder, who also serves as the college’s Monthly bill
Listened to Endowed Chair of Company Administration. “Now far more than at any time, technologies is
at the heart of business enterprise. Because the Turner University is AACSB accredited, company and engineering are intertwined as a result of our curriculum—meaning our college students
gain from the two disciplines through their experiments.”

Kidder indicated the name adjust also alerts the substantial need for engineering professionals—those
graduating from 4-calendar year institutions with both a organization or a laptop or computer science
qualifications, or ideally both. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Studies’ the latest position report indicated that the amount of work opportunities in the tech sector has steadily
enhanced, with an employment boost in 2022 of 28% above the exact same time in 2021.
She sees acquiring each “business” and “technology” in the college’s title as an indicator
to potential students, companies and companions that the Turner College curriculum
is present-day and adaptable. 

Dean Deborah Kidder“Stressing both our business and technologies strengths in the college’s identify will assist
us much better current market our recent and long run applications to potential students,” Kidder
said. “Renaming the college in this way also emphasizes to our prospective companions
and those people who will make use of our long term graduates our cutting-edge concentration by way of our
commitment to technology.”

Despite the fact that “technology” has not been in the college’s identify until now, technology applications
have undergirded the educational expertise for undergraduate and graduate company students
alike. These have included on-campus and on-line plans in Management of Information and facts Techniques and Information Technological know-how. Additional lately launched packages in Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity Management, both with undergraduate- and graduate-stage diploma offerings bridge the company
and laptop science fields.

Like its technological know-how side, the Turner College’s business disciplines have developed around
the yrs, Kidder mentioned. Along with analyze in conventional fields like enterprise administration,
accounting, finance, administration and promoting, the higher education has expanded opportunities
for college students to develop know-how in regions that involve organizational leadership
and servant leadership.

What doesn’t transform is how the college’s title pays tribute to Don Abbott Turner, a Columbus-location company and philanthropic huge for additional than six decades. The
nicely-revered president and chairman of the boards of the W. C. Bradley Firm and
of the Columbus Bank and Trust also served as a board member for Coca-Cola, Georgia
Power, the Central of Ga Railway, and the Bibb Organization. Soon after his wife, Elizabeth,
passed away in 1972, Turner’s charitable help recognized in her honor Columbus
State’s Middle for Continuing Education and learning, which has progressed to Continuing and Professional Training and is now housed in the Elizabeth Bradley Turner Centre on CSU’s Main Campus. 

The TSYS Faculty of Computer system Science, named in honor of aid from TSYS, a Worldwide Payments Company, will continue running
as a university within the university, with no transform. In 2015, TSYS extended its assistance
with a $5 million philanthropic financial commitment in the Turner Faculty: $2.5 million to
set up and title the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity $2 million to build the TSYS Endowment for Excellence educational courses available
in the TSYS Faculty of Laptop Science, with specific emphasis on mainframe computing,
information technological know-how and facts programs and $500,000 to support other academic
applications at the college.

Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the TSYS Centre for Cybersecurity ribbon-slicing occurred in November 2021—but began featuring the nexus cybersecurity in fintech, bachelor’s in cybersecurity and master’s in cybersecurity administration (which includes an on the net possibility) in August 2020 soon after they were approved by the Board of Regents in Oct 2019. Right now, the heart is designated by the National Protection Company as a Heart of Academic
Excellence in Cybersecurity.

The Turner Higher education of Organization & Know-how is primarily based in the Synovus Heart for Commerce
and Technologies, positioned on Columbus State’s Most important Campus. The setting up was named in honor of Synovus Economical Corp. in 2018 in recognition of its longstanding partnership with the college and certain initiatives
in the Turner Faculty.

Columbus State will convert signage and other references to the college’s new name
in the course of the summer months. It expects to publicly celebrate the college’s renaming with events
to coincide with the start of the new educational year in August 2023.

Media get hold of:
Michael Tullier, APR, Govt Director of Strategic Communication + Advertising and marketing, 706.507.8729,
[email protected]