James MagazineJames_July-August_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 18
and cornhole! Intramural programs also help with our
strong retention rate, as students find and bond with
their friend groups through intramurals.
What is GCSU doing to provide an affordable
college education, especially with scholarships?
The good news is that GCSU is already providing a
world-class liberal arts education at a public school
price. We are proud to be a part of the University System of Georgia with a Board of Regents that prioritizes
affordability by holding average tuition increases for an
undergraduate, in-state Georgia student over the past
decade at less than 1percent, well below the rate of inflation. Georgia’s public universities offer a true bargain
compared to nearly any state in the country.
Nevertheless, GCSU is always raising funds to support scholarships that will help students obtain their education here. Thanks to strong support from the Lettie
Pate Whitehead Foundation, nursing students from the
middle Georgia region can access full scholarships.
At the end of last year, Georgia College received a
$9 million gift from the estate of Dr. Gertrude Ehrlich, a
1943 alumna who attended GCSU when it was Georgia
State College for Women. Dr. Ehrlich escaped Nazi-controlled Austria and immigrated to the U.S. in 1939, and
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she received a full scholarship to GSCW. She wanted to
give other students that same opportunity, and her gift
endows a new series of needs-based scholarships.
GCSU has many other examples of alumni and
friends who have given back to the university through
scholarships that can help today’s students pay for
the cost of their education, all of which are available
through our Financial Aid office. GCSU also has innumerable campus jobs through which students can earn
money to pay their way through school and get valuable work experience as well.
Any 昀椀nal thoughts on GCSU’s 30th anniversary
as Georgia’s public liberal arts university?
The Board of Regents and then-Chancellor Stephen
Portch decided in 1996 that the “one arrow we didn’t
have in our quiver,” to quote Dr. Portch, was a top-tier liberal arts university. Out of that assessment, the mission
of Georgia College was refined, its name was changed to
Georgia College & State University, and GCSU became
the state’s designated liberal arts university.
This was no simple name change. This transition
altered Georgia College’s identity forever, serving as
an inflection point that would shape its identity and
provide a new, strategic focus for its programs from
that day forward. GCSU’s success in enrollment and
fundraising are the pinnacle of the past 30 years with a
liberal arts focus
In 1996, GCSU had about 200 full-time faculty; now,
we have 345 full-time faculty, plus 95 part-time faculty
who teach. We’ve worked hard to recruit and retain
excellent faculty who are committed to teaching and
mentored undergraduate research. GCSU also offers no
online classes for undergraduate students during the
regular academic year because we want our students
to learn-by-doing and develop great communication,
analytical and critical thinking skills in face-to-face
classes. Students thrive in this personal interaction
with their faculty and classmates.
While all GCSU degree programs have a broad liberal arts foundation, GCSU’s top majors are professional
or pre-professional programs like business (finance,
marketing, management, and accounting in particular),
nursing, education, communication, psychology, biology, exercise science, and more. Embedding the liberal
arts foundation in all these majors helps to make GCSU
graduates more well-rounded and nimble as they enter
the job market or prepare for graduate study.
And this type of education pays off! A study from
the U.S. Department of Education last fall showed that
Georgia College graduates have the third highest earnings potential four years after graduation— right behind
Georgia Tech and UGA— of any schools in the University System of Georgia.
