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CSU overview: Past, present and future

This collaborative effort offers potential presidential candidates an overview of the university.

Columbus State University will be celebrating its 50^th anniversary as an institution in 2008.  The city of Columbus, Georgia is approximately 100 miles southwest of Atlanta, on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, which also forms the border with our neighboring state of Alabama.

Columbus State has become known as the “partnership university” because of the long history of campus/community joint ventures. The community insisted CSU be formed in 1958 and has consistently and generously nurtured the institution through the years.  A recent study by the University of Georgia places CSU’s annual economic impact on our community at $197 million, quite a distance from the institution that began operations in an abandoned hosiery mill.

CSU is organized in traditional fashion, with our academic programs falling underneath one of our five colleges:

The College of Arts and Letters is our largest college and is comprised of the academic disciplines one would expect under such a college heading.  We are currently searching for a dean of this college who will have the responsibility of overseeing very strong liberal arts programs and a fine and performing arts program that has received great acclaim.  The College of Arts and Letters lays claim to the second campus of our institution, a campus located in downtown Columbus and designed specifically for the fine and performing arts, with the disciplines of music, art and theatre residing seven miles distant from our main campus.  The college is noted for its outreach through the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians and its world-class fine and performing arts facilities and faculty.

The College of Science at CSU offers a number of robust programs, including nursing, biology and computer science, each of which has more than 300 majors each and has gained a good measure of regional and national recognition.  The primary outreach arm of the College of Science is the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, located south of our city on the Chattahoochee River and is seen as a strong and important community resource.

The D. Abbott Turner College of Business has an outstanding reputation in our region, especially because of its standing as an accredited member of AACSB International.  Its Center for Regional Economic Studies is a primary outreach arm of the College of Business.

The College of Education is a vital part of our community service, for CSU provides more than half of the teachers for schools in this region.  Outreach from the College of Education is accomplished through the Coca-Cola Space Science Center, located in downtown Columbus, the Columbus Regional Mathematics Collaborative, the Center for Quality Teaching and Learning and the Childcare Resource and Referral Agency of West Georgia at Columbus.

University College is home to a variety of service and academic programs, including the CSU Advising Center, Columbus State University Basic Studies and Adult Re-entry Program, the Freshman Year Experience, the CSU Writing Center, the CSU Honors Program, the CSU Servant Leadership Program, the Center for International Studies and the Continuing Education Center.

The Center for International Education is providing a tremendous service for our students and has gained a reputation of being one of the best such centers in our system.  In addition to encouraging and providing opportunities for students to study abroad, the center brings a number of visiting scholars from across the globe to our campus to share their expertise with our students, faculty and staff.  The center also operates our residential facility in Oxford, England which houses CSU students for year-long study at Oxford University. The Spencer House also is home to a number of shorter-term groups of students and faculty who go to Oxford for a wide range of cultural and educational experiences.

University Libraries at Columbus State, of which there are two, house a collection of over 400,000 volumes, divided between the Schwob Library on our main campus and our library located at the downtown CSU RiverPark campus which serves the three disciplines of music, art and theatre.  The library remains a strong and vibrant facility with a great deal of use by students for research, study and group activities.

Columbus State has always been known for its strong academic programs and the commitment of its faculty and staff to student success. Our faculty and administration today are continuing that commitment to our students.  We have many challenges, as most institutions do, some of which are unique to us and some of which we share with our sister institutions.  Many of our challenges can be traced back to a difficult period of funding over the last several years, a period which saw us grow dramatically at the same time.  Over the last nine years enrollment has grown by almost 50%, while our full-time faculty numbers have increased only about 12%, and part-time faculty usage has increased by over 80%. 

The inability to add additional faculty to match the growth that we have experienced and to compensate for retirements and other attrition of faculty over the same period of time, contributes to our greatest frustration.  These challenges are common across all our academic colleges, with some feeling the pinch a little more than others, especially some of our core programs which have such high demand placed upon them. 

The Student Affairs Division of our institution is comprised of eight departments, serving almost 8,000 students.  The average age of our undergraduate students at Columbus State is just under 25 and the majority of our students live in housing other than campus-sponsored apartments.  Out of the 8,000 students, approximately 1,200 live on our main campus or at the RiverPark campus.

Our Residence Life Office mixes a good blend of programming in with traditional student housing, but in apartment-style and loft apartment accommodations for students on both our campuses.  We have the traditional student organizational units you might expect in the student affairs division along with the placement of the University Police in this division as well.

The service and outreach function of Columbus State University is fulfilled with the leadership of the Cunningham Center for Leadership Development and the CSU Continuing Education Division. The Cunningham Center for Leadership Development serves as our primary operation for developing leadership skills among corporate and organizational groups in our region, while also conducting important sales training programs and leading our efforts for economic development for this region of Georgia. Under its wing also is the Regional Information Technology Incubator, operating in partnership with the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, providing support for fledgling businesses in our region.

Traditional continuing education has always been a strong program for Columbus State, with community support for our programs and facilities displayed in very generous fashion.  Continuing education has traditional programs on our main campus and operates non-credit programs in the arts at the RiverPark campus in downtown Columbus.

Columbus State University’s division of University Advancement is one of the most effective advancement units within our system.  The staff and its administrators in this division comprise a particularly strong team with a great spirit of camaraderie and dedication to promoting the best interest of the university.  The areas of Alumni, Public Relations and Advancement Services are highly efficient and vital functions for advancement, serving to support the institution at large and the function of Development within the university advancement office.  The Development office oversees the CSU Annual Fund Campaign which raises over $1.5 million a year for support of the institution, particularly in scholarships and faculty development funding.  Our most recent capital campaign, which we concluded in October, 2005, saw the accumulation of gifts and pledges totaling over $100 million for Columbus State.  It was out of this campaign that the RiverPark campus was completed and such additions as the Spencer House in Oxford, England, the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, the Cunningham Center for Leadership Development, the CSU Student Success Center, the International House, and the myriad of scholarships and endowed faculty positions came into being.

The Columbus State University RiverPark Campus was designed and constructed solely with private funds, and is said to be by persons who should know, “an example of world-class facilities for the three disciplines of music, art and theatre.” Over the last 10 years, CSU’s Foundation and other supporters have invested approximately $112 million in the RiverPark campus for the benefit of Columbus State University and of those whom we serve

We are very proud of what happens here and of the long history of strong and generous partnerships which have developed between our community and our campus. Few will ever see a relationship between a community and its university as wonderful as the one we enjoy in Columbus.