The Consolidation Implementation Committee for Gainesville State College and North Georgia College & State University met on Friday, February 24, 2012, at GSC’s Gainesville Campus. As chair of the committee, President Jacobs will be providing updates to our campuses about the implementation committee meetings and the work in between as needed.
This was the group’s second meeting and Dr. Martha T. Nesbitt, president of Gainesville State College, presented a detailed orientation that included an overview of the student population and academic success data and that highlighted the culture of GSC. The full presentation will be made available soon on each institution’s consolidation website. North Georgia will present a similar orientation in the near future to the members of the Consolidation Implementation Committee, which includes representation from each institution by faculty, staff, student, alumni, and the community.
Each institution is currently soliciting campus-based input for the development of a mission statement for the consolidated entity. Using this input, the Consolidation Implementation Committee will draft the mission statement and provide it to our campus communities for feedback and fine-tuning. We hope to recommend the final mission statement to the Board of Regents for its approval by April.
The committee discussed a planning timeline for the consolidation process and a draft of the planning structure. Our goal is for the consolidation to become effective in January 2013. Much of the work that needs to be completed before then will occur in Operating Systems Work Groups by those directly involved in specific functional areas and with representatives from each institution. Additionally, the Consolidation Implementation Committee members were asked to choose an Operating System Work Group to be a part of throughout the process. The Operating Systems Work Groups will focus on areas such as Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, Academic Affairs, Business and Finance, Institutional Advancement, Extension Services, and Technology and Library Services. These work groups will be chaired by vice presidents, who will in turn form the Executive Planning Team to coordinate the work coming out of the various groups. These groups will soon be created and begin work in the next couple of weeks.
Work will also begin shortly to determine what the name of the consolidated institution should be. This topic involves a lot of emotion for constituents of each institution, and we are committed to a comprehensive process that ensures input from all interested parties. Watch for details about this process soon.
If you have any questions, please send them via email to president@northgeorgia.edu or consolidation@gsc.edu.
