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LEESBURG, GA --
The Board of Regents discussed the consolidation of eight of its institutions at their meeting on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University Wednesday.

Four months into the process, Associate Vice Chancellor for Planning and Implementation, Shelley Nickel says they are on schedule.

“The institutions will be consolidated next January at the board meeting, however a lot of the back office things may not actually be completed until the end of the fiscal year, so July 1^st,” says Nickel.

The institutions will have a lot to do between now and then, there's a 400 point spreadsheet of items they need to accomplish, including renaming the new institutions as well as new policies concerning admissions and tuition.

“If there are lower standards of admissions to get into certain programs, having a cheaper tuition rate to follow that admissions and a slightly more robust admissions policy would be a slightly more expensive tuition policy.”

And so far each of the pairs of schools being consolidated has submitted new mission statements, but not the ones you're used to seeing.

“Not necessarily for what that institution will eventually become in five or ten years from now, but taking the best of both of the current institutions and building their mission from that.”

Four implementation teams have been organized to help the schools through the process.