Albany State, Darton State and Albany Tech gear up for 2015

ALBANY — Albany State University will carry several academic reaccreditations into the year, while Darton State College is looking to get its new Cordele Campus cranked up and Albany Technical College officials say that college is well-positioned to succeed in the coming year.

Accreditation for the ASU College of Business was reaffirmed late last year by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, while the university’s Department of Nursing’s Undergraduate and Graduate programs were granted continued accreditation through the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.

In addition, ASU is on track for its 2018 reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the South.

“We are boldly moving forward with rigorous academic programming, second-to-none customer service and open doors to anyone in pursuit of a first-class education,” ASU Interim President Art Dunning said. “Our campus — diverse, global and internationalized — is well prepared to educate students from across Georgia and the globe. In 2015, it will be hard to miss our academic strength, which we feel will take us to new heights in academia.”

Several new programs are also in the offing at ASU. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents has approved ASU’s request to provide a bachelor of science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, which must still be approved by the SACS. The program is expected to begin fall 2015.

ASU is offering two minors in English – creative writing and technical communications – which will lead to the bachelor of arts in English, as well as a military certificate program that now is offered in Cordele at the Community Education Center.

ASU will also offer upper-level and graduate-level programs at the Cordele Center and is also planning to expand the Fire Service Administration program, as a continuing effort to address workforce needs.

The partnership formed last year with the Dougherty County School System, Darton and Albany Tech College is going strong. The collaborative effort was designed to enable ASU and the colleges to reach as many students as possible in the local area who are academically prepared for higher education, to reduce Dougherty County’s dropout rate and to bolster education throughout the region.

As the year ends, the Albany State University Marching Rams Show Band will be getting to participate New Year’s Day 2016 Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Fundraising efforts will intensify throughout the year.

At Darton, the school opened its new Cordele Center, welcoming students to the new facility in downtown Cordele as classes for the spring semester began. The new three-story, 60,000-plus-square-foot building enables Darton to offer more courses and offer extensive support services.

“We are extremely pleased at how the Cordele Crisp-County community has embraced Darton State College and for their ongoing commitment to education” said Darton Interim President Paul Jones. “This new state-of-the-art facility will enable Darton to offer more high-quality programs and the chance to work with sister institutions, such as Albany State University, to enhance educational opportunities at the baccalaureate and graduate levels,”

The new building was funded by an $8 million Crisp County SPLOST. The community, led by the Cordele-Crisp Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Development Council, partnered to bring together the resources needed to build the education center.

At Albany Technical College, a new Faculty Council will be instituted with an endorsement from ATC President Anthony Parker. The council will make suggestions as to pertains to academic affairs from a “faculty perspective” to maintain the vision and goals of TCSG. First of its kind on our campus.

“We are well positioned to succeed and I’m optimistic about our community’s future,” Parker said. “I hope to spend 2015 working to help our graduates contribute to our region’s economic renaissance. And, just as important, I want to see them benefit financially from the contributions that they make to our community’s prosperity.”

Albany Tech’s “Wall of Giving” is being constructed by the school’s masonry department. The idea is to provide bricks for donations to the ATC Foundation.

A ribbon-cutting for a courtroom lab to be used by Albany Tech’s Law Enforcement Program was held recently, making ATC the only Georgia technical school to have that type of facility.

In addition, four Dougherty County School System high school students are scheduled to graduate in May with the first ever high school diploma/AAS degree simultaneously.