Dive Brief:

• Georgia Southern University is poised to absorb East Georgia State College after the University System of Georgia governing board approved a merger plan Tuesday. 
• The board's vote follows USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue's recommendation for the consolidation last week. Tuesday’s action marks “the first step in a careful process that will take more than a year,” the system said. 
• The new institution will retain the “identity” of East Georgia State, which has struggled with enrollment declines in recent years. At the same time, it will become part of Georgia Southern and will be led by the latter’s president, Kyle Marrero, according to the announcement. The consolidation requires the approval of the institutions’ accreditor. 

Dive Insight:

Perdue trumpeted the consolidation of Georgia Southern and East Georgia State as a way to invest in key higher education functions — especially student success and degree access — by saving on administrative costs and reducing academic program overlap.

“By using public resources as efficiently as possible, we’re making sure every dollar saved is reinvested into those programs that truly empower our students, support our faculty and strengthen our communities for a brighter future,” Perdue said in Tuesday’s announcement.  

Georgia state Rep. Butch Parrish — who represents Swainsboro, which is home to East Georgia State and 40 miles from Georgia Southern — praised the plan. 

“It’s essential that as the system streamlines and operates more efficiently, we safeguard access to higher education in the local area and keep the EGSC spirit going,” Parrish said in a statement. 

Now that the board has greenlit the merger, the institutions plan on quickly forming an implementation team with representatives from both colleges to work out details, the system said. That team will also prepare and submit the required paperwork for approval by their accreditor,  the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

USG and the institutions plan on holding campus and community listening sessions to seek input on the new institution’s design, with the first one slated for Wednesday on East Georgia State’s campus.  

Of the two, Georgia Southern is by far the larger institution. As of fall 2023, the university enrolled 26,041 students to East Georgia State’s 1,756, according to federal data. Georgia Southern’s enrollment has been relatively stable, declining 1.4% between 2018 and 2023, while East Georgia State’s fell by 40.3%. 

The larger university also has a much deeper catalog of programs compared to East Georgia State, which according to its website offers six associate and three bachelor’s degree programs. 

The planned consolidation is the latest move in an effort going back nearly 15 years to pare down Georgia's state university system. So far, USG has undertaken 13 consolidations. From these, it has saved $30 million in administrative expenses that it said it has reinvested into student services and faculty and staff hires.

Once the Georgia Southern and East Georgia State combination completes, USG will have 25 institutions, the system said.