A sign of the higher education times: Kennesaw State and Southern Polytechnic Will Consolidate

I know faculty at both KSU and SPSU.  My PhD student, Briana Morrison, is faculty at SPSU.  No one that I spoke to had any idea this was happening.  These aren’t small schools.  SPSU is one of the few universities in Georgia with a publicly-funded engineering program.  KSU+SPSU is considerably larger than Georgia Tech.  Is this part of the consolidation of higher education foretold by the MOOCopalyptic visions?

Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University will consolidate to form a new institution to be named Kennesaw State University. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia will be asked by Chancellor Hank Huckaby to approve the consolidation plan during its upcoming November meeting.

“We must continue to carefully examine our structure and programs to ensure we have the right model that best serves our students and the state,” Huckaby said. “This proposal offers us some exciting possibilities to enlarge our academic outreach through the existing talent and resources at both these institutions.”

The decision to consolidate the two institutions, whose combined enrollment this fall is 31,178 students and combined annual economic impact on the region is $1.15 billion

via Kennesaw State and Southern Polytechnic Will Consolidate – Newsroom – University System of Georgia.