But administrators at Kennesaw State University (KSU) have successfully done just that, creating a national blueprint that will likely be replicated as more colleges and universities look to consolidation as an answer to help cut costs and streamline academic programs.
Earlier this year, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the consolidation plans between KSU and Southern Polytechnic State University, transforming this new institution of higher education into one of the largest universities in the nation.
Consolidating these two relatively young institutions located within 10 miles of each other made sense to Dr. Daniel S. Papp, who has been president of KSU since 2006.
“It was pretty easy for me to personally buy into this project,” says Papp, whose new university now includes a total of about 32,000 expected students and an alumni base of nearly 100,000, according to the university.
“This is truly monumental. There was angst. There’s no doubt about that, but whatever angst existed, we were able to overcome, and we convinced people that this was right from day one,” he adds.
The apprehension came mainly from faculty, staff and alumni who had strong ties to Southern Polytech. They watched as their institution, which was founded in 1948 as a two-year division of Georgia Institute of Technology and later became accredited as a four-year college in 1970, vanished before their eyes.
