Georgia may currently be the state of many public colleges and universities, but that may soon change if the chancellor of the University System of Georgia has his way.
Henry “Hank” M. Huckaby, who currently presides over 30 public colleges and universities across the state and oversees a $8.1 billion annual budget and more than 45,000 faculty and 312,936 students, is pushing a controversial plan to consolidate Darton State College with Albany State University, a historically Black college university located just a few miles away.
This is not new terrain for the former Republican state legislator turned higher education administrator. He has been down this road several times before, leading some to wonder if he wants his legacy to be that of consolidation guru — one who merged public schools across the state in an effort to cut costs and save millions of dollars to taxpayers.
Earlier this year, Huckaby presided over the Kennesaw State University merger with Southern Polytechnic State University. Huckaby then announced plans to consolidate Georgia Perimeter College with Georgia State University. That process is currently underway.
Now, he is pushing the Albany and Darton State College merger, causing some alumni of Albany State to question whether the merger of a HBCU with a non-HBCU makes sense.
