Georgia College and State University Campus Plan Update 2025

Georgia College & State University (GCSU) is Georgia’s designated public liberal arts institution. As a residential institution, home to a largely traditional college student body, GCSU aims to offer students highly experiential and high-impact learning experiences. GCSU continues to be committed to its student success/Momentum Year plan, GC Journeys, and was fortunate to experience a 3.60% increase in students participating in these experiences between FY24 and FY25 and a two year (FY23 to FY25) increase of 17.34%.

The institution has experienced a steady First-time student enrollment during the last three fall semesters with each cohort reaching approximately 1,780 students. Despite being designated as “test required”, we still experienced an increase in undergraduate applications.

As a top priority, the Retention Advisory Board, made up of a broad membership across campus, has led retention and student success strategies and initiatives. Of particular note, two substantial institutional commitments have been made which are focused on student success: 1)  The hiring of a Student Success Coordinator in the Office of Student Success & Career Development whose focus is on direct one-on-one support for students who are thinking about leaving the institution for a variety of reasons. 2) Since the Spring of 2025, GCSU has been participating in the National Institute for Student Success Program to help identify areas of opportunity. As we are nearing completion, the NISS Program has identified several challenge areas 1) Support Mechanism for Undeclared Majors and Proactive Advising 2) Utilize Academic Outcome Data at a Course / Program Level 3) Develop a More Robust Student Communication Plan 4) Implement Reactive Financial Aid and Wellness Supports. 

Below is the GC Journeys participation data noted in our Momentum Plan.

GC Journeys Participation Data

The participation counts are unduplicated as some students participate multiple times during the fiscal year.

Of particular note is the drop in students participating in Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors. On the surface, the drop in participation would be alarming, but as an institution we are refining and improving the coding and identification of courses that align with USG HIPS definitions.  As an institution the Department Chairs have been encouraged to review and examine their courses to ensure the course outcomes are captured and representative for the specific coding. In particular, our Department of Theater & Dance has a new Chair who reviewed their courses. Instead of all their classes counting as a “Creative Endeavor” as was previously done, he identified courses where “"an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original, intellectual, or creative contribution to the discipline(s)." (CUR Definition)  This resulted in numerous courses no longer being counted as a Creative Endeavor, but instead better captures the courses. The data we are now reporting is more accurate and better captures the courses that are High Impacts Practice courses.

GC Journeys Completion

In the Fall of 2024, for the first in the history of the GC Journeys program, it was determined how many graduates complete all the components of GC Journeys. In examining the Spring 2024 graduates (1137 students)

Completion of GC Journeys: 58% of graduates complete all the components of GC Journeys.  

Completion of the 5 HIPS options

68% of graduates completed 2 or more of the 5 HIPS.

27% of graduate completed 3 or more HIPS

Enrollment Trends:

Student Body Profile (Fall 2024): 

• Undergraduate: 6,250
• Graduate:  1,054
• Total enrollment: 7,304

Student Body Demographics:

Other:

Institutional Priorities:

Georgia College & State University’s institutional priorities have been driven largely by our mission as the state’s designated liberal arts university. As such, Georgia College & State University’s priorities have been focused largely on undergraduate education, offering a residential and high-impact educational experience, with a focus on experiential learning and high-impact practices, which has been the focus of our Momentum Year Strategy. Additionally, with the upcoming demographic shift, Georgia College & State University is also working to expand graduate programming and reach new student populations.

GCSU just launched our new strategic plan, Imagine 2030, which outlines our commitment to advancing these experiences, while recognizing a need to focus on wellness, and advancement, etc. Part of this strategic vision involved studying and visiting four of our aspirational peers: Elon University, College of Charleston, Miami University of Ohio, and the College of New Jersey. Divisions were tasked to develop plans to align to the pillars of our Strategic Plan by Spring 2024. The Strategic Planning committee has developed a robust assessment plan and is currently reviewing Year 1 reports.

Additionally, through working closely with Georgia College’s Office of Institutional Research, Retention Advisory Board, Graduate Education Taskforce, Academic Innovation Taskforce, as well as other special task forces with datasets, the Strategic Plan has benchmarked GCSU against our peer institutions, as well as our aspirational peers, while planning for the future (demographic shifts, in demand programs, etc). The active benchmarks that we regularly monitor and publish in our factbook include: cost of attendance, four- and six-year graduation rates, and academic year salaries of faculty by rank.

Below is a list of GCSU aspirational, comparator, updated comparator (submitted to USG in November 2025) and COPLAC Peers:

COPLAC Peers (Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges)

• Ramapo College of New Jersey
• St. Mary’s College of Maryland
• Keene State College
• University of Mary Washington
• Eastern Connecticut State University
• Georgia College and State University
• University of Montevallo
• Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
• Northern Vermont University
• SUNY College at Geneseo
• Sonoma State University
• Henderson State University
• The University of Virginia’s College at Wise
• Fort Lewis College
• University of Illinois Springfield
• Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
• The Evergreen State College
• University of Minnesota-Morris
• University of Maine at Farmington
• University of South Carolina Aiken
• Shepherd University
• Midwestern State University
• Truman State University
• New College of Florida
• University of North Carolina at Asheville
• University of Wisconsin-Superior
• University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
• Kentucky State University