Say good-bye to the Medical College of Georgia and hello to the Georgia Health Sciences University. The state’s sole public medical college will have a new name effective Feb. 1.

The new name reflects that the institution offers more than just medical degrees, college President Ricardo Azziz told the State Board of Regents Wednesday. MCG also offers programs in nursing, dentistry, allied health and graduate studies.

The new name "better defines our institution as what it is -- a comprehensive health sciences university and a modern academic health center," Azziz said.

Azziz estimated it will cost about $2.9 million to implement the name change, with the largest expense allocated to new signage.

He assured the regents that the "return in investment is actually very high."

The new name will assist the college to recruit students, faculty and leading research teams. The grants that new research teams would generate will in the long-term exceed the cost of the name change, he said.

The MCG name will not go away entirely. The medical school within the college, currently called MCG's School of Medicine, will be renamed Medical College of Georgia.

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In 2022, Georgia Power projected its winter peak electricity demand would grow by about 400 megawatts by 2031. Since then, Georgia has experienced a boom of data centers, which require a large load of electricty to run, and Georgia Power's recent forecast shows peak demand growing by 20 times the 400-megawatt estimate from just three years ago. (Illustration by Philip Robibero/AJC)

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