Southwest Georgia residents will soon be able to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing thanks to a program coming to Albany’s Darton College. But that’s nothing new.
Already that degree is available just 5 miles away at Albany State University. And about 30 miles away at Georgia Southwestern State University.
The Darton option became possible after the state Board of Regents, which governs the University System of Georgia, this spring allowed the two-year college and five others to become state colleges so they can offer four-year bachelor degrees in areas such as health care, science and technology.
The new degrees, projected to cost a total of $1.8 million a year, come at a time when the university system absorbed about $170 million in state budget cuts for this fiscal year.
It’s the latest example of the system expanding programs while other state agencies have cut millions of dollars during the recession. Total University System spending increased by about 30 percent since 2007.
John Clark, an advocate for Albany State and Georgia’s other historically black colleges, said the Darton decision is wasteful.
“What they’ve done is unfathomable when other colleges, good and respected colleges, are nearby and already offer this degree,” he said. “How do they have the audacity to do this?”
In Wednesday's newspaper, the AJC publishes the fourth in a six-part series on how the university system spends its money. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
About the Author
