Volume 2, Issue 2, December 2010
The GSO News Medical College of Georgia Graduate Student Organization
www.mcg.edu/gradstudies/students.htm
GHSU: As a graduate student what does MCG’s name change mean to YOU
Inside this Issue GHSU: MCG’s Name Change
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Bundles of Books
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SGS and GSO Launch Career Seminar Series
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Student: Ahmed El-Awady
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Student: Christina Wilson
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MCG Student Leadership Institute
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Alumni: Kris Dhandapani
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Feature Article: Racing to Save Lives
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Happenings
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Donations help provide books to needy children Colleen Carey Bundles of Books is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the reading skills of underprivileged children through creating a joy of reading. The principle of this organization has been to provide books for children at Christmas, as an alternative to toys.
Colleen Carey September 15th, 2010 marked a major turning point for the Medical College of Georgia as the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved a request from MCG to change its name to Georgia Health Sciences University (GHSU). The rationale behind this name change is based on how the mission of MCG has broadened considerably since its founding as a medical college in 1828. As President Azziz has stated, “our ‘College’ is actually a ‘University’ with a focus not just in medicine but rather ‘Health Sciences’.” By continuing to refer to the institution at which we are enrolled as a ‘College’, Dr. Azziz feels this to be a “disservice in not highlighting the broad scope of our mission and ultimately affects the ability of MCG to be recognized for what it truly is.” Dr. Azziz has also stated that GHSU better defines MCG as what it is-“a comprehensive health sciences university and a modern academic health center.” Furthermore, Dr. Azziz strongly feels that the name change will allow for the university to achieve the national recognition that is deserved with
respect to competitive world rankings and reputation. Dr. Azziz points out that most similar institutions across the country have, at some point, changed their name to better reflect their true stature as health science universities, and MCG is no exception. The question that begs to be answered by many of us students is ‘Why change the name now?’ In communications that have been sent out to the entire MCG community we have been made aware that informal discussions of MCG’s name change have been ongoing for the last decade. MCG has consulted numerous research firms since 2007 to examine both local and nationwide perceptions of MCG. What was ultimately found was that while the local public had strong positive opinions of MCG, they did not consider MCG as a ‘university’. Likewise, more than 80% of those surveyed ‘strongly agreed’ that MCG as a name was associated only with the medical school. Further surveys of alumni and internal audiences showed a strong tie to the ‘Medical College of Georgia’ name and thus the resulting request was made to the board of regents:
…to “Name Change”, pg. 4
…to “Bundles of Books”, pg. 2 The GSO News
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