On January 6, 2017, the University System of Georgia's Chancellor, Steve Wrigley, released his plan to merge Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University . The formal statement the University System of Georgia put out tries to paint this merger to be a positive one for all the students involved. However, for Armstrong students, it is anything but beneficial.

Students who applied and attend Armstrong State University did so for their reasons. Armstrong is a small community which allows our students to have better relationships with our professors and Armstrong is less expensive than Georgia Southern. If this merger were to go through, students would be paying more to attend, Armstrong would lose it's individuality as a university as well as, it would lose certain programs that would move to the "main campus" of Georgia Southern in Statesboro, and due to the school having "Georgia Southern" sprawled across it, more students would apply. Students would lose all the benefits of applying to Armstrong State University.

Within minutes of the information coming out about the merger, students of Armstrong began to speak out on this matter.

The reasons students have spoken out on this issue have stayed pretty similar to one another. Students that applied to Armstrong simply did that, they applied to Armstrong over Georgia Southern. If students at Armstrong wished to attend Georgia Southern, they would have done so.

This merger has been made out to be a positive thing for Armstrong, but it may, in fact, be the worst thing to happen to Armstrong. Please, do not allow Armstrong State University to become Georgia Southern University. If you wish to sign the petitions to try and stop the merger, they can be found here and here. Save our university from this merger.

More information on the merger can be found here.