“We are delighted with the AACSB recommendation to award full reaccreditation to the Hull College of Business.” says Dr. Samuel Sullivan, vice president for academic affairs at Augusta State. “The Hull College faculty, under Dr. Marc Miller’s leadership, has done an outstanding job in maintaining the quality of its programs and in providing an exceptional learning environment for Hull students. It is a great achievement for the university for the Hull College to earn this continued distinguished recognition by the AACSB.”

Only 555 schools of business worldwide have made this distinguished hallmark of education.  Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest serving, and largest global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees in business.

To achieve reaccreditation, the business program must go through a rigorous internal review every five years and the program must also meet the 21 AACSB standards that include a high quality teaching environment.

“The reaffirmation of our accreditation indicates the high quality of the program the college offers,” says Dr. Marc Miller, dean of the Hull College of Business. “It sends a sign to students, faculty, and our community that we set our goals to the highest standards.”

ASU’s achievement will be recognized at the AACSB International Conference and Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla. next year.

AACSB International is an association of more than 1,100 educational institutions, businesses and other organizations in 70 countries that are dedicated to the advancement of business education worldwide.

For more information, contact Danielle Harris, media relations specialist, in ASU’s Office of Public Relations and Publications at 706-667-4221.

“I know that Dr. Reinke will do a fine job directing the center and its activities,” says Dr. Samuel Sullivan, vice president for academic affairs. “She will continue the quality and distinctness for which the center has come to be known.”

The center was created in 2006, and its focus has been primarily on Georgia’s Latino communities. It has sponsored several campus forums dealing with immigration and the law, conducted research for the Georgia Latino Acculturation Study, and engaged in outreach in the local Latino communities.

Dr. Reinke will focus the center’s research on identifying community programs and policies that help immigrants adjust to life in the United States.

The center is housed in the Department of Political Science, as is the Master of Public Administration program, which she also directs. “Because of Dr. Reinke’s leadership, the MPA program was recently approved for accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Public Administration, which is the most prominent accreditation that an MPA program can receive. We are enormously proud of this achievement and of her work as director of the program,” says Dr. Sullivan.

One of the newest and most popular tracks in the program is Homeland Security. The track prepares students for the challenge of preparing our nation and our community for disasters resulting from terrorism, accidents, or natural causes. The first students in this track graduated in May.

The MPA program is getting a positive reputation and is attracting students from other major universities in our region,” says Dr. Reinke. “We’re preparing the next generation of leaders. We expect to one day open the newspaper and see the names of our community leaders and know they came through our program at ASU.”

Dr. Reinke, a former U.S. Air Force officer, was also instrumental in having the university join the Servicemembers Opportunity College (SOC), which allows ASU to have a presence at Fort Gordon. SOC gives soldiers the opportunity to attend ASU and receive some credit based on specific military training they may have received. Dr. Reinke chairs the Fort Gordon liaison committee which works to improve relationships between Fort Gordon and ASU.

“Because of her efforts, we will develop and maintain a close relationship with our friends at Ft. Gordon,” says Dr. Sullivan.

In addition to the roles she holds at ASU, she serves on the editorial board of the PA Times, the monthly newspaper for the American Society for Public Administration. She also finds time to volunteer in the community and was a member of the 2005 (the best class) class of Leadership Augusta. She also serves as an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church. She says her faith and Jesus Christ are what keep her going. “Making my little piece of the world a little bit better is my abiding passion,” she says.

Her work was recognized in 2008 when the Girl Scouts selected her as one of their Women of Excellence. The award recognizes women who embody the ideals of confidence, character, courage, and service.

“I am very proud of Dr. Reinke’s accomplishments and pleased with the exceptional work that she is doing on behalf of Augusta State University,” says Dr. Sullivan.

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• A Day
• New acting chairs
• Jaguar Alert
• Speaker to address global series
• Forestry Grant
• RG Brown III exhibit
• Dr. Saundra Reinke feature
• ASU Fall Film Series
• Lyceum Series and Westobou Festival at ASU
• ASU authors featured at festival
• Former ASU golfer named to Ryder Cup Team
• Peer-2-Peer, File Sharing Gone Bad – DA
• Special Collections extends hours
• Faculty Profile – Valerie Cato
• Staff Profile – Nicole Paige
• September Birthdays
• Campus Notables
• In the News

“I am extremely proud that Augusta State University’s MPA program has received this distinguished notice of accreditation. NASPAA is the most prominent accreditation that an MPA program can receive, and this award is the direct result of the hard work of all those associated with the program,” says Dr. Samuel Sullivan, vice president for academic affairs at ASU.

“Only one out of three master’s programs in public administration has been accredited through NASPAA,” says Dr. Saundra Reinke, director of the MPA program. “This accreditation shows that our program is on par with those programs at larger, distinguished institutions,” she says.

The accreditation process is rigorous and requires the institution to undergo a year of self-study in which every facet of the program is examined—from the administrative organization to its scope of influence, says Dr. Reinke. It also involves a voluntary peer review by the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA). The self-study review is submitted and reviewed by COPRA, and then followed with a three day site visit in which students, faculty, and community members are interviewed.

A commendation provided by the site visiting team states, “The capstone course and process are quite rigorous and appear to be well above average among MPA programs.”

The Master of Public Administration degree program was instituted at Augusta State in 1996. “Attaining this additional voluntary accreditation has long been a goal,” says Dr. Reinke.

“I offer my congratulations to Dr. Saundra Reinke, director of the MPA program; Dr. Sudha Ratan, chair of the political science department; Dr. Robert Parham, dean of the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts and Sciences; and to all of the faculty, staff, and students whose dedication to the MPA program has culminated in this outstanding achievement,” says Dr. Sullivan.