Page 10 - MGATODAY_Spring_2021

proGress never stopped and to increase the Macon Campus’s visibility and

Pre-pandemic, MGA was moving along on access. Near the campus’s new roundabout,
several building and renovation projects. When construction began on the privately funded
students, faculty, and staff returned to the Peyton Anderson Enrollment Center. Lake-
campuses in the fall, they saw that the work had view Pointe, a new residence hall, opened on the
never stopped. Macon Campus.
On the Cochran Campus, builders com- MGA also gained some major equipment.
pleted state-funded major renovations to Roberts In August 2020, MGA dedicated two new single-
Library and Dillard Hall this spring. In Dublin, engine Piper Archers at Macon Downtown
MGA significantly expanded and upgraded nurs- Airport. MGA purchased the new aircraft –
ing facilities in order to increase the number of funded through an $800,000 donation from the
students admitted to the program based on that Charles H. Jones Family Foundation – so that the
campus. The expansion made it possible for MGA Eastman-based School of Aviation can expand
to offer the B.S. in nursing in Dublin, which up to flight education at the Macon satellite location.
then was limited to the associate’s degree. (See page 15 for more about this donation, as well
Also completed was much of a major road as additional details of MGA’s recent building and
project to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety renovation projects.)

“in the past seven years, MGA has secured
over $75 million in public and private funds,”
Blake said. “it’s tremendous to see how that
support has transformed some of our facilities
and allowed us to make major capital purchases
that dramatically elevate the university’s
teaching and learning opportunities.”

won’t lAst forever

As she waited out the summer and continued
taking courses online, math major Neal tried to
make the best of what she admits was, at times, a
depressing and stressful situation.
“For me, anyway, not all math courses should
be taken online,” she said. “I made it – I even got
an ‘A’ in Calculus III – but it was hard. Microsoft
Teams was new to me so I spent time trying to
figure that out. And I missed the campus atmo-
sphere and just hanging out with friends.”
Neal regularly participated in Student Life’s
virtual activities over the summer. “Virtual bingo
was my favorite,” she said. “I won an instant pot.”
the early days of the pandemic temporarily grounded 20-year-old When she returned in the fall, Neal moved
Christopher Spence, an aviation science and management major
from buckhead. “i was getting ready for a checkride and it got into a Macon Campus residence hall and contin-
postponed,” spence said. he’s now back in the air and living on ued her involvement with SGA and the Campus
the Cochran Campus as an r.a. at Knights hall.

10 MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY