Wednesday, January 22, 2003

At Clayton College & State University, we consider ourselves "Your University." That's true whether you live in Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Brooks, Tyrone, Morrow, Jonesboro, Griffin, Conyers, Stockbridge or anywhere else in the Southern Crescent. Part of our commitment to the people of south metro Atlanta is, as noted in our mission statement, "bringing educational opportunities to the citizens and businesses of the Southern Crescent..."

On Oct. 1, 2002, the Fayette Higher Education Center opened, offering continuing education courses. That was a big day for both the citizens of Fayette County, and for Clayton State. Although Clayton State regularly enrolls a large number of students from Fayette County, as your university we are very pleased to have an official presence in Fayette County.

Clayton State is surveying the citizens of Fayette County with the goal of both assessing and meeting the needs of the community in regard to academic courses. This action is not only required by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia prior to establishing academic courses, but is also essential in terms of our understanding of what you, the people of Fayette County, want from higher education. In addition to a telephone survey, we have run an insert in the Wednesday, Jan. 15 edition of The Fayette Citizen and have distributed surveys at workplaces throughout the county.

If you have received one of our surveys, either through your copy of The Citizen or at your place of work, please take a couple of minutes to fill it out and mail it back to us (the postage is already paid by Clayton State). If you would like to obtain a survey, or if you have any thoughts on what sort of academic courses you would like to see brought to the Fayette Center, please call our Office of Academic Affairs at 770-961-3538. It is very important that we receive your feedback.

Our efforts to bring higher education to Fayette County would not be possible without the help of many of your own county organizations and agencies, including the Fayette County Development Authority, the Development Authority of Peachtree City, the Peachtree City Tennis Center, the City of Peachtree City, the Fayette County Commission, the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, and several companies and individuals. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support in this endeavor. Together, along with the citizens of Fayette County, we will indeed bring new educational opportunities to you.

Thomas K. Harden

President Clayton College & State University