MGA president: ‘We have been named a great college to work for’

The president for Middle Georgia State University announced the college has reached an acclaimed recognition during his annual “State of the Union” address.

MGA President Christopher Blake spoke to community leaders, faculty and staff on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Toward the end of his speech, he was excited to announce that MGSU has been named a 2025 “Great College to Work For,” one of only 76 institutions nationwide to receive the honor this year. 

“That is something that should help our recruitment of new employees when we have new positions or when someone retires and it should help retain people,” Blake said. “It will give you the leverage to help your teams grow and help give them opportunities. This is a very significant story to the world. You can have a good career at Middle Georgia State University where you will have an opportunity to grow.”

One example he gave was the fact that the MGSU is now playing athletics in the NCAA Division II Peach Belt Conference. A few weeks ago, both MGA men and women’s basketball teams beat North Georgia College.

“We also have a cross country facility – and we are going to host the Peach Belt championship – that we opened just last fall,” Blake said.

MGA has already exceeded the enrollment officials had thought they would achieve by 2028.

“We are working for a plan for the future,” Blake said. “We want to have a plan that will take us into a great and strong future. We have a chance to build this university in a way that most people working in the heart of education do not have. This is a wonderful campus here.” 

The president said they have doubled the student population at their Dublin campus. They have 450 Laurens County students taking classes at the Dublin campus.

“This is a campus with opportunity, and to our community members, we want to take advantage of those opportunities,” Blake said. “We’ll need you as guidance, assistance and occasionally you poking and prodding us to tell us that we are missing something here. We don’t mind that.”

As of the time of his speech, MGSU had the largest spring enrollment in its history.

“This is an extraordinary accomplishment,” Blake said. “This is a team effort. All of us play a role in students coming here and graduating from here. The one takeaway is more people are wanting to come to Middle Georgia to benefit from an extremely high quality and cost-effective higher education and we want to continue to provide that.” 

When Blake arrived at MGA 10 years ago, the school’s foundation was raising $600,000 a year. Last year, their foundation raised $5.2 million.

“That’s a record,” he said. “We have never raised that much. There is belief within the organization about who we are and people willing to step up.”

Before his speech, Blake met with community leaders over food and coffee. He said MGA in Dublin has been designated as the university’s health campus. 

“We have health and nursing programs along with physical therapy programs coming here,” he said. “It’s really good to be able to share that with our community partners. We can’t do it alone. We need a strong community.” 

Blake encouraged everyone to visit all of the MGSU campuses in Dublin, Cochran, Eastman, Warner Robins and Macon.

“The state of Middle Georgia has never been stronger,” he said. “The opportunities are clear. We know what we can and need to do. I have every confidence that with your help and support, we’ll do it as a team. We will be the best we can be this decade.”