If you haven’t been to Augusta University’s health sciences campus lately, you need to make a special trip. It has been transformed! Some buildings have been newly constructed while others have been beautifully renovated and redesigned. As far as you can see there are gleaming buildings and sidewalks and hallways bustling with students. There are even brand new dorms nearing completion, which will provide housing for more than 700 students, just steps away from classrooms, clinics and other medical school facilities.

During the past few years, like many Augusta residents, the first thing that came to mind when the subject of the medical school was brought up is the intense controversy surrounding the previous AU president. However, after reading Joe Hotchkiss’s story on page 28 about the schools’s new president, Dr. Brooks Keel, all my thoughts of past dissention have been overshadowed by excitement and optimism thanks to Dr. Keel’s student-centered priorities and his persuasive assertion that “the merged university will present unique opportunities for artists and scientists to collaborate and thrive.”

For the first time in five years, the merging of the two schools makes sense to me. And as the new president in charge leads the ongoing transformation, he sees nothing but great potential and opportunity for all concerned.

What a difference a year can make.

-Sherry