Georgia Highlands College has named Elijah Scott the Dean of Libraries, College Testing, and Curriculum Innovation. On top of overseeing GHC’s libraries, Scott will additionally take charge of the college testing sites at each of the five campuses and the college’s curriculum innovation processes.
“I’m fortunate to work with an incredible group of people in our GHC libraries and in our college administration,” he said. “Moving into this new role will provide even more opportunities to ensure that we provide the best possible resources and services to students, faculty/staff, and the communities we serve in the northwest Georgia region.”
Scott was previously GHC’s Director of Libraries, a position he held since 2010. In that time, he has overseen the libraries on the Floyd, Cartersville, Paulding, and Douglasville campuses, while holding a collaborative relationship with Kennesaw State University’s library at GHC’s Marietta site.
Scott’s new duties will include the oversight of GHC’s college testing process, which includes administering COMPASS tests to nearly all incoming students, as well as other proctored tests for services like eCore (the University System of Georgia’s online two-year core program).
Additionally, Scott will head the effort to make sure GHC’s curriculum meets the needs of local business and industry in Northwest Georgia, focusing on preparing students to find rewarding careers in the area. He will interface with local business and industry to learn what specific knowledge they need from prospective employees, and then identify areas in which GHC has the resources to quickly develop new programs and degrees to match those needs.
“Two-year colleges often have an advantage in that we can be nimbler in creating new programs and degrees in a shorter amount of time than larger universities,” Scott said. “It will be critical for GHC to capitalize on this ability to ensure that we are providing highly relevant educational experiences for our students.”
Scott stated that he hopes to continue a track of progressing through innovation, noting that over the past five years, his library team has found numerous opportunities to offer new and innovative services and resources to students and the community with facility renovations, the opening of more library branches, the prioritization of making more resources readily available through GALILEO, outfitting libraries with 3D printers and rentable quadcopter drones, and more.
“I plan to build on this history of innovation to bring new services to students, faculty, and staff in the areas of college testing and curriculum innovation,” Scott said.
Early plans are to enhance the testing environments and provide more types of testing opportunities for students and prospective students, as well as continuing to assess the needs of local business and industry to identify new degrees and programs that will open pathways to career attainment for students.