TIFTON — Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Bainbridge State College are merging together.

ABAC President David Bridges and BSC Interim President Stuart Rayfield held a press conference at ABAC Jan. 12 to announce the state Board of Regents has approved the recommendation from chancellor Steve Wrigley to consolidate ABAC and Bainbridge.

Bridges will be the president for the consolidated institution, which will carry the name of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

Bridges emphasized that this press conference was very early on in the process of the consolidation.

Under the proposed timeline, the new institution will submit a proposal for consolidation to the board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges for approval in December 2017.

Campus and community listening sessions will be held in the coming months to seek and hear input on ways to best design the new institution so that it can provide the best service for the region and state.

Bridges and Rayfield were both insistent that students and interested parties would be welcomed to provide input about the consolidation.

An implementation team with representatives from both the Bainbridge campus and the Tifton campus will be charged with the responsibility of working out the many details associated with the consolidation. A consolidation website will also be established to provide information and updates.

Bridges said that he is very proud of ABAC’s reputation and progress, and is looking forward to “providing an excellent educational opportunity for all our students, no matter where they are.”

Rayfield said that Bainbridge was “thrilled” at the opportunity to work with ABAC.

“We think that that is a natural fit for our institution,” said Rayfield, as well as the community because of the focus on academic programs in agriculture and nursing.

“This will be a huge benefit not only to our students but to the economic development and workforce development of our region,” said Rayfield.

“We know there are a lot of challenges and it’s going to be a lot of hard work.”

“I believe this is a real vote of confidence in ABAC,” said Bridges, “and we will make it work for all our students, whether they are in Bainbridge or Tifton or points in between.”

Bridges and Rayfield then took questions from those assembled for the press conference.

When asked what changes the students would see, Rayfield said that it would be at least a year before any students saw any changes because changes would only be implemented after the consolidation plan that will be put together is approved.

Rayfield said that the Bainbridge students would benefit from additional four year degrees that ABAC offers, and Bridges said that, while ABAC students may not see an increase or change in what programs are offered, in the consolidation planning process there may be some things they adopt, citing the management degree that Bainbridge offers that ABAC does not.

Because of the distance, which is approximately two hours between campuses, there will most likely not be any commuting between campuses by either faculty or students.

“There are many institutions of higher education around the state and the country that have multiple campuses and we will figure that out over the next year,” Bridges said.

It is unclear as of the time of the press conference if there would be any trimming down of faculty and staff.

“That gets defined by what the expanded institution looks like,” said Bridges.

“That’s driven by programs, that’s driven by needs, that’s driven by enrollment, that’s driven by lots of things, none of which we’ve even started discussing.”

Bridges and Rayfield both said that no projects or decisions will be delayed because of the consolidation.

“We have a strategic plan, we have a plan of work for 2017 to advance this institution to better serve students and we’re going to continue to follow that,” Bridges said, with Rayfield echoing the same sentiment for Bainbridge.