TIFTON — Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will host a town hall meeting 11 a.m. Jan. 23 regarding the planned merger between ABAC and Bainbridge State College.

The town hall will be held in Howard Auditorium on ABAC campus and is open to students, faculty, staff and community members.

ABAC president David Bridges and BSC interim president Stuart Rayfield will be present along with representatives from the University System of Georgia.

Questions can be submitted prior to the event by emailing consolidation@abac.edu. Questions will be taken at the town hall as well.

The merger was approved Jan. 11 by the Board of Regents.

The process to merge the colleges will begin this year, and the planning stage will hopefully be concluded by December 2017.

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.

At a press conference last week, 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.