The Georgia Board of Regents is expected to announce Friday that Georgia Southern University and Armstrong State University in Savannah will study the possibility of merging.
        Sources report that the Armstrong State campus would become a Georgia Southern campus.
        Armstrong State president Linda Bleicken, who was provost at Georgia Southern before going to Armstrong in 2009, previously announced she would retire at the end of the current school year, but no search for her replacement is underway.
        A formal announcement is expected at 10 a.m. Friday that will provide more details.
        Armstrong was founded in 1935 and its 268-acre campus is located on Abercorn Street about five miles south of downtown Savannah. It has approximately 7,100 undergraduate and graduate students.
        Armstrong is comprised of four colleges - College of Education, College of Health Professions, College of Liberal Arts and College of Science & Technology. It offers more than 100 academic programs and graduate studies. Armstrong's five men's and six women's sports teams compete in the Peach Belt Conference in NCAA Division II.
        According to the Savannah Business Journal, Georgia's university system owns developable land adjacent to Armstrong's Savannah campus that would allow for expansion, including a lot on the north side of Abercorn Street extension.