Dalton State College

Lorberbaum Liberal Arts Building Dalton State College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools . The Early Childhood Education program is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). [ 6 ] The Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). [ 7 ] The C. Lamar and Ann Wright School of Business programs received initial accreditation by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in January 2010. [ 8 ]

Dalton State College's Wright School of Business The Dalton State College main campus consists of 146 acres (0.59 km 2 ) on I-75 in Whitfield County, Georgia , 30 miles south of Chattanooga and 80 miles north of Atlanta . An additional campus exists in Ellijay , Georgia, southeast of the main campus. Dalton State Bell Tower viewed from the north at night Health Professions Building

The almost 5,000 traditional and non-traditional students are from a 10-county service area of Northwest Georgia in addition to 38 foreign countries. The average student age is 24; females make up 62 percent of the student population. On-campus housing has been offered since fall 2009. [ 9 ]

The Dalton State athletics teams are called the Roadrunners. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC; formerly known as Georgia–Alabama–Carolina Conference (GACC) until after the 2003–04 school year) since the 2014–15 academic year. [ 10 ] The Roadrunners previously competed as an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) from 2012–13 (when the school began its athletics program and joined the NAIA) to 2013–14. Dalton State competes in seven intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, golf and soccer; while women's sports include cross country, golf, soccer and track & field. Nickname The Dalton State mascot is the roadrunner . This mascot was chosen by the first men's basketball head coach, Melvin Ottinger in 1967. Ottinger was actually inspired by the successful Warner Bros. cartoon character . Originally listed as "Road Runner", the animation studio sent a letter ordering them to stop using the term due to copyright issues. This was fixed by combining the two words into one.