Georgia College & State University

Georgia College was established after lobbying from women's education advocates such as Rebecca Latimer Felton , Julia Flisch , and Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson . [ 5 ] In support of their petitions, Susan's husband, William Y. Atkinson , sponsored legislation for the founding of a state women's college. [ 5 ] Georgia College was chartered on November 8, 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College . [ 5 ] Julia Flisch spoke at the cornerstone ceremony on November 27, 1890. [ 5 ] The school did not formally open until September 30, 1891. [ 5 ] Georgia College's emphasis at the time was largely vocational, and its major task was to prepare young women for teaching or industrial careers. [ 5 ] In 1917, in keeping with economic and cultural changes in the state, Georgia Normal and Industrial College was authorized to grant 4-year degrees, the first of which was awarded in 1921. [ 5 ] In 1922, the institution's name was changed to Georgia State College for Women . [ 5 ] Flannery O'Connor, a famous alumna in the 1940s The university has been a unit of the University System of Georgia since the system's founding in 1932. [ 5 ] Mary "Flannery" O'Connor entered as a freshman in 1942. [ 5 ] Active in student publications, she graduated three years later with a degree in social science and became one of the South's most noted writers. [ 5 ] Some of her early short stories were published during this time, and her story, "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" is loosely based on an occurrence near campus. [ 5 ] Also during World War II , Georgia State College for Women served as one of four colleges that trained WAVES for the U.S. Navy . [ 5 ] Some of O'Connor's comics from this period depict the WAVES. [ 5 ] After the war, enrollment declined as women preferred co-educational colleges. [ 5 ] The name was changed to Woman's College of Georgia in 1961, and, when the institution became coeducational in 1967, it became Georgia College at Milledgeville .

[ 5 ] The name was shortened to Georgia College in 1971. [ 6 ] [ 5 ] In August 1996, the Board of Regents approved a change of name to Georgia College and State University , and a new mission as Georgia's Public Liberal Arts University. [ 7 ]

J. Harris Chappell (1891 to 1905) [ 8 ] Marvin McTyeire Parks (1905 to 1927) [ 9 ] Jasper Luther Beeson (1927 to 1934) [ 9 ] Guy Herbert Wells (1934 to 1953) [ 9 ] Henry King Stanford (1953 to 1956) [ 9 ] Robert Edmund Lee , or "Buzz" (1956 to 1967) [ 9 ] J. Whitney Bunting (1968 to 1981) [ 9 ] Edwin G. Speir, Jr. (1981 to 1996) [ 9 ] Ralph W. Hemphill (as acting president) (January 1997 to July 1997) Rosemary DePaolo (August 1997 to June 2003) [ 10 ] David G. Brown (interim president) (July 2003 to December 2003) Dorothy Leland (January 2004 to 2011) [ 11 ] Stas Preczewski (interim president) (July 2011 to July 2012) Paul Jones (interim president) (July 2012 to August 31, 2012) Steven Dorman (September 2012 to 2021) [ 12 ] Cathy Cox (October 2021 to present) [ 13 ]

Part of Central Campus (Terrell Hall) Pergola featured in GCSU branding Many local residences have been converted to offices (Underwood House) The campus is divided into four parts: Central Campus, South Campus, West Campus, and East Campus. [ 14 ] Central Campus was built on the remains of Penitentiary Square across from the Governor's Mansion . [ 5 ] The Governor's Mansion served as the first dormitory. [ 5 ] The Main Building burned down in 1924. [ 5 ] In the 1930s, Baldwin County Jail was adjacent to campus. [ 5 ] Observatory (Herty Hall) Presently, Central Campus comprises about 43.2 acres (17.5 ha) in the center of Milledgeville, near the grounds of the former state capitol (now Georgia Military College ). The campus contains red brick buildings and white Corinthian columns, representative of those constructed during the pre-Civil War Antebellum period, when Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia. Bell Hall and Russell Auditorium are credited to architect J. Reginald MacEachron . Atkinson Hall (1896), originally a dormitory, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now serves as the home of the College of Business. [ 5 ] The campus included the "Peabody Model School" (named after the George Peabody College , now part of Vanderbilt University ). [ 5 ] [ 15 ] Other historic buildings on the campus include Sanford Hall (1938), Russell Auditorium (1926), Ina Dillard Russell Art Museum (the original section of the library) (1932), Chappell Hall (1963) (on the site of an earlier Chappell Hall built in 1907), Parks Hall (1911), Terrell Hall (1908), Maxwell Student Union (1972), Beeson Hall (1937), Porter Hall (1939), Lanier Hall (1926), Ennis Hall (1920), and Herty Hall (1954 and expanded in 1972). [ 16 ] Ina Dillard Russell Library Ina Dillard Russell Library houses the manuscript collection of author Flannery O'Connor , an alumna of the university, and of U.S.