Savannah State University

SSU's history 1890 Established as Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth [ 9 ] 1891 Relocated from Athens to Savannah [ 10 ] 1921 First female students admitted as campus residents [ 3 ] [ 11 ] 1928 Became a full four-year degree-granting institution; high school and normal programs were removed [ 3 ] [ 11 ] 1932 Renamed Georgia State College [ 3 ] [ 11 ] 1947 Land-grant designation transferred to Fort Valley State College [ 3 ] 1950 Renamed Savannah State College [ 3 ] 1996 Renamed Savannah State University [ 12 ] Establishment Savannah State University was founded as a result of the Second Morrill Land Grant Act of August 30, 1890. [ 12 ] The act mandated that southern and border states develop land grant colleges for black students, as their systems were segregated. On November 26, 1890, the Georgia General Assembly passed legislation creating the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth. [ 9 ] A preliminary session of the school was held in the Baxter Street School Building in Athens , where Richard R. Wright Sr. was principal. [ 11 ] The college operated there for several months during 1891, before moving to its permanent location in Savannah on October 7, 1891, with Wright as the first president. [ 10 ] The school had five faculty members. Its eight students were all graduates of Edmund Asa Ware High School, the first public high school for blacks in Augusta . [ 11 ] The campus was built on the former lands of Placentia Plantation , including its colored cemetery. [ 13 ]

The college awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1898. [ 3 ] In 1921, the first female students were admitted as residents on the campus. [ 3 ] [ 11 ] In 1928, the college became a full four-year degree-granting institution and ended its high school and normal school programs. Normal schools had been created in the 19th century in many state systems in the United States, after the German model, to educate teachers for elementary school students. With the expansion of towns across the US, and continuing issues in trying to educate four million freedmen and their descendants, there was an urgent need to establish many new schools and to train teachers quickly in the North and the South. States used normal schools for training teachers for primary school grades and sometimes secondary school as well. Normal schools or colleges tended to have two- or three-year programs. Gradually the normal schools were converted to full colleges with four-year curricula, or were left behind. [ 3 ] [ 11 ] In 1932, the college became a full member institution of the University System of Georgia and its name was changed to Georgia State College. [ 3 ] [ 11 ] The college served as Georgia's land-grant institution for African-American students until 1947. The designation was then transferred to Fort Valley State College . [ 3 ] In January 1950, the college changed its name to Savannah State College. [ 3 ]

With the growth in its graduate and research programs, in 1996 the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia elevated Savannah State College to the status of state university and the name was changed to Savannah State University. [ 12 ] In 2008, a proposal was made to merge Savannah State University with Armstrong Atlantic State University , but it did not pass. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] Almost a decade later, Armstrong State would eventually be merged with Georgia Southern University in nearby Statesboro . [ 18 ] Savannah State University is the first institution in the state of Georgia to offer the homeland security degree program. It was the second institution in the University System of Georgia to offer wireless internet connectivity to students throughout the campus. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] Notable campus events The General's Daughter Portions of the Paramount Pictures movie The General's Daughter were filmed at historic Hill Hall on the campus during the summer of 1997. The film's director Simon West was quoted as saying the campus and Savannah generally "had the most varied and interesting look" to represent the "brooding," "hot and steamy and sticky" "Southern Gothic" impression. [ 6 ] Trading Spaces The TLC show Trading Spaces filmed an episode ("Savannah: SSU Steppers") on the campus on September 7–9, 2007, as two spaces in the King-Frazier Student Center were transformed by members of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. The episode premiered on Nov. 17, 2007. [ 21 ] Commissioned II Love Commissioned II Love, an evangelical Christian campus group, with the assistance of The Alliance Defense Fund 's Center for Academic Freedom and the National Legal Foundation filed a federal discrimination lawsuit [ 22 ] against Savannah State University and several university employees on March 1, 2007.

[ 23 ] [ 24 ] The student group was recognized as an official organization in 2003 but was later suspended (April 10, 2006) and then expelled on September 11, 2006 after some students complained to university police that its members engaged in activities such as "foot washings" and "baptisms." [ 23 ] [ 24 ] At the time the university categorized such activities as hazing . [ 23 ] On August 24, 2007, a federal judge denied the school's motion to have the case dismissed. [ 23 ] The university and the organization reached and agreement allowing the group to re-register as a student organization, with "all rights, benefits and privileges" in February 2008. [ 25 ] The settlement did not include any admission of wrongdoing by the university or any monetary award to Commissioned II Love, but ended the dispute between the two parties. [ 25 ]