The story
South Georgia State Normal College (1913–1922)
The school that would become Valdosta State University was founded in 1906. Colonel W.S. West led the legislation through the Georgia Senate, and C.R. Ashley and E.J. McRee pushed it through the House. However, no funds were appropriated for it until 1911 when the state allocated $25,000. The city of Valdosta raised $50,000, and Col. West gave the property that is now the main part of campus to the state for use by the new institution. The president chosen was Richard Holmes Powell. His travels in the American southwest led him to choose the Spanish Mission style of architecture for the institution's buildings. In January 1913, the school opened as South Georgia State Normal College (SGSNC) with three college freshmen and 15 sub-freshmen. The early students were required to wear a school uniform and paid $10 per year for tuition and $12 per month for food and board. Most became teachers and studied subjects such as literature, physics and agriculture. In 1922, the school became a four-year college and the legislature changed the name to Georgia State Womans College.
Georgia State Woman's College (1922–1950)
President Powell headed the GSWC until 1933 when he was made dean of the Coordinate College in Athens. Jere M. Pound, President of the Georgia Teachers College, was sent to Valdosta. However, his tenure at GSWC lasted less than a year before he had to go on sick leave. He died a year later.
Frank Robertson Reade assumed the job of acting president in 1934 and on Pound's death became president. During his tenure, New Deal programs enabled the school to expand physically from three to seven buildings. The Powell Library, dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt, was a centerpiece of this construction. During World War II, GSWC emphasized politics and science in its curriculum and in 1943, the B.S. degree was added. Moody Airfield, located nine miles from campus, provided the male participants for many patriotic parties.
Valdosta State College (1950–1993)
Reade served until 1948, he was followed by J. Ralph Thaxton, who came from the University of Georgia, where he had served as professor, Dean, Director of Admissions, and Registrar. Soon after Thaxton began his service, the Board of Regents, acting on the advice of a committee which had examined the whole University System of Georgia, declared that in 1950 GSWC was to become co-educational—Valdosta State College (VSC).
Programs in premedical, pre dentistry, and pre pharmacy were added, and the sciences became more prominent. Business became a popular major after 1950. By 1956 men on campus outnumbered the women. Greek organizations were formed, with fraternities leading the way, and intercollegiate athletics became a part of campus life when the Rebels, an all-male basketball team, was formed.
In 1953 VSC acquired the property of the former Emory Jr. College, a private all-male school that operated from 1928 to 1953, less than a mile away, and the facilities became the north campus which now house the College of Business, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Air Force ROTC.
Under Thaxton's tenure, the college integrated in 1963. Over the next decade, the college added African-American students, faculty and administrators.
Thaxton retired in 1966, and S. Walter Martin, former president of Emory University and Vice Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, assumed the presidency. He presided over a time of physical expansion of the school, including the construction of such buildings as the Odum Library, the Education Center, The Fine Arts Building, the College Union, a Science Administration Building and six dormitories. The student body grew, the School of Nursing was established, and many programs expanded, including those in graduate education.
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Valdosta State University (1993–present)
When Martin retired in 1978, Hugh Coleman Bailey assumed the post. Under Bailey, the school had doubled in size from 4,500 to 9,000 students. From 1978 to 1993, numerous programs were added and existing courses upgraded, resulting in the early 1980s in an endeavor to make VSC a university. Throughout the 1980s the college established off-campus sites and course offerings and began receiving state and federal grant funds to develop curriculum and programs. In 1993, all the hard work and planning paid off. Valdosta State College became Valdosta State University (VSU), the second regional university in the University System of Georgia. In fall 1998, Valdosta State University adopted the semester system, along with other units of the University System of Georgia. Under Bailey's leadership VSU continued to grow with the addition of the 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) University Center in the 1995 and a new science building in 2001.
In January 2002, Ronald M. Zaccari assumed the post and during his time in office VSU updated its infrastructure to accommodate student population growth, including the construction of four new dormitories and two parking decks. Patrick J. Schloss became the President of VSU in 2008 and was in office during the opening of a new Student Health Center, Georgia Residence Hall, and Student Union. William J. McKinney was announced as the new VSU president in 2012. On April 2, 2015, it was announced that McKinney would step down as president effective July 1, 2015.
In August 2015, interim president Cecil P. Staton citing a 17% decline in enrollment since its peak in 2011, announced that over thirty faculty and staff members would not have their contracts renewed at the end of the year. That decision was met with criticism by students and faculty, and has caused some to question the future of the institution.
From Wikipedia’s article on Valdosta State University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5