# Georgia College & State University

Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GCSU) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Georgia College was designated Georgia's "Public Liberal Arts University" in 1996 by the Georgia Board of Regents.
Students pursue majors and graduate degree programs throughout the university's four colleges: College of Arts & Sciences, J. Whitney Bunting College of Business and Technology, John H. Lounsbury College of Education, and College of Health Sciences. Georgia College Athletics' 11 teams compete in the NCAA Division II Peach Belt Conference.

## History

Georgia College was chartered in 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College. Its emphasis at the time was largely vocational, and its major task was to prepare young women for teaching or industrial careers. 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. In 1922, the institution's name was changed to Georgia State College for Women.
The university has been a unit of the University System of Georgia since the system's founding in 1932. Mary "Flannery" O'Connor entered as a freshman in 1942. Active in student publications, she graduated three years later and became one of the South's most noted writers. Also during World War II, Georgia State College for Women served as one of four colleges that trained WAVES for the U.S. Navy. After the war, enrollment declined as women preferred co-educational colleges.
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. The name was shortened to Georgia College in 1971. In August 1996, the Board of Regents approved a change of name to Georgia College & State University, and a new mission as Georgia's Public Liberal Arts University.

## Presidents

* J. Harris Chappell (1891 to 1905)
* Marvin McTyeire Parks (1905 to 1927)
* Jasper Luther Beeson (1927 to 1934)
* Guy Herbert Wells (1934 to 1953)
* Henry King Stanford (1953 to 1956)
* Robert Edmund Lee, or "Buzz" (1956 to 1967)
* J. Whitney Bunting (1968 to 1981)
* Edwin G. Speir, Jr. (1981 to 1996)
* Ralph W. Hemphill (as acting president) (January 1997 to July 1997)
* Rosemary DePaolo (August 1997 to June 2003)
* David G. Brown (interim president) (July 2003 to December 2003)
* Dorothy Leland (January 2004 to 2011)
* 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)
* Cathy Cox (October 2021 to present)

## Campus

The central campus comprises about 43.2 acres (17.5 ha) in the center of Milledgeville, near the grounds of the former state capitol. The campus contains buildings of red brick 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) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 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).
Most of the university's residence halls are located a block from central campus along with the sports complex, called the Centennial Center. The Old Governor's Mansion is also within walking distance of the residence halls and front campus. West Campus, a 500-acre (200 ha) extension two miles (3.2 km) from the central campus, contains The Village student apartments and athletic fields. In addition, GC operates a large recreational area on Lake Laurel (approximately 5 minutes from the central campus) which is used by students in the university's Environmental Science and Outdoor Education programs.
The university library houses the manuscript collection of author Flannery O'Connor, an alumna of the university, and of U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell, whose career included serving as director of the Peace Corps when the Berlin Wall fell.
The Center for Innovation at Georgia College and State University opened in 2022.

## Athletics

Known as the Georgia College Bobcats, the college is currently a member of NCAA Division II and the Peach Belt Conference. Georgia College sponsors varsity teams in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cheerleading, men's and women's cross country, golf, dance team, women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, women's volleyball, men's and women's esports and collegiate bass fishing.

## Student life
### Student housing

Georgia College provides housing on campus for students. Students have the option to reside either in a suite-style residence hall on Central Campus or in an apartment at The Village on West Campus.

### Greek life

Georgia College has a Greek system with over 21 sororities and fraternities under various councils.

### Student Government Association

Georgia College's Student Government Association (SGA) serves the campus community by addressing student concerns, promoting understanding within the college community, and administering all matters which are delegated to the student government by the university president. The responsibility for the governing of the student body is vested in the students themselves. All students are members of the SGA upon their enrollment, and officers and senators are elected on a yearly basis.

## Notable alumni

* Ruth Carter Stapleton, Christian evangelist and sister of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter
* Gertrude Ehrlich, mathematician
* Sherrilyn Kenyon, author
* Rachael Kirkconnell, television personality
* Helen Matthews Lewis, sociologist, historian, and activist
* Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, actress
* Susan Dowdell Myrick, journalist, educator, author, and conservationist
* Tony Nicely, former CEO of GEICO
* Flannery O'Connor, writer and essayist