GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

'Georgia State University' ('GSU') is an urban research university in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000^[1] students, and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. The current president is Carl V. Patton.

Contents

History

Campus Expansion

Housing

Georgia State college-level units

Student Media

Arts

Research

Athletics

Greek Life

IFC Fraternities

MGC Sororities

NPHC Fraternities & Sororities

NPC Sororities

Notable alumni

Notable Faculty

External links

References

History

Georgia State University was founded in 1913 as the Georgia School of Technology's "School of Commerce." The school focused on what was called "the new science of business." A reorganization of the University System of Georgia in the 1930s led to the school becoming the "Atlanta Extension Center of the University System of Georgia," and allowed night students to earn degrees from several colleges in the University System. During this time, the school had two informal names: "Georgia College," which granted business degrees, and "Atlanta College." In September 1947, the school became affiliated with the University of Georgia and was named the "Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia." The school received its independence in 1955 and became the "Georgia State College of Business Administration." In 1961, other programs at the school had grown large enough that the name was shortened to "Georgia State College." It became Georgia State University in 1969. In 1995, the State Board of Regents accorded Georgia State "research university" status, joining Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and the Medical College of Georgia.

Campus Expansion

Over its 90-plus year history, Georgia State's growth has required the acquisition and construction of more space to suit its needs. During the late 1960s/early 1970s, numerous buildings were constructed, such as the Pullen Library (1966), Classroom South (1968), the expansion of the Pullen Library in 1968, the Arts and Humanities Building (1970), the ten-story General Classroom Building (1971), the Sports Arena (1973), and the twelve-story Urban Life Building (1974). In addition, a raised plaza and walkway system was constructed to connect these buildings with each other over Decatur Street and parking structures.
In the 1980s, another round of expansion took place with the acquisition of the former Atlanta Municipal Auditorium in 1979, which was subsequently converted into Alumni Hall in 1982, which houses Georgia State's administrative offices. That same year, the College of Law was founded in the Urban Life Building, and the Title Building on Decatur Street was acquired and converted into the College of Education's headquarters and classroom space. In 1988, the nine-story Library South was constructed on the south side of Decatur Street, which was connected to the Pullen Library via a three-story high foot bridge (officially referred to as a "link") and effectively doubled the library's space. The University Center was expanded in 1989 to include the University Bookstore Building, which also houses the Auxiliary Services Department.
Georgia State continued this expansion into the 1990s, with the expansion of Alumni Hall in 1991, the opening of the Natural Sciences Center in 1992, and the acquisiton of the former C&S Bank Building on Marietta Street in 1993, which is now the home of the Robinson College of Business. Georgia State's first expansion into the Fairlie-Poplar district was the acquisition of the Rialto Theater in 1996. In 1998, the Student Center was expanded towards Gilmer Street and provided a new 400-seat auditorium and space for exhibitions and offices for student clubs. A sorely needed Student Recreation Center opened on the corner of Piedmont Avenue and Gilmer Street in 2001. In 2002, the five-story high Helen M. Aderhold Learning Center opened on Luckie Street amid controversy over the demolition of historical buildings on its block. Most recently, in 2004, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies was moved to the former Wachovia Bank Building at Five Points.
In 2006, the University announced a $1 billion dollar campus expansion that will add over a dozen new buildings, including a new convocation center, science research park, new buildings for the schools of business and law, a new humanities building, and an expanded student recreation center. Streetscape improvements are also included, such as improvements to Decatur Street and Piedmont Avenue, and dropping raised walkways to street level. Sparks and Kell Halls will be torn down, with Sparks being torn down first to make way for the new humanities building. Many renovations are already underway, with major renovations to the Pullen Library started in August of 2006.^[2]

Housing

For much of its history Georgia State was a commuter school with no on-campus or university-owned housing. After the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, Georgia State acquired the 2,000-bed Olympic Village housing complex located at the southeast corner of Centennial Olympic Park Drive (formerly Techwood Drive) and North Avenue that was used to board Olympic athletes during the Games. In August, 2002, the 450-bed University Lofts opened at the corner of Edgewood Avenue and Courtland Street on the northeast side of campus as housing for graduate students, undergraduates over the age of twenty-one, and honors students.
On August 10, 2007, Georgia State opened the University Commons, a $165 million complex housing 1,992 students, occupying a city block bounded by Ellis Street, Piedmont Avenue, John Wesley Dobbs Avenue and Jesse Hill Jr. Drive.^[3] A GSU economics professor estimated the new dorm could have an economic impact of $10-12 million on downtown Atlanta. The university plans to ultimately accommodate 20% of its enrollment in housing near the downtown campus. With the planned opening of University Commons, it was announced on March 7, 2007 that the Georgia Institute of Technology was acquiring the Olympic Village housing which is located across North Avenue from that university.^[2]

Georgia State college-level units

Georgia State has six colleges-level units:

★ Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

★ College of Arts & Sciences

★ College of Education

★ College of Health & Human Sciences

★ College of Law

★ J. Mack Robinson College of Business

Student Media

There are five student-run media organizations:

★ The Signal and Urbanite, weekly newspaper

★ Rampway Online, online magazine

★ GSTV, closed-circuit television

★ WRAS-FM (Album 88) radio, with the highest power (100 kilowatts ERP) of any college radio station in the USA

★ ''GSU Review'', literary journal

Arts

Georgia State University makes notable contributions to the cultural vitality of the downtown Atlanta community. A prominent cultural stage is the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, an 833-seat performing-arts venue located in the heart of the Fairlie-Poplar district in downtown Atlanta. The venue is home to the Rialto Series, presenting the best of national and international jazz, world music, and dance; School of Music performances; the Atlanta Film Festival, and many others. The School of Music also holds concerts featuring faculty, students, and guest performers in the Kopleff Recital Hall throughout the year. In addition, the university's Art Galleries, based in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design, feature special exhibitions, student and faculty works, and visiting artist collections.
The Digital Arts and Entertainment Laboratory (DAEL), housed in the Department of Communication, offers a full range of equipment and facilities for digital media research and production. It also includes state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for producing and manipulating extraordinarily high quality moving images. In addition, DAEL provides state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for assessing audience responses to film, television, computer animation, and interactive media.
The university is also home to ''Five Points: A Journal of Literature & Art'', which has grown to national prominence since it first began publication over a decade ago.

Research

More than 250 fields of study are offered through some fifty-two accredited degree programs at the bachelor's, master's, specialist, and doctoral levels. Students may enroll in day or evening classes and in part-time or full-time study. It is also on the list of the top one-hundred public universities for doctoral degrees awarded.
Georgia State houses three university libraries. Additionally, many academic departments provide libraries for their students. The University Library (also known as the William Russell Pullen Library, housed in Library North and Library South) contains more than 1.4 million volumes, including 8,000 active serials and nearly 22,000 media materials. The library provides access to numerous electronic periodical and resource indexes (many with full text), more than14,000 electronic journals, and about 30,000 electronic books. It is also a Federal Document Depository and holds more than 820,000 government documents with electronic access to many additional titles.
On August 31, 2006, it was announced that Georgia State would be participating in a supercomputing grid with the installation of an IBM P575 Supercomputer in its Network Operations Center. Through an initiative known as SURAGrid, eventually 24 universities in 15 states throughout the Southeast United States will form the research backbone and at its peak, the network will be able to perform over 10 trillion calculations per second.^[5]

Athletics

GSU's two primary athletics logotypes

Georgia State currently sponsors 17 NCAA Division I teams.
Until 2003, the Panthers men's basketball team was coached by Lefty Driesell, one of the winningest coaches in Division I history.
On July 1, 2005, the school left the Atlantic Sun Conference to join the Colonial Athletic Association.
In 2006, the Panthers won their first two conference championships as a member of the CAA, winning both in men's and women's golf.
In March of 2007, after two consecutive 20 loss seasons, Georgia State fired head coach and former Driesell assistant coach Michael Perry, and hired former Ole Miss coach Rod Barnes.
Georgia State's athletic program has recently completed a feasibility study that would look at the interest and potential cost to add a Division I-AA college football team. The feasibility study included a survey in which the majority of the students, faculty, staff and alumni expressed their support for this addition. The study included various the financial cost ranging from the renovation of a local stadium in Atlanta to the complete transformation of the current sports arena to a football and basketball arena.
In April of 2007, Georgia State held a pair of town-hall meetings on the subject of football, in which students, alumni, and faculty were able to comment on the addition of football. At this time, it was stated that if football were to proceed at Georgia State they could be able to play at the Georgia Dome. http://www.georgiastatesports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=12700&ATCLID=859385
Later the same week, Georgia State announced that former NFL coach and native Georgian Dan Reeves was to assist with the study of football, and to help with fundraising for the sport. http://www.georgiastatesports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=12700&ATCLID=860535

Greek Life

Georgia State University is home to some fraternities and sororities: five of the North-American Interfraternity Conference (IFC), five of the National Panhellenic Conference (PC), eight of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), and six of the National Multicultural Greek Council (MGC).

View of the plaza with Library North, Library South, and the Classroom South Building in the background

IFC Fraternities

★ 'ΚΣ' Kappa Sigma, Epsilon Omega Chapter

★ 'ΣΝ' Sigma Nu, Eta Gamma Chapter

★ 'ΠΚΆ' Pi Kappa Alpha, Epsilon Nu Chapter (Currently suspended from campus)

★ 'ΠΚΦ' Pi Kappa Phi, Beta Kappa Chapter

★ 'ΘΧ' Theta Chi, Iota Epsilon Chapter

MGC Sororities

★ 'ΓΣΣ' Gamma Sigma Sigma, Zeta Tau Chapter

★ 'ΔΦΛ' Delta Phi Lambda

★ 'ΘΝΞ' Theta Nu Xi, Zeta Chapter

★ 'ΛΘΑ' Lambda Theta Alpha

★ 'ΣΛΓ' Sigma Lambda Gamma,Pi Beta Chapter

★ 'ΣΣΡ' Sigma Sigma Rho

NPHC Fraternities & Sororities

★ 'AΚA' Alpha Kappa Alpha, Eta Mu Chapter

★ 'AΦA' Alpha Phi Alpha, Zeta Mu Chapter

★ 'ΔΣΘ' Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Chapter

★ 'ΖΦΒ' Zeta Phi Beta, Lamda Nu Chapter

★ 'ΚAΨ' Kappa Alpha Psi, Kappa Theta Chapter

★ 'ΣΓΡ' Sigma Gamma Rho, Omicron Gamma Chapter

★ 'ΦΒΣ' Phi Beta Sigma, Pi Alpha Chapter

★ 'ΩΨΦ' Omega Psi Phi, Zeta Theta Chapter

NPC Sororities

★ 'ΔZ' Delta Zeta 1955

★ 'AOΠ' Alpha Omicron Pi 1956

★ 'ZTA' Zeta Tau Alpha , Delta Lambda Chapter, 1961

★ 'ΑΞΔ' Alpha Xi Delta 1963

★ 'ΦM' Phi Mu 1987, Theta Beta Chapter

Notable alumni

★ Andrew N. Baur, Secretary-Treasurer, St. Louis Cardinals

★ Max Burns, former Congressman, Georgia 12th District

★ David Brown, former host of public radio show "Marketplace"

★ Joey Cape, musician, Lagwagon

★ James E Copeland, former CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

★ Lanard Copeland, former NBA player, later famous for playing in the National Basketball League (Australia)

★ Paul Coverdell, late US Senator from Georgia (attended)

★ Bill Dahlberg, Former CEO of Southern Company.

★ Amy Dumas, professional wrestler better known by her ring name Lita

★ E. Vachel Pennebaker, President of Sears, Roebuck and Company

★ Michael Gearon Jr. Principal Owner NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers

★ Louie Giglio, Founder of Passion, 268 Generation, and Six Steps Records.

★ Predrag Gosta, conductor and artistic director, New Trinity Baroque

★ Matthew Hilger, professional poker player and author

★ Richard H. Lenny, Chairman, President, and CEO, The Hershey Company

★ Henry Jenkins, Director, MIT Comparative Media Studies

★ Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America

★ Ludacris, musician, actor

★ Jody Powell, White House Press Secretary, 1977-1980

★ Glenn Richardson, Speaker, Georgia House of Representatives

★ Julia Roberts, actress (attended)

★ Nicole Siragusa, vice-president, Federal League, Inc.

★ Ray Stevens, musician

★ Lynn Westmoreland, United States Representative

★ Mary Hood, author

Notable Faculty

★ David Bottoms, Georgia's Poet Laureate

★ Samuel H. Cox

★ Robert Ambrose

★ Rajeev Dhawan

★ Deborah Duchon, nutritional anthropologist, appears regularly on the TV series Good Eats

★ Nancy Grace, former prosecutor and current host on CourtTV and CNN (former instructor, no current appointment at GSU)^[2]

★ Stephen G. Kellison

★ Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center

★ Donald Ratajczak, Economist

★ Barbara Reilly, Management professor and entrepreneur^[2]

★ Asa Hilliard

★ Virginia Spencer Carr, biographer of Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles and John Dos Pasos

External links

★ Georgia State University

References

1. Statware
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5. http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwexa/news/archive/general/06_0831-computergrid.htm
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★ Transcript of Nell H. Trotter's speech at the Administrative Council Breakfast, June 28, 1971. On file at GSU's library, LD 1965 .T76 B7