Alabama State University

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Alabama State University
Motto:	"When we teach class, the world takes note."
Established:	1875
Type:	Public, HBCU
President:	Dr. William H. Harris (Interim)
Vice-president:	John Knight
Provost:	Dr. Karyn Scissum-Gunn
Students:	5,600
Undergraduates:	4,600
Postgraduates:	1,000
Location:	Montgomery, Alabama United States
Sports:	football baseball basketball golf tennis track cheerleading soccer softball bowling and volleyball
Colors:	Black and Old Gold
Nickname:	Hornets and Lady Hornets
Athletics:	NCAA Division I FCS
Affiliations:	Southwestern Athletic Conference
Website:	www.alasu.edu

Alabama State University, founded 1867, is a historically black university located in Montgomery, Alabama. ASU is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.

[edit] Academics

Alabama State University has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students from 42 states and 7 countries.^{[citation needed]} One-third of the students are non-Alabama residents and 11 percent are minorities. The student-faculty ratio is 18 to 1. Alabama State University has 7 degree-granting colleges or schools or divisions.

• College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Business Administration
• College of Education
• College of Health Sciences
• College of Visual and Performing Arts
• Division Of Aerospace Studies (Air Force ROTC)
• School of Graduate Studies

Alabama State University offers 47 degree programs including 31 bachelors’, 11 masters’, and two Education Specialists and three doctoral programs.

• Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law (EdD)
• Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT)
• Doctorate in Microbiology (PhD)

[edit] History

Alabama State University founded in 1867 as the Lincoln Normal School of Marion in Marion, Alabama, a private institution for blacks, by nine former enslaved Africans. The founders and original trustees were Joey P. Pinch, Thomas Speed, Nicholas Dale, James Childs, Thomas Lee, John Freeman, Nathan Levert, David Harris and Alexander H. Curtis. The Lincoln School was incorporated on July 18, 1867 and opened November 13, 1867 with 113 students. In 1868, the Alabama State Board of Education designated the school a Normal School and it became known as Lincoln Normal School. In December 1873, the State Board accepted the transfer of title to the school after a legislative act was passed authorizing the state to fund a Normal School, and George N. Card was named President. Thus, in 1874, this predecessor of Alabama State University became America's first state-supported educational institution for blacks. This began ASU’s rich history as a “Teacher’s College.”

In 1878, the second president, William Paterson, was appointed. He is honored as a founder of Alabama State University and was the president for 37 of the first 48 years of its existence. Paterson was instrumental in the move from Marion to Montgomery in 1887. In 1887, the university opened in its new location in Montgomery but an Alabama State Supreme Court ruling forced the school to change its name; thus, the school was renamed the Normal School for Colored Students.

In the decades that followed Lincoln Normal School became a junior college and in 1928 became a full four-year institution. In 1929 it became State Teachers College, Alabama State College for Negroes in 1948 and Alabama State College in 1954. In 1969, the State Board of Education, then the governing body of the university, approved a name change; the institution became Alabama State University. The 1995 Knight vs. Alabama remedial decree transformed ASU into a comprehensive regional institution paving the way for two new undergraduate programs, four new graduate programs, diversity scholarship funding and endowment, funding to build a state-of-the art health sciences facility and a facility renewal allocation to refurbish three existing buildings.

WVAS-FM was launched on June 15, 1984, beaming 25,000 watts of power from the fifth floor of the Levi Watkins Learning Center for two years before moving to its current location at Thomas Kilby Hall. Today, WVAS has grown to 80,000 watts and enjoys a listenership that spans 18 counties, reaching a total population of more than 651,000. In recent years, the station has also begun streaming its broadcast via the Web, connecting a global audience to the university.

In the early 1990s witnessed the beginning of WAPR-FM (Alabama Public Radio), which Alabama State University and Troy University, both of which already held station licenses of their own, cooperated with the University of Alabama in building and operating. WAPR-FM 88.3—Selma - The signal reaches the region known colloquially as the Black Belt, about 13 counties in the west central and central parts of Alabama, including the city of Montgomery.

[edit] Campus

ASU's has Georgian-style red-brick classroom buildings and architecturally contemporary structures. ^[1] ASU is home to the state-of-the-art 7,400 seat academic and sports facility the ASU Acadome; the Levi Watkins Learning Center; a five-story brick structure with more than 267,000 volumes, the state-of-the-art John L. Buskey Health Sciences Center; which is 80,000 square feet (7,400 m²) facility which houses classrooms, offices, an interdisciplinary clinic, three therapeutic rehabilitation labs, state-of-the-art Gross Anatomy Lab, Laboratory for the Analysis of Human Motion (LAHM), a Women’s Health/Cardiopulmonary lab, and a health sciences computer lab, and WVAS-FM 90.7; the 80,000-watt, university operated public radio station.

[edit] Student activities

Alabama State charters more than 70 student organizations, including nine Greek-letter organizations, a full range of men’s and women’s intramural and intercollegiate sports and 17 honors organizations. In addition to social, cultural and religious groups, there are musical opportunities, such as the Marching Hornets, Symphonic Band and the University Choir, and departmental organizations for most majors.

[edit] The Golden Ambassadors

The Golden Ambassadors are a select group of outstanding students who are the official greeting body for Alabama State University.

[edit] Student publications

The students are served by two media publications, The Hornet Tribune (student newspaper) and The HORNET (the student yearbook).

[edit] Athletics

The Alabama State University Department of Athletics currently sponsors Men's Intercollegiate football, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, track and cheerleading along with Women's Intercollegiate basketball, soccer, softball, bowling, tennis, track, volleyball, golf and cheerleading. Sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (FCS - Football Championship Subdivision for football) in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), which it joined in 1982. The university's colors are black and old gold and their nickname is the Hornets. Currently in 2009, hornets Mens Basketball team have won 2 regular season and SWAC chanpionships in the past two years.

[edit] Marching Hornets

The Marching Hornets have gained national recognition as a result of their participation in the halftime shows on NBC's national televised professional football games between the NY Jets vs. KC Chiefs on December 10, 1967, and CBS's nationally televised professional football game between the New Orleans Saints vs. the Green Bay Packers in 1969, the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints in October 1976 and 1977; and the pre-game and halftime for the Cincinnati Bengal vs. Houston Oilers at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, 1976. The band was twice televised on the Blue-Gray Football Classic, Montgomery, AL, in December 1976 and 1977.

In 1980, The Marching Hornets put together a halftime show saluting the late, great Joe Louis. In 1985, the Marching Hornets were invited to perform at the second annual Freedom Bowl classic in Fulton Stadium, Atlanta, GA, representing the SWAC Conference. They also performed for the Atlanta Falcon vs. Chicago Bears in 1986, were they presented a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and were the Exhibition Band for the South Central Marching Band Classic in Homewood, AL., November 1, 1986. The Marching Hornets also performed at other classics and games such as the 1991 Bronze Classic in Atlanta, the 1991 Motor City Classic in Pontiac Michigan, the 1991 Alma Heritage Bowl in Miami, the 1992 Circle City Classic of Indianapolis, the 2000 Battle of the Bands in Mobile, AL, the 2003 and 2004 Detroit Football Classic, and the 2006 Battle of the Bands in Atlanta, Ga. The band appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2007.

[edit] Stingettes

The Stingettes is the name of Alabama State University's dance line.

[edit] The Honey Bees

The Honey Bees are a dance team that dance during the football half-time performances.

[edit] The Bama State Collegians

The Bama State Collegians is a big band jazz orchestra sponsored by Alabama State University. In the 1930s, the ensemble was directed by noted jazz trumpeter, Erskine Hawkins, an inductee of both the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. After moving to New York City, the Collegians, directed by Hawkins, became the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and produced a string of national hit records, including "Tuxedo Junction", "After Hours", "Tippin' In" and others. The song "Tuxedo Junction", with its recordings by Hawkins and by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, became one of the anthems of World War II in America.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable faculty

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• www.alasu.edu Official web site
• ASU College of Business Administration
• Library and Learning Resources Center
• University's National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture
• Department of Music
• www.thehornettribune.com The Hornet Tribune student newspaper
• wvasfm.org Official WVAS-FM Radio Station web site
• www.apr.org Official WAPR web site
• ASU National Alumni Association (Only works with IE)
• The Official Athletic Website of Alabama State University
• Tribute to Dr. Thomas E. Lyle and the Mighty Marching Hornets of yesterday and today
• Alabama State University Alumni & Friends | HBCU Unit Network

[edit] Additional information

• Coordinates: 32°21′50″N 86°17′42″W / 32.364°N 86.295°W / 32.364; -86.295

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