Georgia State University

Georgia State University
Motto	Veritas valet et vincet
Motto in English	Truth is valuable and shall overcome
Established	1913
Type	Public
Endowment	$166 million
President	Mark P. Becker
Admin. staff	1,716
Students	32,000
Undergraduates	22,587
Postgraduates	7,676
Location	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Campus	Urban
Colors	Blue and White
Athletics	NCAA Division I Colonial Athletic Association
Nickname	Panthers
Mascot	Pounce, the blue panther
Website	www.gsu.edu

Georgia State University (GSU) is a research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves about 30,000 students and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. Georgia State is the second largest of the 35 colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia.

The university offers 52 degrees in 250 fields of study with more than 1,000 faculty members. The university president is Mark P. Becker. The Robinson College of Business has more than 50,000 graduates. Tens of thousands have gone on to become business leaders, like these who did so nationally: Ken Lewis, Bank of America Chairman and CEO; Richard Lenny, former Hershey Foods CEO; Jim Copeland, retired Deloitte & Touche CEO; Bill Dahlberg, Southern Company former Chairman and CEO; J. Veronica Biggins, Heidrick & Struggles senior partner; and Michael Gearon, Jr. a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena. Georgia State’s campus occupies 34 acres (140,000 m²) of downtown Atlanta with 40 buildings. Future construction is on the drawing boards with numerous new projects. A multi-million dollar Science Park with laboratories and classrooms recently opened next to the Sports Arena.

The school’s coat of arms is registered in the College of Arms in London. The Latin motto means “Truth is strong and will conquer” (or alternatively, "Truth is valuable and shall overcome"). The panther holds the symbol of education, with the quill in red to symbolize the fire in Atlanta’s city emblem. The gold coin indicates the university’s beginnings as a business school. The crown is a representation of the Stone Mountain granite. The center flame is an eternal flame in honor of the first president, George Sparks, and represents flames of scholarship and the burning of Atlanta.

Georgia State has the largest campus police department of any school in Georgia with more than 100 employees who secure student safety 365 days a year. The force is the only nationally and state certified police force among the universities in Georgia. The school uses video surveillance, call stations, and escort systems to ensure student safety.

History

Georgia State University was established in 1913 as the Georgia School of Technology's "Evening 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 Evening College," which granted business degrees, and "Atlanta Junior 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 the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, and the Medical College of Georgia. Georgia State is in the heart of activity of downtown Atlanta. The Sports Arena and center campus are less than a half-mile from CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park, Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome. The campus intersects Peachtree Street, the main street of Atlanta. The first female chairman, president and CEO to ever ring the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell when she did so in 1998, was Georgia State alum M. Christine Jacobs of Georgia-based Theragenics Corporation.

View of (from L-R) the Sports Arena and Library South on Decatur Street

The first African-American student enrolled at Georgia State 46 years ago in 1962. Annette Lucille Hall was a Lithonia social studies teacher who enrolled in the course of the Institute on Americanism and Communism, a course required for all Georgia social studies teachers.

Georgia State has made several firsts in the field of scientific research: it hosts a laboratory designated biosafety level 4, which is the highest level of containment. In level 4 facilities, researchers can safely work with deadly agents such as Ebola, hantavirus or, in the case of Georgia State scientists, the herpes B virus. Georgia State’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) operates one of the world’s most powerful optical stellar interferometers on top of Mt. Wilson, California; in 2007 this telescope array became the first to actually image the surface of another sunlike star.

The Peachtree Road Race, the world’s most famous 10-kilometer run, was started by Georgia State crosscountry coach and dean of men Tim Singleton. The “father of the Peachtree” headed it the first six years before turning it over to the Atlanta Track Club by using volunteers from Georgia State’s fraternities and sororities. He marked the first race with cooking flour to indicate mileage and charged a $2 entry fee. The second year, he created the first valuable collectible T-shirt. Many Georgia State faculty and students assisted in the early races, and several Georgia State runners have won or finished in the Top 10.

Campus expansion

1913–1975

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 as part of a major urban renewal project, 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.

1980–1989

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, and currently 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.

1990–2004

Georgia State continued this growth into the 1990s, with the expansion of Alumni Hall in 1991, the opening of the Natural Science Center in 1992, and the acquisition 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 move into the Fairlie-Poplar district was the acquisition and renovation of the Standard Building, the Haas-Howell Building, and the Rialto Theater in 1996. The Standard and Haas-Howell buildings house classrooms, offices, and practice spaces for the School of Music, and the Rialto is home to GSU's Jazz Studies program and an 833-seat theater. In 1998, the Student Center was expanded toward Gilmer Street and provided a new 400-seat auditorium and space for exhibitions and offices for student clubs. A new 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.

2005–today

University rankings (overall)
National
Forbes	414
Washington Monthly	133
Global
QS	601+

In 2006, the University announced a $1 billion 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 projects are already underway, with a $20 million refurbishment to the Pullen Library complex completed during the 2006-07 school year.

The university has announced an expansion of their Alpharetta campus to include more classrooms and collaboration spaces, with work beginning heavily in 2010. The university will add more than a dozen major new structures as it tries to accommodate an extra 10,000 full-time students projected to flow onto campus by 2015. Several of those buildings, such as new on-campus student and Greek housing, a new convocation hall and an expanded athletic center, were included in GSU's new 10-year master plan with undergraduates in mind.

By 2015, the university is expected to need about 1 million additional square feet of classroom, laboratory and other academic space for a total of 50,000 students, 36,000 of whom will attend full time. Even the massive expansion will probably only meet about half that need, Patton said, although it should reduce GSU's dependence on leased space. Two existing buildings in the heart of the campus will be razed and replaced with larger structures, including a new humanities center, which will join an updated library to form the university's new central hub. GSU's buildout — which calls for nearly twice the dollar amount of new projects it completed over the previous decade — means the university is finally poised for a wave of new construction like that seen at The University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. The university is hemmed in by the Downtown Connector to the east, the Fairlie-Poplar district to the west and the government district to the south, so many of the new buildings will be built in the area immediately north, which includes part of the Sweet Auburn district. A key component of this expansion will be the new building for GSU's business school, set to open in 2015. The new business school will be located on property on the corner of John Wesley Dobbs and Park Place, just a few blocks from the business school's current location off of Marietta Street.

Housing

For much of its history, Georgia State was a commuter school with no on-campus or university-owned housing. After the 1996 Summer Olympics 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. As of Spring 2011, Georgia State's housing system has a capacity of approximately 3300 beds.

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. 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 the Institute.

In the fall of 2009, Georgia State opened a 350-bed residence hall exclusively for freshman students. Located on the corner of Piedmont and Edgewood Avenues, Freshman Hall (as it is called) is conveniently located in close proximity to the heart of the GSU campus. One notable feature in the Freshman Hall is Georgia State's first cafeteria-style dining facility. This dining hall is open to all GSU students who have purchased the meal plan and features a wide assortment of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Additionally, other members of the GSU community and guests are welcome to purchase meals on an individual basis.

For the 2010 academic year, Georgia State opened its Greek Housing facility, located adjacent to Freshman Hall on Edgewood Avenue. Each townhome in the complex features a chapter room, kitchen, and bedrooms. Also included in the complex is a community laundry facility.

Most recently, following its plan for expansion, Georgia State acquired two hotels in downtown Atlanta, the Wyndham Garden Hotel and Baymont Inn and Suites on Piedmont Avenue. The hotels and grounds have been renovated and changed into dorms, Piedmont North Buildings A and B, contributing to the university's transformation into a 24/7 community in the heart of the city. The complex now includes living and study space for nearly 1,000 students, as well as greenspace, recreational areas, and a brand new 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m²) dining hall, the Piedmont North Dining Hall.

To cope with changes in its student population, the fastest growing one in the University System of Georgia, Georgia State is pursuing increased expansion through the potential acquisition or construction of buildings in the downtown Atlanta area.

Campus Transportation

Georgia State's campus transportation system, referred to as "Panther Express", has routes running between various points on campus as well as a route connecting the main campus to the Blue Lot of Turner Field, where GSU students may park for free during days on which the Atlanta Braves are not playing a game at home. On campus, Georgia State owns and maintains approximately 5,000 parking spaces for use by faculty, staff, students, and visitors (recall that over 30,000 students attend the school). Commuting students, faculty and staff may also ride MARTA to and from the university. There are three MARTA train stations convenient to GSU. The Georgia State MARTA station is located a short distance from the Sports Arena and other main campus buildings, while the Five Point MARTA station is only blocks away from the Fairlie-Poplar district, where the Aderhold Learning Center and School of Music buildings are located. The Peachtree Center MARTA station is located a few blocks north of the Fairlie-Poplar district, Aderhold, and the School of Music. In addition to the MARTA rail stations, numerous MARTA bus stops are scattered about in various locations on and around campus.

Georgia State college-level units

View of (from L-R) the Student Center, Urban Life Building, and University Center

Georgia State has Eight college-level units:

• Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
• College of Arts & Sciences
• Honors College
• Institute of Public Health
• College of Education
• Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professionals
• Georgia State University College of Law
• J. Mack Robinson College of Business

Student media

There are four student-run media organizations:

• The Signal, weekly newspaper
• GSTV, closed-circuit television (active after long hiatus)
• WRAS-FM (Album 88) radio, with the highest power (100,000 watts) of any college radio station in the USA
• New South, literary journal

Arts

Rialto Center

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 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 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.

In 2010, Georgia State University established its first ever Marching Band. The marching band began its inaugural season in the fall of 2010. The band enjoyed unprecedented success in its first season. 150 students exceeded School of Music expectation and successfully auditioned for the band and established traditions of excellence in musicality and dedication. In its first year, the band performed at all home football games, a high school marching band exhibition, and (most notably) during the Georgia State vs. Alabama football game on November 18th, 2010, in Tuscaloosa. The band is a drum corps style unit that focuses on precision musicality and movement. Like most ensembles, the band features a colorguard section, but in a departure from typical marching bands, the traditional auxiliary front sideline percussion section, or pit, has been replaced by a four-piece rock band consisting of a lead guitar, bass guitar, drum set, and keyboard synthesizer.

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.

Georgia State University operates Cinefest Film Theatre, a student-run movie theater in the school's University Center. Cinefest exhibits a wide array of motion pictures including international cinema, art house films, revival house movies, and second-run Hollywood fare. It has played host to various special events including screening films for The Atlanta Underground Film Festival and DragonCon.

The university is 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 52 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 100 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.

Faculty in the university's College of Arts and Sciences are making new important discoveries in a wide range of fields, from biotechnology to aging, from stellar astronomy to language acquisition, and from international development to the digital arts and media — to name but a few. The excellence of these programs has attracted high levels of funding from prominent government agencies, private foundations, and industry partners.

METI Man, a robot on campus, breathes, blinks and speaks. He is a computer-driven, life-sized mannequin with a pulse that nursing students practice procedures with. The robot mirrors human responses to medical procedures and will even “die” if a student does something wrong.

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.

Athletics

Main article: Georgia State Panthers

Georgia State currently sponsors 17 NCAA Division I teams.Georgia State University competes with 16 teams in an athletics program at the highest level of NCAA competition (Division I). Football and women's sand volleyball will be added during the 2010-2011 school year.

Georgia State moved into the 12-member Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) on July 1, 2005. The CAA receives automatic bids to all NCAA Championship Tournaments. Georgia State has already won four CAA Championships in its first three years.

Georgia State University charges a fee to each student that enrolls at the school (called the "Athletic Fee"). The fee is currently $263 and is charged every semester along with other academic fees. This fee is used for athletic scholarships and other costs associated with competitive athletics. The athletic fee allows students to use their Panther Card (Student Identification Card) for free access to athletic events.

Football

Main article: Georgia State Panthers football

On April 17, 2008, Georgia State officially announced that Panthers would play Division I FCS college football starting in 2010. The school would compete in the Colonial Athletic Association, with home games at the 71,228 seat Georgia Dome; the school has built a practice field and training facilities, both a few blocks away from campus. On June 12, 2008, Georgia State announced that Bill Curry would become the University's first head football coach. Georgia State earned a 41-7 victory against Shorter University in its inaugural game on September 2, 2010, with 30,237 fans in attendance, which surpassed the university's estimate of 25,000.

Georgia State Fight Song
Fight Panthers to victory
Our voices yell
You'll hear us mighty and strong
We're from the ATL
We're gonna give them hell
Fight Panthers to victory
Drive on for the score
Blue - White
Georgia State is in the fight
G-S-U, G-S-U, G-A S-T-A-T-E

Greek life

Georgia State University is home to twenty-four fraternities and sororities: five of the North-American Interfraternity Conference (IFC), five of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), seven of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), and seven multicultural organizations operating as the Multicultural Greek Council [2] (MGC). Greek life is continually growing at Georgia State with future expectations of a dramatic increase in membership with the opening of on-campus Greek housing.

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

MGC

• ΓΣΣ Gamma Sigma Sigma
• ΔΦΛ Delta Phi Lambda
• ΘΝΞ Theta Nu Xi
• ΛΘΑ Lambda Theta Alpha
• ΛΘΦ Lambda Theta Phi
• ΣΣΡ Sigma Sigma Rho
• ΛYΛ Lambda Upsilon Lambda [3]

IFC Fraternities

• AEΠ Alpha Epsilon Pi [4]
• KΣ Kappa Sigma [5]
• ΠΚΦ Pi Kappa Phi [6]
• ΠΚA Pi Kappa Alpha [7]
• ΣN Sigma Nu [8]

National Panhellenic Council Sororities

• AOΠ Alpha Omicron Pi
• ΑΞΔ Alpha Xi Delta[9]
• ΔZ Delta Zeta [10]
• ΦM Phi Mu
• ZTA Zeta Tau Alpha[11]

National Pan-Hellenic Council

• ΑΦΑ Alpha Phi Alpha [12]
• AKA Alpha Kappa Alpha
• ΔΣΘ Delta Sigma Theta
• ΙΦΘ Iota Phi Theta
• ΩΨΦ Omega Psi Phi
• ΦBΣ Phi Beta Sigma
• ZΦΒ Zeta Phi Beta

Alumni and faculty

Main article: List of Georgia State University people

Since its opening, Georgia State has graduated 175,000 alumni. Currently, it is estimated there are 100,000 alumni living in the metro Atlanta area.

• Taj Anwar, model, activist, promoter
• David Brown, former host of public radio show Marketplace
• Max Burns, former Congressman, Georgia 12th District
• Tammy Camp, Entrepreneur, World Record Kiteboarder, Author, Public Speaker
• Joey Cape, musician, Lagwagon
• Brad Cohen, teacher and author of Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had
• Crista Wrenn, Co-Founder of BlueyeCD, LLC
• 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)
• Amy Dumas, professional wrestler better known by her ring name Lita (attended)
• William DuVall, lead singer of Alice in Chains
• William M. Fields, primatologist
• Michael Gearon Jr., principal owner NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers
• Louie Giglio, pastor and founder of the Passion Movement
• Matthew Hilger, professional poker player and author
• Mary Hood, author
• Jerry Huckaby, former U.S. Representative from Louisiana
• Henry Jenkins, Director, MIT Comparative Media Studies
• Lance Krall, actor
• Richard H. Lenny, Chairman, President, and CEO, The Hershey Company
• Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America
• Vasco Nunes, Filmmaker
• Sean Linkenback, author
• Ludacris, musician, actor
• E. Vachel Pennebaker, President of Sears, Roebuck and Company
• Jody Powell, White House Press Secretary, 1977–1980
• Glenn Richardson, former Speaker, Georgia House of Representatives
• Julia Roberts, actress (attended)^{[citation needed]}
• Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, primatologist at GSU's Language Research Center
• Charles Shapiro, former ambassador to Venezuela, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US State Department
• Andy Stanley, church planter, pastor and author
• Ray Stevens, musician
• Kathleen Swaim, top Colorado Physical Therapist of Exempla
• Lynn Westmoreland, United States Representative
• Beth Van Fleet, AVP beach volleyball professional player

Further reading

• Reed, Merl E. Educating the Urban New South: Atlanta and the Rise of Georgia State University, 1913–1969 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009. xiv, 321 pp.) isbn 978-0-88146-148-0

External links

• Georgia State University Official website
• Georgia State University Official Athletics website