Savannah State University
Savannah State University is a public historically black university in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is the oldest historically black public university in the state. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Savannah State operates four colleges: College of Business Administration, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, College of Sciences and Technology and the Savannah State University College of Education.
History
Establishment
Savannah State University was founded as a result of the Second Morrill Land Grant Act of August 30, 1890. The act mandated that southern and border states develop land grant colleges for black students, as their systems were segregated. On November 26, 1890, the Georgia General Assembly passed legislation creating the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth.A preliminary session of the school was held in the Baxter Street School Building in Athens, where Richard R. Wright Sr. was principal. The college operated there for several months during 1891, before moving to its permanent location in Savannah on October 7, 1891, with Wright as the first president. The school had five faculty members. Its eight students were all graduates of Edmund Asa Ware High School, the first public high school for blacks in Augusta. The campus was built on the former lands of Placentia Plantation, including its colored cemetery.
Early years
The college awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1898. In 1921, the first female students were admitted as residents on the campus. In 1928, the college became a full four-year degree-granting institution and ended its high school and normal school programs. Normal schools had been created in the 19th century in many state systems in the United States, after the German model, to educate teachers for elementary school students. With the expansion of towns across the US, and continuing issues in trying to educate four million freedmen and their descendants, there was an urgent need to establish many new schools and to train teachers quickly in the North and the South. States used normal schools for training teachers for primary school grades and sometimes secondary school as well. Normal schools or colleges tended to have two- or three-year programs. Gradually the normal schools were converted to full colleges with four-year curricula, or were left behind.In 1932, the college became a full member institution of the University System of Georgia and its name was changed to Georgia State College. The college served as Georgia's land-grant institution for African-American students until 1947. The designation was then transferred to Fort Valley State College. In January 1950, the college changed its name to Savannah State College.
Modern history
With the growth in its graduate and research programs, in 1996 the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia elevated Savannah State College to the status of state university and the name was changed to Savannah State University.In 2008, a proposal was made to merge Savannah State University with Armstrong Atlantic State University, but it did not pass. Almost a decade later, Armstrong State would eventually be merged with Georgia Southern University in nearby Statesboro.
Savannah State University is the first institution in the state of Georgia to offer the homeland security degree program. It was the second institution in the University System of Georgia to offer wireless internet connectivity to students throughout the campus.
;The General's Daughter Portions of the Paramount Pictures movie The General's Daughter were filmed at historic Hill Hall on the campus during the summer of 1997. The film's director Simon West was quoted as saying the campus and Savannah generally "had the most varied and interesting look" to represent the "brooding," "hot and steamy and sticky" "Southern Gothic" impression. ;Trading Spaces The TLC show Trading Spaces filmed an episode on the campus on September 7–9, 2007, as two spaces in the King-Frazier Student Center were transformed by members of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. The episode premiered on Nov. 17, 2007. ;Commissioned II Love Commissioned II Love, an evangelical Christian campus group, with the assistance of The Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom and the National Legal Foundation filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Savannah State University and several university employees on March 1, 2007. The student group was recognized as an official organization in 2003 but was later suspended and then expelled on September 11, 2006 after some students complained to university police that its members engaged in activities such as "foot washings" and "baptisms." At the time the university categorized such activities as hazing. On August 24, 2007, a federal judge denied the school's motion to have the case dismissed. The university and the organization reached and agreement allowing the group to re-register as a student organization, with "all rights, benefits and privileges" in February 2008. The settlement did not include any admission of wrongdoing by the university or any monetary award to Commissioned II Love, but ended the dispute between the two parties. |
Academics
Savannah State offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through the following colleges:- College of Business Administration: in addition to degree programmes, the college also offers an MBA program. The college also offers a teaching certification for business majors in a program with Armstrong State University's College of Teacher Education and partners with Armstrong Atlantic to operate the Coastal Georgia Center for Economic Education, a joint program which conducts workshops for area teachers to help meet student economic standards and teachers from the Economics America Program of the Savannah-Chatham school system.
- College of Sciences and Technology: in addition to degree programmes, the college also collaborates with Georgia Tech to offer the Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program, the Regents Engineering Transfer Program and the Dual degree program.
- College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
- College of Education
Savannah State established an honors program for qualified high-achieving and ambitious undergraduate students.
Accreditation
Accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Savannah State University also has achieved fully accredited programs in specialized areas of science and engineering:- Civil engineering technology
- Electronics engineering technology
- Mechanical engineering technology
The bachelor and masters programs in Social Work are accredited by the, and the masters in Public Administration by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.
The College of Business Administration is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, and the Mass Communications Department is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
CLASS is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to offer bachelor's degrees as well as the Master of Public Administration, the Master of Science in Urban Studies and Planning and Master of Social Work. The bachelor's degree and Master of Social Work programs are accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The MPA is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The Mass Communications Department is accredited by the ACEJMC.
The Master of Social Work program has been granted accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education.
Administration
The Office of Graduate Studies and Sponsored Research coordinates the university's instructional, research and service programs.Academic oversight
Oversight is provided by the University System of Georgia, the organizational body that sets goals and dictates general policy to all public educational institutions in the state. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools authorized the university to offer graduate degrees.Funding
Savannah State is a public institution, receiving funds from the State of Georgia, tuition, fees, research grants, private scholarship funds, and alumni contributions. The University System of Georgia is governed by the Georgia Board of Regents and dispenses public funds to Savannah State, excluding lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships. The university's endowment was $2,433,508. As of FY05, the university's budget was $42,155,964. In FY06, the university received $7,725,311 in research, instruction, and public service contracts and grants.Campus
Savannah State University is located approximately east southeast from the center of Savannah, from Atlanta, and from Jacksonville, Florida. The campus is accessible from Interstate 95 and Interstate 16. Spanish moss drapes the dense live oak trees, while palm trees, magnolias, and a wide variety of azaleas, camellias, and other native plants are scattered throughout the marsh-side campus.Much of the campus is in the Savannah city limits, though portions are in unincorporated areas of Chatham County.