Emmanuel College in Geogia Changes Name

Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, GA changed its name to Emmanuel University.

The institution was founded as Franklin Springs Institute in 1919. It closed briefly between 1931-1933 due to depression and then reopened as a high school and junior college. The name was changed in 1939 to Emmanuel College.

Emmanuel enrolled 918 undergraduate students during the 2022-2023 academic year.

75th Anniversary for South Georgia Technical College

South Georgia Technical College in Americus, GA recently celebrated its 75th Anniversary.

The institution was founded in 1948 as South Georgia Trade and Vocational School. The name changed in 1963 to South Georgia Technical and Vocational School and in 1968, to South Georgia Technical Institute. The current name of South Georgia Technical College was selected in 2000.

You can read more in "South Georgia Technical College celebrating 75 years of success," posted by the Americus Times-Recorder or by visiting the History & Mission page of the college website.

Barber-Scotia Announces 5-Year Plan

DJ Simmons of The Charlotte Observer provides reporting on efforts by alumnae of Barber-Scotia College to regain accreditation, "With 4 students enrolled, this North Carolina HBCU bets on its 5-year comeback plan."

Roberta Pinckney, chair of the school’s Board of Trustees, announced a five-year plan to restore with financial and academic goals. The article notes that school officials were inspired when Morris Brown, an Atlanta-based HBCU, recently announced its accreditation was restored.

Visit the Barber-Scotia website to learn more.

The University of North Georgia Begins Sesquicentennial Celebration

 

The University of North Georgia (UNG) began its yearlong Sesquicentennial Celebration in mid-August. 

The 150th Anniversary web pages offer a schedule of events, historical timeline, digital exhibits, and much more.

A short YouTube video, "Sesquicentennial at UNG," provides an overview of the history.

The institution was founded as North Georgia Agricultural College in 1873. The name changed to North Georgia College in 1929, then to North Georgia College and Sate University in 1996. It become the University of North Georgia in 2012 after a merger with Gainesville State College. 

UNG is one of only six federally designated senior military colleges, which also include The Citadel, Norwich University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Military Institute.

A Window Into The Breach: Fascinating Timeline Created at Columbia Theological Seminary

C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections created a fascinating timeline, "A Window Into The Breach," looking at racism and the institution of slavery in the 19th century as it relates to the history of Columbia Theological Seminary. Many of the slides focus on the earliest and largest donations that the seminary received prior to emancipation, as well as events and individuals who did much to shape the life of the institution. The timeline was created using open-source Knight Lab TimelineJS.

Columbia Theological Seminary was founded in 1828 in Lexington, Georgia. The seminary was moved to Columbia, South Carolina in 1830. It then moved to its current location in Decatur, GA in 1927.

Georgia Highlands College Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Georgia Highlands College with locations in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta, Dallas, and Douglasville, Georgia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1970 as Floyd Junior College. The name changed to Georgia Highlands College in 2005. 

You can visit the 50th anniversary web pages for a timeline of key dates and a variety of events. The Coosa Valley News also posted "GHC Celebrates 50th Anniversary year this Fall" with more details of activities planned during the remainder of 2020.

A College History Garden post from September 2015 links to an article in the Rome (GA) News-Tribune on September 10, 2015 features a presentation by four founding faculty members reflecting on the history of the institution.

Piedmont College Announces Name Change

Piedmont College in Demerest, Georgia announced that it will be changing its name to Piedmont University in 2021.

The institution was founded as J. and S. Green Collegiate Institute in 1897. The name changed in 1899 to J.S. Green College. While it initially looked to Methodist Churches for support, after 1901 support was received support from American Missionary Board of the Congregational Church. Piedmont College was adopted as the name in 1903. You can read more about institutional history by visiting the "History of Piedmont College" page.

Read more about the name change in "Piedmont College to be named Piedmont University in 2021," published by the Athens Banner-Herald on June 23, 2020 with reporting by Lee Shearer.

Article Highlights Changes in Campus of Kennesaw State University

The Sentinel at Kennesaw State University published an article in late April, "KSU's Kennesaw campus through the years," featuring archival photographs of the campus and an interview with Professor Lewis VanBrackle. VanBrackle began his career at KSU in 1984 and will retire in May 2020.

The institution was founded by the Georgia Board of Regents as Cobb County Junior College and opened in 1966 as Kennesaw Junior College. The name changed to Kennesaw College in 1976, to Kennesaw State College in 1988, before becoming Kennesaw State University.

The University System of Georgia announced a merger with Southern Polytechnic State University in 2013. Enrollment is now 35, 846 students.

You can learn more about the history of the institution by visiting the KSU Archives and the Scholarly Online Access Repository (SOAR) where an eleven page "History of Kennesaw State University" by Thomas A Scott covers the founding of the institution,

Education Corporation of America Closes over 75 Campuses

The Education Corporation of America headquarter in Birmingham, AL announced today that it will close more than 75 sites that enroll roughly 20,000 students.  The company began the process of notifying students and employees.  The sites include those operating as Brightwood College, Brightwood Career Institute, Ecotech Institute, Golf Academy of America and Virginia College.

You can read more at Inside Higher Ed in an article that was posted earlier today, "Large For-Profit Chain to Close."  WSFA-TV in Montgomery, AL posted a short video with an article, "Virginia College closing in Montgomery, nationwide."

KCRA-TV in Sacramento, CA posted "Brightwood College closing Modesto, Sacramento campuses" on its website.

Thirty-two sites are listed for Brightwood College in eight states on the IPEDS College Navigator site and twenty-seven sites in eleven states are listed for Virginia Colleges.

	Brightwood College Sites	Virginia College Sites
Alabama		4
California	10
Florida		3
Georgia		4
Indiana	2
Louisiana		2
Maryland	3
Mississippi		2
Nevada	1
North Carolina	1	1
Ohio	1
Oklahoma		1
South Carolina		5
Tennessee	1	2
Texas	13	2
Virginia		1
Totals	32	27
# states	8	11

If you are interested in recent trends for closures, mergers,and acquisitions access College Closures since 2009 in the index at the right of any College History Garden page. There are separate tabs for non-profit closures, for-profit closures, and one for mergers and acquisitions. Each tab includes basic information for the institutions, i.e., Carnegie Classification, sector, accrediting agency, and the IPEDS unitid.

Spotlight on Archives of Spelman College and Atlanta University Center Institutions

The DL B, blog of the Digital Library of Georgia featured a number of items from the Spelman College Archives in a post several weeks ago, "Preserving and Sharing Spelman Archival Treasurers."  Mandy Mastrovita authored the post where she describes some of the items that are available through Our Story: Digitizing Publications and Photographs of the Historically Black Atlanta University Center Institutions", a partnership of the Spelman Archives, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center, and the Digital Library of Georgia.

The Our Story archives of the Atlanta University Center offers resources for studying African American higher education and a number of fascinating institutions:  Atlanta University, Clark College, Clark Atlanta University, Gammon Theological Seminary, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College.

Campus History Trail of Emory University Campus

Emory University offers a mobile tour of the campus using historical materials from the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.  The web interface provides an overview of Emory's history by linking text, videos, and photographs with a map.

The online tour allows users to toggle between the map view and the text of each tour stop.

Users can also access an expanded menu to learn more about the tour and other campus history resources.

Emory College was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836.  After 1915, Emory College would move from its original campus to a new university in Druid Hills. 

Tour stops include:

• Haygood-Hopkins Memorial Gateway was built in 1937. 
• The Quadrangle
• Old Theology Building
• Cannon Chapel
• Michael C. Carlos Hall & Museum
• Bowden Hall
• Candler Library
• Woodruff Library
• Cox Hall
• Dobbs University Center
• Woodruff Physical Education Center
• Residence Halls
• Goizueta Business School
• Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

Spelman College: Breaking Boundaries since 1881

There are several excellent short videos providing overviews of Spelman history and the social environment in which it has operated since its founding in 1881.  "Breaking the Boundaries: The History of Spelman College," was published to YouTube in March 2016 and runs for approximately 10:00 minutes.

C-Span offers a 15:00 minute segment focusing on the institution's history that was filmed during a 1994 campus visit.  The video features an interview with Ms. Guy-Sheftall who served as director of the Spelman Women's Resource Center.  

You can visit the Spelman College website for a detailed outline with key historical dates and events.

Martha Berry and the Founding of Berry College

The Atlanta Journal Constitution posted an article by Sierra Hubbard on September 4, 2017, "Who was the namesake of Rome's Berry College?" Hubbard provides an historical sketch of Martha Berry, who founded several schools.  One, was a junior college founded in 1926 that grew to become Berry College in North Berry, GA, just north of Rome.

Earlier articles in the Journal Constitution have focused on origin of names for Agnes Scott College, Brenau University, Shorter University, and Spelman College.

You can read more details of Martha Berry's life by visiting the Berry College website.

Berry College is a member of the Work College Consortium and is known for student work experiences and student operated enterprises.

College and University Names: Origins of Four Georgia Institutions

The Atlanta Journal Constitution posted an article on August 21, 2017, "Shorter, Spelman and Brenau namesakes reflect their history," providing the origins for institutional names at Brenau University, Shorter University and Spelman College.

An earlier article from March 20, 2017 focused on the history behind the naming of Agnes Scott College, "Agnes Scott College in Decatur honors benefactor's mother."

Morehouse College Celebrates Sesquicentennial of Founding in 1867

Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1867.  The institution's web site includes pages with a calendar of anniversary events, the history of the college, 150th anniversary timeline, and a short video.

Morehouse begun 1867 as The Augusta Institute in Augusta, Georgia.  It moved to Atlanta and adopted a new name as Atlanta Baptist Seminary in 1879.  The first college degree was awarded in 1883.  The name was changed to Atlanta Baptist College in 1897 and to Morehouse College in 1913. 

A Pair of Mergers Approved by the GA Board of Regents this Week

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved a couple of mergers on January 11, 2017.  Georgia Southern University and Armstrong State University will merge and use the name of Georgia Southern University.  Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Bainbridge State College will merge and retain the name of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

• Abraham Baldwin AgriculturalCollege founded in 1908 is located in Tifton, GA and enrolls over 3,200 students.
• Armstrong State University was founded in 1935 and serves 7,100 students at its main campus in Savannah and a regional center in Hinesville.
• Bainbridge State College in Bainbridge, GA was founded in 1970 and serves 3,700 students.
• Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA was founded in 1906 and currently serves 20,673 students.  

Vintage Postcards of Higher Education Institutions in Georgia

The Postcardman.org site offers 94 postcards and images of colleges.  Almost all the institutions are from communities in Georgia....though there are also five postcards for higher education institutions in Charlotte, North Carolina.  

You can select a town or city and then select the "Schools" link for images of institutions.  I also created a table below with the names of institutions and the number of images.  URLs are included that you can use to reach the page.

Robert Mills House in South Carolina...Long History of Use by Higher Education Institutions

Several institutions that were located for a time on the property of the Robert Mills House in Columbia, South Carolina are featured in an article in the Columbia Star.  the Robert Mills House and Gardens are one of five historic properties maintained for public use by Historic Columbia.  You can click on the image accompanying the article to see a large panoramic view of the site in 1920.  The photograph is part of a forthcoming exhibit that will illustrate the Columbia Theological Seminary’s (CTS) long and important 95-year history at the site.

CTS continues to serve students today from Decatur, Georgia and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.  CTS was founded in Lexington, Georgia in 1828.  It moved to Columbia, SC two years later and and then moved to Decatur, Georgia in 1927.

Columbia Bible College (now, Columbia International University) later used the property for housing of male students until 1960.  Columbia Bible College changed its name to Columbia International University in 1994.

Name Change for Truett-McConnell College

Truett-McConnell College announced a name change to Truett-McConnell University.  The institution, affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention, was founded in 1946 and is located in Cleveland, Georgia.  Initially offering two year liberal arts curriculum, Truett-McConnell added baccalaureate degree programs after 2002.

Photos of Morris Brown Campus highlight role of Historically Black Colleges

Jordan G. Teicher's article in Slate this week, "What a Historically Black College Looks Like After Bankruptcy," features photos of the Morris Brown College campus taken by Andrew Feiler. The article follows the release in October of Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color: The Past, Present, and Future of One Historically Black College, a book of photos and essays on the college and the important role historically black colleges and universities play in our society.

Teicher comments that "Feiler doesn’t see his photos just as a grim comment on the health of American education. He points to the fact that Morris Brown has paid off its debt and applied for re-accreditation as a sign that one day a portrait of the campus could look a lot sunnier than it does now.

“What has happened at Morris Brown College is a tragedy,” he said. “But there’s also hope. Morris Brown remains alive, and that is an accomplishment. One of themes that emerged from this work is that leadership matters. It was, in part, a failure of leadership that led to Morris Brown’s downward spiral and crisis. But the story of the college’s survival and emergence from bankruptcy is one of leadership success.”
You can also see an earlier post, "A New Day Dawns for Morris Brown College," on College History Garden from early 2015 when Morris Brown emerged from bankruptcy.