Mission and History

Institutional History, Tradition, and Setting

Georgia College, Georgia's designated public liberal arts university, is located in historic Milledgeville, Georgia, very near the geographic center of the state. Milledgeville, the antebellum capital of Georgia, is a center of history and culture featuring beautiful antebellum homes and historic buildings. The University enhances the town's beauty with its architectural blending of majestic buildings of red brick and white Corinthian columns. Georgia's Old Governor's Mansion, one of the finest examples of Greek revival architecture in the United States, is the founding building of the university and remains central to the university's Mission. The Milledgeville campus is complemented by additional acreage in Baldwin County with facilities for athletics, recreation, and outdoor and integrative education.

Georgia College was chartered in 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College and opened on Monday September 30, 1891. Its emphasis at the time was largely vocational, and its major task was to prepare young women for teaching or industrial careers. In 1917, in keeping with economic and cultural changes in the state, it was authorized to grant degrees, the first of which was awarded in 1921. In 1922, the institution's name was changed to Georgia State College for Women. The University has been a unit of the University System of Georgia since the system was formed in 1932. The name was changed to Women's College of Georgia in 1961, and, when the institution became coeducational in 1967, it became Georgia College at Milledgeville. The name was later shortened to Georgia College. In August 1996, the Board of Regents approved the name Georgia College & State University to reflect its new mission as Georgia's Public Liberal Arts University. The University is best known by its shorthand name, Georgia College.

Former presidents of the University are Dr. J. Harris Chappell, Dr. Marvin M. Parks, Dr. J.L. Beeson, Dr. Guy H. Wells, Dr. Henry King Stanford, Dr. Robert E. Lee, Dr. J. Whitney Bunting, Dr. Edwin G. Speir, Dr. Rosemary DePaolo, and Dr. Dorothy Leland. Dr. Steve M. Dorman became the eleventh president of Georgia College on September 1, 2012.

The Mission Statement

As Georgia's public liberal arts university, Georgia College offers undergraduate programs of study to talented and motivated students in a residential college setting. Georgia College also provides, at multiple locations, graduate and professional studies that support the needs of the region and create pathways to individual success and personal fulfillment. Its academically engaging, student-centered programs often take learning beyond the traditional classroom and develop the intellectual, professional, and civic skills and dispositions that enable graduates to thrive in an information-intensive and diverse global society. Through its teaching, research, and service, Georgia College enriches the lives of students and their local and global communities.

Value Statements

Georgia College is committed to providing...

An Expansive Undergraduate Educational Experience. Georgia College is committed to providing a residential liberal arts educational environment that invests in its students the extensive knowledge and strategic skills for them to thrive as productive citizens of a globally engaged democracy.  Georgia College students experience multidiscipline intellectual encounters with both enduring and contemporary questions, intensive study in the major and capstone experiences that integrate and apply learning.

Excellence in Graduate Education. Georgia College is committed to providing post-baccalaureate education that successfully prepares graduates for professional advancement, life-long intellectual pursuits, and informed participation in today's complex society.  In graduate and professional studies the rigor, quality and relevance of our programs intentionally bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Challenging, Innovative Teaching. Georgia College is committed to teaching excellence in and beyond the classroom.  Using a balance of evidence-based, innovative teaching, high-impact pedagogies along with meaningful student-faculty interaction, Georgia college develops students equipped to clearly, critically and creatively address societal challenges.

Opportunities for Community Engagement. Georgia College values collaboration with community partners to address mutual identified needs and to promote public well-being through teaching, learning, scholarship and outreach.  Community engagement advances Georgia College students' academic and civic learning.  It also helps them become more informed citizen leaders ready to serve the public good, locally and globally.

Preparation for Leadership. Georgia College is committed to promoting "Reason, Respect and Responsibility" by deepening students' individual, group and community values through greater understanding of self, promotion of reasoned and respective discourse and the development of engaged citizenship.  Georgia College prepares responsible leaders capable of affecting positive social change in a pluralistic world.   

Principles

Georgia College seeks to produce graduates who are well prepared for careers or advanced study and who are instilled with exceptional qualities of mind and character. These include an inquisitive, analytical mind; respect for human diversity and individuality; a sense of civic and global responsibility; sound ethical principles; effective writing, speaking and quantitative skills; and a healthy lifestyle.

While GC's faculty members are committed to community service and are creatively engaged in their fields of specialization, they focus their attention primarily on maintaining excellence in instruction and guiding students. Students are endowed with both information and values through small classes, interdisciplinary studies and close association with the faculty and staff, both in and beyond the classroom. The GC experience provides lively involvement in cultural life, and service to the community. In turn, GC seeks to provide communities and employers with graduates who exhibit professionalism, responsibility, service, leadership and integrity.

The Philosophy of a Public Liberal Arts University

Public liberal arts colleges and universities differ from other public higher education institutions in their size, scope and emphasis on student centered education. They do not attempt to be all things to all people, but rather focus their efforts on providing a liberal education. They offer the intimacy and intellectual atmosphere of private liberal arts colleges but do not abandon the public mandate to meet the economic workforce needs of the state. Public liberal arts universities are usually moderate in size (generally less than the equivalent of 5,000 full-time students) and focus on exemplary undergraduate teaching and student learning.

Undergraduate programs are diverse, but the majority of degrees are awarded in the fields of arts and sciences. When professional undergraduate programs are offered, they include a heavy liberal arts foundation. The limited number of graduate programs offered at the Master's level is similarly built upon a strong liberal arts undergraduate preparation and are tied to the market economy of the state.

The Distinguishing Characteristics of a Public Liberal Arts University

Emphasis on providing the quality, values and virtues of a private liberal arts college at a lower and more reasonable cost;

A highly selected undergraduate student body with a selected number of graduate programs;

A strong emphasis on transformative, active learning experiences in and out of the classroom;

A focus on student outcomes, with particular attention to the development of:

• strong communication skills (oral and written)
• critical and analytical thinking skills
• a broad understanding of global issues
• an appreciation for diversity
• an ability to integrate information across disciplines
• application of knowledge
• a foundation for making moral and ethical decisions 
• civic responsibility.

A commitment to creating an intimate learning environment characterized by high quality student/faculty interactions through:

• small classes
• innovative pedagogy
• internships and service learning experiences
• international study experiences
• faculty/student collaboration on scholarly/research projects
• lectures, concerts, art shows, field experiences, and senior culminating experiences

A rich culture of traditions and rituals that link students with the University beyond graduation;

A commitment to meeting the needs of the state by producing graduates who can take their place within the workplace as leaders and thinkers;

• Accessibility through affordability.
• Limited number of professional and graduate master's level programs built on a liberal arts foundation.

Expectations of Students

The Georgia College experience is founded on the 3 R's: Reason, Respect, and Responsibility. Based on this foundation, we expect that during their time at Georgia College students will:

• Set their own personal development goals and take responsibility for their own learning;
• Be prepared to learn and to be intellectually challenged;
• Strive for excellence in their studies and seek to achieve high academic expectations in all of their courses;
• Exhibit the desire to develop an inquisitive mind; respect for human diversity and individuality; a sense of civic and global responsibility; sound ethical principles; effective writing, speaking and quantitative skills; and a healthy lifestyle;
• Be meaningfully engaged in and involved in the campus community;
• Take full advantage of opportunities to develop and implement career plans;

GC students are expected to achieve and maintain high ideals founded on the sound principles of utilizing REASON before acting or reacting, employing RESPECT for others, for ideas, for the law, and for property, and recognizing their RESPONSIBILITY as citizens and members of the campus community.