NGCSU Points of Pride
Historical Points of Pride
North Georgia, established in 1873, is the state’s
second oldest public university and Georgia’s first public
coeducational university.
In 1878, North Georgia became the first
state-supported college in Georgia to grant a degree to a woman when
Willie Lewis graduated with college’s first graduating class.
The gold steeple of Price Memorial Hall is the
architectural symbol of the university. It crowns the administration
building erected on the foundation of the campus's first building, which
originally served as a United States Branch Mint during the nation's first
major gold rush. The gold leaf covering the steeple was originally Dahlonega
gold, funded by alumni and local citizens as part of the college's
centennial celebration in 1973, about 15 years after the state capitol dome
in Atlanta was gilded with Dahlonega gold.
Designated a “Senior Military College,” North Georgia
is one of only six institutions of higher education in the country
with that classification. Women serve in the Corps of Cadets since first
admitted into the military program during North Georgia’s centennial in
1973.
The Army named North Georgia’s ROTC program the
number one college military program in the nation in 1991 and again in
1995.
North Georgia has the distinction of being the only
institution of higher education to have an Army National Guard unit on its
campus.
In 1999, NGCSU awarded its first honorary doctoral
degree to Eugene Patterson, a member of the North Georgia Class of 1942
and the 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Atlanta Constitution.
Consumers Digest declared North Georgia the fifth
best value in public higher education in the nation in 2004.
The national magazine of Sigma
Nu Fraternity was first produced in April
1883 in Dahlonega, Ga., by the Kappa chapter, one of the first eight
chapters of the fraternity, established at what was then North Georgia
Agricultural College. John Alexander Howard, a North Georgia student and
fraternity member, served as managing editor of Volume 1, Number 1, of the
magazine, “The Delta.”
North Georgia consistently
ranks at the top among the USG’s 13 state universities in
graduation rates.
North Georgia was the first public university in the
state to offer a minor in leadership, with interdisciplinary tracks
in military or citizen leadership.
Points of Pride
2005-2006
In America’s Best
Colleges 2006, U.S.News & World Report ranks North Georgia
College & State University in the top 20 in the South among public
universities offering undergraduate and master’s programs.
A privatized
construction project will begin during the fall semester for a 48,000
square-foot two-story Student Recreation Center
on the fourth level
of a Parking Deck that will accommodate 568 vehicles, at a
total cost of $24.6 million. Both the Parking Deck and Recreation Center
will be amortized with student fees and will have close proximity to the
current Student Center and Stewart Library. The project’s planned completion
is in the fall of 2007.
Construction will
begin on the new 84,000-square-foot $24 million state-funded Library
& Technology Center in early 2007 and will be completed in June
2008.
Renovation will
commence in early 2007 on the historic Education Building,
funded through the state for $4.7 million. The project will be completed in
early 2008.
Since 2001
North Georgia has offered undergraduate and graduate university courses,
along with continuing education
classes, to almost 2,000 students at locations in Forsyth County.
North Georgia ranks at the
top of the University System of Georgia’s public state universities in
graduation rates for the fourth consecutive year, as reported in the
2004-05 Annual Report Card from the
Georgia Office of Student Achievement.
The WebSurveyor Corporation of Herndon, Va.,
awarded a grant with a commercial value of $50,000 for the use of online
survey tools by NGCSU faculty and staff. The award from the corporation’s
Academic Grant Program allows the university to create and administer online
surveys hosted on the vendor’s site.
Leaders in local government, economic development,
education and business formed the Citizens Leadership Alliance, a new
collaborative organization with a goal of moving Dahlonega and Lumpkin
County toward a profitable future in which all citizens might take pride.
The CLA is made up of representatives of the City of Dahlonega, the Lumpkin
County School System, Lumpkin County Government, North Georgia College &
State University and the Dahlonega Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce.
Divisions and
Departments
The School of
Education has the second highest Praxis test scores in the state,
after the University of Georgia.
A $1.3 million grant from the Health Resources and
Services Administration over the next five years will fund the Appalachian
Care Project for Rural and Underserved. The project’s Outreach Clinic,
to be located on the NGCSU campus, will provide improved access to health
care for rural and underserved residents of the area.
As part of the statewide
Nursing Program Initiative, NGCSU will receive $195,647 from the
Intellectual Capital Partnership Program of the University System of Georgia
to expand the Associate of Science in Nursing program at North
Georgia. The program collaborates with Northeast Georgia Health Systems,
Chestatee Regional Hospital and Habersham County Medical Center.
North Georgia has established a nursing program at the
North Metro Technical College in Acworth.
For the first time in its history, NGCSU offers a doctoral program. The
doctor of physical therapy degree began summer 2006 in collaboration
with the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Armstrong Atlantic State
University in Savannah also is part of the consortium offering the
doctoral-level degree.
The Department of Biology had 22 students
accepted to medical and professional graduate programs in 2006, including
medicine, physical therapy, podiatry, veterinary medicine, dentistry and
pharmacy.
North
Georgia is the new Southeast region’s site for the American Board of
Medicolegal Death Investigators national testing certification, and is
one of only two higher education institutions nationwide to administer the
specialized MDI certification. Joseph Morgan, an NGCSU assistant
professor of criminal justice, is the proctor and coordinator of the
program.
The Georgia General Assembly passed a unanimous
resolution in March establishing the Appalachian Studies Center at
NGCSU as Georgia’s official Appalachian Studies Center. Dr. Alice Sampson,
teacher education, is the ASC director.
The new Georgia
Appalachian Center for Higher Education at NGCSU is the first such
agency in the state to unite colleges, universities, technical colleges and
high schools to increase the number of Appalachian Georgians to continue
their education beyond high school and to further the educational goals of
“at-risk” Appalachian region students.
The Appalachian Regional Commission has funded the
Appalachian Studies Center with an ARC grant and the Georgia
Appalachian Center for Higher Education project for a total of $340,000
for the FY06.
The Georgia Appalachian
Center for Higher Education at NGCSU allocated $60,000 to seven high schools
from around the northeast Georgia region to build new programs and
expand activities designed to guide students through high school and to
pursue college.
The average score of business
administration students on the Educational Testing Service exam places
NGCSU in the 75th percentile of all institutions administering the exam,
with 75 percent of more than 500 institutions administering the exam
producing a lower average student score than NGCSU.
The NGCSU Le Belle Voci women’s choir, under the
direction of Dr. Jack Broman, is one of only three college choirs chosen to
perform at the Georgia Music Educators Association’s state conference in
January 2006 out of 31 ensembles that applied.
The NGCSU chapter of
Gamma Sigma Sigma, the national service sorority, raised approximately
$7,000, receiving an award from the American Red Cross for raising the most
money by a college team in the area.
Continuing Education and
Alumni Affairs began a travel program
in 2005 for North Georgia alumni and members of the university community.
Corps of Cadets
The Military Science
Department received a large increase in Army ROTC scholarships for
the 2005‑2006 school year. The number of scholarships grew from nine the
previous year to 27 awarded to cadets this year.
The Corps of Cadets
Color Guard presented the National Colors during the home opening game
for the Atlanta Falcons.
Two members of the
Mountain Order of Colombo rappelled from the rafters of the Gwinnett
Coliseum to present a hockey puck at mid-ice to the captain of the Gwinnett
Gladiators.
The NGCSU Combat Pistol
Team won three out of four events at the Ft. Benning Combat Pistol
Match. The team won first place in the overall category, and first, third
and fourth in the novice class, competing against drill sergeants, active
National Guard and Army Reserve teams, and members of the Army’s elite
Ranger Regiment.
Sgt. 1st Class Eric Leid, military
science, won the Commander’s Cup in a rifle marksmanship match at Fort
Benning, Ga. Leid, who coaches the university’s air rifle team and the
service rifle team, also came in second place in a service-rifle shooting
event at the All‑Army Small Arms Championship.
Cadet Joseph Register, a member of the Mountain Order of Colombo,
completed the U.S. Army’s Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vt., as the
first student in the class, which included active duty Army Special Forces
and Ranger soldiers.
At the start of the fall semester 2005, 70 NGCSU students remained
deployed in Iraq. All were members of the Georgia Army National Guard’s
48th Mechanized Brigade. This is the largest deployment of North Georgia
students since the Vietnam era. In the first three years of the War in Iraq,
four members of the North Georgia family were killed and eight were wounded.
The “Lost in Combat”
memorial, the first post-Vietnam War memorial dedicated to NGCSU
students and alumni who have died in combat, was dedicated at the 2006
annual Parents-Alumni Weekend, with four names added to the North Georgia’s
lists of military heroes: Charles H. Warren, Jeremy A. Chandler, Thomas E.
Vitagliano and Paul Saylor.
Sports
North Georgia
moved to the NCAA Division
II Peach Belt Conference
in fall 2005.
The Lady Saints basketball team was named
conference champions in its first year in the Peach Belt Conference and in
the National
Collegiate Athletic Association Division II competition. The team
finished 22-3 overall and 19-1 in the Peach Belt Conference. The team also
was ranked No. 14 on the 2005-2006 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll by the
Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The Lady Saints, with an overall
3.435 grade point average, are the only representative of the Peach Belt
Conference in the Top 25. Syretha Marble and Katie Williamson
were selected to the Peach Belt
Conference All-Conference team. Marble also took home Freshman of the
Year honors while also being named PBC player of the week during the season.
Williamson was also named Kodak/WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, and
ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American.
Lady Saints basketball Coach Buffie Burson was
named coach of the year in the Peach
Belt Conference and she also received the Whack Hyder State of
Georgia Women’s College Coach of the Year presented by the Atlanta Tip-off
Club.
The Saints
basketball team completed another winning season with a 14-12 record and
10-10 mark in the Peach Belt
Conference. Matt Causey
was selected to the Peach Belt All-Conference team, and was also named an
ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American.
Senior Irina Watkins posted a time of 17:53 to
win the Peach Belt Conference women's individual championship and to be
named PBC Runner of the Year.
Brian Lauderdale became the first North Georgia
athlete to be named a
National Collegiate Athletic Association All-American as he was
selected to the third team. In his senior season with the Saints baseball
team, Lauderdale was named 2006 Peach Belt Conference’s Player of the Year
and South Atlantic Region Player of the Year. He signed a free agent
contract with the San Diego Padres organization in 2006.
Elizabeth
Franklin was selected to
the Peach Belt Conference All-Tournament Team in women's soccer as a
freshman and was named PBC All Conference At-Large selection.
Lynsey Thompson finished her softball career at
North Georgia with a selection to the Peach Belt All-Conference team. At the
end of the season Thompson was at the top of many PBC categories including,
first in slugging percentage (.770), fourth in batting average (.393),
fourth in doubles (15), and sixth in home runs with 10.
Rene Alvarez was selected to the PBC
All-Conference Team in men’s soccer. Alvarez, lead the Saints with eight
goals, and six assists last season and was ranked in the top-10 in the
conference in points, goals, and assists and was selected to the second team
ESPN The Magazine CoSIDA Academic All-District.
Faculty and Staff
Dr. Ross Alexander,
political science, received the Student Government Association’s
“Faculty Member of the Year Award” for the 2005-2006 school year.
Dr. Thomas Austenfeld,
language and literature, was selected as the 2006 Distinguished Professor by
the NGCSU Alumni Association.
Dr. Michelle Byrne, nursing, received the “Jane
Van de Verde Award: Georgia Association for
Nursing Education’s Outstanding Nurse Educator Award” for 2006. Byrne
also was appointed to the Board of Directors for Competency & Credentialing
Institute, a National Healthcare Organization based in Denver, Colo.
Kim Hudson-Gallogly, nursing, received the
“Mabel Korsell Award: Recognition of Outstanding Service to the
Georgia Association for Nursing Education”
in 2006.
Dr. Brian Jay Corrigan, language and literature,
was named the 2006 Author of the Year in the debut fiction category by the
Georgia Writers Association for his novel, “The Poet of Loch Ness.” The
novel was named one of the five most notable debuts of 2005 by the
Associated Press and was #27 on the Amazon.com “Best reviewed books of 2005”
list. It also was nominated for the prestigious PEN/Faulker Prize in
Literature, and was one of two titles nominated by his publisher from its
catalogue of more than 200 books.
Laurie Davis,
NGCSU bookstore manager, was selected to
serve for the 2006-07 academic year on the President’s Advisory Council for
the National Association of College Stores. She
has served on the state-level association’s board for the past eight years
as an officer to include president and most recently as treasurer.
Davis also was featured in the September/October 2005 issue of “The College
Store” trade magazine and selected as one of “20 Women to Watch.”
Dr. Barry D. Friedman,
political science and criminal justice, was installed as first vice
president of Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society of the social
sciences.
Dr. Robert Fuller, physics and director of the
Environmental Leadership Center, presented Lake Lanier monitoring results
and detailed statistical analyses of monitoring results from 1987 through
2005 to the Upper Chattahoochee Basin Group. Following this presentation,
the Upper Chattahoochee Basin Group reauthorized the project for five years
at an initial annual funding rate of $26,500.
Dr. Marc Gilbert, history, will take a leave of
absence for a one-year appointment as the NEH-supported Endowed Chair in
World History at Hawaii Pacific University. He also was selected as an
editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World.
Annette Hannon Lee, University Relations, served
as chair of the Public Relations Administrative Council for the 35 USG
institutions in 2005-06.
Dr. You Ju Lee,
fine arts, performed her New York City debut in the Weill Recital Hall at
Carnegie Hall in April. The award-winning pianist, who is a native of Korea,
has performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. Lee teaches piano and
music history at North Georgia.
Dr. Eric Carl Link, language and literature, was
selected as the president of the Frank Norris Society, a scholarly society
devoted to the study of the life and works of Frank Norris and to American
literary naturalism.
Gerald Lord,
associate vice president of Business & Finance, was elected to post 3 of the
Dahlonega City Council for a four-year term. The council helps develop
policy for the city government.
Dr. Georgia Mann, history, was elected chair of
the Georgia Consortium on International Studies and was elected to the Board
of the Georgia Association of Historians. She serves as chair of the
European History Section of the Southern Historical Association.
Dr. Grace Newsome,
nursing, was one of the seven executive appointments Gov. Sonny Perdue made
to the state’s Health Strategies Council. Newsome also was re-elected to the
National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission for the 2005-2008 term.
Jane O’Gorman, director of continuing education,
was elected to serve on the Georgia Adult Education Association Board of
Directors as vice president for programs for the 2006-2008 term. GAEA is an
association with membership from universities, community and technical
colleges, government, business and industry, and professional associations
involved in the continuing education and training of Georgia citizens.
Dr. James Parker,
professor emeritus of biology, was recognized for the contributions made
during his 30 years of teaching at North Georgia with a plaque at the
entrance to a 62-acre tract of land owned by NGCSU. The Hurricane Creek
Biological Station and Wildlife Conservation Area, managed as a wildlife
conservation area and used by the Department of Biology as an outdoor
laboratory, has been Parker’s major project for more than 6 years.
Dr. C. Michael Powell,
business administration, received a commendation in 2005 from Governor Sonny
Perdue for his dedication to students that extends beyond the classroom and
for interweaving course material with its real-world applications.
Joshua Preston, Annette Hannon Lee and
Debbie Martin received an Award of Excellence from the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education District III for the “Digest,” the
NGCSU faculty-staff newsletter produced by University Relations. This is the
third year that the publication has received recognition from CASE.
Dr. Richard M. Prior
and Dr. Mark C. Spraker, physics, were awarded a research grant from
the Office of Nuclear Physics of the U.S. Department of Energy to continue
their work in nuclear physics. The award for next year will be $90,000, and
the total for the next three years is $302,000 to support their research in
collaboration with Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory at Duke
University.
Dr. John Yeoman,
business administration, was appointed by the National Association of
Securities Dealers to be the chairman of a securities arbitration panel in
Atlanta.
Students
Ainsley Blomert, a
junior biology major, received the “Best Undergraduate Paper” award in the
Biological Sciences Section for her presentation at 2006 Annual Meeting of
the Georgia Academy of Science held at Georgia Perimeter College in
Lawrenceville, Ga.
Adrian Bradberry graduated in summer 2006 after
spending her last semester at the Granada Institute of International Studies
in Granada, Spain. She is the first NGCSU student to graduate under the new
covenant between NGCSU and GRIIS. Ginny Hill will study at the GRIIS
Institute in fall 2006.
Teresa Bowers is among the 77 students
nationwide who were named as Scholars in the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Graduate Program to pursue her graduate studies in nursing with a focus in
gerontology at Emory University in Atlanta.
The scholarship covers tuition,
room, board, fees and books – up to $50,000 annually – for a maximum of six
years. Bowers completed her North Georgia BS in
Nursing degree in August as a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar in the Undergraduate
Transfer Program. She also was awarded the Virginia M. Smyth graduate
scholarship from the Georgia Gerontology Society for her graduate study in
gerontology and for her leadership development in the field of aging.
Robert
“Wade” Chandler,
a junior business administration major, performed water quality
investigations and helped coordinate up to 38 volunteers while paddling a
kayak 120 miles during Paddle Georgia 2006.
Myra
Clark is a recipient
of the Health Monitor Network 2006 Nurse Practitioner Student Scholarship
awarded by the
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Foundation.
Allison Hallman, a history major, has been
accepted for an internship at CNN in fall 2006.
June Irene Koehler, a North Georgia junior in
art marketing and piano performance, won one of Phi Kappa Phi’s 38 Study
Abroad $1,000 Grants for 2006 for her study in Spain for her academic minor.
Charles Mitchell, NGCSU senior majoring in
studio art, is the 2006 recipient of the Paul R. Jones Family Fund Senior
Art Achievement Incentive Award that recognizes an African American art
student attending a college or university in the state of Georgia.
Scott Newman, NGCSU sophomore, was one of 81 men
who rode their bicycles on a “Journey of Hope,” a 4,000-mile cross-country
trip from Oregon to Washington, D.C. The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity members
each raised at least $5,000 to enhance the lives of people living with
disabilities.
Bryant Pritchett, a history major, has been
accepted by the U.S. State Department for an internship in Germany for fall
2006.
Robert Rennie, a history major, was chosen as a
Fellow at the Center for the Study of the American Presidency in Washington,
D.C.
Laura K. “Katie” Williamson, a 2006 NGCSU
graduate and valedictorian, received one of 60 Fellowship Awards for 2006
from Phi Kappa Phi, a $5,000 scholarship for her first year at the Medical
College of Georgia for graduate study toward her M.D. degree.
North Georgia’s chapter of Psi Chi, the national
honor society in psychology, started an online eBay site in spring 2006 for
the Community Helping Place, a non-profit organization that assists families
in Lumpkin County with food, clothing, furniture and financial
assistance. Proceeds from the site help to purchase food for the local food
bank. NGCSU students Chris and Garrett Churchill lead the service
project.
The NGCSU Rifle Team
members placed in the top four slots in the junior category at the River
Bend Gun Club 100-yard and 600-yard shooting qualifications held in
Dawsonville, Ga. Placing first in the junior’s category was Daniel
Johnson followed by Farrish Sulivan,
Jordan Crawford, and Dianne
Carter in second, third, and fourth. The
team captain, Matt Fitzmayer, is
the team’s top shooter and took third place in the state of Utah last
summer.
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