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Okla-homey
1/27/2011, 08:11 AM
Jan 27, 1785: Georgia incorporates the first state university

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/university-of-georgia-f820d40f.jpg

226 years ago today, the Georgia General Assembly incorporates the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic.

The previous year, the assembly had set aside 40,000 acres from which they planned to earn the money they would need to endow such an institution. In 1786, the future university's board of trustees met for the first time in Augusta, Georgia, choosing Yale University alumnus Abraham Baldwin as president and drafting the school's charter.

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/univuga1.jpg

In 1801, John Milledge, future governor of Georgia, donated 633 acres along the Oconee River in what is now Athens to serve as the site of the new university. Three years later, the school graduated its first class.

In its first incarnation, the new institution was named Franklin College, in honor of the ubiquitous Benjamin, and modeled in architecture and pedagogy after Baldwin's alma mater, Yale.

An important distinction existed, however, in the founding of the two institutions. Yale was founded by Congregationalist ministers on explicitly theological grounds, while the University of Georgia--a religiously tolerant institution founded in a more religiously tolerant age--remained purposely independent of any theological affiliation.

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/univGeorgia_Sanford_Stadium_ug15_large.jpg

Reflecting the trajectory of the nation as a whole, it took an additional century and a half for the university to complete a shift from religious tolerance to gender equity and racial integration.

The university began admitting women in 1918, the same year President Woodrow Wilson gave his support to a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

In 1961, after a three-year legal battle, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first black students to enroll at the University of Georgia.

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/univ0301_large.jpg

jkjsooner
1/29/2011, 01:59 PM
I remember seeing this the other day and by chance this subject came up today. Since I now live in Chapel Hill I'll point out (FWIW) that UNC was graduating students before UGA even admitted its first student.

UGA, William & Mary (private at the time), and UNC all claim to be the oldest.

Fraggle145
1/29/2011, 02:02 PM
I remember seeing this the other day and by chance this subject came up today. Since I now live in Chapel Hill I'll point out (FWIW) that UNC was graduating students before UGA even admitted its first student.

They were first with students and UGA was first with a charter. When did UNC get its charter?

jkjsooner
1/29/2011, 02:05 PM
They were first with students and UGA was first with a charter. When did UNC get its charter?

1789 according to wikipedia.

If you ask what is the first public university then the debate is clearly between UNC and UGA. If you ask which is the oldest public university, and depending on how you interpret that question, I think the answer would be W&M.

jkjsooner
1/29/2011, 02:10 PM
BTW, not meaning to degrade from Homey's thread at all. I just found it coincidental that this topic came up a couple of days after seeing this thread. My wife (who now works for UNC) mentioned about UNC being the oldest public university and I was thinking, "I don't think that's true because I just read a thread about it on soonerfans.com that stated it was Georgia."

Fraggle145
1/29/2011, 02:13 PM
Dawgs>Tarheels. :D

Harry Beanbag
1/29/2011, 03:08 PM
Which would you rather be, oldest or the best? UNC clearly has UGA manhandled in the best category.

Okla-homey
1/29/2011, 03:18 PM
Interesting. The little public college I graduated from in SC was established by act of the legislature in 1842. That's the date used by the college on everything official to this day. However, no students showed-up until 1845.

Fraggle145
1/29/2011, 04:38 PM
Which would you rather be, oldest or the best? UNC clearly has UGA manhandled in the best category.

FAIL.

stoopified
1/29/2011, 08:32 PM
UDa-ly thread