Fort Valley State University

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Fort Valley State University
Established:	1895
Type:	Public HBCU
President:	Dr. Larry Rivers
Staff:	361
Students:	2,572 [1]
Undergraduates:	2,477 [1]
Postgraduates:	95 [1]
Location:	Fort Valley, GA, United States
Campus:	Rural 1,365 acres
Colors:	Royal Blue and Gold           [2]
Nickname:	Wildcats [2]
Athletics:	NCAA Division II [2]
Affiliations:	Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference [2]
Website:	www.fvsu.edu

Fort Valley State University (FVSU) is a historically black university (HBCU) located in Fort Valley, Georgia. It's also a unit of the University System of Georgia and a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. Fort Valley is approximately 80 miles south (320 km) of Atlanta, 25 miles (40 km) south of Macon,18 miles (28 km) west of Warner Robins, and 15 miles (24 km) north of Perry.

As the only 1890 land-grant university in Georgia, Fort Valley State University is a comprehensive institution that provides an education to nearly 3,000 students. The student body is currently approximately 94% of African-American descent. The average age of undergraduates is 24 and the average age of graduates is 33. Roughly one-third of the students live on-campus and 85 percent of the student body are full-time students.

The University is located in the town of Fort Valley in Peach County, the original site of the nation's peach industry. Its 1,365-acre (55.2 km²) campus is the second-largest in area for a public university in the state.

[edit] Programs

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The university offers bachelor's degrees in more than 50 majors—education, business administration and agriculture are particularly popular—as well as master's degrees in education and counseling. FVSU is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award associate, baccalaureate, master's and specialist degrees. Fort Valley State University also offers teacher education degree programs which are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

Other University degree programs which are accredited by discipline associations are:

• The Veterinary Technology Program, accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association(AVMA).
• The Family and Consumer Sciences Program, accredited by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
• The Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD), accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE) of the American Dietetics Association.
• The Child Development programs, accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Development, Programs of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
• Rehabilitation Counseling and Case Management accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE).

Fort Valley State University's Cooperative Developmental Energy Program (CDEP) is the only one of its kind in the nation, preparing students for energy-industry careers in science and geology. The African World Studies Institute is another attraction for students and faculty from around the world.

Outreach services include Fort Valley State's Cooperative Extension Service Program, where extension service specialists operate in 42 Georgia counties, and the Pettigrew Conference Center, which hosts more than 500 courses and events for 51,000 patrons each year. In an effort to accommodate graduate and non-traditional students, external degree program courses are also being offered at off-campus sites in Macon, Cochran, Warner Robins and Dublin.

A growing list of online courses, offered via WebCT are being offered allowing students to pursue a number of majors, including the English Department's, Technical and Professional Writing Degree Program, in the comfort of their own home.

[edit] History

Founders Hall

Fort Valley State University (formerly Fort Valley State College) began because of the 1939 consolidation of the Fort Valley High and Industrial School (chartered in 1895) and the State Teachers and Agricultural College of Forsyth (founded in 1902). The Fort Valley High and Industrial School, previously affiliated with the American Church Institute of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was transferred to state control and operation. Under the agreement the work formerly carried on at the State Teachers and Agricultural College were consolidated with the work at Fort Valley High and Industrial School to form the Fort Valley State College.

In 1947 the Board of Regents adopted a resolution moving the Land-Grant designation from Savannah State College to Fort Valley State College. The Georgia General Assembly, in response to the Regents’ resolution, officially designated The Fort Valley State College as the Land-Grant College for Negroes in Georgia 1949. In 1957, the college received full membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, one the first of the HBCUs admitted.^{[citation needed]} The college was accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) (1971) and the American Association of Veterinary Medicine 1979)

The school became Fort Valley State University, a State and Land-Grant University, in June 1996.

[edit] Student activities

Students have several opportunities for extracurricular involvement at the university, including the marching band, concert choir, Baptist Student Union Choir, forensics (intercollegiate speech and debate), and cheerleading. There are more than 70 clubs, sororities, fraternities and social organizations on campus. Many social sororities and fraternities require an academic grade point average of at least 2.7 and some even higher.

[edit] Student media

FVSU also has a radio station (WFVS-LP 104.3 FM) and a television station (FVSU TV) as well as a college newspaper called, The Paw Print.

[edit] Athletics

Athletic opportunities include intramural sports and intercollegiate men's basketball, cross country, football, tennis, and track and field and women's basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, volleyball, and track and field. The football team has won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) championship 12 times.^{[citation needed]}

Student athletes have set records and alumni have gone on to professional sports careers. In 1952 Catherine Hardy won a gold medal as a member of the winning 400-meter women’s relay team at the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland. In 1969 the Fort Valley State football team set the modern-era record for most points scored against a college opponent, with 106 touchdowns against Knoxville College (Oct. 11, 1969). In 1995 Tyrone Poole became the first football player from Fort Valley State University to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable faculty

[edit] President

The President of Fort Valley State University is the chief operating officer of the university. The position is sometimes called the chancellor or rector, at other American colleges and universities.

The current president of Fort Valley State University is Dr. Larry Rivers who has held the position since 2006.

[edit] External links

• FVSU's official website
• Online version of current FVSU undergrad catalog PDF format
• Online version of current FVSU graduate catalog PDF format
• WFVS-LP 104.3 FM official site
• FVSU TV official site

[edit] References