Florida State University history

In 1856, Tallahassee Mayor Francis W. Eppes again offered the Institute's land and building to the Legislature.

The bill to locate the Seminary in Tallahassee passed both houses and was signed by the Governor on January 1, 1857.

Florida State College was empowered to award the degree of Master of Arts, and the first master's degree was offered in 1902.

In 1903 the first university library was begun.

The state’s educational system was restructured in 1905 by the legislature, and six institutions of higher learning were merged into two — the University of Florida in Gainesville for men and Florida State College in Tallahassee for women.

Florida State was the largest of the original two state universities in Florida until 1919.

By 1933 the Florida State College for Women had grown to be the third largest women's college in the United States and was the first state women's college in the South to be awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, as well as the first university in Florida so honored.

However, in 1947, the governor signed an act that established coed status at the women’s college, and the school was renamed to Florida State University, and it has been booming in growth ever since.

The post-war years brought substantial growth and development to the university as many departments and colleges were added including Business, Journalism (discontinued in 1959), Library Science, Nursing and Social Welfare.

After many years as a whites-only university, in 1962 Maxwell Courtney became the first African-American undergraduate student admitted to Florida State.

In 1968 Calvin Patterson became the first African-American player for the Florida State University football team.

On March 4, 1969 the FSU chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, an unregistered university student organization, sought to use university facilities for meetings.

The case was settled in 1975 with an agreement that the university would establish a task force to investigate bias against women at the university and to revise its anti-nepotism policy so as to not discriminate against the wives of university employees.

In 1980 a gay male named William Wade won the title of Homecoming Princess under the pseudonym "Billy Dahling" causing controversy.

He was selected by the Buccaneers in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft.

The Florida State University College of Medicine was created in June 2000.

In March 2002, FSU students pitched "Tent City" on Landis Green for 114 days to compel the university to join the fledgling Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC). The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is an independent watchdog group that monitors labor rights worldwide.

In 2006 the Union Board added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy causing several student organizations to be zero-funded for noncompliance.

In 2008 CFEC filed suit with the FSU Student Supreme Court against the Union Board for failing to uphold the policy though they ruled they lacked jurisdiction after hearing the case.

In November 2009 CFEC placed an editorial in the FSView to provide perspective on the issue.

And here’s a fun fact about FSU: According to the 2020 edition of the United States News & World Report Best Colleges guidebook, the university ranked No.