Grand Valley State University history

In 1961, the Grand Valley State College Board of Control chose a 876-acre (3.55 km) site in Ottawa County near the Grand River for the new campus, and construction of academic buildings began the following year.

In 1962, as construction was getting underway at Grand Valley State College, the administrators vacated their downtown Grand Rapids office and moved into several small houses near the new campus in Allendale.

To prepare for the college’s opening in 1963 Library Director Stephen Ford and his staff of seven worked out of this small house, collecting and cataloging over 10,000 books.

Intercollegiate sports came on the scene for Grand Valley in 1964, with the organization of the first cross country team.

Starting in 1966, during the first few weeks of the winter semester Grand Valley hosted the Winter Carnival.

In 1967, a few years after students had been using the ski hill, three members of the Board of Control donated $2,500 for the construction of the ski chalet.

She first coached the softball team in 1968, and within the next few years she was also coaching teams in basketball and volleyball.

In 1969, the Grand Valley Lanthorn printed an issue containing several vulgarities and obscenities.

Underneath the Arches, 1970, https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/underneaththearches/68/

The William James College was founded in 1971 and was organized under a philosophy of trans-disciplinary liberal education that emphasized critical thinking and personal fulfillment.

In 1973, Grand Valley adopted a “cluster college” organization, and its name changed to Grand Valley State Colleges.

She was given the opportunity to award Donna Sass Eaton the first female athletic scholarship in the State of Michigan for softball in 1974.

The undergraduate and graduate programs were merged into one School, the Seidman College, in 1979.

However, the "s" was dropped and the name was reverted to Grand Valley State College in 1983 when the academic programs were reorganized into divisions.

In 1984, swimming and diving were introduced for men and women for the first time at Grand Valley.

In 1987 it was renamed Grand Valley State University.

In 1988, the opening of the Grand Rapids L.V. Eberhard Center provided opportunities to offer courses in Grand Rapids in addition to those offered on the Allendale Campus.

The Seidman College of Business has maintained AACSB accreditation at the college level and with our School of Accounting since 1997.

In 1999 a new track and cross-country coach was hired, Jerry Baltes.

In the summer of 2000, the college moved into the Richard M. DeVos Center, a new $50 million facility on the Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus that housed a variety of university programs and services.

The volleyball team continued to dominant, advancing to their first NCAA final four tournament in 2001.

In July 2004, the Seidman School was once again re-named the Seidman College of Business.

Four years later in 2005 the volleyball team qualified again for the national championship, this time held at Kearney, Nebraska, where Grand Valley won its first national title in a women’s sport.

In 2006, women’s basketball took home a national championship win as well.

The fall semester 2010 began a year-long celebration of the university's first 50 years of history and change.

According to United States News & World Report, in the 2011 publication of Best Colleges, Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, is ranked number 34 in of the Midwest Regional Universities.

In 2012, GVSU announced several more construction projects and land purchases.

Then in May of 2013, the College called the newly constructed L. William Seidman Center, its new home.

GVSU History Alum-in-Residence and Lead Buyer for GE Aviation Eric Baumgarten speaks about the value of a History degree in the Business world, October 2019