Board Of Regents Of The University System Of Georgia history

As area gold mining resources were depleted and agricultural education was assumed by other state institutions, the mission of North Georgia Agricultural College evolved into one emphasizing arts and sciences and was renamed as North Georgia College in the summer of 1929.

The board met officially for the first time on January 1, 1932, and appointed Charles Snelling, then president of the University of Georgia (UGA), as the first chancellor.

The university system experienced its first major crisis in 1941 during the Cocking affair.

In 1961 the system witnessed the first battle in what would become a twenty-seven-year-long struggle with desegregation.

Founded originally as Gainesville Junior College in March 1964, the college was the result of visionary community leaders who sought to fill a need for accessible, quality higher education for Northeast Georgians.

In 1966, Gainesville Junior College moved to its permanent campus.

Cameron Fincher, Assessment, Improvement, and Cooperation: The Challenge of Reform in Higher Education (Athens: Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, 1991).

In 1996, due to its much wider scope of academic programs, the University System of Georgia reclassified the college as a state university and renamed it North Georgia College & State University.

In 1998, the college adopted a new logo that replaced the anchor previously used to represent the college with a symbolic bell tower that greeted students as they entered campus.

Sonny Perdue, a native of Houston County, became Georgia's first Republican governor in 130 years when he was inaugurated on January 13, 2003.

In 2005, the institution's name changed to Gainesville State College, reflecting the growth of four-year degree programs within the college.

He served two terms, leaving office in 2011.

In August 2015, UNG opened an additional campus in Blue Ridge, Georgia, to serve students in the northernmost region of the state.