The University of North Georgia was first established at the site of its current campus in Dahlonega, Georgia in 1873 as North Georgia Agricultural College (NGAC). In 2013 North Georgia College & State University was consolidated with Gainesville State College to form the University of North Georgia.
North Georgia Agricultural College (1871-1929)
From 1851 to 1861 (the last ten years of its use) the Dahlonega Gold Mint was minting more gold from California than from Georgia. Consequently, following the Civil War the Treasury Department felt it would be impractical to resume minting operations at the Dahlonega Mint. A few years after the war a former Confederate soldier and President of the Lumpkin County Board of Education by the name of William Pierce Price devised a plan to employ the land script of the Morrill Act to transform the old mint building into a college. In the early stages of this transformation the school was identified as an academy, rather than a university- implying that it was originally intended to serve as a feeder school for the Georgia College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (predecessor of the University of Georgia). However, in 1876 the Superior Court of Lumpkin County gave the school the ability to grant bachelor's and master's degrees.
The college began formally enrolling students in January 1873. In its first year, the school enrolled 98 males and 79 females, making it the first college in the state to offer co-educational enrollment. Shortly thereafter in 1878, it became the first co-ed college in the state to graduate a female student. The school's first president was David W. Lewis. Lewis was fervently devoted to the development of the institution. Upon his arrival he donated his personal library to the school. In addition to serving as the school's president, he also served as one of the two professors at the school- teaching Greek and English literature. For about the first thirty years of North Georgia Agricultural College's history it was mostly an agricultural college in name alone. It was only in 1902 that the college established its first and only agricultural chair. In essence NGAC was a liberal arts college, focusing more on courses such as law, Latin, Greek, English literature, theoretical mathematics, natural sciences, history, and philosophy. In addition to its liberal arts curriculum the college also made military training compulsory- as was stipulated by the Morrill Land Act to all land-grant colleges. This requirement marked the beginning of the University of North Georgia's enduring military identity. This military program's cadet corps eventually became involved in the newly established Reserve Officers' Training Corps(ROTC) in 1916.
In the early years of the twentieth century the school's isolated and underdeveloped mountainous location precluded its growth. Even when Lumpkin County did receive its first railroad in the 1910s there was still no direct rail to Dahlonega. Price's death in 1911 added to the school's struggle, as he was by far its most prominent supporter. In that same year a fire consumed Bostwick Hall as well as a large portion of the school's library. Consequently, the destruction of these facilities hindered NGAC's ability to accommodate and house all of the applicants that sought enrollment at the school. The hardships faced by NGAC were further compounded during the 1920s by a series of ineffectual and unpopular school presidents. In the final years of his presidency Gustavus R. Glenn found disfavor with the trustees. Many of them felt that his competency had been compromised by the complacency that he had developed during the service of his lengthy presidency (1904-1922: the longest presidency in NGAC history up to that point). Glenn resigned before the trustees ever attempted to remove him. He was replaced by the more ambitious Marion DuBose who served as president for a mere three years. DuBose was criticized for trying to implement to much change to the college too quickly. Efforts of his such as working to disband the preparatory department, and eliminating the BS and AB degrees in agriculture were seen by much of the faculty and students as too progressive and needlessly ardent. Eighty-four students, roughly half of the student population, signed a petition expressing their dissatisfaction with DuBose's performance, however it did nothing to affect his presidency. In 1925 pressure from alumni finally persuaded DuBose to resign. Throughout the remainder of the 1920s conditions for NGAC began to improve. Infrastructural improvements such as a new modernized waterworks, the addition of female dormitories, and a new bus line from Gainesville to Dahlonega helped to improve the image and accessibility of the school. During a 1928 visit to the school, Governor Lamartine Hardman admiringly noticed the improved state of the university's campus and declared that he would seek a greater appropriation for the institution.
North Georgia College
Reduction to a junior college (Great Depression and World War II)
NGAC's agricultural department was eliminated in 1929 and the school formally became known as North Georgia College (NGC). The economic onslaught of the Great Depression led the Board of Regents to reduce NGC to a junior college. Although the state of Georgia was allocated $250 million by President Roosevelt's New Deal it was not enough to entirely alleviate the financial distress of many of the state's colleges, including NGC. There was initially discussion about closing NGC all together because of the school's dramatically declining student enrollment and its inconvenient geographic location. However, this consideration was ultimately rejected the idea. This reclassification as a junior college caused all of the military elements pertaining to NGC, particularly the ROTC program, to be temporarily discontinued. When NGC was reorganized into a junior college Jonathan Clark Rogers became president of the school. Between 1933 and 1946 his efforts helped to make NGC the largest junior college in the state. Recent administrations, particularly that of John W. West (1925-1932), had struggled to meet accreditation standards due to the subpar qualifications of much of the college's faculty. Rogers addressed this problem directly by hiring the college's first PhDs. By the end of his term, all but one faculty member held a masters or doctorate degree. During his presidency enrollment grew from 160 to 702 students. He is often credited with being one of the primary figures responsible for NGC regaining its status as a senior college. Rogers made every effort to benefit from Governor Eurith Rivers' "Little New Deal". Making use of this program Rogers' leadership oversaw the construction and expansion of numerous buildings and facilities on campus. During his presidency the school saw the addition of Sanford Hall, Barnes Hall, Moore Hall, a new library, a new infirmary, and a new auditorium.
The growth seen under the Rogers administration was curtailed by the United States' involvement in World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Throughout 1943 enrollment dropped and the school's military program was halved. In spite of the declining enrollment and economic hardship Rogers worked diligently to satisfy the Army's standards in order to preserve NGC's military program. Not only was the military integrity of NGC preserved, but during this time it was the only junior college in the nation to have an (ASTP) Army Specialized Training Program. On the eve of the Allied forces' invasion of German-occupied France war demands of the U.S. Army caused the ASTP at NGC to be discontinued. As a response Rogers succeeded in acquiring an Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP) in lieu of the school's lost ASTP. By the end of the war NGC had trained close to 1,300 cadets through its involvement in ASTP and ASTRP. North Georgia College returned to operating at full capacity as soon as the war ended. The return of WWII soldier to civilian life compounded with the recently passed G.I. Bill to result in an influx in college enrollment all throughout the nation. Upon regaining this momentum Rogers immediately resumed work on his ambitious expansion and construction projects. The alumni were impressed by Rogers' achievement following the war, and they began to advocate for the reversion of the school back into a senior college. On the other hand, Rogers was in favor of the school remaining a junior college that would specialize in technical training and preparatory programs. Regardless of Rogers' preferences, in 1946 the Board of Regents declared their intention to revert the school back into a senior college.
Reversion to a senior college
North Georgia College regained its senior status in 1947. An estimated 210 of the 710 students attending the school in that year were veterans of WWII benefiting from the G.I. Bill. During the 1950s the manufacturing sector became dominant over agriculture in Georgia's economy. Taking advantage of the state's new-found wealth the Georgia General Assembly decided to begin levying a 3% sales tax. What's more, in 1958, the Soviet's launch of Sputnik catalyzed the passing of the National Defense Education Act by Congress, which acted as a financial buttress to the American public education system at every level. These conditions created a more than an ample supply of government revenue for education in Georgia. Between 1959 and 1963 the top salary for a full professor in Georgia rose from $7,000 to $9,000. For the first time since the Civil War Georgia was beginning to progress out of it backwards economically underdeveloped condition. In the state's new favorable economical environment Rogers was able to secure a $29,000 increase in annual appropriations for the college as well as nearly $400,000 for new construction projects. Roughly $300,000 of this money was used in the construction of the a new science building that was eventually named after Rogers following his death in 1967. Upon the completion of all of the construction carried out in the late 1940s the school was finally able to adequately accommodate all of its academic needs. However the college was still in desperate need of student housing.
The Hoag Administration