Florida State University

Florida State University, also commonly referred to as "FSU" or "Florida State", is a comprehensive, graduate-national research university founded and located in Tallahassee, Florida in 1851. Its president is Dr. T. K. Wetherell. The university is composed of 17 colleges and institutes that offer more than 300 programs of study.

History

The Legislature of the State of Florida in a Legislative Act of January 24, 1851, provided for the establishment of two seminaries of learning, one to be located east and the other west of the Suwannee River. By 1854, the City of Tallahassee had established a school for boys called the Florida Institute. The city's hope was that the State would take it over as one of the seminaries. After an unsuccessful attempt by the city to make this happen in 1854, Mayor Francis Eppes in 1857, again made the offer which was accepted by the Florida Legislature. In 1857 first meeting of the Board of Education of the State Seminary West of the Suwannee River was held. The school became co-education the following year, when it absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy, begun in 1843 as the Misses Bates School. The school existed as the West Florida Seminary from 1857 until 1863, when the state legislature changed the name to The Florida Military and Collegiate Institute, reflecting the addition of a military section which trained cadets. In 1901, the school was renamed Florida State College, and was a four-year institution organized in four departments: the College, the School for Teachers, the School of Music, and the College Academy. In a 1905, Florida's educational system was reorganized by the state Legislature, and six state institutions of higher learning were consolidated into two when the University of Florida in Gainesville was established and designated a men's school and the Florida State College became a women's school called the Florida Female College. In 1909 the name of the college was changed to Florida State College for Women. Demand by returning World War II veterans had brought men back to the campus in 1946 with the establishment of the Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida. On May 15, 1947, the Governor of Florida signed an act of the Legislature returning Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and naming it The Florida State University. Today, the student population is almost 38,000. Florida State is also the home of the first chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in the state of Florida, and is home to one of the oldest schools of public administration in the country. Florida State is presently is comprised of seventeen independent schools and colleges.

Related Topics:
Francis Eppes - 1857 - 1901 - 1905 - University of Florida - Gainesville - 1909 - Phi Beta Kappa - Honor society

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