University of Georgia

Located 60 miles northeast of Atlanta in Athens, Georgia, the University of Georgia was the first state-chartered university in the United States, making it the birthplace of the American system of public higher education. It was incorporated January 27, 1785 by the Georgia General Assembly, which gave its trustees, the Senatus Academicus of the University of Georgia, 40,000 acres (160 km²) for the purposes of founding a ?college or seminary of learning.? The university's motto is Et docere et rerum exquirere causas ("To teach and to inquire into the nature of things"). Today, it is the flagship university of the University System of Georgia.

Statistics

• The main campus is comprised of 568 buildings on 614 acres (2.5 km²);
• Total enrollment in fall 2004 was 33,405 including students at UGA at Gwinnett and Tifton Ctr.:
• 24,814 undergraduates
• 8,386 graduates and professionals
• 205 others
• U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked UGA 19th on its 2005 list of the 50 top public universities for a sixth year in a row. UGA also ranks 58th overall in the nation.
• In recents years, the university's athletic association, which receives no tax dollars, has undertaken $81 million in construction projects, including:
• over $30 million to expand and upgrade Sanford Stadium, adding 10,000 seats and glassed-in suites
• a new $7.66 million tennis complex
• $6.4 million for a new soccer and softball stadium and clubhouse
• $750,000 in renovations to the football team's trophy room
• $700,000 in 2003 for another remodeling of the men's basketball coach's office and locker room
• Since November 2001, the Georgia Legislature has cut $211 million from the university system's budget; the tuition increase for 2003 was 15%.
• Money magazine's "Best College Buys" edition listed UGA as one of nine "unbeatable deals" nationwide. Georgia residents who maintain a 3.0 grade point average can receive $4,000 annually toward tuition because of the state of Georgia's HOPE Scholars Program http://www.gsfc.org/hope/.