History
The Florida State University, one
of the largest and oldest of the ten institutions of higher learning
in the State University System of Florida, had its beginning as
early as 1823 when the Territorial Legislature began to plan a
higher education system. In 1825 the Federal Government reserved
two townships for the purpose of maintaining institutions of higher
education in the territory, and on March 3, 1845, the United States
Congress, in an act supplemental to the act admitting Florida as
a state in the Union, added two more townships. These townships
were granted to the State for the use of two seminaries of learning,
one to be located east and the other west of the Suwannee River.
The Legislature of the State of Florida in a Legislative Act of
January 24, 1851, provided for the establishment of the two institutions
of learning, their first purpose to be "the instruction of persons, both male and
female, in the art of teaching all the various branches that pertain
to a good common school education; and next to give instruction in
the mechanic arts, in husbandry, in agricultural chemistry, in the
fundamental laws, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens."
By
1854 the City of Tallahassee had established a school for boys
called the Florida Institute with the hope that the State could
be induced to take it over as one of the seminaries, and in the
1854 session of the Legislature of Florida the City of Tallahassee
presented a memorial asking that the institution west of the Suwannee
be located in that city. That effort was not successful, but in
1856 the Intendant (Mayor) of Tallahassee again offered the Institute's
land and building to the Legislature. Francis Eppes, who spent
his formative years on the estate of his grandfather President
Thomas Jefferson at Monticello in Virginia and shared his views
of the importance to a democracy of a liberally educated citizenry,
was the Mayor of Tallahassee who made the offer. This time they
chose to accept the offer and designated Tallahassee as the site
of one of the state seminaries because of its railway connections,
its "salubrious climate," and
its "intelligent, refined, and moral community." The
bill to locate the Seminary in Tallahassee passed both houses and
was signed by the Governor on January 1, 1857. On February 7, 1857,
the first meeting of the Board of Education of the State Seminary
West of the Suwannee River was held, and the institution began
offering postsecondary instruction to male students. Francis Eppes
served as President of the Seminary's Board of Education for eight
years and instilled in the institution the Jeffersonian ideals
which characterize it today. The school first became co-educational
the following year (1858) when it absorbed the Tallahassee Female
Academy, begun in 1843 as the Misses Bates School. Thus the West
Florida Seminary, founded in 1851, began operating in 1857, only
twelve years after Florida achieved statehood. It was located on
the hill where the Westcott Building now stands, which has been
the site of an institution of higher education longer than any
other site in Florida.
Classes were held at the West Florida Seminary from 1857 until
1863, when the state legislature changed the name to The Florida
Military and Collegiate Institute to reflect the addition of a
military section which trained cadets. During the Civil War, cadets
from the school, ranging in age from twelve to eighteen, fought
in the Battle of Natural Bridge and helped make Tallahassee the
only Confederate capitol east of the Mississippi not captured during
the war. As a result of the brave action of the West Florida cadets
in this battle, the Florida State University Army ROTC cadet corps
today is one of only three in the nation authorized to display
a battle streamer with its flag, which bears the words NATURAL
BRIDGE 1865. After the end of the war in 1865, however, Union troops
under General McCook descended upon Tallahassee and occupied the
city (including campus buildings), remaining for more than a month.
Following the war, the institution entered a period of growth
and development. In 1884 the first diplomas, Licentiates of Instruction,
were awarded, and by 1891 the Institute had begun to focus clearly
on what we would today call post-secondary education; seven Bachelor
of Arts degrees were awarded that year. By 1897 the institution
had evolved into the first liberal arts college in the state, and
in 1901 it became Florida State College, a four-year institution
organized in four departments: the College, the School for Teachers,
the School of Music, and the College Academy. Florida State College
was empowered to award the degree of Master of Arts, and the first
master's degree was offered in 1902. That year the student body
numbered 252 men and women, and degrees were available in classical,
literary and scientific studies. In 1903 the first university library
was begun. The following quote from the 1903 Florida State College
Catalogue adds an interesting footnote to this period:
In 1883 the institution, now long officially known as the West
Florida Seminary, was organized by the Board of Education as The
Literary College of the University of Florida. Owing to lack of
means for the support of this more ambitious project, and also
owing to the fact that soon thereafter schools for technical training
were established, this association soon dissolved. It remains to
be remarked, however, that the legislative act passed in 1885,
bestowing upon the institution the title of the University of Florida,
has never been repealed. The more pretentious name is not assumed
by the college owing to the fact that it does not wish to misrepresent
its resources and purposes.
In a 1905 reorganization of Florida's educational system by the
Legislature, 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. The male student
body moved from Tallahassee to Gainesville, taking with it the
fraternity system and the College football team, which had been
state champions in 1902, 1903, and 1905. In 1909 the name of the
college was changed to Florida State College for Women, an institution
which grew to become the third largest women's college in the nation
during the 1930's. The College became fully accredited in 1915,
and a chapter of the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi was
installed in 1925, the year after the College was placed on the
list of standard colleges and universities approved by the Association
of American Universities and became a member of the Association
of American Colleges. In 1935 the first chapter of Phi Beta Kappa
in the state, Alpha Chapter of Florida, was installed at the College,
a mark of its status as a true liberal arts college.
The year 1947 saw many changes. 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,
and on May 15, 1947, the Governor signed an act of the Legislature
returning Florida State College for Women to coeducational status
and naming it The Florida State University. A permanent president's
residence was acquired. The student body, numbering 4,056, chose
a new alma mater and selected the Seminole as their mascot. The
Flying High Circus was born, and football was started again when
the first home game since 1905 was played in October. Three years
later Campbell Stadium was built. The first Student Union was established
and housed in the "O Club" on West Campus, a former Army
Air Base which housed mainly men students and provided some classroom
space three miles west of the main campus.
The 1950's brought further development and expansion to the University.
To the colleges and schools which had existed since the Florida
State College days, Arts and Sciences, Education, Home Economics,
and Music, were added Library Science, Social Welfare (later split
into Social Work and Criminology), Business, Journalism (discontinued
in 1959), and Nursing. A student in the Department of Chemistry
was awarded the University's first Ph.D. in 1952. A new building
was completed for the Developmental Research School, which in 1905
had evolved from the High School and the College Academy of earlier
days as the Observation and Practice School, created to provide
on-site opportunities for experience and research to students in
Education. Tully Gymnasium, Strozier Library, and the Business
Building were completed to enhance the education of the ever-increasing
student population.
In the 1960's the University acquired the Shaw Poetry Collection,
established the institutes of Molecular Biophysics and Space Biosciences,
and constructed nine new buildings, including the Oglesby Union
and the Fine Arts Building. During this period, the Panama Canal
Branch was opened, and the Program in Medical Sciences was established.
The first black student enrolled in 1962, and the first black Ph.D.
candidates graduated in 1970. Programs in African American Studies
and Women's Studies were established. Continuing the liberal arts
tradition begun in the 1890's, the Liberal Studies Program required
of all undergraduates was expanded and strengthened.
Before 1887 the institution's chief executive officer had the
title Principal, but this was changed to President with the appointment
of George Edgar in 1887. He was followed by Alvin Lewis in 1892,
and Dr. A. A. Murphree in 1897. Dr. Murphree, who came to the Seminary
in 1896, became president of Florida Female College in 1905. When
he left to become president of the University of Florida in 1909,
Dr. Edward Conradi became president of Florida State College for
Women. In 1941, Dr. Doak S. Campbell became president. When Dr.
Campbell retired as president of The Florida State University on
June 30, 1957, Dr. Albert B. Martin served as acting president
until September 1, 1957, when Dr. Robert Strozier became president.
At Dr. Strozier's death in April of 1960, Dr. Milton W. Carothers
became acting president to serve until Dr. Gordon Blackwell took
over the duties of president on September 16, 1960.
On February 1, 1965, Dr. John E. Champion became acting president
replacing Dr. Gordon Blackwell, who resigned. Dr. Champion was
named president on June 22, 1965; he resigned February 17, 1969,
and Dr. J. Stanley Marshall was appointed acting president on the
same date. On June 6, 1969, the Board of Regents named Dr. Marshall
President; he resigned August 31, 1976. Dr. Bernard Francis Sliger
became Interim President on Dr. Marshall's resignation, and on
February 7, 1977, the Board of Regents named Dr. Sliger President.
At the Fall Meeting of the General Faculty on September 18, 1990,
the Dean of the Faculties read a statement on Dr. Sliger's behalf
announcing his resignation as president effective August 1, 1991.
On March 11, 1991, Dr. Dale W. Lick was designated to succeed Dr.
Sliger as president on August 1, 1991. After Dr. Lick's resignation
on August 31, 1993, Dr. Sliger was again named Interim President.
On November 29, 1993, H. Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte was
designated president effective January 3, 1994. He was succeeded
by President Thomas K. Wetherell on January 6, 2003.
In each succeeding decade, Florida State University has added
to its academic organization and presently is comprised of seventeen
independent schools and colleges. It has expanded from the original
few acres and buildings to 513 buildings on 1,432.2 acres, including
the downtown Tallahassee main campus of 463.4 acres, a farm which
for many decades supplied the Florida State College for Women with
food, the Seminole Reservation--a recreational facility, the Marine
Laboratory on the Gulf Coast, the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering
facility, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Division
of Research at Innovation Park, and the branch campus in Panama
City, Florida. One hundred fifty-two years after its founding Florida
State University started the 2003-2004 academic year with a student
population of almost 38,000 and recognition as a major graduate
research institution with an established international reputation.
Office of the Dean of the Faculties
September 5, 2001
September 5, 2001
