The University of North Georgia (UNG) is a public university with multiple campuses in Georgia, United States. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university was established on January 8, 2013, through a merger of North Georgia College & State University (founded 1873) and Gainesville State College (founded 1964). Campus locations include Dahlonega, Oakwood (Gainesville Campus), Watkinsville (Oconee Campus), Blue Ridge, and Cumming.
With nearly 20,000 enrolled students, UNG is the sixth-largest public university in the state of Georgia. There are five colleges that offer over one hundred bachelor's and associate degrees, as well as thirteen master's degrees and one doctoral degree. Over 600 students are involved in the university's ROTC program in any given year. It is one of six senior military colleges in the United States, and is designated as "The Military College of Georgia".
History
North Georgia College and State University began in 1873 as North Georgia Agricultural College. It was originally an offsite branch of the University of Georgia's College of Agriculture and Mechanical and was created with funds from the Morrill Act. William Pierce Price, a local congressman, persuaded officials at UGA to use part of the funds to establish a branch of the newly created college in Dahlonega, Price's birthplace and home. The college opened classes in 1873 with 177 students, 98 males, and 79 females, making it the first coeducational college in the state. Classes were originally held in the old U.S. Mint building that was shut down during the Civil War. After the college was awarded the power to grant degrees in 1876, the first graduating class received degrees in 1879. The first graduating class of four consisted of three men and one woman, making North Georgia the first public institution in the state to award a degree to a female.
The college had always had a military presence since land-grant schools were required to teach military tactics, but it was not until World War I that the military programs began to grow. The National Defense Act of 1916 that created the ROTC also helped establish the military presence that is felt on the campus today. In 1929 the designation of Agricultural was dropped from the name and the school became North Georgia College. By 1932 the college was reduced to a two-year junior college. World War II saw a decline in enrollment because of the number of male students joining the war effort. This changed when an Army Specialized Training Program was placed at the college to train junior officers. After the war, the college grew because of young servicemen and veterans using their GI bill benefits to attend school. By 1946 the college was reinstated as a four-year college. In the 1950s, Dahlonega provided gold for the leafing of the capitol building. It was also at this time that similar efforts to gold leaf Price Memorial Hall were begun, a project that did not see fruition until 1973.Roberts, William Pittman: "Georgia's Best Kept Secret: A History of North Georgia College" Library of Congress, 1998. It was granted university status in 1996.
Meanwhile, Gainesville Junior College was founded in Oakwood, Georgia in 1964 and began holding classes in 1966. The school originally was a two-year college and for many years had an open-access mission, meaning that it accepted all applicants who held a high school diploma. Over time, the school expanded, opening branch campuses in Watkinsville, Georgia, and Cumming, Georgia (which was a joint venture with North Georgia College and State University called University Center 400 that opened in August 2012 and then renamed to Cumming Campus in January 2013 at consolidation), and changing its name to Gainesville College and then Gainesville State College. Before consolidation with the North Georgia College and State University, the school had already begun to shift towards allowing four-year baccalaureate programs.
On January 10, 2012, the University System of Georgia approved the consolidation of North Georgia College and State University and Gainesville State College to form a new institution, the University of North Georgia in January 2013.
The university president is Michael P. Shannon.
Campuses The University of North Georgia has campuses located in Dahlonega, Oakwood (Gainesville), Watkinsville (Oconee), Cumming, and Blue Ridge. Collectively, there are of land among the Dahlonega, Oakwood, and Watkinsville campuses.
Dahlonega campus UNG's Dahlonega campus is the former site of North Georgia College & State University. It was not until 1879 that the oldest surviving structure, Price Memorial Hall, was constructed upon the former site of the Dahlonega Mint. Today the gold-leafed steeple of the Price Memorial Hall building remains one of the most striking features of the UNG skyline. Much of the campus has been developed around the William J. Livsey Drill Field, more commonly known as simply "the Drill Field". Dahlonega is located approximately an hour's drive from downtown Atlanta ( away), an hour and a half drive from downtown Athens ( away), a two-hour and fifteen-minute drive from Chattanooga, Tennessee ( away), and an approximately two hour and twenty-minute drive from Greenville, South Carolina ( away).
Gainesville campus Until it was consolidated with North Georgia College & State University in 2013, UNG's Gainesville campus was the location of Gainesville State College. Now known as the "Gainesville campus, "it is located within the city limits of Oakwood. It has retained its named association with "Gainesville," since the school was founded in and located near that major city. The Gainesville campus has no on-campus dormitories, however, new housing opportunities are adjacent to the campus in the form of student friendly apartments and town-homes.
The oldest degree on the Gainesville campus is the Environmental Spatial Analysis (B.S.) degree in the Institute for Environmental & Spatial Analysis.
Cumming campus In 2012, an academic facility in Cumming, GA was opened on GA 400. The goal of the Cumming campus is to provide access to higher education to the local residents and to an area of the state that was previously "underserved." The campus offers classes and programs for dual enrollment students, associate students, bachelor students, and graduate students
Oconee campus The campus was established in 2003, originally as a part of Gainesville State College. Oconee is a non-residential campus primarily serving students in the Athens and Watkinsville area. The campus is easily accessible from US-441 and the University of North Georgia has recently announced plans to expand the campus to accommodate the growing class sizes."UNG Unveiling ". Raimondi, Chris. Vanguard. January 10, 2013.
Blue Ridge campus On August 13, 2015, UNG opened a new campus in Blue Ridge, GA. The purpose of the Blue Ridge Campus is to offer dual-enrollment options for high school students, classes for first-time freshmen, classes for adult learners, and continuing and professional education programs. The students on this campus can also take classes via eCore, an online platform through which they can complete the first two years of their degree.
Academics
The University of North Georgia is a public co-educational institution that operates on a semester-term schedule.
University of North Georgia honors program Distinctive to UNG's program, 40% of the students in the program study abroad before graduation, 80% graduate in four years, and 95% graduate within five years. The Honors Program at UNG emphasizes leadership and requires students to serve in leadership positions within the Honors Program and/or other campus organizations. UNG is a member of the Georgia Collegiate Honors Council, the Southern Regional Honors Council, and the National Collegiate Honors Council.
DETI The University of North Georgia's Distance Education & Technology Integration (DETI) program is operated by sixteen staff members in the Administration, Student Success, Instructional Design, and Technology Integration departments. These are joined by the numerous professors who teach the classes. These members of the faculty and staff are located in the Library & Technology Center on the Dahlonega campus, as well as the Blue Ridge, Gainesville, and Oconee campuses.
Degrees For undergraduates, the University of North Georgia offers 129 associate and baccalaureate degrees, as well as pre-professional and certificate programs. For graduates, the university offers thirteen-degree programs as well as one doctoral program. As a state-designated leadership institution, UNG is the only university in Georgia to offer a minor in leadership. The school is also a flagship ROTC Center in Chinese. This designation is aimed at helping cadets become proficient in Chinese language and culture. However, due mostly to size, each campus varies significantly in terms of which degree curricula they can accommodate. The Dahlonega campus focuses on Baccalaureate and graduate programs and is the only one of the four campuses that offer Pre-Professional Programs. A smaller number of baccalaureate programs, most of which are education or business-related, are available at the Gainesville Campus, while associate degrees are offered at both the Gainesville and Oconee campuses. As of Fall 2014, the Gainesville campus is now offering a bachelor's degree in Communication and offering three concentrations in Film and Digital Media, Multimedia Journalism, and Organizational Leadership.
Professional and continuing education Some of the programs provided include leadership development, photography classes, computer training, English and foreign language classes, travel, and industry certifications. These courses are designed to help people and businesses with job growth as well as recruitment. Courses can be taken at any University of North Georgia campus for an assorted fee. UNG also provides thousands of online professional and continuing education classes if you are unable to take classes on campus. UNG also provides space for events such as corporate events, meetings, conferences or camps. Accommodations for events include conference rooms, auditoriums, classrooms, dining, wireless internet, and parking. By contacting the professional and continuing education department any business can hold an event at UNG as well as outside camps. Camps provided by the university include academic and athletic camps for kids and students. On the Gainesville and Dahlonega campuses, anyone who is not a student at the university is able to pay a fee for a gym membership and use the recreational facilities located on those campuses.
Student life Undergraduate demographics as of Fall 2023 Race and ethnicityTotal White Hispanic Black Two or more races Asian International student Unknown Economic diversity Low-income Affluent The University of North Georgia has 18,219 undergraduate students with a gender distribution of 44% male and 56% female. With 70% of students being full-time, Student life at UNG varies between campuses due to the differences in student housing accommodation of the two primary campuses in Dahlonega and Gainesville. Out of the 7,541 undergraduate students attending the Dahlonega campus, 36% live in college-owned housing. Unlike the Gainesville campus, which offers no student housing, the Dahlonega campus has a permanent residing student body of roughly 2,500 throughout most of the fall and spring semesters.
Approximately 32% of students at the Gainesville and Oconee campuses are from the counties in which the campus is located (Hall and Oconee counties). The Gainesville and Oconee campuses are located on the outskirts of the city of Gainesville and the city of Watkinsville, respectively. 29% of students at the Gainesville campus are part-time, 'non-traditional' (23 years of age or greater).