Grambling State University

Grambling State University (GSU) is a historically black, public, coeducational university, located in Grambling, Louisiana. The university is the home of late head football coach Eddie Robinson, and is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. The university is a member-school of the University of Louisiana System and Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Grambling State was founded in 1901 and accredited in 1949. The school became Grambling College in 1946 named after a white sawmill owner, P. G. Grambling, who donated a parcel of land for the school to be constructed. With the addition of graduate departments, Grambling gained university status in 1974. Grambling State University emerged from the desire of African-American farmers in rural north Louisiana who wanted to educate other African Americans in the northern part of the state. In 1896, the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association was formed to organize and operate a school. After opening a small school west of what is now the town of Grambling, the Association requested assistance from Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Charles P. Adams, sent to aid the group in organizing an industrial school, became its founder and first president. Under Adams' leadership, the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School opened on November 1, 1901. Four years later, the school moved to its present location and was renamed the North Louisiana Agricultural and Industrial School. By 1928, the school was able to offer two-year professional certificates and diplomas after becoming a state junior college. The school was renamed Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1936, the program was reorganized to emphasize rural education. It became known as "The Louisiana Plan" or "A Venture in Rural Teacher Education." Professional teaching certificates were awarded when a third year was added in 1936, and the first baccalaureate degree was awarded in 1944 in elementary education. The institution's name was changed to Grambling College in 1946 in honor of a white sawmill owner, P.G. Grambling, who donated a parcel of land for the school. Thereafter, the college prepared secondary teachers and added curricula in sciences, liberal arts and business. With these programs in effect, the school was transformed from a single purpose institution of teacher education into a multipurpose college. In 1949, the college was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The Grambling science building is one of twenty-six public structures in Louisiana constructed by the contractor George A. Caldwell. In 1974, the addition of graduate programs in early childhood and elementary education gave the school a new status and a new name - Grambling State University. From 1977 to 2000, the university grew and prospered. Several new academic programs were incorporated and new facilities were added to the 384-acre (1.55 km2) campus, including a business and computer science building, school of nursing, student services building, stadium, stadium support facility and an intramural sports center. In 2006, Grambling State was the setting for the Black Entertainment Television network docudrama "Season of the Tiger," which chronicled the daily lives of members of the football team and marching band throughout the 2005 season. State Representative George B. Holstead of Ruston, whose grandfather had been instrumental in the founding of Louisiana Tech, worked to increase state appropriations for both Louisiana Tech and Grambling State University during his legislative tenure from 1964-1980. Grambling State is accredited by 18 separate accrediting associations, a member in good standing in 20 organizations and is 100% accredited in all of the programs required by the Louisiana Board of Regents. Following the first university president Charles P. Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones became the second president and the highly successful baseball coach from 1936 until his retirement in 1977. Five presidents served from 1977 to 2001: Dr. Joseph Benjamin Johnson, Dr. Harold W. Lundy, Dr. Raymond Hicks, Dr. Leonard Haynes III and Dr. Steve A. Favors. The advent of a new millennium and the beginning of a second century of service ushered in Grambling State University's first female president, Dr. Neari Francois Warner. Warner served a three-year interim term. Dr. Horace Judson, who became the institution's seventh president in 2004, led the most ambitious 5-year campaign to rebuild the institution's facilities. On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, Judson announced his resignation effective October 31, 2009. Dr. Frank Pogue, who became the institution's eighth president in 2009. On April 4, 2014, Pouge announced his retirement effective June 30,2014. The current Interim President is Dr. Cynthia Warrick. The Grambling Tigers represent Grambling State University in NCAA intercollegiate athletics. Grambling's sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (Football Championship Subdivision for football) in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). Currently, the Grambling State University Department of Athletics sponsors Men's Intercollegiate football, along with men's and women's basketball, baseball, track & field, softball, golf, soccer, tennis, bowling and volleyball. GSU's World Famed Tiger Marching Band is a historic marching band with many special accolades and accomplishments. For instance, they are the only collegiate marching band in the nation to perform at two consecutive presidential inaugurations. "World Famed" was founded in 1926 and is one of the premier ambassadors of the university. One of "World Famed" most anticipated traditions is the "Battle of The Bands" event against the Southern University's Human Jukebox during Bayou Classic weekend in the Superdome. The yearly event attract tens of thousands of alumni, fans, and spectators. Alumni of Grambling State include numerous MLB, NBA and NFL players, public officials, journalists, businessmen and artists, including Willie Brown of the Oakland Raiders and NFL Hall of Fame, Eight-time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman is a noted alumnus, as is alumna actress Natalie Desselle-Reid. Grammy-winner Erykah Badu attended Grambling State University and once served as a campus Queen, although she began concentrating on music full-time and dropped out before graduating. New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow is also an alumnus. Alumna Pinkie C. Wilkerson, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 until her death in an automobile accident on August 1, 2000. Former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams, is not only an alumnus, but previously served as the Tigers head football coach. West coast bay area rap artist E-40 also attended Grambling State University. Alumnus Ahmad Terry, former Rocky Mountain News Staff photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner 2000 and 2003. *Pulitzer Prize Grambling State University graduate, Stephanie Finley, was nominated as U.S. Attorney for Louisiana's Western District by President Barack Obama. Award winning and world renowned jazz artist Michael Thomas is a Grambling alumnus and was a member of the Tiger Marching Band along with jazz artists Lovett Hines and Bob French. Professor Alma Dawson,B.S., is a scholar of library and information science who held the Russell B. Long Professorship at Louisiana State University.

Ball State University

Ball State University, commonly referred to as Ball State or BSU, is a public coeducational research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. On July 25, 1917, the Ball Brothers, industrialists and founders of the Ball Corporation, acquired the foreclosed Indiana Normal Institute for $35,100 and gave the school and surrounding land to Indiana. The Indiana General Assembly accepted it in the spring of 1918, with an initial 235 students enrolling at the Indiana State Normal School-Eastern Division on June 17, 1918. Ball State is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a high research activity university and a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The university is composed of seven academic colleges, including the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Communication, Information, and Media, the Miller College of Business, and Teachers College. Other institutions include Burris Laboratory School, the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, and the Center for Business and Economic Research. Total 2013 enrollment consists of 21,053 students, 16,652 undergraduate students and 4,401 graduate students. Ball State University students hail from 48 states, two U.S. territories, 43 countries, and every one of Indiana's 92 counties. The university offers about 180 undergraduate majors and 130 minor areas of study, 175 bachelor's, 103 master's, and 17 doctoral degrees. There are 381 active student organizations and clubs on campus, including 34 fraternities and sororities. Ball State athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Ball State Cardinals. The university is a member of the Mid-American Conference and the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The location of today's Ball State University had its start in 1876 as a private university called the Eastern Indiana Normal School. The entire school, including classrooms, library, and president's residence were housed in what is today's Frank A. Bracken Administration Building. The one-building school had a peak enrollment of 256 and charged $10 for a year's tuition. It operated until the spring of 1901, when it was closed by its president, F.A.Z. Kumler, due to lack of funding. A year later, in the autumn of 1902, the school reopened as Palmer University for the next three years when Francis Palmer, a retired Indiana banker, gave the school a $100,000 endowment. Between 1905 and 1917, the school dropped the Palmer name and operated as the Indiana Normal College. It had two divisions, the Normal School for educating teachers and the College of Applied Sciences. The school had an average enrollment of about 200 students. Due to diminishing enrollment and lack of funding, school president Francis Ingler closed Indiana Normal College at the end of the 1906-1907 school year. Between 1907 and 1912, the campus sat unused. In 1912, a group of local investors led by Michael Kelly reopened the school as the Indiana Normal Institute. To pay for updated materials and refurbishing the once-abandoned Administration Building, the school operated under a mortgage from the Muncie Trust Company. Although the school had its largest student body with a peak enrollment of 806, officials could not maintain mortgage payments, and the school was forced to close once again in June 1917 when the Muncie Trust Company initiated foreclosure proceedings. On July 25, 1917, the Ball Brothers, local industrialists and founders of the Ball Corporation, bought the Indiana Normal Institute from foreclosure. The Ball Brothers also founded Ball Memorial Hospital and Minnetrista, and were the benefactors of Keuka College, founded by their uncle, George Harvey Ball. For $35,100, the Ball brothers bought the Administration Building and surrounding land. In early 1918, during the Indiana General Assembly's short session, state legislators accepted the gift of the school and land by the Ball Brothers. The state granted operating control of the Muncie campus and school buildings to the administrators of the Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. That same year, the Marion Normal Institute relocated to Muncie, adding its resources to what would officially be named the Indiana State Normal School, Eastern Division. An initial 235 students enrolled on June 17, 1918, with William W. Parsons assuming the role as first president of the university. The close relationship between the Balls and the school led to an unofficial moniker for the college, with many students, faculty, and local politicians casually referring to the school as "Ball State," a shorthand alternative to its longer, official name. During the 1922 short session of the Indiana legislature, the state renamed the school as Ball Teachers College. This was in recognition to the Ball family's continuing beneficence to the institution. During this act, the state also reorganized its relationship with Terre Haute and established a separate local board of trustees for the Muncie campus. In 1924, Ball Teachers College's trustees hired Benjamin J. Burris as the successor to President Linnaeus N. Hines. The Ball brothers continued giving to the university and partially funded the construction of the Science Hall now called Burkhardt Building in 1924 and an addition to Ball Gymnasium in 1925. By the 1925-1926 school year, Ball State enrollment reached 991 students: 697 women and 294 men. Based on the school's close relationship with the Ball Corporation, a long-running nickname for the school was "Fruit Jar Tech." During the regular legislative session of 1929, the General Assembly formally separated the Terre Haute and Muncie campuses of the state teachers college system, but it placed the governing of the Ball State campus under the Indiana State Teachers College Board of Trustees based in Terre Haute. With this action, the school was renamed Ball State Teachers College. The following year, enrollment increased to 1,118, with 747 female and 371 male students. In 1935, the school added the Fine Arts Building for art, music, and dance instruction. Enrollment that year reached 1,151: 723 women and 428 men. As an expression of the many gifts from the Ball family since 1917, sculptor Daniel Chester French was commissioned by Muncie's chamber of commerce to cast a bronze fountain figure to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Ball brothers' gift to the state. His creation, the statue Beneficence, still stands today between the Administration Building and Lucina Hall where Talley Avenue ends at University Avenue. In 1961, Ball State became fully independent of Indiana State University through the creation of the Ball State College Board of Trustees. The official name of the school was also changed to Ball State College. The Indiana General Assembly approved the development of a state-assisted architecture program, establishing the College of Architecture and Planning, which opened on March 23, 1965. The Center for Radio and Television (now named the College of Communication, Information, and Media) opened the following year, in 1966.

Henderson State University

Henderson State University, founded in 1890 as Arkadelphia Methodist College, is a four-year public liberal arts university located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, United States. It is Arkansas's only member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Henderson's curricula based on the belief that a liberal arts education is essential for all undergraduates; Henderson utilizes a program based on a core of courses in the arts and sciences. The school owns and operates radio station KSWH-FM, as well as the local Public-access television cable TV channel, HTV on Suddenlink's channel 9. Henderson State University, was founded on March 23, 1890 as Arkadelphia Methodist College. The university was renamed for Charles Christopher Henderson, a Trustee and prominent Arkadelphia businessman, in 1904. In 1911 the name was changed to Henderson-Brown College to honor Walter Brown. The state convention decided to close the institution down after thirty nine years of Methodist control and combine it with Hendrix College in Conway. The student body, administration, and local population strongly disagreed with the idea and after negotiations with state lawmakers, Henderson-Brown was turned over to the state to prevent the merger. Then in 1929, the institution became known as Henderson State Teachers College. Hendrix was renamed Hendrix-Henderson College, and remained so for about two years before returning to Hendrix College. After becoming a public institution, Henderson State Teachers College began to expand at a rate never envisioned while it was under Methodist control. Six major buildings were built during the Great Depression alone. After World War II, the enrollment nearly doubled to about 500 students. Graduate classes were first offered in 1951 through the University of Arkansas. In 1955, the school's first graduate degree program began. To reflect the change, the name was changed to Henderson State College in 1967 and again in 1975 to Henderson State University. Henderson has an excellent academic record. It has produced numerous Rhodes, Fulbright, and Rotary International scholars. It serves as Arkansas's only member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Currently, degree programs are offered through the Matt Locke Ellis College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the School of Education, and the Graduate School. Henderson has its own degree program in nursing, and it also provides the academic program for the Baptist School of Nursing. The university offers the state's only four-year bachelor of science degree in aviation. The enrollment in the fall of 2012 was 3,773. Henderson State University has an urban campus. Some of the buildings include the Donald W. Reynolds Science Center, Arkansas Hall, McBrien Hall, Mooney Hall, Womack Hall, the Garrison Activity and Conference Center, and Sturgis Hall. Sturgis Hall is a three story building that provides classrooms, laboratories, offices, and student housing for the Honors College. McBrien Hall provides classrooms, offices, labs, and conference rooms for the English, social sciences, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and foreign languages programs. It also holds the administrative offices for Ellis College of Arts and Sciences. The Huie Library serves as the university's library. The library is named after the university's first full-time librarian, Minnie Bell Huie (1934). The library holds over 300,000 books, 100 databases, and 60 student computers. Ellis College is named after Henderson's tenth president and distinguished graduate, Matt Locke Ellis. It was created in 1989 through a reorganization of the existing Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, and Natural Sciences schools. Allows students to major and earn degrees in Accounting or Business administration. The School of Business offers the only university level aviation program in the state of Arkansas. The degree programs are accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The aviation program acts under the direction and rules of Federal Aviation Administration and is in the process of obtaining their own collegiate accreditation. Henderson State University is an NCAA Division II school and competes in the Great American Conference. The schools sports teams in Baseball, Basketball (Men and Women), Cross Country (Women), Football, Golf (Men and Women), Softball, Swimming (Men and Women), Tennis, and Volleyball. The Battle of the Ravine is a rivalry game between Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University. It is currently the oldest rivalry of any NCAA Division II institutions.[citation needed] The first game was played on November 8, 1895 (Thanksgiving Day) and Ouachita College beat Arkadelphia Methodist College, 8-0. The next meeting did not occur until 1907 in the first sanctioned game of the series. The Reddies defeated Ouachita and went on to claim the Arkansa State Championship. The Reddies went on to win the next six meetings and the game was played on Thanksgiving Day. Both teams also made the game their homecoming. The series was discontinued in 1951 after Henderson won, 54-0, and the pranks got out of control. The series resumed in 1963 with the Reddies, winning 28-13. The series continued until 1993 when Henderson State moved to the NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference. It continued again in 1996 when Ouachita Baptist University moved to the Lone Star Conference. OBU joined the GSC in 2000 and the two schools did not play each other in 2004 or 2005 as a result of schedule rotation. In total, the two schools have met 85 times. Henderson State currently leads the series, 41-39-6.

The University of California

The University of California, Santa Cruz (also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC), is a public, collegiate university and one of 10 campuses in the University of California system. Located 75 miles (120 km) south of San Francisco at the edge of the coastal community of Santa Cruz, the campus lies on 2,001 acres (810 ha) of rolling, forested hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Monterey Bay. Founded in 1965, UC Santa Cruz began as a showcase for progressive, cross-disciplinary undergraduate education, innovative teaching methods and contemporary architecture. Since then, it has evolved into a modern research university with a wide variety of both undergraduate and graduate programs, while retaining its reputation for strong undergraduate support and student political activism. The residential college system, which consists of ten small colleges, is intended to combine the student support of a small college with the resources of a major university. Although some of the original founders had already outlined plans for an institution like UCSC as early as the 1930s, the opportunity to realize their vision did not present itself until the City of Santa Cruz made a bid to the University of California Regents in the mid-1950s to build a campus just outside town, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Santa Cruz site was selected over a competing proposal to build the campus closer to the population center of San Jose. Santa Cruz was selected for the beauty, rather than the practicality, of its location, however, and its remoteness led to the decision to develop a residential college system that would house most of the students on-campus. The formal design process of the Santa Cruz campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963. Construction had started by 1964, and the University was able to accommodate its first students (albeit living in trailers on what is now the East Field athletic area) in 1965. The campus was intended to be a showcase for contemporary architecture, progressive teaching methods, and undergraduate research. According to founding chancellor Dean McHenry, the purpose of the distributed college system was to combine the benefits of a major research university with the intimacy of a smaller college. UC President Clark Kerr shared a passion with former Stanford roommate McHenry to build a university modeled as "several Swarthmores" (i.e., small liberal arts colleges) in close proximity to each other. Roads on campus were named after UC Regents who voted in favor of building the campus. Although the city of Santa Cruz already exhibited a strong conservation ethic before the founding of the university, the coincidental rise of the counterculture of the 1960s with the university's establishment fundamentally altered its subsequent development. Early student and faculty activism at UCSC pioneered an approach to environmentalism that greatly impacted the industrial development of the surrounding area. The lowering of the voting age to 18 in 1971 led to the emergence of a powerful student-voting bloc. A large and growing population of politically liberal UCSC alumni changed the electorate of the town from predominantly Republican to markedly left-leaning, consistently voting against expansion measures on the part of both town and gown. Plans for increasing enrollment to 19,500 students and adding 1,500 faculty and staff by 2020, and the anticipated environmental impacts of such action, encountered opposition from the city, the local community, and the student body. City voters in 2006 passed two measures calling on UCSC to pay for the impacts of campus growth. A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge invalidated the measures, ruling they were improperly put on the ballot. In 2008, the university, city, county and neighborhood organizations reached an agreement to set aside numerous lawsuits and allow the expansion to occur. UCSC agreed to local government scrutiny of its north campus expansion plans, to provide housing for 67 percent of the additional students on campus, and to pay municipal development and water fees. George Blumenthal, UCSC's 10th Chancellor, intends to mitigate growth constraints in Santa Cruz by developing off-campus sites in Silicon Valley. The NASA Ames Research Center campus is planned to ultimately hold 2,000 UCSC students - about 10% of the entire university's future student body as envisioned for 2020. In April 2010, UC Santa Cruz opened its new $35 million Digital Arts Research Center; a project in planning since 2004. The 2,000-acre (810 ha) UCSC campus is located 75 miles (121 km) south of San Francisco, in the Ben Lomond Mountain ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Elevation varies from 285 feet (87 m) at the campus entrance to 1,195 feet (364 m) at the northern boundary, a difference of about 900 feet (270 m). The southern portion of the campus primarily consists of a large, open meadow, locally known as the Great Meadow. To the north of the meadow lie most of the campus' buildings, many of them among redwood groves. The campus is bounded on the south by the city's upper-west-side neighborhoods, on the east by Harvey West Park and the Pogonip open space preserve, on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near the town of Felton, and on the west by Gray Whale Ranch, a portion of Wilder Ranch State Park. The campus is built on a portion of the Cowell Family ranch, which was purchased by the University of California in 1961. The northern half of the campus property has remained in its undeveloped, forested state apart from fire roads and hiking and bicycle trails. The heavily forested area has allowed UC Santa Cruz to operate a recreational vehicle park as a form of student housing.

Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public university located in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and has 36 satellite campuses in the state of Arizona. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. As of fall 2014, 27,715 students were enrolled, 20,134 at the Flagstaff campus. The average cost of tuition and fees for a full-time, Arizona resident undergraduate student for two semesters is $9,692. NAU offers Flagstaff undergraduate students the Pledge Program that guarantees the same tuition rate for four years. For the Fall 2013 school year, out-of-state undergraduates will pay an estimated $22,094 for tuition and fees. NAU also participates in the Western Undergraduate Exchange Program, which offers lower tuition rates for students from the Western United States. WUE tuition rates for fall 2013 are $12,680. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classifies NAU as a research university with high research activity. Initially named the Northern Arizona Normal School, the institution was established on September 11, 1899. The first graduating class, in 1901, consisted of four women who received credentials to teach in the Arizona Territory. In 1925, the Arizona State Legislature allowed the school, which was now called the Northern Arizona State Teacher's College, to grant Bachelor of Education degrees. In 1929 the school became Arizona State Teacher's College. Enrollment dropped sharply, however, at the beginning of World War II. ASTC became a Navy V-12 program training site. Perched at 6,950 feet (2,120 m) above sea level, the third highest four year college campus in the country, the main campus is surrounded by the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest on the North American continent[11] and enjoys a four-season climate. Snow is common in winter, with accumulations most prevalent in January, February and March. Winter skiing is accessible at Arizona Snowbowl, an alpine ski resort located on the San Francisco Peaks, 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Flagstaff. NAU offers 87 bachelor degree programs, 48 master's degree programs and 10 doctoral degree programs, along with 38 undergraduate and 26 graduate certificates. The university was charged by the Arizona Board of Regents in 2006 to develop innovative ways to provide access and affordability to all Arizona residents. NAU developed the Pledge Program,2NAU partnerships with community colleges and NAU-Yavapai, a collaboration with Yavapai College in Prescott Valley, Ariz. NAU-Yuma just celebrated its 25th anniversary of the partnership with Arizona Western College. Northern Arizona University is a public university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission North Central Association. In addition to 19,000 students on the Flagstaff campus, NAU currently serves more than 7,000 students statewide. NAU's Extended Campuses offer more than 50 online accredited degree programs on more than 30 campuses throughout the state. NAU is the first public university to offer a competency-based online degree program that allows students to earn credit for experience. Personalized Learning was launched in May 2013, and federal financial aid is available for the program, which has a flat fee of $5,000 per year. NAU is the first university in Arizona to attain program accreditation from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators (NCATE). Additional accreditations include Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and Hotel and Restaurant Management has earned accreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration, an honor earned by fewer than 20% of the nation's baccalaureate degree-granting programs in the field. NAU's Extended Campuses students pay the lowest per-credit-hour tuition and Flagstaff offers an affordable locked-in tuition. The College of Arts and Letters (CAL) houses the Asian Studies Program, Cinema Studies, Comparative Cultural Studies (formerly Humanities, Arts, and Religion), English, History, Latin American Studies, Modern Languages, Museum Studies, Philosophy, School of Art, School of Music, and Theatre. The college also oversees the NAU Art Museum, Martin-Springer Institute (promoting lessons of the Holocaust), Northern Arizona Writing Project, Ardrey Memorial Auditorium, and Ashurst Hall. The College of Arts and Letters Film Series has been providing quality classic films to the NAU and Flagstaff community for more than nine years, and the NAU International Film Series has recently been established. Department faculty and students share their scholarly work and artistic achievement through more than 300 performances, lectures, films, and exhibitions a year. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences undergraduate programs include anthropology, applied indigenous studies, criminology and criminal justice, ethnic studies, geography, planning and recreation, political science, psychology, communication, sociology/social work, and women's and gender studies. The W.A. Franke College of Business's primary focus is undergraduate education, but it also offers a master's level education and research opportunities. Businessman Bill Franke's commitment of $25 million resulted in the renaming of the college in his honor. The W.A. Franke College of Business was fully re-accredited in fall 2008 by the national accrediting body AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The NAU program is one of about 400 accredited programs among the more than 1,000 throughout the nation. In 2006, the college moved into a new 111,000-square-foot (10,300 m2), LEED-certified building.

University of Central Oklahoma

The University of Central Oklahoma, often referred to as UCO, is a coeducational public university located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The university is the third largest in Oklahoma, with more than 17,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founded in 1890,[4] the University of Central Oklahoma was one of the first institutions of higher learning to be established in what would become the state of Oklahoma, making it one of the oldest universities in the southwest region of the United States of America. It is home to the American branch of the British Academy of Contemporary Music in downtown Oklahoma City, directed by noted indie music agent and manager Scott Booker. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized the University of Central Oklahoma as the 2009-2010 Individual Conference Champion for using more green power than any other school in the Lone Star Conference. The University of Central Oklahoma was founded on December 24, 1890, when the Territorial Legislature voted to establish the Territorial Normal School, making UCO the oldest public institution of higher education in Oklahoma. Classes were first held in November 1891. By comparison, Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) held its first classes in December 1891 and the University of Oklahoma began in fall 1892. The Territorial Legislature located the new school in Edmond, provided certain conditions were met. First, Oklahoma County had to donate $5,000 in bonds, and Edmond had to donate 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land within one mile (1.6 km) of the town; the land was eventually donated by Anton Classen. Ten of those acres had to be set aside for the new school. The remaining land had to be divided into lots which would be sold to raise money for the new school. On October 1, 1891 Richard Thatcher was elected the 1st President of Territorial Normal School of Oklahoma. The conditions all were met, with the city of Edmond donating an additional $2,000 in bonds. The first class, a group of 23 students, met for the first time Nov. 1, 1891, in the Epworth League Room, located in the unfurnished First Methodist Church. A marker of Oklahoma granite was placed in 1915 near the original site by the Central Oklahoma Normal School Historical Society. It can be seen at Boulevard and Second Street. Old North Tower was the first building constructed in the summer of 1892 on the campus of what was then Territorial Normal School. It was also the first building constructed in Oklahoma Territory for the purpose of higher education. Occupancy began January 3, 1893. The school first operated as a normal school with two years of college work and a complete preparatory school. In 1897, the first graduating class two men and three women received their Normal School diplomas. In 1904, Territorial Normal became Central State Normal School. Statehood was still three years away. On Dec. 29, 1919, the State Board of Education passed a resolution making Central a four-year teachers' college conferring bachelor's degrees. From 1901 until 1961, UCO housed a laboratory school in which local elementary schoolchildren were schooled by UCO faculty and soon-to-be teaching graduates. Two years later, the Class of 1921 had nine members, the first graduates to receive the four-year degrees. Two decades later, Central State Teacher's College became Central State College. In 1939, the Oklahoma Legislature authorized the institution to grant both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the school was routinely affected by state politics. Presidents and sometimes faculty members, were changed with changes in state governors. In 1950, President Max W. Chambers banned solicitations of campaign donations from faculty members. This resulted in more stability of the school administration. On March 11, 1941, Central State became part of a coordinated state system of post-secondary education overseen by the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education, and joined institutions with similar missions as a regional institution. In 1954, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education gave Central permission to offer the Master of Teaching Degree, which became the Master of Education in 1969. In 1971, the college was authorized to grant the Master of Arts in English and the Master of Business Administration degrees. On April 13, 1971, the state legislature officially changed the institution's name to Central State University. Old North Tower was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. On May 18, 1990, during the university's Centennial Year, legislation was passed changing the name to the University of Central Oklahoma, though many of the students still refer to the University as "Central", and many alumni as "Central State.

University of Findlay

The University of Findlay (UF) is a private university in Findlay, Ohio. It was affiliated with the Churches of God General Conference. Nearly 3,700 students are enrolled at Findlay, with more than 2,700 undergraduate and nearly 1,000 graduate students. Approximately 1,300 students live on campus in University housing. Approximately 340 full-time and part-time faculty teach regular and online classes, with a student-to-faculty ratio of. The University of Findlay encompasses more than 388 acres, including its 73-acre main campus and six off-campus facilities. UF has been recognized as a "Best in the Midwest" college by the Princeton Review. UF ranks consistently in the top tier of U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" in the Midwest and was also named to the "A+ Schools for B Students" list for the second year. UF has been recognized as one of "America's Best Private Colleges" by Institutional Research and Evaluation Inc., an independent research organization specializing in higher education. In addition, the city of Findlay was chosen as one of Ohio's Best Hometowns for 2012-2013 by the editors of Ohio Magazine. The predecessor of The University of Findlay, Findlay College, was founded on January 28, 1882 by the city of Findlay and the Churches of God General Conference. By 1897, the college had established an endowment of more than $100,000 and boasted sixteen faculty members. In 1989, Findlay College became known as the University of Findlay. The campus, still affiliated with the Church of God, embarked on a building campaign, adding five new buildings over the next several years. By the start of the twenty-first century, the institution boasted sixty-five different areas of undergraduate study and eight graduate programs. The university is especially well known for its equestrian studies program and offers equestrian riding as a varsity sport. The University of Findlay has experienced substantial growth over the past couple of decades and tripled in size of enrollment, staff, and facilities. For example, recently in 2012, the university added structures to Davis Street to host its esteemed pharmacy program. The University of Findlay has nearly 60 majors leading to baccalaureate degrees and offers nine master's degrees, a doctor of pharmacy, and a doctor of physical therapy. Unusual and well-recognized programs include equestrian studies, pre-veterinary medicine animal science/pre-veterinary medicine option, nuclear medicine technology, occupational therapy and physical therapy, as well as environmental, safety and occupational health management. Findlay offers more than 65 areas of undergraduate study. Some of its most popular majors include: business, education, pharmacy, equestrian studies, pre-veterinary medicine, nuclear medicine technology, and environmental safety and occupational health management. Its equestrian studies program is nationally recognized. The University of Findlay established the nation's first bachelor's degree in hazardous waste studies, now known as environmental, safety and occupational health management. The All Hazards Training Center,[4] which grew from that initial program, has provided hands-on training simulations to more than 100,000 people from a wide range of backgrounds, including industry leaders and government officials involved in emergency planning, response and recovery.