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University of North Alabama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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University of North Alabama |
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| Established | 1830 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | $16,417,822 |
| President | William Cale |
| Faculty | 322 |
| Undergraduates | 6,950 |
| Postgraduates | 657 |
| Location | Florence, AL, USA |
| Campus | Urban, 130 acres (0.526 km²) |
| Colors | purple and gold |
| Nickname | Lions |
| Mascot | Leo & Una |
| Website | http://www.una.edu |
The University of North Alabama (abbreviated UNA) is a public coeducational university located in Florence, Alabama.
Contents |
The University of North Alabama first opened its doors as LaGrange College on January 11, 1830, in a mountain hamlet a few miles south of Leighton in northeast Franklin County, Alabama. LaGrange means "The Place" in French. Twenty-one local college trustees were listed in Acts of Alabama, Eleventh Annual Session (Tuscaloosa: McGuire, Henry and Walker, State Printers, 1830), pp. 41-43.
Today only a nine-ton stone monument silently guards the ghosts of the once bustling little town of LaGrange and its vibrant college, both of which were sacked and burned by Union troops in 1863. But by then, however, the college, as such, had moved north across the Tennessee River to Florence. The section of Franklin County containing LaGrange Mountain is now Colbert County. LaGrange College, which became Florence Wesleyan University in 1855, is now the University of North Alabama.
LaGrange College arose from the idea offered at a November 28, 1826 meeting of the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to establish a college which would not be “religious or theological. By January 1829, the selection of Lawrence Hill on LaGrange Mountain was made for the site of the school.
A year later, LaGrange College opened to students of all denominations in two three-story brick buildings. (This was slightly more than a year before the University of Alabama would open in Tuscaloosa.) Eight days after the opening of LaGrange College, the Alabama Legislature issued a charter for the institution, making it the first state-chartered institution to begin operation in Alabama. Other colleges were in operation, but not chartered by the state.
The Rev. Robert Paine was the first president. The North Carolina native was also the professor of moral science and belles letters and taught geography and mineralogy. He was assisted by two other professors. The first board of trustees had a total of 50 members, including two Native Americans, a Choctaw politician and a Cherokee leader. In 1830, Turner Saunders, a native of Virginia, was the first President of the Board of Trustees. Saunders' mansion c1826 still stands in Lawrence County. Among the many distant trustees was John Coffee of Florence, friend of Andrew Jackson. Among the local trustees was Henry Stuart Foote of Tuscumbia, who would move to Mississippi and defeat Jefferson Davis in the 1850 Governor's race. J.D. Malone, of Limestone County, was the first graduate in 1833.
In 1850, a grammar school was added to LaGrange College. (Today, UNA has the only university-owned and operated elementary laboratory school - Kilby Professional Laboratory School - in Alabama.)
Among LaGrange's alumni were several generals, Alabama governors Edward A. O'Neal and David P. Lewis, Alabama Supreme Court justice William M. Byrd and U.S. Senator Jeremiah Clemens, who wrote the first American Civil War novel and the first western novel.
LaGrange graduate Dr. R.H. Rivers, after becoming president of the college, led most of the students and all but one faculty member from the mountain in late 1854 to relocate to Florence. The school was re-incorporated as Florence Wesleyan University. One hundred and 60 students enrolled in the first year of operation (1855) of Florence Wesleyan University. The school quickly attracted students from five states and two foreign countries. The War Between the States bestowed much hardship on the institution. Among Florence Wesleyan’s graduates were Alabama governor Emmitt O'Neal and Texas governor Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross (the latter of whose tenure as president of Texas A&M University was known as the 'golden age' of that institution).
When the Methodist Church deeded Florence Wesleyan to the State of Alabama in 1872, the institution became the State Normal School at Florence, the first state-supported teachers college south of the Ohio River. Shortly thereafter, it became one of the first co-educational institutions in the nation. A year after its becoming a state school, the institution opened its doors to women; however, none attended until 1874, when 31 young women enrolled. The first woman joined the faculty in 1879.
The University of North Alabama has had nine name changes since its foundation in 1830 as LaGrange College. The lineage of UNA and its name changes are as follows:
LaGrange College – 1830, Florence Wesleyan University – 1855, State Normal School at Florence – 1872, State Normal College – 1889, State Normal School – 1913, Florence State Teachers College – 1929, Florence State College – 1957, Florence State University – 1968, University of North Alabama – 1974
The Presidents of the University of North Alabama and their terms are:
1830 - 46: Rev. Robert Paine; 1847 - 52: Dr. Edward Wadsworth; 1852 - 53: Rev. James Ward Hardy; 1853: Smith W. Moore (acting); 1854 - 61: Dr. R. H. Rivers; 1862 - 65: Robert A. Young; 1865 - 68: Septimus P. Rice (acting); 1872 - 73: Transition from church to state; 1868 - 71: William H. Anderson; 1873 - 81: Septimus P. Rice; 1881 - 85: Dr. Hardie A. Brown; 1885 - 86: Dr. James A. Heard; 1885 - 87: Dr. T. J. Mitchell; 1887 - 97: James Knox Powers; 1897 - 1911: Marshall C. Wilson; 1911 - 13: Dr. James Knox Powers; 1913: Robert Harrison (acting – 3 months); 1913 - 38: Dr. Henry J. Willingham; 1938 - 48: Dr. James Albert Keller; 1948: F. E. Lund (acting – 3 months); 1948 - 72: Dr. Ethelbert B. Norton; 1972 - 89: Robert M. Guillot; 1990: Robert L. Potts (acting – 7 months); 1990 - 2004: Robert L. Potts; 2004 - 2005: Dr. G. Garry Warren (acting – 6 months); 2005 - present: Dr. William G. Cale, Jr.
University Academic Programs
79 majors Graduate programs - Business administration, counseling, criminal justice, education and English
Colleges - Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Nursing/Allied Health
Accreditations:
UNA – Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/ UNA College of Education – National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education/ UNA College of Business – Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs/ UNA College of Nursing & Allied Health - National League for Nursing Accrediting Commissions/ UNA Department of Social Work (& Criminal Justice) – The Council on Social Work Education/ UNA Department of Music – The National Association of Schools of Music/ UNA Department of Art – The National Association of Schools of Art and Design/ UNA Department of (Chemistry &) Industrial Hygiene – Applied Science Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc./ UNA English as a Second Language program – Commission on English Language Program Accreditation
Certification:
UNA Department of Chemistry (& Industrial Hygiene) – The American Chemical Society
Endorsement:
UNA Department of Human Environmental Sciences – National Kitchen and Bath Association
UNA has been listed in the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges and the Gourman Study.
UNA has six national titles competing in NCAA Division II's Gulf South Conference. The Lion football team claimed the only three-peat in NCAA Scholarship Football in 1993, 1994, and 1995. The Lion men's basketball team won the Division II Basketball Tournament in 1979 and 1991, making UNA the only NCAA school to have multiple titles in the top college revenue sports of football and men's basketball. The Lady Lion Volleyball squad claimed the school's sixth national title in 2003. They most recently finished runner-up in 2006, while the football team was runner-up in 1985.
UNA once again boasts the only live Lion mascot in the country living on campus. On July 22, 1974, former UNA president Dr. Robert M. Guillot brought a 35-pound lion cub to the campus and Leo spent the next 14 years "roaring" the school to victory. The original Leo died on Jan. 20, 1988, and a great outpouring of support from the Shoals community resulted in Leo II being brought to UNA in July of 1988. Leo II lived in the compound that once housed the original Leo and grew to a weight of more than 600 pounds at eleven years of age. In 1997, Leo II was selected as the nation's "Second Best Mascot" by Sports Illustrated. He died in February of 2000. Leo III and Una, born on November 18, 2002, now reside on the campus in the 12,764 square-foot George H. Carroll Lion Habitat. UNA's other mascot, a student who dons a lion costume to cheer the Lions and entertain the crowd, also represents the school at athletic games and other university functions. Tryouts are held each year and the identity of the student is kept secret for as long as possible.
The University is also recognized throughout the Southeast for the outstanding quality of the Pride of Dixie Marching Band. At over 180 members, the group is the largest organization on campus and serves as at major contributor of school spirit, especially at athletic events. The UNA Marching Band performs at all home football games, local parades and travels the state performing in exhibition at high school competitions. They are known for precision marching and drill design, while entertaining with strongly played jazz standards.
The UNA Cheerleading Squad competed in the UCA National Cheerleading Championship finals in 2006, placing seventh, and 2007, placing eighth.
In the spring, Step Sing is a well-attended event in Norton Auditorium featuring take-offs of musical comedy production numbers by campus organizations.
- Tony Dorsey, pro-basketball player with the Newcastle Eagles
- Harlon Hill, former NFL player, namesake of the NCAA Division II "Harlon Hill" trophy.
- George "Goober" Lindsey, actor
- Pam Long, scriptwriter (Guiding Light)
- Wimp Sanderson, former University of Alabama head basketball coach.
- Thomas Sigismund Stribling, Pulitzer prize-winning writer
- Ronald McKinnon, NFL player, Harlon Hill trophy winner
| Gulf South Conference |
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| Western Division: Arkansas Monticello • Arkansas Tech • Christian Brothers • Delta State • Harding • Henderson State • Ouachita Baptist • Southern Arkansas Eastern Division: Alabama Huntsville • Montevallo • North Alabama • Valdosta State • West Alabama • West Florida • West Georgia |
| Public Colleges and Universities in Alabama |
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| Alabama • Alabama A&M • Alabama State • Auburn • Auburn-Montgomery • Jacksonville State • Montevallo • North Alabama • South Alabama • Troy • UAB • UAH • West Alabama |