Welcome

This web site responds to the Compliance Certification portion of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ (SACS) Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement.

HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

The Florida State University is a comprehensive, graduate-research university with a liberal arts base. One of the largest and oldest of Florida’s eleven public universities, The Florida State University had its beginning in 1823 when the Territorial Legislature began to plan a higher education system. An 1851 act of the Florida legislature established two seminaries for males, one in Tallahassee. This institution became a four-year college in 1901, and a 1905 legislative reorganization moved the male student body to Gainesville and created the Florida Female College in Tallahassee. In 1909 Florida Female College was renamed Florida State College for Women. Post World War II demographic changes resulted in a return to coed status, and the institution was renamed The Florida State University in 1947.

The university now comprises 17 colleges and schools and has expanded to encompass over 513 buildings on a main campus of 463.4 acres. Additional facilities are owned and leased in various Florida counties and in locations overseas. The university has been home to five Nobel Laureates, and there are presently approximately 1500 faculty members. Many of them have attained the highest honors in their fields, including two Pulitzer Prizes, ten members of the National Academy of Sciences and twelve fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The institution has grown to almost 37,000 students, admitted through a selective process. The middle 50% of the fall 2002 entering class had high school GPAs between 3.5 and 4.1, with test scores of 1110-1290 on the SAT and ACT composite scores of 23-28. As of fall 2002, the overall gender mix is 44% men and 56% women, and almost 6,000 of the student body are graduate students. Slightly more than 71% of the students are white, almost 12% are black, 8.5% are Hispanic, slightly under 3% are Asian, 4% are non-resident aliens, and the balance are Native Americans and students who did not report their race. Over 76% of all students are from Florida and approximately 93% are from the United States. The majority of in-state residents are from the southern regions of the state.