University History & Organization

University History

Florida State University, one of the largest and oldest of the twelve 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 two such institutions in the territory, and in 1845 the United States Congress, supplemental to the act admitting Florida as a state in the Union, added two more townships. This led to an 1851 act of the Florida Legislature establishing two seminaries, one to be located east and the other west of the Suwannee River.

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. In 1856 the Legislature of Florida chose to accept the offer of the Institute's land and building 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.”

Francis Eppes, who spent his formative years on the estate of his grandfather, President Thomas Jefferson, at Monticello, in Virginia, and who shared his grandfather's views of the importance to a democracy of a liberally educated citizenry, was the Mayor of Tallahassee who made the offer. Eppes served as President of the Seminary's Board of Education for eight years and instilled in the institution the Jeffersonian ideals that characterize it today.

In February 1857, the institution began offering postsecondary instruction to male students as the Seminary West of the Suwannee River. The school first became coeducational the following year 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 that trained cadets. During the Civil War, cadets from the school, ranging in age from 12 to 18, fought in the Battle of Natural Bridge and helped make Tallahassee the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi not captured during the war. As a result of the brave action of the West Florida cadets in this battle, Florida State University's Army ROTC cadet corps is today one of only three in the nation authorized to display a battle streamer with its flag, a streamer 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 postsecondary 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, with the first master's degree 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, 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 that grew to become the third largest women's college in the nation during the 1930s. 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 in 1947 caused the Legislature to return Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and name it 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 its 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 mainly housed male students and provided some classroom space three miles west of the main campus.

The 1950s brought significant development and expansion to the University. To the colleges and schools that had existed since the Florida State College days—Arts and Sciences, Education, Home Economics, and Music—were added Library Science (in 1948), Social Welfare (later split into Social Work and Criminology), Business, and Nursing. A student in the Department of Chemistry was awarded the University's first Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree 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 1957 the Panama Canal Branch was opened.

In the 1960s 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 Program in Medical Sciences was established. The first black student enrolled in 1962, and the first black PhD candidates graduated in 1970. Programs in African American Studies and Women's Studies were established. Continuing the liberal arts tradition begun in the 1890s, the CoreFSU curriculum required of all undergraduates was expanded and strengthened.

In each succeeding decade, Florida State University has added to its academic organization, and is presently composed of seventeen independent colleges. It has expanded from the original few acres and buildings to 403 buildings on 1,716 acres, including the downtown Tallahassee main campus of 486 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 and seventy-two years after its founding, Florida State University started the 2023-2024 academic year with a student population of over 43,000 and recognition as a major graduate research institution with an established international reputation.

In Fall 2023, Florida State University enrolled students from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and 135 foreign countries. The enrollment breakdown by class included 456 law (JD) students, 476 medical (MD) students, a total of 31,933 undergraduate students, a total of 10,582 graduate students, and a total of 1,186 non-degree-seeking students. Out of 43,701 students enrolled at the University that semester, 42.1 percent were men and 57.9 percent were women. The University employed a total of 2,727 faculty members in Fall 2023, 52.4 percent men and 47.6 percent women.

The Panama City Campus is located on beautiful North Bay, one hundred miles west of Tallahassee, near the Gulf of Mexico. The campus, with its modern classrooms and offices, has been designed to utilize the natural landscape of the site, creating an aesthetic and effective educational setting.