Alabama State University (ASU) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
historically black university
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
. Founded in 1867, ASU is a member-school of the
Thurgood Marshall College Fund
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is an American non-profit organization that supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending its 47 member-schools that include public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), medic ...
.
History
Alabama State University was founded in 1867 as the
Lincoln Normal School
The Lincoln Normal School, originally Lincoln School and later reorganized as State Normal School and University for the Education of Colored Teachers and Students, was a historic African American school expanded to include a normal school in Mari ...
of Marion in
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. In December 1873, the State Board accepted the transfer of title to the school after a legislative act was passed authorizing the state to fund a Normal School, and George N. Card was named president. Thus, in 1874, this predecessor of Alabama State University became America's first state-supported educational institution for blacks. This began ASU's history as a "teachers' college."
In 1878, the second president,
William Paterson, was appointed. He is honored as a founder of Alabama State University and was the president for 37 of the school's first 48 years. Paterson was instrumental in the move from Marion to Montgomery in 1887.
In 1887, the university opened in its new location in Montgomery, but an
Alabama State Supreme Court ruling forced the school to change its name; it was renamed the Normal School for Colored Students. The campus was chosen in 1889 although preparing the buildings at the site took a while longer.
In the decades that followed, Lincoln Normal School became a junior college, and in 1928 became a full four-year institution. In 1929 it became State Teachers College, Alabama State College for Negroes in 1948, and Alabama State College in 1954. In 1969, the State Board of Education, then the governing body of the university, approved a name change; the institution became Alabama State University.
The 1995 Knight vs. Alabama remedial decree transformed ASU into a comprehensive regional institution paving the way for two new undergraduate programs, four new graduate programs, diversity scholarship funding and endowment, funding to build a state-of-the art health sciences facility, and a facility renewal allocation to refurbish three existing buildings.
WVAS
WVAS (90.7 FM) is a jazz-music formatted radio station in the Montgomery, Alabama, market licensed to the Alabama State University. WVAS is a member-supported non-commercial, educational station featuring news and other programming from National ...
-FM was launched on June 15, 1984, beaming 25,000 watts of power from the fifth floor of the Levi Watkins Learning Center for two years before moving to its current location at Thomas Kilby Hall. Today, WVAS has grown to 80,000 watts and has a listenership that spans 18 counties, reaching a total population of more than 651,000. In recent years, the station has also begun streaming its broadcast via the Web, connecting a global audience to the university.
The early 1990s witnessed the beginning of
WAPR-FM (Alabama Public Radio), which Alabama State University and Troy University, both of which already held station licenses of their own, cooperated with the University of Alabama in building and operating. WAPR-FM 88.3—Selma's signal reaches the region known colloquially as the
Black Belt, about 13 counties in the west central and central parts of Alabama, including the city of Montgomery.
Presidents
''Interim presidents excluded''
#1874–1878:
George N. Card
#1878–1915:
William Burns Paterson
#1915–1920: John William Beverly
#1920–1925:
George Washington Trenholm
#1925–1961: Harper Councill Trenholm
#1962–1981: Dr.
Levi Watkins Sr.
#1981–1983: Dr. Robert L. Randolph
#1983–1991: Dr. Leon Howard
#1991–1994: Dr. Clifford C. Baker
#1994–2000: Dr. William Hamilton Harris
#2001–2008: Dr. Joe A. Lee
#2008–2012: Dr. William Hamilton Harris
#2012: Dr. Joseph H. Silver Sr.
#2014–2016: Rev. Dr.
Gwendolyn E. Boyd
#2017–present: Dr.
Quinton T. Ross Jr.
Academics
Alabama State University has nearly 6,000 students from more than 40 states and over 20 countries.
![ASU Equinox sculpture June09](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/ASU_Equinox_sculpture_June09.jpg)
ASU has eight degree-granting colleges, schools, or divisions:
* College of Business Administration
* College of Education
* College of Health Sciences
* College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
* College of Science, Mathematics & Technology
* College of Visual & Performing Arts
* Division of Aerospace Studies
* Continuing Education
Alabama State offers 47 degree programs including 31 bachelor's, 11 master's, two Education Specialist and three doctoral programs, Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law, Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy, and a Doctorate in Microbiology. In addition, the university offers the W.E.B. DuBois Honors Program for undergraduate students who meet the above average performance criteria.
Due to Alabama State offering only a bachelor's degree in
Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...
, the university established a
dual degree
A double degree program, sometimes called a dual degree, combined degree, conjoint degree, joint degree or double graduation program, involves a student's working for two university degrees in parallel—either at the same institution or at diffe ...
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
partnership with
Auburn University and the
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) that gives qualified ASU students automatic admissions into Auburn and UAB undergraduate engineering programs. ASU undergraduate students who successfully complete the program will receive a
STEM related bachelor's degree from ASU and an engineering bachelor's degree from Auburn or UAB in approximately five years.
Alabama State is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy, the Commission of Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM, the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), and the Council of Social Work Education.
Research centers
*Center for Nanobiotechnology Research
*Research Infrastructure & Minority Institutions
*Center for Leadership & Public Policy
*East Asian Institute for Business Research and Culture
*Urban Economic Research Development Center
*National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture
Campus
![ASU Bibb Graves Hall June 09 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/ASU_Bibb_Graves_Hall_June_09_02.jpg)
ASU's urban, 172-acre (0.70 km2) campus has Georgian-style red-brick classroom buildings and architecturally contemporary structures. ASU is home to the state-of-the-art 7,400-seat academic and sports facility the ASU Acadome; the Levi Watkins Learning Center, a five-story brick structure with more than 267,000 volumes; the state-of-the-art John L. Buskey Health Sciences Center which is an 80,000 square foot (7,400 m2) facility which houses classrooms, offices, an interdisciplinary clinic, three therapeutic rehabilitation labs, a state-of-the-art Gross Anatomy Lab, Laboratory for the Analysis of Human Motion (LAHM), a Women's Health/Cardiopulmonary lab, and a health sciences computer lab; and WVAS-FM 90.7, the 80,000-watt, university operated public radio station.
Student life
More than 70 student organizations are chartered at Alabama State, including nine
National Pan-Hellenic Council
The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...
Greek-letter organizations, a full range of men's and women's intramural and intercollegiate sports, and 17 honors organizations. In addition to social, cultural and religious groups, there are musical opportunities, such as the marching and symphonic bands, the choir, and departmental organizations for most majors. The Hornets also have a Student Government Association, in which every student at the university holds membership.
Athletics
![The New ASU Stadium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/The_New_ASU_Stadium.JPG)
The Alabama State University Department of Athletics currently sponsors men's intercollegiate
football, baseball,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
, golf, tennis, track and cheerleading, along with women's intercollegiate basketball, soccer, softball, bowling, tennis, track, volleyball, golf and cheerleading. Sports teams participate in
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I (FCS – Football Championship Subdivision for
football) in the
Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), which it joined in 1982. The university's colors are black and old gold and their nickname is the
Hornet
Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...
s.
The Mighty Marching Hornets
![EMU v Alabama State 096](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/EMU_v_Alabama_State_096.JPG)
Alabama State's marching band is officially known as "The Mighty Marching Hornets". The band has been invited several times to the
Honda Battle of the Bands The Honda Battle of the Bands (sometimes abbreviated The Honda or HBOB) is an annual marching band exhibition in the United States which features performances by bands from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Sponsored by the Amer ...
and has been nationally recognized.
The Mighty Marching Hornets were stars of a documentary series, ''Bama State Style'', which offered a peek into the lives of the students in the band. In 2016, The Mighty Marching Hornets made an appearance in
Ang Lee
Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...
's film ''
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''. In 2017, the band's 2012 halftime performance at the Magic City Classic garnered over three million views on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. In 2019, the band performed in the
Rose Parade in
Pasadena, California on New Year's Day. The band is traditionally led by four or five
drum majors
A drum major or field commander is the leader of a marching band, drum and bugle corps, or pipe band, usually positioned at the head of the band or corps. The drum major is often dressed in more ornate clothing than the rest of the band or cor ...
. The band performs at select football games, all SWAC basketball home games, and other special events.
The featured auxiliary is "The Sensational Stingettes", a danceline that debuted in 1977. They were invited to appear in the "
Give It 2 U
"Give It 2 U" is a song by American singer-songwriter Robin Thicke from his sixth studio album, '' Blurred Lines'' (2013). It was written and produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut, with additional writing by Thicke, the featured artist Kendrick Lamar, ...
" music video and live performance with artists Robin Thicke, Kendrick Lamar, and 2 Chainz. Also, they were shown in Beyonce's Netflix special "
HΘMΣCΘMING: A film by Beyonce".
The most recently added auxiliary is the Honey-Beez, a danceline composed of only
plus-size young women that debuted in 2004. In 2017, they were selected to showcase their talents and compete on ''
America's Got Talent''.
The Bama State Collegians
The
Bama State Collegians is a
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
jazz orchestra
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
sponsored by Alabama State University. In the 1930s, the ensemble was directed by noted jazz trumpeter
Erskine Hawkins
Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914 – November 11, 1993) was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" (1 ...
, an inductee of both the
Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (AJHF) was founded in 1978, and opened a museum on September 18, 1993, with a mission "to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and dis ...
and the
Alabama Music Hall of Fame
The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then saw to its Phase One construction of a facility ...
. After moving to New York City, the Collegians, directed by Hawkins, became the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and produced a string of national hit records, including "
Tuxedo Junction
"Tuxedo Junction" is a popular song written by Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash with lyrics by Buddy Feyne. The song was introduced by Erskine Hawkins & His Orchestra, a college dance band previously known as the Bama State Collegi ...
", "
After Hours", "
Tippin' In" and others. The song "Tuxedo Junction", with its recordings by Hawkins and by the
Glenn Miller Orchestra, became one of the anthems of World War II. In 2011, Hawkins' story of and his start in the Bama State Collegians was the subject of a
Florida State University Film School
The Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts (colloquially known as The Film School) is the film school of the Florida State University. About 215 students are enrolled in classes, including undergraduates and graduate students, in ...
MFA thesis film, ''The Collegians'', written and directed by Alabama State University alumnus Bryan Lewis.
Student publications
Students are served by two media publications, ''The Hornet Tribune'' (student newspaper) and ''The Hornet'' (the student yearbook).
See also
*
WVAS 90.7 FM Radio, Alabama State radio station
*
Magic City Classic
The Magic City Classic is an annual American football "classic" that features Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University, the two largest historically black universities in the state. It is played at Legion Field in Birmingham (nicknam ...
, One of the largest HBCU events and
FCS football games in the nation
*
Turkey Day Classic
The Turkey Day Classic is a college football game, traditionally held annually on Thanksgiving Day. Originally, it was played between Alabama State University and Tuskegee University, two historically black universities. The game was originally ...
, One of the oldest HBCU football classics in the nation
Notable alumni
Notable faculty
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Universities and colleges in Montgomery, Alabama
Educational institutions established in 1867
Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
African-American history in Montgomery, Alabama
1867 establishments in Alabama
Historically black universities and colleges in the United States
Historically segregated African-American schools in Alabama
Public universities and colleges in Alabama