Georgia Southern University was founded as First District A&M in 1906. Bulloch County won a bidding war with Tattnall and Emanuel counties offering cash, 300 acres of land, and utilities worth $125,500. Often referred to locally as the "College or the Culture," FDA&M was a boarding high school. The three buildings located at the top of the circle, an administration/classroom building flanked by a girls' and a boys' dormitory, constituted the original campus. On the first day of classes, February 5, 1908, there were 34 boys and 8 girls enrolled. Typically, half the day was spent in core subject classes and half was devoted to practical learning in the fields, shop, orchard and labs of the farm. By the 1920s, the region had established more high schools and FDA&M was converted into a teachers college named Georgia Normal School (1924-29), South Georgia Teachers College (1929-39) and Georgia Teachers College (1939-1959). It expanded its curriculum as Georgia Southern College in 1959 and as a University in 1990. Having survived skeptics, Depression, and politics the University reached out to the world, but remains grounded in its community origins.
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