College of Education
NCATE Presentation
“Building on the Legacy of a Proud Past”

ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Alabama State University is an institution with a distinguished and unique position in
American history.
Founded on the mission to educate Negro teachers, that history started at the end of the
Civil War with the end of slavery. A need for an institution to provide educational opportunities for recently freed slaves arose and s everal of those freedmen, now known as the Marion Nine, united in Marion, Ala., and started Lincoln Normal
School, the progenitor of Alabama State
University
ASU’s unique position includes the distinction as the nation’s oldest publicly assisted historically black college.

Lincoln School opened on Nov. 13,
1867 with 113 students. The Rev.
Mr. Thomas C. Steward of Ohio, a white Congregational minister, served as administrator of the school. In Sept. 1868, the trustees leased the school to the American
Missionary Association (AMA) which agreed to keep the school in operation.

The State Normal School and University for Colored Teachers and Students
The State Normal School and University began operation under state control in 1874 with an annual appropriation of $2000.00.
This was increased to $4000.00 the next year when 70 students were enrolled.

In 1879, the school purchased a new 5.6 acre site. By 1885 there was “one main building, 40’ x 80’, with eight classrooms, an office, a music room and an auditorium.
Four more rooms were added later”. An enlargement of this picture seems to show form of a bell in the tower at left.
A. S. Plump in State Normal Courier, Feb 7, 1924

Although the school operated successfully in
Marion, opposition to its presence grew, and in 1887 a bill was presented to the state legislature to abolish the Lincoln Normal
School and University and provide for a replacement to be called Alabama Colored
People’s University , with the specification that it could not be located in Marion.

Beginning Again in Montgomery
In Summer 1887, in a mass meeting at Old Ship AME Zion church, plans were presented plans for re-locating the former Lincoln Normal
School, now called the State Normal
School, to Montgomery.

In 1888, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that the state could not legally fund a colored peoples university and state financial support was withdrawn. The doors were kept open, but in that year, the school had to exist on the tuition of one dollar a month from its students and on donations and fund raisers. In 1889, state funding was restored to support a normal school, and the community donated $3300.00 and six and one half acres of land for the school.

The Original Montgomery Campus
The school flourished in Montgomery, where it would ultimately become Alabama State
University. The school grew from its six and onehalf acre campus in 1889 to today’s campus of 250 acres and more than 5,500 diverse students from more than 40 states and a half dozen countries.

IN 2007

Diverse Student body from seven countries and 42 states
• Forty-seven degree granting programs
– 31 bachelors
– 11 masters
– 2 educational specialist
– 3 doctoral

• Graduated more than 7000 teachers
• 19 programs at the baccalaureate level
• 17 programs at the masters level
• 11 programs at the post masters level
• Offers Education Specialist
• Offers Alternative fifth-year program

• Birmingham
• Brewton
• Mobile

Tomorrow is Being Created Today
By a Single University

ASU PROPOSED ACADEMIC
CONCENTRATIONS
 Forensic Sciences
 Hospitality and Tourism Management
 Transitional Doctorate in Physical Therapy
 Master of Science in Rehabilitation Therapy
 Entertainment Industry Management

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMS DRIVE
$125 MILLION IN NEW CONSTRUCTION

 Fred Shuttlesworth Dining Hall
 Robert C. Hatch Forensic Sciences Building
 Life Sciences Building
 Ralph David Abernathy College of Education Building
 Levi Watkins Learning Center expansion
 Dormitory renovations
 Student Center construction
 Power Generator

Robert C. Hatch Forensic Sciences
Building

Robert C. Hatch Forensic
Sciences Building
 PURPOSE: To house classrooms and laboratories for the new Forensic Sciences concentration and share space with the State of Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences
 LOCATION: Carter Hill Road and Union Street
 ARCHITECTS: Parsons, Wible, Brummal, Alkire, Architects
Inc.
 COST: $10.3
million
 OCCUPANCY DATE: First week of August 2007

 PURPOSE: To house the Department of Biological
Sciences, including the new Microbiology Ph.D. program.
 LOCATION: Hall Street and O’Connell Street
 ARCHITECTS: Goodwyn, Mills, and Cawood, Inc.
 COST: $26,745,000
 OCCUPANCY DATE : June 2008

Ralph David Abernathy
College of Education Building

Ralph David Abernathy
College of Education Building

Ralph David Abernathy
College of Education Building
 PURPOSE: To house the College of Education, bringing the college’s bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral level education programs together under one roof
 LOCATION: Hall and Hardaway Streets
 ARCHITECTS: Parsons, Wible, Brummal, Alkire, Architects, Inc.
 COST: $30,183,000
 OCCUPANCY DATE: April 2009

Levi Watkins Learning Center
Expansion

Levi Watkins Learning Center
Expansion
 PURPOSE: To expand the library’s resources to include requirements for collections, readers, services and staff for the
University’s new academic concentrations and degree programs.
 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The addition of a new, 4-story wing providing 46,000 square feet of new space including an Internet café, group seating/study areas, an Information Commons and an Interlibrary loan work area.
 ARCHITECTS: Nolanda, Hatcher, Bearden, AIA-Architect
 COST: $9,200,000
 PROJECTED COMPLETION: October 2008

 PURPOSE: Converting six residence halls into suite-style living quarters (Bibb
Graves, George N. Card Hall, William Benson, J.W. Abercrombie, Willease
Simpson, Bessie Benson Hall).
 PROJECT MANAGER: TCU
 ARCHITECTS : Brown and Chambless
 COST: $25 million
 PROJECT PHASES :
PHASE ONE will include renovation of Bibb Graves and J.W. Abercrombie
Halls and is scheduled to be completed Fall 2008.
PHASE TWO will include the renovation of two additional residence halls to be completed Fall 2009.
PHASE THREE will include the renovation of the final two residence halls and will be completed Fall 2010.

 PURPOSE: To improve student life and offer an updated facility
 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The John Garrick Hardy University
Center will be raised, and a new facility will be constructed.
 ARCHITECTS: Barganier, Davis and Sims
 COST: $16 million
 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS: January 2008
 PROJECTED COMPLETION: January 2010

A New School of Thought for a
New Generation of Thinkers