of elected and appointed officers and serves as an advisory body for the campus's University administrators. The legislative branch consists of a Senate, led by a Speaker, who presides over meetings of the Senate. The Senate consists of Senators representing the colleges housed on the Armstrong Campus (currently, the Colleges of Education, Health Professions, and Public Health), as well as two additional "colleges": Graduate Studies and At-Large, to ensure that graduate students and students whose major is not housed on the Armstrong Campus, respectively, are still represented. In addition to presiding over the Senate, the Speaker also chairs the Senate Advisory Council, which consists of the Speaker and other officers of the Senate Leadership, such as the Deputy Speaker, Senate Whip, Parliamentarian, and the chairs for the Senate's various standing committees. The Liberty Campus is represented by the Armstrong Campus, and includes a semi-autonomous Governing Board, led by an elected Director, and a Student Council, led by the assistant director. Pirate athletics (1935–2017) Armstrong State University's consolidation with Georgia Southern spelled an end for Armstrong's athletics, being announced on March 7, 2017, that Armstrong's athletic program would be discontinued at the conclusion of the 2016–17 academic year. Armstrong's athletic teams were known as the Pirates. The university was a member at the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a charter member of the Peach Belt Conference (PBC) from 1990–91 to their final season of competition in the 2016–17 academic year. Until 2016–17, Armstrong competed in twelve intercollegiate varsity sports, five men's and seven women's: Men's sports included baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, and tennis; while women's sports included basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. History Athletics at Armstrong began at the start of the school's history in the 1930s with its teams known as the Geechees. The school won state championships as a junior college in 1938 in men's basketball and men's tennis. Athletics were suspended during World War II. Following the war, the college added new athletic programs, and in 1948 men's basketball won a second state championship. Armstrong joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 1967 and became known as the Pirates after the college became a four-year institution. In 1973, it joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and became a member of the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) with in-state rivals Valdosta State College (now Valdosta State