Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GC) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Georgia College was designated Georgia's "Public Liberal Arts University" in 1996 by the Georgia Board of Regents. Students pursue majors and graduate degree programs throughout the university's four colleges: College of Arts & Sciences, J. Whitney Bunting College of Business and Technology, John H. Lounsbury College of Education, and College of Health Sciences. Georgia College Athletics' 11 teams compete in the NCAA Division II Peach Belt Conference. History Georgia College was chartered in 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College. Its emphasis at the time was largely vocational, and its major task was to prepare young women for teaching or industrial careers. In 1917, in keeping with economic and cultural changes in the state, Georgia Normal and Industrial College was authorized to grant 4-year degrees, the first of which was awarded in 1921. In 1922, the institution's name was changed to Georgia State College for Women. The university has been a unit of the University System of Georgia since the system's founding in 1932. Mary "Flannery" O'Connor entered as a freshman in 1942. Active in student publications, she graduated three years later and became one of the South's most noted writers. Also during World War II, Georgia State College for Women served as one of four colleges that trained WAVES for the U.S. Navy. After the war, enrollment declined as women preferred co-educational colleges. The name was changed to Woman's College of Georgia in 1961, and, when the institution became coeducational in 1967, it became Georgia College at Milledgeville. The name was shortened to Georgia College in 1971. In August 1996, the Board of Regents approved a change of name to Georgia College & State University, and a new mission as Georgia's Public Liberal Arts University. Campus The central campus comprises about in the center of Milledgeville, near the grounds of the former state capitol. The campus contains buildings of red brick and white Corinthian columns, representative of those constructed during the pre-Civil War Antebellum period, when Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia. Bell Hall and Russell Auditorium are credited to architect J. Reginald MacEachron. Atkinson Hall (1896) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other