Located 135 miles south of Atlanta in Americus, amid the lush farmland of Sumter County, Georgia Southwestern State University is a senior unit of the University System of Georgia and the alma mater of former president Jimmy Carter.
Granted 270 acres of land by Sumter County along the Seaboard Airline Railroad, the school was originally founded in 1906 as the Third District Agricultural and Mechanical School. Its primary mission was to provide male and female students over the age of thirteen skills in all aspects of farming and agricultural business as well as basic business and industrial training. In early 1926 the Georgia General Assembly granted school leaders a new charter that allowed them to offer college-level courses toward a two-year degree. The school also changed its name to the Third District Agricultural and Normal College. That same year the school opened its first library.
The most important consequence of the new charter was the growth of the college curriculum, most of which focused on education courses and teacher training. This emphasis flourished because the state department of education granted teacher certification to graduates.
By 1932 there were so many higher education institutions in Georgia that the legislature decided to organize them all into the University System of Georgia under the jurisdiction of the state Board of Regents. The school changed its name to Georgia Southwestern College (GSC) but continued its primary mission as a two-year state teachers college. In the 1950s the needs of the region began to change, and the Board of Regents recognized that educational offerings at GSC should be expanded. In the fall of 1964, GSC began its transition into a four-year school. In June 1968 the institution’s first baccalaureate degrees were conferred.
In June 1973 the Board of Regents approved the first graduate programs, allowing GSC to grant a Master of Education degree. This was followed with a Specialist in Education in the summer of 1982, a Master of Science in administration in the winter of 1983, and a Master of Science in computer science in the spring of 1986. Indeed, course offerings greatly expanded in the 1980s and 1990s. In July 1996 the Board of Regents authorized state university status for Georgia Southwestern State University.
Among the university’s most distinguished alumni are Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, former U.S. attorney general Griffin Bell, General Thomas Carden Jr., and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jaha Dukureh.
The school is now home to over thirty buildings across its 400 acres, including the James Earl Carter Sr. Library (named for the father of Jimmy Carter), the Griffin Bell Golf and Conference Center, and the Rosalynn Carter Health and Human Sciences Complex.
In the fall of 2025, the school experienced a record enrollment of over 4,000 students. With over 120 full-time faculty members, the teacher-student ratio is a comfortable 17:1. Operating on a semester system, Georgia Southwestern offers over eighty-five programs of study, including associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and specialist degrees. It is the only public university in Georgia with a glass blowing program.
The university maintains community partnerships that provide professional and experiential learning opportunities for students. Such organizations include the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, Habitat for Humanity, and the Andersonville National Historic Site.
Georgia Southwestern’s athletics teams, known as the Hurricanes, compete at the NCAA Division II level as a member of the Peach Belt Conference. Prior to 2006, the university was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Georgia Southwestern briefly had a football program, but it was disbanded in 1989. As of 2026, the university has five men’s sports—baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, and soccer—and five women’s sports—basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, and tennis.
