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University of Georgia
Located 60 miles northeast of Atlanta in Athens, Georgia, the University of Georgia was the first state-chartered university in the United States, making it the birthplace of the American system of public higher education. It was incorporated January 27, 1785 by the Georgia General Assembly which gave its trustees 40,000 acres for the purposes of founding a "college or seminary of learning." The university's motto is et docere et rerum exquirere causas ("to teach and to inquire into the nature of things").
The first meeting of its board of trustees installed its first president, Abraham Baldwin, a native of Connecticut and graduate of Yale University. This meeting also identified the 633 acres on the banks of the Oconee River on which the University was to be built.
The first classes were held in 1801, in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences--named in honor of Benjamin Franklin--under the direction of President Josiah Meigs. The university graduated its first class in 1804.
White and male most of its history, women were admitted to the university in 1918. In 1961, UGA became racially integrated after notable tension with the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
UGA is home to the George Foster Peabody Awards, which are presented annually for excellence in television and radio news, entertainment and children's programming. It also presents the annual Delta Prize for Global Understanding, which recognizes individuals or groups whose initiatives promote peace and cooperation among cultures and nations.
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