VALDOSTA STATE MAGAZINE 25 1931 Emory Junior College at Valdosta celebrates the construction of its first dormitory. The construction of a swimming pool follows five years later. December 7, 1941 The Japanese raid Pearl Harbor. It is described as one of the great defining moments in world history. Emory Junior College at Valdosta suffers a swift blow to its modest enrollment — average of 61 students each quarter — as students are drafted and scholars become soldiers. Emory administrators suggest that the school be closed, but local town leaders object. Students, faculty, and staff not sent into battle are transferred to Emory’s Atlanta campus. Three students, however, are welcomed onto the campus of Georgia State Woman’s College. They remain the only males in an all-female environment for the duration of the war. 1946 Emory Junior College at Valdosta reopens with a record enrollment of 247 students pursuing an education on the G.I. Bill. The campus flourishes. However, that would not last long. Additional classrooms and a dorm comprised of military surplus buildings are brought in from nearby Moody Air Force Base. 1948 Dr. Frank Reade retires as president of Georgia State Woman’s College due to ill health. Dr. Ralph Thaxton is named acting president by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. 1949 Dr. Ralph Thaxton is named president of Georgia State Woman’s College, a position he holds until 1966. January 1950 The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia votes to make Georgia State Woman’s College a co-educational institution of higher learning. It is renamed Valdosta State College. 1953 Just 65 students remain at Emory Junior College at Valdosta, which closes due to declining enrollment. “The new Valdosta school was state supported and had a cheaper tuition,” Judson C. “Jake” Ward Jr., former dean of Emory College from 1948 to 1957, said. The Emory facilities are given to its chief competitor, the University System of Georgia, and become part of Valdosta State College. The former Emory Junior College at Valdosta is now ąú˛úAV’s Rea and Lillian Steele North Campus, which is home to the Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and its Speech and Hearing Clinic, the Department of Social Work, and Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Detachment 172. Editor’s Note: Some of the information for this story was taken from the Summer 1999 edition of Emory Magazine.