Georgia Military College
Georgia Military College
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Georgia Military College

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Georgia Military College

Georgia Military College (GMC) is a public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was originally known as Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College, until 1900. While GMC is a state-chartered and funded institution, its governance is not overseen by either the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia or the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia.

The main facility is housed in the restored old Georgia state capitol building that was the seat of government for the State of Georgia from 1807 to 1868. The main campus in Milledgeville serves approximately 254 full-time, resident ROTC Cadets and 1300 commuter students. GMC has 13 campuses and a Global Online College with nearly 16,500 students.

GMC is one of four military junior colleges that participate in the U.S. Army's Early Commissioning Program. Students who graduate from GMC's two-year, military science-oriented curriculum receive an officer's commission in the U.S. Army. The junior college was established in 1879, and later added a preparatory school for students in 6th grade through 12th grade, which uses military style exercises to build leadership.

The college's military preparatory school for cadets is in Baldwin County and has approximately 314 middle school students and 277 high-school Junior ROTC (JROTC) students. The preparatory school's dual enrollment program enables qualified sophomores, juniors, and seniors to attend classes at the junior college and the high school simultaneously, while earning credit for both their high school diploma and their college degree.

Georgia Military College was created in 1879 by act of the Georgia General Assembly "to educate young men and women from the Middle Georgia area in an environment which fosters the qualities of good citizenship." It was the apparent intention of the General Assembly to establish the school as a unit of the slowly forming University System of Georgia. State property in Milledgeville, including the former state capital building which had been damaged by General William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea", was loaned to the University of Georgia by the Act of 1879, and the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia was given veto powers by this Act over the acts of the local Board of Trustees of the new institution. The school was originally called Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College and was ceded state government lands surrounding the Old Capitol Building, the seat of government for the state of Georgia from 1807 to 1868. The Old Capitol Building, then as now, is the main college facility and sits on the highest point in Milledgeville. Former Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill served as president from 1885 until August 1889, when he resigned due to failing health. (He died in Charlotte, NC on September 24, 1889.) The 1890 graduating class was the first to include female students.

The college's intended purpose was to enable graduates to enter higher classes at the University of Georgia, to give training in agriculture and mining, and, finally, to train teachers.

The name of the school was changed to Georgia Military College in 1900. Legislative acts of 1920 and 1922 severed the relationship with the University of Georgia and gave the local board total power over the operations of the school. In 1922, the method of electing members of the board of trustees and filling vacancies on the board was changed. This act provided for a seven-member board to be elected from and by the citizens of Milledgeville, with trustees' terms staggered to provide continuity. In 1930, the official addition of a junior college division to the college-preparatory secondary school finally justified its name. In 1950, the Defense Department designated the institution a "military junior college". Today, it is one of only four remaining US military junior colleges.

In addition to the main campus in Milledgeville, GMC Junior College other campus locations Fairburn, Augusta, Columbus, Madison, Valdosta, Warner Robins, Dublin, and a Global Online College. The other campus locations serve as junior colleges to their local communities.

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