The University

The goals of Florida State University, simply stated, are to give its students the best possible education while continuing a program of service to the people of Florida and the nation. The University strives to maintain an intellectual climate of learning in which students may develop respect for, and excitement in, the discovery of knowledge. The aim of the University is excellence and distinction in all pursuits. The University believes that graduate study and research are among the highest, most significant, and most productive forms of higher education and that superior teaching faculty and student bodies are the interdependent forces of excellence.

Florida State University began as a state college in 1851. It progressed through many changes until 1947 when the Florida Legislature made the institution coeducational, and it assumed its present name. Since then the University has experienced a fourfold increase in enrollment to more than 35,000 students and a rapid expansion of its graduate programs of research and study. In the past few years the University has reached the high level of distinction accorded only to those two dozen public institutions in this country, producing more than one hundred Doctor of Philosophy degree graduates each year.