DEMOREST, Ga. (AP) - A north Georgia institution has made the jump from college to university.
The former Piedmont College officially became Piedmont University on Friday, also adopting a new logo.
The 2,500-student private university tells local news outlets that trustees approved the change last year, reflecting expanded course offerings.
“We’re really not liberal arts undergraduate college any longer. We haven’t been for some time and think the board was aware of that,” President James Mellichamp told the Athens Banner-Herald. The school is based in Demorest and has a second campus in Athens.
Piedmont’s expanded career-focused classes are accredited to offer degrees up to doctorates.
“I think their resumes and their transcripts that reflect study at a university should help them stand a little bit taller and maybe be proud of the fact that we have a name now that really more accurately reflects who we are as an institution,” Mellichamp said of students.
The Athens branch recently moved to a smaller campus in one building after officials said more students were taking courses online.
The university promoted its four main academic units to colleges, renaming them as the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the Walker College of Business.
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