Founders Week: KSU Celebrates 50th Anniversary

A new anniversary logo and tagline, a special edition of Kennesaw State University Magazine and a website are being unveiled to mark Kennesaw State University's 50th anniversary. 

University officials have finalized plans for a weeklong series of activities commemorating Founders Week, Oct. 7 through Oct. 11.

“The ‘Celebrating Our Past, Igniting Our Future’ slogan captures the pride the campus community has for the University’s beginnings and conveys the excitement on campus as Kennesaw State celebrates its 50th year,” Kennesaw State University President Daniel S. Papp said in a press release. 

“As we commemorate our founding, we also are proud of the accomplishments that have led to the University’s reclassification as a comprehensive university, which recognizes not just what KSU is today but the promise of what it will become in the years ahead.”

Developed from recommendations and feedback by the campus community, the anniversary logo and tagline were chosen by the University’s 50th Anniversary Committee.

As part of the Founders Week activities, Kennesaw State will host three event to underscore the importance of higher education, student success and diversity:

• “My Orange Duffel Bag,” will feature a presentation by author and motivational speaker Sam Bracken, who after a traumatic childhood, turned his life around and became a college football standout and Georgia Tech graduate. Bracken will be joined by legendary Coach Bill Curry. This convocation is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 11 a.m., in the University’s Convocation Center.
• Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and former Georgia Tech President Dr. G. Wayne Clough will deliver the keynote address, “The Future of American Public Higher Education,” at a campus-wide symposium titled, “Higher Education: The Next 50 Years.”  University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby will chair a panel of higher education leaders, including Mark Becker, president of Georgia State University; Renva Watterson, president of Georgia Highlands College; and Arthur Dunning, professor and senior research fellow in the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama. The panel will examine “The Future of Public Higher Education in Georgia and the Southeast.” The event is set for Thursday, Oct. 10, at 9:30 a.m., at the Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center.
• “The Evolution of Inclusion at Kennesaw State University,” a panel discussion facilitated by President Papp and the University’s Chief Diversity Officer, Erik Malewski, designed to engage the campus community in a conversation about the changes that have taken place at the University over the past five decades, is slated for Friday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m., in the Prillaman Hall Auditorium.

Additional events scheduled for Founders Week include:

• Dr. Thomas A. Scott’s book launch and signing of “Kennesaw State University: The First Fifty Years, 1963-2013,” and the unveiling of the Kennesaw State Archives’ historical exhibit and website, “The Kennesaw State Spirit: KSU at 50.” Monday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. on the second floor of the Horace W. Sturgis Library;
• “Hoot-a-Palooza,” a community partner event at Town Center Mall celebrating Kennesaw State students, faculty and staff, scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 5-8 p.m.;
• Groundbreaking for the renovation and expansion of Kennesaw State’s Horace W. Sturgis Library, to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 1 p.m.;
• Founders Day Concert, featuring the Kennesaw State University Orchestra, to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 8 p.m., in the Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center;
• The groundbreaking for the brand-new, $38.7 million Dr. Betty L. Siegel Student Recreation and Activities Center, slated for Thursday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m.; and
• A campus-wide “Celebration on the Green,” a gathering of the university’s faculty, staff, students and friends for food and fun on Friday afternoon, Oct. 11, at 3 p.m., on the Campus Green.

The staff of Kennesaw State’s University Relations department also has published a special edition of its quarterly magazine.