Kennesaw State

Kennesaw State University

Type	Public
Established	October 9, 1963 (1963-10-09)
Endowment	$36,523,927
President	Samuel S. Olens
Provost	W. Ken Harmon
Academic staff	745
Administrative staff	1,400+
Students	36,428
Location	Kennesaw, Georgia, U.S.
Campus	Suburban, 581 acres (2.35 km2)
Colors	Black and Gold
Athletics	NCAA Division I – Atlantic Sun Big South
Nickname	Owls
Mascot	Scrappy the Owl, Sturgis
Affiliations	USG
Website	www.kennesaw.edu

Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public, coeducational, research university with a main campus located in Kennesaw, Georgia, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Atlanta. A secondary campus operates in Marietta, Georgia which was the site of the previous Southern Polytechnic State University until 2015. KSU also holds classes at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Dalton State College, Appalachian Technical College and Dallas. Current enrollment is over 35,600 students, making it the third largest university in the state of Georgia and one of the top fifty largest universities in the United States.

KSU is part of the University System of Georgia. The university has academic programs in business, education, engineering, nursing, physical sciences, criminal justice and sports management. Both the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses are located in suburban areas on a combined 581 acres (235 ha) of land.

The university has undergone a number of changes in name (and mission) over its relatively short existence.

The university was officially founded by the Georgia Board of Regents approved the establishment of a junior college tentatively to be named Cobb County Junior College. In December 1964, Horace Sturgis was designated to serve as the future college's first president. When the school opened in fall of 1966, it was named Kennesaw Junior College and had an initial enrollment of 216,969 students.

Thirteen years later, in 1976, the former Kennesaw Junior College became a four-year college and was redesignated Kennesaw College.