University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama (UNA) is a public university in Florence. Founded as LaGrange College in 1830 as the first state-chartered school in Alabama, it opened with 70 students and three faculty. Having used nine names, it has been the University of North Alabama since 1974 and now enrolls roughly 10,000 students on a 130-acre campus.[1][2][3]

Origins

LaGrange College was founded in 1830 near Leighton in Colbert County by the Methodist Church, with Robert Paine as first president; enrollment exceeded 100 by 1849. In 1854 city leaders in Florence offered to build a campus if the college crossed the Tennessee River, and it moved in January 1855 as Florence Wesleyan University, with 160 students in the first year. The state took over in 1870, and the State Normal School at Florence opened in 1872-74, with 31 women among its first students, as the first state-supported teachers’ college south of the Ohio River. Women were first hired as faculty in 1879.[1][2][4]

Names and leadership

The school became Florence State Teachers College in 1929, Florence State College in 1957, Florence State University in 1968 and the University of North Alabama on August 15, 1974. Nineteen or twenty people have served as president; Kenneth D. Kitts has led the university since 2005 (as 15th president, counted in the Encyclopedia of Alabama) and enrollment has since passed 10,000. Wendell Wilkie Gunn became the first Black student in 1963 and was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2019.[1][2][3]

Campus

Wesleyan Hall, a Gothic Revival building with distinctive towers, was built for the move to Florence; generals from both armies stayed there during the Civil War, and it and Rogers Hall (1855) joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Coby Hall dates from 1843. The Olmsted Brothers designed the 1929 expansion, and Kilby Laboratory School is the state’s only laboratory elementary school. Recent additions include the Science and Technology Building (2015), Laura M. Harrison Hall (2021) and the 12,764-square-foot George H. Carroll Lion Habitat, home to the live lion mascot, Leo III. The campus is in the Lauderdale County seat.[2][3][4]

Academics

UNA has four to five colleges, including Arts and Sciences, the Sanders College of Business and Technology, the Spencer College of Education and Human Sciences and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions, with more than 100 to 140 majors, dozens of graduate programmes and three doctoral programmes. Students come from more than 50 countries. The Delores and Weldon Cole Honors College accounts for about 10 percent of enrollment. The Carnegie classification is M1 and the endowment was $54.4 million in fiscal 2024.[1][2][3]

Athletics and traditions

The Lions compete in NCAA Division I, having moved from Division II’s Gulf South Conference in 2018; football plays at the FCS level in the United Athletic Conference at Braly Municipal Stadium. Football won three consecutive Division II titles (1993-95), volleyball won in 2003, men’s basketball in 1979 and 1991, and softball in 2016. Founders’ Day is held each January, and the George Lindsey Film Festival is an annual event. Novelist T. S. Stribling is a notable alumnus.[1][2][3]

FAQs

When was UNA founded? 1830, as LaGrange College.

What is Wesleyan Hall? A Gothic Revival building occupied by both armies in the Civil War and now on the National Register of Historic Places.

What conference does UNA play in? The ASUN, with football in the United Athletic Conference.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: University of North Alabama
2. Encyclopedia of Alabama: University of North Alabama
3. University of North Alabama: UNA Facts
4. WAFF: From 1830 to now: The history of a growing campus in Florence

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 10, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue