Auburn University

• 1. Charter And Early History

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  The Alabama Legislature chartered the institution as East Alabama Male College on the 1st of February 1856. This private liberal arts college operated under the guidance of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South starting in 1859. Reverend William J. Sasnett served as the first president of the new college. Operations began with a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten that same year. The campus centered around Old Main, which housed all classes until the Civil War forced its closure. Most students and faculty left to enlist in the Confederate Army during the conflict. The building itself became a hospital for wounded soldiers from the war.

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• 2. War Era Transformations

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  On the 1st of October 1918, nearly all able-bodied male students aged eighteen or older voluntarily joined the United States Army. These eight hundred seventy-eight student soldiers formed the academic section of the Student Army Training Corps. They received honorable discharges two months later following the Armistice that ended World War I. During World War II between 1941 and 1945, thirty-two thousand troops attended the university in some manner. API became an early participant in Engineering, Science, and Management War Training programs fully funded by the government. Enrollment at the school more than doubled after the war due to returning military personnel using the GI Bill. Faculty salaries were cut drastically during the Great Depression while enrollment decreased alongside state appropriations.

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• 3. Integration And Social Change

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  Auburn University remained racially segregated prior to 1963 with only white students admitted to the institution. Integration began in 1964 when Harold A. Franklin became the first African-American student to attend graduate school there. Franklin had to sue the university to gain admission and was denied his degree after completing his master thesis. He eventually received his master's in history in 2020. The first degree granted to an African-American occurred in 1967. According to Auburn University Office of Institutional Research and Assessment data from Fall 2023, African-Americans comprised seven point three five percent of undergraduates. The university increased its Black faculty percentage from four point three percent in 2003 to four point seven percent in 2025 following legal challenges regarding underrepresentation. In 2024, Auburn eliminated its Office of Inclusion and Diversity to comply with SB 129 signed by Governor Kay Ivey.

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• 4. Academic Expansion And Research

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  The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering maintains a one hundred thirty-four year tradition of engineering education. It consistently ranks among the nation's largest twenty engineering programs by number of graduates annually. In 2001, alumnus Samuel L. Ginn made a twenty-five million dollar gift to the college. This donation enabled Auburn to launch the first Bachelor of Wireless Engineering degree program in the United States. The Old Rotation on campus represents the oldest continuous agricultural experiment in the Southeast dating back to 1896. David Bransby's work using switchgrass as biofuel earned mention in the 2006 State of the Union Address. Auburn holds R1 classification for very high research activity among U.S. universities. The institution has graduated six astronauts including T.K. Mattingly of Apollo 13 fame.

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• 5. Campus Architecture And Infrastructure

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  Hargis Hall was built in 1888 and named after Estes H. Hargis. The Auburn campus follows a grid-like pattern with distinct building groups across northern middle and southern sections. Thach Avenue closed to vehicular traffic in 2004 while Roosevelt Drive followed suit in 2005. These roadways converted from asphalt to concrete to create more appealing walkways. The Science Center complex finished construction in 2005 containing chemistry labs and large lecture halls. Phase I of the Shelby Center opened in Spring 2008 with regular classes starting that Summer term. A new Student Center also opened in 2008. Completed in August 2017, the Mell Classroom Building attached to Ralph Brown Draughon Library offered flexible learning space. An eighty-nine thousand square foot nursing school building finished that same year featuring active learning classrooms. The Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center completed in August 2022 combines instructional laboratory space with operational food venues.

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• 6. Athletic Dominance And Traditions

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  Auburn played its first football game in 1892 against the University of Georgia at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. This match started what is currently the oldest college football rivalry in the Deep South. Three players including Pat Sullivan in 1971 Bo Jackson in 1985 and Cam Newton in 2010 won the Heisman Trophy. Jordan-Hare Stadium holds a capacity of eighty-seven thousand four hundred fifty-one making it the ninth-largest on-campus stadium in NCAA history. Auburn swimming and diving programs achieved consecutive national championships for both men and women in 2003 and 2004. Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines swam for Auburn while Brazilian César Cielo Filho won medals there too. The tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner began in the 1950s when Sheldon Toomer tossed receipt paper into trees after victories. In November 2010 an Alabama supporter poisoned the large live oak trees using herbicide Spike 80DF. The eighty-three to eighty-five-year-old trees did not survive and were replaced multiple times since then.

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