Governors State University

Governors State University (Governors State, GSU, or GOVST) is a public university in University Park, Illinois. The campus is located south of Chicago, Illinois. GSU was founded in 1969. It is a public university offering degree programs at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. GSU has four colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education, and the College of Health and Human Services. History Governors State University was established as a state-supported, upper-division institution of education on July 17, 1969, when Illinois Governor Richard B. Ogilvie signed into law House Bill 666. Originally scheduled to open to students in September 1973, the four-year planning period was reduced to two years and GSU received its first class of 500 students in September 1971. The university utilized warehouse space as the temporary home during the campus construction. Under the university's first president, William Engbretson, academic staff created an experimental educational environment focused on a collaborative learning environment between students and faculty in class sessions called modules that met for eight-week sessions. GSU was one of the original "Universities without Walls" as well as a university that did not offer grades, but competencies. In place of departments, it had interdisciplinary studies, and all professors held the rank of University Professor. The university transitioned from the experimental curriculum to a more traditional model after Engbretson stepped down and Leo Goodman-Malamuth became GSU's second president. GSU developed academic divisions and departments, professors with rank (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor), and renovated the open space main building to classroom and office space. Structured classes in a trimester schedule, along with traditional transcripts were other changes during the era. Following the original mandate to serve the underserved student populations such as veterans and nontraditional students with some college credits but no degree, the university developed telecourses in the 1980s. The classes were held in one of GSU's two television studios then were made available via tape or as programming on cable channels.