Welcome to Athens State University, a truly unique Alabama institution of higher education.  You have chosen to become a member of our community and we are glad to have you here.  I want to take just a moment to talk about some of the things that set us apart from other colleges and universities.  First and foremost, we are Alabama’s oldest educational institution, founded in 1822.  We have a long and rich heritage of serving Alabama and we look forward to serving you.

Being the oldest educational institution, however, doesn’t mean that we are old fashion about what we do.  You will find a rich blend of modern and traditional methods of instruction.  We are thoroughly focused on taking care of the educational needs of our students.  For some of you that will mean traditional one on one attention from our faculty, others will find their schedule is better served by our distance or on-line delivery methods.  In either case, you will find that your education here will stand the test of time.  Our faculty have a well-deserved reputation for excellence as evidenced by our on-going accreditation from a number of professional associations.

You will also find that we understand our responsibility to manage our resources very carefully.  Unlike every other college and university in the state, we did not raise our tuition this year and our tuition cost continues to be the lowest in the state.  When you combine the low cost of our service with the exceptional quality of our programs, you will find that we provide the greatest possible educational value in our state.  We know that both your time and your financial resources are limited.  That is why we do everything we can to be flexible and frugal to allow you to stretch both to the maximum.

Ultimately, the measure of any university is its students and their accomplishments.  It is all about getting each student from where they are to where they want to be.  As a result, we have a vested interest in your success.  We hope that you will take full advantage of all that we have to offer.  We look forward to seeing what you accomplish and we know that those accomplishments will be another reason we can continue to say that we are a great university.

The Inauguration of the 36th President, Robert K. Glenn