Our key focus areas will be the following:
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Doubling our active membership
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Increasing our fundraising efforts to enable more scholarships, increased endowments, campus beautification projects, sponsored professorships, increased assets, etc.
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Executing the signature programs:1) Student Computers and 2) Mentors for students' chosen profession
Dr. Tammy Richardson C/O F'91
GUNAA National President
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Grambling University National Alumni Association shall be:
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To facilitate better communication and relationships between the University, Graduates and Friends.
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To cooperate with the University’s Administration, Field Services, and other Alumni organizations in the promotion of worthwhile activities for Grambling State University Faculty, Graduates, Students, Prospective Students, and Friends.
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To encourage the highest type of professional ethics and scholarships among the Alumni and Students.
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To simulate school loyalty, devotion, and responsibility.
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To further encourage professional enthusiasm, initiative, and growth.
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To provide a National Association to channel information to support local, state, regional and national programs.
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To provide suitable headquarters, offices and facilities to direct Alumni Affairs and to channel information to support local, state, regional, and national programs.
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To study any propositions concerning the mutual relationship of the University and the various allied organizations to the end that both will benefit from their close association.
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To legislate through bylaws or by resolution upon any subject of general concern to the members of this organization.
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To promote a “Greater Grambling” through the work of the Alumni Association.
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To secure financial assistance to Grambling State University through the following methods: Cash, Securities, Requests, Life-Income, Real Estate, Insurance, Specified Property, Annual Dues, and by Annual Fund Drives.
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To establish Alumni Chapters throughout the nation to assist Grambling State University in achieving the above goals, as well as, educational excellence, financial security, humanitarian ideas, athletic and social prominence.
aLUMNI CENTER
Mailing Address
Post Office Drawer 565
Grambling, Louisiana 71245
(318) 247-6770
Physical Location
386 RWE Jones Drive
Grambling, Louisiana 71245
The National Alumni Association Center was the home of the 2nd President of Grambling State University, President Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones (Prez). The national association purchased his home and one acre of land in 1996 from his family. The Alumni Center is located two blocks southeast of the campus. Additionally, Grambling University National Alumni Association, Inc. (GUNAA) purchased an additional 6.99 acres adjacent to the Alumni Center for future expansion.
Grambling University National Alumni Association,Inc., continues to upgrade the Alumni Center in attempts to bring the center to 21-century standards. Such upgrades will afford alumni members the ability to interact with fellow members and supporters in an integrated functioning facility. Continued help from all alums and friends of Grambling State University is paramount to accomplish this goal. As alums, we want to be proud of our Alumni Center. Let us work together to make our Alumni Center a multi-functioning integrated facility for generations to come.
Therefore, feel free to visit the GIVE tab of our web-page to make your donation towards our growth, mail your generous donation to the national office, or call to pay by phone using your credit or debit card.
GRAMBLING STATE UNIVERSITY HISTORY
Martin Lemelle, Jr.
GSU President
Grambling State University opened on November 1, 1901 as the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School. It was founded by the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association, organized in 1896 by a group of African-American farmers who wanted to organize and operate a school for African Americans in their region of the state.
In response to the Association’s request for assistance, Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington sent Charles P. Adams to help the group organize an industrial school. Adams became its founding president.
In 1905, the school moved to its present location and was renamed the North Louisiana Agricultural and Industrial School. By 1928, after becoming a state junior college and being renamed the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, the school began to award two-year professional certificates and diplomas. In 1936, and the curriculum emphasis shifted to rural teacher education; students were able to receive professional teaching certificates after completing a third academic year. The first baccalaureate degree was awarded in 1944, in elementary education.
In 1946, the school became Grambling College, named after P.G. Grambling, the white sawmill owner who had donated the parcel of land where the school was constructed. In addition to elementary educators, Grambling prepared secondary teachers and added curricula in sciences, liberal arts and business, transforming the college from a single purpose institution of teacher education into a multipurpose college. In 1949, the college earned its first accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
In 1974, the addition of graduate programs in early childhood and elementary education gave the school a new status and a new name – Grambling State University. The university expanded and prospered between 1977 and 2000. Several new academic programs were incorporated and new facilities were added to the 384-acre campus, including a business and computer science building, school of nursing, student services building, stadium, stadium support facility and an intramural sports center.
University Presidents
Following Founding President Charles P. Adams, who served for 35 years, Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones became the second president in 1936. Five presidents served from 1977 to 2001: Dr. Joseph Benjamin Johnson, Dr. Harold W. Lundy, Dr. Raymond Hicks, Dr. Leonard Haynes III and Dr. Steve A. Favors. Grambling State University’s first female president, Dr. Neari Francois Warner, served a three-year interim term until the selection of Dr. Horace Judson, who became the institution’s seventh president in 2004. After leading an ambitious five-year campaign to rebuild the institution's facilities, Judson resigned in 2009. After Judson's resignation, Frank G. Pogue, Ph.D., a highly respected educator and administrator with a distinguished 47-year career in higher education was named GSU's president. Prior to his selection as president, Dr. Pogue served as the president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, interim president at Chicago State University and State University of New York (SUNY)-Cobleskill. Dr. Pogue retired after serving a five-year term as president, and Dr. Cynthia Warrick, Ph.D., RPh. was named as interim president in 2014 during the presidential search. Warrick ventured into higher education 16 years ago serving in multi-faceted leadership roles as an administrator, public servant, healthcare professional, environmental research scientist, faculty member, and accreditation reviewer. Dr. Willie D. Larkin , Ph.D. was named ninth university president in 2015 (May) and server a one-year term. Dr. Larkin had previously served as Chief of Staff to leaders of Morgan State University and the University of Wisconsin Colleges, where he worked directly with the chancellor, and the president at Morgan State University, to provide oversight of nearly 3,000 employees and an operating budget of more than $300 million. At Auburn University, he was the faculty advisor to the university’s Board of Trustees and the first African American to chair the university’s 90-member University Senate.
Immediate past president is Richard J. Gallot, Jr. The University of Louisiana System (ULS) Board of Supervisors announced (07/26/2016) that the tenth President of Grambling State University (GSU) will be former Louisiana state senator, and state representative, Richard J. Gallot, Jr. Gallot is a 1987 GSU graduate where he received a bachelor of arts in Arts & History. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Southern University in 1990. From 2000 to 2012, Gallot held the District 11 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He served three terms in the house before winning his first term in the senate in 2011. Gallot did not seek re-election in the October 24, 2015 election. (Click here for President's welcome and bio.)
Current President is Dr. Martin Lemelle, Jr.
GUNAA HISTORY
Grambling University National Alumni Association, Inc. has been fortunate to have had several dedicated alums to serve in the leadership roles of this philanthropic organization. The organization was originally governed by a Board of Governors, which is currently named the Board of Directors. An Executive Committee was later established. Read More (CLICK HERE)
