Cartersville Campus
Georgia Highlands College
Cartersville Campus
19 Gilmer Street
Cartersville, GA 30120
Phone: (770) 387-3775
Fax: (706) 802-5402
The Georgia Highlands College Cartersville Center is located in downtown Cartersville, approximately four miles from Interstate 75 and about 30 miles from the main campus in Rome. Administrative services are available to students at this site.
The center houses five general purpose classrooms, a science laboratory, a continuing education computer lab, and faculty offices. A student lounge area and a bookstore also occupy the building.
Georgia Highlands College GroundBreaking for Bartow Campus
ROME,GA - The long-anticipated full-service college campus for Bartow County took one step closer to fruition with the groundbreaking ceremony for Georgia Highlands College’s Bartow Campus on Wednesday, July 17, at 1 p.m. The ceremony was held on the property which is located on Georgia Highway 20 across from the Walmart shopping center in Cartersville.
On hand for the program was Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Thomas Meredith, former Governor and Chairman of the Board of Regents, Joe Frank Harris, Senator Nathan Dean, Bartow County Commissioner Clarence Brown, Cartersville Mayor Mike Fields, and Chair of the Cartersville/Bartow College Foundation, Danny Gibbs. Georgia Highlands College President Randy Pierce presided over the program. Paul Battles, Chairman of the Board of the Cartersville/Bartow Chamber of Commerce had coordinated the groundbreaking.
Georgia Highlands College has been offering educational programming in Bartow County for more than 13 years and currently has full-time faculty and staff assigned to the campus. The college originally leased space in the Etowah Foundation Building and currently offers academic programming and services at 19 Gilmer Street in Cartersville.
The new, full-service campus in Bartow County will initially incorporate 99,000 gross square feet of space in one building. The building will house 21 classrooms, four lecture halls, eight science labs, eight conference rooms, 25 faculty, staff and student offices, six administrative offices, a student center, and a bookstore. When opened, the new center is expected to serve a minimum of 1,500 students. Planners have taken into consideration future growth, planning for two to four additional buildings to be built as needed.
In January 1999, Georgia Highlands College established the Cartersville/Bartow College Foundation to support the new campus. Dr. Virginia Carson, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the college, serves as president/CEO of the foundation (an automatic appointment by position per organization’s bylaws); the chair is Danny Gibbs of Georgia Commercial Realty; vice chair is Philip D. Bridges, Bridges Agency, Inc.; the secretary is Judy Taylor, Georgia Highlands College advancement officer; the treasurer is Greg Patton, Crescent Bank; and chair of the finance committee is Chip Shropshire, Bartow Paving Company. To date, the Foundation has raised more than $500,000 to establish an endowment for the new center.
The development of the new Bartow County campus will support area’s population growth and fulfill a long-held dream of community leaders. With help of Bartow County Commissioner Clarence Brown and Senator Nathan Dean, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved Georgia Highlands College’s proposal for the new $19 million permanent center in December 1997. The college received planning money for the campus in July 2000, with construction to begin this fall. According to President Randy Pierce, the center would be expected to open in 2004.
Georgia Highlands College anticipates that the facility will host other higher education partners who will offer classes in the Bartow Campus, expanding Floyd’s two-year offerings to include baccalaureate degree courses and technical courses. These courses might be offered by Kennesaw State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, North Metro Technical College, and Dalton College.
Georgia Highlands College is a two-year unit of the University System of Georgia with an enrollment of more than 2,500 students on its campuses in Rome, Cartersville, Acworth, and Haralson County.