Students work to put up an archival exhibit in the library for retired VSU professor Eric Brandt Nielsen. focused on facilities and in-person learning. One project coming soon is the creation of sorority houses, which are in the first steps of creation.
“ The University Advancement and VSU Foundation Inc. team will lead the effort to raise funds necessary to build sorority houses for VSU’ s National Panhellenic Conference chapters,” Madison Beaumarchais, VSU’ s assistant director for fraternity and sorority life, said.“ Planning is already underway, including early conversations with each chapter’ s national organization, construction site planning, and the development of architectural renderings that will be used for fundraising purposes.”
Many of the fraternities around campus have their own houses, such as Tau Kappa Epsilon and Kappa Alpha. This project will bring Valdosta State University one step closer to having a larger official Greek Row on campus.
Greek Life is not the only place on campus that is expanding into the community: the Performing Arts college is taking the place of Ashley Cinemas to build
a new and improved Performing Arts Center. This building will be host to new and improved stylistic, audio and visual facilities to better accommodate the creativity of the performances hosted there.
“ This new center will provide students with a professional setting for developing full competencies in the performing arts,” Jessica Pope, VSU’ s communications and media relations coordinator, said.“ Ample parking and a highly visible location will enhance accessibility for both the VSU and Valdosta communities.”
VSU’ s Archival records also received new growth, including archival photos from the Valdosta Daily Times and blueprints for houses provided by architect Frank McCall Jr. The photo archive will be available for online viewing in the near future, according to Douglas Carlson, archivist and program coordinator for archives. These expansions have been added just after the updated Special Collections section of Archives was added in 2023.
“ It’ s mainly local history, VSU history books,” Carlson said.“ About 500 books total, about half of them you can check out and half of them have to be kept in Archives because there’ s one single edition, it’ s out of print, or it’ s autographed. It can be anything from a book about the Civil War to a cookbook.”
Setting up for success
Between the removal of old buildings and the new growth, it can be easy to miss the things that are being improved upon, despite how vital they are for the campus and community. With a rise in demand for certain degrees across the country, the updates being made to those departments are fostering the growth of the university and the surrounding community through increased enrollment.
VSU’ s education department is rising to the occasion as the demand for education degrees increases nationwide. It has begun the process of updating the education building to better facilitate the next generation of K-12 teachers. This renovation will conclude in 2027.
“ Faculty will be energized by the new spaces to continue to use innovative pedagogical methods to ensure we maintain our reputation as producing some of the most sought-after graduates in the state,” said Dr. David Slykhuis, dean of the James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education at VSU.
12 Valdosta Scene | October 2025