Emory Junior College at Valdosta opened on September 26, 1928 with an enrollment of fifty students. Sixteen students made up the first graduating class of the all-male school in 1930. The onset of World War II caused the already modest enrollment (an average of sixty-one students) to plummet, as scholars became soldiers. Students, faculty and staff moved to Atlanta for the duration of the war. The school reopened in 1946 with a record enrollment of 247, buoyed by an infusion of students on the G.I. Bill and an aggressive recruiting drive. The school was forced to close in 1954, due largely to declining postwar enrollment and competition from the state university system. The campus was then turned over to the state of Georgia and became Valdosta State College, now Valdosta State University.
From the description of Emory Junior College at Valdosta records, 1928-1953 (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 767533151
