{"id":9534,"date":"2026-03-02T22:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T22:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=9534"},"modified":"2026-03-02T22:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T22:18:26","slug":"troy-university-turns-139-years-old-see-how-the-campus-celebrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/03\/02\/troy-university-turns-139-years-old-see-how-the-campus-celebrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy University turns 139 years old; see how the campus celebrated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TROY, Ala. (<a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 Founded in 1887 as a teacher training school,\u00a0Troy University\u00a0marked its 139th anniversary Thursday with a campus-wide celebration at the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students, faculty, staff and administrators gathered for a birthday picnic that included cake, music and giveaways. Cheers of \u201cHappy Birthday, Troy\u201d could be heard throughout the park as attendees recognized the university\u2019s years of operation and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JT Long, an Impact Leader, said the event highlighted the institution\u2019s history and sense of community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome just the fact that being able to celebrate how long Troy has been here,\u201d Long said. \u201cBeing able to see generations of students \u2014 people that went to Troy now work for Troy \u2014 just showing true strength in the Troy community and the university itself and how much it brings to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past 139 years, the university has expanded from its original mission as a normal school into a public institution with multiple campuses and online programs. One visible sign of recent campus development is the newly renovated campus lake, located near the celebration site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/02\/25\/new-agreement-creates-engineering-pathway-from-escc-to-troy-university\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NEW BEGINNINGS: Agreement creates engineering pathway from ESCC to Troy University<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">University Chancellor\u00a0Jack Hawkins Jr.\u00a0emphasized the institution\u2019s focus on students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur students \u2014 you are why we exist, and we want to do everything that we can to make sure that you stand on the platform of success and opportunity,\u201d Hawkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dean of Student Services\u00a0Korrie Lynn Williamson\u00a0said the event reflects the university\u2019s mission to serve students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is what we\u2019re here for as faculty and staff \u2014 to serve our students,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cSeeing so many happy faces out here celebrating this wonderful university, cherishing the memories and the moments and hopefully making some \u2014 it\u2019s an exciting day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of this year\u2019s event, the first 139 students in attendance received a Troy University beach towel as a commemorative gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 Founded in 1887 as a teacher training school,\u00a0Troy University\u00a0marked its 139th anniversary Thursday with a campus-wide celebration at the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park.<\/p>\n<p>Students, faculty, staff and administrators gathered for a birthday picnic that included cake, music and giveaways. Cheers of \u201cHappy Birthday, Troy\u201d could be heard throughout the park&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a-button\" href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/03\/02\/troy-university-turns-139-years-old-see-how-the-campus-celebrated\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[2932,2930,2931],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-9534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-troy-university-139","tag-troy-university-birthday","tag-troy-university-celebration","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9571,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions\/9571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9534"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}