Shorter College to become university

Shorter College soon will become Rome’s first university. The Georgia Baptist Convention approved the change Tuesday for the 1,000-student college. The conversion will take place by 2010.

The change means the campus in Floyd County in northwest Georgia will have three separate colleges: arts and sciences, professional programs and a newly formed college of nursing.

President Harold E. Newman said he hopes the change will help Shorter grow to about 4,500 students in the next four years.

Shorter was founded by a Baptist church in 1873.

— Associated Press