Georgia State University, an enterprising public research university in the heart of Atlanta, is a national leader in graduating students from diverse backgrounds. Its six campuses in downtown and metro Atlanta provide its more than 50,000 students with unsurpassed connections to the city's business, government, nonprofit and cultural communities as well as opportunities in an environment of varied ideas, cultures, ages, lifestyles and experiences. Atlanta, home to more than a dozen headquarters of Fortune 500 companies, provides Georgia State's faculty with an urban laboratory, enabling them to draw creative inspiration and address critical societal issues locally and in cities around the world. Georgia State has a university-wide commitment to student advising and attention to student progress to graduation. The university is nationally recognized as a leader in creating innovative approaches that foster the success of students from all academic, socio-economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds. Georgia State is one of a handful of large institutions nationwide using new technology to track students from the moment they arrive on campus until they graduate to ensure progress. With the university's early warning tracking system, struggling students get the intervention they need to get back on track, improve or change their academic path. Georgia State is among the most diverse universities in the nation and is a recognized leader in graduating students from diverse backgrounds.The university's 10-year strategic plan, introduced in 2011, aims to enhance research and discovery, in part by implementing a hiring initiative to build scholarly strength around interdisciplinary research themes. It also focuses on efforts to make the university a leader in undergraduate student success and puts renewed emphasis on improving graduate education. The plan emphasizes the university's commitment to addressing issues and problems confronting cities around the globe, and establishes as a priority the institution's initiatives to extend its global involvement and influence. Georgia State, founded in 1913, is central to the revitalization of downtown Atlanta, expanding its campus and building a more robust student residential community. More than 5,000 students now live in residence halls on a campus that once served commuting students exclusively. Georgia State's consolidation in 2016 with Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year institution, made it the largest university in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. Its efforts to enhance student life and campus involvement included the introduction of a Division 1 football program in 2010 and membership in the Sun Belt athletic conference of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision in 2013.The university offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in more than 250 fields of study in its academic colleges, schools and units, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professions, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of the Arts, the College of Education, the College of Law, the Honors College, the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Perimeter College, the J. Mack Robinson College of Business and the School of Public Health.