It’s hard to imagine a mere 100 students attending the University and Saturday classes being the norm. But the 224-year-ol University has seen many changes.

Thomas G. Dyer, a retired University professor and former vice president for instruction, will give a lecture today to honor the 224th anniversary of the University’s founding. The lecture wil be held at 3 p.m. in the Chapel.

“This year the lecture’s going to be about the University, we’ve not had anybody to talk about that and Tom Dyer is perfect for that,” Alice Vernon, director of customer service for the Alumni Association, said. “He’s really the expert on University history.”

Abraham Baldwin was granted a charter for the University in 1785, but the University was not founded until 1801, because the area was thinly settled, said Nash Boney, a retired professor emeritus of history.

“The main thing to remember is the historical perspective,” Boney said. “Georgia was very poorly organized and had very little capital reserves and no higher education.”

By the time it closed during the Civil War, the University had only 100 students.

“It was a very small shaky school for those first few years,” Boney said. “It’s like a lot of the big state schools, until after World War II it wasn’t really very big.”

Boney said the GI Bill, which paid for World War II veterans to attend college, increased enrollment.

Claude McBride, a journalism major in the class of 1953, was not a veteran but attended the University during a time of growth.

McBride, now the associate director of alumni relations, noted many changes to the University.

When he was a student, there were classes on Saturdays, and there were “fewer professors,” he said, “but you really got to know them.”

“The relationship between the University and the city of Athens was also different. There was a closeness that we don’t have now,” he said, and townspeople often attended campus events.

Some aspects of University life changed little over the years.

“In addition to classes, there was the excitement of pep rallies and the ball games,” McBride recalled.

This year’s lecture is a blue card event and is open to all students.

“I know that the students who do orientation tours, they have a lot of information about the University, but I’m guessing that the average student may not know a lot about the University,” Vernon said. “And it’s a great history.”