Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

(AP) -- Georgia State University is opening its first freshman dorm and dining hall.  The downtown Atlanta campus will cut the ribbon on the new 87,000-square-foot facility Wednesday at 3 p.m. 

The new residence hall is part of a long-term plan to create a more traditional campus where a large number of students live in dorms and walk to class. The university was for years a commuter campus where mostly adult students took classes. 

The new $15.7 million dorm will house 325 freshmen, bringing the total number of beds on campus to about 3,000.

(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)