Located on 212 acres in Emporia, Kansas, Emporia State has an enrollment of approximately 4,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students from across the United States and 45 countries.

Emporia State University was established as Kansas State Normal School by the Kansas Legislature in 1863. The first term began on February 15, 1865, and the first class of 18 students was taught by Lyman Kellogg, the school's first president. Classes were held on the second floor of the district school house until 1867, when the first permanent building on the present campus was completed. The first commencement, held June 28, 1867, awarded diplomas to two women -- Mary Jane Watson and Ellen Plumb.

The school struggled financially for the first two decades of its existence, but by 1889 it was the largest school in Kansas and the largest normal school in the country. It was accredited in 1898, the same year it graduated its first black students. It was renamed Kansas State Teachers College in 1923, became Emporia Kansas State College in 1974, and assumed its current name in 1977.

Today Emporia State University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in four separate colleges: the schools of Business, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Library and Information Managements, and the Teachers College. It is also home to the Center for Great Plains Studies, William Allen White Library, and National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Emporia State University's official website is www.emporia.edu.

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