Truman
State University is a public liberal
arts and sciences
university located in Kirksville, Missouri, United States. It is a member of the Council
of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.
Truman had 5,990 enrolled students in the Fall 2015, with 5,700, and 290
postgraduates, pursuing degrees in 48 undergraduate,
and nine Graduate programs. Located in Kirksville, in the northeastern portion
of Missouri, the University is named after President Harry Truman, the only president born in Missouri.
Until 1996, the school was known as Northeast Missouri State University, but
the Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to better reflect its
statewide mission. In the 2014 U.S.
News & World Report
College Rankings, Truman placed tenth in the Midwest among regional
universities. Truman is the only public institution in Missouri that is
officially designated to pursue highly selective admissions standardsIn 1924 a
fire destroyed old Baldwin Hall and the library. The lake that once filled the
current quadrangle, or "Quad," (a prominent feature in pre-1924 photographs)
was pumped dry in a futile attempt to put out the fire. The Quad now serves as
a popular gathering place where students study, play games, hold events and
meet with one another.
The college was renamed Northeast Missouri State
University in 1972, and, in 1983, the university was awarded the G. Theodore
Mitau Award for Innovation and Change in Higher Education by the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities.
Northeast Missouri State continued pushing for excellence. On June 20, 1985, Governor John Ashcroft signed a bill that designated the
university as Missouri's only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university. This changed
the school's mission to a statewide rather than a regional (northeast)
objective. As such, nearly 100 programs were dropped in the span of six years,
including all two-year programs that did not fulfill the liberal arts
mission.
The school continued to win praise from such publications as US
News and World Report
and the university's reputation continued to spread. By the 1990s, the
university was no longer solely a teachers' college, but also had a
nationally-known accounting division and schools of science, mathematics, computer science and literature. Ten years after Governor Ashcroft's
designation, Governor Mel Carnahan signed legislation renaming the school
Truman State University. Truman State University is designated by statute as
Missouri's premier public liberal arts and sciences institutionKirk Memorial is
a small, domed structure near the center of campus.