MISSOURI, UNIVERSITY OF

state university system of Missouri, U.S., comprising four coeducational campuses. It is a land-grant university and one of the largest academic and research institutions in the United Stateswith some 500 degree programs, a total enrollment of more than 50,000 students, and an annual research budget of approximately $111,000,000. The main campus at Columbia provides comprehensive undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs and is divided into 17 schools and colleges. There are more than 90 graduate degree programs available. The Columbia campus has libraries containing more than 2.6 million volumes; among its research facilities is the University of MissouriColumbia Research Reactor. The branches of the University of Missouri at St. Louis and at Kansas City provide a wide array of degree programs; the College of Arts and Sciences is the largest division at both of these campuses. Particular to the Kansas City branch are the schools of Dentistry and of Pharmacy, the Conservatory of Music, and the Computer Science Telecommunications Program. The St. Louis branch is known for the School of Optometry and the Center for Metropolitan Studies. The campus at Rolla places heavy emphasis on the study of science and technology; almost half the student body there is enrolled in the School of Engineering. Notable areas of research at Rolla include the exploration, development, and utilization of energy resources. Both the Columbia and Kansas City campuses have law and medical schools. Founded in Columbia in 1839, the University of Missouri became the first public university in the Louisiana Purchase territory and the oldest state university west of the Mississippi River. In 1870 it was approved as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862. The School of Medicine was founded in 1841, the School of Law opened in 1872, and the world's first university course in journalism commenced in 1879. Progressive educator Junius L. Meriam established an experimental elementary school there in 1904. The campus at Rolla was founded in 1870 as the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, one of the first technological institutions in the United States; it was incorporated into the state university system in 1964. The campus at Kansas City was originally chartered in 1929 as the privately owned University of Kansas City; it joined the system in 1963, the same year that the St. Louis campus was founded. Famous alumni of Missouri include surgeon William Worrall Mayo and retail magnate Samuel Walton.