SOUTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY

public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Springfield, Mo., U.S. It emphasizes the undergraduate curriculum and has one of the largest undergraduate enrollments in Missouri. Southwest Missouri State offers about 8 undergraduate degrees in more than 140 academic programs and 7 graduate degrees in about 20 programs. There are about 40 academic departments within the colleges of Business Administration, Education and Psychology, Health and Applied Sciences, Arts and Letters, Science and Mathematics, and Humanities and Social Sciences. The university operates 11 centres of research. The Duane G. Meyer Library contains a collection on the French writers Arthur Rimbaud and Michel Butor. Other campuses of the university are the Fruit Experiment Station (founded 1899), near Mountain Grove, and a community college in West Plains (founded 1963). There are approximately 20,000 students enrolled at the main campus. The university was established in 1905 as Missouri State Normal School, Fourth District; it began training teachers the following year. In 1919 it was renamed Southwest Missouri State Teachers College, and in 1945, with an expanded curriculum, it became Southwest Missouri State College. It was elevated to university status in 1972.