TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tenn., U.S. It is a land-grant university consisting of colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, and Engineering and Technology and schools of Agriculture and Home Economics, Allied Health Professions, and Nursing. The university offers a range of undergraduate degree programs and master's programs in education, business, psychology, and other areas. There are also doctoral programs in education and psychology. Total enrollment is approximately 7,000. The university was created by a 1909 act of the state legislature. It opened in 1912 as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School. It was an institution exclusively for African-Americans, who continue to make up the majority of the student population. It became a four-year teachers' college in 1922, and it awarded its first bachelor's degree in 1924. It was granted university standing in 1951. As the state dismantled its segregated educational system, the university absorbed the University of Tennessee at Nashville in 1979. Olympic sprinters Wilma Rudolph and Wyomia Tyus were alumnae of Tennessee State.