Southwest Minnesota State University

Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) is a public university in Marshall, Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. The university has an enrollment of approximately 8,700 students and employs 148 faculty members. It is divided into two major colleges, the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and the College of Business, Education, and Professional Studies. History The university was founded in 1964 as Southwest Minnesota State College (SMSC). It admitted its first class of students on September 19, 1967. The college became Southwest State University (SSU) on August 1, 1975, and kept that name for nearly thirty years until adopting the name Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) on July 1, 2003. The student newspaper, originally called The Impact, was first published May 10, 1968. The name was changed to The Reader in 1974, and then back to The Impact in 1980. In 2003 the name was changed to The Spur to be more consistent with the Mustang theme and to spur students into action. The R/A (Recreation/Athletic) Facility was built in 1996 and is a 4,000-seat multi-purpose venue.