Fairmont State University

Fairmont State University is a public university located in Fairmont, West Virginia, United States. The university has an enrollment of about 4,500 students and offers master's degrees in business, education, teaching, architecture, and criminal justice, in addition to 90 baccalaureate programs.

Fairmont State was founded as a private institution in 1865 in the basement of the Methodist Protestant Church at 418 Quincy Street. It was known as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont and was dedicated to educating teachers. March 9, 1868, it was purchased by the state from the Regency of the West Virginia Normal School which had been formed in 1866. With this purchase, this private normal school became a branch of the State Normal School at Marshall College.

From 1868 to 1892 the school was known variously as Fairmont Normal School, the Fairmont Branch of the West Virginia Normal School, the Branch of the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a branch of the West Virginia State Normal School at Marshall College, but most commonly as Fairmont State Normal School. By 1892 the designation of "branch" had fallen into disuse by FSNS. It was renamed Fairmont State Teachers College in 1931 and Fairmont State College in 1943. On April 7, 2004, Governor Bob Wise signed legislation changing its name to Fairmont State University.

Today, FSU offers more than 80 baccalaureate degrees in business, education, engineering and technology, fine arts, liberal arts, and nursing and allied health administration with graduate programs in architecture, education, business, and criminal justice.

The Fairmont Normal School Administration Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

In 1974, a community college component was founded. This became independently accredited as the Fairmont State Community and Technical College in 2003. In 2006 Fairmont State was given direction by the state to split with the community and technical college, which then became known as Pierpont Community and Technical College. While both institutions still operate on the Fairmont campus, they are recognized as independent institutions and offer completely separate degree programs; Pierpont focuses more on 2-year technical associate's programs, while Fairmont State's main focus is four-year baccelaureate degrees and master's programs.