Montana State University – Bozeman

Montana State University

Motto	Mountains & Minds
Type	Public Land-grant
Established	1893
Endowment	$119.8 million (2011–12)
President	Waded Cruzado
Provost	Robert Mokwa, interim
Academic staff	1,154 (fall 2012)
Administrative staff	1,900 (fall 2012)
Students	15,688 (fall 2015)
Undergraduates	13,371 (fall 2014)
Postgraduates	2,050 (fall 2014)
Location	Bozeman, Montana, U.S. 45°40′06″N 111°03′00″W / 45.66833°N 111.05000°W / 45.66833; -111.05000Coordinates: 45°40′06″N 111°03′00″W / 45.66833°N 111.05000°W / 45.66833; -111.05000
Campus	University town 1,170 acres (470 ha)
Colors	Blue and Gold
Nickname	Bobcats
Mascot	Champ
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I – Big Sky
Website	www.montana.edu

Montana State University (MSU) is a land-grant university located in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It is the state's largest university and primary campus in the Montana State University System, which is part of the Montana University System. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 51 fields, master's degrees in 41 fields, and doctoral degrees in 18 fields through its nine colleges.

More than 16,400 students attend MSU, and the university faculty numbers, including department heads, are 743 full-time and 411 part-time. The university's main campus in Bozeman is home to KUSM television, KGLT radio, and the Museum of the Rockies. MSU provides outreach services to citizens and communities statewide through its eight Agricultural Experiment Stations and 60 county and reservation Extension Offices.

Montana became a state on November 8, 1889. Several cities competed intensely to be the state capital, the city of Bozeman among them. In time, the city of Helena was named the state capital. As a consolation, the state legislature agreed to put the state's land-grant college in Bozeman. Gallatin County rancher and businessman Nelson Story, Sr. had agreed to donate about 160 acres (650,000 m²) for the site of the state capital. This land, as well as additional property and monetary contributions, was now turned over to the state for the new college.

MSU was founded in 1893 as the Agricultural College of the State of Montana. It opened on February 16 with five male and three female students. The first classes were held in rooms in the county high school, and later that year in the shuttered Bozeman Academy (a private preparatory school). The first students were from Bozeman Academy, and were forced to transfer to the college. Only two faculty existed on opening day: Luther Foster, a horticulturalist from South Dakota who was also Acting President, and Homer G. Phelps, who taught business. Within weeks, they were joined by S.M. Emery (who ran the agricultural experiment station) and Benjamin F. Maiden (an English teacher from the former Bozeman Academy). Augustus M. Ryon, a coal mine owner, was named the first president of the college on April 17, 1893. Ryon immediately clashed with the board of trustees and faculty. Where the trustees wanted the college to focus on agriculture, Ryon pointed out that few of its students intended to go back to farming. While the rapidly expanding faculty wanted to establish a remedial education program to assist unprepared undergraduates (Montana's elementary and secondary public education system was in dire shape at the time), Ryon refused. The donation of the Story land to the college occurred in 1894, but Ryon was forced out in 1895 and replaced by the Rev. Dr. James R. Reid, a Presbyterian minister who had been president of the Montana College at Deer Lodge since 1890.