University of Missouri–Kansas City

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Type	Public research
Established	1933
Endowment	US$1.12 billion (systemwide)
Chancellor	Leo Morton
Provost	Barbara A. Bichelmeyer
Administrative staff	3,900 (2014)
Students	16,160 (Fall 2014)
Undergraduates	10,247 (Fall 2014)
Postgraduates	5,499 (Fall 2014)
Location	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Campus	Urban 157-acre (0.2 sq mi; 63.5 ha)
Colors	Blue and Gold
Nickname	Kangaroos
Mascot	Kasey the Kangaroo
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I – WAC
Website	www.umkc.edu

The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) is a public research university located in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It is a part of the University of Missouri System. Its main campus is in Kansas City's Rockhill neighborhood east of the Country Club Plaza. The university's enrollment is more than 15,700 in 2014.

The school has its roots in the Lincoln and Lee University movement first put forth by the Methodist Church and its Bishop Ernest Lynn Waldorf in the 1920s. The proposed university (which was to honor Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee) was to be built on the Missouri–Kansas border at 75th and State Line Road, where the Battle of Westport (the largest battle west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War) took place. The centerpiece of the school was to be a National Memorial marking the tomb of an unknown Union soldier and unknown Confederate soldier. Proponents of the school said it would be a location "where North met South and East met West." The Methodist interest reflected the church's important role in the development of the Kansas City area through the Shawnee Methodist Mission which was the second capital of Kansas.

As the Methodists started having problems piecing together the necessary property, other civic leaders including J.C. Nichols began pushing to create a cultural center on either side of Brush Creek, just east of the Country Club Plaza. According to this plan the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kansas City Art Institute would be built north of Brush Creek around the estate of The Kansas City Star publisher William Rockhill Nelson and a private nonsectarian University of Kansas City (initially proposed as a junior college) would be built south of the creek. In addition, a hospital would be constructed around the estate of Kansas City Journal-Post publisher Walter S. Dickey. The hospital was never built.