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	16,944 (Fall 2016)
Undergraduates	11,708 (Fall 2016)
Postgraduates	5,236 (Fall 2016)
Location	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Campus	Urban 157-acre (0.2 sq mi; 63.5 ha)
Colors	Blue and Gold
Nickname	Kangaroos
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I – WAC
Mascot	Kasey the Kangaroo
Website	www.umkc.edu

The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) is a public research university serving the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. Located in Kansas City, Missouri, UMKC is one of four system campuses that collectively constitute the University of Missouri. UMKC is spread across multiple locales; the main Volker Campus, home to the majority of university operations, is located in Kansas City's Rockhill neighborhood, east of the Country Club Plaza, and adjacent to both the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the world-renowned Linda Hall Library. In 2017 the University, in collaboration with Truman Medical Center, Children's Mercy Hospital, the Missouri Health Department, the Jackson County Medical Examiners Office, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health Behavioral Medicine, formed the UMKC Health Sciences District on Hospital Hill. This district is a first-in-the-nation partnership between local and state governments, the university, and these nationally recognized healthcare faculties, designed to promote collaboration in research, innovation, education, grant funding, and community outreach, for the advancement of health and wellness in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. Also in 2017, the university announced plans to expand its metropolitan identity with the construction of a downtown Campus for the Arts, located near the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The university's enrollment as of 2015 exceeded more than 16,600 students.

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.