How Did Mississippi State Colleges Changed

Since the founding of Mississippi State University (State), the university has changed, expanded, and developed in many ways into what it is today. It added many new colleges over the years. Student life has also changed drastically over the years, changing from a college that was organized like the military into a public school. The schools policies have also had many revisions including making it more like a public school and first accepting women into the institution.
State is a public land-grant university in Starkville, Mississippi that was founded in 1878 as an agricultural and mechanical college. It was established after the state decided to have two land-grant schools for agriculture in the state, one for whites and one for blacks.

The board that was responsible for getting State established felt that the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) served north and central Mississippi and the gulf coast did not have good enough soil for an agricultural school. This left the eastern side Mississippi because Alcorn was already taking the west. It is still unknown, though, how the board chose Starkville over Meridian. Starkville has ties to Mobile and New Orleans through the Artesian train line. It also had a telegraph line. (Ballard 5-8) The first president of the college was General Stephen Dill Lee. After becoming the youngest to earn the rank of lieutenant general in the confederate army, he settled down, married, and raised a family in Columbus. He tried farming, but prices were too high so he went into politics and got elected to the state senate in 1877. After being elected president of the university, he made the focus of study be on agriculture and mechanics and he made everything else secondary. (Ballard

The engineering and agricultural colleges opened in 1902 and 1903, respectively. The College of Business and Industry opened in 1915. The School of Forest Resources and the College of Arts and Sciences opened in 1954 and 1956, respectively. The colleges of architecture, veterinary medicine, and accountancy started admitting students in 1973, 1977, and 1979, respectively. (General Information) State has three purposes for teaching its students: learning, research, and service. State feels its responsibility for learning is “on-campus and off-campus, to enhance the intellectual, cultural, social, and professional development of its students.” State feels its responsibility for students to research is “both to extend the present limits of knowledge and to bring deeper insight, understanding, and usefulness to existing knowledge.” State feels its responsibility for its students to perform service is “to apple knowledge and the fruits of research to the lives of people.” (General