Description
Central Michigan University (also known as CMU) is a coeducational state university located in Mount Pleasant in the U.S. state of Michigan. Nearly 28,000 students are enrolled, of which approximately 20,000 are undergraduates, making the university the fourth largest in Michigan. CMU also has off-campus sites located in 15 states and 10 countries. CMU offers students their choice of 27 degrees through eight academic divisions.
Central opened its doors in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute. At that time, few of the state's teachers received any formal training in teaching. School founders made teacher training their mission in founding the state's second normal school. The seal was transcribed in 1892 to read: Sapientia, Virtus, Amicitia – Wisdom, Virtue, and Friendship.
Thirty-one students attended classes in second-floor rooms over an office on the corner of Main and Michigan streets in downtown Mount Pleasant. Most students at the time were eighth-grade graduates, attending the "Normal" for a few weeks or months prior to beginning their careers as teachers. Within the first two years, land was acquired and a $10,000 Normal School Building was constructed where Warriner Hall now stands.
In 1895, the Michigan State Board of Education assumed control of the school, renaming it Central Michigan Normal School. By 1918, the campus consisted of 25 acres (100,000 m2) with five buildings, one of which — Grawn Hall — is still in use, though substantially remodeled.
A fire destroyed the school's main building in 1925, and Warriner Hall was built to replace it. Prior to World War II, the school's name changed again — first to Central State Teachers College, then to Central Michigan College of Education.
On June 1, 1959, with 40 buildings standing on a 235-acre (0.95 km2) campus and an enrollment of 4,500 students, Central was renamed Central Michigan University, a designation that reflected growth in the complexity of the school's academic offerings as well as its physical growth in the post-war period.