In truth, this law created a change of name rather than of purpose. Alcorn had already become a more diversified university. It provides an undergraduate education that enables students to continue their work in graduate and professional schools, engage in teaching, and enter other professions. It also provides graduate education to equip students for further training in specialized fields while they contribute to the advancement of knowledge through scholarly research and inquiry. A lcorn began with eight faculty members in 1871.
Today there are more than five hundred members of the faculty and staff.
The student body has grown from 179 mostly local male students to more than 3,000 students from all over the world. Alcorn has had fifteen presidents with Dr. Clinton Bristow,Jr. becoming the sixteenth president in 1995. Of these, Dr. Walter Washington , who assumed the presidency in 1969, was the longest-tenured president in Alcorn's history. O ver the decades the college that once was a struggling institution has become one of the leading black universities in the nation. Alcorn State is now fully accredited with seven schools and degree programs in more than fifty areas including a nursing program.