page_title: Utah State University
section_title: Background and founding
hierarchical_section_title: Utah State University / History / Background and founding
caption_attribution_description: Old Main building at Utah State University, Logan Utah This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 72001258 Object location41°&#160;44′&#160;27″&#160;N, 111°&#160;48′&#160;47″&#160;W&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: Utah State University is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's largest public residential campus. As of Fall 2019, there were 27,810 students enrolled, including 24,669 undergraduate students and 3,141 graduate students. The university has the highest percentage of out-of-state students of any public university in Utah, totaling 23% of the student body.
  Founded in 1888 as Utah's agricultural college, USU focused on science, engineering, agriculture, domestic arts, military science, and mechanic arts. The university offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, business, economics, natural resource sciences, as well as nationally ranked elementary & secondary education programs. It offers master's and doctoral programs in humanities, social sciences, and STEM areas. It received its current name in 1957.
  The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
context_section_description: On December 16, 1861, Justin Morrill (VT) introduced a bill into the U.S. House of Representatives, "to establish at least one college in each state upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil..." President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act into effect in July of the following year.
  Meanwhile, after visiting a few rural agricultural schools in his native Denmark, Anthon H. Lund of the Utah Territorial Legislature decided that there existed in Utah a need for such a school fusing the highest in scientific and academic research with agriculture, the way of life for the vast majority of locals. Upon returning to the states, Lund heard about the Morrill Act, and pitched a vision for the college that would receive widespread support among the Territorial Legislature, who was at the time seeking to reapply for statehood. Now there came the question of location. According to historian Joel Ricks in 1938, "Provo had received the Insane Asylum, Salt Lake City had the University and Capitol, and the majority of the legislature felt that the new institutions should be given to Weber and Cache Counties." Citizens in Logan, Cache County, banded together and successfully lobbied representatives for the honor. The bill to establish the Agricultural College of Utah was passed on March 8, 1888, and on September 2, 1890, 14-year-old Miss Vendla Berntson enrolled as its first student.
caption: Old Main, the agricultural college's now-iconic first building, now houses administrative offices, the USU Museum of Anthropology,the department of Computer Science, and much of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS)
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