Alcorn State University

Alcorn State University is a historically black comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 by the Reconstruction era legislature to provide higher education for freedmen. It was the first black land grant college in the United States.

The university is counted as a census-designated place and had a resident population of 1,017 at the 2010 census.

Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist, graduated in 1948 from here. Students at the college were part of the mid-twentieth century civil rights struggle, working to register residents for voting and struggling to end segregation. Other alumni have been activists, politicians and professionals in Mississippi and other states. The University is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

History
Alcorn State University was founded on the site originally occupied by Oakland College, a school for whites established by the Presbyterian Church.

Oakland College closed its doors at the beginning of the American Civil War so that its students could fight for the Confederate States of America. When the college failed to reopen at the end of the war, the property was sold to the state of Mississippi. It renamed the facility Alcorn University in honor of James L. Alcorn in 1871, then the state's governor, and established it as a historically black college.

Hiram R. Revels resigned his seat in the United States Senate to become Alcorn's first president. The state legislature provided $50,000 in cash for ten successive years for the establishment and overall operations of the college. The state also granted Alcorn three-fifths of the proceeds earned from the sale of 30000 acre of land scrip for agricultural colleges. The land was sold for $188,928 with Alcorn receiving a share of $113,400. This money was to be used solely for the agricultural and mechanical components of the college. From its beginning, Alcorn State University was a land-grant college.

In 1878, the name Alcorn University was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. The university's original 225 acre of land have grown to become a 1,700 acre campus. The goals for the college set by the Mississippi legislature clearly emphasized training rather than education. The school, like other black schools during these years, was less a college than a vocational school intended to prepare students for the agricultural economy of the state and most of their hometowns.

At first the school was exclusively for black males but in 1895 women were admitted. Today, women outnumber men at the university eighteen hundred to twelve hundred.

In 1974 Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College became Alcorn State University. Governor William L. Waller signed House Bill 298 granting university status to Alcorn and the other state supported colleges. 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.

Alcorn began with eight faculty members in 1871. Today the faculty and staff number more than 500. The student body has grown from 179 mostly local male students to more than 4,000 students from all over the world.

While early graduates of Alcorn had limited horizons, more recent alumni are successful physicians, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, educators, administrators, managers, and entrepreneurs. Alcorn has had eighteen presidents, with Dr. M. Christopher Brown II becoming the eighteenth president in 2011.

Alcorn State is now fully accredited, with seven schools and degree programs in more than fifty areas, including a nursing program. The facilities have increased from three historic buildings to approximately 80 modern structures with an approximate value of $71 million.

==Past Presidents ==

Academics
The university enrolls over 2,500 full-time and 348 part-time undergraduate students and 600 graduate students. Women outnumber men in a ratio 3:2.

Organization

The university is made up of seven schools, offering over 50 different fields of study.
 * School of Agriculture, Research, Extension and Applied Sciences
 * School of Arts and Sciences
 * School of Graduate Studies
 * School of Business
 * School of Education and Psychology
 * School of Nursing
 * College for Excellence

Honors Program
The Honors Program is an option for students who wish to further enhance their academic experience and leadership roles.

MBA Program
Alcorn State University offers a general MBA program through its Natchez campus. Most classes are conducted in evening to accommodate its working executive students. Over last few years the MBA program has been very popular with international students, in fact a high percentage of international students at Alcorn State University are enrolled in its MBA program.

Global Programs
Besides coordinating study-abroad opportunities, Global Programs brings worldwide perspectives to campus through exchange programs and special events.

Pre-Professional Programs
Alcorn offers Pre-Professional Programs to prepare students for a transition to specialized studies in the fields of law, engineering, nursing, physical therapy, pharmacy and dentistry.

Accreditation
Alcorn State University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Associate, Bachelor‘s, Master‘s, and Specialist in Education degrees.

Alcorn‘s teacher education program is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. The Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics is accredited by the American Dietetics Association. The Associate of Science in Nursing degree, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, and the Master of Science in Nursing degree programs are accredited by the National League for Nursing Accreditating Commission. Alcorn State University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Industrial Technology and the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Locations
The main campus is located near Lorman, Mississippi, while the Nursing School and the Business School's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is located in Natchez, Mississippi. There is also a Vicksburg, Mississippi site.

Main campus
The main campus is located in rural southwestern Mississippi, 45 mi south of Vicksburg, 40 mi north of Natchez, and 80 mi southwest of Jackson. As of 1994 the closest hotels and/or restaurants to the Alcorn campus are 15 mi from campus, along U.S. Highway 61.

Male residence halls include Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village Complex and Hiram Revels Hall. Female residence halls include Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village Complex buildings A and B, John Burrus Hall, and the Female Honors Residence Hall.

Recent Campus Additions include: Current and planned construction projects include:
 * 5 mi (8.0 km) Bike/Walking Trail
 * Foster Baseball Field at McGowan Stadium
 * Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village (student housing)
 * School of Business (Dumas Hall) renovations

Other locations
The Natchez Campus Residence Hall, completed in 1998, is the residence hall of the Natchez campus. It includes three buildings, with a commons building, a male residence hall building, and a female residence hall building. The complex includes the Student Nursing Hall, which houses Alcorn State students and Copiah - Lincoln Community College (Co-Lin) students.

Athletics
Jay Searcy of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in 1994 that Alcorn had "a gritty football team that has sent 68 players to the National Football League...", an achievement for a small school in a rural area of Mississippi. His article was chiefly about Steve McNair, who is among those numerous players to have gone on to professional football careers.