More than 125 years after its founding, Minnesota State University, Mankato
offers modern, efficient facilities and diverse academic, athletic and social
opportunities for its students. Known for its strong cultural diversity programs
and services, Mankato State looks toward the future. Its development from a
teacher-training institution to a comprehensive university with six
undergraduate colleges and one graduate college enriches the region and fulfills
Daniel Buck's early promise that if citizens would support the school, untold
benefits would be repaid "tenfold every dollar invested.
Looking at the university today, it is hard to believe that the institution
which developed into Minnesota State University, Mankato spent its first century
in a valley location that was to become too confining for expansion in its
second century.
Opening its doors on Oct. 7, 1868, Mankato Normal School (officially the
second state Normal School), the forerunner of Mankato State, began its first
year with 27 pupils. The school operated out of rented quarters at the Methodist
Episcopal Church. All students were from Mankato or the immediate area.
