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Winona State University
Winona State University, coeducational institution of higher learning, located in the Hiawatha Valley of the Mississippi River in Winona, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It is the oldest school in the Minnesota State University system. Founded in 1858 as a normal (teacher-training) school, it was the first American institution of its kind west of the Mississippi River. Instruction began in 1860. All the normal schools in the state university system became teachers colleges in 1921, when they were granted the right to award four-year degrees. In 1957 they were designated state colleges, having received the right to grant master’s degrees in 1953. In 1975 the schools all gained university status. Winona State has an enrollment of about 9,000 students.
The university awards associate and bachelor’s degrees in some 60 programs and also offers master’s, specialist, and preprofessional programs. It is made up of colleges of business, education, liberal arts, nursing and health sciences, and science and engineering. The university operates University Center Rochester, located in the city of Rochester, in partnership with Rochester Community and Technical College.
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Winona, city, seat of Winona county, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies in the Hiawatha Valley on the Mississippi River (bridged to Wisconsin), backed by high bluffs, in a mixed-farming area, about 45 miles (70 km) east of Rochester. Franciscan missionary Louis Hennepin visited the area about 1680; other missionaries and…
Minnesota, constituent state of the United States of America. It became the 32nd state of the union on May 11, 1858. A small extension of the northern boundary makes Minnesota the most northerly of the 48 conterminous U.S. states. (This peculiar protrusion is the result of a boundary agreement with…
Minnesota State University
Minnesota State University, state university system comprising seven coeducational institutions of higher learning. It is made up of Bemidji State University; Minnesota State University, Mankato; Metropolitan State University (campuses at St. Paul and Minneapolis); Minnesota State University Moorhead; Saint Cloud State University; Southwest Minnesota State University (at Marshall); and Winona…