|
 A
Brief History of Purdue UniversityPurdue began with President Lincoln signing
the Morrill Land Grant Act on June 2, 1862. Three years later,
the General Assembly of Indiana voted to take advantage of the public land
for colleges to teach agriculture and mechanical arts and on May 6, 1869, accepted
John Purdue’s donation of land and money for Purdue University. Six instructors
taught 39 students when school opened on September 16, 1874 and the first president
was Richard Owen. The first graduating class had 14 students, while current
enrollment now exceeds 37,000 students on the West Lafayette campus and 21,000
on the regional campuses.
Originally, Purdue had only three buildings. Today, the West Lafayette
campus contains more than 141 major buildings on 1,565 acres. In addition,
nearly
15,000 acres in the state are under University control and are used for agricultural
research. In some 400 labs, more than 120 million dollars are spent annually
on diversified research. There are 1,705 faculty members on the West Lafayette
campus. Purdue’s yearbook, The Debris was first published in 1887 and
Purdue’s newspaper, The Exponent, was first published in 1889.
|
