Emporia State University

Emporia State University (ESU) is a university in the city of Emporia in Lyon County, Kansas, just east of the Flint Hills.

The university was founded in March 1863 when the Kansas Legislature passed the enabling act to establish the Kansas State Normal School. The school's first graduating class consisted of two women in 1867, the year the first permanent building was completed.

In 1876, the Kansas Legislature passed the "Miscellaneous appropriations bill of 1876".The end result was that Leavenworth Normal and Concordia Normal were closed so the state funding for normal schools could be directed to Emporia.

In February 1923, the name of the school was changed to the Kansas State Teachers College. In July 1974, the name was changed to Emporia Kansas State College. On April 21, 1977, the college became Emporia State University. The Kansas Board of Regents is the governing body for ESU. Since 1863 more than 150,000 students have studied at ESU.

On January 25, 2006, then ESU president Kay Schallenkamp, Ph.D, resigned to serve as president of Black Hills State University starting July 1, 2006. On September 22, 2006 the Kansas Board of Regents announced the hiring of Michael R. Lane (BS in finance, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1975; MS in financial accounting, Northeastern University, 1976; Ph.D in financial accounting, Texas A&M University, 1980) as University President effective November 1, 2006. Lane was previously provost at University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. Edward Flentje succeeded Lane until 2012 January 3 when Michael Shonrock became president.

Dobbs School, a one-room schoolhouse located on the north side of campus.

The Center for Great Plains Studies, headed by Jim Hoy, an inductee of the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, is located at Emporia State University.

Academics

Emporia State University comprises four colleges: the School of Business, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Library and Information Management, and the Teachers College. The University is also the home of the William Allen White library, and the university's newspaper, The Bulletin, has existed since 1901.

The Registrar's office is the official custodian of the transcripts for the former College of Emporia which closed in 1973.

The Emporia State University School of Business is a public business school located on the main campus of Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. The ESU School of Business was founded in 1868 and currently has more than 30 faculty members and approximately 300 students.

The School is an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) accredited school. The programs have been thoroughly reviewed and found to be of the highest quality. This distinction is found with less than 5% of business schools worldwide.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in numerous fields, with an emphasis on health professions and related programs, biological and biomedical sciences, and social sciences. Courses are offered at the main campus, online, and at satellite campuses.

ESU offers a 36-credit-hour Master of Library Science (MLS) degree, fully accredited by the American Library Association. Courses are offered at six different satellite campuses (two in Kansas and four in other states) to accommodate non-traditional students. The School also offers a PhD.

Main article: Emporia State University Teachers College

Emporia State University Teachers College is one of only four post-secondary institutions in the nation to be identified as an Exemplary Model Teacher Education program by Arthur Levine in his 2006 national study of teacher education programs. The other three were Alverno College, Stanford University, and University of Virginia. In 2011, The Teachers College was featured in a video produced by the U.S. Department of Education highlighting the use of professional development schools.

Within the College is the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence (JIEE), whose programs include the Center for Innovative School Leadership, Kansas Future Teacher Academy, Kansas Migrant & English Language Learners Academy, Partnerships for Excellence in Mathematics Instruction, Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification, and the Kansas Regional Reading Recovery University Training Center.