Ferris State University (
FSU,
Ferris) is an American
public university with its main campus in
Big Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1884 as the Big Rapids Industrial School by
Woodbridge Nathan Ferris, an educator from
Tioga County, New York, who later served as governor of the
State of Michigan and finally in the
US Senate where he remained until his death in 1928. The school was noteworthy at its time for accepting female students beginning with its first graduating class. It is also the only public university in Michigan to be founded by an individual.