Auburn University (
AU or
Auburn) is a
public research university located in
Auburn,
Alabama,
United States. With more than 20,000 undergraduate students, and a total of more than 27,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest
universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as the
East Alabama Male College, a private
liberal arts school affiliated with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1872, the
college became the state's first
public land-grant university under the
Morrill Act and was renamed the
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1892, the college became the first four-year
coeducational school in the state. The curriculum at the university originally focused on arts and agriculture. This trend changed under the guidance of Dr. William Leroy Broun, who taught classics and sciences and believed both disciplines were important in the overall growth of the university and the individual. The college was renamed the
Alabama Polytechnic Institute (
API) in 1899, largely because of Dr. Broun's influence. The college continued expanding, and in 1960 its name was officially changed to Auburn University to acknowledge the varied academic programs and larger curriculum of a major university. It had been popularly known as "Auburn" for many years. In 1964, under
Federal Court mandate AU admitted its first African American student. Auburn is among the few American universities designated as a
land-grant,
sea-grant, and
space-grant research center.