I thought a university was an institution encompassing more than one college, a notion with its origin in the Cambridge-Oxford model.
In the US, as noted, there are patterns but no hard-and-fast rules:
[ul]
[li][State] University is usually the primary state-funded institution. [/li][li][State] State University is usually the land-grant college. [/li][li][Direction] [State] University usually began as a normal school, then was called [Direction] [State] Teachers College for a while.[/li][li]In some Southern states, [Whatever] A&I or A&M (and many other variations) might have begun as a separate institution for Negro students.[/li][li]University of [City] is usually a private school, founded by a religious organization but generally with few religious ties today.[/li][li][Whatever] Methodist University, [Whatever] Wesleyan, [Whatever] Baptist College, all the Concordias and Loyolas and St. Mary’s—and hundreds of other variations—had beginnings as religious colleges.[/li][/ul]
The historical reasons may not be obvious to the OP, who may not be from the US. So in case he/she is still reading this, presumably Zsofia is referring to the fact that historically, African Americans were not permitted to attend many of the same colleges as white students (although a few schools were open to all). So there are several schools that were established for African Americans, generally in the years after the American Civil War.
It was started as a private teacher’s college and was adopted by the state in 1901. It grew from there. See the post by Mr Downtown above. UNT is a directional school in that list (North).
An example of why it’s a pattern, rather than a rule:
The University of Wisconsin (at Madison) is both (a) Wisconsin’s primary state-funded institution, and (b) Wisconsin’s land-grant college (the naming difference may be due to the fact that the university had already been in existence for 18 years when it became a land-grant school).
Wisconsin doesn’t have a “Wisconsin State”, nor any “directional” schools; instead, there’s an entire series of smaller “University of Wisconsin” campuses, with place names (e.g., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, etc.).
Not quite. We already have a Texas State University down in San Marcos. They used to be Southwest Texas State but got all uppity a few years back and changed the name. Either way, still the Official Party School of Texas.
I know; my point was more that the school now called Texas State doesn’t fulfill the traditional role of “<State Name> State University” in Texas, and that Texas A&M does. Texas State is what used to be called “Southwest Texas State University”, and before that, it was some “normal college” for teacher training.
They literally chose the name “Texas State” because they thought SW Texas State University wasn’t big-time enough to become Tier 1, and basically hope to confuse people by implying they’re something they’re not.
Even calling it a “pattern” is problematic. More states have their primary land grant institution called “<State Name> University” or “University of <State Name>” than use “<State Name> State University.” Basically, it’s whatever the state felt like. After all, Auburn, Clemson, Purdue, and even a private school (Cornell) are all land grant schools.
Prior to the 1970s, Wisconsin did in fact have a “Wisconsin State University” system before it merged with the University of Wisconsin system. Current proposals to split Madison off from the system may have the eventual effect of returning to those names.
I stand corrected (or, more accurately, educated). Prior to the 1970s, I was a toddler, at best, and did not pay much attention to the names of the colleges in my home state.
That fits under a concept called “flagship university”. When a State University System expands to incorporate other schools under one state funding institution, they get added by appending location to the school name: [state] University - [city].
Some very relevant information in that second link about the topic of this thread.
The original state universities were begun when it was determined that public funded higher education was a benefit to society. Most of the “University of [state]” or “[state] University” schools came from this, but also a number of private schools or various other names.
The [state] State Universities came from the Land Grant legislation of 1862 and 1890. Also the A&M and A&I schools came at this time. But some existing universities were also designated land grant schools under the legislation.
And of course various colleges were bought, absorbed, taken over, or otherwise adopted into the system in various ways.
And don’t forget the separate State College systems, the mass collection of junior colleges, community colleges, and technical colleges aimed at associates degrees and technical certifications, rather than bachelors and above degrees.
Just spelling out connections for those who may not be aware.
When they did this in North Carolina, I understand there was some push (probably by Heels) to rename NC State “UNC-Raleigh.” Did not go over well. NCSU is part of the state college system there, along with UNC-Chapel Hill and the rest, but kept its “State” name.
I don’t know about the others, but as far as Clemson goes, there is also South Carolina State - it’s the other land grant school and historically black.
And some of these University of Wisconsin campuses only offer Associate (2-year) degrees; they’re called “UW Colleges” but their names appear very similar to 4-year campuses. For instance, there’s the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, and if you check the fine print on the logo in the upper left of the website, you see a tiny notation about “A Campus of the University of Wisconsin Colleges,” which isn’t obvious unless you know what that means in this context.
At one time, the State of California had the University of California (UC) system and also the State University (SU) system; the latter also being called State Colleges (at an earlier time). Now, it’s all the California State University and College system (CSUCs).
While there’s a private University of San Francisco (USF), there is a also state run San Francisco State University (SFSU), which I think was once called San Francisco State College. IIRC, there’s also a state run medical school (i.e., a graduate level only school) in SF, which would be UCSF.
Supposedly, because of the past arrangement, the UC’s are (or were) considered somewhat more prestigous than the SU’s (formerly the SC’s).
Cal Berkeley is properly called the University of California Berkeley or UC Berkeley. Not so far away is what was the former Hayward State College, now Hayward State University, informally called Hayward State or HSU.
