Bemidji State University (BSU) is a
public university
A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...
in
Bemidji, Minnesota
Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, Minnesota, Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. According to 2022 census estimates, the ci ...
, United States. Founded as a preparatory institution for teachers in 1919, it provides higher education to north-central Minnesota. It is part of the
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system or Minnesota State, previously branded as MnSCU, comprises 26 state colleges and 7 state universities with 54 campuses throughout Minnesota. The system is the largest higher education syste ...
system.
History
BSU was founded in 1919 and opened under the name "Bemidji State Normal School". The first president, Manfred Deputy, was appointed to run the new institution, and the first class consisted of 38 students. The name was changed to "Bemidji State Teachers College" in 1921, then shortened to "Bemidji State College" in 1957. In 1975, it took its current name, Bemidji State University. During the 1998–99 academic year, the Board of Trustees recommended changing the name of the university to Minnesota State University–Bemidji, to reflect a change toward unification within the newly formed
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system or Minnesota State, previously branded as MnSCU, comprises 26 state colleges and 7 state University, universities with 54 campuses throughout Minnesota. The system is the largest University ...
after other larger institutions had done so. Prominent vocal and written opposition from students,
alumni
Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...
, and local Bemidji residents forced the board to withdraw the recommendation to change the name.
Current enrollment is about 5,300, with students from 44 US states and 40 countries.
Presidents
Faith Hensrud was named Bemidji State University's eleventh president on April 20, 2016, and took office on July 1, 2016. She previously worked at the
University of Wisconsin-Superior, having served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs since 2012. On August 13, 2021, Hensrud announced she would retire effective June 30, 2022.
There have been twelve presidents in the history of Bemidji State University.
Academics

Bemidji State University offers 47 different areas of study. Many courses are available online. BSU offers the only
BFA in professional and creative writing in the Minnesota State system. The program includes a minor and certificates in electronic writing, consisting of courses in
weblogs,
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
s, web content writing,
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
, digital rhetoric, and teaching writing with technology. Another unique program at Bemidji State University is the Indigenous Sustainability Studies degree; this is the only such program in the United States. Bemidji State also has a 96% rate of social work majors passing their licensing exams compared to the 76% rate for the entire state. In addition, Sattgast Hall is home to a number of natural sciences programs and pre-professional studies.
Bemidji State University accepts approximately 60% of students that apply. They also have an Honors Program which offers classes specific to participating students. Students from their honors program attend regional conferences.
Foreign programs
For 16 years BSU has had a relationship with
Liaoning University
Liaoning University (LNU; ) is a public university founded in 1948 in Shenyang, Shenyang, Liaoning, China. It is affiliated with the Province of Liaoning, and co-funded by the Liaoning Provincial People's Government and the Ministry of Education ...
, a university in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Each year a professor from Liaoning University goes to BSU to teach Chinese and each summer BSU students participate in "Sino-Summer", a month-long visit to China with half of the time spent at Liaoning University and half touring other parts of China including
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
,
Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
and
Guilin
Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...
.
Student life
Student government
The Bemidji State University Student Association holds weekly meetings where the student senate influences life on campus. The members of the student senate are from a diverse group of students based on a number of factors including their year in school. They are voted in by the students through popular elections.
Clubs and organizations
Bemidji State University provides over 100 clubs and organizations, both on and off campus.
These clubs include interests in music, art, culture, outdoors, business, engineering, athletics, faith, and select majors and minors for students interested in research. Bemidji State only has two active Greek life organizations on campus, Theta Tau Epsilon fraternity and Delta Theta Kappa sorority.
Residence halls

The university has five residence halls (Linden, Pine, Birch, Oak, and Tamarack), as well as Cedar and University Heights apartments. Freshmen are required to live in either Oak Hall or Tamarack Hall, with few exceptions. Linden offers suites that house two to three people. Pine has single-gender floors with single rooms or two person dorms. Birch is the closest dorms to the academic buildings, and has single and double dorm rooms. Cedar Apartments offers single parents a place to live on campus. It provides a fenced outdoor playground and an indoor play area for children. Tamarack Hall is the tallest building in
Beltrami County.
Sustainability
Bemidji State University is taking steps to reduce their environmental impact and have pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2050. They have an office on campus devoted to sustainability efforts. The sustainability office provides a bike rental service for students called "Bucky's Bikes" and a place where items may be donated and are given away to students at no charge. The Sustainability Office is funded by a student "green fee" of $7.50 a semester.
Homecoming tradition
In a tradition dating back to the mid-1990s, anytime the team wins homecoming, the players run from the football stadium to nearby Lake Bemidji and dive in.
The tradition dates to 1995 when Bemidji State upset the defending conference champion
Winona State University
Winona State University is a public university in Winona, Minnesota, United States. It was founded as First State Normal School of Minnesota in 1858 and is the oldest member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. It was the fi ...
in the homecoming game and took their first "victory dip" in the lake. The roots of the tradition date back two years earlier however when, in 1993, an assistant coach attempted to inspire the winless team. He wrote a fictional news story of the upcoming homecoming game.
In his account, the team earned an upset homecoming victory and dove into Lake Bemidji in celebration. A real-world victory didn't happen in 1993, nor 1994, but when homecoming victory came in 1995 it was time to get wet. Between 1995 and 2012 the Beavers have won twelve of the seventeen homecoming games.
Student publications and news sources
Bemidji State University has several student-run publications and news sources. They include ''CRE8'' magazine, the ''Northern Student Magazine'', and KBSU-TV, KBSU FM 90.
''CRE8'' showcases creative works by writers and artists from northern Minnesota. ''CRE8 accepts'' fiction and nonfiction submissions with a word count of 4,000 or less and poetry submissions of 75 lines or less per poem. English instructor
Maureen Gibbon created the online magazine.
In 2019, the English department launched the new student publication ''Paper Plains'', with Maureen Gibbon in position as the academic advisor.
''The Northern Student'' became Bemidji State's campus newspaper in 1926. Since its conception, the newspaper has been solely staffed and managed by students, as well as published and distributed weekly at no charge to its readers.
In the early 70s, the ''Northern Student'' merged with the Mass Comm. Dept. at the influence of James McMahon, the public relations director for Bemidji State at the time, who also served as the newspaper's adviser. In 1988, the newspaper was produced through Newspaper Production, a three-credit Mass Comm. course taught and advised by Louise Mengelkoch. During this period, the ''Northern Student'' stopped receiving funds from the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee, and was produced strictly on advertising revenue.
After a lawsuit, the ''Northern Student'' and Mass Comm. Dept. separated in 1992, and the newspaper relocated to the Hobson Memorial Union. Al Nohner, director of Communications and Marketing, created a media board of faculty, students, and community members to choose future editors-in-chief and advisers, as well as to advise the newspaper. A few years later, the ''Northern Student'' began receiving funds from the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee again.
For over a decade the ''Northern Student'' functioned outside the Mass Comm. Dept. In the fall of 2009, the paper was without an adviser. After the paper was threatened with a lawsuit, the media board appointed an adviser, who was forced to retire less than a year later.
In May 2010, the newspaper returned to the Mass Comm. Dept., the media board was disbanded, and a new adviser from the Mass Comm. Dept. was appointed. During the following fall, the ''Northern Student'' briefly partnered with the ''Bemidji Pioneer'' for advertising and began placing issues of the ''Bemidji Pioneer'' inside the ''Northern Student''. After three months of publication, it was determined that the two newspapers should remain completely separate.
Athletics
The school sports teams are called the Beavers. They are members of the
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Nine of ...
competing in
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...
, with the exception of men's and women's
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
teams, which compete in the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference in the Midwestern United States that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previ ...
and the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference.
From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...
at the
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...
level, respectively.
Men's
*
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
*
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
*
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
*
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
*
Ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
Women's
* Basketball
*
Cross country
* Golf
*
Ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
*
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
*
Softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
*
Tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
*
Track and field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
*
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
Notable alumni
*
John A. Ainley Jr., newspaperman and politician
*
Rita Albrecht, public servant
*
Glen H. Anderson, served in the
Minnesota House of Representatives
The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...
from 1973 – 1990
*
Trent Baalke, general manager,
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...
*
Robert Baril, stand-up comedian
*
Steve Bell, football coach
*
Bob Bird, politician
*
Lem Burnham,
NFL player
*
John Carlson, politician
*
Matt Climie,
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
goalie
*
Bob Dettmer, politician
*
Dhel Duncan-Busby,
CFL
The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...
receiver
*
Rob Ecklund, politician
*
James Ellisor, basketball player
*
Roger Erickson, politician
*
Rich Glas, basketball coach
*
Frank Haege, professional and college head football coach
*
Bob A. Johnson, politician, farmer, school social worker
*
Aaron Kallhoff, college basketball coach
*
Brian Leonhardt,
NFL tight end
*
Michele Leonhart, administrator at the
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
*
D. J. LeRoy, football coach
*
Andrew Murray,
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
center
*
Bob Ness, politician
*
Gunner Olszewski,
NFL wide receiver
*
Marion O'Neill, politician
*
Joel Otto,
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
center
*
Matt Read,
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
center
*
Loren Solberg, politician
*
Thomas D. Waldhauser, USMC, Commander of
US Africa Command
*
Christopher Waller, economist, member of the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mo ...
*
Patricia Walrath, politician
*
Zach Whitecloud,
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
defenseman,
Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Golden Knights compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division ...
Gallery
Bemidji State University-Campus.jpg, Alumni Arch
Memorial Hall-Bemidji State University-02.jpg, Memorial Hall
Chet Anderson Stadium-Bemidji State University.jpg, Chet Anderson Stadium
Baseball field Grandstand-Bemidji State University-01.jpg, Baseball field Grandstand
Harry F. Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex-Bemidji State University-01.jpg, Harry F. Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex
Upper Hobson Union--Beaux Arts Ballroom-Bemidji State University-02.jpg, Hobson Union--Beaux Arts Ballroom
Physical Education Complex-Bemidji State University-03.jpg, Physical Education Complex
Tamarack Hall-Bemidji State University-01.jpg, Tamarack Hall
Message sign 1a-Bemidji State University.jpg, Message sign
American Indian Resource Center-Bemidji State University.jpg, American Indian Resource Center
See also
*
List of colleges and universities in Minnesota
There are nearly 200 post-secondary institutions in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Twin Cities campus of the public University of Minnesota is the largest university in the state with 54,890 enrolled at the start of the 2023–24 academic yea ...
*
Higher education in Minnesota
Notes
References
External links
*
Athletics website
{{authority control
Bemidji, Minnesota
Public universities and colleges in Minnesota
Universities and colleges established in 1919
Education in Beltrami County, Minnesota
Buildings and structures in Beltrami County, Minnesota
Tourist attractions in Beltrami County, Minnesota
1919 establishments in Minnesota