The University of Minnesota system is a public
university system
A university system is a set of multiple affiliated universities and colleges that are usually geographically distributed. Typically, all member universities in a university system share a common component among all of their various names. Usually, ...
with five campuses spread across the
U.S. state of
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
.
The university system has five campuses, in the
Twin Cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...
,
Crookston,
Duluth,
Morris, and
Rochester. The university also operates several
research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
facilities around the state, including some large parcels of land. The
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Twin Cities, Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester campuses are accredited by the
Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
(HLC). The other public system of
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
in the state is the larger
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (Minnesota State System, previously MnSCU)
The university has one of the largest endowments among public universities in the U.S., and also receives annual funding from the State of Minnesota.
Campuses
The flagship Twin Cities campus is the largest in the system, with a total enrollment of 50,943 students (undergraduate, graduate, professional, and non-degree included)
Crookston had 2,810;
Duluth had 11,040;
Morris had 1,554; and
Rochester had 533, bringing the system-wide total to 66,880 for fall semester 2018.
The colors of the university, which are used system-wide, are
maroon
Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown".
According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...
and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
.
Twin Cities

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMTC) is the largest with locations in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
and neighboring
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
(actually, the suburb of
Falcon Heights). The locations are connected via a dedicated
bus transitway. The buildings on each campus are connected by a series of
tunnels and above-ground
skyways called
The Gopher Way
The Gopher Way is a system of discontinuous tunnels and skyways on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus which connects many buildings. The system is open during the normal business hours of the buildings it occupies, while some portions ...
. The campus is the oldest and largest in the system and has the
ninth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,376 students at the start of the 2021–22 academic year.

The Minneapolis portion is the largest and has a number of colleges dedicated to a variety of subjects. The Twin Cities campus located in Minneapolis can be further subdivided into the East Bank (main portion) and West Bank, as the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
flows through it. Students become well-acquainted with the double-decker
Washington Avenue Bridge that connects the two sections. There are a number of distinguished graduate and professional schools on the Minneapolis campus, notably the
University of Minnesota Law School,
Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...
,
Carlson School of Management,
School of Public Health, and
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities ...
. In addition, Minneapolis houses many research facilities such as
The Cancer Center.
The Twin Cities campus located in St Paul is home to the
University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences,
University of Minnesota College of Design, and
University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences
The College of Biological Sciences (CBS) is one of seven freshman-admitting colleges at the University of Minnesota. Established in 1869 as the College of Sciences, the College of Biological Sciences is now located across both the Minneapolis and ...
programs, the
University of Minnesota School of Social Work
The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is one of seventeen colleges and professional schools at the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the ...
, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and a variety of additional programs and student services. The
Bell Museum of Natural History
The Bell Museum, formerly known as the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, is located at the University of Minnesota. The museum's new location on the St. Paul campus opened July 13–15, 2018. The world-renowned Minnesota wildlife dioram ...
is also located on the campus in St. Paul.
The
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...
for the Twin Cities campus is
Goldy the Gopher, and the sports teams are called the
Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...
. They participate in the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
's Division I-A and in the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
. Its women's
hockey program competes in the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...
and men's program competes in the Big Ten.
Among the graduates from this campus are two former U.S. Vice Presidents,
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
and
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...
, former
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
president
Roy Wilkins, British
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...
, several
Nobel prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners, several athletes such as
Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949), known professionally as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestler. Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had a career spanni ...
,
Kevin McHale,
Dave Winfield,
Patty Berg
Patricia Jane Berg (February 13, 1918 – September 10, 2006) was an American professional golfer. She was a founding member and the first president of the LPGA. Her 15 major title wins remains the all-time record for most major wins by a femal ...
,
Brock Lesnar
Brock Edward Lesnar ( ; born July 12, 1977) is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, former mixed martial artist (MMA), amateur wrestler, and professional American football player who holds both American and Canadian citizenship. He is ...
,
Curt Hennig,
Shelton Benjamin
Shelton James Benjamin (born July 9, 1975) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under his real name.
He is also known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wres ...
,
Bobby Jackson
Bobby Jackson (born March 13, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. He serves as the head coach of the Stockton Kings in the NBA G League, the development affiliate of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketb ...
of the NBA, and composer
Yanni. Folksinger
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
famously attended the University and was a part of its thriving "West Bank" music scene, but did not graduate. A wide variety of
medical and
technological innovations have taken place there as well. For instance, the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
Gopher protocol was created at the Twin Cities campus. A predecessor of sorts to the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
, it was named after the school mascot.
Campus media includes the ''
Minnesota Daily'' newspaper, ''
The Wake Student Magazine'', and
770 Radio K
KUOM (770 AM) – branded ''Radio K'' – is a daytime-only non-commercial educational college/alternative rock radio station licensed to serve Minneapolis, Minnesota. KUOM covers the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and extends its ...
(KUOM), an
AM radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
that is probably the oldest in the state.
Crookston
The
University of Minnesota Crookston
The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMN Crookston) is a public college in Crookston, Minnesota. One of five campuses in the University of Minnesota system, UMN Crookston had a fall 2022 enrollment of 1,489 undergraduate students. Students come ...
(UMC) joined the university system in 1966. At that time it was known as the University of Minnesota Technical Institute at Crookston. Since 1993 the Crookston campus has offered bachelor's degrees, and it has grown to be a more comprehensive regional college campus. It is known for its focus on experiential learning and technology, and through fees each student is provided a laptop computer as part of their experience. The campus mascot is Regal the Eagle, and the athletics teams are known as the Golden Eagles.
Duluth
The
University of Minnesota Duluth
The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a two-year progr ...
(UMD) became part of the system in 1947, though the campus has a history stretching back to 1895 when it was formed as the Normal School at Duluth. UMD integrates liberal education, research, creative activity, and public engagement and prepares students to thrive as lifelong learners and globally engaged citizens.
Its men's hockey program competes in the
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...
and its women's hockey program competes in the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...
. UMD baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's track and field, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball are
Division II teams. Their teams are nicknamed
Bulldogs. and their mascot is Champ.
Among the graduates from UMD are former Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
Yvonne Prettner Solon, current Duluth mayor
Emily Larson, and former Duluth mayor
Don Ness
Don Ness (born January 9, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 38th Mayor of Duluth, Minnesota from 2008 to 2016. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Early life and education
Ness was born in Duluth to Don ...
.
Brian Kobilka
Brian Kent Kobilka (born May 30, 1955) is an American physiologist and a recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for discoveries that reveal the workings of G protein-coupled receptors. He is currently a professor in ...
received the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry. UMD has produced numerous professional hockey players including
John Harrington and
Mark Pavelich
Mark Thomas Pavelich (February 28, 1958 – March 4, 2021) was an American professional ice hockey forward (ice hockey), forward who played 355 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Minnesota North St ...
from the 1980
Miracle on Ice
The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's hockey tourna ...
Olympic hockey team, and NHL Hall of Famer
Brett Hull.
Campus media includes The Bark newspaper; until 2021, UMD also owned radio station KUMD-FM (now
WDSE-FM
WDSE-FM (103.3 MHz) is a 95,000-watt public radio station in Duluth, Minnesota, operated by the Duluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation, which primarily carries an adult alternative radio format but also has a number of program ...
).
Morris
The
University of Minnesota Morris
The University of Minnesota Morris (UMN Morris) is a public liberal arts college in Morris, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and was founded in 1960 as a public, co-educational, residential liberal arts college offering ...
(UMM) joined the system in 1960. UMN Morris is a public liberal arts college.
UMN Morris provides opportunities for students to grow intellectually, engage in community, experience environmental stewardship, and celebrate diversity. The campus offers 34 majors, 35 minors, and 13 licensure areas, along with the option to create one's own major. The student-to-faculty ratio is 13:1, and students are able to engage in undergraduate research and internships with faculty members. One in five students also participates in NCAA Division III Intercollegiate Athletics as a Cougar athlete.
With tuition a quarter of Minnesota’s most expensive private school and 96% of incoming students receiving financial aid, UMN Morris students graduate with the lowest student loan debt in the University of Minnesota system.
Rochester
The
University of Minnesota Rochester
The University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR) is a public college in Rochester, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and focuses primarily on general health sciences. It was formally established by an act of the state legisl ...
(UMR) is the public undergraduate health sciences university. UMR is the newest campus of the University of Minnesota system, having been formally established in December 2006 (although the University of Minnesota has offered classes in Rochester as a satellite site since as early as 1966).
UMR has no
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
athletic teams, but it does have a mascot, the Rochester Raptor.
UMR, located in University Square in downtown
Rochester, is neighbor to world-renowned
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...
.
Programs offered:
* B.S. in Health Professions (BSHP)
is an educational collaboration with
Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences
Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences (MCSHS), formerly known as Mayo School of Health Sciences (MSHS), is an accredited, private, nonprofit school of higher education specializing in allied health education. MCSHS operates within the Mayo Clinic ...
offering tracks in Echocardiography, Respiratory Care, Radiography and Sonography
* B.S. in Health Sciences (BSHS)
prepares students for health care careers, graduate education and professional degrees. The Nursing Guarantee program and 3+2 Physician Assistant Master's Degree program fall under this degree.
* Masters and Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology
* Partnership programs offered: Masters of Business Administration, Bachelor of Nursing, and Masters of Occupational Therapy.
Waseca
The
Waseca campus opened in 1971 and closed in 1992. Their mascot was "Ramus" the ram.
During its operation, it maintained a college cable-FM radio station with the call letters KUMW. Campus buildings became part of a low-security federal prison for women (see
Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca). The University still operates an agricultural outreach program in the city.
[
]
History
The University of Minnesota was founded in Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
in 1851 as a college preparatory school, seven years prior to Minnesota's statehood. As such, the University of Minnesota enjoys much autonomy from other operations of the state government. The school was closed during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, but reopened in 1867. Minneapolis businessman John Sargent Pillsbury
John Sargent Pillsbury (July 29, 1827 – October 18, 1901) was an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist. A Republican, he served as the eighth Governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1882. He was a co-founder of the Pillsbury Co ...
is known today as the "Father of the University", and aided the campus through financial troubles as a regent, state senator, and governor. The Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act also helped provide funding for the University of Minnesota.
In 1869 the school reorganized and became an institution of higher education. William Watts Folwell served as the University of Minnesota's first president. An official residence known as Eastcliff has been used by six university presidents since 1958. The 20-room house, originally built by lumber baron
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
Edward Brooks, Sr.
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sax ...
, was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2000.
During the traditional autumn through spring year, classes are not held on Thanksgiving Day or the Friday after, and the school traditionally has an extended break covering Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
and New Year's Day
New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...
. Classes don't resume in January until the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. A week-long spring break occurs after the eighth week of the spring term, which sometimes coincides with Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
.
Sources of funding
The University of Minnesota system has one of the largest endowments among public universities in the country. As of 2007, the University of Minnesota maintained an endowment of $2.8 billion. Also, as a public university, the system received an estimated $641 million from the State of Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to i ...
. The system's total budget for FY 2006 was $2.36 billion.Budget and Finance - The University's Annual Budget
/ref>
Additional properties
There are several other research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
and outreach centers across the state operated by the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities or by the university system. As of September 2004, these areas plus the campuses are spread across 28,300 acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
s (44 miles² or 115 km²). Other areas owned by the state and university bring this up to a total of 57,200 acres (89 miles² or 231 km²)
*Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve
The Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is an ecological research site located primarily in East Bethel, Minnesota in the counties of Anoka and Isanti on the northern edge of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.
Name
Originally t ...
Cloquet Forestry Center
Coleraine Minerals Research Laboratory
*Hormel Institute
The Hormel Institute is a biomedical research center located in Austin, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1942, the institute is a division of the University of Minnesota with scientists focusing primarily on cancer research. The Hormel Institut ...
Excelsior Horticultural Research Center
Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories
Lamberton Southwest Research and Outreach Center
* Magnuson Research Farm
*Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a horticultural garden and arboretum located about west of Chanhassen, Minnesota at 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska, Minnesota. It is part of the Department of Horticultural Science in the College of Food, Agric ...
Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory
*Natural Resources Research Institute
The Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) is a United States (U.S.) based research institute founded by the Minnesota state legislature within the University of Minnesota Duluth. NRRI is a non-profit, applied research organization, establi ...
North Central Research and Outreach Center
Northwest Research and Outreach Center
- Marine on the St. Croix
Sand Plain Research Farm
*Soudan Underground Mine State Park
The Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park is a Minnesota state park at the site of the Soudan Underground Mine, on the south shore of Lake Vermilion, in the Vermilion Range (Minnesota). The mine is known as Minnesota's oldest, dee ...
Southern Research and Outreach Center
U of M Outreach and Research Education Park
West Central Research and Outreach
References
*(October 11, 2004
Official Registration Statistics, Fall 2004.
University of Minnesota Office of Institutional Research and Reporting. Retrieved January 16, 2005.
*Lori-Anne Williams and Aaron Strozinsky (September 2004)
University Services, University of Minnesota. Retrieved June 2, 2005.
External links
*
*
University of Minnesota System
Gophersports.com
*
The Minnesota Daily
'
*
The Wake Student Magazine
'
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