Purdue University is the Indiana link in a nationwide chain of 68 land-grant colleges and universities. These land-grant institutions owe their origin to the Morrill Act signed by President Lincoln on July 2, 1862. By this act, the federal government offered to turn over public lands to any state that would use the proceeds from sale of the land to establish and maintain a college to teach the agricultural and mechanic arts.

Three years after passage of the so-called land-grant act, the General Assembly of Indiana voted to avail itself of the provisions of the act and began preliminary plans to establish such a college.

Competition from various state communities for the new school ended when the assembly in 1869 accepted $150,000 from John Purdue, $50,000 from Tippecanoe County, and 100 acres of land from local residents. In appreciation for this gift, the legislators named the institution Purdue University. The young administration recruited six instructors to teach the 39 students who reported for the first regular classes at Purdue on September 16, 1874.

Today nearly 39,228 undergraduate and graduate students from across the nation and 123 other countries are enrolled at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, including West Lafayette continuing education, by fall 2006 totals. A total of 24,699 attend Purdue University campuses in three Indiana cities: Hammond, Westville, and Fort Wayne. This includes 6,561 Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne students enrolled in Indiana University programs. A total of 4,277 students are pursuing Purdue University degrees at Indiana University–Purdue University in Indianapolis. Another 1,358 students are enrolled in the Purdue College of Technology Statewide at seven locations around the state. Some 1,832 tenure-track faculty members teach and conduct research in 163 principal buildings on the West Lafayette campus.

Purdue has been coeducational since its second year of operation, and today about 41 percent of the students at West Lafayette are women.

In accordance with a long-standing policy of the Board of Trustees, all educational services and programs of the University are available and open to all academically qualified individuals without any discrimination whatsoever with regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, disability, or status as a veteran.

Purdue is among the nation’s leading research institutions and is a member of the Association of American Universities. For half a century, Purdue’s undergraduate engineering enrollment has been one of the largest in America. Once known chiefly for its engineering and agricultural prominence, Purdue also has developed strong programs in the liberal arts; physical, life, social, computer, and mathematical sciences; consumer and family sciences; management; pharmacy; nursing; health sciencets; technology; and veterinary medicine. Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, and numerous other honor societies are active on the West Lafayette campus.

As part of the state-assisted college system, Purdue cooperates with Indiana University, Indiana State University, and Ball State University in many educational efforts, such as: off-campus centers, the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System (IHETS), and joint course offerings. Thirty-six additional colleges in Indiana are under private control.

Purdue also participates in a cooperative venture with 12 other Midwestern universities. The Big Ten and the University of Chicago have formed the Committee on Institutional Cooperation to improve education and outreach services at member institutions while minimizing costs.

Purdue rests its reputation on its more than 392,105 living alumni throughout the world who have been educated in one of America’s leading universities.