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 from 20 countries and 40 states.
Located on the northern edge of Crookston, Minnesota, off U.S. Highway 2, the 108-acre campus, 237 acres including research plots of the Northwest Research and Outreach Center) is situated in the Red River Valley, the center of a large agricultural region. The region is the transition point from the forested areas of the east to the great plains of the Dakotas.
History
In 1895, the Minnesota legislature appropriated $30,000 to construct experimental research farms at Morris and Crookston. The Great Northern Railway, under the guidance of James J. Hill, donated 476 acres, and the Northwest Experiment Station was established.
In 1905, the Minnesota legislature appropriated $15,000 to establish the Northwest School of Agriculture (NWSA), a regional residential agricultural high school. Affiliated with the University of Minnesota, the school provided training in "the technical and practical business of agriculture and in the art of homemaking." The school year began in October and ended in March to accommodate farm students. In 1906, the Northwest School of Agriculture officially opened.
In 1963, the University of Minnesota Bureau of Field Studies began examining the need for a two-year institution of higher education at the NWSA and, in the fall of 1966, the University of Minnesota Technical Institute, a two-year (associate) degree granting institution, opened its doors to the first incoming class of 187 students.
For two years the NWSA and the Technical Institute shared the campus. In the spring of 1968 a torch was passed—figuratively and literally—from the 60th and final graduating class of the NWSA to the first graduating class of the Technical Institute, now an official coordinate campus of the University of Minnesota. In all, 5,433 students completed their high school education at the NWSA. Later in 1968 the name of the campus was changed from the University of Minnesota Technical Institute to the University of Minnesota Technical College.
By 1977, the University of Minnesota Technical College had nearly 1,000 students taking classes in a range of degree options in the areas of agriculture; business; home and family services; and hotel, restaurant and institutional management. In 1988, the name was changed to the University of Minnesota Crookston.
In 1993, the University of Minnesota Crookston became a baccalaureate degree granting institution. That same year, the university launched its "Laptop U" initiative, providing laptop computers to all students and faculty. It is recognized as one of the first programs of its kind in the United States. Over the next few years, more than 100 colleges and universities from across the U.S. and Canada visited the campus to learn more about this innovation. Some of these adopted programs modeled closely after the one at UMN Crookston.
Chief Executive Officers
1966-1985 - Stanley D. Sahlstrom, founding provost
1985-2003 - Donald G. Sargeant, chancellor
2003-2004 - Velmer Burton, Jr., chancellor
2004-2005 - Joseph Massey, chief executive officer
2005-2012 - Charles H. Casey, chancellor
2012–2016 - Fred E. Wood, chancellor
2017 (January through June) - Barbara Keinath, interim chancellor
2017–present - Mary Holz-Clause, chancellor
Campus
The 108-acre campus is located on the northern edge of the city of Crookston. Including the research plots for the Northwest Research and Outreach Center gives a 237 acre total. The campus itself includes fine specimens of numerous tree species, as well as flower gardens bordering a spacious mall. Less than a mile away lies a natural history area that contains a rare fragment of virgin prairie land with native grasses.
Facilities built or renovated within the last 20 years include a student wellness center (2016), three new residence halls (2006, 2009, 2013), an immersive computer visualization and informatics lab (2010), various biology and chemistry labs (2010 and 2012), the centrally located Sargeant Student Center (2005), renovated Kiehle Building (2002), an indoor animal science facility with an equine arena and stables (1993 with addition in 1998), a recreational and athletic complex, a horticulture complex (1997), an early childhood education center (1999), and a controlled environmental laboratory facility (1998).