Historical Facts
The university was founded Feb. 16, 1863, under provisions of the Morrill Act which established land-grant colleges. Historians disagree over whether K-State or Michigan State was the first land-grant college in the nation.
The 664-acre main campus is in northern Manhattan, convenient to both business and residential districts. Under an enactment of the 1991 Kansas Legislature, the Salina campus was established through a merger of the former Kansas College of Technology with the university. The Olathe campus, which offers graduate programs, opened in April 2011.
Additional university sites include 18,000 acres in the four branch locations of the Agricultural Research Centers at Hays, Garden City, Colby and Parsons, and more than 8,600 acres in the Konza Prairie Biological Station operated by the Division of Biology.
K-State accomplishments have far-reaching effects. Astronaut space gloves and the water-purifying system used on the NASA space shuttles were developed here. K-State is at the forefront of a national atomic physics research program that could mean nuclear power without nuclear waste. K-State also is home to the Johnson Center for Cancer Research.
The university hosts the prestigious Landon Lectures on Public Issues, honoring the late Kansas statesman Alfred M. Landon. Prominent speakers have included former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who appeared twice in the series.
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