Governors State University (GSU) is a public university located in University Park, Illinois. The 750 acre (3.0 km²) campus is located 30 miles south of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1969, GSU is an upper-division university, offering undergraduate courses at the junior and senior levels as well as graduate level coursework at the masters and doctoral level. GSU has four colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Public Administration, the College of Education, and the College of Health and Human Services. Founded on July 17, 1969, Governors State University was founded with deliberate efforts to veer from traditional ways of providing higher education. GSU was one of the original "Universities without Walls" as well as a university that did not offer grades, but competencies. In place of departments, it had interdisciplinary studies, and all professors hold the rank of University Professor. GSU is one of the two initial upper-division and graduate universities in Illinois. The other was the University of Illinois at Springfield, founded in 1969 as Sangamon State University.