Murray State University, located in the city of Murray, Kentucky, is a four-year public university with approximately 10,000 students. The school is Kentucky’s only public university to be listed in the U.S. News & World Report regional university top tier for the past 18 consecutive years (non-doctoral degree granting universities). In addition to the main campus, Murray State University operates extended campuses offering upper level and graduate courses in Paducah, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, and Henderson. The history of Murray State University can be traced to the passage of Senate Bill 14 by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which would create two normal schools to address the growing demand for professional teachers. One of these schools would be in the western part of the state, which caused many cities and towns to bid for the new normal school. Rainey T. Wells spoke on behalf of the city of Murray to convince the Normal School Commission to choose his city. On September 2, 1922, Murray was chosen as the site of the new western normal school, and Morehead was chosen as the site for the eastern normal school.