Norfolk State University (NSU) is a four-year, state-supported, coed, liberal arts, historically black university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Virginia High-Tech Partnership. The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has accredited Norfolk State to award associate, baccalaureate, master and doctoral degrees. Currently, Norfolk State offers two doctorate and 15 master's degrees, including Master's degree programs in Optical Engineering, Computer Science, and Criminal Justice. The school also offers 36 undergraduate degrees, with a new degree being offered in Optical Engineering. Norfolk State's undergraduate and graduate programs are divided into eight schools/colleges. The institution was founded in 1935 as the Norfolk Unit of Virginia Union University (VUU). Eighty-five students attended the first classes held in 1935. Mr. Samuel Fischer Scott, an alumnus of Virginia Union and Portsmouth native, served as the first director with the primary focus of maintaining the solvency of the school. Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks, a Virginia Union alumnus, succeeded Mr.