Northern Michigan University is a 4 year college public university established in 1899 located in Marquette, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. With a population of nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Northern Michigan University is the Upper Peninsula's largest university. Northern Michigan University, NMU for short, was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School with the original purpose of providing teacher preparation programs in Michigan's then-wild and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. When it opened its doors in 1899, Northern enrolled thirty-two students who were taught by six faculty members utilizing rented rooms in Marquette City Hall. The original 20-acre (81,000 m) campus-site at the corner of Presque Isle and Kaye Avenues was on land donated by local businessman and philanthropist John M. Longyear, whose namesake academic building, Longyear Hall, opened its doors to students in 1900. Throughout the school's first half century, education and teacher training was the primary focus of the small regional school.