Southwest Minnesota State University is a public, four-year university that is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. It is located in Marshall, Minnesota, a city of 13,000 people. The school has a full-time enrollment of approximately 3,500 students and employs 148 faculty members. It is divided into two major colleges, the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, and the College of Business, Education, and Professional Studies. SMSU is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Southwest Minnesota State University was named the #1 public college in its category nine times by U.S. News and World Report. Each student attending Southwest Minnesota State University pays a .43 cent per credit fee to fund the Minnesota State University Student Association, a student lead non-profit that advocates on behalf of all Minnesota state university students. The university was founded in 1963 as Southwest Minnesota State College (SMSC). It admitted its first class of students on September 19, 1967.