The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) makes its home on a 121-year-old campus on the western edge of the state and is one of the top public liberal arts colleges in the nation. The small, close-knit campus emphasizes faculty/student collaboration in research, study abroad, and service learning. Deeply rooted in the tall grass prairies of Minnesota, the campus also has advanced sustainable, environmentally friendly initiatives that have grown to levels of national leadership and touch nearly all aspects of campus life.
A distinctive undergraduate campus within the University of Minnesota system, Morris combines the benefits of an intimate, student-centered residential liberal arts education with access to the resources and opportunities of one of the nation's largest universities. Morris is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) and provides students with a rigorous academic experience, preparing them to be global citizens who value and pursue intellectual growth, civic engagement, intercultural competence, and environmental stewardship. The student body of nearly 1800 is supported by approximately 130 faculty members, a student/faculty ratio of 14:1. The Morris campus is the most ethnically diverse in the University of Minnesota system, with 28 percent US students of color (19 percent of whom are American Indian students) and 11 percent international students.
Morris culture is characterized by an unwavering commitment to the liberal arts and undergraduate education as well as by the particular traditions it has developed in pursuing that mission. The community believes in the values of shared governance (embodied in its official policymaking body, an inclusive Campus Assembly), and it recognizes the heritage of its campus (which was founded as an American Indian boarding school) with a vigorous commitment to diversity. With a vibrant sense of community in and out of the classroom, Morris aims to integrate curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular aspects of the student experience, and it reaches outward to the broader community with collaborative enterprises, partnerships, and service-learning initiatives.
