Pennsylvania State University

a state-supported university in Pennsylvania. Together with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (founded 1740), it is one of the leading academic centers of the USA.

The Pennsylvania State University was founded in 1855 as a farmers’ high school; it became an agricultural college in 1862 and a university in 1953. It has two campuses, with the main campus in University Park, near Lewistown. The university has (1973) more than ten colleges, including colleges of agriculture, engineering, business administration, medicine, and arts and architecture. It also has a graduate school, a center for air environment studies, and institutes for the study of human resources, land and water resources, and the arts and humanities. Other research institutions include laboratories for space research, for the study of animal behavior, and for materials research. The university’s libraries contain about 2.5 million holdings. In the 1972–73 academic year there were more than 52,000 students and 3,200 faculty members.