Missouri Western State University is a public university in Saint Joseph, Missouri. As of 2019, it enrolled 5,413 students. History Missouri Western State University was founded in 1915 as St. Joseph Junior College and held courses in the original location of Central High School at 13th and Patee. In 1933 when Central High School moved to its current location the junior college relocated to the Robidoux Polytechnic High School building at 10th Street between Edmond and Charles. In 1917 it adopted the Griffon as its mascot. The establishment of a four-year school was a central campaign issue in the 1964 Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Warren Hearnes of the Bootheel challenged Hilary A. Bush of Kansas City. Hearnes promised to transform the college into a four-year institution despite the presence of another state university (then Northwest Missouri State College, now Northwest Missouri State University) to the north in Maryville. Hearnes narrowly won the primary and then won general election. A year later, the college became Missouri Western Junior College, and was transferred from the St. Joseph School District to the Missouri Western Junior College District, comprising 11 school districts in five counties. The college was granted four-year status as Missouri Western College in 1969 during Hearnes' second term. The Missouri Western Junior College district funded the first two years, with the state funding the final two years. Years later, Missouri Western named its library after Hearnes; school officials said Missouri Western would have never become a four-year college without him. Shortly after the conversion, the college acquired the farm of St. Joseph State Hospital #2, on the east side of Interstate 29, for its campus on the east edge of St. Joseph. The original plan had called for it to be built across from the hospital, just west of Bishop LeBlond High School and closer to downtown St. Joseph. The college became Missouri Western State College in 1973 and became fully supported by the state in 1977. It was granted university status in 2005 and began offering graduate degrees in 2007. In 1988, Shalia Aery, commissioner of higher education under Governor John Ashcroft, recommended that Northwest close and leave Missouri Western as the surviving school. That plan was ultimately dropped. Legislation in 2005 changed the institution's name to Missouri Western State University. That legislation designated Missouri Western as Missouri's Applied Learning Institution and allowed it to grant master's degrees. The university