Southern Minnesota Normal College, was a normal school and business school located in Austin, Minnesota that operated from 1897 to 1925. It was founded with the Austin School of Commerce.[1]
The school was founded in 1896 by Charles Boostrom, and opened the following year. In 1913 the school began advertising itself as the University of Southern Minnesota to compete with the teachers colleges in Mankato and Winona.[2] It focused almost entirely on preparatory education in courses such as auto-mechanics and stenography. The school closed in 1925 due to financial difficulty caused by the rate of declining enrollment.
The legacy of the college resulted in a need for skilled trades education in the area. In 1940 the public school system opened Austin Junior College, which later became part of the state system of junior colleges and was renamed Riverland Community College.[3] Later the name University of Southern Minnesota became synonymous with Mankato State Teachers College as a result of a regional effort to establish a research university to address the growing needs of graduate education in southern Minnesota. That effort eventually stalled due to direct opposition by the University of Minnesota.[4]
...Austin is the seat of the Southern Minnesota Normal College and Austin School of Commerce (1896),....
Bills to give Mankato State College university status, to create a new college in southwestern Minnesota and set up a state-run system of junior colleges were sent to the floor of the Minnesota Senate today. All three bills won approval by the Senate Finance Committee Thursday. Mankato would be called 'Minnesota State University' rather than the University of Southern Minnesota, according to an amendment approved last night as proposed by Senator Michael McGuire of Montgomery, Minnesota (Liberal party).
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