<P> Organized into 12 colleges and schools, the university offers over 180 baccalaureate, graduate, and professional degree programs, and is home to Mississippi's only accredited programs in architecture and veterinary medicine . Mississippi State participates in the National Sea Grant College Program and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program . The university's main campus in Starkville is supplemented by auxiliary campuses in Meridian, Biloxi, and Vicksburg, Mississippi . The 19th and current president of Mississippi State is Mark E. Keenum, a former United States Under Secretary of Agriculture . </P> <P> Mississippi State's intercollegiate sports teams, known as the Mississippi State Bulldogs, compete in NCAA Division I athletics as members of the Southeastern Conference's western division . Mississippi State was a founding member of the SEC in 1932 . In their more - than 120 year history, the Bulldogs have won 21 individual national championships and 30 regular season conference championships . The school is noted for a pervasive baseball fan culture, with Dudy Noble Field holding 17 of the top 25 all - time NCAA attendance records and the school's Left Field Lounge being described as an epicenter of college baseball . </P> <P> The university began as The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi (or Mississippi A&M), one of the national land - grant colleges established after Congress passed the Morrill Act in 1862 . It was created by the Mississippi Legislature on February 28, 1878, to fulfill the mission of offering training in "agriculture, horticulture and the mechanical arts...without excluding other scientific and classical studies, including military tactics ." The university received its first students in the fall of 1880 in the presidency of General Stephen D. Lee . </P> <P> In 1887 Congress passed the Hatch Act, which provided for the establishment of the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1888 . The Cooperative Extension Service was established in 1914 by the Smith - Lever Act . The university has since had its mission expanded and redefined by the Legislature . In 1932, the Legislature renamed the university as Mississippi State College . </P>

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