General Information

Northwestern State University, often called NSU, is a public four-year university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.

NSU was founded in 1884 as the Louisiana State Normal School to train teachers. NSU was the first school in Louisiana to offer degree programs in nursing and business education. It gained university status in 1970 during the administration of President Arnold R. Kilpatrick, a Northwestern State alumnus who served from 1966-1978.

NSU was one of the first six colleges to enter into NASA's Joint Venture Program ("JOVE"). Students work with NASA scientists to help analyze data and do research for NASA and the 1996 Space Shuttle Columbia shuttle mission.

NSU also hosts Louisiana's designated honors college in the liberal arts and sciences, called the Louisiana Scholars' College. The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts is also located on the campus. It was a brainchild of former State Representative Jimmy D. Long of Natchitoches, who also attended NSU.

NSU currently offers more than 50 degree programs and complete accreditation of all of its accreditable degree programs. Fall 2005 total enrollment was 9,847, a decline from Fall 2004's record enrollment of 10,546 that university administrators said was due to the application and enforcement of new admissions standards. NSU also claims more than 70,000 alumni.

Its student-run weekly newspaper, The Current Sauce, was founded in 1914. Its annual student-run yearbook is called The Potpourri. There is also a student-run radio station, KNWD The Demon 91.7FM, and a faculty-administrated and student-operated local television station, NSU22.

NSU's literary magazine is called The Argus. It is student-run and published during the spring semester. The magazine content is provided by competitions in various fields of writing and artwork.

Singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash hours after finishing a 1973 concert on the NSU campus.

A.A. Fredericks was president of NSU from 1934-1941. He was later a member of the Louisiana State Senate and the private secretary on two occasions to Governor Earl Kemp Long. Fredericks obtained his teaching credentials from Northwestern State "Normal" in 1912. The A.A. Fredericks Auditorium on campus commemorates his memory.

Eugene P. Watson of Natchitoches, for whom the NSU library is named, was head librarian and professor of library science from 1940 until his death in 1964. He founded Alpha Beta Alpha, the national library science fraternity. The group held its first biennial convention on the NSU campus in 1952.