{{Short description|Public university in Fairmont, West Virginia, US}} {{About|the university in Fairmont, West Virginia|the school formerly named Fairmount College in Wichita, Kansas|Wichita State University}} {{Use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}} {{Infobox university |name = Fairmont State University |image = Fairmont_State_University_seal.png |image_upright = 0.6 |former_name = West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont (1865–1867)<br />Fairmont State Normal School (1867–1931)<br />Fairmont State Teachers College (1931–1944)<br />Fairmont State College (1944–2004) |established = {{start date and age|1865|02|27|br=y}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.fairmontstate.edu/content.php?catoid=3&navoid=1612#:~:text=The%20University's%20changes%20in%20location,school%20became%20a%20state%20institution.|title=About Fairmont State}}</ref> |type = Public university |endowment = $38 million (2025)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/nacubo1-nacubo-prd-dc8b/media/Nacubo/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2025-NCSE-Endowment-Market-Values-for-US-and-Canadian-Institutions-FINAL.xlsx |title=U.S. and Canadian 2025 NCSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2025 Endowment Market Value |publisher=National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) |access-date=February 15, 2026 |format=XLSX}}</ref> |administrative_staff = 450 |faculty = 597 |president = Mike Davis |students = 3,421 (fall 2025)<ref>{{cite web |title=Fast Facts |url=https://www.fairmontstate.edu/about/fast-facts.aspx |website=About |publisher=Fairmont State University |access-date=28 April 2026}}</ref> |motto = "Scholarship, Opportunity, Achievement, Responsibility" |accreditation = HLC |undergrad = 3,174 (fall 2025) |postgrad = 247 (fall 2025) |city = Fairmont, West Virginia |country = United States |campus = Distant town<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Fairmont&s=all&id=237367|title=IPEDS-Fairmont State University}}</ref> |campus_size = {{convert|120|acre|km2}} |academic_affiliations = WVHEPC |colors = Maroon and white<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fairmontstate.edu/aboutfsu/creative-services/university-brand |title=University Brand {{!}} About Fairmont State University |date=June 13, 2018 |access-date=July 30, 2018 |archive-date=July 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730210820/https://www.fairmontstate.edu/aboutfsu/creative-services/university-brand |url-status=dead }}</ref><br />{{color box|#860038}} {{color box|white}} |athletics_nicknames = Falcons |mascot = Freddie |sporting_affiliations = NCAA Division II – MEC |website = {{URL|www.fairmontstate.edu|fairmontstate.edu}} |logo = Fairmont State University wordmark.svg |logo_size = 250 |free_label = Other campuses |free = {{hlist|Bridgeport|Clarksburg}} |free_label2 = Newspaper |free2 = ''The Columns'' }}
'''Fairmont State University''' is a public university in Fairmont, West Virginia, United States.<ref>Turner, Dr. William P., "A Centennial History of Fairmont State College", Fairmont State College, Fairmont, WV, 1970</ref>
==History== Fairmont State University's roots reach back to the formation of public education in the state of West Virginia. The first private normal school in West Virginia was established to train teachers in Fairmont in 1865 by John N. Boyd, the school's first principal. It was known as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fairmont State Normal School |url=https://archive.org/details/catalogs19201924fair/page/n13/mode/2up?q=%22Fairmont+State+Normal+School%22 |title=Catalog |date=1923 |publisher=Fairmont State Normal School |others= |pages=7 |chapter=General Information}}</ref>
On February 27, 1867, it was purchased by the State from the Regency of the West Virginia Normal School (formed as a joint stock company in 1866) and became a branch of the State Normal School of Marshall College. From 1867 to 1892 the school was known variously as Fairmont Normal School, the Fairmont Branch of the West Virginia Normal School, the Branch of the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a branch of the West Virginia State Normal School of Marshall College, but most commonly as Fairmont State Normal School (FSNS). By 1892 the designation of "branch" had fallen into disuse.
In 1893, the school moved into a new building at Second Street and Fairmont Avenue and, in 1917, to its current location in the building now known as Hardway Hall, in honor of former president Wendell G. Hardway, which sits on a hill overlooking Locust Avenue.
Hardway Hall, originally known as Fairmont Normal School Administration Building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
In 1923, Fairmont State Normal School first offered a four-year bachelor's degree program in education, making the school a college. It was renamed Fairmont State Teachers College in 1931 and Fairmont State College in 1943. On April 7, 2004, Governor Bob Wise signed legislation changing its name to Fairmont State University.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marionhistorical.org/pages/architecture.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710013704/http://www.marionhistorical.org/pages/architecture.php |url-status=usurped |archive-date=July 10, 2011 |title=Marion County Architecture |work=Marion County Historical Society & Museum |access-date=May 6, 2015}}</ref>
Fairmont State offers more than 80 baccalaureate degrees in business, computer science, education, engineering and technology, fine arts, liberal arts, national security and intelligence, political science, mathematics, and nursing and allied health administration with graduate programs in architecture, education, teaching, business, and criminal justice.
==Community and technical college== {| class="wikitable floatright sortable collapsible"; text-align:right; font-size:80%;" |+ style="font-size:90%" |Undergraduate demographics as of Fall 2023<ref>{{cite web |title= College Scorecard: Fairmont State University|url=https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?237367-Fairmont-State-University|website=College Scorecard |publisher=United States Department of Education |access-date=August 18, 2025}}</ref> |- ! Race and ethnicity ! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total |- | White |align=right| {{bartable|87|%|2||background:cyan}} |- | Black |align=right| {{bartable|5|%|2||background:purple}} |- | Two or more races |align=right| {{bartable|5|%|2||background:violet}} |- | Hispanic |align=right| {{bartable|1|%|2||background:green}} |- | Unknown |align=right| {{bartable|1|%|2||background:grey}} |- ! colspan="4" data-sort-type=number |Economic diversity |- | Low-income{{efn|The percentage of students who received an income-based federal Pell grant intended for low-income students.}} |align=right| {{bartable|39|%|2||background:red}} |- | Affluent{{efn|The percentage of students who are a part of the American middle class at the bare minimum.}} |align=right| {{bartable|61|%|2||background:black}} |}
In 1974, a community college component was founded. This became independently accredited as Fairmont State Community and Technical College in 2003. In 2006, Fairmont State was given direction by the State of West Virginia to split with the community and technical college, which then became known as Pierpont Community and Technical College. For some time both institutions still operated on the Fairmont campus, but since 2008, they are recognized as independent institutions and offer completely separate degree programs; Pierpont focuses more on technical associate's programs, while Fairmont State's main focus is on baccalaureate degrees and master's programs.
After a March 2021 Memorandum of Understanding, the two schools became independent of one another whereby Pierpont transitioned off of the Fairmont campus into a new building near the NASA complex in South Fairmont,
==Athletics== {{Main|Fairmont State Fighting Falcons}} Fairmont State's athletic teams, known as the ''Falcons'' (alternately as ''Fighting Falcons'', or ''Lady Falcons'' for women's teams), compete in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II and field teams in 17 sports including football, men's and women's basketball, wrestling, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's golf, acrobatics and tumbling, baseball, softball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's cross country.
The Fighting Falcons football team finished the 2016 season with a 10–2 record, clinching an NCAA playoff berth. In 2017, they finished the season 8–3 and 2nd in the MEC.
In 2017, the men's basketball team was ranked #3 in the final NABC Coaches Poll. In post-season play, the Falcons captured the NCAA Atlantic Region title and earned the top seed in the NCAA Elite Eight tournament eventually losing to Northwest Missouri State in the tournament final on March 25, 2017 by a score of 71–61.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2017-03-25/dii-basketball-northwest-missouri-state-handles-fairmont |title=DII basketball: Northwest Missouri State handles Fairmont State to win first championship |date=March 27, 2017 |access-date=March 27, 2017}}</ref>
==The National Security Lab== The Open Source Intelligence Exchange (OSIX) organization was created in 2012 and serves as Fairmont State's applied research lab under the National Security and Intelligence program. OSIX uses open source and social media intelligence to determine real-world active threats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairmontstate.edu/fsunow/videos/osix-open-source-intelligence-exchange|title=OSIX: Open Source Intelligence Exchange {{!}} News {{!}} Fairmont State University|website=www.fairmontstate.edu|access-date=2019-10-27|archive-date=October 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027060626/https://www.fairmontstate.edu/fsunow/videos/osix-open-source-intelligence-exchange|url-status=dead}}</ref> Professor David Abruzzino, who came to Fairmont State after retiring from work with the CIA, was the OSIX program director and faculty mentor from 2010 until 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairmontstate.edu/fsunow/academics/proud-be-part-state%E2%80%99s-first-program-national-security-and-intelligence|title=Proud to be Part of the State's First Program in National Security and Intelligence {{!}} News {{!}} Fairmont State University|website=www.fairmontstate.edu|access-date=2019-10-27|archive-date=February 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209065307/https://www.fairmontstate.edu/fsunow/academics/proud-be-part-state%E2%80%99s-first-program-national-security-and-intelligence|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairmontstate.edu/collegeofliberalarts/academics/open-source-intelligence-exchange|title=Open Source Intelligence Exchange {{!}} College of Liberal Arts {{!}} Fairmont State University|website=www.fairmontstate.edu|access-date=2019-10-27|archive-date=October 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027060630/https://www.fairmontstate.edu/collegeofliberalarts/academics/open-source-intelligence-exchange|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Notable people== {{main|List of faculty and alumni of Fairmont State University}}
==See also== * Luella Mundel
==Notes== {{noteslist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{Official website}} * [https://fightingfalcons.com/ Athletics website]
{{Fairmont State University}} {{Mountain East Conference navbox}} {{Colleges and universities in West Virginia}} {{Authority control}} {{Coord|39.485798|-80.163019|type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-WV|display=title}}
Category:Fairmont State University Category:Schools in Fairmont, West Virginia Category:Public universities and colleges in West Virginia Category:Universities and colleges established in 1865 Category:Tourist attractions in Marion County, West Virginia Category:1865 establishments in West Virginia Category:Aviation schools in the United States