Points of Pride

Winona State University prides itself on providing quality, affordable undergraduate and graduate education. From its beginnings in 1858 as the first teacher training institution west of the Mississippi, Winona State has grown into a full-fledged university with a comprehensive base of liberal studies in the arts and sciences as well as specialized professional, technological and occupational degrees.

Winona State University is divided into five distinctive colleges: the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the College of Science and Engineering. The university offers 5 master’s degree programs, 64 undergraduate degree programs, 12 pre-professional programs and several licensure and specialist degree programs.

More than education, Winona State provides an excellent academic preparation for life and instills in students a passion for lifelong learning.

Accreditations and Memberships

A hallmark of excellence a university can claim is through accreditation by an independent organization. Winona State holds the following accreditations:

• Accrediting Board for Engineering (ABET)
• Commission for Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs
• Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE)
• Council of Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
• Council on Social Work Education
• Higher Education Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA)
• National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)
• National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST)
• National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

WSU is recognized by the following organizations:

• Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
• Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI)
• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEEYC)
• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

WSU programs are approved by:

• American Bar Association
• American Chemical Society
• Minnesota Board of Nursing
• Minnesota Board of School Administrators
• Minnesota Board of Teaching

Awards and Honors

For the seventh time in seven years, in 2003 Winona State University was named in the book, America's 100 Best College Buys , (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 John Culler and Sons, Camden, S.C.). This publication used independent research to choose schools that provided quality four-year degree programs at reasonable cost. Winona State was the only Minnesota school included in this guide for college-bound students and their parents.

Winona State University has been noted in several nationally-released books on quality in higher education, including Smart Parents Guide to Colleg e , by Boyer and Boyer (1996, Peterson’s, Princeton, N.J.), and Indicators of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1996, The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems), and was noted as one of the Top 25 Area Colleges in a 1997 best colleges edition of Milwaukee magazine.

In 1997, IBM recognized Winona State University for long-term business partnership in higher education. Valerie Pace, an IBM representative, noted that, as an employer, taxpayer and customer, IBM has a vested interest in the success of Minnesota higher education. Pace said, "These partnerships ... involve these attributes: response to IBM's education requirements as a supplier of higher education, commitment to using quality management with customer focus to improve systems performance and student achievement, and application of technology to enhance teaching and learning systems performance."

In the August/September 1993 issue of Your Money magazine, Winona State was listed as one of the Top 100 Most Affordable Colleges in the Country . The ranking was based on the school's annual cost including tuition, fees, room and board, and most importantly, the financial aid packages offered to students. In 1992, 72 percent of all Winona State students received some form of financial aid including grants, loans and work-study programs. The average award was about $3,000. Total financial aid awards at WINONA STATE in 1992 amounted to $17.5 million.

Program Milestones since 1985

The average ACT scores of freshmen have steadily increased over the past several years and in fall of 2004 was 23.  The high school percentile ranking of new entering freshmen also continues to increase and for fall of 1996 it was 66.4.

In 1996, Winona State University became the first college or university in the nation to offer a CD-ROM based electronic portfolio program to its students and alumni. The WINGS program (WINona Graduate Skills) allows students to document their progress, knowledge and skills throughout their education and prepare a high-tech portfolio -- or electronic résumé -- for use in applying for jobs or to graduate schools. The WINGS CD-ROM presentations include text, graphics, photographs, sound and video in an interactive, self-directed interface that allows the viewer to point and click to navigate in areas of interest.

Established in 1989, the Educational Technology Center (ETC) at Winona State University has continued to be a national leader in exploiting new technologies for use in education. Through a series of grants, the ETC developed a high-tech multimedia computer center for use by faculty, staff and students to learn and incorporate the new technologies in learning. The ETC also provides testing and research of emerging hardware and software and offers workshops and demonstrations for regional teachers, media specialists and Winona State staff and faculty.

Winona, Minn., made its presence on the Information Superhighway known in 1995 with the introduction of Luminet , the city-wide information sharing network that included Winona State University, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and Red Wing-Winona Technical College as key partners with local public schools, government and health care providers in the venture. Luminet allowed local people, businesses and educational institutions connection to the Internet and the means for interconnecting for voice, data, sound and video transmission.

In 1990, Winona State and IBM entered into a new partnership entitled the University Partners Program which consisted of the placement of an IBM AS/400 computing system at the university and the integration of that system into the university curriculum and operation. In addition, the program provided for one or two faculty members per quarter to be assigned positions at IBM Rochester in a variety of areas of expertise.

In 1994, the Minnesota Legislature authorized the construction of a new library at Winona State University. In the fall of 1997, construction on the "Library of the Future" began. Much of the building's 108,000 square feet is being planned to take the best possible advantage of new electronic technologies for information storage and retrieval and research. The building was completed and occupied in the summer of 1999. It was dedicated in September 1999; Gov. Jesse Ventura spoke at the event.

Responding to the needs of students and parents concerned about costly delays in graduation, in 1995 Winona State University announced a "Finish in Four Years" program, essentially a four-year graduation guarantee. Winona State the first public institution in Minnesota to offer a broad guarantee across all colleges of the university specifically addressing class availability and scheduling. The program stipulates that Winona State will provide access to all classes necessary to graduate in four years. If a student must take any required classes beyond four years, the classes will be provided tuition-free.

After a two-year, $7.7 million construction project, the three-story health and applied sciences building at Winona State, Stark Hall , opened in fall 1992. Named for Thomas F. Stark, Winona State president from 1983 until his death in August 1988, the building features state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms, houses the Miller Brothers School of Engineering, the College of Science and Engineering, and the College of Nursing.

In fall 1991, Winona State opened the Residential College , located in Lourdes Hall at the former College of Saint Teresa campus. The Residential College provides students with the living-learning environment of a small private school at the cost of a public institution. The program began with 50 freshmen, and now more than 400 students participate in the collaborative learning atmosphere of the Residential College.

Winona State adopted the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education in 1989 as Darrell W. Krueger became the university's 13th president. These principles have had a major impact on the university, its staff and faculty, and, most importantly, its students. In 1992, The Johnson Foundation named Winona State to be the site of the Seven Principles Resource Center , acting as a repository and distribution center of Seven Principles assessment materials and related documents for education institutions worldwide.

Winona State is home to the first undergraduate degree program in Composite Materials Engineering in the nation , which was established in 1988 and began offering classes in 1989. This program provides training and testing support for the growing composite materials industry locally. The Winona area boasts more than a dozen companies involved in manufacturing products using the advanced reinforced plastics materials.

Interactive Television (ITV) was established Winona State University in December 1988. The number of courses offered via ITV grew from two in the fall of 1989 to nearly 50 per year in 1997. In addition, ITV is used for at least 10 meetings a week between the two campuses in Winona and Rochester as well as other higher education institutions across the state.

In a partnership with the Rochester School District, Winona State developed the Graduate Induction Program in 1986 which provides graduate students with valuable classroom teaching experience under clinical supervision from Rochester teachers. Each year, more than a dozen graduate student teachers participate in the program.

In 1986, the Winona State University-Rochester Center , opened to serve as the Rochester campus. The 29,000 sq. ft. building houses classrooms, administrative offices and an academic computer center adjacent and connected to Rochester Community College. The building further strengthened Winona State's commitment to provide for the higher education needs of the citizens of southeastern Minnesota and solidified the synergistic partnership for higher education in Rochester.

Into the future...

Winona State is one of a few universities nationally to install Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networking on campus. ATM provides the means for high-speed data delivery and real-time audio and video delivery to the desktop computer and will become the backbone of the entire Winona State University campus network. ATM servers provide on-demand class lectures as well as a variety of educational video clips and multimedia applications developed by Winona State faculty, with synchronized audio and video and the availability of desktop video conferencing.

A group of Winona investors recently announced plans for a broadband communication network in Winona to connect the schools, homes and businesses. The network will use advanced technology for high-speed delivery of education, entertainment and data. Hiawatha Broadband Communications will acquire the assets and expand the operations of Luminet and will provide educational and entertainment services to local subscribers. Investors include a number of Winona business people and several other donors who intend to contribute equity interests to Winona educational institutions including Winona State University.

Winona State University is a "laptop university" implementing the latest technology and offering students the best opportunity for a quality education and a bright future after graduation. In 1997, the Laptop Universal Access Program (Laptop Program) began planning a system under which every Winona State student will have a laptop computer, updated software and 24-hour access to the Internet. Approximately one-third of the Winona State faculty started the program in the fall 1997 using laptops to prepare course materials. Another one-third joined the program in 1998, and by 1999 virtually every faculty member will be part of the program.

Laptop Program began as a voluntary program for students in the fall of 1998. Plans call for requiring all new entering freshmen to participate, as early as fall 2000, and adding the new freshmen class each year until full implementation is achieved.

At the same time, the Winona State computer center and networking facilities are being upgraded to ensure a smooth-running system capable of handling the increased usage.