Towson University is a large
liberal arts University located in Towson, Maryland. It currently has approximately 15,000 students enrolled at the graduate and undergraduate level.
The University was founded in 1866 as the Maryland Normal School, and served as a prep school for public school teachers. In 1935 it was re-named Maryland State Teacher's College at Towson, and was granted the authority to award degrees. The name changed again in 1963, with the broadening of its academic programs to arts and sciences to Towson State College, and again in 1976 to Towson State University. In 1997, the Board of Trustees changed the name again to Towson University in order to get alumni to donate more money.
Today Towson University has thirty academic departments and awards forty different bachelor's and master's degrees. The education program is still widely accepted as one of the state's best, and its nursing, mass communications, and
marketing departments are also well recognized.
Towson University is part of the
University of Maryland system, along with
University of Baltimore,
University of Maryland and
University of Maryland at Baltimore, to name but a few.
It acts as host to the annual Maryland Arts Festival.
Towson University is
Protozoa's alma mater.