Coppin State is a four-year, comprehensive, state-supported, coed, liberal arts university located in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Its mission is to provide high-quality higher education in the arts and sciences, as well as in professional and pre-professional programs. The campus is within an hour of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and Howard University. The origination of today’s Coppin State starts in 1900, when it was Frederick Douglass High School - designated by the Baltimore City School Board as a one-year teacher preparatory course for black elementary school teachers. In 1902, the program expanded to a two-year Normal Department within the high school. By 1909, the program was separated administratively from the high school and was given its own principal. In honor of Fanny Jackson Coppin – an outstanding African-American woman who was a pioneer in teacher education - the teacher training program was renamed Fannie Jackson Coppin Normal School, in 1926. By 1938, several significant changes had taken place which included the lengthening of the curriculum to four years and authority to grant the Bachelor of Science degree. The school thus changed its name to Coppin Teacher’s College. After a struggle for 12 years, Coppin became part of the Maryland higher education system under the State Department of Education and the college was renamed Coppin State Teachers College. Coppin was shifted to its present 38-acre site on West North Avenue, in 1952. A ruling of the Board of Trustees in 1963, mandated the college’s degree-granting authority to look beyond providing teacher education. Subsequently, the college officially changed its name to Coppin State College and conferred its first Bachelor of Arts degree in another four years, in 1967. It became part of the newly formed University of Maryland System in 1988. The university offers various graduate courses in the fields of arts, science, and commerce, as well as academic programs in the teacher education, nursing, and continuing education. Altogether, Coppin offers 53 majors and nine graduate-degree programs. Coppin State provides its students access to libraries and research facilities of 14 affiliated campuses. Various community-based programs, such as health and wellness services and the community outreach program, are also arranged. Coppin State, which was officially renamed Coppin State University in April 2004, is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The undergraduate and graduate programs in teacher education are accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Maryland State Department of Education. The nursing program is accredited by the National League for Nursing and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.