Shippensburg University

One of the 14 members of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Shippensburg University is a public, coeducational university located in the small town of Shippensburg in southern Pennsylvania.

The university was founded as Cumberland Valley State Normal School in 1871, admitting its first class in 1873. It was purchased by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1917, allowing the university to expand over the following decades and today the university is home to more than 7,000 students.

The three undergraduate schools – the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Human Services, and the John L. Grove College of Business – offer more than 100 undergraduate programs between them, while the School of Graduate Studies offers 57 graduate programs and one doctoral level course.

The Shippensburg University campus contains nine residence halls as well as the ShipRec Center, which includes state-of-the-art sports facilities and various sports courts and pitches, in addition to the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library, which has a collection of more than two million items.

The university sports teams, known as the Raiders, compete in the NCAA Division II and has 20 different athletic teams. The Raiders have enjoyed some notable successes in recent years, including the women’s rugby team’s national titles in 2008 and 2009, while the men’s rugby team were the 2011-12 Men's College Division I-AA Keystone Rugby Conference Champions.

Notable former students include New Hampshire senator Jeanne Shaheen, American football star John Kuhn, and retired US army general Tommy Franks.