The school opened its doors in 1875 following the mold of the French Ecole Normale. It enrolled just 225 students. All normal school events were held within a single building which also contained a laboratory school for model teaching. Control and ownership of the institution passed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1920. In 1927, by authority of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, it became State Teachers College at Indiana, with the right to grant degrees. As its mission expanded, the name was changed again in 1959 to Indiana State College. In 1965, the institution achieved university status and became Indiana University of Pennsylvania, or IUP.