Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, U.S. With more than 24,100 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In the year 1872 the college became the state’s first public land-grant university under the Morrill Act and was renamed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama.