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The Ledger
The Rise · HBCU

Virginia State University

Petersburg, Virginia · Public · Four-year · Founded 1882

www.vsu.edu · official site

Founding

Virginia State University was founded on March 6, 1882, when the Virginia legislature passed a bill chartering the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a Black attorney with offices in Petersburg. In 1902 the legislature revised the charter to curtail the collegiate program and renamed the school the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute.

Source: History of VSU, Virginia State University, read 2026-09-14.

As the Department of Education lists it

Campus address
1 Hayden Drive, Petersburg, VA 23806
Control
Public
IPEDS unit id
234155
OPE id
00376400
Federal student aid
Participates in Title IV federal student aid
Title III Part B list, FY 2026
Listed
On the map
Not placed on the map: the Census Bureau returned a near match, not an exact one (Census proposed: 1 HAYDEN ST, PETERSBURG, VA, 23806). Held on 2026-09-14 until a person resolves the address; no other geocoder was consulted.

No enrollment figure is published on this page. The Ledger prints one only with a dated NCES citation, and none is attached to this record.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 234155. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/HD2024.zip. File dated 2025-09-21.
  2. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Higher Education Programs Eligibility Matrix, sheet 'HBCU', dated 2026-06-08. https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fy-2026-higher-education-programs-eligibility-matrix-june-8-2026-114185.xlsx.
  3. History of VSU, Virginia State University. https://www.vsu.edu/about/history/. Read 2026-09-14.
  4. U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, batch address service, benchmark Public_AR_Current. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/.

Machine-readable: /api/v1/hbcus/virginia-state-university · All HBCUs

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