Before We Were M State: Wadena
The Wadena Area Vocational Technical Institute was established because of interest shown by local citizens, school system leaders and students.
After much discussion and effort by the community, including a locally-initiated survey of 900 area high school students, an advisory committee was formed to decide whether such a school should be established in Wadena, and to aid in any planning for it.
In May 1959, the group applied to the State Board of Education for designation, noting Wadena’s strategic location amid five highways that connected 12 communities within a 25-mile radius. The state board approved the establishment of the school, and the Wadena School Board began seeking rental facilities that could house vocational classes.
An architect was hired to begin planning for a new building, and in 1961, the school’s first director, Curtis Swenson, was hired.
Community support for the school was strong, and in 1961, a bond issue for the facility passed by a wide margin of 633 to 236. Plans were quickly approved for a $265,000 concrete block and brick building designed to house courses in electronics, auto mechanics, cosmetology and business.
Classes began in November 1961, first held in temporary facilities throughout the community, and 76 students were enrolled. Until the 1970s, tuition was free for students ages 16 to 21, and $30 per month for students older than 21. (When technical institutes were first established in Minnesota, there was no tuition charged for Minnesota students. As costs increased, schools began to charge.)
In the spring of 1962, the new facility was completed. It could accommodate 160 students and was designed to facilitate future expansion. The school underwent five expansion projects over the next three decades.
There were also six name changes, due to mergers and other operational changes. They were: Wadena Area Technical Institute (1961-71), Wadena Area Vocational Institute (1971-87), Wadena Technical Institute (1987-89), Northwest Technical College (1992-2003) and then Minnesota State Community and Technical College, or M State.
The 1990s saw the combining of local colleges into a merged statewide system, and in 1992, the Wadena school became part of the six-campus Northwest Regional Technical College, along with tech schools in Detroit Lakes, Moorhead, Bemidji, East Grand Forks and Thief River Falls. In 1995, all the state’s universities and community and technical colleges were brought together under the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
Graduation class sizes fluctuated from around 250 to 425 throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, influenced by factors like shrinking rural families and new or removed programs.
Today, the Wadena campus is going strong, offering popular programs for careers in cosmetology and electrical line work, among others, and is known for its friendly and welcoming staff, faculty and students.
Read more about the early histories of our campuses in: