Auburn University is a public research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest university in Alabama. Auburn University is one of the state's two public flagship universities. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1872, under the Morrill Act, it became the state's first public land-grant university and was renamed as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1899, it became the first four-year coeducational school in Alabama, and in 1960, its name was changed to Auburn University to acknowledge the varied academic programs and larger curriculum of a major university.