Kutztown University is a modern and comprehensive institution which is a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. KU was established in 1866 as Keystone State Normal School which later achieved university status in 1983. The university offers programs in Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Visual and Performing Arts and certain graduate studies. Moreover, the university has various special programs including undergraduate honours courses, freshman seminars, internships and independent study options and ESL transition program. There are more than 200 student organisations at KU spanning the spectrum of interest and its McFarland Student Union houses facilities like a bookstore, game room, movie theatre, TV lounge, cyber lounge, cafeteria, coffeehouse and a financial centre. It also has a free shuttle bus service consisting of 4 routes in and around the campus. Various special facilities are available for the students like a planetarium, LGBTQ Center, TV production facilities, 12 student-accessible computer labs, a student-operated radio station, cartography lab, Wallops Island marine science consortium facility and the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center. It also sponsors 8 men and 13 women intramural sports and university’s athletic teams are known as the ‘Golden Bears’. KU opens a place where an individual's passion is ignited, skills are refined and impossibles are made possible.