[4] Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, its campus is based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and is the official Missouri State Arboretum.

In 1919 the school was renamed Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, and with that came the ability to grant baccalaureate degrees.

Those fears came to the forefront in 1988 when Shalia Aery, commissioner of higher education under Governor John Ashcroft, announced a plan to close the school.

The defining landmark of the campus is the Administration Building, very similar to Brookings Hall at Washington University in St. Louis.

[10] The Collegiate Gothic structure with its central tower keep design evokes Tattershall Castle and lords over the campus with the motto, "And the truth shall make you free," engraved in stone.

[11] A $13.8 million capital program repaired most of the building and made extensive changes to the campus layout.

The building ceased to serve as classroom space, with the exception of 3rd floor, which houses the Family and Consumer Sciences Department.

The theater and music departments moved out of the building to what is now the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts, located southeast of Bearcat Stadium.

The Bearcats have won six NCAA Division II football national championships (1998, 1999, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2016) and finished four times as runner-up (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008).

[15] Student organizations encompass activities and interests that include Academic (such as an Association for Computing Machinery chapter),[16] Greek fraternities and sororities, Political (such as the College Republicans or the Young Democrats),[17] Honorary (such as the Blue Key Honor Society and Mortar Board),[18] Multicultural (with groups such as the Alliance of Black Collegians, the Asian Student Association, the Hispanic American Leadership Organization, and the Indian Student Association),[19] Performing (such as the American Choral Directors Association),[20] Religious (such as Campus Crusade for Christ),[21] Residential Life (with student governing bodies for the residential halls),[22] Sports (with clubs for cheerleading, fencing, rugby, soccer, wrestling and equestrian sports),[23] and dozens more.

[24] Sororities at the university include[25] (Alpha Omicron Pi and Delta Zeta are no longer on the Northwest campus.)

It is distributed every other Thursday (except during the summer), and covers both campus and community news and sporting events.

[26] Among Northwest's alumni are Jean Bartik, one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer and a member of the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.