Auburn University (AU) is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama with over 23,000 students and 1200 faculty. It is the largest university in Alabama. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856 as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Church. The college was donated to the state of Alabama in 1872, when it became the state's public land-grant university under the Morrill Act and was called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1892, the college became the first four-year coeducational school in the state. The college was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1899. In 1960, its name was changed to Auburn University, as it had popularly been known.