Southern Minnesota Normal College, also known as the University of Southern Minnesota, was a normal school

Normal school

A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...

 and university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 located in Austin

Austin, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 23,314 people, 9,897 households, and 6,076 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,168.2 people per square mile . There were 10,261 housing units at an average density of 954.3 per square mile...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 that operated from 1897 to 1925. It was founded with the Austin School of Commerce.
The school was founded in 1896 by Charles Boostrom, and opened the following year. The schools closed in 1925. In 1940 the public school system opened Austin Junior College, which later became part of the state system of junior colleges and was renamed Riverland Community College

Riverland Community College

Riverland Community College is a community college that is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. It has campuses in:*Albert Lea, Minnesota**Previously Albert Lea Technical College.*Austin, Minnesota...

.