Mississippi University for Women

Founded in 1884, MUW was the first public college for women in America. The campus boasts 24 buildings on the "National Register of Historic Places".

After completing high school, Welty went to Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) in Columbus, Mississippi, from 1925 to 1927.
 
Eudora Welty said of MUW, “There I landed in a world to itself…Indeed it was all new to me. It was surging with twelve hundred girls. They came from every nook and corner of the state, from the Delta, the Piney woods, the Gulf Coast, the black prairie, the red clay hills, and Jackson -- as the capital city and the only sizeable town, a region to itself. She wrote for the campus newspaper, The Specator and years later, the university named a street on campus “Welty Drive” after its famous former student.

Each October is the annual Welty Symposium on the MUW campus.  The Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy sponsors the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium.  A diverse group of Southern writers and scholars are invited to present their work and also highlights an unpublished book of scholarship on women’s studies, Southern studies or modern letters to receive the Eudora Welty Prize. All Symposium events will be held on the MUW campus and are free and open to the public. http://www.muw.edu/welty/