Murray State College was established as the Murray State School of Agriculture in accordance with a law passed by the first Oklahoma Legislature (approved May 20, 1908). Its first students, numbering about 100, were primarily Chickasaw and Choctaw. Federal funding paid for two dormitories opened in 1916 for Native American students. On March 17, 1924, the Oklahoma Legislature approved a measure to enable the institution to teach the first two years of higher educational instruction,[citation needed] and it become a community college, granting its first associate degrees in 1924.