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| Motto | Civium in moribus rei publicae salus (Latin: "The welfare of the state depends upon the morals of its citizens") |
|---|---|
| Established | 1853 |
| Endowment | $996 million |
| President | J. Bernard Machen |
| Academic staff | 3,183 |
| Undergraduates | 34,612 |
| Postgraduates | 15,081 |
| Location | Gainesville, Florida, United States |
| Campus | 2,000 acres (8.09 km²) |
| Yearbook | Tower Yearbook |
| Colors | Orange and Blue (Royal Blue) |
| Nickname | Gators |
| Mascot | Albert E. Gator |
| Website | http://www.ufl.edu |
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university located in Gainesville, Florida. The school traces its institutional roots to 1853.
It is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,785 students (as of Fall 2006), and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is among the nation's most academically diverse public universities. UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. Florida ranked second among all institutions in the number of National Merit Scholar students enrolled, behind Harvard. Researchers at the University of Florida are responsible for numerous discoveries and inventions, including the commercially popular sports drink Gatorade. UF is one of the two flagship universities in the State University System of Florida.
The Undergraduate progam is currently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as first in the state of Florida, 13th among U.S. public universities, and 47th overall among "National Universities". Listed as a Public Ivy, The 2006 Academic Ranking of World Universities list assessed Florida as 53rd among world universities based on research output and faculty awards.
Florida is also noted for its strong NCAA programs. Its mascot is the alligator, and its intercollegiate sports teams are referred to as the Florida Gators.
History
The institutional history officially dates back to 1851 when the legislature set about creating two seminaries, one west of the Suwanee River, and the other to the east. Some trace UF's history back to 1836 when the U.S. Congress authorized an establishment of "a University of Florida."
In 1853, UF's official date of founding, Gilbert Kingsbury was the first man to take advantage of the legislation passed in 1851 and established the East Florida Seminary (EFS). Before coming to Florida, Kingsbury taught at Thetford Academy in New Hampshire. This was the first state-supported institution of higher learning in Florida and set the foundation for the University of Florida. James Henry Roper, an educator from North Carolina and State Senator from Alachua County, built a school called the Gainesville Academy right around the same time period. In 1866 after EFS had closed due to the Civil War, Roper offered his land and school to the State of Florida in exchange for the relocation of East Florida Seminary to Gainesville, Fla. His offer was accepted and the current site of the University of Florida was in place. Epworth Hall was the main building of East Florida Seminary and still stands on the campus of UF to this day.
Another precursor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College established at Lake City in 1884. FAC became the first land-grant college in the state. Florida Agriculture College became a powerful force in the state and changed its name to the University of Florida in 1902, a change that would be short lived.
The 1905 Buckman Act consolidated the colleges of the state. The member of the Florida Legislature who wrote the act, Henry H. Buckman, is the namesake of Buckman Hall, one of UF's earliest buildings. The Buckman Act provided for the merger of several institutions into the new University of the State of Florida. The institutions apart of this were the University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College), the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School at St. Petersburg and the South Florida Military College at Bartow. The act also designated Florida State College as a women's university and the State Normal School For Colored Students (now Florida A&M University, a historically black university) as a postsecondary institution.
On July 6, 1905, the state legislature selected Gainesville for a new university campus. Andrew Sledd from the University of Florida at Lake City became the first president, while architect William A. Edwards designed the first official campus buildings in the collegiate gothic style. Classes began on September 26, 1906 with 102 students. In 1909 the name was shortened to the University of Florida.
The alligator was chosen as the school mascot in 1911. The school colors, orange and blue, are thought to have come from both the Blue and White of the University of Florida at Lake City and the Orange and Black of East Florida Seminary at Gainesville.
In 1909, Albert Murphree was appointed president of UF and attempted to organize the colleges of the university and increased the enrollment of the school substantially. He is the only man with a statue on the campus of UF. President John J. Tigert took over in 1928 and established the grant-in-aid or athletic scholarship program in the early 1930's which is currently used by the NCAA. Tigert was disgusted with the under-the-table payments being made by schools to athletes and radically changed the NCAA with his scholarship plan.
In 1947, The Florida State College was renamed to Florida State University and became co-educational due to the increase of GIs coming home from World War II. This sequence of events also opened up UF to women undergraduate students for the first time. Admission of African-American students began in 1958. Shands Hospital first opened in 1958 along with the medical school. Rapid campus expansion began in the 1950s and continues to the present day.
The University of Florida began to grow in prestige as the state boomed after World War II. The culmination of this Post-World War II growth happened in 1985, when Florida became a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the prestigious higher-education organization composed of the top 62 public and private institutions in North America. UF is one of only 17 public, land-grant universities that belongs to the association.
UF has continued to rise in the eyes of her peers and in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings. In 2001, UF was labeled a Public Ivy and was 2nd in Kipplinger's 2006 Best Buys of Education behind the University of North Carolina. The State of Florida seeks to make their flagship schools Top 10 Public Universities. UF is currently ranked 13th but has made a concerted effort to rise in the rankings.
Student body
In 2006, the middle 50% of the freshman class had:
- High School GPA of 3.9 - 4.4
- SAT of 1220 - 1390
- ACT of 26 - 31
UF’s freshmen retention rate of 92 percent also speaks to the outstanding quality of the university’s entire academic experience, from the many campus organizations and activities to quality teaching and class retention. More than 2,000 freshmen and sophomores participate in the honors program, which offers 90 to 100 honors courses per semester.
UF’s "Gator Nation" represents all Florida counties, all 50 states, and more than 100 countries. The ratio of women to men is 52:48. Of the 49,693 students, 24 percent are graduate students, and 7 percent are in a professional degree programs including architecture, dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. About 7,500 students live on campus. Approximately 26 percent of the student body represents minority populations with 7.9 percent African Americans, 10.1 percent Hispanics, and 6.5 percent Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders.
Historic sites
The University of Florida Campus Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The district includes 19 buildings, eleven of which had been added to the register previously. Two buildings outside the historic district, the old WRUF radio station (now the university police station) and the old P. K. Yonge Laboratory School (now Norman Hall), are also listed on the register.
Additionally, the former East Florida Seminary Academic Building, now known as Epworth Hall, was listed on the register in 1972. Epworth Hall was deeded to the First United Methodist Church of Gainesville in 1911.
Alumni
More than 300,000 alumni are located throughout the world.
Here is a List of University of Florida alumni.
Educational excellence
Awards include a Fields Medal, two Pulitzer Prizes, NASA's top award for research, and Smithsonian Institution's conservation award. There are currently more than 60 Eminent Scholar chairs, and nearly 60 faculty elections to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, or Arts and Sciences, the Institute of Medicine or a counterpart in a foreign nation.
UF ranked 13th in the U.S. News and World Report "Top Public Universities" (2006); fourth in The Scientist magazine's "Best Places to Work in Academia" (2005); fifth among all universities in Kiplinger's magazine "Top 100 Public Colleges" (2003). UF was also ranked the top value amongst all the public flagship universities by USA Today (2006). UF admitted 1,049 International Baccalaureate students for the 2004-2005 academic year - more than any other university in the world.
Research and discoveries
Milken Institute named UF one of the top-five U.S. institutions in the transfer of biotechnology research to the marketplace (2006). Some 50 biotechnology companies have resulted from faculty research programs. UF consistently ranks among the top-10 universities in licensing. Royalty and licensing income includes the glaucoma drug Trusopt, the sports drink Gatorade, and the Sentricon termite elimination system.
Academics
UF is divided into sixteen colleges which offer over 100 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate degrees, including the only public dentistry and veterinary medicine programs in the state. The centerpiece of the journalism programs at UF is WUFT, which consists of both a PBS television station and an NPR radio station. The commercial radio station, WRUF AM850, is also one of the oldest stations in the state.
The acceptance rate at UF has trended downward as the applicant pool has become larger and more competitive. The university has a freshmen retention rate of over 90%. The median SAT score is 1220 - 1390 for the FTIC class of 2006.
National Merit Scholars, as of the Fall 2007 term, are no longer being offered a competitive academic scholarship upon enrolling at UF. In past years, the university heavily recruited National Merit Scholars by offering $5,500 per academic year in scholarships, as well as a single $2,000 research stipend for summer study. According to Provost Fouke, recruitment of National Merit Scholars over the past several years has been "too successful" and the financial burden of providing the best-qualified students with substantial academic scholarships has become prohibitive for the University of Florida. Accordingly, that scholarship package has now been reduced to $1,000 per year plus a single $1,000 research stipend for a total of $5,000 over four years. Fouke has also publicly stated that the academic records of "other high-achieving students" not earning National Merit recognition compare favorably to those of National Merit Finalists at UF, indicating a reduced emphasis on National Merit recruitment by the University. It is expected that the number of enrolled National Merit Scholars will decrease due to the this reduction.
The University of Florida is home to an Honors College that offers many honors courses to students who earned SAT/ACT scores of 1400/33 or above. The Honors program lasts for a student's first two years, but Honors program services and courses remain available to upperclassmen. Honors students must complete four honors courses to be awarded an A.A. degree with honors or high honors. Honors at the bachelors degree level are determined by rules set by the student's College and major.
Student government
Student government at the University of Florida consists of an executive, judicial, and unicameral legislative branch.
The executive branch consists of a Student Body President, Student Body Vice President, Student Body Treasurer, 9 agencies, and 41 cabinets. The Student Body President, Student Body Vice President, and Student Body Treasurer are elected in annual elections held in the spring. The legislative branch is composed of 94 senators, who serve one year terms. 47 senate seats are elected each spring semester and the remaining 47 are elected each fall semester. The senators elect a Senate President and Senate President Pro Tempore twice a year - once in the fall, and once in the spring - to lead the Student Senate. The judicial branch has three functional components: the Student Supreme Court (headed by a Chief Justice), the Student Honor Court (headed by the Honor Court Chancellor elected each spring), and the Student Traffic Court (headed by a Chief Justice). The student government operates on a 12.5 million dollar budget.
Sorority and Fraternity Affairs
Sorority and Fraternity Affairs (formerly known as Greek Life) at the University of Florida is separated into four divisions: Interfraternity Council (IFC), Panhellenic Council, Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), and National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC).
The Interfraternity Council (IFC) is comprised of 28 fraternities. These include the following: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Alpha Gamma Rho, Alpha Tau Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Chi Phi, Delta Chi, Delta Tau Delta, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Tau, Phi Sigma Kappa, Pi Kappa Alpha, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Pi, Tau Epsilon Phi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Theta Chi, and Zeta Beta Tau.
The Panhellenic Council is made up of 16 sororities. These are Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Omicron Pi, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Delta Phi Epsilon, Delta Zeta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Mu, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Kappa, and Zeta Tau Alpha.
The Multicultural Greek Council consists of 11 organizations (5 fraternities and 6 sororites) that are culturally based (for instance Latino, Asian, South Asian, etc.). MGC organizations include Delta Phi Omega, Gamma Eta, Kappa Phi Lambda, Lambda Alpha Upsilon, Lambda Alpha Theta, Lambda Theta Phi, Lambda Theta Alpha, Pi Delta Psi, Sigma Beta Rho, Sigma Lambda Beta, Sigma Lambda Gamma, and Theta Nu Xi.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council is comprised of 9 Historically-Black organizations (5 fraternities and 4 sororities) and include Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Iota Phi Theta, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Zeta Phi Beta.
Recreation
Some recreational activities available for students include outdoor courts and playing fields on campus, in the O'Connell Center, the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, the Southwest Rec Center and the Florida Gymnasium for indoor sports. Florida offers intramural and club sports ranging from archery to weightlifting. Near the campus are many recreational lakes and rivers, including university-owned Lake Wauburg.
The campus also contains open spaces, small ponds, picnic areas, shady nooks and an 81-acre wildlife sanctuary that provide opportunities to enjoy Florida's year-round outdoor life.
Colleges
The University of Floorduh is divided into 16 colleges and more than 100 research, service and education centers, bureaus and institutes--offering more than 100 undergraduate majors.
These colleges include:
- College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
- Warrington College of Business
- College of Design Construction and Planning
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- College of Fine Arts
- College of Journalism and Communications
- College of Health and Human Performance
- J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center
- Fredric G. Levin College of Law
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
In addition to the colleges, UF has a number of administrative divisions and centers that support the academic units, including the University of Florida Division of Continuing Education.
Athletics
Main article: Florida Gators
The school's sports teams are called the Florida Gators and compete in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA's Division I. In football, Florida, as well as all other SEC schools, competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; still often referred to by its former designation of Division I-A). The Gators have a number of rivalries, most notably the in-state Florida State University, and the conference competitors University of Georgia and University of Tennessee. Florida dedicates about $44 million per year to its sports teams and facilities. In 2004-05, Florida won its 14th consecutive SEC All-Sports Trophy. The Florida athletic program has ranked among the nation's top ten in each of the last 23 years and in the top five for 12 of the past 17. Florida is one of only two schools to rank among the top 10 athletic programs in the last 23 years.
Florida is also one of only a handful of Division I FBS schools to win national championships in the two most popular NCAA sports: football (in 1996 and 2006) and men's basketball (in 2006). With a 41-14 win over #1 Ohio State in the 2006 BCS National Championship, held January 8, 2007, in Glendale, Arizona, Florida became the only Division I school in NCAA history to hold football and basketball titles at the same time. Florida was 12-1 in the regular season and #2 national ranking, and won the SEC Championship on the road to the BCS Championship Game.
In 2002-03, UF placed a record 193 student-athletes on the SEC Academic Honor Roll. The 2002-03 season marked the sixth consecutive year UF placed 100 or more student-athletes on the SEC Honor Roll.
Football
Main article: Florida Gators football See also: 2006 Florida Gators football team
The Florida Gator football team first took the field in 1906. Florida originally competed in the Southern Conference, and in 1933 joined several other Southern Conference members to form the new Southeastern Conference(SEC). Florida's first post-season game was a 14-13 victory over Tulsa in the 1952 Gator Bowl, played in Jacksonville, Fla.. The first major bowl appearance by UF was a 20-18 loss to the Missouri Tigers in the 1965 Sugar Bowl. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier led the Gators to a 9-2 record in 1966 and a 27-12 victory over Georgia Tech in that year's Orange Bowl. After nearly two decades of mediocrity, Florida finished in first place in the SEC standings in 1984, 1985, and 1990, but due to NCAA sanctions was forced to forfeit these titles. The Gators were also considered National Champions by a significant amount of publications in 1984.
Steve Spurrier returned to UF, this time as head coach, in 1990 and led UF to another first in the SEC finish, but again UF was denied a league title due to probation. Florida's first ever official SEC football championship came in 1991 during a 10-2 campaign. Spurrier quickly built the Gators into the dominant team in the SEC, winning a string of conference championships in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 2000. The Gators, led by Spurrier and quarterback Danny Wuerffel, won their first national championship in 1996 with a 52-20 victory over arch-rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, after losing the regular season finale to FSU. Wuerffel would also claim UF's second Heisman Trophy.
Florida is one of only three schools ever to win 10 games for six straight seasons (1993-98) and one of only three ever to win at least nine games for 12 straight years (1990-2001). It is one of only six major college schools ever to win 100 games during a decade (102-22-1 in 1990s). UF also claimed the most SEC wins by any school in a decade at 73.
In January 2002, Spurrier left the Gators to coach the NFL's Washington Redskins, after having won six SEC titles in his 11 year tenure. He was replaced by Ron Zook who, in October 2004, was fired in the middle of his third season but remained coach for the rest of the regular season. In December 2004, Urban Meyer, previously the coach of the Utah Utes, replaced Zook as the head football coach.
Traditional football rivals include the Hurricanes of the University of Miami, the Bulldogs of the University of Georgia in the annual The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, Florida, and since the early 1990's, the Volunteers of the University of Tennessee. The University of South Carolina has also become a "rival" since the hiring of Steve Spurrier as their head coach. The University of Florida and the Florida State Univeristy play for the Governor's Cup and began their series in 1958, nearly ten years after FSU became a coeducational university. The Gators currently lead the matchup 30-19-2 including three consecutive wins over the past three seasons.
The Gators' home stadium is Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, one of the largest and loudest football stadiums in the country. Florida Field was opened in 1930 and has been expanded several times to now hold over 90,000. The stadium is popularly known as "The Swamp," and was given the nickname by Steve Spurrier in the early 1990s, who quipped that "only the Gators get out alive." The Sporting News named Florida as the top college crowd in the nation and gave Florida Field the honor of the nation's loudest stadium.
Celebrating 100 years of Florida football, the Gators finished the 2006 regular season with a record of 12-1, capturing the SEC Championship with a 38-28 victory over Arkansas at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. Florida moved to second place in the Bowl Championship Series rankings and convincingly defeated the number one ranked Ohio State University Buckeyes 41-14 for the BCS National Championship on January 8, 2007, in Glendale, Arizona. It was the Gators second consensus national championship, and made UF the first school ever to hold the Division I men's basketball title and the BCS football title at the same time.
Basketball
The UF men's basketball squad has also come to prominence in recent years. They went to the Final Four in 1994 under coach Lon Kruger. Since 1996, they have been coached by Billy Donovan, who is credited with bringing national acclaim to the program. Donovan returned the Gators to the Final Four in 2000, and into the NCAA Championship game, where they lost to Michigan State. They won their first Southeastern Conference Tournament title in 2005, beating the University of Kentucky, their primary basketball rival. After repeating as SEC tournament champs in 2006, the Gators went on to win the first basketball National Championship in the history of the state of Florida, defeating the UCLA Bruins 73-57 on April 3, 2006, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The men's basketball team plays home games in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, popularly nicknamed the "O-Dome". The O'Connell Center was also nicknamed the "House of Horrors" in 1999 by ESPN Magazine, due to its reputation as one of the most intimidating venues in the country for opposing teams. This 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena is located just west of "The Swamp", Florida's football stadium, and has served in its capacity since opening in 1980. The student section of the O-Dome has been dubbed the "Rowdy Reptiles," where students often camp out overnight for the best seats in the house.
The Florida Gators routed the Arkansas Razorbacks 77-56 on March 11, 2007 to win the SEC tournament title for the third consecutive year. Florida joined Kentucky and Alabama as the only schools to have won three consecutive SEC tournaments.
See also
- Florida Gators
- The Independent Florida Alligator
- Gator Growl
- Florida Blue Key
- Fredric G. Levin College of Law
- Gatorade
- List of University of Florida alumni
Notes
- "About UF." University of Florida.
- "University of Florida History 1853-1905." University of Florida.
- "UF Ranks Number One in Public Universities' Enrollment of National Merit and National Achievement Scholars." University of Florida.
- "The history of Gatorade." Gatorade.
- Greene, Howard R. & Greene, Matthew W. (2001). The Public Ivies : America’s Flagship Public Universities (1st ed.). New York: Cliff Street Books. ISBN 0-06-093459-X
- "Academic Ranking of World Universities." Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 2006.
- "University of Florida Athletics." University of Florida.
- Ibid. Ten Gator athletic teams turned in top-10 finishes in 2005-2006, including a NCAA title by the men's basketball team. Those finishes propelled Florida to fifth in the 2005-06 NACDA Directors' Cup. Florida is one of only two schools to appear in the top ten in each of the last 23 national all-sports rankings.
- "The Age Change." St. Petersburg Times.
- "Kingsbury Papers", Smathers Library.
- "UF Early History", University of Florida.
- "The Heritage Collection.", Alachua Library.
- "UF Timeline", University of Florida.
- "Buckman Hall Quick Facts." Department of Housing, University of Florida.
- "History of the State University System (SUS)."
- "University of Florida History 1906-1927." University of Florida. August 18, 2005. August 9, 2006.
- "The NCAA News"
- "Public Universities Chase Excellence, at Price." New York Times.
- "UF Freshman Profile." University of Florida.
- "Epworth Hall." Alachua County Library District Heritage Collection. 2002. August 9, 2006.
- University of Florida Academics University of Florida. April 10, 2006. August 9, 2006.
- "Bernie's salary could be better spent" The Independent Florida Alligator Online.
- "State: UF to slash merit scholar" St. Petersburg Times.
- Fouke, Janie. "Money Matters: Information on financial aid and scholarships at the University of Florida." University of Florida Outstanding High School Scholars Program 2006. 26 June 2006.
- "College Football Data Warehouse"
- "Florida Football History"
- "The Swamp"
- "Facilities @ Gatorzone" Gatorzone.com
References
- University of Florida Alumni Association of Greater Washington DC
- University of Florida Facts. University of Florida website.
- Teague, Edward H. Historic Sites Guide. George A. Smathers Libraries website.
- University of Florida Alumni Association
External links
- University of Florida official Web site
- Gatorpedia, student-run wiki
- Gator Greek Pages, student-run telephone directory
- UFSAE Gator Motorsports, student-run racing team
- , 2006 FTIC Profile
- The Gator Life, student-run directory of local businesses
Athletics
- Official Athletic Dept. Site
- Gator Country - Credentialled Gator news, recruiting, & print magazine and website.
- Swamp Ball - An unofficial Florida Gators weblog
Maps
Template:Geolinks-US-streetscale 29°38′55″N 82°20′37″W / 29.64861°N 82.34361°W / 29.64861; -82.34361
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