University of Florida

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University of Florida
University of Florida seal
MottoCivium in moribus rei publicae salus
(Latin: The welfare of the state
(depends upon) the morals of its
citizens)
Established1853
Endowment835 million
PresidentJ. Bernard Machen
Academic staff
5,171
Undergraduates34,612
Postgraduates15,081
Location
Gainesville
,
Florida
,
United States
Campus2,000 acres (8.09 km²)
ColorsOrange and Blue (Royal Blue)
NicknameGators
MascotAlbert E. Gator
Websitehttp://www.ufl.edu

The University of Florida is a public university and land-grant institution located in Gainesville, Florida. It is the fourth-largest university in the United States, with 49,693 students; it also has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year) and was ranked 1st in the state of Florida, 16th among US public universities, and 50th overall by US News and World Report among US national universities in 2006. UF is recognized as one of the Public Ivies and is a member of the Association of American Universities.

Noted as the place where Gatorade was created, UF ranks first among public institutions and second among all institutions in the number of National Merit Scholar students enrolled. UF is the alma mater of more current members of the U.S. Congress than any other public university[1]; currently nine alumni serve in the House or Senate.

History

Century Tower, University of Florida.

The June 5, 1905 Buckman Act created the current University of Florida by removing funding for existing educational institutions, including 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 consolidating them under state control as the University of the State of Florida. On July 6, 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 campus buildings in the collegiate gothic style. Classes began on September 26, 1906. In 1909 the name was shortened to the University of Florida.

1905 was considered the university's official founding date until 1935, when the date was changed to 1853 by Attorney General Cary D. Landis at the request of UF's third president John J. Tigert. 1853 is the founding date of the East Florida Seminary in Ocala, the earliest founded institution of the colleges which became the University of Florida. The East Florida Seminary had an unusual history in it's short existance. It was founded in Ocala by Gilbert Kingsbury to take advantage of legislation passed in 1851 to establish the creation of two seminaries. It briefly closed during the Civil War and reopened in Gainesville having been moved by an act of the Legislature in 1866, and finally ended up being assimilated into the modern University of Florida created by the Buckman Act.

The Buckman Act established the University of Florida as the only public school in Florida for white males. In 1947, UF began allowing women to enroll. Admission of African-American students began in 1958.

Shands Hospital at UF first opened in 1958 along with the medical school. Rapid campus expansion began in the 1950s and continues to the present. In 1985, Florida became a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the prestigious higher-education organization comprised 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.

Throughout the 1950s, UF was one of the Florida universities that was the target an ongoing investigation by a McCarthyist committee of the state legislature, headed by Charley Johns, which resulted in a number of LGBT students' and faculty members' being ousted from the University and the publication of the Purple Pamphlet.

The alligator was chosen as the school mascot in 1911. The school colors, blue and orange, are thought to have come from both the Blue and Gold of the University of Florida at Lake City and the Orange and Black of East Florida Seminary at Gainesville. [2]

Historic Sites

File:Albert A Murphree statue by Masculatron.jpg
Statue of Albert A. Murphree, university president 1909-1927, in Peabody Courtyard, part of the campus historic district

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, a former East Florida Seminary residence building, Epworth Hall, is listed on the register. Epworth Hall is now part of the First United Methodist Church of Gainesville.

Academics

UF is divided into twenty-one colleges, which offer over 100 undergraduate majors and an equally wide array of 200 graduate degrees, including the only public pharmacy, 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 more competitive. In 2005, the average incoming freshman had an average weighted GPA of 3.9, a SAT score of 1340, and an ACT composite of 29 and a freshmen retention rate of 92%. Undergraduate tuition is around $120 per credit-hour for Florida residents, and $520 per credit-hour for out-of-state students, with a typical load of 30 credits per year.

The UF Freshman Class of 2005 ranked number one in the nation in terms of National Merit enrollment,enrolling more National Merit Scholars than any other university. The university offers a full tuition academic scholarship to all National Merit Scholars admitted to UF.

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.

The university is 13th among all universities - public and private - in the number of U.S. Patents awarded in 2000.

Student Government

Student government at the University of Florida consists of an executive, judicial, and unicameral legislative branch.

The executive branch consists of a President, Vice President, Treasurer, 9 agencies, and 41 cabinets. The President, Vice President, and Treasurer are elected in annual elections held in the spring. The legislative branch is composed of 92 senators, who serve one year terms. 46 senate seats are elected each spring semester and the remaining 46 are elected each fall semester. The judicial branch has four functional components: The Student Honor Court, Student Traffic Court, Campus Conduct Committee, and Residence Hall Conduct Board.

Colleges

The University of Florida 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:

Athletics

Main article: Florida Gators
Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, aka "The Swamp", has a seating capacity of about 93,000

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-A. Florida dedicates about $44 million per year to its sports teams and facilities. For the sixth time, UF swept the overall men's and women's Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy in 2002. With its third-place finish in the 2001-02 Sears Directors' Cup rankings, Florida has ranked among the nation's top 10 athletic departments for 19 straight years.

Football

The Gator football team became a commanding force in college football when Steve Spurrier became head coach in the 1990s. Spurrier quickly built the Gators into the dominant team in the SEC, winning a string of conference championships. In 1996, the Gators, led by Spurrier and quarterback Danny Wuerffel, won their first national championship. In January 2001, Spurrier left the Gators to coach the NFL's Washington Redskins. 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. While the team is no longer at the same level of dominance it enjoyed under Spurrier, it still consistently posts highly successful seasons. Traditional football rivals include the Seminoles of Florida State University, the Hurricanes of the University of Miami, the Bulldogs of the University of Georgia, and since the early 1990's the Volunteers of the University of Tennessee. The Gators' home stadium is Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, also known as "Florida Field" or "The Swamp".

Basketball

File:Floridasec2.gif
The alligator head logo

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 on April 3, 73-57, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.


Olympics

Since 1968, 118 Gator student-athletes have represented 27 countries in ten Olympic Games and laid claim to 76 medals, including 39 golds.

Alumni

Famous UF alumni include:

Arts, Literature, Humanities and Entertainment

Science


Sports

Sportcasters

Baseball

Basketball

Football

Golf

Olympics

Government and Military

Other

The University of Florida has more of its graduates in the United States Congress than any other university or college in the country - currently nine alumni serve in the House or Senate. In the last four decades, more presidents of the American Bar Association have come from the Levin College of Law than any other U.S. law school.

Further information: Category:University of Florida alumni

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University of Florida.

References


Athletics

History

Template:National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association

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