University of Florida

The University of Florida (commonly referred to as Florida or UF) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km²) campus in North Central Florida. Howard and Matthew Greene recognized Florida as a Public Ivy in 2001, a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivies. In 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the fourteenth best public university in the United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906.

The University of Florida is an elected member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the association of preeminent North American research universities. The University is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Florida Governor Rick Scott and the state Legislature designated the University of Florida as one of two "preeminent" state universities in the spring of 2013. It is the third largest Florida university by student population, and is the eighth largest single-campus university in the United States with 49,913 students enrolled for the fall 2012 semester. The University of Florida is home to sixteen academic colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. It offers multiple graduate professional programsâ€"including business administration, engineering, law, dentistry, medicine, and veterinary medicineâ€"on one contiguous campus, and administers 123 master's degree programs and seventy-six doctoral degree programs in eighty-seven schools and departments.

The University of Florida's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their "Florida Gators" nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In their 108-year history, the university's varsity sports teams have won thirty-three national team championships, twenty-eight of which are NCAA titles, and Gator athletes have won 267 individual national championships.

§History

The University of Florida traces its origins to 1853, when the East Florida Seminary, the oldest of the University of Florida's four predecessor institutions, was founded in Ocala, Florida.

On January 6, 1853, Governor Thomas Brown signed a bill that provided public support for higher education in the state of Florida. Gilbert Kingsbury was the first person to take advantage of the legislation, and established the East Florida Seminary, which operated until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. The East Florida Seminary was the first state-supported institution of higher learning in Florida.

James Henry Roper, an educator from North Carolina and a state senator from Alachua County, had opened a school in Gainesville, the Gainesville Academy, in 1858. In 1866, Roper offered his land and school to the State of Florida in exchange for the relocation of the East Florida Seminary to Gainesville.

The second major precursor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College, established at Lake City by Jordan Probst in 1884. Florida Agricultural College became the state's first land-grant college under the Morrill Act. In 1903, the Florida Legislature, desiring to expand the school's outlook and curriculum beyond its agricultural and engineering origins, changed the name of Florida Agricultural College to the "University of Florida," a name that the school would hold for only two years.

§"University of the State of Florida"

In 1905, the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, which consolidated the existing publicly supported higher education institutions of the state. The member of the legislature who wrote the act, Henry Holland Buckman, later became the namesake of Buckman Hall, one of the university's oldest buildings. The Buckman Act organized the State University System of Florida and created the Florida Board of Control to govern the system. The act abolished the six pre-existing state-supported institutions of higher education, and consolidated the assets and academic programs of four of them to form the new "University of the State of Florida." The four predecessor institutions consolidated to form the new university included the University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College) in Lake City, the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School in St. Petersburg, and the South Florida Military College in Bartow.

The Buckman Act also consolidated the colleges and schools into three institutions segregated by race and genderâ€"the University of the State of Florida for white men, the Florida Female College for white women, and the State Normal School for Colored Students for African-American men and women.

The City of Gainesville, led by its Mayor William Reuben Thomas, campaigned to be home to the new university. On July 6, 1905, the Board of Control selected Gainesville for the new university campus. Andrew Sledd, president of the pre-existing University of Florida at Lake City, was selected to be the first president of the new University of the State of Florida. The 1905-1906 academic year was a year of transition; the new University of the State of Florida was legally created, but operated on the campus of the old University of Florida in Lake City until the first buildings on the new campus in Gainesville were completed. Architect William A. Edwards designed the first official campus buildings in the Collegiate Gothic style. Classes began on the new Gainesville campus on September 26, 1906, with 102 students enrolled.

In 1909, the name of the school was officially simplified from the "University of the State of Florida" to the "University of Florida."

The alligator was incidentally chosen as the school mascot in 1911, after a local vendor ordered and sold school pennants with an alligator emblem imprinted on them. The school colors, orange and blue, are believed to be derived from the blue and white school colors of the Florida Agricultural College in Lake City and the orange and black colors of the East Florida Seminary at Gainesville.

§College reorganization

In 1909, Albert Murphree was appointed the second president of the university, and organized several of the colleges of the university, increased enrollment from under 200 to over 2,000, and he was instrumental in the founding of the Florida Blue Key leadership society. Murphree is the only University of Florida president honored with a statue on the campus.

In 1924, the Florida Legislature mandated that women of a "mature age" (at least twenty-one years old) who had completed sixty semester hours from a "reputable educational institution" would be allowed to enroll during regular semesters at the University of Florida in programs that were unavailable at Florida State College for Women. Before this, only the summer semester was coeducational, to accommodate women teachers who wanted to further their education during the summer break. Lassie Goodbread-Black from Lake City became the first woman to enroll at the University of Florida, in the College of Agriculture in 1925.

John J. Tigert became the third university president in 1928. Disgusted by the under-the-table payments being made by universities to athletes, Tigert established the grant-in-aid athletic scholarship program in the early 1930s, which was the genesis of the modern athletic scholarship plan that is currently used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

§Post World War II

Beginning in 1946, there was dramatically increased interest among male applicants who wanted to attend the University of Florida, mostly returning World War II veterans who could attend college under the GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen's Readjustment Act). Unable to immediately accommodate this increased demand, the Florida Board of Control opened the Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida on the campus of Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. By the end of the 1946â€"47 school year, 954 men were enrolled at the Tallahassee Branch. The following semester, the Florida Legislature returned the Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and renamed it Florida State University. This sequence of events also opened up all of the colleges that comprise the University of Florida to female students. African-American students were allowed to enroll starting in 1958. Shands Hospital first opened in 1958 along with the University of Florida College of Medicine to join the already established College of Pharmacy. Rapid campus expansion began in the 1950s and continues to the present day.

The University of Florida is one of two Florida public universities, along with Florida State University, to be designated as a "preeminent university" by Florida senate bill 1076, enacted by the Florida legislature and signed into law by the governor in 2013. As a result of this legislation, the preeminent universities now receive additional funding that is intended to improve the academics and national reputation of higher education within the state of Florida.

§National and international prominence

In 1985, the University of Florida was invited to become a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization composed of sixty-two academically prominent public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Florida is one of the seventeen public, land-grant universities that belong to the AAU. In 2009, President Bernie Machen and the University of Florida Board of Trustees announced a major policy transition for the university. The Board of Trustees supported the reduction in the number of undergraduates and the shift of financial and other academic resources to graduate education and research in the future.

§Academics

§Tuition

For the 2008-2009 academic year, annual tuition was:

undergraduate 

$3,790 for in-state students and $20,460 for out-of-state students.

graduate 

$8,190 for in-state students, and $23,315 for out-of-state students.

law school 

$10,800 for in-state students, and $30,100 for out-of-state students.

medical school 

$23,930 for in-state students, and $51,777 for out-of-state students.

For the 2009-2010 academic year, annual tuition was:

undergraduate 

$5,044 for in-state students and $27,321 for out-of-state students.

In 2012, the University of Florida had the 6th-lowest undergraduate tuition and fees for in-state students.

§Demographics

University of Florida students, numbering 51,413 in Fall 2008, come from more than 130 countries, and all 50 states. The ratio of women to men is 54:46, and 32 percent are graduate and professional students. Professional degree programs include architecture, dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine. Minority populations constitute 33.5 percent of the student body, with 10.0 percent African-Americans, 15.0 percent Hispanics, 0.5 percent Native American, and 8.0 percent Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders.

During the 2008-2009 academic year the University of Florida had the 12th highest enrollment for International Students in the United States. In total 4,731 international students enrolled at the university and this equates to about 9 percent of the total enrollment. This was more than any other university in Florida. Also confirmed by Peterson's the International Student populations accounts for roughly 9.0% of the entire student body.

The University of Florida is ranked second overall in the United States for the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African-Americans, and third overall for Hispanics. The university ranks fifth overall in the number of doctoral degrees awarded to African-Americans, and second overall for Hispanics, and third overall in number of professional degrees awarded to African-Americans, and second overall for Hispanics. The university offers many graduate programsâ€"-including engineering, business, law and medicineâ€"-on one contiguous campus, and coordinates 123 master's degree programs and 76 doctoral degree programs in 87 schools and departments.

§Rankings

In 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Florida as the 14th-best public university in the United States, and 48th overall among all national universities, public and private. In addition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Florida 21st in the country based on "yield rates", the percentages of students who actually enroll after being accepted.

Many of the University of Florida's graduate programs have received top-50 rankings from U.S. News & World Report. In 2013, U.S. News ranked Florida's Hough school of business 36th nationally, the school of education education 40th, Florida's medical school (research) 45th, and the Levin college of law 46th.

In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida's programs in audiology 7th, analytical chemistry 8th, occupational therapy 10th, physical therapy 12th, veterinary medicine 12th, criminology 12th, pharmacy 14th, statistics 27th, healthcare management 32nd, chemistry 36th, physics 36th, clinical psychology 37th, nursing 44th, biological sciences 46th, history 46th, economics 48th, and political science 50th.

In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked the engineering school 38th nationally, with its programs in biological engineering ranked 3rd, materials engineering 11th, industrial engineering 13th, aerospace engineering 26th, chemical engineering 28th, environmental engineering 30th, computer engineering 31st, civil engineering 32nd, electrical engineering 34th, mechanical engineering 44th.

The 2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities list assessed the University of Florida as 71st among world universities and 44th in the United States based on overall research output and faculty awards. In 2013, Washington Monthly ranked the University of Florida 24th among national universities, with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility. The lowest ranking received by the university from a major publication comes from Forbes which ranked the university 74th in the nation (and 21st best public university) in July 2013. This ranking focuses mainly on net positive financial impact, in contrast to other rankings, and generally ranks liberal arts colleges above most research universities.

In 2013, Florida Governor Rick Scott publicly announced his support for the University of Florida to ascend into the top ten among public universities, as measured by U.S. News & World Report. He called for additional funding to decrease the student-faculty ratio at the university.

Florida was ranked 6th in The Princeton Review's 2014 list of top party schools. It also was named the number one vegan-friendly school for 2014, according to a survey conducted by PETA.

§Admissions

For the Class of 2016 (enrolled fall 2012), Florida received 27,419 applications and accepted 12,092 (44.1%). The number enrolling was 6,289; the yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who enroll) was 52.0%. In terms of class rank, 77% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes; 98% ranked in the top quarter. The middle 50% range of SAT scores were 580-670 for critical reading, 590-690 for math, and 570-670 for writing. The middle 50% ACT Composite score range was 26-31.

For fall 2014, the middle 50 percent of admitted freshman applicants had high school GPAs of 4.1-4.5, SAT scores of 1810-2060, and ACT scores of 27-31.

§Ending early decision

In 2007, the University of Florida joined the University of Virginia, Harvard University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Princeton University when they announced that they were discontinuing their early decision admissions in an effort to help foster economic diversity in their student bodies. These universities assert that early decision admissions forces students to accept an offer of admission before evaluating the financial aid offers from multiple universities. The university's single application deadline has been set for November 1.

§Honors program

The University of Florida has a nationally recognized honors program. After gaining acceptance to the university, students must apply separately to the Honors Program and demonstrate significant academic achievement to be accepted. There are over 100 courses offered exclusively to students in this program.

To be invited to apply to the program, freshmen must have a weighted GPA of at least 4.0 and an SAT score of 2070 out of 2400 or an ACT score of 33. In 2011, more than 1900 students applied for 700 available seats. The Honors Program also offers housing for freshman in the Honors Residential College at Hume Hall. The Honors Program also offers special scholarships, internships, research, and study abroad opportunities.

§Scholarships

The Lombardi Scholars Program, created in 2002 and named in honor of the university's ninth president John V. Lombardi, is a significant merit scholarship for Florida students. The scholarship offers $2,700 a semester for a total of eight to ten semesters.

The J. Wayne Reitz Scholars Program, created in 1997 and named in honor of the university's fifth president J. Wayne Reitz, is a leadership and merit-based scholarship for Florida students. The scholarship offers a yearly $2,500 stipend that may be renewed for up to three years.

§Sustainability

In 2005, the University of Florida became a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for environmental and wildlife management, resource conservation, environmental education, waste management, and outreach.

Through long-term environmental initiatives, the University of Florida created an Office of Sustainability in 2006. Their mission is to continue to improve environmental sustainability in many different areas on campus. They have stated that their future goals are to produce zero waste by 2015, and to achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2025. Recently the university appointed Anna Prizzia as the University's new Sustainability Director. Florida received a "B+" grade on the 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives. In 2009 "B+" was the second highest grade awarded by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.

§Colleges and academic divisions

The University of Florida is divided into 16 colleges and more than 150 research, service and education centers, bureaus and institutes, offering more than 100 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate degrees.

These colleges include:

§Satellite facilities

The university also maintains a number of facilities apart from its main campus. The J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center also has a teaching hospital located at UF Health at Jacksonville, which serves as the Jacksonville campus for the University's College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy. A number of residencies are also offered at this facility. The University's College of Pharmacy also maintains campuses in Orlando, Jacksonville, and St. Petersburg. The College of Dentistry maintains clinics in Hialeah, Naples, and St. Petersburg.

The university's Warrington College of Business established programs in South Florida in 2004, and recently built a 6,100-square-foot (570 m²) facility in Sunrise, Florida. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has extensions in each of the 67 counties in Florida, and 13 research and education centers with a total of 19 locations throughout the state. In 2005, the university established the Beijing Center for International Studies in Beijing that offers research facilities, offices, and degree opportunities.

§Research

The University of Florida is one of the largest research universities in the nation. According to a 2011 study by the university's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the university contributed $8.76 billion to Florida's economy and was responsible for over 100,000 jobs in the 2009â€"2010 fiscal year. The Milken Institute named Florida 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. Florida 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. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is ranked No. 1 by the NSF in Research and Development; its current Vice President is Dr. Larry Arrington. Florida currently ranks seventh among all private and public universities for the total number of patents awarded for 2005.

The University of Florida was awarded $678 million in total research expenditures, more than all the other Florida universities combined, in sponsored research in 2009-2010. Research includes diverse areas such as health-care and citrus production (the world's largest citrus research center). In 2002, Florida began leading six other universities under a $15 million NASA grant to work on a variety of space-related research during a five-year period. The university has a partnership with Spain that helped to create the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope in the Canary Islands (the total cost was $93 million). Plans are also under way for the University of Florida to construct a new 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m²) research facility in collaboration with the Burnham Institute for Medical Research that will ultimately be located in the center of University of Central Florida's Health Sciences Campus in Orlando, Florida. Research will include the areas of diabetes, aging, genetics and cancer.

The University of Florida has made great strides in the space sciences over the last decade. The Astronomy Department's focus on the development of image-detection devices has led to increases in funding, telescope time, and significant scholarly achievements. Faculty members in organic chemistry have made notable discoveries in astrobiology, while faculty members in physics have participated actively in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project, the largest and most ambitious project ever funded by the NSF. Through the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the University of Florida is the lead institution on the NASA University Research, Engineering, and Technology Institute (URETI) for Future Space Transport project to develop the next generation space shuttle. In addition, the university also performs diabetes research in a statewide screening program that has been sponsored by a $10 million grant from the American Diabetes Association. The University of Florida also houses one of the world's leading lightning research teams. University scientists have started up a biofuels pilot plant that has been specifically designed to test ethanol-producing technology. UF is also host to a nuclear research reactor which is known for its Neutron Activation Analysis Laboratory. In addition, the University of Florida is the first American university to receive a European Union grant to house a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.

The University of Florida has more than $750 million in new research facilities recently completed or under construction, including the Nanoscale Research Facility, the Pathogens Research Facility and the Biomedical Sciences Building. Additionally, Innovation Square, a 24/7 live/work/play research environment being developed along Southwest Second Avenue between the University of Florida campus and downtown Gainesville, recently broke ground and plans to open next fall. The university's Office of Technology Licensing will relocate to Innovation Square, joining Florida Innovation Hub, a business "super-incubator designed to promote the development of new high-tech companies based on the university's research progtrams. Innovation Square also will include retail space, restaurants and local businesses, as well as residential space for people to live.

§The International Center for Lightning Research and Testing

Florida has more lightning than any other state in the U.S. The University of Florida houses one of the world's leading international lightning research teams. The International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) are run by the University of Florida at the Camp Blanding Florida Army National Guard Base. The ICLRT Center occupies over 100 acre (40 ha) at Camp Blanding, located about 25 miles (45 km) north-east of Gainesville, Florida. One of their primary research tools is lightning initiation from overhead thunderclouds using the triggered lightning rocket-and-wire technique. Small sounding rockets connected to long copper wires are fired into likely lightning storm cumulonimbus clouds. When the rocket or its wire is struck by lightning, the passing of the high current lightning strike down the wire vaporizes it as the lightning travels to the ground. Undergraduate and graduate research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's Lightning Research Group is used to increase new fundamental knowledge about lightning-based phenomena.

§UF Health

University of Florida Health has two main campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville. Its mission is to promote health through high-quality patient care; education in the health professions and biomedical sciences; and research across the spectrum of basic, translational and clinical investigation. UF Health includes two teaching hospitals and two specialty hospitals, as well as the colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Professions, and Veterinary Medicine, which includes both a large animal hospital and a small animal hospital. The system also encompasses six UF research institutes: the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, the Genetics Institute, the UF Health Cancer Center, the Institute on Aging and the Emerging Pathogens Institute. UF Health is the only academic health center in the United States with six health-related colleges located on a single, contiguous campus.

Patient-care services are provided through the private, not-for-profit UF Health Shands family of hospitals and programs. UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville includes UF Health Shands Children's Hospital and UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital. The specialty hospitals, UF Health Shands Rehab Hospital and UF Health Shands Psychiatric Hospital, are also located in Gainesville. UF Health Jacksonville is the system's northeast Florida academic medical center.

UF Health has a network of outpatient rehabilitation centers, UF Health Rehab Centers, and two home-health agencies, UF Health Shands HomeCare; as well as more than 80 UF physician outpatient practices located throughout north central and northeast Florida.

UF Health is also affiliated with the Veterans Affairs hospitals in Gainesville and North Florida/South Georgia. In all 6,159 total students are enrolled in all six of the colleges. is also part of the Health Science Center and is the most comprehensive program of its kind in the world. The Institute comprises 300 faculty members from 10 colleges, and 51 departments campus-wide.

The University of Florida is a winner of the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award and member of the prestigious NIH national consortium of medical research institutions.

§UF Health Jacksonville

UF Health Jacksonville is an academic health center with three UF colleges, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, as well as a network of primary and specialty care centers throughout northeast Florida and southeast Georgia.

§Orlando Health

In 2010, Orlando Health and UF Health teamed up to form joint clinical programs in the areas of pediatrics, neuroscience, oncology, women's health, transplantation and cardiovascular medicine. The partnership provides undergraduate and graduate medical residency and fellowship training opportunities at Orlando Health, and will allow Orlando Health physicians and patients to be part of clinical trials through UF's clinical research program.

§UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health

UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health launched in January 2014. The center focuses on developing safe, individualized molecular-based targeted oncology therapies to improve patient outcomes in Florida. The joint oncology program offers clinical trial collaborations and comprehensive cancer services customized to the patient by combining physicians and the collective strengths of UF Health and Orlando Health.

§Participation in the Large Hadron Collider

A team of UF physicists has a leading role in one of the two major experiments planned for the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile (27 km)-long, $5 billion, super-cooled underground tunnel outside Geneva, Switzerland. More than 30 UF physicists, postdoctoral associates, graduate students and now undergraduates are involved in the collider's Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, one of its two major experiments. About 10 are stationed in Geneva. The group is the largest from any university in the U.S. to participate in the CMS experiment. The UF team designed and oversaw development of a major detector within the CMS. The detector, the Muon system, is intended to capture subatomic particles called muons, which are heavier cousins of electrons. Among other efforts, UF scientists analyzed about 100 of the 400 detector chambers placed within the Muon system to be sure they were functioning properly. The bulk of the UF research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

§Partnership with Zhejiang University

In July 2008, the University of Florida teamed up with the Zhejiang University to research sustainable solutions to the Earth's energy issues. Overall a Joint Research Center of Clean Sustainable Energy among the Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy, at UF, and the State Key Lab of Clean Energy Utilization and the Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, at Zhejiang University will collaborate to work on this pressing issue.

§SECU: SEC Academic Initiative

The University of Florida is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium. Now renamed the SECU, the initiative was a collaborative endeavor designed to promote research, scholarship and achievement amongst the member universities in the Southeastern conference. Along with the University of Georgia, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University and other SEC institutions, SECU formed its mission to serve as a means to bolster collaborative academic endeavors of Southeastern Conference universities. Its goals include highlighting the endeavors and achievements of SEC faculty, students and its universities and advancing the academic reputation of SEC universities.

In 2013, the University of Florida participated in the SEC Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute. The topic of the Symposium was titled, the "Impact of the Southeast in the World's Renewable Energy Future."

§Libraries

The University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries, is one of the largest university library systems in the United States. In total, the University of Florida has ten libraries, and over 5.3 million volumes of books and journals and 7 million microfilms. Collections cover virtually all disciplines and include a wide array of formats â€" from books and journals to manuscripts, maps, and recorded music. Increasingly collections are digital and are accessible on the Internet via the library web page or the library catalog.

The numerous libraries provide primary support to all academic programs except those served by the Health Science Center Library and the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center. In 2006, Library West went through a $30 million renovation that doubled capacity. This facility is now better equipped to handle the information technology necessities that students need to complete their studies. Such progress is represented by its state-of-the-art Information Commons, which offers production studios, digital media computing areas, and a presentation area.

§Campus

In total the University of Florida campus encompasses over 2,000 acres (8.1 km²). The campus is home to many notable structures, such as Century Tower, a 157-foot (48 m) tall carillon tower in the center of the historic district. Other notable facilities include the Health Science Center, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Reitz Student Union, Smathers Library, Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Harn Museum, University Auditorium, O'Connell Center, and The Hub.

§Historic sites

A number of the University of Florida's buildings are historically significant. The University of Florida Campus Historic District comprises 19 buildings and encompasses approximately 650 acres (2.6 km²). Two buildings outside the historic district, the old WRUF radio station (now the university police station) and Norman Hall (formerly the P. K. Yonge Laboratory School), are also listed on the historic register. The buildings listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places for their architectural or historic significance are:

§Student life

§Fraternities and sororities

Approximately 5,200 undergraduate students (or approximately 15%) are members of either a sorority or fraternity. Sorority and Fraternity Affairs (formerly known as Greek Life) at the University of Florida is separated into four divisions: Interfraternity Council (IFC), National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), and the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). The Order of Omega has a chapter at the university.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) comprises 25 fraternities, and the Panhellenic Council is made up of 16 sororities. Some of the fraternity chapters on campus are older than the university itself, with the first chapters being chartered in 1884 and founded on the campus of one of the university's predecessor institutions in Lake City.

The Multicultural Greek Council consists of 12 cultural organizations (Latino, Asian, South Asian, etc.), seven fraternities and five sororities. The National Pan-Hellenic Council comprises nine historically black organizations, five fraternities and four sororities.

There are now also four university recognized organizations for Christian students, Beta Upsilon Chi and Kappa Phi Epsilon fraternities as well as Sigma Phi Lambda and Theta Alpha sororities.

§Dance Marathon at UF

Dance Marathon at UF is an annual 26.2-hour event benefiting the patients of University of Florida Health Shands Children's Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. Each year, more than 800 students stay awake and on their feet to raise money and awareness for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. In the 19 years of Dance Marathon at UF's existence, more than $6.4 million has been donated, making it the most successful student-run philanthropy in the Southeastern United States. In 2013, DM at UF raised a record total of $1,169,722.16 for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals at UF Health Shands Children's Hospital. In 2014, students raised $1,528,330.16

§Reserve Officer Training Corps

The University of Florida Reserve Officer Training Corps is the official officer training and commissioning program at the University of Florida. Officially founded in 1905, it is one of the oldest such programs in the nation.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps offers commissions for the United States Army, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and the United States Air Force. The unit is one of the oldest in the nation, and is currently located at Van Fleet Hall.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Florida offers training in the military sciences to students who desire to perform military service after they graduate. The Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy each maintain a Reserve Officers Training Corps and each individual department has a full staff of military personnel.

§Housing

The University of Florida provides over 9,200 students with housing in residence halls and complexes on the eastern and western sides of campus. Facilities vary in the cost of rent and privacy. Housing plans also offer students access to dining facilities. The university also provides housing to a number of graduate students and their families. As of 2014, the University is currently building a new residence hall on campus that will be more accessible to students with disabilities.

§Recreation

Many recreational activities available for students include indoor and outdoor sports, outdoor courts and playing fields on campus, in the O'Connell Center, University Golf Course, Plaza of the Americas, the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, the Southwest Recreation 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 Alice. In addition, student have access to the J. Wayne Reitz Union which is equipped with a bowling alley, pool tables, an arcade, and numerous other activities. South of Gainesville is Lake Wauburg, which also provides recreational activities for students, faculty, and staff. To the northwest of campus is the Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park.

The campus also contains open spaces, small ponds, picnic areas, shady nooks and an 81-acre (330,000 m²) wildlife sanctuary that provide opportunities to enjoy Florida's year-round sunshine activity life.

Lastly, the University of Florida has more than eight hundred organizations and clubs for students to join. They range from cultural and athletic to subjects pertaining to philanthropy. Some of the most popular organizations are Florida Blue Key, Theatre Strike Force, the Marching Band, Florida Competitive Cheerleading, Dazzlers, the Gatorettes, Hillel at UF, Gator Growl, Progressive Black Journalists, Miss University of Florida, and the Speakers Bureau. If students wish they can create their own registered student organization if the current interest or concern is not addressed by the previously established entities.

§Student affairs rankings

The University of Florida received the following rankings by The Princeton Review in its 2012 Best 376 Colleges Rankings:

§Student government

The University of Florida Student Government is the governing body of students who attend the University of Florida, representing the university's nearly 50,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university's student government currently operates on a yearly $18.7 million budget, one of the largest student government budgets in the United States, and the money is allocated by the Budget Committee of the Student Senate.

The student government was established in 1909 and consists of executive, judicial and unicameral legislative branches. The executive branch includes the student government president, vice president and treasurer elected by the student body during the spring semester, as well as nine agencies and forty-one cabinet members.

The Student Senate is the legislative branch, and is composed of 100 senators who serve one-year terms. The student body elects fifty senators during each spring semester and the remaining fifty during the fall semester. The senators elect a Senate President and Senate President Pro Tempore twice a year, after each semester's elections, to lead the Student Senate. During student government elections students may also vote on referendums, such as the renewable energy referendum, which was approved by 78% of voting students in the spring of 2007. This referendum proposed a fifty-cents-per-credit-hour increase to student activity fees to fund renewable energy and efficiency on campus.

The student government judicial branch has two major components: the Supreme Court of the Student Body (headed by a Chief Justice) and all elections related officials (the Supervisor of Elections and the Elections Commission). The Supreme Court consists of seven second or third-year law students nominated by the Student Body President and confirmed by the Student Senate. Each justice serves a "life-time" term, which extends through the individual justice's graduation and insulates the court from the politics of student government. The Chief Justice may appoint a marshal and clerk. The election commission is also composed of law students and it adjudicates all student government election complaints. The commission has six members, one of whom also serves as the commission chairman.

The student government executive branch is led by the Student Body President and includes the Student Body Vice President, Student Body Treasurer, twelve agencies, twelve executive secretaries, nineteen cabinet directors, and three cabinet chairs.

§Alma mater

The alma mater for the University of Florida was composed by Milton Yeats in 1925.

§Campus and area transportation

The UF campus is served by nine bus routes of the Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS), which had over ten million riders in 2011. Students, faculty, and staff with university-issued ID cards are able to use the system at no extra cost. The RTS also provides other campus services, including Gator Aider (during football games), S.N.A.P, and Later Gator nighttime service.

University of Florida is also served by the Gainesville Regional Airport, which is located in the Northeast portion of Gainesville and has daily services to Miami, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

§Student media

The University of Florida community includes six major student-run media outlets.

• The Independent Florida Alligator is the largest student-run newspaper in the United States, and operates without oversight from the university administration.
• WRUF (850 AM) features a mixture of local and syndicated talk programs, award-winning student-produced newscasts and sports talk shows, plus religious programming on Sunday mornings.
• WRUF-FM (103.7 FM) broadcasts Country music and attracts an audience from the Gainesville and Ocala areas.
• WRUF-LD is a low-power television station that carries weather, news, and sports programming.
• WUFT is a PBS member station with a variety of programming that includes a daily student-produced newscast.
• WUFT-FM (89.1 FM) is an NPR member radio station which airs news and public affairs programming, including student-produced long-form news reporting. WUFT-FM's programming also airs on WJUF-FM (90.1).

Various other journals and magazines are published by the university's academic units and student groups, including the literary journal Subtropics.

§Career placement

The University of Florida Career Resource Center is located in the Reitz Student Union. Its mission is to assist students and alumni who are seeking career development, career experiences, and employment opportunities. These services involve on and off-campus job interviews, career planning, assistance in applying to graduate and professional schools, and internship and co-op placements. The Career Resource Center offers workshops, information sessions, career fairs, and advisement on future career options. Staff also counsel students and alumni regarding resumes and portfolios, interviewing tactics, cover letters, job strategies and other potential leads for finding employment in the corporate, academic and government sectors.

The Princeton Review ranked the Career Resource Center as the best among 368 ranked universities in career and job placement services in 2010, and fourth overall in 2011.

§Museums

The Florida Museum of Natural History, established in 1891, is one of the oldest natural history museums in the country and was officially chartered by the State of Florida. This facility is dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage. In over 100 years of operations the Florida Museum of Natural History has been housed in several buildings, from the Seagle Building to facilities at Dickinson Hall, Powell Hall, and the Randell Research Center. In 2000 the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity was opened after a generous donation from University of Florida benefactors. The McGuire Center houses a collection of more than six million butterfly and moth specimens, making it one of the largest collections of Lepidoptera in the world, rivaling that of the Natural History Museum in London, England.

The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, established in 1990, is also located at the University of Florida on the southwest part of campus. This facility is one of the largest university art museums in the South, the Harn has more than 7,000 works in its permanent collection and an array of temporary exhibitions. The museum's permanent collections are focused on Asian, African, modern and contemporary art, as well as photography. The university sponsors educational programs at the museum including films, lectures, interactive activities, and school and family offerings. In October 2005 the Harn expanded by more than 18,000 square feet (1,700 m²) with the opening of the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion, which includes new educational and meeting areas and the Camellia Court Cafe, the first eatery for visitors of the Cultural Plaza.

§Performing arts and music

Performing arts venues at the University of Florida consist of the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the University Auditorium, Constans Theatre, the Baughman Center, and performances at the O'Connell Center. The mission is to provide an unparalleled experience where the performing artists create and share knowledge to serve the student body, faculty, and staff at the university; Gainesville residents; and visitors to North Central Florida.

The University Auditorium was founded in the mid-1920s and is home to the Anderson Memorial Organ. The auditorium has a concert stage and can seat up to 843 patrons. The venue is suitable for musical concerts, special lectures, convocations, dance concerts, and pageants.

The Phillips Center for the Performing Arts was founded in 1992 and is a performing arts theatre. The Phillips Center is located on the western side of campus, and hosts established and emerging national and international artists on the main stage, as well as the annual Miss University of Florida pageant and performances by the University of Florida's original student-run dance company, Floridance. In all, the Phillips Center consists of a 1,700-seat proscenium hall and the 200-seat Squitieri Studio Theatre.

Constans Theatre was founded in 1967 and is a performing arts venue located next to the J. Wayne Reitz Union. Constans Theatre serves as a venue for musical concerts, theater, dance, and lectures, and is a sub-venue of the Nadine McGuire Pavilion and Dance Pavilion.

The Baughman Center was founded in 2000 and serves as a venue for small musical and performing arts events. The facility consists of two buildings located next to Lake Alice on the western portion of campus. The main building is a 1,500-square-foot (140 m²) pavilion, while the other is a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) administrative building. Overall the Baughman Center can accommodate up to 96 patrons.

§In popular culture

The University of Florida has been portrayed in several books, movies and television shows. In addition, the University of Florida campus has been the backdrop for a number of different books and movies. Robert Cade, a professor in the university's College of Medicine, was the leader of the research team that invented the ubiquitous sports drink Gatorade as a hydration supplement for the Florida Gators football team in 1965â€"66, and was later featured in a series of television commercials, "The Legend of Gatorade," which have prominently featured the university and the Gators.

§Athletics

The University of Florida's intercollegiate sports teams, known as the "Florida Gators," compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Gators compete in nine men's sports and twelve women's sports, including:

• Florida Gators baseball
• Florida Gators men's basketball
• Florida Gators women's basketball
• Florida Gators cross country (men's and women's)
• Florida Gators football
• Florida Gators men's golf
• Florida Gators women's golf
• Florida Gators women's gymnastics
• Florida Gators women's lacrosse
• Florida Gators women's soccer
• Florida Gators softball
• Florida Gators swimming and diving (men's and women's)
• Florida Gators men's tennis
• Florida Gators women's tennis
• Florida Gators track and field (men's and women's; indoor and outdoor)
• Florida Gators women's volleyball

For the 2013â€"14 school year, the University Athletic Association budgeted more $100 million for its sports teams and facilities. Since 1987â€"88, the Gators have won twenty-three of the last twenty-six SEC All-Sports Trophies, recognizing Florida as the best overall athletics program in the SEC. Florida is the only program in the nation to finish among the nation's top ten in each of the last thirty national all-sports standings and is the only SEC school to place 100 or more student-athletes on the Academic Honor Roll each of the last fifteen years.

The Florida Gators have won a total of thirty-three national team championships, twenty-eight of which are NCAA championships. Florida Gators athletes have also won 267 NCAA championships in individual sports events. Florida is one of only two Division I FBS universities to win multiple national championships in each of the two most popular NCAA sports: football (1996, 2006, 2008) and men's basketball (2006, 2007).

§Olympics

The University of Florida has a long history of producing athletes who compete in the Olympic Games. Since 1968, 145 Gator athletes and 13 Florida coaches have represented 37 countries in the Games, winning 50 Olympic gold medals, 29 silver medals and 30 bronze medals through the 2012 Summer Olympics. The list of University of Florida alumni who are Olympic gold medalists includes Brad Wilkerson (baseball); Delisha Milton-Jones (basketball); Steve Mesler (bobsled); Heather Mitts and Abby Wambach (soccer); Theresa Andrews, Catie Ball, Tracy Caulkins, Matt Cetlinski, Conor Dwyer, Geoff Gaberino, Nicole Haislett, Mike Heath, David Larson, Ryan Lochte, Anthony Nesty, Dara Torres, Mary Wayte and Martin Zubero (swimming); and Kerron Clement, Dennis Mitchell, Frank Shorter, Christian Taylor and Bernard Williams (track and field).

§Football

The University of Florida fielded its first official varsity football team in the fall of 1906, when the university held its first classes on its new Gainesville campus. Since then, the Florida Gators football team has played in 40 bowl games, won three consensus national championships and seven Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships, produced 89 first-team All-Americans, 45 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices, and three Heisman Trophy winners.

The Gators won their first post-season game on January 1, 1953, beating Tulsa 14-13 in Jacksonville, Florida. The Gators' first major bowl win was the 1967 Orange Bowl in which coach Ray Graves and Heisman Trophy quarterback Steve Spurrier led the Gators to a 27â€"12 victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

In 1990, Spurrier returned to his alma mater as its new head coach, and spurred the Gators to their first six official SEC football championships. The Gators, quarterbacked by their second Heisman Trophy winner, Danny Wuerffel, won their first national championship in 1996 with a 52â€"20 victory over Florida State Seminoles in the Sugar Bowl. In 2006, Urban Meyer coached the Gators to a 13â€"1 record, capturing their seventh SEC Championship, and defeating the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 41â€"14 for the BCS National Championship. In 2008, the Gators' third Heisman-winning quarterback, Tim Tebow, led them in a 24â€"14 BCS Championship Game victory over the Oklahoma Sooners for the team's third national championship.

Since 1930, the Gators' home field has been Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which seats 88,548 fans. The stadium is popularly known as "The Swamp."

§Basketball

The Florida Gators men's basketball team has also gained national recognition over the past twenty years. The Gators went to the Final Four of the 1994 NCAA tournament under coach Lon Kruger, and coach Billy Donovan led the Gators back to the NCAA Final Four in 2000, losing to the Michigan State Spartans in the final. Under Donovan, the Gators won their first Southeastern Conference (SEC) tournament championship in 2005, beating the Kentucky Wildcats. After repeating as SEC tournament champions in 2006, the Gators won their first basketball national championship, defeating the UCLA Bruins 73â€"57 in the final game of the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Gators beat the Arkansas Razorbacks 77â€"56 to win their third consecutive SEC tournament title in 2007. Florida defeated Ohio State 84â€"75 to again win the NCAA basketball tournament championship.

The Gators play their home games in the O'Connell Center. The 11,548-seat multi-purpose indoor arena was completed in 1980, and is popularly known as the "O'Dome."

§Notable alumni

The University of Florida has more than 330,000 alumni. In total 57,000 are dues-paying members of the University of Florida Alumni Association. Florida alumni can be found in every state and more than 100 foreign countries. Florida alumni account for multiple Nobel Prize winners, ten U.S. Senators, forty U.S. Representatives, eleven state governors, and eight U.S. ambassadors, multiple state supreme court judges, and various federal courts judges. Florida graduates have served as the executive leaders of such diverse institutions as the United States Marine Corps and the National Organization for Women.

§Notable faculty

Individual awards won by UF faculty include a Fields Medal, numerous Pulitzer Prizes, and 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. More than two dozen faculty are members of the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine or counterpart in a foreign nation.

§University benefactors

The University of Florida has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude of their contributions.
Among those who have made large donations commemorated at the university are:

§See also

§References

§External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website

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