The 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 or
Senate .
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.
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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.
UF is divided into twenty-one
College s, 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. Honors students must complete four honors courses to be awarded the honors diploma.
The university is 13th among all universities - public and private - in the number of U.S. Patents awarded in 2000.
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.
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:
See Also: Florida Gators
", 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.
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 ".
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 .
Since 1968, 118 Gator student-athletes have represented 27 countries in ten
Olympic Games and laid claim to 76 medals, including 39 golds.
Famous UF
Alumn i include:
- Stephanie Abrams , reporter, The Weather Channel
- John Atanasoff , inventor of the digital electronic computer
- Todd Barry , stand-up comedian
- Michael Connelly , JM 1980, best-selling author and Alumnus of Distinction of the College {Link without Title}
- Jonathan Demme , Academy Award winning director of Silence Of The Lambs
- Kate DiCamillo , award-winning children's novelist and screenwriter
- Faye Dunaway , Academy Award winning actress for Network
- Buddy Ebsen , actor, best known as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies
- Rich Fields , announcer of The Price Is Right , meteorologist, radio personality, voice-over actor
- Malcolm Gets , actor, Caroline In The City
- Philip Graham , famed publisher of the Washington Post
- Darrell Hammond , comedian, Saturday Night Live
- Kristin Harmel , '' People '' reporter and novelist
- Carl Hiaasen , novelist and Miami Herald columnist
- Ken Leebow , author, speaker and TV personality -- 300 Incredible Things to Do on the Internet book series {Link without Title}
- John Janick , owner of Fueled By Ramen Records
- Francis Mayes ,Authoress of NYTimes bestselling book Under The Tuscan Sun also role model for Diane Lane movie of same name.
- Jamie McIntyre , senior Pentagon correspondent for CNN
- Jesse Palmer , NFL Quarterback and star of ABC 's The Bachelor
- Stephen Root , actor, best known as Milton in the Mike Judge comedy classic Office Space
- Forrest Sawyer , anchorman, ABC News
- Stephen Stills , member of bands CSNY and Buffalo Springfield
- Mel Tillis , singer, songwriter and comedian
- Kendra Todd , real estate businesswoman and winner of The Apprentice 3 Reality TV show
- Bob Vila , home-improvement guru and former host of This Old House
- Abraham Pachikara ,-winner of the 1981 World Series Of Poker .
- Mike Horn ,-mayor of Gainesville.
- Wes Chandler , former Gator & NFL superstar wide receiver
- Cris Collinsworth , former NFL wide receiver and television sportscaster for HBO's "Inside the NFL"
- Rex Grossman , quarterback for the Chicago Bears
- Lindy Infante , NFL head coach for the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts
- Jevon Kearse , professional football player for the Philadelphia Eagles
- Bobby McCray , NFL Defensive End
- Mike Peterson , NFL Middle Linebacker
- Jesse Palmer , NFL Quarterback and star of ABC 's The Bachelor
- Lito Sheppard , NFL cornerback
- Emmitt Smith , former professional football player, Super Bowl MVP , NFL 's all-time leading rusher
- Steve Spurrier , former Florida Gators quarterback and national-championship winning head coach, 1966 Heisman Trophy winner, former coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins, current head football coach at the University Of South Carolina
- Fred Taylor , NFL running back
- Danny Wuerffel , Heisman Trophy -winning quarterback, led the Florida Gators to the 1996 National Championship, former NFL player
- Jack Youngblood , Hall of Fame NFL football player
- Alex Brown , NFL Defensive End
- Taylor Jacobs , NFL, Wide Receiver, Washington Redskins
- Wilber Marshall , NFL, Pro Bowl Linebacker, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins
- James Jones , NFL, Pro Bowl Fullback, Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks
- Kevin Carter , NFL, Pro Bowl Tackle, St. Louis Rams, Tennesee Titans, and Miami Dolphins
- Neal Anderson , NFL, Pro Bowl Running Back, Chicago Bears
- Lomas Brown , NFL, Pro Bowl Offensive Tackle, NFL All-Decade Team, Detroit Lions
- Leonard F. Chapman, Jr. , former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
- Lawton Chiles , late former Governor Of Florida and former U.S. Senator
- John Delaney , former Mayor Of Jacksonville and current president of the University Of North Florida
- Bob Graham , governor, senator, and presidential candidate
- Spessard Holland , governor, senator, namesake of Holland & Knight
- Buddy MacKay , former Lt. Governor Of Florida , former Interim Governor of Florida following the death of Governor Lawton Chiles
- Joe Scarborough , former congressman and MSNBC talk show host
- George A. Smathers , former U.S. senator and Presidential Candidate
- Bruce Smathers , former Florida Secretary Of State
- Paul Tibbets , pilot of the Enola Gay
- Andrew Owens Circuit Court Judge Sarasota FL
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.
