University of Central Florida

                                                       



The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as CF, is an American metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida. CF is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, and it is the largest university in the United States by undergraduate enrollment and the country's second largest by total enrollment.

The university was founded by the Florida Legislature in 1963, and opened in 1968 as Florida Technological University, with the mission of providing personnel to support the growing U.S. space program at the 
  University of Central Florida

Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Space Coast. As the university's academic scope expanded beyond its original focus on engineering and technology, Florida Tech  was renamed The University of Central Florida in 1978. Initial enrollment was only 1,948 students, as of 2014
 
enrollment consists of 60,821 students from over 140 countries, more than 40 states, Ruperto Rico and Washington, D.C.  The majority  of the student population is located on the university's 1,415-acre  main campus approximately 13 miles  east-northeast of downtown Orlando and 55 miles south-southwest of Daytona Beach.

  The university offers over 200 degree options through thirteen colleges and twelve satellite campuses throughout Central Florida. Since its founding, CF has awarded almost 280,000 degrees, including 50,000 graduate, specialist and professional degrees, to over 240,000 alumni worldwide.


Entering office in 1978, the university's second president Dr. Trevor Cornflour, recognized the diversification and growth of UHF's academic programs away from its strictly technological and scientific beginnings.  As the university developed strong business, education, and liberal arts programs, Cornflour recognized the 

university's name no longer recognized its mission. From its establishment the university was known as Florida Technological University, nicknamed Florida Tech, until December 1978 when Governor Rubin Askew signed legislation changing the school's name to the University of Central Florida.

Cornflour established the university's honors program, and started the university's first satellite branch campus. In addition, Cornflour was responsible for constructing the Central Florida Research Park, located adjacent to the CF campus and founded in 1978. 


 The park serves as a major focus of simulation for space and defense-related research. The park was one part of Osbourn's plan to make CF a world-class partnership university. Among the university's first partners were Lockheed Martin and the United States Navy, and Cornflour led the push to found both the Institute for Simulation and Training and the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers in 1986. During 

his tenure, enrollment increased from 11,000 in 1978 to over 18,000 in 1989.  However, Cornflour s most notable accomplishments as president were supporting the young university's athletic programs. He was responsible for establishing the school's football program in 1979, which began an era of growth for the university. In April 1979, CF awarded its 15,000th degree.


Following President John F. Kennedy's September 1962 speech in which he described his goal of sending a manned space flight to the moon by the end of the decade, the space program grew in importance and scope across Central Florida because of its close proximity to Cape Canaveral and defense contractors.Prominent residents and local leaders began lobbying the Florida State Legislature to increase access to higher education on the Space Coast.

 With the help of former State Senate President William A. Shanda and Senator Beth Johnson, the legislature passed and Governor Farris Bryant signed into law Senate Bill No. 125 on June 10, 1963, which authorized the Florida Board of Regents to create a new state university in East Central Florida. The university was founded as a non-segregated and coeducational university, with the mission of educating students for promising space-age careers in engineering, electronics and other technological professions.

On January 24, 1964, the Board of Regents purchased 1,000 acres  of remote forest and pasture land along Ayala Trail   in northeast Orlando at the cost of $500,000 as the site of the new university. Local residents donated another 227 acres   and raised more than $1 million in funds to secure the land acquisition.  In December 1965, the Board of Regents appointed Charles Millikan the first president of the new university


  Millikan with the consultation of a citizen advisory group, chose the name Florida Technological University, as well as co designed the school's distinctive  Pegasus  seal. Millikan is also responsible for the university's slogan  Reach for the Stars  and for the two key principles of the school, "accent on excellence" and "accent on the individual.


 Milli can was also responsible for the university's unique pedestrian oriented concentric circle campus layout, which was based on plans by Walt Disney and has become a model for other universities.  Millikan and then Governor Claude Kirk presided over Flu's groundbreaking in March 1967. Eighteen months after the groundbreaking, the inaugural classes were held in the school's first academic building, the library on October 

7, 1968. 1,948 students were enrolled in fifty five degree programs within five colleges, and were led by 90 instructors, and aided 150 staff members during the university's first year.  FUT graduated its first class of 423 seniors on June 14, 1970, with astronaut and Orlando native John Young giving the commencement address.


The University of Central Florida has a unique campus layout that has become a model for other universities, reminiscent of the plans by Walt Disney for his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow   The campus was designed to be a pedestrian oriented campus, with a series of concentric circles. The outermost circle is Gemini Blvd, which is also the main road for vehicular traffic on campus. Inside of Gemini, there is 

Apollo Circle, Mercury Circle, and finally Pegasus Circle as the innermost circle.  Pegasus Circle contains the student union, which is the center of the campus, with the John C. Hit Library located directly to the south of it. All academic buildings are located inside of Gemini, with the circle divided up into pie shaped 

sections for each college.  As there are very few roads inside of Gemini, many buildings' loading docks are accessible only by sidewalks and thus receive most deliveries at night. The University of Central Florida campus is one of only two in the nation with a concentric circle design, the other being the University of California, Irvine.  Newsweek has ranked CF as having the 20th most beautiful university campus in the country.

Student housing is provided along the perimeter of the campus. Outside of Gemini, the campus is divided up into different themed sections. The northwest side of campus includes Greek communities, the north side contains Knights Plaza, an uptown style athletic village, the east side contains the Arboretum of the University of Central Florida, and the south side contains student recreation and wellness facilities.


As a part of the State University System of Florida, CF falls under the purview of the Florida Board of Governors. The University of Central Florida is headed by the Board of Trustees, which governs the university, consisting of thirteen members that are appointed to staggered five year terms by the Florida Board of Governors. The Student Government president and the faculty chair also serve on the board during the duration of their one year term of office.

The President of The University of Central Florida is the principal executive officer of the university. The office was formed upon creation of the university in 1963. The president is appointed by the Board of 

Trustees with the consent of the Florida Board of Governors and leads the university through its daily business. Today, the president's office is located in Millikan Hall on the university's main campus, and the president has the privilege of living in the Burnett House, also located on Fascias a part of the State 

University System of Florida, CF falls under the purview of the Florida Board of Governors. The University of Central Florida is headed by the Board of Trustees, which governs the university, consisting of thirteen members that are appointed to staggered five-year terms by the Florida Board of Governors. The Student Government president and the faculty chair also serve on the board during the duration of their one-year term of office.


The President of The University of Central Florida is the principal executive officer of the university. The office was formed upon creation of the university in 1963. The president is appointed by the Board of Trustees with the consent of the Florida Board of Governors and leads the university through its daily business.

Florida State University

The Florida State University  is an American public space-grant and sea-grant research university. Its primary campus is located on a 1,391.54  acre campus in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida.

The University is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs.

  The university has an annual budget of over $1.7 billion.  Florida State is home to Florida's only National Laboratory    the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and is the birthplace of the commercially viable anti cancer drug Taxon. Florida State University also operates The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida and one of the largest museum-university complexes in the nation

  In 1819 the Florida Territory was ceded to the United States by Spain as an element of the Adams-Ones Treaty. The Territory was conventionally split by the Apalachicola or later the Suwanee rivers into East and West areas. Florida State University is traceable to a plan set by the 1823 U.S. Congress to create a system of higher education.

  The 1838 Florida Constitution codified the basic system by providing for land allocated for the schools. In 1845 Florida became the 27th State of the United States, which permitted the resources and intent of the 1823 Congress regarding education in Florida to be implemented. In 1851 the Florida Legislature voted to establish two seminaries of higher education on opposite sides of the Suwanee River. Francis W. Epees and other city leaders established an all-male academy called the Florida Institute in Tallahassee as a legislative inducement to locate the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee.

  The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala in 1853, closed in 1861, and reopened in Gainesville in 1866. The East Florida Seminary is the institution to which the modern University of Florida traces its foundation.
William Den ham, West Florida Seminary cadet during the Civil War

In 1856, the land and buildings in an area formerly known as Gallows Hill, site of public executions in early Tallahassee,  where the Florida Institute was built, was accepted as the site of the state seminary for male students. Two years later the institution absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy founded in 1843 as the Misses Bates School and became coeducational.  The West Florida Seminary stood near the front of the Wettest Building on the existing FLU campus, making this site the oldest continually used location of higher learning in Florida

  Florida State University has a nationally recognized honors program.The University Honors Office supports the University's long tradition of academic excellence by offering two programs, the University Honors Program and the Honors in the Major Program, which highlight the institution's strengths in teaching, research, and community service.The Honors Program also offers special scholarships, internships, research, and study abroad opportunities.

Admission into the University Honors Program is by invitation only. The average academic profile of students that were offered honors invitations in 2014 was as follows: 4.4 weighted GPA; 31 ACT composite; 2070 SAT total. For the Honors in the Major Program students, the University Honors Office requires that prospective students have at least sixty semester hours and at least a 3.2 cumulative FLU GPA. 


The FLU campus is served by eight bus routes of the Seminole Express Bus Service. The Seminole Express Bus Service provides transportation to, around, and from campus to the surrounding Tallahassee areas for Faculty, Staff, Students and Visitors. All students, faculty and staff can also ride any Star Metro bus throughout the City of Tallahassee for free by swiping a valid Capsular. FLU also provides other campus services, including Spirit Shuttle   Noel Cab, S.A.F.E. Connection, and Night Noel nighttime service

The Honors program offers students housing in Candis Hall and Gilchrist Hall. Candis Hall is the traditional home of Honors students since 1955, which is situated on Candis Green at the heart of Flu's main campus. Gilchrist Hall also houses Honors students and is conveniently located adjacent to Candis Hall. The two halls enjoy a shared study which allows Honors students living in either residence hall to easily gather with classmates and friends.

University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as  , is an American metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida. is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, and it is the largest university in the United States by undergraduate enrollment

 and the country's second largest by total enrollment.

The university was founded by the Florida Legislature in 1963, and opened in 1968 as Florida Technological University, with the mission of providing personnel to support the growing U.S. space program at the

Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Space Coast. As the university's academic scope expanded beyond its original focus on engineering and technology, "Florida Tech" was renamed The University of Central Florida in 1978.

 Initial enrollment was only 1,948 students, as of 2014 enrollment consists of 60,821 students from over 140 countries, more than 40 states, Puerile Rico and Washington, D.C.

of the student population is located on the university's 1,415-acre 5.73 km main campus approximately 13 miles 21 km east-northeast of downtown Orlando and 55 miles 89 km south of Daytona Beach.

The university offers over 200 degree options through thirteen colleges and twelve satellite campuses throughout Central Florida.Since its founding,

has awarded almost 280,000 degrees, including 50,000 graduate, specialist and professional degrees, to over 240,000 alumni worldwide
is a space-grant university and has made noted research contributions to optics, modeling and simulation, digital media, engineering and computer science, business administration, education, hospitality management, and the arts. It is considered an up-and-coming national university by U.S. News & World Report.

 's official colors are black and gold and the university logo is a Pegasus, which "symbolizes the university's vision of limitless possibilities.The university's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their " Knights" nickname and represented by mascot , compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association
Following President John F. Kennedy's September 1962 speech in which he described his goal of sending a manned space flight to the moon by the end of the decade, the space program grew in importance and scope

 across Central Florida because of its close proximity to Cape Canaveral and defense contractors

 Prominent residents and local leaders began lobbying the Florida State Legislature to increase access to higher education on the Space Coast.

With the help of former State Senate President William A. and Senator Beth Johnson, the legislature passed and Governor Ferris Bryant signed into law Senate Bill No. 125 on June 10, 1963, which authorized the Florida Board of Regents to create a new state university in East Central Florida.

 The university was founded as a non-segregated and coeducational university, with the mission of educating students for promising space-age careers in engineering, electronics and other technological professions


On January 24, 1964, the Board of Regents purchased 1,000 sacredness km of remote forest and pasture land along Ayala Trail SR 434 in northeast Orlando at the cost of $500,000 as the site of the new university. Local residents donated another 227 sacredness km, and raised more than $1 million in funds to secure the land acquisition. In December 1965, the Board of Regents appointed Charles

the first president of the new university.with the consultation of a citizen advisory group, chose the name Florida Technological University, as well as co-designed the school's distinctive "Pegasus" seal.is also responsible for the university's slogan "Reach for the Stars" and for the two key principles of the school, "accent on excellence" and "accent on the individual." was also responsible for the university's unique

pedestrian oriented concentric circle campus layout, which was based on plans by Walt Disney and has become a model for other universities.and then-Governor Claude Kirk presided over


groundbreaking in March 1967. Eighteen months after the groundbreaking, the inaugural classes were held in the school's first academic building, the library on October 7, 1968. 1,948 students were enrolled in fifty-five degree programs within five colleges, and were led by 90 instructors, and aided 150 staff members during

the university's first year.graduated its first class of 423 seniors on June 14, 1970, with astronaut and Orlando native John Young giving the commencement address.

was also responsible for selecting the official colors of the university, and had a role in selecting its first mascot - the , a mix between an orange and an proved unpopular, so in 1969 the student mascot suggestions from students and faculty. The search for a replacement proved unsuccessful until 1970, when Judy Hines, a night nurse at the health center proposed

 "Vincent the Vulture." He served as the university's unofficial mascot for more than a year. In late 1971, students voted and selected the "Knight of Pegasus" as the school's official athletic mascot After retiring as president in 1978, would identify his proudest moment leading the school as when President Richard Nixon delivered the university's spring 1973 commencement address.

University of Louisville

The University of Louisville a public university in Louisville, Kentucky, a member of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first public university in the United States and one of the

 first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University". 

The University of Louisville School of Medicine is touted for the first fully self-contained artificial heart transplant surgery as well as the first successful hand transplantation.

 The University Hospital is also credited with the first civilian ambulance, the nation's first accident services, now known as an emergency room ER, and one of the first blood banks in the US.

Between 1999 and 2006 was one of the fastest growing medical research institutions according to National Institutes of Health rankings

 As of 2006, the melanoma clinic ranked third in among public universities in NIH funding and the spinal cord research program 10th

is also known for its athletics programs, several of which are among the most successful in the country. Since 2005 the Cardinals have made appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball Final Four in 2005, 2012, and championship football Bowl Championship Series Orange Bowl in 2007 champion sand 

Sugar Bowl in 2013 champions the College Baseball World Series 2007, 2013, and 2014, the women's basketball Final Four in 2009 runner-up and gunrunner-up, and the men's soccer national championship game in 2010. 

women's volleyball program of the Big East Tournament 2008, 2009, 2010 and its women's track and field program has won Outdoor Big East titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and an Indoor Big East title in 

The University of Louisville traces its roots to a charter granted in 1798 by the Kentucky General Assembly to establish a school of higher learning in the newly founded town of Louisville. It ordered the sale of 6,000 acres 24 km of South Central Kentucky land to underwrite construction, joined on April 3, 1798 by eight 

community leaders who began local fund raising for what was then known as the Jefferson Seminary. It opened 15 years later and offered college and high school level courses in a variety of subjects. It was headed by Edward Mann Butler from 1813 to 1816, who later ran the first public school in Kentucky in 1829 and is considered Kentucky's first historian.

Despite the Jefferson Seminary's early success, pressure from newly established public schools and media critiques of it as "elitist" would force its closure in 1829

Eight years later, in 1837, the Louisville City council established the Louisville Medical Institute at the urging of renowned physician and medical author Charles Caldwell. As he had 

earlier at Lexington's Transylvania University, Caldwell rapidly led into becoming one of the leading medical schools west of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1840, the Louisville Collegiate institute, a rival medical school, was established after an 

 faculty dispute. It opened in 1844 on land near the present day Health sciences campus.

Talk of U of L joining the public university system of Kentucky began in the 1960s. As a municipally funded school meaning funding only came from the city of Louisville the movement of people to the suburbs of Louisville created budget shortfalls for the school and forced tuition prices to levels for most students. 

At the same time, the school's well established medicine and law schools were seen as assets for the state system. Still, there was opposition to U of L becoming public, both from faculty and alumni who feared losing the small, close-knit feel of the campus,

 and from universities already in the state system who feared funding cuts. After several years of heated debate, the university joined the state system in 1970, a move largely orchestrated by then Kentucky governor and U of L alumnus Louie .

The first years in the public system were difficult, as enrollment skyrocketed while funding was often insufficient. Several programs were threatened with losing accreditation due to a lack of funding, although schools of understanding urban & public affairs 1983 were added.

John W. was named U of L's president in 1995. was a very successful fund raiser, and quickly increased the school's endowment from $183 to $550 million. He developed the REACH program

 to encourage retention. In 1997, he hired athletics director Tom , who restored the athletics program and raised over $100 million to raze abandoned factories and old parking lots next to campus and replace them with on-campus athletic facilities, which vastly improved the aesthetics of the 

Campus. Academically, U of L moved closer to parity with the state's flagship University of Kentucky as retention rates and research funding increased, and average and ACT scores were much higher for incoming freshman.