A European Informational Website
learn more
The University of Arizona (UA or U of A) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885, when Arizona was still a territory and is considered a Public Ivy. UA includes Arizona's only allopathic medical school. In 2006, total enrollment was 36,805 students.
The University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1885. Ironically, the city of Tucson had hoped to receive the appropriation for the territory's mental hospital, which carried a sum of money slightly larger than the $25,000 allotted to the territory's only university (the antecedent to Arizona State University was also chartered in 1885, but it was created as Arizona's normal school, and not a university). Tucson, having a smaller contingent of legislators than cities like Prescott and Phoenix, was granted last priority and was awarded the university, which disappointed many city residents. With no parties willing to step forth and provide land for the new institution, the citizens of Tucson prepared to return the money to the Territorial Legislature until two gamblers and a saloon keeper decided to donate the land necessary to build the school. Classes met for the first time in 1891 with 32 students in Old Main, the first building constructed on campus, and still in use to this day. [1]
Because there were no high schools in Arizona Territory, the University maintained separate preparatory classes for the first 23 years of operation.
<gallery> Image:IMG_1989.jpg|University of Arizona Mall Image:IMG_1993.jpg|Old Main - University of Arizona Image:IMG_1996.jpg|Old Main - University of Arizona Image:IMG_1994.jpg|Wildcat Family Statue - University of Arizona </gallery>
The main campus sits on 380 acres in central Tucson, about one mile northeast of downtown. There are 179 buildings on the main campus. Many of the early buildings, including the Arizona State Museum buildings (one of them the 1927 main library) and Centennial Hall, were designed by Roy Place, a prominent Tucson architect. It was Place's use of red brick that set the tone for the red brick facades that are a basic and ubiquitous part of nearly all UA buildings, even those built in recent decades. Indeed, almost every UA building has red brick as a major component of the design, or at the very least, a stylistic accent to harmonize it with the other buildings on campus. [1]
The campus is roughly divided into quadrants. The north and south sides of campus are delineated by a grassy expanse called the Mall, which stretches from Old Main eastward to the campus' eastern border at Campbell Avenue (a major north-south arterial street). The west and east sides of campus are separated roughly by Highland Avenue and the Student Union Memorial Center (see below).
The science and mathemetics buildings tend to be clustered in the southwest quadrant; the intercollegiate athletics facilities to the southeast; the arts and humanities buildings to the northwest (with the dance department being a major exception as its main facilities are far to the east end of campus), with the engineering buildings in the north central area. The optical and space sciences buildings are clustered on the east side of campus near the sports stadiums and the (1976) main library.
Speedway Boulevard, one of Tucson's primary east-west arterial streets, traditionally defined the northern boundary of campus but since the 1980's, several university buildings have been constructed north of this street, expanding into a neighborhood traditionally filled with apartment complexes and single-family homes. The University has purchased a handful of these apartment complexes for student housing in recent years. Sixth Street typically defines the southern boundary, with single-family homes (many of which are rented out to students) south of this street.
Park Avenue has traditionally defined the western boundary of campus, and there is a stone wall which runs along a large portion of the east side of the street, leading to the old Main Gate, and into the driveway leading to Old Main.
Along or adjacent to all of these major streets are a wide variety of retail facilities serving the student, faculty and staff population: shops, bookstores, bars, banks, credit unions, coffeehouses and major chain fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's. The area near University Boulevard and Park Avenue, near the Main Gate, has long been a major center of such retail activity; many of the shops have been renovated since the late 1990's and a nine-story Marriott hotel was built in this immediate district in 1996.
The oldest campus buildings are located west of Old Main. Most of the buildings east of Old Main date from the 1940's to the 1980's, with a few recent buildings constructed in the years since 1990.
The Student Union Memorial Center, located on the north side of the Mall east of Old Main, was completely reconstructed between 2000 and 2003, replacing a 270,000 square foot structure originally opened in 1951 (with additions in the 1960's). The new $60 million student union has 405,000 square feet of space on four levels, including 14 restaurants (including a food court with such national chains as McDonald's, Panda Express, Papa John's Pizza and Chick-fil-A), a new bookstore that includes a counter for Clinique merchandise, 23 meeting rooms, eight lounge areas (including one dedicated to the USS Arizona), a computer lab, a U.S. Post Office, a copy center named Fast Copy, and a video arcade. [2]
A list of dorms goes as follows -------------------------------- Apache Santa Cruz dormitory Arizona Sonora dormitory Babcock Inn dormitory Cochise dormitory Coconino dormitory Colonia de la Paz dormitory Coronado dormitory Gila dormitory Graham-Greenlee dormitory Hopi dormitory Kaibab-Huachuca dormitory Manzanita-Mohave dormitory Maricopa dormitory Navajo Pinal Stadium dormitory Pima Lodge & Pima House dormitory Posada San Pedro dormitory Pueblo de la Cienega dormitory Sky View Apartments dormitory Villa del Puente dormitory Yavapai dormitory Yuma dormitory
For current museum hours, fees, and directions see "campus visitor's guide" in the external links.
The University of Arizona, like its sister campuses Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents or the ABOR, a 12-member body. According to information published by the ABOR office and available on their Web site, eight volunteer members are appointed by the Governor to staggered eight-year terms; two students serve on the Board for two-year appointments, with the first year being a nonvoting apprentice year. The Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction serve as voting ex-officio members. The ABOR provides "policy guidance" and oversight to the three major degree-granting universities, as provided for by Title 15 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.
Presidents of the University
The current and 19th university president is Robert N. Shelton, whose term began in 2006. The former president, Peter Likins, vacated his post at the conclusion of the 2005-06 academic term.[3] Notable past UA presidents include Manuel Pacheco, Richard Harvill and John Schaefer.
The University of Arizona offers 334 fields of study at four levels: bachelor's, masters, doctoral, and first professional.
Academic departments and programs are organized into colleges and schools. Typically, schools are largely independent or separately important from their parent college. In addition, not all schools are a part of a college. The university maintains a current list of colleges and schools at http://www.arizona.edu/index/colleges.php [4].
The UA is considered a "more selective" university by U.S. News and World Report.[5] In 2005, the UA matriculated 5,974 freshmen, out of 15,724 freshmen admitted, from an application pool of nearly 18,000 applicants. The average person admitted to the university as a freshman in 2005 had a weighted GPA of 3.38 and an average score of 1122 out of 1600 on the SAT admissions test. Ten students were Flinn Scholars and 104 were National Merit Scholars. [6]
UA students hail from all states in the U.S. While nearly 72 % of students are from Arizona, 8 % are from California, followed by a significant student presence from Illinois, Texas, and Washington (2004).[7] The UA has approximately 2,200 international students representing 135 countries. International students comprise approximately 6 % of the total enrollment at UA.[8]
Among the strongest programs at UA are optical sciences, astronomy, astrophysics, planetary sciences, hydrology, hydrogeology, linguistics, philosophy, architecture and landscape architecture, engineering, and anthropology.
Arizona is classified as a Carnegie Foundation "Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive" university.[9]
The university receives more than $400 million USD annually in research funding, generating nearly 75% of the research dollars in the Arizona university system. This figure is triple the total research funds generated by Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University combined,[10] and 26th highest in the U.S. (including public and private institutions).[11] The university has an endowment of $466.7 million USD as of 2006(2006 NACUBO Endowment Study) .[12]
UA is awarded more NASA grants for space exploration than any other university nationally.[13]) The UA was recently awarded over $325 million USD to lead NASA's 2007 mission to Mars to explore the Martian arctic. The school's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's work in the Cassini spacecraft orbit around Saturn is larger than that of any other university globally. The UA laboratory designed and operated the atmospheric radiation investigations and imaging on the probe.[14] The UA operates the HiRISE camera, a part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
In 2005, the Association of Research Libraries, in its "Ranked Lists for Institutions for 2005", ranked the UA libraries as the 33rd overall university library in North America (out of 113) based on various statistical measures of quality; this is one rank below Duke University, one rank ahead of Northwestern University.[6]
As of 2006, the UA's library system contains nearly five million volumes.
The Main Library, opened in 1976, serves as the library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center; most of the main collections and special collections are housed here as well. The Main Library is located on the southeast quadrant of campus near McKale Center and Arizona Stadium. The Science and Engineering Library is in an adjacent building from the 1960's that houses volumes and periodicals from those fields. The Music Building (on the northwest quadrant of campus where many of the fine arts disciplines are clustered) houses the Fine Arts Library, including reference collections for architecture, music (including sheet music, recordings and listening stations), and photography. There is a small library at the Center for Creative Photography, also in the fine arts complex, devoted to the art and science of photography.
Like many large public universities in the U.S., sports are a major activity on campus, and receive a large operating budget. Arizona's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats, a name derived from a 1914 football game with then California champions Occidental College, where the L.A. Times asserted that, "the Arizona men showed the fight of wildcats."[27] The University of Arizona participates in the NCAA's Division I-A in the Pacific Ten Conference, which it joined in 1978.
The men's basketball team has been one of the nation's most successful programs since Lute Olson was hired as head coach in 1983. As of 2006, the team has amassed 20 consecutive 20-win seasons, and reached the NCAA Tournament 23 consecutive years, which is the longest active and second-longest streak in NCAA history (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the longest streak with 27). Lute Olson has taken the Wildcats to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in 1988, 1994, 1997, and 2001. In 1997, Arizona defeated the University of Kentucky, the defending national champions, to win the NCAA National Championship (NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship) by a score of 84-79 in overtime; Olson's first national championship victory. The championship team became the first in NCAA history to defeat three number-one seeds en route to a national title. Current assistant coach, Miles Simon was chosen as Final Four MVP.
In 1972 Fred Snowden was hired as the head basketball coach, making Arizona the first Division I school with an African American head coach.
The Wildcats play their home games at the McKale Center in Tucson. A number of former Wildcats have gone on to pursue successful professional NBA careers (especially during the Lute Olson era), including Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Sean Elliott, Damon Stoudamire, Luke Walton, Hassan Adams, Salim Stoudamire, Andre Iguodala, Channing Frye and Steve Kerr.
The football team began at the University of Arizona in 1899 under the nickname "Varsity" (a name kept until the 1914 season when the team was deemed the "Wildcats").[28]
The football team was notably successful in the 1990s, under head coach Dick Tomey; his "Desert Swarm" defense was characterized by tough, hard-nosed tactics. In 1993, the team had its first 10-win season and beat the University of Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl by a score of 29-0. It was the bowl game's only shutout in its then 23-year history. In 1998, the team posted a school-record 12-1 season and made the Holiday Bowl in which it defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Arizona ended that season ranked 3rd nationally and 2nd in several publications. The 1998 Holiday Bowl was televised on ESPN and set the now-surpassed record of being the most watched of any bowl game in that network's history (the current record belongs to the 2005 Alamo Bowl between Michigan and Nebraska). The team is currently coached by Mike Stoops, brother of Bob Stoops, the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma.
<gallery> Image:IMG_1995.jpg|Arizona Stadium - University of Arizona </gallery>
The baseball team had its first season in 1904. The baseball team has captured three national championship titles in 1976, 1980, and 1986, all coached by Jerry Kindall. Arizona baseball teams have appeared in the NCAA National Championship title series a total of six times, including 1956, 1959, 1963, 1976, 1980, and 1986 (College World Series). The team is currently coached by Andy Lopez; aided by Assistant Coach Mark Wasikowski, Assistant Coach Jeff Casper and Volunteer Assistant Coach Keith Francis. Arizona baseball also has a student section named The Hot Corner.
The Arizona softball team is among the top programs in the country and a perennial powerhouse. The softball team has won seven NCAA Women's College World Series titles, in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, and 2006 under head coach Mike Candrea (NCAA Softball Championship). Arizona defeated Northwestern University in the 2006 National Championship series in Oklahoma City. The team has appeared in the NCAA National Championship in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2006, a feat second only to UCLA. Coach Mike Candrea, along with former Arizona pitcher Jennie Finch, led the 2004 U.S. Olympic softball team to a gold medal in Athens, Greece.
The university's golf teams have also been notably successful. The men's team won a national championship in 1992 (NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships), while the women's team won national championships in 1996 and 2000 (NCAA Women's Golf Championship).
Three national championships for synchronized swimming were won in 1980, 1981, and 1984, though these championships were in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and not the NCAA.
Although surprising to some, the University of Arizona has a noteworthy history in ice hockey. The school's club team, known as the Icecats, has won over 520 games since its inception in 1978. The Icecats defeated Penn State for the National Collegiate Club Hockey National Championship in 1985. They are now part of ACHA Division I.
A number of notable individuals have also won national championships in the NCAA. These include Amanda Beard in 2001 for swimming and Annika Sörenstam in 1991 in golf. The men's cross country has also produced two individual national titles in 1986 (Aaron Ramirez) and 1994 (Martin Keino) (NCAA Men's Cross Country Champions). The women's cross country also produced two individual national titles in 1996 and 2001 (NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship). Another notable individual was football standout Vance Johnson who won the NCAA long jump in 1982.
A strong academic and athletic rivalry exists between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University located in Tempe. The UA leads the all-time record against ASU in men's basketball (135-73), football (44-34-1), and baseball (224-189-1) as of January 2006. The football rivalry game between the schools is known as "The Duel in the Desert." The trophy awarded after each game, the Territorial Cup, is the nation's oldest rivalry trophy, distinguished by the NCAA. Rivalries have also been created with other Pac-10 teams, especially University of California, Los Angeles which has provided a worthy softball rival and was Arizona's main basketball rival in the early and mid-1990s.
The University mascot is an anthropomorphized wildcat named Wilbur. The identity of Wilbur is kept secret through the year as the mascot appears only in costume. In 1986, Wilbur married his longtime wildcat girlfriend, Wilma. Together, Wilbur and Wilma appear along with the cheerleading squad at most Wildcat sporting events.[29] Wilbur was originally created by Bob White as a cartoon character in the University's humor magazine, Kitty Kat. From 1915 through the 1950s the school mascot was a live bobcat, a species known locally as a wildcat. 1959 marked the creation of the first incarnated Wilbur, when University student John Paquette and his roommate, Dick Heller, came up with idea of creating a costume for a student to wear. Ed Stuckenhoff was chosen to wear the costume at the homecoming game in 1959 against Texas Tech and since then it has become a long-standing tradition. Wilbur will celebrate his 50th birthday in November 2009.
There are currently (2005) 44 fraternity and sorority chapters that are recognized by the University of Arizona. As of 2006, approximately 10.3 % of male UA students were members of campus fraternities, and 10.8 % of female students were members of sororities. The fraternities and sororities are governed by 4 governing councils. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) represents 25 fraternities, the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) represents 6 historically African-American fraternities and sororities, the Panhellenic Association (PHC) represents 20 sororities and the "United Sorority and Fraternity Council" (USFC) which represents other minority based Greek organizations. The university maintains a full list of recognized fraternities and sororities as well as a map that highlights the locations of fraternity and sorority houses at http://www.union.arizona.edu/csil/greek/chapters/index.php [32].
As mentioned earlier, a new and expansive Student Union building,[33] opened in 2003; it is the largest student union in the U.S. not affiliated with a hotel. The University of Arizona is home to more than 500 philanthropic, multi-cultural, social, athletic, academic, and student clubs and campus organizations. A listing is found at Center For Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL)[34] through the Student Union.
CSIL also houses the Arizona Blue Chip Program[35] one of the largest collegiate-level leadership development programs in the United States, with over 500 active students at any one time throughout the 4 years of the program. Blue Chip was founded in 1999 and has formed a partnership with the University of Wollongong, in Wollongong, Australia where a sister program, the Black Opal Leadership Development Program[36] began in February, 2005. Structure, curriculum, students and even staff are exchanged between the two institutions in a unique international leadership development initiative.
Through funding from the CSIL and the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, clubs are given the resources and encouragement to explore unusual interests.
Overall, students at the University of Arizona have, since 1913, been represented by the Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA). Representation is elected by the students every year (usually in March). In recent years, the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) has emerged to represent issues specific to non-undergrads.
On-Campus residents also have their own Student Leadership Organization known as the Residence Hall Association. Anyone who lives on campus is automatically a member of RHA. The individual subunits of RHA consist of the hall councils of all 21 residence halls. Each Hall Council is composed of a President, a Director of Programming (for social events), a Director of Operations (for administrative duties), and two RHA Representatives who are sent to represent their hall at RHA General Body Meetings. At these meetings, the gathered representatives and RHA Executive Board, elected from within the RHA General Body, discuss issues and make decisions concerning all 6,000 on campus residents. The RHA Executive Board consists of 7 different elected positions (President, Vice President of Public Relations, National Communications Coordinator, Vice President of Finances, Vice President of Operations, Vice President of Services, and Vice President of Programming) along with an appointed Parliamentarian position and an advisor known as the Student Leadership Coordinator.
Notable alumni include a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the U.S. Surgeon General, the creator of the television series "Sesame Street" and founder of the Children's Television Workshop, Arturo Moreno- the owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Major League Baseball team, several NASA astronauts, NBA players Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Andre Iguodala, Luke Walton, Jason Terry, Hassan Adams, Channing Frye, Mike Bibby, Salim Stoudamire, Steve Kerr, and Tom Tolbert, Rande Gerber and Geraldo Rivera, NFL Linebackers Tedy Bruschi, Lance Briggs, Antonio Pierce, NFL cornerback Chris McAlister, actors Greg Kinnear, Rob Hyland, and Kate Walsh, and comics artist Aline Kominsky-Crumb, among others.
Nobel laureates on the faculty include two members of the College of Optical Sciences: Dr. Nicolaas Bloembergen (Physics, 1981) and Dr. Willis E. Lamb (Physics, 1955). For details, see Nobel Prize laureates by university affiliation.
The UA has eight Pulitzer Prize winners (alumni and faculty), and more than 50 faculty as elected members of exclusive academies including Britain's Royal Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among others. Two current UA professors were also recently named to Popular Science magazine's list of "Brilliant 10."[45]
The UA is also the alma mater of Karl Eller for whom the business school is named.
In 1959, Gordon Lish graduated with a bachelor's degree in English with honors from the University of Arizona.
Contents