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University of Louisville

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The University of Louisville (also known as U of L) is a public, state-supported university located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is mandated http://www.louisville.edu/about/mission.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University." U of L currently enrolls students from 119 of 120 Kentucky countieshttp://www.louisville.edu/~jbmorr03/Fall-05-Enrollment-by-County.pdf URL accessed on June 8 2006, all 50 U.S. states, and 115 countries around the world. http://www.louisville.edu/~jbmorr03/Fall-05-Enrollment-by-State.pdf URL accessed on July 7 2006

U of L has been involved in several notable medical firsts. In 2006, U of L researchers Dr Albert Bennet Jenson and Dr Shin-je Ghim developed the first ever human papilloma virus vaccine, called Gardasil. In 2001 U of L implanted the first self contained artificial heart http://www.heartpioneers.org/patient/gallery/conference1.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 in the world, and in 1999 performed the first successful hand transplant.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/411618?src=searchcol URL accessed on June 8 2006

Since 1999, U of L has made the largest gains of any university in National Institute of Health research ranking, with its NIH funding increasing 277% and its rank increasing 30 places. http://www.uoflhealthcare.com/news_thumbnail/VSEL%20_for_More_Information.pdf URL accessed on June 8 2006 As of 2006 among public U.S. universities, the melanoma clinic ranks third, the neurology research program fourth, and the spinal cord research program tenth in NIH funding.

The school's main campus is located in the historic Old Louisville neighborhood, which is the U.S.'s largest http://www.ajc.com/travel/content/travel/southeast/ky_stories/0305/09lvgetaway.html URL accessed on July 8 2006 Victorian era National Preservation District. U of L's endowment, which has increased 355% http://www.louisville.edu/challenge/images/charts/EndowmentGrowth-2.gif URL accessed on June 8 2006 since 1995, ranks ninth per student among all U.S. public universities http://www.nacubo.org/documents/about/FY05NESInstitutionsbyTotalAssets.pdf URL accessed on June 8 2006 and is the ''largest of any Kentucky public university. http://www.kykernel.com/media/storage/paper305/news/2006/01/25/CampusNews/Uk.Endowment.Still.Lags.Behind.Berea.College.Uofl-1503857.shtml?norewrite200605301718&sourcedomain=www.kykernel.com URL accessed on June 8 2006

Contents

Academics and innovations

The J. B. Speed School of Engineering
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The J. B. Speed School of Engineering

University of Louisville faculty and alumni have been a part of several notable firsts and innovations, including:

The University of Louisville offers bachelor's degrees in seventy fields of study, master's degrees in seventy eight fields of study, and doctorate degrees in twenty two fields of study. The school's admission standards are considered "more selective" by US News and World Report.http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_1999_brief.phphttp://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_1999_brief.php URL accessed on June 8 2006

In addition, U of L boasts a school of business that is ranked among the top 7% in the nation, a law school ranked among the top eighty five in the nation, and nationally respected programs in engineering, social work, and music. U of L is also the only US college to offer a minor in http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/ta/aatp.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 African American theatre, among only twenty one schools in the US to offer a graduate degree in pan-African studies, and among the first five to require public service in its law school curriculum.

History

Founding and early years: 1798-1845

Completed in 1990, the Student Activity Center and its eight story clock tower are the centerpiece of the Belknap Campus.
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Completed in 1990, the Student Activity Center and its eight story clock tower are the centerpiece of the Belknap Campus.

The University of Louisville traces its http://www.louisville.edu/about/history.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 roots back to 1798 when the Kentucky General Assembly chartered a school of higher learning in the newly established town of Louisville and ordered the sale of 6,000 acres of South Central Kentucky land to pay for its implementation . On April 3 1798 eight leading men of community began local fundraising for the school, known as the Jefferson Seminary. It opened fifteen years latter in 1813 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 latter headed the first public school in Kentucky in 1829 and is considered Kentucky's first historian. Despite its early success, pressure from newly established public schools and media critiques of it as "elitist" would force its closure in 1829. http://www.lms.jefferson.k12.ky.us/archivet.html URL accessed on June 8 2006

Eight years latter in 1837 the Louisville City Council established the Louisville Medical Institute at the urging of renowned physician and medical author Charles Caldwell. After his dismissal from Lexington's Transylvania University , Caldwell would lead the LMI into becoming one of the best medical schools west of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1840 the Louisville Collegiate Institute, a rival medical school, was established after a LMI faculty dispute. It opened in 1844 on land near the present day Health Sciences campus.

History as a private municipal university: 1846-1969

In 1846 the Kentucky legislature combined the Louisville Medical Institute, the Louisville Collegiate Institution, and a newly created law school into the University of Louisville, on a campus just east of Downtown Louisville. The LCI folded soon afterwards. The university would experience rapid growth in the twentieth century, adding new schools in the liberal arts (1907), a graduate school (1915), dentistry (1918), engineering (1925), music (1932) and social work (1936).

In 1923 the school purchased what is today the Belknap Campus to move its liberal arts programs and law school, with the medical school remaining at the downtown campus. The school had attempted to purchase a campus donated by the Belknap family in The Highlands area in 1917 (where Bellarmine University is currently located), but the plan was rebuffed after a tax increase to pay for it was voted down. However, the school chose to name the new Eastern Parkway campus after the Belknaps for their efforts.

In 1931 U of L purchased the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes (est. 1879), as a compromise plan to desegregation. As a part of U of L, the school had an equal standing with the school's other colleges. It was dissolved in 1951 when U of L desegregated.

In the second half of the twentieth century, schools were opened for business (1953), education (1968), and justice and administration (1969).

History as a public university: 1970-present

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 unaffordable for most students. At the same time, the school's well established medicine and law schools were seen as assets for 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 debate, in 1970 the university joined the state system, a move largely orchestrated by then Kentucky governor and U of L alumnus Louie Nunn http://www.louisville.edu/ur/ucomm/mags/fall98/archives.html URL acessed on June 8 2006.
Grawmeyer Hall features "The Thinker" statue by Augustin Rodin
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Grawmeyer Hall features "The Thinker" statue by Augustin Rodin

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 nursing (1979) and urban & public affairs (1983) were added.

Shumaker era 1995-2002

John Shumaker was named U of L's president in 1995. Shumaker was a very successful fundraiser, and quickly increased the school's endowment from $183 to $550 million. He also developed the REACH program http://www.reach.louisville.edu/about/ to combat retention. In 1997, he hired athletics director Tom Jurich, who restored an athletics program facing NCAA violations and Title IX lawsuits. Jurich raised over $100 million to raze abandoned factories adjacent to campus, to build on campus athletic facilities; which vastly improved the aesthetics of the Belknap Campus.

An important development during the Shumaker years was the state mandate change in 1997. Previously, the school was legally bound to have a large percent of non traditional students, (which hurt academics and retention). The new mandate was more vague, and simply stated the school should be "a preeminent urban research university". With the new mandate and a much improved campus, U of L began enrolling more traditional students from outside Jefferson County. In 1990, 73% of students were from Jefferson County, by 2005 that number had fallen to 50%. In 1995 the school's endowment became the largest in the public system, and in 2000 U of L joined UK as the only public university to enroll students from every Kentucky county.

Ramsey era 2002- present

The school's current and twenty seventh president is James R. Ramsey, the former state budget director. Ramsey has continued the endowment and fundraising growth started by Shumaker, but added more emphasis on improving the aesthetics of the Belknap Campus. To this end, he started a million dollar "campus beautification project" which painted six overpasses on the Belknap Campus with a 'U of L theme' and planted over 500 trees along campus streets, doubled the number of on-campus housing units, brokered a deal with the state to get the outdated I-65 ramps redone, and oversaw the ongoing conversion of several abandoned factories into condominiums. The school's federal research funding has also doubled under Ramsey, and three buildings have been built for nanotechnology and medical research. He is also recognized for being able to keep Tom Jurich as athletic director, with speculation that Jurich would go elsewhere.

U of L's growth has created strained relations with the other public schools, especially the University of Kentucky. In 2005, UK officials accused U of L of "mission creep" after president Ramsey met with a Pikeville hospital to discuss opening a lung cancer research center there. UK's VP of Institutional Advancement threatened that "U of L should stay out of Eastern Kentucky" http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050429/NEWS0104/504290452 URL accessed on June 8 2006. Strong criticism came from the Courier Journal, which editorialized that the University of Kentucky was the state's primary research university for the state and that the mission of U of L was more urban in focus. http://www.lawreader.com/index.php/browse/node/4363.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 However, public opinion and the media in the rest of state supported the idea of a cooperative research center, which caused UK to softened its stance. Today a center between the two schools in Pikeville is in the talking stages. Several months later, Somerset U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers requested that a federal disease laboratory be located to Somerset with U of L and UK has its caretakers. U of L has historically had many such outreach programs in Western Kentucky, but without controversy since the school has traditionally had a strong alumni and fan base there.

In 1998 the university celebrated its bicentennial.

UPS tuition reimbursement and Metropolitan College

In addition to their nationwide partial tuition reimbursement programs, UPS (United Parcel Service) offers U of L (along with Jefferson Community College) students who work overnight at World Port, the company's worldwide air hub at Louisville International Airport, full tuition reimbursement through a program called Metropolitan College. http://www.metro-college.com/ URL accessed on June 8 2006. Currently over 75% http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060518/BUSINESS/605180364&SearchID=73245163185686 URL accessed on June 8 2006 of the workers at the air hub are students.

Schools and colleges

The university now consists of twelve different schools and colleges (year founded)

The campuses

The university has three campuses:

Belknap campus

Acquired in 1923, the Belknap campus (pronounced "Bel-nap" with the K silent) is considered the school's main campus. It is located three miles south of downtown Louisville in the Old Louisville neighborhood, which is the largest Victorian preservation district in the United States. It houses seven of the 12 academic colleges and contains one of Augustin Rodin's only remaining "The Thinker" statues in front of the main administrative building, Grawemeyer Hall. The tallest buildings on the Belknap campus are the 10 story University tower and the 11 story Unitas Tower.

The size of the Belknap campus has doubled since 1998, with many abandoned factories in the area being purchased and redeveloped, with projects such as Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, the Cardinal Park complex, and the Jim Patterson Baseball Stadium and Jewish Hospital Sports Medicine complex, the Central Station shopping center, and a lacrosse field. With new parking at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, non resident parking was moved there and the parking lots near campus were redeveloped with new dormitory buildings, including the [Bettie Johnson Apartments], Kurz Hall (commonly called Phase 2), Minardi Hall, and [Community Park]. U of L has developed the campus almost entirely with private founding and using private companies to build and run the new residential halls since the state has offered little financial help for the projects.

In addition, there are preliminary plans to place pedestrian and bike paths along the two Frederick Law Olmstead parkways (Eastern and Southern Parkways) that run through campus as part of Louisville's "City of Parks" project. There are also plans to improve Stansbury Park, which was also designed by Olmstead.

Points of interest on the Belknap Campus include the [JB Speed Art Museum], the [Rauch Planetarium], and the final resting place for former US Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis under the portico in the Brandeis Law School. There is also a large monument off 3rd Street which honors Confederate Civil War dead which was built there before the school had purchased the campus. The Kentucky State Data Center, which is the state's official clearing house for census data and estimates, is located next to Bettie Johnson Hall.

Health Sciences Center

The U of L Health Sciences Center, also called the med campus, is located just east of Downtown Louisville. It houses the remaining five colleges and is located just east of downtown Louisville, in the Louisville medical park which contains three other major hospitals and several specialty hospitals. This is the school's original campus, being continuously used since 1846, although none of the original buildings remain. Buildings of note on the HSC include the fourteen story Medical Research Tower and the ten story ‘University Hospital’. Construction is ongoing for a six story cardiovascular research building, expected to be completed by 2007; and an eight story, $70 million biomedical research building. Faculty and students also work with neighboring hospitals including Jewish Hospital and Kosair Children's Hospital, as well as outreach programs throughout Kentucky, including in Paducah, Campbellsville, and Glasgow.

Shelby campus

The Shelby campus is located on Shelbyville Road near Hurstbourne Parkway in Eastern Louisville. This campus was originally the home of Kentucky Southern College, a Southern Baptist liberal arts college that operated from 1961 - 1969 [link]. After the college folded, U of L acquired the campus. It currently only has three buildings which are used for night classes and seminars, although construction of a Bio Terrorism Research facility is in the works. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050909/NEWS0103/509090457/1059/NEWS01

Panama campus and other facilities

The University of Louisville also runs a sister campus [link] in Panama City, Panama; which has an MBA program. [link] The full time program takes around 16 months to complete and enrolls about 200 students. It is currently ranked the 4th best MBA program in South America. http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2005/10/24/daily6.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 The best MBA program in South America is run by fellow Big East school Pittsburgh. U of L recently opened another MBA program in Athens, Greece.

The school also operates the Moore Observatory in Oldham County, which is used for space viewing. There are also plans to purchase several hundred acres in Oldham County for the school's equine program.

Libraries

The University of Louisville library system is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, a fraternity of the nation's top college libraries http://www.arl.org/members.html URL accessed on June 8 2006. U of L's main library branch is the [William F. Ekstrom Library], which opened in 1981. The four story building finished an expansion in March 2006, which increased its total size to 290,000 sq feet and shelving capacity to over 2.4 million books. It is one of only five universities in the U.S. to have a robotic retrieval system, which http://www.louisville.edu/library/ekstrom/tour/floor1/robot.html URL accessed on June 8 2006 robotically places books in a humidity free bins.

There are six other libraries at the university, with a combined total of over 600,000 volumes of work:

The Ekstrom Library's new wing
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The Ekstrom Library's new wing


The [Kersey library] is being converted to an academic building that will be part of the J. B. Speed School of Engineering.  Plans are to move the entire collection of the Kersey engineering library to the main library on campus, Ekstrom Library, before 2007.



Greek life


Sororities




Fraternities



Enrollment statistics http://www.louisville.edu/about/profile.html URL accessed on 

Undergraduate student body


  • Total enrollment is 21,760 as of Fall 2005.
  • 80% of students are Kentucky residents.
  • Average ACT Score: 23.9
  • 11,085 Full Time
  • 3,787 Part Time
  • 47% Male
  • 53% Female


Demographics


  • 81% White
  • 14% Black
  • 3% Asian
  • 1% Hispanic
  • 1% International


Top fifteen counties for enrollment, Fall 2005''' (Largest city in county)





Top five non-U.S. countries for enrollment, Fall 2005


  1. Panama 211*
  2. India 171
  3. China 151
  4. Egypt 72
  5. South Korea 50


Top five non-Kentucky states for enrollment, Fall 2005


  1. Indiana 1,352
  2. Ohio 159
  3. Illinois 126
  4. Florida 121
  5. Tennessee 110


  • *Panama enrollment due mostly to U of L's Panama City campus [link], which offers a full time MBA program. http://europe.vault.com/graddegree/school/school_main.jsp?program_id=13707&co_page=2&ch_id=255&tlist=&pt=3


Notable alumni and faculty, athletic alumni, and list of presidents




Sports






The Cardinal was chosen as the U of L mascot in 1911

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The Cardinal was chosen as the U of L mascot in 1911







The Louisville Cardinals (affectionately referred to as "the Cards") joined the Big East Conference on July 1 2005 after spending the previous 10 years as a member of Conference USA. The school is best known for its men's basketball, volleyball. and football teams. U of L currently fields ten women's teams and eight men's teams, with plans to add women's lacrosse in 2007.  In the Fall 2004- Spring 2005 season, the men's basketball, volleyball, and football teams had a combined record of 75-9, with each team achieving a top 6 national ranking. In 2006 the Cardinals doubled their number of track and field "All Americans" at the NCAA outdoor championships, with Rockcastle County native Kelley Bowman finishing third in the high jump and West Virginia native Tone Belt finishing fifth in the long jump


Since 1997, the school has spent over $150 million dollars (all from private funding) in upgrading its sports facilities. Since 2004, U of L has won conference titles in eight sports. Most U of L fans are in the Louisville Metro area, although U of L also has a sizable fan base in South Central and Western Kentucky, especially in the Columbia and Russell Springs area, Paducah, and Owensboro.



Did you know...


  • Despite being just 2.5 miles from the Indiana border, U of L is the closest to Kentucky's geographic center (NW of Lebanon, KY) among all eight public universities. It also sits at the lowest elevation of any Kentucky public university (about 460 feet).[link]
  • U of L's first president, Edward Mann Butler, was the first historian of Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley.
  • U of L was among the first municipally-supported college in the United States.
  • A Union fortress was located on the hill overlooking the eastern edge of Cardinal Park (that I-65 is now on) during the Civil War, giving it the name Fort Hill.
  • U of L is the only Kentucky university offering a graduate degree in women's and gender studies and was the first to offer a graduate degree in pan-African studies.
  • The U of L marching band has performed "My Old Kentucky Home" at every Kentucky Derby since 1936.


See also



References




Completed in 2001, the Rauch Planetarium is a frequent attraction at the University

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Completed in 2001, the Rauch Planetarium is a frequent attraction at the University










  •  Kleber, John "The Encyclopedia of Louisville" pp 902-903 History of the University of Louisville


External links








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