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Washington University in St. Louis

Encyclopedia : W : WA : WAS : Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis (also known as Wash U or WUSTL) is a private research university fifteen minutes west of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The university was founded in 1853 as Eliot Seminary. It includes schools of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Law, Business, Medicine, Social Work, and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In the 2006 U.S. News & World Report rankings, its undergraduate program is ranked 11th in the nation. WUSTL's Medical School is tied for fourth in the nation in research. The school of Social Work is ranked second. Tuition for both in-state and out-of-state undergraduates is $32,800 for the 2006-2007 school year. The university is officially incorporated as The Washington University

The current Chancellor of the University is Dr. Mark S. Wrighton, a Florida State- and Caltech-trained chemist who was formerly provost at MIT.

Contents

Overview

History

Washington University was co-founded as a nonsectarian, private institution in 1853 by the Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the Nobel Prize laureate poet T. S. Eliot, and by St. Louis leader Wayman Crow. Its first chancellor was Joseph Gibson Hoyt. It desegregated its undergraduate divisions in May of 1952.

The university's original name at the time of foundation was Eliot Seminary. Eliot, however, was not in favor of the name, and in 1854, the Board of Trustees changed it to Washington Institute in St. Louis in honor of George Washington. In 1857, the name was changed to Washington University. Often subsequently confused with other institutions sharing the Washington name in their titles, the university again changed its name in 1976, adding back the "in St. Louis" suffix to distinguish it in the national media from around 20 other institutions sharing the name.[link]

Athletics

WUSTL's sports teams are called the Bears. They participate in the University Athletic Association and the NCAA Division III. The Bears have won 12 NCAA Division III Championships, four in women's basketball (1998-2001) and eight in women's volleyball (1989, 1991-1996, 2003) and 112 University Athletic Association titles in 14 different sports. The Athletic Department is headed by John Schael who has served as director of athletics since 1978. The 2000 Division III Central Region winner of the National Association of Collegiate Director's of Athletics ([NACDA])/Continental Airlines Athletics Director of the Year award, Schael has helped orchestrate the Bears athletics transformation into one of the top departments in Division III. Washington University in St. Louis is home of Francis Field, site of the 1904 Summer Olympics.

Media

Washington University supports four major student-run media outlets. The university's independent student newspaper, Student Life, is printed thrice weekly and is one of the oldest college newspapers in the nation. KWUR (90.3 FM) serves as the university's official radio station; the station also attracts a listenership in the immediately surrounding community due to its eclectic and free-form musical programming. Though KWUR offers streaming content through the Internet, the station only broadcasts at ten watts, and its applications to the FCC to increase its power have been unsuccessful as of 2005. WUTV is the university's closed-circuit television channel. The university's main political publication is the Washington University Political Review (nicknamed "WUPR"), a student-run nonpartisan biweekly magazine. The Washington Witness, part of the national Collegiate Network, is a nonpartisan conservative and contrarian biweekly published by the school's Conservative Leadership Association. Washington University undergraduates publish two literary and art journals, The Eliot Review and Spires Intercollegiate Arts and Literary Magazine. A variety of other publications also serve the university community, ranging from in-house academic journals to glossy alumni magazines to organization newsletters.

Campus

History

Brookings Hall, the most recognized building on campus
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Brookings Hall, the most recognized building on campus

The University's Hilltop Campus was renamed as the Danforth Campus effective September 17, 2006 to honor former chancellor and major financial backer William "Bill" H. Danforth, grandson of Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and brother of U.S. Senator John Danforth.

It is distinguished by its Collegiate gothic architecture. Its construction was accelerated through a profitable lease of several buildings to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Thanks to the efforts and influence of David R. Francis, an alumnus and former mayor of St. Louis, Missouri governor, and U.S. Interior Secretary, newly-constructed campus buildings on the edge of Forest Park became the Hilltop campus when the Fair was over. This included facilities used by the six-day 1904 Summer Olympics, such as Francis Field and Francis Gymnasium [link]. The campus is close to St. Louis' Delmar Loop.

From the world's fair the university inherited the George Kessler design of the grounds and its signature building Brookings Hall which had been the Administration Building at the fair designed by Cope & Stewardson which was famed for designing schools throughout the country based on the style Oxford University. A nearly identical Administration Building is also the defining landmark of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri which was completed in 1910.

A common myth says the campus (and neighboring Forest Park) was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted, who died a year before the fair in 1903, created the 1897 master design renovations for the Missouri Botanical Garden a few blocks away. Kessler briefly worked for Olmstead in Central Park. However Olmsted's sons in the successor firm Olmsted & Olmsted did consult on the campus and recommended that its design be coordinated with the World's Fair.[link]

Residences

75% of students live on campus. Most of the dormitories on campus are located on the South 40, named because of its adjacent location south of the Hilltop campus and its size of 40 acres. It is the location of all the freshman dorms as well as many upperclassman dorms. All of the dorms are co-ed. The South 40 is organized as a pedestrian friendly environment where residences surround a central recreational lawn known as the Swamp. Wohl Student Center, the Habif Health and Wellness Center (Student Health Services), the Residential Life Office, University Police Headquarters, various student owned businesses, and the baseball, softball, and intramural fields are also located on the South 40.

Residences on the 40, as it is frequently abbreviated, are broken into small groups known as Residential Colleges. Residential Colleges typically have social events for their member houses and are administratively a single unit. Each College was originally supposed to consist of a freshman dormitory and an upperclassman dormitory paired together, but currently only five out of the nine include at least one freshman dormitory and at least one upperclassman dormitory.

Residential Colleges include:

Another group of residences, known as the North Side, is located in the northwest corner of campus. Only open to upperclassmen, the North Side consists of Millbrook Apartments, The Village, and all fraternity houses. Sororities at Wash U do not have houses by their own accord. The Village, also known as Small Group Housing, is a group of residences where students who have similar interests or academic goals apply as small groups of 4 to 24, known as BLOCs, to live together in clustered suites. Like the South 40, the residences around the Village also surround a recreational lawn as well as its own student center.

Recent Years

Since 1995, more than 25 new buildings have been erected.

The campus was the venue for 3 Presidential debates: the first 1992 Presidential debate on October 11, 1992, the third 2000 Presidential debate on October 17, 2000, and the second 2004 Presidential debate on October 8, 2004. It was also scheduled to host one in 1996, but that debate was cancelled when the two candidates chose not to participate.

Schools

Washington University was the site of the Games of the III Olympiad
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Washington University was the site of the Games of the III Olympiad

College of Arts & Sciences

The College of Arts & Sciences is the central undergraduate unit of the University with 330 tenured and tenure-track faculty along with over 100 research scientists, lecturers, artists in residence, and visitors serving about 3,000 undergraduates in 40 academic departments divided into divisions of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The College of Arts and Sciences is currently ranked 11th in the country according to U.S. News & World Report.

Undergraduates in the other schools meet general education requirements by taking courses in the College of Arts & Sciences. Many of these students have double majors or minors in an Arts & Sciences discipline as well as in their professional field.

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

The Graduate School serves over 1,500 students pursuing Masters and Ph.D. degrees. It is ranked highly in terms of time to degree and the rate at which it places its graduates. Some of its many notable programs include: Germanic Language and Literatures, Creative Writing, Political Science, Anthropology and the interdisciplinary Philosophy-Neurosciences-Psychology.

School of Law

The School of Law is currently ranked nineteenth in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The law school's clinical training program is currently ranked fourth in the nation. The law school offers a full-time day program, beginning in August, for the J.D. degree in a state-of-the-art building, Anheuser-Busch Hall (opened in 1997). The building combines traditional architecture, a five-story open-stacks library, and the latest wireless and other technologies. National Jurist ranked Washington University 4th among the "25 Most Wired Law Schools." The School of Law offers eight joint-degree programs, including JD/MSW, JD/East Asian Studies, and JD/MBA programs. It also offers two graduate degrees in law, the LLM and the MJS (Master of Juridical Studies). The law school offers 3 semesters of courses in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, and requires at least 85 hours of coursework for the JD.

Olin School of Business

The John M. Olin School of Business is located alongside the School of Law and the College of Arts and Sciences on Washington University's hilltop campus. Olin has been ranked in the Top 30 US MBA programs by BusinessWeek for years, and in recent years its undergraduate program has been ranked among the top 15 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Olin School of Business was founded in 1917. The school was named after the entrepreneur John M. Olin in 1988. As one of the leading business schools in the United States, Olin obtained its reputation from strong research-oriented achievements and competitive graduates. The school provides degree programs in BSBA, MSBA, MBA, EMBA, and part-time programs in MBA and PhD degrees. In 2002, an Executive MBA program was established in Shanghai, in cooperation with Fudan University.

Olin has a network of about 13,000 alumni all over the world. Over the last several years, the school’s endowment has increased to $178 million (2004) and annual gifts average $12 million per year. Due to a donation from John E. Simon, [Simon Hall] was opened in 1986.

The flexible course arrangement is a factor attracting potential students. Undergraduates who pursue the accounting concentration can choose a five-year Master of Science program which is seeking CI certification in school. Graduate students can select electives from other areas in Washington University such as the Medical School and Law School.

School of Medicine

The School of Medicine is ranked fourth in research according to U.S. News & World Report"The Best Graduate Schools 2006". U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/medindex_brief.php. It is very selective and is a world center for research in genomics, cancer, diabetes, etc.

The medical school partners with St. Louis Children's Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital (part of [BJC HealthCare]), where all physicians are members of the school's faculty.

George Warren Brown School of Social Work

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work (commonly called GWB) is currently ranked second among Master of Social Work (MSW) programs in the United States. GWB also offers a Ph.D. in Social Work, in cooperation with the Graduate School. The school was named by Bettie Bofinger Brown for her husband - George Warren Brown - a St. Louis shoe manufacturing magnate and philanthropist. The school's dean is Edward Lawlor. It has a center for Native American research, as well as acclaimed scholars in social security, health, individual development accounts, etc.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) was ranked 36th in the 2005 U.S. News undergraduate engineering program ratings. Its current head is Dean Mary J. Sansalone, Ph.D.

Departments include:

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Created in 2005, the Sam Fox School combines the strengths of art and architecture into a single school offering both undergraduate and graduate programs. The School also includes the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, considered one of the most distinguished university art collections in the country. Architecture offers BS and BA degrees as well as M.Arch. There is a combined six-year BS/M.Arch degree program as well as joint M.Arch programs with most of the other schools in the University. In 2006, the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design was ranked 10th in the nation by Design Intelligence. Art offers the BFA and MFA in Art in the context of a full university environment. Students take courses in the College of Arts & Sciences as well as courses in the School of Art to provide a well rounded background. One third of students in the school pursue a combined study degree program, second major, and/or minors in other undergraduate divisions at Washington University. U.S. News & World Report ranked the MFA program 21st in the nation. In October 2006 the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will move into new facilities designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect, Fumihiko Maki.

Notable Washington University People

Alumni include twenty-two Nobel-laureates, most in the field of medicine and physiology.

Official websites

Further reading

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References

 

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