Everything about The University Of Louisville totally explained
The
University of Louisville (also known as
U of L) is a public
university in
Louisville,
Kentucky,
United States. It is one of the oldest chartered universities west of the Allegheny Mountains and is mandated by the
Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University". U of L enrolls students from 118 of 120
Kentucky counties, all 50
U.S. states, and 116 countries around the world.
The University of Louisville Health Sciences Center participated in the development of the
first 100 percent effective vaccine against cervical cancer in 2006, the first fully self-contained
artificial heart transplant,
the first successful
hand transplant, and the development of the
Pap smear test. U of L 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.
Since 1999, U of L has made the largest gains of any university in
National Institutes of Health research ranking, with its NIH funding increasing 277 percent and its rank increasing 30 places. As of 2006 among public
U.S. universities, the
melanoma clinic ranks third, the
neurology research program fourth, and the
spinal cord research program 10th in NIH funding.
U of L is also known for its successful athletics program. Since 2000 the Cardinals are the only NCAA team to win a
BCS bowl game, appear in the men's basketball
Final Four,
College Baseball World Series, and win a national championship in
Track and Field.
Academics and innovations
|
Year |
| World's first ever cervical cancer vaccine |
2006 |
| World's first self-contained artificial heart transplant |
2001 |
| World's first successful hand transplant |
1999 |
| World's first civilian hospital |
1939 |
| World's first civilian ambulance |
1939 |
The University of Louisville offers bachelor's degrees in 70 fields of study, masters' degrees in 78 fields of study, and doctorate degrees in 22 fields of study. The school's admission standards are considered "more selective" by
U.S. News & World Report.
Academically, U of L boasts a School of Business that's ranked among the top 7 percent in the nation, a dental school ranked in the top 10 regularly according to board scores,
a law school tied with two other colleges for the 97th ranking in the nation, and nationally respected programs in engineering, social work, and music. UofL is also the only U.S. college to offer a minor in
African American theatre, among only 21 schools in the U.S. to offer a
graduate degree in
Pan-African studies, and among the first five to require public service in its
law school curriculum.
The
Brandeis Medal is awarded by the law school's
Louis D. Brandeis Society, and is given in tribute to Brandeis, a former
U.S. Supreme Court justice from Louisville and the namesake of the university's law school.
History
Founding and early years: 1798-1845
The University of Louisville traces its 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 (24 km²) of
South Central Kentucky land to pay for its implementation. On April 3, 1798, eight community leaders began local
fund raising for the school, then known as the
Jefferson Seminary. It opened 15 years later 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 later 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. UofL is among the first municipally supported colleges in the U.S.
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. 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 an 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 20th century, adding new schools in the liberal arts (1907),
graduate studies (1915),
dentistry (1918),
engineering (1925),
music (1932) and
social work (1936).
In 1923, the school purchased what is today the Belknap Campus, where it moved its liberal arts programs and law school, with the medical school remaining downtown. 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 campus after the family for their efforts.
In 1931, U of L purchased the
Louisville Municipal College for Negroes (est. 1879 and now
Simmons College of Kentucky), 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 20th 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 heated debate, the university joined the state system in 1970, a move largely orchestrated by then
Kentucky governor and U of L alumnus
Louie Nunn.
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.
John Shumaker was named U of L's president in 1995. Shumaker was a very successful
fund raiser, and quickly increased the school's endowment from $183 to $550 million. He also developed the REACH program to encourage retention. In 1997, he hired
athletics director Tom Jurich, 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 Belknap 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 GPAs and ACT scores were much higher for incoming freshman.
The school's current and 27th president is
James R. Ramsey, the former state budget director. Ramsey has continued the endowment and fund raising growth started by Shumaker, but added more emphasis on improving the physical aspects 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. UofL's
retention rates have also increased from 30 percent in 1999 to 40 percent in 2006.
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
Worldport, the company's worldwide air hub at
Louisville International Airport,
full tuition reimbursement through a program called Metropolitan College. Currently over 75 percent of the workers at the air hub are students.
Schools and colleges
The university now consists of 12 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 (5 km) south of downtown Louisville in the
Old Louisville neighborhood. It houses seven of the 12 academic colleges and contains one the casts of
Auguste Rodin's
The Thinker in front of the main administrative building, Grawemeyer Hall. The tallest buildings on the Belknap Campus are University Tower and Unitas Tower, both 11 stories. The grounds of the campus were once the city's House of Refuge, and some buildings once used by that institution have been converted to classroom and office use.
The Belknap Campus has expanded greatly in recent years, with land housing abandoned factories in the area being purchased and redeveloped. Projects built since 1998 include
Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and adjacent Trager Center fieldhouse, Owsley B. Frazier Cardinal Park (which includes Ulmer Stadium for softball, Trager Stadium for field hockey, Cardinal Track and Soccer Stadium, Bass-Rudd Tennis Center, locker rooms, a playground and a cushioned walking path),
Jim Patterson Stadium for baseball, Ralph R. Wright Natatorium, Owsley Brown Frazier
Sports Medicine Center, and a lacrosse stadium. 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 funding and by using private companies to build and run the new residential halls since the state has offered little financial help for the projects.
Other points of interest on the Belknap Campus include the
Rauch Planetarium, the Covi Gallery of the Hite Art Institute, and the final resting place for former
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Louis D. Brandeis under the portico in the Brandeis Law School. Surrounded by, but not part of the campus, are the
Speed Art Museum, a private institution not affiliated with the University of Louisville, and the
Confederate Civil War Monument, located at the juncture of 2nd and 3rd streets, which honors
Confederate Civil War dead; this was built there before the school grew to surround the land it stands on, which is owned by
Louisville Metro. The Kentucky State
Data Center, the state's official
clearing house for census data and estimates, is located next to Bettie Johnson Hall.
Development projects
Several important projects are under construction or planned in the near future, including the reconstruction of the
I-65 ramps to the Belknap Campus, converting the four lanes of Eastern Parkway into a two-lane road with bike lanes and a landscaped median to improve pedestrian access to the
Speed School, the moving of several university offices to allow the existing facilities at Arthur Street and Brandeis Avenue to be converted to
commercial property and restaurants, and the conversion of the old macaroni factory on Floyd Street into a condominium complex which will include five acres of commercial property. The
Yum! Center (a men's basketball and volleyball practice facility) was completed in the fall of 2007. A
Olympic sports training/rehab center adjacent to Trager Stadium is also under construction.
Long-term plans include reconstruction of the 3rd Street railway tunnel between Winkler Avenue and Eastern Parkway, purchase of the Standard Oil Building at 450 West Cardinal Boulevard to provide more on-campus parking, improvement of Stansbury Park, and conversion of the former Reynolds Building on 4th Street into a mixed-use commercial and residential project. Planned improvements to athletic facilities include revamping the rowing facilities at Phase II of
Waterfront Park and expansion of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium to 63,600 seats.
Health Sciences Center
The U of L Health Sciences Center, also called the med campus, is located just east of
Downtown Louisville in the Louisville medical park which contains three other major hospitals and several specialty hospitals, and it houses the remaining five colleges. 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 finished for a recently-opened, downtown Louisville Cardiovascular Research Innovation Institute building to be directed by a researcher, Stuart Williams from the
University of Arizona; 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.
| Buildings over 5 stories |
Stories |
Location |
Year Completed |
| Medical Research Tower |
14 |
Muhammmad Ali Blvd |
1970 |
| University Hospital |
11 |
Jackson Street @ Muhammad Ali Blvd |
1970 |
| Biolab Tower (Under Construction) |
8 |
Hancock Street @ Muhammad Ali Blvd |
(P) 2008 |
| Medical/Dental Dormitory |
7 |
Preston Street |
1972 |
| Cardiovascular Research Building |
6 |
Muhammad Ali Blvd @ Floyd Street |
2006 |
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 to 1969. After the college folded, it transferred all its assets and liabilities to U of L. 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. The Shelby Campus is also home for the ITRC Building which houses the IT Resource Center for
Homeland Security. The ITRC conducts communications and IT research for the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as seminars and training in
emergency preparedness and response.
Panama campus and other facilities
The University of Louisville also runs a sister campus in
Panama City,
Panama, which has an MBA program. 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
Latin America.
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. UofL'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 1.3 million books. It is one of only five universities in the U.S. to have a robotic retrieval system, which robotically places books in humidity-free bins.
There are five other libraries at the university, with a combined total of more than 400,000 volumes of work:
The Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library
Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library
Kornhauser Health Sciences Library
Brandeis Law School Library
University Archives and Center
The old Kersey Library Building will be converted to an academic building for the J. B. Speed School of Engineering. The Kersey Library collection was fully integrated into Ekstrom Library on January 15, 2007.
Media
One main criticism of the university is that, despite being in a large city, it has no university-controlled television station, although it does have a student run radio station, WLCV, which began airing in 1968. U of L, however, does hold a prominent role in the city of Louisville's "Public Radio Partnership" which features three NPR stations under one roof. The school holds one-third of the seats on the Partnership's board of directors. The school formerly controlled its namesake station, WUOL, but that station is now the classical music part of the Partnership.
There is also an independent student-run weekly newspaper, The Louisville Cardinal. The newspaper was originally founded in 1926, and has maintained financial and editorial independence since 1980. The newspaper, which is overseen by a board of local media professionals and run by a student editor in chief, is one of the few truly independent college/university newspapers in the country.
Greek life
Sororities
Sigma Kappa 1922 Chapter Alpha Theta
Pi Beta Phi 1925 Chapter Kentucky Alpha
Delta Phi Epsilon 1927 (closed since 1951)
Zeta Tau Alpha 1927 (closed since 1977)
Kappa Delta 1928 Chapter Alpha Xi
Delta Zeta 1928 Chapter Beta Gamma
Chi Omega 1929 Chapter Beta Gamma
Alpha Omicron Pi 1983 Chapter Pi Alpha
Alpha Sigma Kappa 2000 Chapter Gamma
Alpha Kappa Alpha Chapter Beta Epsilon
Sigma Gamma Rho
Zeta Phi Beta Chapter Delta Theta
Fraternities
Beta Theta Pi 1971 Chapter Delta Pi
Delta Upsilon 1949 Chapter Sigma Chi Sigma
Kappa Alpha Psi 1933 Chapter Alpha Omicron
Kappa Sigma 1983 Chapter Mu Eta
Lambda Chi Alpha 1948 Chapter Zeta Sigma Zeta
Pi Kappa Alpha 1993 Chapter Kappa Zeta
Phi Delta Theta 2007 Chapter Kentucky Iota
Phi Mu Alpha 1995 Chapter Zeta Kappa
Phi Kappa Tau 1947 Chapter Beta Beta
Sigma Alpha Epsilon 1999 Chapter Kentucky Sigma
Sigma Chi 1989 Chapter Iota Lambda
Sigma Phi Epsilon 1947 Chapter Kentucky Beta
Tau Kappa Epsilon 1942 Chapter Alpha Chi
Triangle 1941 Chapter Louisville
Enrollment statistics
Undergraduate student body
Total enrollment is 21,841 as of Fall 2006.
79.7% of students are Kentucky residents.
48.8% of students are from Jefferson County (down from 64% in 1995)
Average ACT Score: 24.3 (up from 20.7 in 1995)
6 year graduation rate: 43.7% (up from 33% in 2004)
15,804 Full Time
6,037 Part Time
46.8% Male
53.2% Female
Demographics
77.4% White non Hispanic
10.9% African American
5.2% Asian American
5.4% International students
1.1% Multi-racial
Top 5 Kentucky counties for enrollment, Fall 2006
Top five International countries for enrollment, Fall 2006
Panama 196*
China 159
India 148
Egypt 69
Canada 41
Top five US states (other than KY) for enrollment, Fall 2006
Indiana 1,380**
Ohio 197
Florida 132
Tennessee 121
Georgia 114
Note: *Panama enrollment includes UofL's Panama City campus,
Note: **Beginning in 1998, UofL began offering in-state tuition to residents of Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Washington, and Crawford counties in Indiana
Notable alumni and faculty, athletic alumni, and list of presidents
Notable Alumni
David L. Armstrong, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Athletics
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. (External Link) UofL is traditionally known for its men's basketball and women's volleyball teams. The men's basketball program is also the nation's most profitable NCAA basketball program, with a net annual revenue of $18.5 million, considerably more than the $12.9 million of archrival Kentucky. Furthering the rivalry - U of L has more registered college license plates than the University of Kentucky (18,300 to 17,000); a fourfold increase since 2004.
In recent years, the football program has gained national prominence, with a 32-5 record since 2004 and two of three seasons finishing top five in the final BCS poll. The Cardinals won the 2006 Big East title and the 2007 Orange Bowl, U of L's first-ever BCS bowl game.
In addition to U of L's traditionally strong fan base in Louisville, Southern Indiana, and Western Kentucky (particularly in the cities of Bowling Green, Paducah, and Owensboro), UofL's fans are now coming from other parts of the state, especially in the Northern Kentucky and the Lexington/Frankfort areas. U of L currently has radio affiliates throughout the state. Since 2004, all U of L games and coaches' shows on WHAS-TV Louisville have been televised on every cable provider in Kentucky.
The total sales of U of L merchandise has tripled since 2001, now ranking 27th nationally in sales, second highest in the Big East Conference and the third highest among all urban universities (Southern California and Miami). Since 1997, the school has spent more than $150 million (all from private funding) in upgrading its sports facilities. Since 2004, U of L has won conference titles in eight sports. U of L currently fields 13 women's teams and 10 men's teams.
| Football all-time bowl appearances (14) |
| 1958 |
1970 |
| 1977 |
1991 |
| 1993 |
1998 |
| 1999 |
2000 |
| 2001 |
2002 |
| 2003 |
2004 |
| 2005 |
2006 |
| U of L team |
All-time record |
Winning percent |
| Volleyball |
687-367 |
65.2% |
| Men's Basketball |
1,505-806 |
65.1% |
| Softball |
259-147 |
62.2% |
| Women's Basketball |
520-382 |
57.6% |
| Football |
426-405 |
51.3% |
| Baseball |
1,316-1,264 |
51.2% |
| Field Hockey |
229-286 |
44.4% |
| Men's Soccer |
190-282 |
40.2% |
| Women's Soccer |
138-239 |
36.7% |
| Overall |
5,270-4,178 |
55.77 |
| Men's Basketball NCAA national championships (2) |
| 1980 |
1986 |
| Men's Basketball NCAA Final Fours (8) |
| 1959 |
1972 |
| 1975 |
1980 |
| 1982 |
1983 |
| 1986 |
2005 |
Further Information
Get more info on 'University Of Louisville'.
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