Northwestern University

Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago in Illinois, United States, as well as Doha, Qatar. Composed of twelve schools and colleges, Northwestern offers 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees.[5][6][7]

Northwestern was founded in 1851 by John Evans, for whom the City of Evanston is named, and eight other lawyers, businessmen and Methodist leaders. Its founding purpose was to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that today includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.[8] Instruction began in 1855; women were admitted in 1869. Today, the main campus is a 240-acre (97 ha) parcel in Evanston, along the shores of Lake Michigan just 12 miles north of downtown Chicago. The university's law, medical, and professional schools are located on a 25-acre (10 ha) campus in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood. In 2008, the university opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar with programs in journalism and communication.[9]



Northwestern is a large research university with a comprehensive doctoral program and attracts over $550 million in sponsored research each year.[10][11] Northwestern has the eighth largest university endowment in the United States, currently valued at $10.19 billion.[1] In 2016, the university accepted 10.7% of undergraduate applicants from a pool of 35,000.[12][13]

Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and remains the only private university in the conference.[14] The Northwestern Wildcats compete in 19 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA's Division I Big Ten Conference.

The foundation of Northwestern University is traceable to a meeting on May 31, 1850 of nine prominent Chicago businessmen, Methodist leaders and attorneys who had formed the idea of establishing a university to serve what had once been known as the Northwest Territory. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the North-Western University, making it the first chartered university in Illinois.[15][16] The school's nine founders, all of whom were Methodists (three of them ministers), knelt in prayer and worship before launching their first organizational meeting.[17] Although they affiliated the university with the Methodist Episcopal Church, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions, believing that Northwestern should serve all people in the newly developing territory.[18]

John Evans, for whom Evanston is named, bought 379 acres (153 ha) of land along Lake Michigan in 1853, and Philo Judson developed plans for what would become the city of Evanston, Illinois. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5, 1855.[19] To raise funds for its construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" entitling the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition.[20][21] Another building, University Hall, was built in 1869 of the same Joliet limestone as the Chicago Water Tower, also built in 1869, one of the few buildings in the heart of Chicago to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.[22] In 1873 the Evanston College for Ladies merged with Northwestern, and Frances Willard, who later gained fame as a suffragette and as one of the founders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), became the school's first dean of women. Willard Residential College (1938) is named in her honor. Northwestern admitted its first women students in 1869, and the first woman was graduated in 1874.[23]

Northwestern fielded its first intercollegiate football team in 1882, later becoming a founding member of the Big Ten Conference. In the 1870s and 1880s, Northwestern affiliated itself with already existing schools of law, medicine, and dentistry in Chicago. The Northwestern University School of Law is the oldest law school in Chicago. As the university increased in wealth and distinction, and enrollments grew, these professional schools were integrated with the undergraduate college in Evanston; the result was a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, which gave equal weight to teaching and research.[24][25] The Association of American Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917.

Under Walter Dill Scott's presidency from 1920 to 1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated campus in Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers to house the professional schools; established the Kellogg School of Management; and built several prominent buildings on the Evanston campus, Dyche Stadium (now named Ryan Field) and Deering Library among others. In 1933, a proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago was considered but rejected.[26][27] Northwestern was also one of the first six universities in the country to establish a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) in the 1920s. Northwestern played host to the first-ever NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game in 1939 in the original Patten Gymnasium, which was later demolished and relocated farther north along with the Dearborn Observatory to make room for the Technological Institute.

Like other American research universities, Northwestern was transformed by World War II. Franklyn B. Snyder led the university from 1939 to 1949, when nearly 50,000 military officers and personnel were trained on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. After the war, surging enrollments under the G.I. Bill drove drastic expansion of both campuses. In 1948 prominent anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits founded the Program of African Studies at Northwestern, the first center of its kind at an American academic institution.[28] J. Roscoe Miller's tenure as president from 1949 to 1970 was responsible for the expansion of the Evanston campus, with the construction of the lakefill on Lake Michigan, growth of the faculty and new academic programs, as well as polarizing Vietnam-era student protests. In 1978, the first and second Unabomber attacks occurred at Northwestern University.[29] Relations between Evanston and Northwestern were strained throughout much of the post-war era because of episodes of disruptive student activism,[30] disputes over municipal zoning, building codes, and law enforcement,[31] as well as restrictions on the sale of alcohol near campus until 1972.[32][33] Northwestern's exemption from state and municipal property tax obligations under its original charter has historically been a source of town and gown tension.

Though government support for universities declined in the 1970s and 1980s, President Arnold R. Weber was able to stabilize university finances, leading to a revitalization of the campuses. As admissions to colleges and universities grew increasingly competitive in the 1990s and 2000s, President Henry S. Bienen's tenure saw a notable increase in the number and quality of undergraduate applicants, continued expansion of the facilities and faculty, and renewed athletic competitiveness. In 1999, Northwestern student journalists uncovered information exonerating Illinois death row inmate Anthony Porter two days before his scheduled execution, and the Innocence Project has since exonerated 10 more men.[34][35] On January 11, 2003, in a speech at Northwestern School of Law's Lincoln Hall, then Governor of Illinois George Ryan announced that he would commute the sentences of more than 150 death row inmates.[36]

The Latin phrase on Northwestern's seal, Quaecumque sunt vera (Whatsoever things are true) is drawn from the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians 4:8, while the Greek phrase inscribed on the pages of an open book is taken from the Gospel of John 1:14: ο λόγος πλήρης χάριτος και αληθείας (The Word full of grace and truth).[37][38] Purple became Northwestern's official color in 1892,[39] replacing black and gold after a university committee concluded that too many other universities had used these colors. Today, Northwestern's official color is purple, although white is something of an official color as well, being mentioned in both the university's earliest song, Alma Mater (1907) ("Hail to purple, hail to white") and in many university guidelines.[4][40]

Northwestern's Evanston campus, where the undergraduate schools, the Graduate School, and the Kellogg School of Management are located, runs north-south from Lincoln Avenue to Clark Street west of Lake Michigan along Sheridan Road. North and South Campuses have noticeably different atmospheres, owing to the predominance of Science and Athletics in the one and Humanities and Arts in the other. North Campus is home to the fraternity quads, the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Norris Aquatics Center and other athletic facilities, the Technological Institute, Dearborn Observatory, and other science-related buildings including Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center. South Campus is home to the University's humanities buildings, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and other music buildings, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, and the sorority quads. In the 1960s, the University created an additional 84 acres (34.0 ha) by means of a lakefill in Lake Michigan. Among some of the buildings located on these broad new acres are University Library, Norris University Center (the student union), and Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

The Chicago Transit Authority's elevated train running through Evanston is called the Purple Line, taking its name from Northwestern's school color. The Foster and Davis stations are within walking distance of the southern end of the campus, while the Noyes station is close to the northern end of the campus. The Central station is close to Ryan Field, Northwestern's football stadium. The Evanston Davis Street Metra station serves the Northwestern campus in downtown Evanston and the Evanston Central Street Metra station is near Ryan Field. Pace Suburban Bus Service and the CTA have several bus routes that run through or near the Evanston campus.

Northwestern's Chicago campus is located in the city's Streeterville neighborhood. The Chicago campus is home to the medical school and affiliated hospitals, the law school, the part-time MBA program, and the School of Professional Studies, which offers evening and weekend courses for working adults. Northwestern's professional schools and affiliated hospitals are about four blocks east of the Chicago station on the CTA Red Line. The Chicago campus is also served by CTA bus routes.

Founded at various times in the university's history, the professional schools originally were scattered throughout Chicago.[42] In connection with a 1917 master plan for a central Chicago campus and President Walter Dill Scott's capital campaign, 8.5 acres (3.44 ha) of land were purchased at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Lake Shore Drive for $1.5 million in 1920.[42][42][43] The architect James Gamble Rogers was commissioned to create a master plan for the principal buildings on the new campus which he designed in collegiate gothic style. In 1923, Mrs. Montgomery Ward donated $8 million to the campaign to finance the construction of the Montgomery Ward Memorial Building which would house the medical and dental schools and to create endowments for faculty chairs, research grants, scholarships, and building maintenance.[44] The building would become the first university skyscraper in the United States.[41] In addition to the Ward Building, Rogers designed Wieboldt Hall to house facilities for the School of Commerce[45] and Levy Mayer Hall to house the School of Law.[46] The new campus comprising these three new buildings was dedicated during a two-day ceremony in June 1927. The Chicago campus continued to expand with the addition of Thorne Hall in 1931 and Abbott Hall in 1939.[42][47] In October 2013, Northwestern began the demolition of the architecturally significant Prentice Women's Hospital. Eric G. Neilson, dean of the medical school, penned an op-ed that equated retaining the building with loss of life.[48]

In Fall 2008, Northwestern opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar, joining five other American universities: Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.[49] Through the Medill School of Journalism and School of Communication, NU-Q offers bachelor's degrees in journalism and communication respectively.[50] The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development provided funding for construction and administrative costs as well as support to hire 50 to 60 faculty and staff, some of whom rotate between the Evanston and Qatar campuses.[51][52] In February 2016, Northwestern reached an agreement with the Qatar Foundation to extend the operations of the NU-Q branch for an additional decade, through the 2027-2028 academic year.[53]

In January 2009, the Green Power Partnership (GPP, sponsored by the EPA) listed Northwestern as one of the top 10 universities in the country in purchasing energy from renewable sources. The university matches 74 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of its annual energy use with Green-e Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). This green power commitment represents 30 percent of the university's total annual electricity use and places Northwestern in the EPA's Green Power Leadership Club. The 2010 Report by The Sustainable Endowments Institute awarded Northwestern a "B-" on its College Sustainability Report Card.[54] The Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN), supporting research, teaching and outreach in these themes, was launched in 2008.[55]

Northwestern requires that all new buildings be LEED-certified. Silverman Hall on the Evanston campus was awarded Gold LEED Certification in 2010; Wieboldt Hall on the Chicago campus was awarded Gold LEED Certification in 2007, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center on the Evanston campus was awarded Silver LEED Certification in 2006. New construction and renovation projects will be designed to provide at least a 20% improvement over energy code requirements where technically feasible.[56] The university also released at the beginning of the 2008–09 academic year the Evanston Campus Framework Plan, which outlines plans for future development of the Evanston Campus. The plan not only emphasizes the sustainable construction of buildings, but also discusses improving transportation by optimizing pedestrian and bicycle access.[57] Northwestern has had a comprehensive recycling program in place since 1990. Annually more than 1,500 tons are recycled at Northwestern, which represents 30% of the waste produced on campus. Additionally, all landscape waste at the university is composted.[55]

Northwestern is privately owned and is governed by an appointed Board of Trustees. The board, composed of 70 members and as of 2011 chaired by William A. Osborn '69, delegates its power to an elected president to serve as the chief executive officer of the university.[58] Northwestern has had sixteen presidents in its history (excluding interim presidents), the current president, Morton O. Schapiro, an economist, having succeeded Henry Bienen whose 14-year tenure ended on August 31, 2009.[59][60][61] The president has a staff of vice presidents, directors, and other assistants for administrative, financial, faculty, and student matters.[62] Daniel I. Linzer, provost since September 2007, serves under the president as the chief academic officer of the university to whom the deans of every academic school, leaders of cross-disciplinary units, and chairs of the standing faculty committee report.[63]

The Associated Student Government consists of the elected representatives of the undergraduate students and the Graduate Student Association represents graduate students.[64][65]

Northwestern University is composed of 12 schools and colleges. The faculty for each school consists of the dean of the school and the instructional faculty. Faculty are responsible for teaching, research, advising students, and serving on committees. Each school's admission requirements, degree requirements, courses of study, and disciplinary and degree recommendations are determined by the voting members of that school's faculty (assistant professor and above).[66]

In 2003, Northwestern finished a five-year capital campaign that raised $1.55 billion, $550 million more than its goal. In 2007, the university sold its royalty interest in the pain relief drug Lyrica for $700 million, a drug developed at Northwestern by Richard Bruce Silverman (for whom Silverman Hall was named), who is the John Evans Professor of Chemistry. This was the largest such sale in history,[67] the proceeds of which were added to the endowment.[68]

Amherst College

Amherst College (Listeni/ˈæmərst/[4] am-ərst) is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution[5] and enrolled 1,795 students in the fall of 2015.[2] Students choose courses from 38 major programs[6] in an unusually open curriculum. Amherst was ranked as the second best liberal arts college in the country by U.S. News & World Report,[7] and ninth out of all U.S. colleges and universities by Forbes[8] in their 2015 rankings.

Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its president, Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher education in Massachusetts.[9] Amherst was established as a men's college and became coeducational in 1975.


Amherst has historically had close relationships and rivalries with Williams College and Wesleyan University which form the Little Three colleges. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium.\

Founded in 1821, Amherst College developed out of the secondary school Amherst Academy. The college was originally suggested as an alternative to Williams College, which was struggling to stay open. Although Williams remained open, Amherst was formed and diverged from its Williams roots into an individual institution.[citation needed]

In 1812, funds were raised in Amherst for a secondary school, Amherst Academy; it opened December 1814.[10] The institution was named after the town, which in turn had been named after Jeffery, Lord Amherst, a veteran from the Seven Years' War and later commanding general of the British forces in North America. On November 18, 1817, a project was adopted at the Academy to raise funds for the free instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole view to the Christian ministry." This required a substantial investment from benefactors.[citation needed]

During the fundraising for the project, it became clear that without larger designs, it would be impossible to raise sufficient funds. This led the committee overseeing the project to conclude that a new institution should be created. On August 18, 1818, the Amherst Academy board of trustees accepted this conclusion and began building a new college.[citation needed]

Moore, then President of Williams College, however, still believed that Williamstown was an unsuitable location for a college, and with the advent of Amherst College was elected its first president on May 8, 1821. At its opening, Amherst had forty-seven students. Fifteen of these had followed Moore from Williams College. Those fifteen represented about one-third of the whole number at Amherst, and about one-fifth of the whole number in the three classes to which they belonged in Williams College. President Moore died on June 29, 1823, and was replaced with a Williams College trustee, Heman Humphrey. Williams alumni are fond of an apocryphal story ascribing the removal of books from the Williams College library to Amherst College, but there is no contemporaneous evidence to verify the story. In 1995, Williams president Harry C. Payne declared the story false, but many still nurture the legend.[citation needed]

Amherst grew quickly, and for two years in the mid-1830s it was the second largest college in the United States, second only to Yale. In 1835, Amherst attempted to create a course of study parallel to the classical liberal arts education. This parallel course focused less on Greek and Latin, instead focusing on English, French, Spanish, chemistry, economics, etc. The parallel course did not take hold, however, until the next century.[citation needed]

Amherst was founded as a non-sectarian institution "for the classical education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry." (Tyler, A History of Amherst College) One of the hallmarks of the new college was its Charity Fund, an early form of financial aid that paid the tuition of poorer students.[11] Although officially non-denominational, the initial Amherst was widely seen as a religiously conservative institution with a strong connection to Calvinism, and as a result, there was considerable debate in the Massachusetts government over whether the new college should receive an official charter from the state, and a charter was not granted until February 21, 1825.[11] As a result of the official charter being granted four years after the official founding of the college, the Amherst seal lists a date of 1825. A tradition of religious conservatism persisted at Amherst until the mid-nineteenth century; students who consumed alcohol or played cards were subject to expulsion, and there were a number of religious revivals at Amherst where mobs of righteous students would herd less religious students into the chapel and berate them for lack of piety.[11] Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, the college began a transition towards secularism, culminating in the demolishing of the college church in 1949.[12]

Academic hoods in the United States are traditionally lined with the official colors of the school, in theory so watchers can tell where the hood wearer earned his or her degree. Amherst's hoods are purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or chevron, said to signify that Amherst was born of Williams. Amherst records one of the first uses of Latin honors of any American college, dating back to 1881.[13] The college was an all-male school until the late 1960s, when a few female students from nearby schools in the Five-College Consortium attended on an experimental basis. In October 1974, the faculty voted in favor of coeducation and in November 1974 the board of trustees voted to admit female students starting in the 1975-1976 school year. In 1975, nine women who were already attending classes as part of an inter-college exchange program were admitted as transfer students. In June 1976, they became the first female graduates of the college.[14]

The college established the Black Studies Department in 1969. In 1973, it launched the nation's first undergraduate neuroscience program. In 1983, it established a Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, which was later to become the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations.[15]

In 1984, on-campus fraternities were abolished. The former fraternity buildings, which were owned by the college, were converted into residence halls.[15]

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies was established in 1987 and the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought in 1993.[15]

Since the inception of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Amherst College has been ranked ten times as the first overall amongst 266 liberal arts colleges in the United States,[19] and in 2016 ranked second, behind Williams.[20]

In 2015, Forbes ranked Amherst College as the ninth best college or university in the United States.[21]

Kiplinger's Personal Finance places Amherst 11th in its 2016 ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.[22]

Amherst College ranked second overall in 2012, according to the National Collegiate Scouting Association's annual report, which ranks colleges based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength, and athletic prowess.[23]

Amherst ranked as having the second-highest graduation rate of any institution in the United States, second only to Harvard according to a 2009 American Enterprise Institute Study.[24]

Amherst ranked 18th in the 2015 Washington Monthly rankings,[25] which focus on key research outputs, the quality level and total dollar amount of scientific (natural and social sciences) grants won, the number of graduates going on to earn Ph.D. degrees, and certain types of public service.

According to The Princeton Review, Amherst ranks in the top 20 among all colleges and universities in the nation for "Students Satisfied With Financial Aid," "School Runs Like Butter," and "Top 10 Best Value Private Schools."[26]

Amherst also participates in the University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN) developed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). Amherst’s sustainability efforts earned it an overall grade of “A-” on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010 published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.[27] No institution received an "A" or "A+."

Amherst has been dubbed a "most selective" liberal arts colleges in the United States;[32] the Carnegie Foundation classifies Amherst as one of the "more selective" institutions whose first-year students’ test scores places these institutions in roughly the top fifth of baccalaureate institutions.[33] For the class first enrolled in Fall 2015, Amherst received 8,568 applications and accepted 1,210 for a 14% acceptance rate.[2] Of the 477 enrolling, 53% were women.[2] In terms of class rank, 86% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes; 96% ranked in the top quarter.[2] The middle 50% range of SAT scores of enrolled freshmen was 680-780 for critical reading, 680-780 for math, and 680-770 for writing;[2] the middle 50% range of the ACT Composite score was 31-34.[2]

Amherst's comprehensive tuition, room, and board fee for the 2012–13 academic year is $55,510. Once miscellaneous expenses are factored in the total cost to attend for the 2012–13 academic year amounts to $60,809–$63,259.[34]

Despite its high cost of attendance, Amherst College meets the full demonstrated need of every admitted student.[35] Sixty percent of current students receive scholarship aid, and the average financial aid package award amounts to $41,150; the average net price of attendance is $13,809 per year. College expenditures exceed $85,000 per student each year.[36]

In July 2007, Amherst announced that grants would replace loans in all financial aid packages beginning in the 2008-09 academic year. Amherst had already been the first school to eliminate loans for low-income students, and with this announcement it joined Princeton University, Cornell University and Davidson College, then the only colleges to completely eliminate loans from need-based financial aid packages. Increased rates of admission of highly qualified lower income students has resulted in greater equality of opportunity at Amherst than is usual at elite American colleges.[37]

In the 2008-2009 academic year, Amherst College also extended its need-blind admission policy to international applicants. As of the 2010-2011 academic year, Amherst remains the only liberal arts college and one of the five higher education institutions, which include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT, in the United States with need-blind admission for both domestic and international applicants.

Amherst College offers 36 fields of study (with 850 courses)[38] in the sciences, arts, humanities, mathematics and computer sciences, social sciences, foreign languages, classics, and several interdisciplinary fields (including premedical studies[39][40]) and provides an unusually open curriculum. Students are not required to study a core curriculum or fulfill any distribution requirements and may even design their own unique interdisciplinary major.[41] Freshmen may take advanced courses, and seniors may take introductory ones.

Faculty advisors are committed to guiding students through the process of majoring, and each faculty advisor works with no more than five first-year students to ensure a course of study that has breadth and depth, is integrated across disciplines, and is intellectually fulfilling. Faculty advising continues for the remainder of each student's undergraduate education.

Thirty-five percent of Amherst students in the class of 2007 were double majors.[42] Amherst College has been the first college to have undergraduate departments in the interdisciplinary fields of American Studies; Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought; and Neuroscience[43][44] and has helped to pioneer other interdisciplinary programs, including Asian Languages and Civilizations.[citation needed]

The Amherst library is named for long-time faculty member, poet Robert Frost.

Amherst College is widely recognized for its commitment to quality teaching, with rigorous professor-student interaction, so much so that Harvard and Columbia University looked to Amherst in 2007 when they were in the throes of reviewing their teaching program.[45] The student-faculty ratio is 8:1 and 90% of classes have fewer than 30 students.[46]

Notable faculty members include, among others, modern literature and poetry critic William H. Pritchard, Beowulf translator Howell Chickering, Jewish and Latino studies scholar Ilan Stavans, novelist and legal scholar Lawrence Douglas, physicist Arthur Zajonc, Pulitzer Prize-winning Nikita Khrushchev biographer William Taubman, African art specialist Rowland Abiodun, Natural Law expert Hadley Arkes, Mathematician Daniel Velleman, Biblical scholar Susan Niditch, law and society expert Austin Sarat, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlan, professor emeritus of the music faculty.[47]

The writings of Amherst College political science Professor Hadley Arkes about homosexuality led to a dispute in 2013 over whether a college seeking to create a diverse, respectful academic community should speak out when a faculty member disparages community members or should instead remain silent as a way to protect academic freedom. The issue arose when a group of alumni petitioned the college trustees and President Biddy Martin to “dissociate the institution” from Arkes’s “divisive and destructive” views,[48] focusing particularly on his May 2013 comparison of homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia.[49] The alumni said, “Amherst College cannot credibly maintain its professed commitment to be an inclusive community as long as it chooses to remain silent while a sitting professor disparages members of its community in media of worldwide circulation and accessibility.”[48]

Martin disagreed, citing past debates over the college’s position on Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa—issues on which the college initially remained silent but eventually took a public position. In such times, she said, colleges should “avoid taking institutional positions on controversial political matters, except in extraordinary circumstances” and should simultaneously both “protect their communities from discrimination and disrespect” and “cherish a diversity of viewpoints.”[50]

Amherst is a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions. These include Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition to the 850 courses available on campus, Amherst students have an additional 5,300 classes to consider through the Consortium (without paying additional tuition) and access to 8 million library volumes.[citation needed] The Five Colleges are geographically close to one another and are linked by buses that run between the campuses.

The Five Colleges share resources and develop common academic programs. Museums10 is a consortium of local art, history and science museums. The Five College Dance Department is one of the largest in the nation.[51] The joint Astronomy department shares use of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, which contributed to work that won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.[52]

The Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences Program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum to undergraduates in the Five Colleges.[53]

Amherst College is reducing its energy consumption through a computerized monitoring system for lighting and the use of an efficient cogeneration facility. The cogeneration facility features a gas turbine that generates electricity in addition to steam for heating the campus.[54] Amherst also operates a composting program, in which a portion of the food waste from dining halls is sent to a farmer in Vermont.[54]

Amherst claims its athletics program as the oldest in the nation,[55] pointing to its compulsory physical fitness regimen put in place in 1860 (the mandate that all students participate in sports or pursue physical education has been discontinued).[56] One-third of the student body participates in sports at the intercollegiate level, and eighty percent participate in intramural and club sports teams.[55]

The school participates in the NCAA's Division III, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the New England Small College Athletic Conference, which includes Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams College.

Amherst is also one of the "Little Three," along with Williams and Wesleyan. This rivalry, over one hundred years old, can be considered the oldest athletic conference in the nation.[citation needed] A Little Three champion is informally recognized by most teams based on the head-to-head records of the three schools, but three-way competitions are held in some of the sports.

Amherst has placed in the top ten of the NACDA Director's Cup in the NCAA Division III in seven of the last ten years, including fourth in 2007 and 2008 and third in 2009.[57][citation needed] The 2007 "National Collegiate Scouting Association's Collegiate Power Ranking" ranked Amherst College second "overall", ahead of Duke, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and MIT.

On May 3, 2009, Williams College and Amherst alumni played a game of vintage baseball at Wahconah Park according to 1859 rules to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first college baseball game played on July 2, 1859, between the two schools.[58]

Amherst fields several club athletic teams, including rugby union, water polo, ultimate, equestrian, mountain biking, crew, fencing, sailing and skiing. Intramural sports include soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, volleyball and softball.

The sport of Ultimate was started and named at Amherst College in the mid-1960s by Jared Kass '69.[59][60]

Amherst's resources, faculty, and academic life allow the college to enroll students with a range of talents, interests, and commitments. Students represent all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and fifty countries. Ninety-seven percent of students live on campus. Ninety-seven percent of Amherst freshmen return for their sophomore year; ninety-six percent graduate, among the highest retention and graduation rates in the country.[citation needed] There are more than 140 student groups at Amherst.[61] Students pursue their interests through student-led organizations funded by the student government, including a variety of cultural and religious groups, publications, fine and performing arts and political advocacy and service groups. Groups include a medieval sword-fighting club, a knitting club, and a club devoted to random acts of kindness, among others.[citation needed] Community service groups and opportunities (locally—through the Center for Community Engagement, nationally, and internationally) have been a priority at Amherst and for former President Anthony Marx, who helped start a secondary school for black students in apartheid South Africa.[62]

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California, United States. It became the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus system after the original University of California campus in Berkeley (1873).[10] It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.[11] UCLA has an approximate enrollment of 30,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, and has 119,000 applicants for Fall 2016, including transfer applicants, the most applicants for any American university.[12]


The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015–2016 ranks UCLA 16th in the world for academics and 13th in the world for reputation.[13][14] In 2015/16, UCLA is ranked 12th in the world (10th in North America) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)[15] and 27th in the 2015/16 QS World University Rankings.[16] In 2015, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents.[17]

The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and four professional health science schools. The undergraduate colleges are the College of Letters and Science; Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS); School of the Arts and Architecture; School of Theater, Film and Television; and School of Nursing. Thirteen[18][19] Nobel laureates, one Fields Medalist,[20] and three Turing Award winners[21] have been faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 39 to the Institute of Medicine, and 124 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[22] The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.[23]

UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pac-12 Conference. The Bruins have won 126 national championships, including 113 NCAA team championships, more than any other university.[24][25][26] UCLA student-athletes, coaches and staff have won 251 Olympic medals: 126 gold, 65 silver and 60 bronze.[27] The Bruins have competed in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and have won a gold medal in every Olympics that the United States has participated in since 1932.[28]

In March 1881, after heavy lobbying by Los Angeles residents, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School (which later became San Jose State University) in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. The State Normal School at Los Angeles opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The new facility included an elementary school where teachers-in-training could practice their teaching technique on children. That elementary school is related to the present day version, UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the school became known as the Los Angeles State Normal School.[29]

In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue (now the site of Los Angeles City College) in East Hollywood. In 1917, UC Regent Edward Augustus Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, and Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the Normal School, began working together to lobby the State Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California campus, after UC Berkeley. They met resistance from UC Berkeley alumni, Northern California members of the state legislature, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus. However, David Prescott Barrows, the new President of the University of California, did not share Wheeler's objections. On May 23, 1919, the Southern Californians' efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which transformed the Los Angeles Normal School into the Southern Branch of the University of California. The same legislation added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and Science.[30] The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Letters and Science students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College, under Moore's continued direction.[31]

Under University of California President William Wallace Campbell, enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so rapidly that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25 acre Vermont Avenue location. The Regents conducted a search for a new location and announced their selection of the so-called "Beverly Site"—just west of Beverly Hills—on March 21, 1925 edging out the panoramic hills of the still-empty Palos Verdes Peninsula. After the athletic teams entered the Pacific Coast conference in 1926, the Southern Branch student council adopted the nickname "Bruins", a name offered by the student council at UC Berkeley.[32] In 1927, the Regents renamed the Southern Branch the University of California at Los Angeles (the word "at" was officially replaced by a comma in 1958, in line with other UC campuses). In the same year, the state broke ground in Westwood on land sold for $1 million, less than one-third its value, by real estate developers Edwin and Harold Janss, for whom the Janss Steps are named.[29]

The original four buildings were the College Library (now Powell Library), Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building (now the Humanities Building), and the Chemistry Building (now Haines Hall), arrayed around a quadrangular courtyard on the 400 acre (1.6 km²) campus. The first undergraduate classes on the new campus were held in 1929 with 5,500 students. After further lobbying by alumni, faculty, administration and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree in 1933, and the doctorate in 1936, against continued resistance from UC Berkeley.[33]

A timeline of the history can be found on its website,[34] as well as a published book.[35]

During its first 32 years, UCLA was treated as an off-site department of UC. As such, its presiding officer was called a "provost," and reported to the main campus in Berkeley. In 1951, UCLA was formally elevated to co-equal status with UC Berkeley, and its presiding officer Raymond B. Allen was the first chief executive to be granted the title of chancellor. The appointment of Franklin David Murphy to the position of Chancellor in 1960 helped to spark an era of tremendous growth of facilities and faculty honors. By the end of the decade, UCLA had achieved distinction in a wide range of subjects. This era also secured UCLA's position as a proper university in its own right and not simply a branch of the UC system. This change is exemplified by an incident involving Chancellor Murphy, which was described by him:

I picked up the telephone and called in from somewhere, and the phone operator said, "University of California." And I said, "Is this Berkeley?" She said, "No." I said, "Well, who have I gotten to?" "UCLA." I said, "Why didn't you say UCLA?" "Oh," she said, "we're instructed to say University of California." So the next morning I went to the office and wrote a memo; I said, "Will you please instruct the operators, as of noon today, when they answer the phone to say, 'UCLA.'" And they said, "You know they won't like it at Berkeley." And I said, "Well, let's just see. There are a few things maybe we can do around here without getting their permission."[36]

In 2006, the university completed Campaign UCLA, which collected over $3.05 billion and is the second most successful fundraising campaign among public universities.[38][39] In 2008, UCLA raised over $456 million, ranking the institution among the top 10 universities in the United States in total fundraising for the year.[40]

On January 26, 2011, Meyer and Renee Luskin donated $100 million to UCLA.[41] On February 14, 2011, UCLA received a $200 million donation gift by The Lincy Foundation in order to establish The Dream Fund, which is "a community-based fund devoted to the support of medical research and academic programs at UCLA".[42]

In 2014, the university launched the Centennial Campaign for UCLA, which is intended to raise $4.2 billion by 2019.[43]

The new UCLA campus in 1929 had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now the Humanities Building) on the south. The Janss Steps were the original 87-step entrance to the university that lead directly to the quad of these four buildings. Today, the campus includes 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km²) in the western part of Los Angeles, north of the Westwood shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard. In terms of acreage, it is the second smallest of the ten UC campuses.[7] The campus is close but not adjacent to the 405 San Diego Freeway.[44]

The campus is located in the residential area of Westwood and bordered by Bel-Air to the north, Beverly Hills to the east, and Brentwood to the west. The campus is informally divided into North Campus and South Campus, which are both on the eastern half of the university's land. North Campus is the original campus core; its buildings are more traditional in appearance and clad in imported Italian brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, and business programs and is centered around ficus and sycamore-lined Dickson Court, also known as the "Sunken Garden". South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, mathematical sciences, health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center. The campus includes sculpture gardens, fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles.

Ackerman Union, the John Wooden Center, the Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center, the Student Activities Center, Kerckhoff Hall, the J.D. Morgan Center, the James West Alumni Center, and Pauley Pavilion stand at the center of the campus, bordering Wilson Plaza. The campus is bisected by Bruin Walk, a heavily traveled pathway from the residential hill to the main campus. At the intersection of Bruin Walk and Westwood Plaza is Bruin Plaza, featuring an outdoor performing arts stage and a bronze statue of the Bruin bear.

The first buildings were designed by the local firm Allison & Allison. The Romanesque Revival style of these first four structures remained the predominant building style until the 1950s, when architect Welton Becket was hired to supervise the expansion of the campus over the next two decades. Becket greatly streamlined its general appearance, adding several rows of minimalist, slab–shaped brick buildings to the southern half, the largest of these being the UCLA Medical Center.[45] Architects such as A. Quincy Jones, William Pereira and Paul Williams designed many subsequent structures on the campus during the mid-20th century. More recent additions include buildings designed by architects I.M. Pei, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Richard Meier, Cesar Pelli, and Rafael Vinoly. To accommodate UCLA's rapidly growing student population, multiple construction and renovation projects are in progress, including expansions of the life sciences and engineering research complexes. This continuous construction gives UCLA the nickname "Under Construction Like Always".[46]

One notable building on campus is named after African-American alumnus Ralph Bunche, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an armistice agreement between the Jews and Arabs in Israel. The entrance of Bunche Hall features a bust of him overlooking the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. He was the first individual of non-European background and the first UCLA alumnus to be honored with the Prize.

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is located a mile north of campus, in the community of Bel Air. The garden was designed by landscape architect Nagao Sakurai of Tokyo and garden designer Kazuo Nakamura of Kyoto in 1959. After the garden was damaged by heavy rains in 1969, UCLA Professor of Art and Campus Architect Koichi Kawana took on the task of its reconstruction.

University of Washington

The University of Washington, commonly referred to as simply Washington, UW, or informally U-Dub, is a public flagship research university based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast and features one of the most highly regarded medical schools in the world.[5][6]

The university has three campuses: the primary and largest in the University District of Seattle and two others in Tacoma and Bothell. Its operating expenses and research budget for fiscal year 2014–15 is expected to be $6.4 billion.[7] The UW occupies over 500 buildings, with over 20 million gross square footage of space, including the University of Washington Plaza, consisting of the 325-foot (99 m) UW Tower and conference center.


Washington is a member of the Association of American Universities. Its research budget is among the highest in the United States. In athletics, the university competes in the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12).

The city of Seattle was one of several settlements in the mid to late 19th century vying for primacy in the newly formed Washington Territory. In 1854, territorial governor Isaac Stevens recommended the establishment of a university in Washington. Several prominent Seattle-area residents, chief among them Methodist preacher Daniel Bagley, saw the siting of this University as a chance to add to the city's prestige. They were able to convince early founder of Seattle and member of the territorial legislature Arthur A. Denny of the importance of Seattle winning the school. The legislature initially chartered two universities, one in Seattle and one in Lewis County, but later repealed its decision in favor of a single university in Lewis County, provided locally donated land could be found. When no site emerged, the legislature, encouraged by Denny, relocated the university to Seattle in 1858.

In 1861, scouting began for an appropriate 10 acres (4 ha) site in Seattle to serve as the campus for a new university. Arthur and Mary Denny donated eight acres, and fellow pioneers Edward Lander and Charlie and Mary Terry donated two acres to the university[8] at a site on Denny's Knoll in downtown Seattle. This tract was bounded by 4th and 6th Avenues on the west and east and Union and Seneca Streets on the north and south.

UW opened officially on November 4, 1861, as the Territorial University of Washington. The following year, the legislature passed articles formally incorporating the University and establishing a Board of Regents. The school struggled initially, closing three times: in 1863 for lack of students, and again in 1867 and 1876 due to shortage of funds. However, Clara Antoinette McCarty Wilt became the first graduate of UW in 1876 when she graduated from UW with a bachelor's degree in science. By the time Washington entered the Union in 1889, both Seattle and the University had grown substantially. Enrollment had increased from an initial 30 students to nearly 300, and the relative isolation of the campus had given way to encroaching development. A special legislative committee headed by UW graduate Edmond Meany was created for the purpose of finding a new campus better able to serve the growing student population. The committee selected a site on Union Bay northeast of downtown, and the legislature appropriated funds for its purchase and subsequent construction.

The university relocated from downtown to the new campus in 1895, moving into the newly built Denny Hall. The regents tried and failed to sell the old campus, and eventually settled on leasing the area. The University still owns what is now called the Metropolitan Tract. In the heart of the city, it is among the most valuable pieces of real estate in Seattle and generates millions of US$ in revenue annually.

The original Territorial University building was torn down in 1908 and its former site currently houses the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. The sole surviving remnants of UW's first building are four 24-foot (7.3 m), white, hand-fluted cedar, Ionic columns. They were salvaged by Edmond S. Meany—one of the University's first graduates and the former head of the history department. Meany and his colleague, Dean Herbert T. Condon, dubbed each of the columns "Loyalty," "Industry," "Faith" and "Efficiency," or "LIFE." The columns now stand in the Sylvan Grove Theater.[9]

Organizers of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition eyed the still largely undeveloped campus as a prime setting for their world's fair. They came to an agreement with the Board of Regents that allowed them to use the campus grounds for the exposition. In exchange, the University would be able to take advantage of the development of the campus for the fair after its conclusion. This included a detailed site plan and several buildings. The plan for the A-Y-P Exposition prepared by John Charles Olmsted was later incorporated into the overall campus master plan and permanently affected the layout of the campus.

Both World Wars brought the military to the campus, with certain facilities temporarily loaned to the federal government. The subsequent post-war periods were times of dramatic growth for the University.[10] The period between the wars saw significant expansion on the upper campus. Construction of the liberal arts quadrangle, known to students as "The Quad," began in 1916 and continued in stages until 1939. The first two wings of Suzzallo Library, considered the architectural centerpiece of the University, were built in 1926 and 1935, respectively. Further growth came with the end of World War II and passage of the G.I. Bill. Among the most important developments of this period was the opening of the medical school in 1946. It would eventually grow into the University of Washington Medical Center, now ranked by U.S. News and World Report among the top ten hospitals in the United States. It was during this era in University of Washington history in which many Japanese Americans were sent away from the university to internment camps along the west coast of the United States as part of Executive Order 9066 following the attacks on Pearl Harbor. As a result, many Japanese American "soon-to-be" graduates were unable to receive their diplomas and be recognized for their accomplishment at the university until the University of Washington's commemoration ceremony for the Japanese Americans entitled The Long Journey Home held on May 18, 2008 at the main campus.

In the late 1960s, the University of Washington Police Department evolved from the University Safety and Security Division in response to anti-Vietnam War protests.[11] It currently has jurisdiction over the University of Washington campus and University-owned housing, except for the Radford Court apartments in Sand Point. The 1960s and 1970s are known as the "golden age" of the university due to the tremendous growth in students, facilities, operating budget and prestige under the leadership of Charles Odegaard from 1958 to 1973. Enrollment at UW more than doubled—from around 16,000 to 34,000—as the baby boom generation came of age. As was the case at many American universities, this era was marked by high levels of student activism, with much of the unrest focused around civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.[12][13] Odegaard instituted a vision of building a "community of scholars" and convinced the state of Washington legislatures to increase their investments towards the university. Additionally, Washington senators, Henry M. Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson used their political clout to funnel federal research monies to the University of Washington and to this day, UW is among the top recipients of federal research funds in the United States. The results included an operating budget increase of $37 million in 1958, to over $400 million in 1973, and 35 new buildings that doubled the floor space of the university.

The University opened campuses in Bothell and Tacoma in 1990. Initially, these campuses offered curricula for students seeking bachelor's degrees who have already completed two years of higher education, but both schools have transitioned to four-year universities, accepting the first freshman class in the fall of 2006. Both campuses offer master's degree programs as well. In 2009 the University opened an office in the Spanish city of León in collaboration with the local university.

The University of Washington, Seattle campus, is situated on the shores of Union and Portage Bays, with views of the Cascade Range to the east and the Olympic Mountains to the west. The main campus is bounded on the west by 15th Avenue N.E., on the north by N.E. 45th Street, on the east by Montlake Boulevard N.E., and on the south by N.E. Pacific Street. East Campus stretches east of Montlake Boulevard to Laurelhurst and is largely taken up by wetlands and sports fields. South Campus occupies the land between Pacific Street and the Lake Washington Ship Canal which used to be a golf course and is given over to the health sciences, oceanography, fisheries, and the University of Washington Medical Center. West Campus is less of a separate entity than the others, many of its facilities being on city streets, and stretches between 15th Avenue and Interstate 5 from the Ship Canal to N.E. 41st Street. University Way, known locally as "The Ave", lies nearby and is a focus for much student life at the university. At the heart of the university lies Red Square, which functions as the central hub of student interaction and hosts a variety of events annually.

Several major motion picture films were filmed on campus or used it as a backdrop, including The Sixth Man,[14] WarGames,[15] What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole,[16] and 21 and Over.[17]

University of Washington Interim President Ana Mari Cauce was selected president by the Board of Regents, effective October 13, 2015.[18] The previous President of the University of Washington was Michael K. Young. Phyllis Wise, who had previously served as Provost and Executive Vice President and for a year as Interim President, was named the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2011.[19] On February 3, 2015, it was announced that Young will be next President of Texas A&M University.[20]

The University is governed by ten regents, one of whom is a student. Its most notable current regent is likely William H. Gates, Sr., father of Bill Gates. The undergraduate student government is the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) and the graduate student government is the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS).

The University offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees through its 140 departments, themselves organized into various colleges and schools:[21]

In 2006, the University of Washington research budget passed the $1.0 billion milestone.[22] Virtually all of the funding came from peer-reviewed research proposals. UW research budget consistently ranks among the top 5 in both public and private universities in the United States.[23][24] UW is also the largest recipient of federal research funding among public universities and second among all public and private universities in the country, a position that the university has held each year since 1974.[25] The university is an elected member of the Association of American Universities.

UW students include 136 Fulbright Scholars, 35 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Marshall Scholars and 4 Gates Cambridge Scholars.[26] As of the 2011–12 autumn term, the university had 42,428 students, making it the largest university (in terms of student population) on the west coast.[27] About 33% of all undergraduates are members of minority groups.[28][29]

The University of Washington recruits faculty and staff from around the world.[30] Among the faculty, there are 151 members of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 68 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 67 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 53 members of the Institute of Medicine, 21 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 1 member of the National Academy of Public Administration, 6 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, 1 winner of the Fields Medal, 29 winners of the Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering, 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, 15 MacArthur Fellows, 9 winners of the Gairdner Foundation International Award, 5 winners of the National Medal of Science, 5 winners of Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, 4 members of the American Philosophical Society, 2 winners of the National Book Award, and 2 winners of the National Medal of Arts.[31]

In May 2010, the University of Washington's six Nobel laureates were honoured by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, at a special dinner held in Seattle. They were Hans Georg Dehmelt, E. Donnall Thomas, Edwin G. Krebs, Edmond H. Fischer, Leland Hartwell and Linda Buck. The event was organized by Seattle’s Swedish Consulate as part of ‘Sweden Week’.[32]

The University of Washington library system is the 18th largest library in the United States, with holdings of more than 7.5 million volumes.[33] The Association of Research Libraries ranked the UW library system between the top fifth and fifteenth in various categories.[34]

UW was also the host university of ResearchChannel program (now defunct), the only TV channel in the United States dedicated solely for the dissemination of research from academic institutions and research organizations.[35] Current participation of ResearchChannel includes 36 universities, 15 research organizations, two corporate research centers and many other affiliates.[36] UW also disseminates knowledge through its proprietary UWTV channel and online.[37]

To promote equal academic opportunity, especially for people of low income, UW launched Husky Promise in 2006. Families of income up to 65 percent of state median income or 235 percent of federal poverty level are eligible. With this, up to 30 percent of undergraduate students may be eligible. The cut-off income level that UW set is the highest in the nation, making top quality education available to more people. Then UW President, Mark Emmert, simply said that being "elitist is not in our DNA".[38][39] "Last year, the University of Washington moved to a more comprehensive approach [to admissions], in which the admissions staff reads the entire application and looks at grades within the context of the individual high school, rather than relying on computerized cutoffs."[40]

Cornell University

Cornell University (/kɔːrˈnɛl/ kor-nel) is an American private Ivy League and federal land-grant doctoral university located in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge — from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's motto, a popular 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."[1]

The university is broadly organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its main Ithaca campus, with each college and division defining its own admission standards and academic programs in near autonomy. The university also administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City, Qatar.


Cornell is one of three private land grant universities in the nation and the only one in New York.[note 1] Of its seven undergraduate colleges, three are state-supported statutory or contract colleges through the State University of New York (SUNY) system, including its agricultural and veterinary colleges. As a land grant college, it operates a cooperative extension outreach program in every county of New York and receives annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions.[7] The Cornell University Ithaca Campus comprises 745 acres, but is much larger when the Cornell Plantations (more than 4,300 acres) are considered, as well as the numerous university-owned lands in New York City.[8]

Since its founding, Cornell has been a co-educational, non-sectarian institution where admission has not been restricted by religion or race. Cornell counts more than 245,000 living alumni, and its former and present faculty and alumni include 34 Marshall Scholars, 29 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Gates Scholars, 50 Nobel laureates, and 14 living billionaires.[9][10][11] The student body consists of nearly 14,000 undergraduate and 7,000 graduate students from all 50 American states and 122 countries.[12][13]

Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865; the New York State (NYS) Senate authorized the university as the state's land grant institution. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment. Fellow senator and experienced educator Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president. During the next three years, White oversaw the construction of the first two buildings and traveled to attract students and faculty.[14] The university was inaugurated on October 7, 1868, and 412 men were enrolled the next day.[15]

Cornell developed as a technologically innovative institution, applying its research to its own campus as well as to outreach efforts. For example, in 1883 it was one of the first university campuses to use electricity from a water-powered dynamo to light the grounds.[16] Since 1894, Cornell has included colleges that are state funded and fulfill statutory requirements;[17] it has also administered research and extension activities that have been jointly funded by state and federal matching programs.[18]

Cornell has had active alumni since its earliest classes. It was one of the first universities to include alumni-elected representatives on its Board of Trustees.[note 2]

Cornell expanded, particularly since World War II, when numerous students were funded by the GI Bill. Its student population in Ithaca in the 21st century totals nearly 20,000 students. The faculty also expanded, and by 1999, the university had about 3,000 faculty members.[19] The school has increased the number of courses. Today the university has more than 4,000 courses.[20]

Since 2000, Cornell has been expanding its international programs. In 2004, the university opened the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.[21] It has partnerships with institutions in India, Singapore, and the People's Republic of China.[22][23][24] Former president Jeffrey S. Lehman described the university, with its high international profile, a "transnational university".[25] On March 9, 2004, Cornell and Stanford University laid the cornerstone for a new 'Bridging the Rift Center' to be built and jointly operated for education on the Israel–Jordan border.[26]

Cornell was among the Ivies that had heightened student activism during the 1960s related to cultural issues, civil rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Its administration was criticized for failing to have an African-American studies program, and for the low number of African-American faculty and students. The university attracted national attention in April 1969 when African-American students occupied Willard Straight Hall in protest over alleged racism.[27][28] The crisis resulted in the resignation of President James A. Perkins and the restructuring of university governance.[29]

Cornell's main campus is on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. Since the university was founded, it has expanded to about 2300 acres (9.3 km2), encompassing both the hill and much of the surrounding areas.[30] Central Campus has laboratories, administrative buildings, and almost all of the campus' academic buildings, athletic facilities, auditoriums, and museums. Collegetown contains two upper-class residence halls[31][32] and the Schwartz Performing Arts Center amid a mixed-use neighborhood of apartments, eateries, and businesses.[33]

The main campus is marked by an irregular layout and eclectic architectural styles, including ornate Collegiate Gothic, Victorian, and Neoclassical buildings, and the more spare international and modernist structures. The more ornate buildings generally predate World War II. The student population doubled from 7,000 in 1950 to 15,000 by 1970, at a time when architectural styles favored modernism.[34] While some buildings are neatly arranged into quadrangles, others are packed densely and haphazardly. These eccentricities arose from the university's numerous, ever-changing master plans for the campus. For example, in one of the earliest plans, Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, proposed a "grand terrace" overlooking Cayuga Lake.[35]

Several of the university buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Andrew Dickson White House, Bailey Hall, Caldwell Hall, Comstock Hall, Morrill Hall, and Deke House. At least three other historic buildings—the original Roberts Hall, East Robert Hall and Stone Hall—have also been listed on the NRHP. The university demolished them in the 1980s to make way for other development.[36] In September 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the Ithaca Campus as among the most beautiful in the United States.[37]

Located among the rolling valleys of the Finger Lakes region, the campus on a hill provides views of the surrounding area, including 38 miles (61.4 km) long Lake Cayuga. Two gorges, Fall Creek Gorge and Cascadilla Gorge, bound Central Campus and are used as popular swimming holes during the warmer months (although the university and city code discourage their use).[38] Adjacent to the main campus, Cornell owns the 2,800 acre (11.6 km2) Cornell Plantations, a botanical garden containing flowers, trees, and ponds, with manicured trails providing access through the facility.[39]

The university has embarked on numerous 'green' initiatives. In 2009, a new gas-fired combined heat and power facility replaced a coal-fired steam plant, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions to 7% below 1990 levels, and projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 75,000 tons per year.[40] This facility satisfies 15% of campus electrical needs,[41] and a university-run, on-campus hydroelectric plant in the Fall Creek Gorge provides an additional 2%.[42] The university has a lake source cooling project that uses Lake Cayuga to air condition campus buildings, with an 80% energy saving over conventional systems.[43] In 2007, Cornell established a Center for a Sustainable Future.[44] Cornell has been rated "A-" by the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives.[45]

Cornell's main campus is on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. Since the university was founded, it has expanded to about 2300 acres (9.3 km2), encompassing both the hill and much of the surrounding areas.[30] Central Campus has laboratories, administrative buildings, and almost all of the campus' academic buildings, athletic facilities, auditoriums, and museums. Collegetown contains two upper-class residence halls[31][32] and the Schwartz Performing Arts Center amid a mixed-use neighborhood of apartments, eateries, and businesses.[33]

The main campus is marked by an irregular layout and eclectic architectural styles, including ornate Collegiate Gothic, Victorian, and Neoclassical buildings, and the more spare international and modernist structures. The more ornate buildings generally predate World War II. The student population doubled from 7,000 in 1950 to 15,000 by 1970, at a time when architectural styles favored modernism.[34] While some buildings are neatly arranged into quadrangles, others are packed densely and haphazardly. These eccentricities arose from the university's numerous, ever-changing master plans for the campus. For example, in one of the earliest plans, Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, proposed a "grand terrace" overlooking Cayuga Lake.[35]

Several of the university buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Andrew Dickson White House, Bailey Hall, Caldwell Hall, Comstock Hall, Morrill Hall, and Deke House. At least three other historic buildings—the original Roberts Hall, East Robert Hall and Stone Hall—have also been listed on the NRHP. The university demolished them in the 1980s to make way for other development.[36] In September 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the Ithaca Campus as among the most beautiful in the United States.[37]

Located among the rolling valleys of the Finger Lakes region, the campus on a hill provides views of the surrounding area, including 38 miles (61.4 km) long Lake Cayuga. Two gorges, Fall Creek Gorge and Cascadilla Gorge, bound Central Campus and are used as popular swimming holes during the warmer months (although the university and city code discourage their use).[38] Adjacent to the main campus, Cornell owns the 2,800 acre (11.6 km2) Cornell Plantations, a botanical garden containing flowers, trees, and ponds, with manicured trails providing access through the facility.[39]

The university has embarked on numerous 'green' initiatives. In 2009, a new gas-fired combined heat and power facility replaced a coal-fired steam plant, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions to 7% below 1990 levels, and projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 75,000 tons per year.[40] This facility satisfies 15% of campus electrical needs,[41] and a university-run, on-campus hydroelectric plant in the Fall Creek Gorge provides an additional 2%.[42] The university has a lake source cooling project that uses Lake Cayuga to air condition campus buildings, with an 80% energy saving over conventional systems.[43] In 2007, Cornell established a Center for a Sustainable Future.[44] Cornell has been rated "A-" by the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives.[45]

Cornell's medical campus in New York, also called Weill Cornell, is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,New York City. It is home to two Cornell divisions, Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and has been affiliated with the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital since 1927.[46] Although their faculty and academic divisions are separate, the Medical Center shares its administrative and teaching hospital functions with the Columbia University Medical Center.[47] These teaching hospitals include the Payne Whitney Clinic in Manhattan and the Westchester Division in White Plains, New York.[48] Weill Cornell Medical College is also affiliated with the neighboring Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, and the Hospital for Special Surgery. Many faculty members have joint appointments at these institutions. Weill Cornell, Rockefeller, and Memorial Sloan–Kettering offer the Tri-Institutional MD–PhD Program to selected entering Cornell medical students.[49] From 1942 to 1979, the campus also housed a Cornell school of nursing.[50]

On December 19, 2011, Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology won a competition for rights to claim free city land as well as $100 million in subsidies to build an engineering campus in New York City. The competition was established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in order to increase entrepreneurship and job growth in the city's technology sector. The winning bid consisted of a 2.1 million square feet state-of-the-art tech campus to be built on Roosevelt Island on the site of the former Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital. Instruction began in the fall of 2012 in a temporary location in Manhattan (111 Eighth Avenue in space donated by Google).[51] Thom Mayne of the architecture firm Morphosis has been selected to design the first building to be constructed on Roosevelt Island. Begun in 2014, construction is expected to be completed for the fall start of the 2017 academic year.[52]

In addition to the tech campus and medical center, Cornell maintains local offices in New York City for some of its service programs. The Cornell Urban Scholars Program encourages students to pursue public service careers, arranging assignments with organizations working with New York City's poorest children, families, and communities.[53] The NYS College of Human Ecology and the NYS College of Agriculture and Life Sciences enable students to reach out to local communities by gardening and building with the Cornell Cooperative Extension.[54] Students with the NYS School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Extension & Outreach Program make workplace expertise available to organizations, union members, policy makers, and working adults.[55] The College of Engineering's Operations Research Manhattan, in the city's financial district, brings together business optimization research and decision support services addressed to both financial applications and public health logistics planning.[56] The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning has a 11,000 square foot Gensler-designed facility in 26 Broadway (The Standard Oil Building) in the Financial District that opened in 2015.[57]

Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar is in Education City, near Doha. Opened in September 2004, this is the first American medical school to be established outside the United States. The college is part of Cornell's program to increase its international influence. The College is a joint initiative with the Qatar government, which seeks to improve the country's academic programs and medical care.[21] Along with its full four-year MD program, which mirrors the curriculum taught at Weill Medical College in New York City, the college offers a two-year undergraduate pre-medical program with a separate admissions process. This undergraduate program opened in September 2002 and was the first coeducational institute of higher education in Qatar.[58]

The college is partially funded by the Qatar government through the Qatar Foundation, which contributed $750 million for its construction.[59] The medical center is housed in a large two-story structure designed by Arata Isozaki, an internationally known Japanese architect.[60] In 2004, the Qatar Foundation announced the construction of a 350-bed Specialty Teaching Hospital near the medical college in Education City. The hospital was to be completed in a few years.[21]

Cornell University owns and/or operates other facilities.[61] The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, site of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, was operated by Cornell under a contract with the National Science Foundation from its construction until 2011.[62] The Shoals Marine Laboratory, operated in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire,[63] is a seasonal marine field station dedicated to undergraduate education and research on the 95-acre (0.4 km2) Appledore Island off the Maine–New Hampshire coast.[64]

Cornell has facilities devoted to conservation and ecology. The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, operated by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is in Geneva, New York, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the main campus. It operates three substations: The Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory (CLEREL) in Portland, New York,[65] Hudson Valley Laboratory in Highland,[66] and the Long Island Horticultural Research Laboratory in Riverhead.[67]

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca's Sapsucker Woods performs research on biological diversity, primarily in birds.[68] On April 18, 2005, the lab announced that it had rediscovered the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct (Some experts disputed the evidence and subsequent surveys were inconclusive).[69] The Animal Science Teaching and Research Center in Harford, New York, and the Duck Research Laboratory in Eastport, New York, are resources for information on animal disease control and husbandry.[70][71]

The Cornell Biological Field Station in Bridgeport, New York, conducts long-term ecological research and supports the University's educational programs, with special emphasis on freshwater lake systems.[72] The Department of Horticulture operates the Freeville Organic Research Farm and Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville, New York.[9] The university operates biodiversity laboratories in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic,[73] and one in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest (Cornell University Esbaran Amazon Field Laboratory).[74]

The university arranges study abroad and scholarship programs. The Cornell in Washington is a program that allows students to study for a semester in Washington, D.C., holding research or internship positions while earning credit toward a degree.[75] Cornell in Rome, operated by the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, allows students to use the city as a resource for learning architecture, urban studies, and art.[76] Similarly, the Capital Semester program allows students to intern in the New York state legislature in Albany.

As New York State's land grant college, Cornell operates a cooperative extension service with 56 offices spread out across the state, each staffed with extension educators who offer programs in five subjects: Agriculture and Food Systems; Children, Youth, and Families; Community and Economic Vitality; Environment and Natural Resources; and Nutrition and Health.[77] Cornell also operates New York's Animal Health Diagnostic Center.[78]