The institutional
history officially dates back to 1851 when the legislature set about
creating two seminaries, one west of the Suwanee
River, and the other to the east. Some trace
UF's history back to 1836 when the U.S.
Congress authorized an establishment of "a
University of Florida." [10]
Century
Tower
In 1853, UF's
official date of founding, Gilbert Kingsbury was the first man to
take advantage of the legislation passed in 1851 and established the
East Florida Seminary (EFS) in Ocala,
FL. Before coming to Florida, Kingsbury taught
at Thetford Academy in
New Hampshire. This was the
first state-supported institution of higher learning in Florida and
set the foundation for the University of Florida.[11] James Henry Roper, an educator
from North Carolina and
State Senator from Alachua County, built a school called the Gainesville Academy right around
the same time period. In 1866 after EFS had closed due to the Civil
War,[12] Roper offered his
land and school to the State of Florida in exchange for the
relocation of East Florida Seminary to Gainesville, Fla. His offer was accepted
and the current site of the University of Florida was in place.
Epworth Hall was the main
building of East Florida Seminary and still stands, in downtown
Gainesville. It is not on the present campus of UF today. [13]
Another precursor to
the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College
established at Lake City in
1884. FAC became the first land-grant college in the state. Florida
Agriculture College became a powerful force in the state and changed
its name to the University of Florida in 1902, a change that would
be short lived. [14]
Murphree Statue outside of Criser
Hall.
The 1905 Buckman Act
consolidated the colleges of the state. The member of the
Florida Legislature who
wrote the act, Henry H. Buckman, is the namesake of Buckman
Hall, one of UF's earliest buildings. [15] The Buckman Act provided for
the creation of the State University of System
of Florida and the Florida
Board of Control to govern the affairs of the
system. [16] It also called
for the merger of several institutions into the new University of
the State of Florida. The institutions apart of this were the
University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College), the East Florida
Seminary in Gainesville, the
St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School at St. Petersburg and the South Florida
Military College at Bartow.[17]
The act created this
one university in the state, but also designated two colleges be
formed. Florida Female College would serve as a Women's
college and the State Normal
School For Colored Students (now Florida A&M University, a
historically black university) as a postsecondary institution for African-American
students.
On July 6, 1905, the
state legislature selected Gainesville for a new university campus.
Andrew Sledd from the
University of Florida at Lake City became the first president, while
architect William A. Edwards designed the first official campus
buildings in the collegiate gothic style. Classes began on September
26, 1906
with 102 students. In 1909 the name of the school was shortened to
the University of Florida.
The alligator was chosen as the school mascot
in 1911. The school colors, orange and blue, are thought to have
come from both the Blue and White of the University of Florida at
Lake City and the Orange and Black of East Florida Seminary at
Gainesville. [18]
In 1909, Albert Murphree was appointed president
of UF and attempted to organize the colleges of the university and
increased the enrollment of the school substantially. He is the only
man with a statue on the campus. President John
J. Tigert took over in 1928 and established the
grant-in-aid or athletic scholarship program in the early 1930's
which is currently used by the NCAA. Tigert was disgusted with the under-the-table payments
being made by schools to athletes and radically changed the NCAA
with his scholarship plan. [19]
In 1946, there was an
incredible increase in male students wanting to attend the
University of Florida due to the formation of the GI Bill. Though UF
attempted to accommodate the new demand, it simply could not. Faced
with a waiting list of nearly 2,200 men, Tigert went to Governor
Millard Caldwell for help.
Therefore, the Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida
(TBUF) was opened up to serve men on the campus of Florida State College for Women. [20][21] By the end of the 1946-1947 school year, 954
men were enrolled at TBUF which was governed by the University of
Florida in Gainesville. The following semester, the state decided to
create a new co-educational Florida State
University and end the Tallahassee Branch of the
University of Florida. This sequence of events also opened up UF to
women undergraduate students for the first time as the University of
Florida officially became co-educational. Admission of
African-American students also began in 1958. Shands Hospital first opened in 1958
along with the medical school. Rapid campus expansion began in the
1950s and continues to the present day.
The University of
Florida began to grow in prestige as the state boomed after World
War II. The culmination of this Post-World War II growth happened in
1985, when Florida became a member of the Association of American Universities
(AAU), the prestigious higher-education organization composed of the
top 62 public and private institutions in North America. UF is one
of only 17 public, land-grant universities that belongs to the
association.
The University of
Florida has continued to rise in the eyes of her peers and in the
U.S. News and World Report Rankings. In 2001, UF was labeled a Public
Ivy and was 2nd in Kipplinger's 2006 Best Buys of Education
behind the University of North
Carolina. The State of Florida is striving to
make their flagship school a Top 10 Public Universities. UF is
currently ranked 13th but has made a concerted effort to rise in the
rankings. [22]
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