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University of Texas at Austin

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: North American Geography

   CAPTION: The University of Texas at Austin

   University of Texas seal
     __________________________________________________________________

   Motto Disciplina praesidium civitatis (Latin: Education, the Guardian
   of Society)
   Established 1883
   Type Flagship state university
   Endowment $5.54 billion
   President William C. Powers, Jr.
   Provost Stephen Monti
   Staff 2,721
   Undergraduates 36,878
   Postgraduates 12,818
   Location Austin, Texas, USA
   Campus Urban, 350 acres (1.4 km²)
   Colors Burnt orange and white

   Mascot University of Texas Longhorn logo Texas Longhorn
   Website www.utexas.edu
   Logo is a trademark of The University of Texas

   The University of Texas at Austin, often called UT or Texas, is the
   flagship institution of the University of Texas System. The main campus
   is located less than a mile from the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
   Founded in 1883, the university is considered to be a " Public Ivy,"
   and had the fourth largest single-campus enrollment in the nation as of
   fall 2006 (and had the largest enrollment in the country from
   1997–2003), with nearly 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and
   20,000 faculty and staff.

   The university also operates various auxiliary facilities aside from
   the main campus, most notably the J.J. Pickle Research Campus. Texas is
   a major centre for academic research, annually exceeding $380 million
   in funding. In addition, the University's notable athletic programs
   were recognized by Sports Illustrated, which dubbed UT as "America's
   Best Sports College" in 2002. In January 2006, Texas won the Division
   I-A national football championship by beating the USC Trojans in the
   Rose Bowl.

   UT has a network of over 450,000 living alumni, one of the largest of
   any American university.

History

   The University's old Main Building in 1903.
   Enlarge
   The University's old Main Building in 1903.

   The first mention of a public university in Texas can be traced to the
   1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas. Although
   an article promised to establish public education in the arts and
   sciences, no action was ever taken by the Mexican government. After
   Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836, the Congress of
   Texas adopted the Constitution of the Republic, which included a
   provision to establish public education in republic, including two
   universities or colleges. On January 26, 1839, Congress agreed to
   eventually set aside fifty leagues of land towards the effort; in
   addition, forty acres in the new capital of Austin were reserved and
   designated "College Hill".

   In 1846, Texas was annexed into the United States. The state
   legislature passed the Act of 1858, which set aside $100,000 in United
   States bonds towards construction. In addition, the legislature
   designated land, previously reserved for the encouragement of railroad
   construction, toward the universities' fifty leagues. However, Texas's
   secession from the Union and the American Civil War prevented further
   action on these plans.

   After the war, the Texas Constitution of 1866 mandated that the state
   establish a university "at an early day." The passing of the Morrill
   Act in 1862 facilitated the creation of Texas A&M University, which was
   established in 1871 as the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas.
   During the construction of Texas A&M, the Texas Constitution of 1876
   called for the creation of a "university of the first class," The
   University of Texas. It revoked the endowment of the railroad lands of
   the Act of 1858 but appropriated one million acres (4000 km²) in West
   Texas. In 1883, another two million were granted, with income from the
   sale of land and grazing rights going to The University of Texas and
   Texas A&M.

   In 1881, Austin was chosen as the site of the main university, and
   Galveston was designated the location of the medical department. On the
   original "College Hill," an official ceremony began construction on
   what is now referred to as the old Main Building in late 1882. The
   university opened its doors on September 15, 1883.

   The old Victorian- Gothic Main Building served as the central point of
   the campus's forty acre site, and was used for nearly all purposes.
   However, by the 1930s, discussions rose about the need for new library
   space, and the Main Building was razed in 1934 over the objections of
   many students and faculty. The modern-day tower and Main Building were
   constructed in its place.

   Constitutional restrictions against funding building construction
   hampered expansion. However, the funds generated by oil discovered on
   university-owned grounds in 1923 were put towards its general endowment
   fund. This extra revenue allowed the university to pay down its debt,
   and pass bond in 1931 and 1947, funding the necessary expansion after
   the enrollment spike following World War II. The university built 19
   permanent structures between 1950 and 1965, when it was given the right
   of eminent domain. With this power, the university purchased additional
   properties surrounding the original forty acres.

   On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, an architectural engineering major
   at the university, barricaded himself in the observation deck of the
   tower of the Main Building with a sniper rifle and various other
   weapons. In a 96-minute stand-off, Whitman killed 15 people and wounded
   many more . Following the incident, the observation deck was closed
   until 1968 and closed again in 1975 following a series of suicide
   jumps. In 1998, after the installation of security and safety measures,
   the observation deck reopened to the public.

Campus

   The University of Texas Tower (foreground).
   Enlarge
   The University of Texas Tower (foreground).

   Today, the university encompasses about 350 acres (1.4 km²) on its main
   campus adjacent to downtown Austin and about 850 acres (3.4 km²)
   overall, including the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in north Austin and
   other properties in Austin and throughout Texas.

   One of the university's most visible features is the Main Building,
   including a 307-foot tower designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Completed in
   1937, the Main Building is located in the middle of campus. The tower
   usually appears illuminated in white light in the evening but is lit
   orange for various special occasions, including athletic victories and
   academic accomplishments, such as commencement. The tower is darkened
   for solemn occasions. At the top of the tower is a carillon of 56
   bells, the largest in Texas. Songs are played on weekdays by resident
   carillonneur Tom Anderson, in addition to the usual pealing of
   Westminster Quarters every quarter hour between 6 AM and 9 PM.

   The university is home to seven museums and seventeen libraries, which
   hold over eight million volumes. The holdings of the university's Harry
   Ransom Humanities Research Centre include one of only twenty-one
   remaining complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible worldwide and the
   world's earliest-known photograph: View from the Window at Le Gras
   taken by Nicéphore Niépce. On April 29, 2006, the Blanton Museum of Art
   opened. The 155,000 square foot (14,000 m²) museum hosts approximately
   17,000 works from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.

   The university also contains an extensive underground tunnel system
   that links many of the buildings. The tunnel system is closed to the
   public and is guarded by silent alarms. The tunnels are used for
   communications and utility service.

   The university operates a 1.1 megawatt nuclear reactor at the J.J.
   Pickle Research Campus. The university's first reactor went critical,
   at Taylor Hall on the main campus, in August 1963 at 10 kW using fuel
   loaned from the U.S. Government. This reactor was upgraded to 250 kW in
   1968. In the late 1980s, the university began work on the reactor for
   the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab at the Pickle Campus. This reactor
   went critical in 1992, despite local news reports on its safety.

   The university continues to expand facilities on the campus. In
   February 2006, the Board of Regents voted to update and expand the
   football stadium. On March 2, 2006, the student body passed a
   referendum to build a new Student Activities Centre next to Gregory Gym
   on the east side of campus, pending final approval by the Board of
   Regents. According to The Daily Texan, the project is estimated to cost
   $51 million and is set to open between fall 2010 and fall 2012. Funding
   will primarily come from students, raising tuition by a maximum of $65
   per semester.
   A Capital Metro bus painted in University of Texas at Austin colors.
   Enlarge
   A Capital Metro bus painted in University of Texas at Austin colors.

   Other notable facilities of the university include:
     * McDonald Observatory, Jeff Davis County, Texas
     * Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, Texas
     * J.J. Pickle Research Campus
     * Centre for Space Research
     * Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC²) Institute
     * Montopolis Research Centre
     * Winedale Historical Centre, Round Top, Texas
     * Bee Cave Research Centre
     * Sam Rayburn Library, Bonham, Texas
     * Institute of Geophysics

   The university operates a public radio station, KUT, which provides
   local FM broadcasts as well as live streaming audio over the Internet.
   The university uses Capital Metro to provide bus transportation for
   students around the campus and throughout Austin.

Academic profile

   McCombs School of Business.
   Enlarge
   McCombs School of Business.

   The university contains 16 colleges and academic units, each listed
   with its founding date:
     * School of Architecture (1951)
     * McCombs School of Business (1922)
     * College of Communication (1965)
     * College of Education (1905)
     * College of Engineering (1894)
     * College of Fine Arts (1938)
     * Graduate Studies (1910)
     * School of Information (1948)
     * Jackson School of Geosciences (2005)
     * School of Law (1883)
     * LBJ School of Public Affairs (1970)
     * College of Liberal Arts (1883)
     * College of Natural Sciences (1883)
     * School of Nursing (1976)
     * College of Pharmacy (1893 in Galveston, moved to Austin 1927)
     * School of Social Work (1950)

   More than 100 undergraduate and 170 graduate degree plans are offered.
   In the 2003-2004 academic year, the University awarded a total of
   13,065 degrees. Bachelor's degrees comprised 68.6% of this total,
   master's degrees 21.7%, doctoral degrees 5.2%, and other professional
   degrees 4.5%.

   UT has numerous undergraduate honours programs, such as Business
   Honours and Plan II, that attract students from around the state,
   nation, and even the world.

Rankings

   In 2006, The Washington Monthly, using a ranking system which stresses
   social factors the magazine considers important (such as percentage of
   students in ROTC and percentage of students on Pell grants) ranked UT
   Austin 17th among national American universities, higher than
   prestigious Ivy League universities such as Princeton and Harvard. The
   Times Higher Education Supplement listed the university as 26th out of
   the top 200 universities globally. Additionally, Texas was ranked as
   the 24th best university in the country and 36th best in the world by
   The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

   US News and World Report consistently ranks Texas as the best public
   university in the state of Texas. In its 2007 rankings, Texas places
   47th among all national universities in the U.S.

   The 2007 Princeton Review survey ranked the school the #1 party school
   in the nation. The school ranked second in the use of hard liquor,
   third in beer drinking and 13th in marijuana smoking in a survey of
   115,000 students at campuses around the country. The survey also ranked
   the school sixth in the category "Their Students (Almost) Never Study".

   UT Austin does not have a medical school, but has associated programs
   with other campuses and allied health professional programs on campus.
   The UT Austin Pharmacy School, for example, is nationally ranked 2nd in
   the United States.

Faculty and research

   The Robert Lee Moore Building (left), the Molecular Biology Building
   (middle), and the Neuromolecular Sciences Building (right).
   Enlarge
   The Robert Lee Moore Building (left), the Molecular Biology Building
   (middle), and the Neuromolecular Sciences Building (right).

   As of 2004, the university employed 2,271 faculty members.
   Approximately 51.1% were tenured, while an additional 17.8% were tenure
   track. The university's faculty includes winners of the Nobel Prize,
   the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal
   of Technology, and numerous other awards. Over 1,000 faculty positions
   are endowed by private funds. Since 1984, more than forty $1
   million-endowed chairs have been created at The University of Texas to
   recruit distinguished faculty and facilitate research in the sciences
   and engineering.

   The university exceeds $380 million in annual research funding, and its
   facilities house more than 90 research units. UT has earned more than
   400 patents since its founding. In 2005, Texas secured $417 million in
   awards and grants, a new university record. In addition, Texas earned
   $5 million in licensing revenue and capped a six-year funding increase
   of 48%. The university has also reached out to establish partnerships
   with other facilities, including the University of Texas Medical Branch
   in Galveston, the University of Texas Health Science Centre, the
   Johnson Space Centre of the National Aeronautics and Space
   Administration, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the
   International Centre for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials.

   In addition to research in traditional fields, scientists are pushing
   forward in several new, interdisciplinary areas, including
   nanotechnology and materials engineering for next-generation
   semiconductors. In addition, Texas is advancing high performance
   computing through the Texas Advanced Computing Centre (TACC), which
   supports over 600 projects in the natural sciences, engineering, and
   business.

   The university's library system ranks sixth among academic libraries in
   the nation with 7.5 million volumes. The main campus library is the
   Perry-Castañeda Library.

Endowment

   The university receives income from an endowment known as the Permanent
   University Fund (PUF), with $11.6 billion ( fourth-largest in the
   United States) in assets as of November 2005, of which 30 percent is
   dedicated to the university. Proceeds from lands appropriated in 1839
   and 1876, as well as oil monies, comprise the majority of this fund. At
   one time, the PUF was the chief source of income for Texas's two
   university systems, The University of Texas System and the Texas A&M
   University System; today, however, its revenues account for less than
   10 percent of the universities' annual budgets. This has challenged the
   universities to increase sponsored research and private donations.
   Privately funded endowments contribute over $2 billion to the
   University's total endowment value.

Student life

   A student giving the Hook 'em Horns hand gesture at a Longhorn football
   game.
   Enlarge
   A student giving the Hook 'em Horns hand gesture at a Longhorn football
   game.

   The university enrolls 37,377 undergraduate, 11,533 graduate and 1,467
   law students, coming from all 254 Texas counties. In addition, students
   from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries, most notably,
   the Republic of Korea, followed by India, the People's Republic of
   China, Mexico and Taiwan, are represented. The average SAT score for
   entering Fall 2004 freshmen was a 1230 out of 1600.

Housing

   The campus is currently home to thirteen dormitories, with a fourteenth
   under construction and slated for opening in spring 2007. On-campus
   housing can hold more than 6,700 students. Jester Centre is the largest
   dormitory with its capacity of 2,945. Academic enrollment exceeds the
   capacity of on-campus housing; as a result, most students must live in
   private dormitories, housing cooperatives, apartments, or with Greek
   organizations and other off-campus residences. The Division of Housing
   and Food Service, which already has the largest market share of the
   estimated 27,000 beds in the campus area, plans to expand to 9,000 beds
   in the near future.

Student organizations

   The university recognizes more than 1,000 student organizations. In
   addition, the University supports three official student governance
   organizations that represent student interests to faculty,
   administrators, and the Texas Legislature. Student Government
   represents student interests in general, the Senate of College Councils
   represents students in academic affairs and coordinates the college
   councils, and the Graduate Student Assembly represents graduate student
   interests.

Greek organizations

   The Office of the Dean of Students' Greek Life and Education section
   administers more than 50 Greek organizations, and about 9% of men and
   12% of women in the undergraduate class choose to join one of these
   groups. Other registered student organizations also name themselves
   with Greek letters, including the founding chapters of Beta Upsilon
   Chi, a national Christian fraternity, and Sigma Phi Lambda, a national
   Christian sorority.

School spirit

     * School colors: The school's official colors are Orange and White,
       with Burnt Orange — also known as Texas Orange — being the specific
       shade of orange used.
     * Alma mater: Its alma mater is " The Eyes of Texas."
     * Fight song and "Hook 'em, Horns!" At football games, students
       frequently sing " Texas Fight", the University's fight song, while
       displaying the Hook 'em Horns hand gesture. The University of Texas
       Longhorn Band is also known as the Showband of the Southwest.
     * Mascot: The school mascot is a Texas longhorn named Bevo.

Athletics

   The Tower in orange after the Longhorns won the 2005 National
   Championship in football at the Rose Bowl. Littlefield Fountain is in
   the foreground.
   Enlarge
   The Tower in orange after the Longhorns won the 2005 National
   Championship in football at the Rose Bowl. Littlefield Fountain is in
   the foreground.
   Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium during a Longhorn football
   game.
   Enlarge
   Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium during a Longhorn football
   game.

   The University of Texas offers a wide variety of varsity and intramural
   sports programs. Due to the breadth of sports offered and the quality
   of the programs, Texas was selected as "America's Best Sports College"
   in a 2002 analysis performed by Sports Illustrated.

Varsity sports

   The university's men's and women's athletics teams are nicknamed the
   Longhorns. A charter member of the Southwest Conference until its
   dissolution in 1996, Texas now competes in the Big 12 Conference (South
   Division) of the NCAA's Division I-A.

   The University of Texas has traditionally been considered a college
   football powerhouse. The team experienced its greatest success under
   coach Darrell Royal, winning three National Championships in 1963,
   1969, and 1970, and winning a fourth title under head coach Mack Brown
   in 2005 after the 41-38 defeat of previously undefeated (and
   top-ranked) USC in the Rose Bowl.

   In recent years, the men's basketball team has gained prominence,
   advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen in 2002, the Final Four
   in 2003, the Sweet Sixteen in 2004 and the Elite Eight in 2006.

   The university's baseball team is considered one of the best in the
   nation with more trips to the College World Series than any other
   school, with wins in 1949, 1950, 1970, 1983, 2002 and 2005.

Rivalries

   The university's major rival in almost every sport is generally
   considered to be Texas A&M University. The two schools have
   acknowledged the importance of this rivalry by creating the State Farm
   Lone Star Showdown series, which encompasses all sports where both
   schools field a varsity team. The football game played between the two
   schools is the third longest-running rivalry in the nation and is the
   longest-running rivalry for both schools. The game used to be played on
   Thanksgiving day but in recent years has been played on the day
   following Thanksgiving.

   Many fans and observers, however, argue that the Longhorns' biggest
   rival in football is the University of Oklahoma. The football game
   between Texas and Oklahoma is known as the AT&T Red River Rivalry and
   is held annually in Dallas, Texas at the Cotton Bowl. This longstanding
   rivalry pits the populations of Texas and Oklahoma against one another
   in a bitter competition over state pride and bragging rights. In recent
   years, this rivalry has been particularly spirited, in part due to the
   fact that at least one school had been ranked in the top 5 nationally
   at the time of the game.

   Many other schools also consider Texas among their biggest rivals.

Facilities

   Major sporting facilities and their main use include:
     * Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium — Football
     * Frank Erwin Special Events Centre — Basketball
     * UFCU Disch-Falk Field — Baseball
     * Mike A. Myers Stadium — Soccer
     * Red and Charline McCombs Field — Softball
     * Gregory Gymnasium — Volleyball
     * Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Centre — Swimming and Diving
     * Penick-Allison Tennis Centre — Tennis
     * Texas Rowing Centre — Rowing

   In addition, the university has numerous practice, training, and
   intramural facilities.

Notable people

   The university has a base of more than 450,000 living alumni. With
   strong academic programs in the sciences, arts, media, business, law,
   engineering, and public policy, as well as a successful athletics
   program, The University of Texas has seen many now notable persons pass
   through its halls.

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