University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (known locally as the U of M or the U) is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest student body in the United States, with 51,140 students.

www.umn.edu

History

The University was founded on February 25, 1851, but it did not begin enrolling students until 1867 because of financial problems and the American Civil War. After a sizable loan from John Sargent Pillsbury, known to many as the Father of the University, the school reopened.

Pillsbury, a University regent, state senator and governor, used this political influence for the University to become the recipient of a Morrill Land-Grant, which meant that the federal government provided land for use or to sell to provide education for students of all incomes, as well as maintaining a commitment to the state's agriculture as still seen today on the St. Paul Campus, the Arboretum and the development of the state fruit: the honeycrisp apple. The first president, inaugurated on December 22, 1869, was William Watts Folwell. The first Bachelor of Arts degrees were received in 1873, with Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1888. The Duluth, Morris and Crookston, Minnesota, campuses joined the system in 1947, 1960 and 1966, respectively.

Campus

The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, but it was later moved about a mile downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of University and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from Pillsbury. It was upgraded from a preparatory school to a college in 1869.(Pitmod, Boc, Barryus & Ouz).

Today's campus has buildings on both banks of the river, but the East Bank is the main portion of the campus and covers 307 acres (1.24 km2)

Reputation

The second-largest institution of higher education in the Midwest, the University offers degree programs in many fields,[clarification needed] from agriculture to modern dance. The University has all three branches of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

The University recently made an explicit goal to become one of the top-three public research universities in the world within a decade.

In 2008 Times Higher Education (previously the Times Higher Education Supplement) ranked the University at 87 (with Universität Tübingen) in its ranking of the World's Top 200 Universities, up from 142 in 2007.

Also in 2008, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked the University of Minnesota at 28 on its list of Academic Rankings of World Universities.

In August 2008, U.S. News & World Report's 2009 Rankings placed the undergraduate program of the University as the 61st-best National University in the United States. (National Universities are defined as those universities which "offer a full range of undergraduate majors as well as masters and doctoral degrees. In many cases, they place strong emphasis on research and receive federal money to support their research endeavors.")

Nineteen of the University's graduate-school departments have been ranked in the nation's top-twenty by the U.S. National Research Council.

In 2006, the undergraduate business program at the Carlson School of Management was ranked 26th in the nation by Businessweek.

The College of Pharmacy was ranked 3rd by the U.S. News & World Report .

In 2009 U.S. News & World Report ranked the undergraduate Chemical Engineering program as fourth-best in the nation, and its graduate program as third-best in the nation, tied with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Organization

The University recently reorganized its college system, merging some of the colleges together.

• General College, the School of Social Work and the Department of Family Social Science from the College of Human Ecology merged with the old College of Education and Human Development, forming a new College of Education and Human Development (CEHD);
• the College of Natural Resources merged with the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences into the new College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS).
• The design-oriented programs from the College of Human Ecology merged with the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA), creating the new College of Design (CDES).
  

These plans were controversial, particularly the closing of General College, which had been the entry point to the University for many first-generation students, low-income students, students with disabilities, athletes, and students of color since its founding in 1932.

The University has sixteen schools and colleges:Carlson School of Management (CSOM)
College of Biological Sciences (CBS)
College of Continuing Education (CCE)
School of Dentistry (DENT)
College of Design (CDES)
College of Education and Human Development (CEHD)
University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource SciencesCollege of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS)
College of Liberal Arts (CLA)

Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (HHH)
Institute of Technology (IT)
Law School (LAW)
Medical School (MED)
School of Nursing (NURS)
College of Pharmacy (PHARM)
School of Public Health (SPH)
College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM)

University of Minnesota ranked 87th in the 2008 Thes-Qs World University Ranking