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University of Utah
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The University of Utah (referred to locally as 'the U' or 'the U of U') is a publicly funded research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of ten institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah's premier research school currently enrolls 21,526 undergraduate and 6,684 graduate students and has 1,419 regular faculty members. Currently (as of 2008) ranked 49th in the United States and 79th in the world. Of the more than 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States, the University of Utah is one of only eighty-eight that are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Research I universities; i.e., those which offer a full range of undergraduate programs, are committed to graduate education, and give research high priority.
Campus history
Originally established February 28, 1850 by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young, it was initially named "University of Deseret".
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Encyclopedia
The University of Utah (referred to locally as 'the U' or 'the U of U') is a publicly funded research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of ten institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah's premier research school currently enrolls 21,526 undergraduate and 6,684 graduate students and has 1,419 regular faculty members. Currently (as of 2008) ranked 49th in the United States and 79th in the world. Of the more than 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States, the University of Utah is one of only eighty-eight that are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Research I universities; i.e., those which offer a full range of undergraduate programs, are committed to graduate education, and give research high priority.
Campus history
Originally established February 28, 1850 by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young, it was initially named "University of Deseret". The school closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a commercial school in 1867 in the old Council House in what is now downtown Salt Lake City under the direction of David O. Calder, a prominent Salt Lake City businessman and associate of Mormon leader Brigham Young. The University was renamed University of Utah in 1894 and classes were first held on the present campus approximately two miles directly east of downtown Salt Lake City in 1900. Portions of the present campus are located on grounds formerly belonging to the U.S. Army's Fort Douglas. The fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991, and although a small part of it remains as an Army Reserve post, the majority of its territory is now owned by the university, and occupied by student residences.
Programs
The university offers seventy-six undergraduate majors, over fifty-five minors and certificates and ninety-six major fields of studies at the graduate level. It draws its 28,000-plus student population from all fifty states and 111 foreign countries. The university, one of the state’s largest employers, has the only medical, social work, and architecture schools in a multi-state area.
The university's David Eccles School of Business is a school of business education offering seven undergraduate majors: Accounting, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Information Systems, Management, and Marketing. The DESB also offers a wide range of master programs and PhD. Notable alumni from the DESB include NFL Quarterback Alex Smith, J. Willard Marriott and Stephen R. Covey.
The university's School of Computing has made several important contributions to the field. The University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of ARPANET, the world's first packet-switching computer network and embryo of the current worldwide Internet. In late 1969, the U's computer graphics department was linked into the node at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California to complete the initial 4-node network . The U was named the third top wired campus in the nation in 2008 according to PC Magazine.
The U's Center for High Performance Computing links the U to major aerospace industries, high-tech
manufacturers and research companies. The Department of Computer Science is ranked in the top twenty computer science research departments in the nation. The U was named one of five finalists in the science category of the 1998 Computerworld Smithsonian Awards.
Other accomplishments include the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud smooth shading model for computer graphics, invention of magnetic ink printing technology, the Johnson counter logic circuit, development of the oldest algebraic mathematics package (REDUCE) still in use, and the Phong lighting model for shading with highlights. The school has pioneered work in asynchronous circuits, computer animation, computer art, digital music recording (for which university alumni were awarded Academy Awards), graphical user interfaces, and stack machine architectures. Notable alumni include Henri Gouraud, James Blinn, Nolan Bushnell, Ed Catmull, Jim Clark, Alan Kay, Shane Robison and John Warnock. Companies founded by faculty and alumni include Adobe Systems, Ashlar, Atari, CAE Systems, Centillium Technology, Cirrus Logic, WordPerfect, Evans and Sutherland, Myricom, NeoMagic, Netscape Communications Corporation, Pixar, Pixal Plane, PlanetWeb, and Silicon Graphics.
The University of Utah Economics department is a leading heterodox department that is committed to social justice and human rights. Notable faculty include Dr. Kenneth Jameson and Dr. E.K Hunt.
The University of Utah School of Medicine is respected as one of the region's finest, with several notable achievements, and the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics- together with Intermountain Health Care, LDS Hospital, and the University of Utah Medical Center, has consistently had some of its programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report. In 1970, the school established the first Cerebrovascular Disease Unit west of the Mississippi River. In 1982, Barney Clark received the world's first permanently implanted artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, during an operation performed by William C. Devries, M.D. Clark survived 112 days with the device. The campus houses the Intermountain Burn Unit, Huntsman Cancer Institute, the Moran Eye Center, an ophthalmic clinical care and research facility, and Primary Children's Medical Center, the only children's hospital in Utah. Areas for which the school is often praised include cardiology, geriatrics, gynecology, pediatrics,rheumatology, pulmonology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology.
The University of Utah's Political Science department hosts one of nation's leading schools of politics and government. Aside from regular course work, the college provides its students the opportunity to volunteer as interns in state and federal government offices. The college is often visited by local and national leaders. The University of Utah also has the Hinckley Institute of Politics.
The university is well known in the field of biology for its unique contributions to the study of genetics. This is due in part to long-term genealogy efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is headquartered about four miles from the University. Those who keep genealogic records are an asset to researchers who are able to use family records to trace genetic disorders through several generations. Additionally, the relative homogeneity of Utah's population makes it an ideal laboratory for studies of population genetics. The population tends to volunteer for genetic testing in high numbers. The University is home to the Genetic Science Learning Center, a unique resource which educates the public about genetics through its website. In addition, University of Utah faculty member and Nobel Prize laureate Mario Capecchi has made significant contributions to the field by developing a gene knockout technique that functions even in higher organisms.
The university is home to the S.J. Quinney College of Law, until the 1970s the only law school in the state. Its alumni and faculty include distinguished scholars and judges. Currently former professor Judge Michael McConnel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Paul Cassell serve on the federal court.
In 1989, the university was the focus of a short-lived but intense controversy in the scientific community when then-chair of chemistry Stanley Pons and visiting professor Martin Fleischmann claimed to have discovered a chemical reaction process known as "cold fusion". Their work has since been discredited by the nuclear physics community.
The College of Architecture and Planning hosts a spring semester course titled Design Build Bluff held at Bluff, Utah. It is an opportunity for the students to design and build a house for a family on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners area of Southwestern United States.
Olympics
In 2002, the University hosted the Olympic Village as well as Winter Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies. Prior to the events, the University received a facelift that included extensive renovations to Rice-Eccles Stadium, a light rail track leading to downtown Salt Lake City and an array of new student housing and a 134-room and conference center (used by the Olympic athletes) at nearby Fort Douglas.
Athletics
The school's sports teams are called the Utes. There are also additional "nicknames" used for some of the school's athletic teams. The men's basketball team is referred to as the "Runnin' Utes" and their gymnastics team is known as the "Red Rocks". Utah participates in the NCAA's Division I (Division I-A for football) as part of the Mountain West Conference. The last football game of the regular season between Utah and Brigham Young University is a contest which for one week seems to divide the entire state. This traditional season finale has been called "The Holy War" by national broadcasting commentators and is one of the fierciest rivalries in college football.
In 2002, U.S.News & World Report named Utah to its Honor Roll of College Sports: one of only twenty schools in the whole nation to receive such mention.
The men's basketball team won the NCAA title in 1944 and the NIT crown in 1947. Arnie Ferrin, the only four-time All-American in Utah basketball history, played for both the 1944 and 1947 teams. He also went on to help the Minneapolis Lakers win NBA Championships in 1949 and 1951. Wat Misaka, the first person of Asian descent to play in the NBA, also played for Utah during this era.
Utah basketball rose again to national prominence under the leadership of head coach Rick Majerus, who with the versatile playing of guard Andre Miller, combo forward Hanno Möttölä and post player Michael Doleac, took Utah to the NCAA Final Four in 1998. Then, after eliminating North Carolina to advance to the final round, Utah lost the championship game to Kentucky, 78-69.
The women's gymnastic team, the Red Rocks, has won the National Gymnastics Championship title 9 times, beginning with an AIAW national championship title in 1981, more than any other university. In 2006, they finished 2nd. In the years when Utah does not place first, they are almost always #2 or #3. The ten-time national champion Utah gymnastics team has qualified for a record 31st-consecutive national championship. Utah is the only program to qualify for all 25 NCAA Championships. The Utes won the 2006 women's gymnastics attendance title, averaging 12,747 spectators to their six regular season home meets. It marked the second-highest attendance average in Utah and NCAA gymnastics history. Utah has won twenty-two of the last twenty-five gymnastics attendance titles. This is also one of the highest attendance averages for any women's college sport in the nation.
Utah is home to ten crowned NCAA National Skiing Championship teams, 1 AIAW National Women's Skiing Championship team (1978), sixty-four individual NCAA titles, twenty-four Olympic athletes and 294 All-Americans ... a display of one of the most successful skiing programs within the college racing circuit.
In 1981 Utah won the AIAW Division II women's cross country national championship.
Of more recent note was the 2004-2005 Utah football team. Coached by Urban Meyer and quarterbacked by Alex Smith, the Utes went 11-0 during the regular season and became the first team from a non-BCS (Bowl Championship Series) league to go to a BCS Bowl Game, finishing the regular season #4 in the BCS rankings. It was also the only time that a team from a non-BCS conference would go to a BCS bowl game before the BCS moved from a four game format to a five game format beginning in the 2006, making the feat even more impressive. The Utes defeated Pittsburgh 35 - 7 in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2005 and ended its perfect 12-0 season ranked fourth in AP polling. Since the creation of the BCS and the National Championship Game, they are one of a small number of undefeated teams to be denied a chance to play for the title, joining Tulane in 1998 and Marshall in 1999, as well as Auburn and Boise State in 2004-05.
In 2005, Utah became the first school to produce #1 overall draft picks in both the NFL and NBA Drafts for the same year. Alex Smith was picked first overall by the San Francisco 49ers in April, 2005, followed by Andrew Bogut, who was taken first overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.
2008 saw another undefeated year for the football team as they finished the season 13-0 and defeated #4 Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Utah finished the season #2 in the Associated Press poll, their highest ranking ever.
Other noteworthy athletics on campus can be attributed to the access to the Wasatch Mountains which are home to several of the country's and world's top ski resorts. The University of Utah is credited with housing some of the best snow sports athletes in the world while enriching their academic credibility. There is a ski club team on campus that competes against other schools in the nation in racing and freestyle events. Clubs like the University of Utah One Love Ski and Snowboard club (http://www.uofuonelove.com) give an outlet for skiers and riders not associated with the club team.
Fight Song
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement, convocation, and athletic games are: Utah Chant and
Utah Man the University of Utah fight song.
Broadcasting
The University of Utah has several public broadcasting affiliations. They include:
- KUED, TV Channel 7 (digital 42), the state's main PBS member station and award-winning producer of local documentaries;
- KUER-FM, FM 90.1, a NPR member station.
- KUEN, TV Channel 9 (digital 36), a resource for teachers and lifelong learners is operated from the U. campus by the Utah Education Network, a statewide consortium of public and higher education.
- K-UTE, Student campus radio, 1620 AM and on cable channel 66 (on campus).
The Daily Utah Chronicle
The Daily Utah Chronicle is the U's independent, student-run paper, which has published regularly since 1890. It publishes daily on school days during fall and spring semesters, and weekly during summer semester. "The Chrony" typically runs between eight and twelve pages, with longer editions for weekend game-guides. The paper is a broadsheet and usually features full-color printing on the front by arrangement to use Newspaper Agency Corporation printing facilities, a deal brokered by The Salt Lake Tribune and intended to inspire journalism mentoring. The Daily Utah Chronicle was selected as the top student newspaper in its region for 2007 by the Society of Professional Journalists. The newspaper was also selected as one of three finalists for the best all-around daily student newspaper (published at least 4 times per week) in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Marching band
The University of Utah Marching Band, known as the Pride of Utah, began in the 1940s as a military band that performed for university events and ceremonies. In 1948, University President A. Ray Olpin recruited Ron Gregory from Ohio State University to form a marching band fashioned after the great collegiate bands of the Midwest. But in the turbulent '60s, support for the band dwindled and in 1969, the Associated Students for the University of Utah (ASUU) discontinued its funding.
The band was revived in 1976 after a fund raising effort under the direction of Gregg I. Hanson. Mr. Hanson served as director of bands with Rick Clary directing the marching band until 1990 when Mr. Hanson accepted the director of bands position at the University of Arizona. In 1991, the University of Utah recruited Dr. Barry Kopetz of the University of Minnesota as the director of bands with his graduate assistant, Scott Hagen, serving as marching band director. Mr. Hagen became the director of bands in 2001, where he currently serves. Dr. Eric Peterson led the marching band from 2003-2007. The marching band is currently under the direction of Dr. Brian Sproul. The "Pride of Utah" Marching Utes have performed at all home football and basketball games, along with home gymnastics meets. They've also performed at numerous NFL and college bowl games, including the 2005 BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the 2009 BCS Allstate Sugar Bowl
'48, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
Notable alumni and faculty
The University of Utah is one of the state's largest employers, providing jobs in a diverse atmosphere to thousands of Utah residents.
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