University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and the second largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees.
Located on an urban 1,880 acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university is best known for its programs in health care, law, and the fine arts, with programs ranking among the top 25 nationally in those areas. The university was the original developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree and it operates the Iowa Writer's Workshop, which has produced 17 of the university's 46 Pulitzer Prize winners. Iowa is a member of the Association of American Universities, the Universities Research Association, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
Among American universities, the University of Iowa was the first public university to open as coeducational, opened the first coeducational medical school, and opened the first Department of Religious Studies at a public university. The University of Iowa's 33,000 students take part in nearly 500 student organizations. Iowa's 22 varsity athletic teams, the Iowa Hawkeyes, compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Big Ten Conference. The University of Iowa alumni network exceeds 250,000 graduates.
History
Founding and early history
The University of Iowa was founded on February 25, 1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City "without branches at any other place." The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa, but the Board of Regents approved using "The University of Iowa" for everyday usage in October 1964.The first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, located where Seashore Hall is now. In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women. The 1856–57 catalogue listed nine departments offering ancient languages, modern languages, intellectual philosophy, moral philosophy, history, natural history, mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry. The first president of the university was Amos Dean.
The original campus consisted of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the of land on which it stood. Following the placing of the cornerstone July 4, 1840, the building housed the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa and then became the first capitol building of the State of Iowa on December 28, 1846. Until that date, it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capitol of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, the Old Capitol became the first permanent "home" of the University.
In 1855, The university became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. In addition, Iowa was the world's first university to accept creative work in theater, writing, music, and art on an equal basis with academic research.
The university was one of the first institutions in America to grant a law degree to a woman, to grant a law degree to an African American, and to put an African American on a varsity athletic squad. The university offered its first doctorate in 1898.
20th century–present
The university was the first state university to recognize the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allied Union.The University of Iowa established the first law school west of the Mississippi River. It was the first university to use television in education, in 1932, and it pioneered in the field of standardized testing. Also, the University of Iowa was the first Big Ten institution to promote an African American to the position of administrative vice president.
Under the leadership of Carl Seashore in 1922, Iowa became the first university in the United States to accept creative projects as theses for advanced degrees. Traditionally, graduate study culminates in the writing of a scholarly thesis, but Iowa accepted creative works including a collection of poems, a musical composition, or a series of paintings to be presented to the graduate college in support of a degree. In so doing, Iowa established a creative standard in qualifying for the Master of Fine Arts degree and secured a place for writers and artists in the academy. The university's Program in Creative Writing, known worldwide as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was founded in 1936 with the gathering together of writers of both poetry and fiction. It was the first creative writing program in the country, and it became the prototype for more than 300 writing programs, many of which were founded by Workshop alumni. The workshop remains the most prestigious creative writing program in the country and one of the most selective graduate programs of any kind, typically admitting fewer than five percent of its applicants.
A shooting took place on campus on November 1, 1991. Six people died in the shooting, including the perpetrator, and one other person was wounded. This was one of the deadliest university campus shootings in United States history.
In the summer of 2008, flood waters breached the Coralville Reservoir spillway, damaging more than 20 major campus buildings. Several weeks after the flood waters receded university officials placed a preliminary estimate on flood damage at $231.75 million. Later, the university estimated that repairs would cost about $743 million. The reconstruction and renovation work took a decade, but the university has recovered and taken a number of preventive measures with the hope of avoiding a tragic repeat of the event.
Later in 2008, UNESCO designated Iowa City the world's third City of Literature, making it part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
In 2015, the Iowa Board of Regents selected Bruce Harreld, a business consultant with limited experience in academic administration, to succeed Sally Mason as president. The regents' choice of Harreld provoked criticism and controversy on the UI campus due to his corporate background, lack of history in leading an institution of higher education, and the circumstances related to the search process. The regents said they had based their decision on the belief that Harreld could limit costs and find new sources of revenue beyond tuition in an age of declining state support for universities.
Campus
The University of Iowa's main campus, located in Iowa City, was originally designed by architect D. Elwood Cook. The campus is roughly bordered by Park Road and U.S. Highway 6 to the north and Dubuque and Gilbert Streets to the east. The Iowa River flows through the campus, dividing it into west and east sides.Of architectural note is the Pentacrest which comprises five major buildings—Old Capitol, Schaeffer Hall, MacLean Hall, Macbride Hall, and Jessup Hall—at the center of the University of Iowa Campus. The Pentacrest reflects the Beaux-Arts in addition to Greek Revival architectural styles and the Collegiate Gothic architecture which is dominant in sections of the campus west of the Iowa River. The Old Capitol was once the home of the state legislature and the primary government building for the State of Iowa but is now the symbolic heart of the university with a restored ceremonial legislative chamber and a museum of Iowa history.
Also on the eastern side of campus are six residence halls, the Iowa Memorial Union, the Women's Resource & Action Center, the Pappajohn Business Building, Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, the Lindquist Center, Phillips Hall, Van Allen Hall, Trowbridge Hall, the English-Philosophy Building, the Becker Communication Building, the Adler Journalism Building, Voxman Music Building, and the buildings for biology, chemistry, and psychology. The Main Library can also be found on the east side.
The Colleges of Law, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Public health are on the western side of the Iowa River, along with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the Theatre Building. Additionally, five residence halls, Kinnick Stadium, and Carver-Hawkeye Arena are located on the west campus.
The campus is home to several museums, including the University of Iowa Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Old Capitol Museum, the Medical Museum, the Athletic Hall of Fame and Museum, and Project Art at the University Hospitals and Clinics.
A flood of the Iowa River in 2008 had a major impact on several campus buildings, forcing many to temporarily or permanently close. The Iowa Memorial Union was closed for some time, while its lower level was renovated. The arts campus, which included Hancher Auditorium, Voxman Music Building, Clapp Recital Hall, and the Theatre Building, sustained significant damage. Hancher Auditorium was rebuilt near its current site on the West bank of the Iowa River, and Voxman Music Hall was constructed adjacent to downtown Iowa City and the main campus on South Clinton Street. The new Hancher Auditorium officially opened its doors to the public on September 9, 2016, while the new Voxman Music Building opened its doors for classes and public visitors on August 22, 2016.
The Oakdale Campus, which is home to some of the university's research facilities and the driving simulator, is located north of Interstate 80 in adjacent Coralville. The University established and operates the Pappajohn Center for Higher Education in downtown Des Moines for graduate and continuing business education, and also offers distance learning programs in liberal arts, social work, and strategic communications.
Campus Public Art Collection
The University of Iowa holds and continues to commission a major collection of public art. The program begun under the Iowa State 'Art in State Buildings Program' one of the first percent for art programs in the United States since repealed in 2017. The collection includes many important works including works by artists: Sol LeWitt ; El Anatsui ; Dale Chihuly ; August Rodin ; Peter Randall-Page.Sustainability
The University of Iowa is one of the EPA's Green Power Partners, burning oat hulls instead of coal and reducing coal consumption by 20%. In May 2004 the university joined the Chicago Climate Exchange and in April 2009 a student garden was opened.The university also offers a Certificate in Sustainability through the Office of Sustainability. The OS recently coordinated the University's first sustainability plan: "2020 Vision UIowa Sustainability Targets" proposed by UI President Sally Mason on October 29, 2010.
Organization and administration
The Iowa Board of Regents, a statewide body, governs the University of Iowa, as well as the state's two other public universities and certain other institutions. Created by the Iowa General Assembly in 1909, the Board of Regents is composed of nine volunteer members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate to serve staggered six-year terms. The Iowa Boards of Regents hires the president of the University of Iowa, and the university president reports to the Board. The 21st and current president of the University of Iowa is Bruce Harreld, who has served since November 2, 2015.Academics
The University of Iowa is regularly recognized as one of the top institutions of higher learning in the country, and over 5,000 courses are offered at the university each year. Iowa is one of 61 elected members to the Association of American Universities. The university is home to ISCABBS, a public bulletin board system that was the world's largest Internet community prior to the commercialization of the world wide web.The Iowa Writers' Workshop was founded in 1936. Since 1947 it has produced thirteen Pulitzer Prize winners. Twenty-five people affiliated with the Writers' Workshop have won a Pulitzer Prize. The Hanson Center for Technical Communication was founded at The University of Iowa and is named after a 1960 graduate, Thomas R. Hanson who has funded the institution with $800,000.
The university has educated many of the state's professionals including 79% of Iowa's dentists, 50% of Iowa's physicians, 48% of Iowa's pharmacists, as well as teachers and administrators in each of the state's K–12 school districts.
The University of Iowa library system is the state's largest library and comprises the Main Library, the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, five branch libraries, and the Law Library. The University Libraries' holdings include more than five million bound volumes, more than 200,000 rare books and 1000 historical manuscript collections. Significant holdings include Hardin Library's John Martin Rare Book Room, the Iowa Women's Archives, the Louis Szathmary culinary arts collections, science fiction collections, and works of Walt Whitman. The comic books collection in the Special Collections contains original art for 6,000 cartoons, film and television scripts, zines and other underground or amateur publications, as well as mainstream books, from throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Rankings
For 2020, University of Iowa was ranked tied for 84th among national universities, tied for 34th among public universities, 76th among "Best Value Schools", tied for 77th among "Most Innovative Schools", and tied for 158th among global universities by U.S. News & World Report.U.S. News & World Report also ranked 12 University of Iowa graduate programs among the top 25 in the nation for 2020. In graduate school rankings for 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked Iowa's Carver College of Medicine tied for 26th in the country for primary care and tied for 38th in the U.S. for research, its College of Public Health tied for 19th, its College of Pharmacy tied for 17th, its College of Law tied for 27th, and its Nursing School tied for 21st.
According to the National Science Foundation, Iowa spent $511 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 51st in the nation.
Research Institutes
- Institute of Agricultural Medicine. The Institute of Agricultural Medicine was established in 1955 with a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation as an institute to study rural public health issues. It was later renamed to the Institute of Agricultural Medicine and Occupational Health.
- IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering . IHR—Hydroscience & Engineering is a world-renowned center for education, research, and public service focusing on hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics. Based in the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, a five-story red brick building on the banks of the Iowa River, IIHR is a unit of the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. Because of its contributions to water's study and use, the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized the Stanley Hydraulics Lab as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The ASCE distinguishes the lab as the "oldest university-based hydraulics laboratory in the nation continuously focusing on research and education in hydraulic engineering".
- Public Policy Center. The Public Policy Center is an interdisciplinary academic research center investigating six policy areas: Environmental, Health, Housing & Land Use, Human Factors & Vehicle Safety, Social Science, and Transportation. The University of Iowa Public Policy Center was founded in 1987 by David Forkenbrock, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, as a freestanding unit in the Office of the Vice President for Research. The PPC's original focus was Transportation Policy research, followed by Health Policy research, and Human Factors and Vehicle Safety research.
Student life