University of Denver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Motto | "Pro Scientia et Religione" ('For Science and Religion' or 'Knowledge and Spirit') |
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| Established | 1864 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | $224,000,000 (2006) |
| Chancellor | Robert D. Coombe |
| Undergraduates | 4,741 |
| Postgraduates | 5,105 |
| Location | Denver, Colorado, USA |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Colors | Crimson & Gold |
| Nickname | Denver Pioneers |
| Mascot | Ruckus (Red-tailed Hawk) |
| Website | www.du.edu |
The University of Denver (DU) is an independent, coeducational, four-year university in Denver, Colorado. DU currently enrolls about about 10,400 students, about equally divided between graduate and undergraduate programs. The 125-acre main campus is a designated arboretum and is located primarily in the University Neighborhood[1], about seven miles south of downtown Denver.
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[edit] Background and rankings
The University was founded in 1864 as Colorado Seminary by John Evans, the former Territorial Governor of Colorado, who had been appointed by US President Abraham Lincoln. Evans, who also founded Northwestern University prior to founding DU, is the source of the town in Illinois named "Evanston" (the site of the Northwestern campus) as well as Mount Evans, a 14,000+ foot mountain visible from the DU campus. The reverse initials "DU" are used as the University's shorthand moniker (rather than the more intuitive "UD") as part of a midwestern tradition of initial reversal, similar to the University of Colorado's "CU", the University of Oklahoma's "OU" and the University of Kansas' "KU."
In 2005, Denver selected former provost Robert Coombe as its new Chancellor.
DU is one of the top private universities in the Western United States and ranked in the top 100 nationally according to U.S. News and World Report. The nationally ranked Daniels College of Business is the primary undergraduate and graduate drawing card, but there are also considerable graduate level strengths in law, professional psychology, international studies, and social work.
Profile of the average accepted undergraduate student in 2005:
- Age: 18
- Gender: 52% of applicants are female; 48% of applicants are male
- GPA: 3.63
- SAT score: 1212
- ACT score: 26
- Domestic applicants: 39% from Colorado; 61% from other states
- International applicants: 3.3%
- Domestic students of color: 16% of applicants
[edit] Campus
Under the leadership of former Chancellor Daniel Ritchie (now Chairman of the DU Board of Trustees), about $500 million in capital improvements have taken place in the last decade and the learning inside these new buildings has improved in the same period, as admissions selectivity and rankings have improved dramatically.
In autumn 2003, DU opened a new 63.5 million USD facility for its College of Law, what was later named the "Sturm College of Law." The building includes a three-story library with personal computers accessible to students.
Additionally, the University also recently opened the acclaimed $75 million Newman Center for the Performing Arts, which includes a 1,000 seat, four-level opera house with some of the finest acoustics in the region, a 600-seat recital hall with an impressive organ, and a 400-seat flexible theatre space, home of the acclaimed DU Theatre Department. The Newman Center serves as home to many professional performing arts groups as well as University performing arts events.
[edit] Student body and academics
DU has long been known as a school with an affluent, upper-middle class student body, with about 53 percent of the undergraduate students coming from outside the state of Colorado. DU has been transforming itself from its former undergraduate reputation as a "ski school" into a much more dynamic institution that combines small classes with university level resources, all in a young, vibrant and beautiful area of the United States. The graduate programs represent over half of the total enrollment, with a more local, professional focus.
The experiential learning components of all the classes at DU gives students the chance to excel beyond book knowledge. Believing firmly in the value of an experience abroad, the Cherrington Global Scholars program offers every undergraduate the chance to study abroad at no cost above normal DU tuition, room and board. The Honors program at DU, under the direction of Professor Todd Breyfogle, provides bright minds a refuge of conversation and advanced courses.
The art and music scene of DU is currently on the rise due to the recent construction of the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. This building houses both the Lamont School of Music and the DU Theatre Department. The Lamont School of Music is a structured conservatory setting which allows students to focus on their talents in a competitive manner. The theatre department, reestablished in 1985, is currently being transformed into a nationally competitive theatre school. Recently, their show "Henry the VI part iii" was selected as one of the best in the region was considered for national recognition. For the second straight year, a DU show has been held for regional honors.
Also, with the recent addition of more faculty members and renovation beginning on Margery Reed Hall, the Theatre Department has become a magnet for theatre students in the region. Much of the faculty have many professional connections with local theatre companies (Curious, DCPA), as well as contacts in San Fransico, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and many other regions, providing students with many available options for interships and quick job placement.
Recently, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law has also undergone an internal renaissance. In 2003, the University of Denver ATLA trial team won the national championship in New Orleans, taking Harvard's title from the previous year. It is now a top 100 law school in the US News rankings.
Denver is one of the few schools in the US that personally interviews every undergraduate applicant (with interviews in more than 25 cities per year), ensuring that most accepted students will find that the University is very interested in the person, not just the applicant's credentials. The Hyde interview is named after an influential DU professor, Ammi Hyde, and most students describe the process as insightful rather than painful, so the interview should not be considered a deterrent for prospective students who are nervous that they will not perform well. Further information can be found at the Ammi Hyde interview page.
[edit] Athletics
DU's athletic teams are known as the Pioneers and have been fielding intercollegiate teams since 1867. Today, DU operates a full NCAA Division I athletic program with a unique and successful mix of sports in and around the $75 million Daniel Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness, which was completed in 2000.
The Pioneer Ice Hockey Program has one of the richest histories in college hockey. Ice hockey is DU's flagship spectator sport, regularly selling out the new 6,000 seat Magness Arena on campus, the showpiece of the Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness. The Pioneers won consecutive NCAA hockey titles in 2004 and 2005, to go with five previous NCAA Championships in the '50s and '60s, giving DU seven hockey titles overall, second only to the University of Michigan's nine NCAA hockey titles. Skiing is another strong sport at Denver, with 18 NCAA titles (more than any other school) including the most recent in 2005 and as well as three consecutive NCAA titles from 2001 to 2003.
The Denver Men's Lacrosse and Women's Soccer teams appeared in their respective 2006 NCAA Tournaments with women's soccer advancing to the second round, and the Women's Basketball team appeared in the 2001 NCAA Tournament. The Women's Gymnastics and Golf teams, Women's and Men's Soccer, and Men's Lacrosse teams have all also been ranked in the national top 20 in recent years, while the Men's Basketball team won the Sun Belt West Division in 2005 and appeared in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) for the first time since the 1950s.
Denver is a member of the Sun Belt Conference for Men's and Women's Basketball, Swimming, Tennis and Golf, as well as Women's Volleyball and Women's Soccer. The other Denver teams play in various conferences in the sports that are not sponsored by the Sun Belt. Men's Ice Hockey plays in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, Men's Soccer and Women's Lacrosse play in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Men's and Women's Skiing competes in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, while Men's Lacrosse plays in the Great Western Lacrosse League. Women's Gymnastics competes as an Independent.
Football was once the most popular sport at Denver, as the school competed in the Sun Bowl and Alamo Bowl during the late 1940s. The football team played in a 30,000 seat stadium that stood on campus from 1927 to 1974. However, the program was discontinued in 1960 due to financial reasons, and Denver's baseball team was dropped in 1999 when DU returned to full NCAA D-I status.
Denver's athletic alumni include over 50 NHL hockey players, including current (2006) NHLers Antti Laaksonen, Mark Rycroft, and Paul Stastny, all of the Colorado Avalanche, Wade Dubielewicz of the New York Islanders, Matt Pettinger of the Washington Capitals and 2006 Hobey Baker Memorial Award Winner Matt Carle of the San Jose Sharks. Previous DU players who starred in the NHL include Keith Magnuson, Craig Patrick, Cliff Korroll, Peter McNab, Glenn Anderson, and Kevin Dineen.
Other notable Denver sports alumni include former Major League Baseball player Dan Schatzeder, NBA basketball players Vince Boryla and Byron Beck, CFL Hall of Famer and former NFL football player Sam Etcheverry, 1952 US Olympic Long Jump Gold Medalist Jerome Biffle, former US Olympic Committee Executive Director Lyman Bingham, and former Colorado Rapids/US National soccer player Nat Borchers. San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich received a masters degree from DU but did not play any varsity sports there. Five time world champion and US Olympic figure Skating star Michelle Kwan is currently enrolled at DU as a full-time sophomore, having transferred from UCLA.
[edit] Alumni
The University of Denver has over 114,000 alumni. Prominent alumni include:
Politics, Government and Military
- Condoleezza Rice - Current US Secretary of State
- Jim Nicholson - Current US Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- General George Casey - Commander of US and Multi-National Forces, Iraq
- Peter Domenici - US Senator (R-NM)
- Byron Dorgan - US Senator (D-ND)
- Mike Enzi - US Senator (R-WY)
- Gale Norton - Former US Secretary of the Interior
- Paul Laxalt - Former US Senator and governor of Nevada
- Paul King - Current District Court Judge in Douglas County, CO
- Javad Zarif - Iran's Ambassador to the UN
- Ibrahim A. Assaf - Finance minister, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Maasuma Al-Mubarak - First Female Cabinet Minister and MP, State of Kuwait
- Heraldo Muñoz - Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations
- Susan Waltz - Chair, Amnesty International's International Executive Committee
- Mary Cheney - Author, Activist and Daughter of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney
- Jacque Ponder - Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo
- David Tomassoni - Majority Whip, Minnesota State Senate
- Fred Mahaffey - Four-star general in the US Army
Media
- Lowell Thomas - Famous American Radio commentator
- Andrew Rosenthal - Assistant managing editor of The New York Times
- James Cox Kennedy - CEO, Cox Communications
- David von Drehle - Washington Post staff writer and best-selling Author
- David Jacobson - Radio Announcer, KQKS Denver
Business and Industry
- Gilbert A. Chavez, [URL:http://digitaldealer-magazine.com/issues/DD_sept06.pdf Interview] AKA CarZeus, E-Marketing expert, Automotive Internet retailing pioneer.
- Peter Coors - CEO, Coors Brewing Company
- Bradbury Anderson - CEO, Best Buy, Inc.
- Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum - Chairman, Emirates Airlines (Dubai)
- Emily Cinader Woods - Co-founder, J. Crew
- Nilanshu Raja - Founder, Medicorp
- Howard P. James - former CEO, Sheraton Hotels
- Peter Morton - founder, Hard Rock Café chain
- Andrew C. Taylor - Chairman & CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car
The Arts
- Ted Shawn - Pioneer of Modern Dance
- Elliott Martin - Broadway producer
- Scott Mitchell Rosenberg - founder of Malibu Comics, publisher of Men in Black
- Duane Michaels - Photographer
- David Adkins - Comedian known as 'Sinbad'
- Roger Birnbaum - Film Producer
- Hao Jiang Tian - Opera Star (Basso Cantate), Metropolitan Opera New York
Academia and the Sciences
- Steven Lamy - Professor and former Director of School of International Relations, University of Southern California
- Harold Agnew - H-Bomb Developer, Professor, Former Los Alamos National Laboratory Director and Presidential Advisor
- Asma Barlas - Pakistani-born academic known for 'Islamic Feminism' viewpoints
- Robert J. Swieringa - Dean of Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University
[edit] References
- ^ Denver Neighborhoods (Statistical) Map. City and County of Denver. Retrieved on August 25, 2006
The following references are sorted in alphabetical order.
- "College of Law Building Named in Honor of 1919 Law Graduate: New University of Denver College of Law building named the Frank H. Ricketson Jr. Law Building", a DU news release
- Denver page at "The Football Graveyard"
- Fast Facts, a page on the web site of DU
- "Learn, Practice, Perform", an article on page 30 of the spring 2004 issue of the University of Denver Magazine
[edit] University publications
- University of Denver Transportation Law Journal, Web site
- The Clarion, DU's official student newspaper, Web site
| Western Collegiate Hockey Association |
|---|
| Alaska-Anchorage♂ • Bemidji State♀ • Colorado C.♂ • Denver♂ • Michigan Tech♂ • Minnesota • Minnesota-Duluth • Minnesota State • North Dakota • Ohio State♀ • St. Cloud State • Wisconsin ♂ men's-only member • ♀ women's-only member |
