Iowa State University | |
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Motto | Science with practice |
Established | 1858 |
Type | Flagship state university Land-grant Space-grant |
Endowment | US $452.2 million [1] |
President | Gregory L. Geoffroy |
Academic staff | 1,709 |
Students | 28,682 (Fall 2010) |
Undergraduates | 23,104 (Fall 2010) |
Postgraduates | 4,991 (Fall 2010) |
Location | Ames, Iowa, USA |
Campus | Urban, 1,984 acres (8 km²) |
Nickname | Cyclones |
Colors |
Cardinal and Gold |
Athletics | Big 12 NCAA Division I |
Mascot | Cy |
Affiliations | American Association of Universities, Universities Research Association |
Website | www.iastate.edu |
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University (ISU), is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of other notable individuals in their respective fields. Until 1945 it was known as the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
ISU is classified as an RU/VH Doctoral/Research University-Extensive (very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.[2] The university is a group member of the prestigious American Association of Universities, Universities Research Association, and the Big 12 Conference.
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In 1856, the Iowa General Assembly enacted legislation to establish the State Agricultural College and Model Farm. Story County was chosen as the location on June 21, 1859, from proposals by Johnson, Kossuth, Marshall, Polk, and Story counties. When Iowa accepted the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862, Iowa State became the first institution in the nation designated as a land-grant college. The institution was coeducational from the first preparatory class admitted in 1868. The formal admitting of students began the following year, and the first graduating class of 1872 consisted of 24 men and 2 women.[3]
The Iowa Experiment Station was one of the university's prominent features. Practical courses of instruction were taught, including one designed to give a general training for the career of a farmer. Courses in mechanical, civil, electrical, and mining engineering were also taught.
The domain occupied about 1175 acres (476 hectares), of which 120 acres (49 hectares) formed the campus. In 1914, tuition was free to residents of Iowa. Students from other states paid an annual fee of $50. There were 217 members on the faculty in 1914 when 3,458 students attended the school. In 1923, 7,766 students were taught by a faculty which numbered 567 members. In the period from 1914 to 1923, the following buildings were erected: four women's dormitories, plant propagation building and greenhouse, science building, hospital, armory, animal husbandry laboratory, agricultural engineering building, poultry laboratory, dairy judging pavilion, and sheep, horse, hog, and dairy barns. A library of 250,000 volumes' capacity, a home economics building, and a dormitory for women were under construction in 1924. The president was Raymond Allen Pearson.
The university continues to grow and set a new record for enrollment in the fall of 2010 with 28,685 students.[4]
USNWR National University[5] | 88 |
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ISU is ranked among the top 50 public universities in the U.S. and is known for its degree programs in science, engineering, and agriculture. Classified as a Carnegie RU/VH doctoral/research institution,[6] Iowa State receives nearly $300 million in research grants each year.
The university is one of 63 elected members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, an organization composed of the most highly ranked research universities in the U.S. and Canada that is only open to membership by invitation.
Overall, ISU ranks #94 in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of national universities [7] and #21 in the Washington Monthly rankings. In engineering specialties, at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate, Iowa State's agricultural engineering program is ranked third among top programs in the U.S. Aerospace engineering ranks 13th among public universities (18th overall). Chemical engineering and civil engineering both are ranked 13th among public universities (20th overall). Materials engineering is ranked 11th among public universities (17th overall). The electrical engineering program is ranked 25th and computer engineering program ranked 23rd out of all public programs. The programs ranked 41th and 39th, respectively, out of all public and private programs in the country. Computer Science ranked 37th among public programs. Overall, Iowa State's engineering program ranks 37th.
The National Science Foundation ranks ISU #94 in the nation in research and development expenditures for science and engineering and #78 in total research and development expenditures. Currently, ISU ranks #2 in license and options executed on its intellectual property and #5 in license and options that yield income.
Parks Library contains nearly 2.5 million books and subscribes to more than 32,000 journals, making ISU's library one of the 100 largest university libraries in the country.
Iowa State is the birthplace of the first electronic digital computer, starting the world’s computer technology revolution. Invented by mathematics and physics professor John Atanasoff and engineering graduate student Clifford Berry during 1939-42, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, or ABC, pioneered important elements of modern computing, including binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, parallel processing, and electronic switching elements. [8]
The Extension Service traces its roots to farmers’ institutes developed at Iowa State in the late 19th century. Committed to community, Iowa State pioneered the outreach mission of being a land-grant college through creation of the first Extension Service in 1902. In 1906, the Iowa Legislature enacted the Agricultural Extension Act making funds available for demonstration projects. It is believed this was the first specific legislation establishing state extension work, for which Iowa State assumed responsibility. The national extension program was created in 1914 based heavily on the Iowa State model.[9] [10] [11]
ISU is the only university nationwide that has a U.S. Department of Energy research laboratory physically located on its campus. Iowa State played a critical role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. As part of the Manhattan Project, the process to produce large quantities of high-purity uranium metal was developed at Iowa State. Iowa State provided one-third of the uranium metal used in the world’s first controlled nuclear chain reaction, or atomic bomb. [12]
ISU is organized into eight colleges that offer 96 Bachelors degree programs, 115 Masters programs, 83 Ph.D programs, and one professional degree program in Veterinary Medicine.
ISU consists of the following colleges:
In addition to these seven colleges, the Graduate College oversees graduate study in all fields.
Iowa State's campus contains over 160 buildings. Several buildings, as well as the Marston Water Tower, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[13] The central campus includes 490 acres (2.0 km2) of trees, plants, and classically designed buildings. The landscape's most dominant feature is the 20-acre (81,000 m2) central lawn, which was listed as a "medallion site" by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1999, one of only three central campuses designated as such. The other two were Yale University and the University of Virginia.
Thomas Gaines, in The Campus As a Work of Art, proclaimed the Iowa State campus to be one of the twenty-five most beautiful campuses in the country. Gaines noted Iowa State's park-like expanse of central campus, and the use of trees and shrubbery to draw together ISU's varied building architecture. Over decades, campus buildings, including the Campanile, Beardshear Hall, and Curtiss Hall, circled and preserved the central lawn, creating a space where students study, relax, and socialize.[14]
Iowa State's composting facility "can handle more than 10,000 tons of organic wastes annually."[15] A new website tracks energy use of campus buildings [16] and the school's new $3 million dollar revolving loan fund loans money for energy efficiency and conservation projects on campus.[17] In the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the university received a B- grade.[18]
Iowa State operates 19 on-campus residence halls. The residence halls are divided into geographical areas. Richardson Court (RCA) consists of 12 residence halls on the east side of campus. The Union Drive Neighborhood (UDA) consists of four residence halls located on the west side of campus, including Friley Hall, which has been declared one of the largest residence halls in the country.[19] Buchanan Hall is an upper-division hall that is nominally considered part of the RCA, despite its distance from the other buildings. The Towers Residence Halls (TRA) are located south of the main campus. Like Buchanan, they are reserved for second-year students and upperclassmen. Two of the four towers, Knapp and Storms Halls, were imploded in 2005; however, Wallace and Wilson Halls still stand. ISU also operates two apartment complexes for upperclassmen, Frederiksen Court and SUV Apartments.
Union Drive | Richardson Court | Towers | Apartments | Other | |
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The governing body for ISU students is the Government of Student Body or GSB. The GSB is composed of a president, vice president, finance director, cabinet appointed by the president, a clerk appointed by the vice president, senators representing each college and residence area at the university, a nine-member judicial branch and an election commission.[20]
ISU has over 800 student organizations on campus that represent a variety of interests. Organizations are supported by Iowa State's Student Activities Center. Many student organization offices are housed in the Memorial Union.
ISU is home to an active Greek community. There are 50 chapters that involve 11 percent of undergraduate students. Collectively, fraternity and sorority members have raised over $82,000 for philanthropies and committed 31,416 hours to community service. In 2006, the ISU Greek community was named the best large Greek community in the Midwest.[21]
The ISU Greek Community has received multiple Jellison and Sutherland Awards from Association for Fraternal Leadership and Values, formerly the Mid-American Greek Council Association. These awards recognize the top Greek Communities in the Midwest.
Collegiate Panhellenic Council | Interfraternity Council | National Pan-Hellenic Council | Multicultural Greek Council | |
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The first fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, was established at Iowa State in 1875, six years after the first graduating class entered Iowa State. The first sorority, I.C. Sorocis, was established only two years later, in 1877. I.C. Sorocis later became a chapter of the first national sorority at Iowa State, Pi Beta Phi. Anti-Greek rioting occurred in 1888. As reported in The Des Moines Register, "The anti-secret society men of the college met in a mob last night about 11 o'clock in front of the society rooms in chemical and physical hall, determined to break up a joint meeting of three secret societies." In 1891, President William Beardshear banned students from joining secret college fraternities, resulting in the eventually closing of all formerly established fraternities. President Storms lifted the ban in 1904.[25]
Following the lifting of the fraternity ban, the first twelve national fraternities (IFC) installed on the Iowa State campus between 1904 and 1913 were, in order, Sigma Nu, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Gamma Delta, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Sigma, Theta Xi, Acacia, Phi Sigma Kappa, Delta Tau Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Phi Delta Theta.[26] Though some have suspended their chapters at various times, ten of the original twelve fraternities are active in 2008. Many of these chapters existed on campus as local fraternities before being reorganized as national fraternities, prior to 1904.
The Iowa State Daily is the university's student newspaper and is the nation's largest student run newspaper. The Daily has its roots from a news sheet titled the Clipper, which was started in the spring of 1890 by a group of students at Iowa Agricultural College led by F.E. Davidson. The Clipper soon led to the creation of the Iowa Agricultural College Student, and the beginnings of what would one day become the Iowa State Daily.
88.5 KURE is the university's student-run radio station. Programming for KURE includes ISU sports coverage, talk shows, the annual quiz contest Kaleidoquiz, and various music genres.
The "Cyclones" name dates back to 1895. That year, Iowa suffered an unusually high number of devastating cyclones (as tornadoes were called at the time). In September, the Iowa State football team traveled to Northwestern University and defeated its highly-regarded team by a score of 36-0. The next day, the Chicago Tribune's headline read "Struck by a Cyclone: It Comes from Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town."[27] The article reported that "Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday." The nickname stuck and the Iowa State team had made a name for itself.
The school colors are cardinal and gold. The mascot is Cy the Cardinal, introduced in 1954. Since a cyclone was determined to be difficult to depict in costume, the cardinal was chosen in reference to the school colors. A contest was held to select a name for the mascot, with the name Cy being chosen as the winner. In early Summer 2007, Cy was voted by fans on the CBS Sports website as the "Most Dominant College Mascot on Earth".[28] In 2009, Cy won the Capital One Mascot competition.
The Iowa State Cyclones compete in 16 varsity sports in the NCAA's Division I-A as a member of the Big 12 Conference. In club hockey, the Cyclones compete in the Central States Division of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. Iowa State teams and individuals have achieved great success, including national championships in wrestling, gymnastics, and cross country.
Iowa State's intrastate archrival is the University of Iowa whom it competes annually for the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series trophy, an annual athletic competition between the two schools. Sponsored by Hy-Vee, the competition includes all head-to-head regular season competitions between the two rival universities in all sports.
Football first made its way onto the Iowa State campus in 1878 as a recreational sport, but it was not until 1892 that Iowa State organized its first team to represent the school in football. In 1894, college president William M. Beardshear spearheaded the foundation of an athletic association to officially sanction Iowa State football teams. The 1894 team finished with a 6-1 mark, including a 16-8 victory over what is now the University of Iowa.[29] The Cyclones compete annually for two trophies. Since 1977, Iowa State and Iowa compete each year for the Cy-Hawk Trophy. Iowa State competes with conference rival Missouri for the Telephone Trophy.
The Cyclones play its home games at Jack Trice Stadium, named after Jack Trice, ISU's first African-American athlete and also the first and only Iowa State athlete to die from injuries sustained during athletic competition. Trice died three days after his first game playing for Iowa State against Minnesota in Minneapolis on October 6, 1923. Suffering from a broken collarbone early in the game, he continued to play until he was trampled by a group of Minnesota players. It is disputed whether he was trampled purposely or if it was by accident. The stadium was named in his honor in 1997 and is the only NCAA Division I-A stadium named after an African-American.[30] Jack Trice Stadium, formerly known as Cyclone Stadium, opened on September 20, 1975, with a win against the Air Force Academy.
Beginning with its first appearance in the 1971 Sun Bowl, the Cyclones have earned ten trips to bowl games. In its most recent bowl, Iowa State defeated Minnesota in the 2009 Insight Bowl, 14-13, in Tempe, Arizona.
Hopes of "Hilton Magic" returning took a boost with the hiring of ISU alum and fan favorite Fred Hoiberg as coach of the men's basketball team in April 2010. Hoiberg played three seasons under legendary coach Johnny Orr and one season under future Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd during his standout collegiate career as a Cyclone (1991–95). Orr laid the foundation of success in men's basketball upon his arrival from Michigan in 1980 and is credited with building Hilton Magic. Besides Hoiberg, other Cyclone greats played for Orr and brought winning seasons, including Kelvin Cato, Jeff Grayer, Barry Stevens, and walk-on Jeff Hornacek. The 1985-86 Cyclones were one of the most memorable. Orr coached the team to second place in the Big Eight and produced one of his greatest career wins, a victory over his former team and No. 2 seed Michigan in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Under coaches Floyd (1995–98) and Larry Eustachy (1998–2003), Iowa State achieved even greater success. Floyd took the Cyclones to the Sweet Sixteen in 1997 and Eustachy led ISU to two consecutive Big 12 regular season conference titles in 1999-2000 and 2000–01, plus the conference tournament title in 2000. Seeded No. 2 in the 2000 NCAA tournament, Eustachy and the Cyclones defeated UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen before falling to Michigan State, the eventual NCAA Champion, in the regional finals by a score of 75-64 (the differential representing the Spartans' narrowest margin of victory in the tournament). Standout Marcus Fizer and Jamaal Tinsley were scoring leaders for the Cyclones who finished the season 32-5. Tinsley returned to lead the Cyclones the following year with another conference title and No. 2 seed, but ISU finished the season with a 25-6 overall record after a stunning loss to No. 15 seed Hampton in the first round.
Of Iowa State's 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, the Cyclones have reached the Sweet Sixteen four times (1944, 1986, 1997, 2000), made two appearances in the Elite Eight (1944, 2000), and reached the Final Four once in 1944.[31]
Iowa State is known for having one of the most successful women's basketball programs in the nation. Since the founding of the Big 12, Coach Bill Fennelly and the Cyclones have won three conference titles (one regular season, two tournament), and have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen five times (1999-2001, 2009, 2010) and the Elite Eight twice (1999, 2009) in the NCAA Tournament. The team is also a leader in attendance, finishing third in the nation in both 2009 and 2010.[32]
The storied wrestling program has captured the NCAA wrestling tournament title eight times between 1928 and 1987,[33] and won the Big 12 Conference Tournament three consecutive years, 2007-2009. On February 7, 2010, the Cyclones became the first collegiate wrestling program to record its 1,000th dual win in program history by defeating Arizona State, 30-10, in Tempe, Arizona.
In 2002, under Coach Bobby Douglas, Iowa State became the first school to produce a four-time, undefeated NCAA champion in Cael Sanderson, who also took the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Dan Gable, another legendary ISU wrestler, is famous for having lost only one match in his entire Iowa State collegiate career - his last, and winning gold at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, while not giving up a single point.
In 2013, Iowa State will host its eighth NCAA Wrestling Championships. The Cyclones hosted the first NCAA championships in 1928.
In volleyball, Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch has led the Cyclones to four NCAA tournament appearances since her Iowa State arrival in 2005, including two Sweet Sixteen appearances and an Elite Eight. In 2009, Iowa State finished the season second in the Big 12 behind Texas with a 27-5 record and ranked #6, its highest ever finish.
Iowa State is widely known for VEISHEA, an annual education and entertainment festival held on campus each spring. The name VEISHEA is derived from the initials of ISU's five original colleges, forming an acronym as the university existed when the festival was founded in 1922:
VEISHEA is the largest student run festival in the nation, bringing in tens of thousands of visitors to the campus each year. The celebration features an annual parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and departments. Campus organizations exhibit products, technologies, and hold fund raisers for various charity groups. In addition, VEISHEA brings speakers, lecturers, and entertainers to Iowa State, and throughout its over eight decade history, it has hosted such distinguished guests as Bob Hope, John Wayne, Presidents Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Lyndon Johnson, and performers Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Sonny and Cher, The Who, The Goo Goo Dolls, Bobby V, and The Black Eyed Peas.[34]
The 2007 VEISHEA festivities marked the start of Iowa State's year-long sesquicentennial celebration.
As with any major public university, many Iowa State University alumni have achieved fame or notoriety after graduating. These people include astronauts, scientists, Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, statesmen, academicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs, athletes, film and television actors, and a host of other notable individuals in their respective fields. USDA buildings and their architectural structures in Washington, D.C. bear more names of Iowa State alumni than those from any other university.[35] More than one-third of the Fortune 500 companies have Iowa State alumni in leadership positions.[35]
Events occurring in the same year did not necessarily happen in the order presented here.
Year | Event |
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1856 | Iowa General Assembly enacts legislation for creation of the State Agricultural College and Model Farm |
1859 | Story County is the chosen county for the State Agricultural College and Model Farm |
1860 | Construction starts on the first building on campus, Farm House |
1862 | Morrill Act of 1862 is passed; college to be named Iowa State Agricultural College |
1869 | First graduating class enters Iowa State[36] |
1875 | The first national fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, opens at Iowa State |
1876 | The university cemetery is opened. One of the very few active cemeteries associated with a university campus in the U.S.[37] |
1877 | The first national sorority, Pi Beta Phi, opens at Iowa State |
1879 | The School of Veterinary Science is formally organized. It's the first of its kind in the United States. |
1890 | Student newspaper Iowa Agricultural College Student is founded. Later to be named the Iowa State Daily |
1895 | Football team nicknamed Cyclones for their performance against Northwestern University |
1898 | The college is divided into "divisions": Agriculture, Engineering, Science and Philosophy, and Veterinary Medicine |
1898 | Renamed the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts[38] |
1905 | First Agricultural Engineering program in the world established |
1913 | The college roads are paved |
1922 | VEISHEA is established |
1923 | Jack Trice is mortally injured during a football game against Minnesota |
1933 | First statistics laboratory in the U.S. is established[39] |
1939 | The Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) is invented. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the world's first electronic digital computer.[40][41] |
1945 | Campus production reaches 2 million pounds of high-purity uranium for Manhattan Project.[42] |
1947 | Ames Laboratory established by U.S. Atomic Energy Commission |
1950 | WOI-TV established as the first commercially operated television station owned by a university in the U.S. Station sold in 1994.[43][44] |
1954 | Cy becomes the Iowa State mascot |
1959 | Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visits Iowa State |
1959 | 10 kW, 150-ton nuclear teaching reactor is built. Reactor decommissioned and removed in 2000.[45] |
1959 | Renamed the Iowa State University of Science and Technology |
1959 | Iowa State's divisions become colleges: the College of Agriculture, College of Engineering, College of Home Economics, College of Sciences and Humanities, and College of Veterinary Medicine |
1962 | Enrollment reaches 10,000 students |
1966 | Enrollment reaches 15,000 students |
1968 | The College of Education is established |
1974 | The Maintenance Shop opens in the Memorial Union |
1979 | The College of Design is established |
1984 | The College of Business is established |
1988 | First VEISHEA Riot |
1992 | Second VEISHEA Riot |
1995 | Reiman Gardens opens[46] |
1997 | Working replica of Atanasoff-Berry Computer is unveiled, goes on nationwide tour[47] |
1999 | Central Campus is listed as a "medallion site" by the American Society of Landscape Architects |
2004 | Third VEISHEA Riot |
2005 | The College of Education and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences are combined to create the College of Human Sciences |
2006 | VEISHEA returns after being canceled for 2005; is deemed a huge success |
2007 | ISU's year long Sesquicentennial celebration is kicked off at VEISHEA 2007 with a 20,000-piece birthday cake[48] |
2008 | Sesquicentennial of Iowa State |
2009 | 25th Anniversary of the College of Business |
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This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.