About UF
Disclaimer: The UF Faculty Handbook is provided as a general reference rather than the official source of university policies and guidelines. For your convenience, links to official UF documents are provided.
Mission
It is the mission of the University of Florida to offer broad-based, inclusive public education, leading edge research, and service to the citizens of Florida and the nation. The fusion of these three endeavors stimulates a remarkable intellectual vitality and generates a synthesis that is the university's greatest strength.
History
The University of Florida traces its beginnings to 1853 when the state-funded East Florida Seminary acquired the private Kingsbury Academy in Ocala. After the Civil War, the seminary was moved to Gainesville. It was consolidated with the state's land-grant Florida Agricultural College, then in Lake City, to become the University of Florida in 1905 and the Gainesville site for the campus was chosen in 1906. Classes began on September 26, 1906 for 102 students. In 1947, the first year that women were admitted on an equal basis with men, the student body numbered 8,177 men and 601 women. Today, the University of Florida is the nation's 4th largest university in terms of enrollment, which tops 48,000. UF celebrated its Sesquicentennial in 2003. The timeline on the Sesquicentennial website gives a comprehensive history of UF.
Characteristics
The University of Florida can be described as a major, public, comprehensive, land-grant, research university.
- Major: The University of Florida is the largest of Florida's universities and the only university in Florida with membership in the Association of American Universities, an association of 62 leading research universities in the US and Canada.
- Public: The university exists thanks to the commitment and investment of the people of the state of Florida. Therefore, we must be responsible and responsive to the needs of the citizens of our state.
- Comprehensive: UF is one of the most comprehensive in the US - it encompasses virtually all academic and professional disciplines. This adjective recognizes the universal reach of the pursuit of knowledge. No field is excluded from our purview.
- Land-grant: A land-grant college or university is an institution that has been designated by its state legislature or Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. The original mission of these institutions, as set forth in the first Morrill Act, was to teach agriculture, military tactics, and the mechanical arts as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could obtain a liberal, practical education.
The Hatch Act of 1887, established agricultural experiment stations at each of the land grant colleges. The Florida Agricultural Experiment Station was established in 1888 and is now a unit of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). Today the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station operates research and education programs at 22 locations throughout Florida.
The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established the Cooperative Extension Service and specified that the service would be associated with a land grant college. Operating as part of IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension serves each of the state's 67 counties by providing information and conducting educational programs on issues such as sustainable agriculture, competitiveness in world markets, natural resource conservation, energy conservation, food safety, child and family development, consumer credit counseling, and youth development.
More details about the legislative history of land-grant institutions can be found through UF/IFAS. UF is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).
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Research: Research is the effort to expand the understanding of the natural world as well as the world of the mind and the world of the senses. Faculty at the University of Florida dedicate themselves not only to the bedrock function of education, and not only to the land-grant function of service, but equally to the essential activity of research and the creation of new knowledge. The University of Florida is classified as one of 102 public Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive (formerly called Research Universities I) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Strategic Plan
The Office of the President published The University of Florida Strategic Plan in 2002. The goal of the strategic plan is to raise the University of Florida into the ranks of the nation's great universities.
Master Plan
The facilities, services, programs, and physical design of the campus are key to achieving the university's mission. To this end, the Comprehensive Master Plan identifies future facilities and campus design enhancements that will be needed by the year 2010. The Comprehensive Master Plan 2000-2010 Update brochure describes the campus planning process and highlights goals that guide the future growth of the University.
Campus Map and Campus Tours
The online campus map allows you to locate any UF building. You can also take an online virtual tour of the campus. The Office of Admissions provides Campus tours at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 392-1365 or fill out the online form to arrange a tour. Walking tours are available on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. from the J. Wayne Reitz Union. Call 392-1649 for information.
