F lorida's oldest university, the University of
Florida traces its beginnings back to 1853 when the state of Florida took over
Gilbert Kingsbury's private school in Ocala and named it the East Florida
Seminary. With this act, the University of Florida was born. The school moved to
Gainesville in 1866 and remained the East Florida Seminary at Gainesville until
1905.
On July 5, 1905, the Buckman Act established the University of Florida in
Gainesville as it is now. On Sept. 4, 1906, 102 men attended classes at UF,
living on a campus that contained 355 acres of land and two buildings.
Since then, UF has evolved into one of the largest universities in the South
and one of the 20 largest in the United States. The university has 16 colleges,
four schools and 100 interdisciplinary research and education centers, bureaus
and institutes with a total enrollment of about 35,000 (27,000 undergraduates).
These bring together faculty and student scholars from various academic programs
to provide research and development services in all areas of state interest. One
hundred and fourteen majors are offered in 52 undergraduate degree programs.
The graduate school coordinates 123 master's and 76 doctoral programs in 87
of the 137 UF academic departments. Along with Ohio State and the University of
Minnesota, UF offers more academic programs on a single campus than any of the
nation's other universities--pubic or private--and is ranked among the nation's
to 51 research universities and enjoys membership in the prestigious Association
of American Universities. In 1991-92, the faculty members received in excess of
$235 million in extramural funding for research and training.
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