The story
History
Origins
The modern University of Florida traces its origins to 1853, when the East Florida Seminary, the oldest of its four predecessor institutions, was founded in 1853 as the East Florida Seminary in Ocala, Florida. The seminary was Florida's first state-supported institution of higher learning and operated until 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War. In 1866, the East Florida Seminary reopened in Gainesville on the grounds of the Gainesville Academy, a small private college that had closed during the war.
The second precursor to the University of Florida was Florida Agricultural College (FAC), the state's first land-grant college under the Morrill Act, established in Lake City in 1884. The Florida Legislature, looking to expand FAC's curriculum beyond agricultural and engineering offerings, changed the school's name to the "University of Florida" for the 1903–1904 academic year. This name was in use for two years.
"University of the State of Florida"
In 1905, the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, which reorganized the state's publicly supported institutions of higher education. Under the act, Florida's six state-supported institutions were merged to form the State University System of Florida under the newly established Florida Board of Control. Four institutions were combined to create a new "University of the State of Florida" for white men: the University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College), the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School in St. Petersburg, and the South Florida Military College in Bartow.
The Buckman Act also created two other institutions segregated by race and gender: Florida Female College (later the Florida State College for Women and eventually Florida State University) for white women and the State Normal School for Colored Students (later Florida A&M) for African-American men and women, both in Tallahassee.
The Buckman Act did not specify where the new University of the State of Florida would be located. The City of Gainesville, led by its mayor William Reuben Thomas, campaigned to be the site of the new university, with its primary competitor being Lake City. After a brief but intense period of lobbying, the Board of Control selected Gainesville on July 6, 1905, and funds were allocated for the construction of a new campus on the western edge of the town. However, because the facilities in Gainesville would not be ready to accept students for several months, the new university was housed in the former campus of Florida Agricultural College in Lake City during the 1905–1906 academic year. Former FAC president Andrew Sledd was chosen to be the first president of the University of the State of Florida.
The University of the State of Florida's first semester in Gainesville began on September 26, 1906, with an enrollment of 102 students. Two buildings had been completed at the time: Buckman Hall, named after the primary author of the law that created the university, and Thomas Hall, named after the mayor of Gainesville who had led the successful effort to bring the school to town. Both structures were designed by William A. Edwards, who designed many of the university's original buildings in the Collegiate Gothic style in his role as lead architect for Florida's Board of Control.
During his term, first university president Andrew Sledd often clashed with key members of the Board of Control over his insistence on rigorous admissions requirements, which his detractors claimed was unreasonably impeding the growth of enrollment. Sledd resigned over these issues in 1909.
Growth, mascots, and establishment of colleges
Florida State College for Women president Albert Murphree was named UF's second president before the 1909–1910 academic year, which was also when the school's name was simplified from the "University of the State of Florida" to the "University of Florida". Murphree oversaw a reorganization of the university that included the establishment of several colleges, beginning with colleges of law, engineering, and liberal arts and sciences by 1910. Murphree was also instrumental in the founding of the Florida Blue Key leadership society and in building total enrollment from under 200 to over 2000. He is the only University of Florida president honored with a statue on campus.
Read the full text
The alligator became the school's informal mascot when a local vendor designed and sold school pennants imprinted with the animal, which is very common in lakes in and around Gainesville and throughout the state. The 'gator was a popular choice, and the university's sports teams had officially adopted the nickname by 1911. The school colors of orange and blue were also officially established in 1911, though the reasons for the choice are unclear. The most likely rationale was that they are a combination of the colors of the university's two largest predecessor institutions, as the East Florida Seminary used orange and black while Florida Agricultural College used blue and white. The older schools' colors may have been an homage to early Scottish and Ulster-Scots Presbyterian settlers of north central Florida, whose ancestors were originally from Northern Ireland and the Scottish Lowlands.
In 1924, the Florida Legislature mandated women of a "mature age" (at least twenty-one years old) who had completed sixty semester hours from a "reputable educational institution" be allowed to enroll during regular semesters at the University of Florida in programs that were unavailable at Florida State College for Women. Before this, only the summer semester was coeducational, to accommodate women teachers who wanted to further their education during the summer break. Lassie Goodbread-Black from Lake City became the first woman to enroll at the University of Florida, in the College of Agriculture in 1925.
Murphree died in 1928 and John J. Tigert was named UF's third president. Early in his tenure, Tigert helped organize the semi-independent University Athletic Association to plan the construction of Florida Field and operate the school's athletic programs. Disgusted by the under-the-table payments being made by universities to athletes, Tigert established the grant-in-aid athletic scholarship program in the early 1930s, which was the genesis of the modern athletic scholarship plan used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Inventor and educator Blake R. Van Leer was hired as Dean to launch new engineering departments and scholarships. Van Leer also managed all applications for federal funding, chaired the Advanced Planning Committee per Tigert's request. These efforts included consulting for the Florida Emergency Relief Administration throughout the 1930s.
Post World War II
Beginning in 1946, there was dramatically increased interest among male applicants who wanted to attend the University of Florida, mostly returning World War II veterans who could attend college under the GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen's Readjustment Act). Unable to immediately accommodate this increased demand, the Florida Board of Control opened the Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida on the campus of Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. By the end of the 1946–47 school year, 954 men were enrolled at the Tallahassee Branch. The following semester, the Florida Legislature returned the Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and renamed it Florida State University. These events also opened up all of the colleges that comprise the University of Florida to female students. Florida Women's Hall of Fame member Maryly Van Leer became the first woman to receive from the University of Florida a master's degree in engineering.
African-American students were allowed to enroll starting in 1958. From its inception until 1958, only white students were allowed to study at the University of Florida. In 1958, George H. Starke became the first Black student when he entered the College of Law. In 1959, Daphne Duval Williams became the first Black woman student when she entered the College of Education.
Starting in the late 1950s, University of Florida faculty and students were monitored and interrogated by the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, also known as the Johns Committee, with the goal of exposing homosexual behavior at the university. University president J. Wayne Reitz cooperated with the investigation, which caused at least 15 faculty and 50 students to leave or be forced out of the university after the committee targeted them. The committee's work culminated in the publication of a report called Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida in 1964. The Johns Committee is considered a late extension of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare.
Rapid campus expansion began in the 1950s and continues today. The Carleton Auditorium, Century Tower, Little Hall, Beaty Towers, the Constans Theatre, Library West, and the Reitz Student Union were all completed during this period. Shands Hospital opened in 1958 along with the University of Florida College of Medicine to join the established College of Pharmacy. The J. Wayne Reitz Union, the student union of the University of Florida, was completed in 1967. The union was named in honor of J. Wayne Reitz, the fifth president of the university, who served from 1955 to 1967. Library West was constructed in 1967 and was originally designated as the "Graduate Research Library." Library East (now Smathers Library) was at the same time designated as the undergraduate library.
National and international prominence
In 1985, the University of Florida was invited to join the Association of American Universities.
During President Bernie Machen's tenure and with the backing of the University of Florida Board of Trustees, a significant policy shift was announced in 2009 for the university. This shift involved reducing the number of undergraduate students and reallocating financial and academic resources toward graduate education and research initiatives.
The University of Florida is one of three Florida public universities, along with Florida State University and the University of South Florida, to be designated as a "preeminent university" by Florida senate bill 1076, enacted by the Florida legislature and signed into law by the governor in 2013. As a result, the preeminent universities receive additional funding to improve the academics and national reputation of higher education within the state of Florida.
In 2017, the University of Florida achieved a notable milestone by becoming the first university in the state of Florida to rank among the top ten best public universities according to U.S. News. In 2017, University President Kent Fuchs unveiled a plan to recruit 500 new faculty members to elevate the university's ranking among the top five best public universities. The majority of these new hires are concentrated in STEM fields. In 2018, 230 faculty members were hired, with the remaining 270 faculty positions expected to be filled by the fall of 2019.
In the 2025 fiscal year, the University of Florida received more than $1.33 billion in annual sponsored research expenditures.
Academic freedom controversy
In October 2021, three professors filed a federal lawsuit against UF, claiming they were barred from testifying in a voting rights lawsuit against Florida secretary of state Laurel Lee and Governor Ron DeSantis. The university claimed that testifying against the state would be "adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution," igniting controversy over alleged inappropriate political influence at the university, interference in academic freedom, and violation of the professors' First Amendment rights. Earlier in the year, the chairman of UF's Board of Trustees, Morteza Hosseini, reportedly pushed the university to hire Joseph Ladapo, a controversial doctor known for his support of DeSantis's COVID-19 policies and promotion of COVID misinformation. Hosseini is a major Republican Party donor and DeSantis adviser.
The reports prompted investigations by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the UF Faculty Senate, and UF's accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC). Further reporting in November 2021 revealed that the university had prohibited at least five more professors from offering expertise in legal cases, including a professor of pediatric medicine who was not allowed to offer expert testimony in a case related to masking of children during the COVID pandemic, a measure supported by medical experts but opposed by Governor DeSantis.
In response to the allegations, UF's administration appointed a task force to "review the university's conflict of interest policy and examine it for consistency and fidelity" and reversed its decision to bar professors from testifying, stating that they were permitted to testify pro bono on their own time. The recommendations of the task force were accepted by UF president Kent Fuchs in late November 2021. However, a December 2021 report from the UF Faculty Senate deepened the controversy, citing external pressure and a widespread fear of reprisal if faculty promoted unpopular viewpoints and alleging that course titles on racial topics were edited, faculty were advised against criticizing Governor DeSantis or his policies, and medical researchers were compelled to destroy data related to the COVID pandemic.
Recreation and fitness on campus
The University of Florida's Department of Recreational Sports (RecSports) includes operation of two lake-front parks at Lake Wauburg, group fitness, personal and small group training, massage therapy, intramural sports, 51 competitive sports clubs, two world-class indoor fitness and recreation facilities, four campus pools, outdoor rock climbing, an adventure travel recreation program, campus fields and facilities, a skate park and staff development services for over 700 students who are employed by the department's programs.
RecSports manages the University of Florida Southwest Recreation Center, a 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m2) state-of-the-art facility with six indoor basketball courts, a split-level cardio room, personal training studio, massage therapy rooms, 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) strength and conditioning area and a social lounge with a smoothie bar. Other campus facilities operated by RecSports include the Student Recreation & Fitness Center.
Outside of RecSports, campus recreation options include an arts and crafts center, bowling alley and game room—all in the J. Wayne Reitz Union, and the Mark Bostick Golf Course. The campus also contains nature trails, open spaces, small ponds, picnic areas, shady nooks and an 81-acre (330,000 m2) wildlife sanctuary. The UF Scientific Diver Development Program provides SCUBA training for students interested in pursuing a career involving underwater research.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Florida, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5