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University of New Hampshire

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University of New Hampshire
File:UNH Seal Blue.png
MottoScience, Arts, Industry
TypePublic
Established1866
EndowmentUS$212 million
PresidentJ. Bonnie Newman (interim)
Undergraduates13,544
Postgraduates2,481
Location
Durham
,
New Hampshire
,
USA
Nickname/MascotWildcats ("Wild E. Cat")
ColorsUNH Blue, White
Websitewww.unh.edu

University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire (USNH). The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire, USA and the University has one college in Manchester, the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. With over 15,000 students UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire.

The University has received many awards and recognitions for its academic achievements. The Princeton Review and Forbes.com named UNH one of the nation's top 10 entrepreneurial campuses [1]. In 2004, UNH was the only public institution in New England to rank in the top 10 of Fulbright number of fellowships awarded, with five graduates receiving grants. UNH was named one of the top 20 universities in the country in U.S. News and World Report's first annual college athletics ranking. US News rankings place it at #105 nationally, just outside the benchmark top 100 institutions in the nation. [1]

History

Thompson Hall, built in 1892

In 1866, the university was first incorporated as the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in Hanover, New Hampshire, in association with Dartmouth College. Durham resident Benjamin Thompson left his farm and assets to the state for the establishment of an agricultural college. On January 30 1890, Benjamin Thompson died and his will became public. On March 5, 1891 Gov. Hiram Americus Tuttle signed an act accepting the conditions of Thompson's will. On April 10 1891, Gov. Tuttle signed a bill authorizing the college's move to Durham, New Hampshire.

In 1892, the Board of Trustees hired Charles Eliot to draw a site plan for the first five campus buildings: Thompson, Conant, Nesmith, and Hewitt Shops (now called Halls) and the Dairy Barn. Eliot visited Durham and worked for three months to create a plan prior to the move to Durham. The Class of 1892, excited about the pending move to Durham, held commencement exercises in an unfinished barn on the Durham campus. On April 18 1892, the Board of Trustees voted to "authorize the faculty to make all the arrangements for the packing and removal of college property at Hanover to Durham." The Class of 1893, followed the previous class and held commencement exercises in unfinished Thompson Hall, the Romanesque Revival campus centerpiece designed by the prominent Concord architectural firm of Dow & Randlett.

In Fall 1893, classes officially began in Durham with 51 freshmen and 13 upperclassmen, which was three times the projected enrollment. Graduate study was also established in Fall 1893 for the first time. The number of students and the lack of state funds for dormitories caused a housing crunch, and forced students to find housing in town. The lack of housing caused difficulty for attracting women to the university. In 1908, construction on Smith Hall, the first women's dorm, was completed using private and state funds. Prior to the construction of Fairchild Hall in 1915 for male students, 50 freshmen lived in the basement of DeMerritt Hall. With the continuing housing shortage for men, the administration encouraged the growth of the UNH Greek system. From the late 1910s through the 1930s, the fraternity system expanded and provided room and board for male students.

In 1923, Gov. Fred Herbert Brown signed a bill changing the name of the college to "University of New Hampshire", despite pressure by state agriculture interests that had defeated a similar proposal in 1911.

Academics

Morrill Hall in c. 1920

UNH is composed of six colleges and the Graduate School, offering some 2,000 courses in over 100 majors. The Thompson School of Applied Science (TSAS), first established in 1895 and now a division of COLSA, provides seven different associate degrees in applied science.

The six colleges of UNH are:

The University is a member of the New England Board of Higher Education's New England Regional Student Program (NERSP) where New England public universities and colleges offer a number of undergraduate curricula with special considerations to students from other New England states. If an out of state student's home state schools do not offer a certain degree program offered by UNH, that student can receive the in-state tuition rate plus 75% if enrolled in the program.

The coastal proximity of the university affords excellent programs in marine biology and oceanography. Facilities include the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory at Adam's Point in Durham, and the Shoals Marine Laboratory jointly operated with Cornell University on Appledore Island in the Isles of Shoals.

Murkland Hall

The University boasts three main university-wide undergraduate reasearch programs: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), and International Research Opportunities Program (IROP).

Pettee Hall

The University offers many opportunities for students to study abroad through managed programs, exchange programs and approved programs. As of Fall 2004, there were 561 students (4% of the student body) studying in 38 different countries. The University runs/manages twenty two study abroad programs which include: Salzburg, Austria; Canada; Cambridge, England; London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Brest, France; Dijon, France; Grenoble, France; Budapest, Hungary; Osaka, Japan; The Hague, Netherlands; Maastricht, Netherlands; New Zealand; India, South Africa, Italy, Kenya, and Granada, Spain. Beyond that, the University also accepts credit from over 300 approved programs that are run through other institutions. The University organizes an annual summer abroad program at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. There are also over 100 possible National Exchange Program opportunities.

Activities

The University has approximately 100 student organizations grouped by: academics & careers, community service, political and world affairs, arts & entertainment, culture & language, fraternities & sororities, hall councils, honor socities, leisure & recreation, media & publications, religious, special interest, student activism. A listing of these groups can be found at the SOS website Of those groups there are 15 undergraduate groups which receive Student Activity Fee funds to help subsidize the services they provide; such as the Campus Activity Board, The Granite yearbook, SCAN TV, SCOPE, Student Senate, The New Hampshire, and WUNH. UNH is currently ranked 14th in the unscientific Princeton Review's Top Party Schools. [citation needed]

Engineering

Mechanical Engineering students have the opportunity to get involved in the following projects and extra-curricular activities:

 

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students have the opportunity to work at the InterOperability Laboratory (IOL) [3] which tests networking and data communications products.

Greek life

Approximately 10% or 950 undergraduate students are affiliated with fraternities and sororities recognized by the University. UNH Greek Affairs, through the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Council, oversee the nine recognized social fraternities and five recognized social sororities. UNH is home to three unrecognized fraternities and one unrecognized sorority. The fraternities and sororities which have houses are located on "Frat Row," which is the stretch of Madbury Road, Garrison and Strafford Avenues in Durham. Currently fraternities and sororitys are not owned by or on University property.

Fraternities

 


 

Sororities

*Indicates an unrecognized fraternity/sorority.

Music

UNH offers two undergraduate degree programs: the bachelor of arts in music and the bachelor of music; and two graduate degree programs: the master of arts in music, and the master of arts in teaching. The department also offers the following groups for one academic credit:

Instrumental

 

Vocal

Athletics

File:NewH 2864.gif
Main article: University of New Hampshire Wildcats

The school's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats, and they compete in the NCAA Division I. UNH is a member of the America East Conference for basketball, cross country, track and field, skiing, soccer, swimming & diving and tennis; and women's crew, field hockey, lacrosse, and volleyball. They also compete in Hockey East in men's and women's ice hockey, as well as the Colonial Athletic Association for football at the Division I-AA level.

In the 2006 academic year the University cut women's crew, men's swimming & diving, and men's and women's tennis at the varsity level, and trimmed the size of the men's ski team from 27 to 12. The reason given was the Athletic Department would save $500,000 towards a $1,000,000 budget shortfall, and be in compliance with Title IX for the first time.[14] In 1997, the University cut baseball, softball, men's and women's golf, and men's lacrosse.

In addition to varsity athletics, the University offers many club sports through the Department of Campus Recreation, including Aikido, Archery, Baseball, Crew, Cycling, Dance, Fencing, Figure Skating, Golf, Lacrosse, Nordic Skiing, Rugby, Sailing, Softball, Tennis, Taekwondo, Wrestling, and the Woodsmen Club. Many of these clubs compete either on an intercollegiate basis with New England teams, or sponsor University tournaments and frequently participate in National Championships. UNH also offers horseback riding as a recreation. Many students can take horseback riding lessons with instructors, on their horse or the schools. UNH holds many events each year, for they have a large cross country course. UNH also has a Dressage team that competes yearly.

The school's official colors are blue and white. The school's official mascot is the Wildcat and its uniformed mascot is known as "Wild E. Cat."

The recognized fight song of UNH is "On to Victory," the most current version of which was arranged by Tom Keck, Director of Athletic Bands from 1998-2003. In 2003, "UNH Cheer (originally titled "Cheer Boys")" was resurrected from the University archives by Erika Svanoe, former Director of Athletic Bands. Based on the school song "Old New Hampshire", not to be confused with the New Hampshire state song of the same name, "UNH Cheer" currently serves as a secondary fight song and is often performed immediately following "On to Victory."

On October 7 2006, Wildcats wide receiver David Ball tallied the fifty-first receiving touchdown of his career to displace Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State University, one month thither an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, atop the ranking of NCAA Division I and I-AA players by career receiving touchdowns.

Demographics

As of the Fall 2005 semester, the university had 13,544 undergraduate students and 2,481 graduate students enrolled in more than 100 majors. The university is 61% in-state students, 38% out-of-state students and 2% international students; and is 57% female and 43% male. The administration is also making a push to increase and promote diversity. However it has had trouble retaining racially diverse students due to a perceived lack of community.[citation needed]

Durham campus

Congreve Hall

University of New Hampshire is located in the small town of Durham, New Hampshire and has a "traditional New England campus."

The Durham campus is 1,100 acres, with 300 acres in the "campus core" and 800 acres of open land on the west edge of campus. The campus core is considered to be the university property within a 10-minute walk from Thompson Hall, the symbolic and near-geographic center of campus. The campus core contains many of the academic and residential buildings, while the outer campus contains much of the agriculture land and buildings. The University owns a total of 2,450 acres of land.


Housing

Smith Hall in c. 1915

The University currently by agreement offers all underclassmen the opportunity to live in University Housing. As of 2004, the University housed 50 percent of undergraduate students. The University's Master Plan envisions housing about 60 percent of undergraduates, requiring an addition of 1700 beds. Undergraduate housing is divided into three areas: Area I, Area II and Area III. In addition there are two undergraduate apartments, The Gables and Woodside Apartments. The University also offers family housing in the Forest Park apartments and graduate housing in Babcock Hall. For the Fall 2006 semester, two new buildings at The Gables, North and South were opened, providing an additional 400 beds.

In Summer 2006, one-half of Forest Park was demolished to make way for two new buildings of the Southeast Residential Community (SERC). The two buildings are scheduled to provide housing for 492 students beginning in Fall 2007. Plans exist to demolish two existing Mini Dorms, to build a third building of SERC, which is scheduled to provide housing for 235 students beginning in Fall 2008. Plans exist to provide 781 new beds by demolishing the remaining 9 buildings (98 units) in Forest Park. Later plans call for the construction of a new 170-unit graduate housing facility at a location to be determined.

Due to the over-enrollment of the 2006-2007 academic year, the university offered students who intended to live in campus housing a free parking pass for the academic year, credit in UNH "Dining Dollars" and a refund of the housing deposit given that the student withdrew their intentions to live on campus. The incentive was designed to free up space for the large incoming freshman class.

National Historic Chemical Landmark

Conant Hall was dedicated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark — the first in New Hampshire. Conant Hall was the first chemistry building on the Durham campus, and it was the headquarters of the American Chemical Society from 1907-1911, when Charles Parsons was the society’s secretary. In addition, from 1906-1928, the hall housed the laboratories of Charles James, who was an innovative developer of separation and analytical methods for compounds of rare earth elements.

He is particularly well known for the James Method for separation of rare earths by fractional recrystallization of their double magnesium nitrate salts. James has also been credited (with Urbain and von Welsbach) for the independent discovery of the element lutetium. This is the only element discovered (as opposed to synthesized) on American soil. James Hall, the second chemistry building on campus, was, of course, named for (and designed by) Charles James.

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

Science, business, and industry

Diplomacy, government, and politics

Governors of New Hampshire

Athletics

Writers and journalists

Actors

Music

Visual arts

Television

Attractions

References

  1. ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_2589_brief.php
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