University Of Utah

About University Of Utah

The University of Utah (referred to locally as 'The U' or 'the U of U') is a publicly funded research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of ten institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah's premier research school, as of late 2007, the university enrolls 28,619 undergraduate and 6,604 graduate students and has 1,419 regular faculty members. Currently (as of 2008) ranked 46th in the United States and 79th in the world. Of the more than 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States, the University of Utah is one of only eighty-eight that are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Research I universities; i.e., those which offer a full range of undergraduate programs, are committed to graduate education, and give research high priority.[citation needed]

Originally established February 28, 1850 by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young, it was initially named "University of Deseret." The school closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a commercial school in 1867 in the old Council House in what is now downtown Salt Lake City under the direction of David O. Calder, a prominent Salt Lake City businessman and associate of Mormon leader Brigham Young. The University was renamed University of Utah in 1894 and classes were first held on the present campus approximately two miles directly east of downtown Salt Lake City in 1900. Portions of the present campus are located on grounds formerly belonging to the U.S. Army's Fort Douglas. The fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991, and although a small part of it remains as an Army Reserve Post, the majority of its territory is now owned by the university, and occupied by student residences.

The university offers seventy-six undergraduate majors, over fifty-five minors and certificates and ninety-six major fields of studies at the graduate level. It draws its 28,000-plus student population from all fifty states and 111 foreign countries. The university, one of the state’s largest employers, has the only medical, social work, and architecture schools in a multi-state area.