University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was the University of Nebraska until 1968, when it absorbed the Municipal University of Omaha to form the University of Nebraska system. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship institution of the state-wide system. The university has been governed by the Board of Regents since 1871, whose members are elected by district to six-year terms.
"University of Nebraska" redirects here. For the state-wide university system, see University of Nebraska system.
Former names
The university is organized into nine colleges: Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Human Sciences, Engineering, Fine and Performing Arts, Journalism and Mass Communications, and Law. NU offers over two hundred degrees across its undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. The school also offers programs through the University of Nebraska Omaha College of Public Affairs and Community Service, the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and College of Nursing, and the Peter Kiewit Institute, which is managed in partnership with the Kiewit Corporation.[7]
Nebraska is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[8] According to the National Science Foundation, Nebraska spent $320 million on research and development in 2020.[9] Between its three campus locations (City Campus, East Campus, and Nebraska Innovation Campus) the university has over one hundred classroom buildings and research facilities.[10] The university's enrollment in 2021 was 19,552 undergraduate students and 4,879 graduate students, with 1,595 full-time or part-time instructional faculty.[3] Undergraduate admission to the school is considered "more selective."[11]
Nebraska's athletic programs, known as the Cornhuskers, compete in NCAA Division I and are a member of the Big Ten Conference. NU's football team has won forty-six conference championships and claims five national championships, with an additional nine unclaimed. Twenty-five former Cornhuskers have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. A total of 111 former Nebraska student-athletes have combined to win fifty-four Olympic medals, including sixteen gold medals. Among approximately 300,000 Nebraska alumni are three Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, one Turing Award winner, and twenty-two Rhodes Scholars.
History[edit]
Rise to Western prominence[edit]
The University of Nebraska was created by an act of the Nebraska Legislature in 1869, two years after Nebraska was admitted into the Union as the thirty-seventh state. The law described the new university's aims: "The object of such institution shall be to afford to the inhabitants of the state the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the various branches of literature, science, and the arts."[12] The school received an initial federal land grant of about 130,000 acres (53,000 ha) through the Morrill Act of 1862. Public opinion on the new school was split; many argued the state did not need a university as it did not even have a state-wide high school system, and others suggested any public university should be church-controlled, which was typical of eastern colleges at the time.[13]
Organization and administration[edit]
Board of Regents[edit]
The University of Nebraska system is governed by the board of regents, a twelve-member panel consisting of eight voting members and a non-voting student body president from each campus. Voting members are elected by district to six-year terms; elections are held in even-numbered years. The board of regents meets at Varner Hall on East Campus and supervises the operation, expenditures, and tuition rates of each university in the system.
The board of regents was established by Nebraska State Constitution Article VII-10, which states "The general government of the University of Nebraska shall... be vested in a board of not less than six nor more than eight regents, who shall be elected from and by districts as herein provided and three students of the University of Nebraska[e] who shall serve as nonvoting members."[57] Nebraska is one of four states with public university governing boards elected directly by the people.
Since honoring its first graduating class in 1873, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln has issued over 300,000 degrees.[123] Among these graduates are three Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, one Turing Award winner, twenty-two Rhodes Scholars, fifteen state governors, and twenty-three College Football Hall of Famers. Fifteen alumni have been selected as Truman Scholars and in 2010 Nebraska was named a Truman Scholarship Honor Institution.[124]
Literature and popular culture[edit]
Films and others[edit]
In Supernatural, the character Jo Harvelle was an enrolled student at the university.[125] Hollywood films namely Yes Man, Terms of Endearment, About Schmidt, Cheers for Miss Bishop, Tommy Lee Goes to College, Larry the Cable Guy (Tailgate Party) were shot and featured in the university.
