Iowa State University

Iowa State University (ISU) is a public land-grant and space-grant university located in Ames, Iowa. Official name: Iowa State University of Science and Technology. It was previously Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, a school created through the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act.

The Iowa General Assembly in 1858, prior to the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862, enacted legislation to establish an agriculture college and model farm. This college was named the State Agricultural College & Model Farm. The location of Story County was chosen on June 21, 1859 after the state selection board received proposals from Johnson, Kossuth, Marshall, Polk, and Story counties. The University is one of 60 elected members of the prestigious Association of American Universities.

History

The institution was coeducational from the earliest year (1858). The Iowa Experiment Station was one of its prominent features. Practical courses of instruction were taught, including one designed to give a general training for the career of a farmer. Courses in mechanical, civil, electrical, and mining engineering were taught.

The domain occupied about 1175 acres (476 hectares), of which 120 acres (49 hectares) formed the campus. In 1914, tuition was free to residents of Iowa. Students from other States paid an annual fee of $50. There were 217 members on the faculty in 1914 when 3,458 students attended the school. In 1923, 7,766 students were taught by a faculty which numbered 567 members. In the period from 1914 to 1923, the following buildings were erected: four women's dormitories, plant propagation building and greenhouse, science building, hospital, armory, animal husbandry laboratory, agricultural engineering building, poultry laboratory, dairy judging pavilion, and sheep, horse, hog, and dairy barns. A library of 250,000 volumes' capacity, a home economics building, and a dormitory for women were under construction in 1924. The president was Raymond Allen Pearson.

Landmarks

Nearing its sesquicentennial in 2008, ISU now has a number of landmarks on campus. Please visit the ISU notables page for many of the beautiful landmarks.

Academics

ISU is best known for its degree programs in science, engineering and agriculture. ISU is also home of the world's first electronic digital computing device, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.

It consists of the following colleges:

Agriculture
Business
Design
Engineering
Human Sciences
Liberal Arts and Sciences
Veterinary Medicine

In addition to these seven colleges, the Graduate College oversees graduate study in all fields.

Athletics

The sports teams are nicknamed the Cyclones, a name which dates back to 1895. All through that summer and fall, Iowa suffered an unusually high number of devastating cyclones (as tornados were called at the time). That year, the Iowa State football team went to Northwestern University and defeated its highly-regarded team by a score of 36-0. The next day, the Chicago Tribune's headline read "Struck By A Cyclone- Iowa Cyclone Devastates Evanstontown." The article reported that "Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday." The nickname stuck and the Iowa State team had made a name for itself, literally.

The school colors are cardinal and gold, with occasional navy blue trim. The mascot is Cy the Cardinal, who was introduced in 1954. This is likely a reference to the school's original nickname, the Cardinals. The Iowa State Cyclones play in the NCAA's Division I-A as part of the Big 12 Conference.

VEISHEA celebration

Iowa State is also noted for VEISHEA, an education and entertainment festival held on campus every spring. The name is an acronym of the original colleges of the institution when VEISHEA was established in 1922: Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture. Its organizers claim it to be among the largest student-organized cultural festivals in the world.

In recent years the festival has been marred by problems. Unruly students created a disturbance ("rioted") on Welch Avenue in 1988 and 1992, prompting school officials to take away the traditional Thursday afternoon and Friday holidays before the celebration. Problems continued. In 1997, an underage non-student was fatally stabbed by another non-student outside a fraternity party. In response, alcohol was banned during VEISHEA.

In 2004, a riot took place during VEISHEA when police confronted people during an off-campus party. Because of the riot, officials announced that there would be no VEISHEA festival during 2005 and a task force would consider the future of the celebration. But in 2005 President Geoffroy announced that the event would return it 2006, with events being moved from riot-prone Welch Avenue to central campus. In April 2005, the student group Leaders INspiring Connections (LINC) organized several events on what would have been VEISHEA weekend, including Operation Playground, a community service project involving 700 students building three playgrounds in the community. "This Is Your April," was another opportunity for students to enjoy their campus atmosphere sponsored by the student government and numerous student groups.

The 2006 VEISHEA celebration was held from April 17^th though the 23^rd. Because of the changes made in the aftermath of the 2004 riots, VEISHEA 2006 passed without incident. It was deemed a huge success by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy and the student body alike. The 2007 VEISHEA celebration will begin Iowa State's year-long sesquicentennial celebration, ending with VEISHEA 2008.