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

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 *. 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 gradutes 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.

History

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 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

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.

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).

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 manages fourteen study abroad programs to: 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 and Granada, Spain. The University organizes an annual summer abroad program at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge at Cambridge University, which is restricted to American students with exceptional academic qualifications.

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. 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 17th in the unscientific Princeton Review's Top Party Schools.

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:
 

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.

Athletics

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 Atlantic Ten Conference for football at the Division I-AA level.

On January 31, 2006, Athletics Director Marty Scarano announced in the 2006 academic year the University was cutting women's crew, men's swimming & diving, and men's and women's tennis at the varsity level, and trimming 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.* In 1997, the University cut baseball, softball, men's and women's golf, and men's lacrosse.

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" was resurrected from the University archives by Erika Svanoe, former Director of Athletic Bands. It currently serves as a secondary fight song and is often performed immediately following "On to Victory."

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.

Durham Campus

University of New Hampshire is located in the small town of Durham, New Hampshire, 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 2,400 acres of land.

Housing

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.

The University is currently building two additional buildings in The Gables, "North" and "South", which will add an additional 400 beds. The new construction will also eventually offset the 400 students which will be displaced from the Woodside apartments. The Woodside Apartments are becoming family and graduate housing to offset the 3 buildings (54 units) at Forest Park which will eventually be demolished. Plans exist to construct 120 new apartment units and demolish 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.

Notable alumni

Attractions

References

External links

1866 establishments | America East Conference | Hockey East | Land-grant universities | Sea-grant universities | Space-grant universities | Universities and colleges in New Hampshire | University of New Hampshire | University System of New Hampshire

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "University of New Hampshire".

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