The University of Louisville is a state-supported research university located inKentucky's largest metropolitan area. It was a municipally supported public institution for many decades prior to joining the university system in 1970. The University has three campuses. The 287-acre Belknap Campus is three miles from downtown Louisville and houses eight of the university's12 colleges and schools. TheHealth Sciences Center is situated in downtown Louisville's medical complex and houses the university's health-related programs and theUniversity of Louisville Hospital. The 243-acre Shelby Campus is located in eastern Jefferson County.
The University of Louisville will be recognized as a great place to learn, a great place to work and a great place in which to invest because we celebrate diversity, foster equity and strive for inclusion.
On April 3, 1798, eight men declared their intention to establish the Jefferson Seminary in Louisville and called upon their fellow citizens to join them in pledging funds for land, buildings, and teachers. Occurring a few weeks after the Kentucky legislature had chartered this academy and several others in the new state, this event marked the beginning of an advanced level of education for the young people of a frontier settlement barely two decades old. Near the end of the eighteenth century these early Louisvillians took the first steps on a journey that would link them with succeeding generations to the modern University of Louisville in the twenty-first century.
Jefferson Seminary struggled. It did not open until the fall of 1813, and in 1829 it closed. The Louisville Medical Institute (LMI), chartered in 1833, opened in 1837, and the Louisville Collegiate Institute (LCI) was chartered the same year. In 1840 LCI was renamed Louisville College and in 1844 it inherited the portion of the estate of Jefferson Seminary designated for the use of higher education in Louisville. LMI attracted large enrollments and prospered financially, but the college had difficulty remaining open. Proponents of grass roots democracy wanted to divert a portion of the medical school's resources to the college. They won a partial victory in 1846, when the Kentucky legislature created the University of Louisville proper, combining the medical school, the college, and a newly created law school. Although there was now a common board of trustees, each division retained financial autonomy, and the college did not survive.
World War II and the postwar era brought major changes to the University of Louisville. Shortly after the war, a movement began to close the all-black Louisville Municipal College and desegregate the university on all levels. This was accomplished in 1950 and 1951. In 1953 the School of Business was created. Perhaps the most dramatic development of the postwar period was the movement of tax-paying citizens from the city to the suburbs. Because the University of Louisville was municipally funded, this caused a damaging drain on the school's revenue. As early as 1965, a governor's task force suggested the possibility of the university's joining the state system of higher education, which it did in 1970.
Since the late 1960s the university has added several new academic units, including the School of Education (1968), the School of Justice Administration (1969), the School of Nursing (1979), and the College of Urban and Public Affairs (1983). In 1992 the latter school was eliminated and its functions distributed to other units. In the same year the School of Justice Administration moved to the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Kent School of Social work joined the Division of Allied Health to form the new College of Health and Social Services. In 1996 the functions of the College of Health and Social Services were realigned resulting in a separate Kent School of Social Work and a School of Allied Health Sciences. By 1999 Allied Health had given way to the School of Public Health and Information Sciences. In 2001 the School of Education became the College of Education and Human Development, and in 2003 the Speed Scientific School was renamed the Speed School of Engineering.
All of these schools have won their share of national acclaim. So too have UofL 's athletic programs, with two NCAA Division I men 's basketball championships in the 1980s under the leadership of National Coaches ' Hall of Famer Denny Crum; a competitive football program with a new on-campus stadium; and top-flight women 's basketball and volleyball teams, among others. In 2005 Coach Rick Pitino 's basketball Cardinals reached the Final Four of the NCAA championships. The football team under Coach Bobby Petrino ended the season ranked 19th nationally after its Gator Bowl appearance. In early 2005 UofL 's football and basketball were both in the top 10 for the first time in school history. 'The Year of the Cardinal,' in 2013, the Louisville Cardinals became the first university ever to win a BCS Bowl game, place both Men 's and Women 's Basketball teams in the NCAA Final Four and reach the College World Series.
Neeli Bendapudi became the universitys 18th president in May 2018. She leads a university that has become known for its academic excellence, transformational research, service to the community and advancement of educational opportunity. Its academic programs attract students from every state and around the world, and the university is well positioned to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the state legislature: to become a premier, nationally recognized metropolitan research university.
The Thinker statue that sits in front of Grawemeyer Hall is the first large-scale bronze cast of The Thinker. French sculptor Auguste Rodin personally supervised the casting in Paris. It came out of the mold Dec. 25, 1903, and was completed in early 1904. The Thinker design has been cast many times. Eight were made before Rodin's death in 1917.
Rodin sent The Thinker to the 1904 World's Fair. It was owned privately in Baltimore and later was displayed in the Walters Art Museum there. When Baltimore purchased another Thinker, the museum sold the sculpture to the estate of lawyer and art lover Arthur Hopkins, which bought it for the city of Louisville. The city decided to put The Thinker at UofL.
Chemical reactions of acids in rainwater with copper compounds in the bronze had turned our Thinker green. Between December 2011 and February 2012, conservators cleaned the corrosion and gave him a black-over-green patina similar to that on other versions of The Thinker.
The origins of The Thinker date to 1880. Rodin originally conceived of The Thinker as a statue to be installed at the top of a pair of monumental doors he 'd been commissioned to design for a museum of decorative arts. He envisioned the figure as 'The Inferno' poet Dante looking down on hell. Rodin called the entire piece The Gates of Hell.
Many art historians consider The Thinker to be the most famous sculpture in the world. Its image has been used in media campaigns and it even played an important role in the early days of television when it was incorporated in a popular TV show called 'The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,' set on a college campus.