The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest university in the state and has the second-largest undergraduate enrollment. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees.
On an urban 1,880-acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In fiscal year 2021, research expenditures at Iowa totaled $818 million. The university is best known for its programs in health care, law, and the fine arts, with programs ranking among the top 25 nationally in those areas. The university was the original developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree and it operates the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which has produced 17 of the university's 46 Pulitzer Prize winners. Iowa is a member of the Association of American Universities, the Universities Research Association, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
Among public universities in the United States, UI was the first to become coeducational and host a department of religious studies; it also opened the first coeducational medical school. The University of Iowa's 31,000 students take part in nearly 500 student organizations. Iowa's 22 varsity athletic teams, the Iowa Hawkeyes, compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Big Ten Conference. The University of Iowa alumni network exceeds 250,000 graduates.
Founding and early history: The University of Iowa was founded on February 25, 1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City "without branches at any other place." The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa, but the Board of Regents approved using "The University of Iowa" for everyday usage in October 1964.
The first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, located where Seashore Hall is now. In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women. The 1856–57 catalog listed nine departments offering ancient languages, modern languages, intellectual philosophy, moral philosophy, history, natural history, mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry. The first president of the university was Amos Dean.
The original campus consisted of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the 10 acres (40,000 m2) (4.05 hectares) of land on which it stood. Following the placing of the cornerstone July 4, 1840, the building housed the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa (December 5, 1842) and then became the first capitol building of the State of Iowa on December 28, 1846. Until that date, it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capitol of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, the Old Capitol became the first permanent "home" of the University.
In 1855, the university became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. In addition, Iowa was the world's first university to accept creative work in theater, writing, music, and art on an equal basis with academic research.
The university was one of the first institutions in America to grant a law degree to a woman (Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson, 1873), to grant a law degree to an African American (Alexander G. Clark, Jr. in 1879), and to put an African American on a varsity athletic squad (Frank Holbrook in 1895). The university awarded its first doctorate in 1898.
The University of Iowa's main campus is located in Iowa City. The campus is roughly bordered by Park Road and U.S. Highway 6 to the north and Dubuque and Gilbert Streets to the east. The Iowa River flows through the campus, dividing it into west and east sides.
Of architectural note is the Pentacrest which comprises five major buildings—Old Capitol, Schaeffer Hall, MacLean Hall, Macbride Hall, and Jessup Hall—at the center of the University of Iowa Campus. The Pentacrest reflects the Beaux-Arts in addition to Greek Revival architectural styles and the Collegiate Gothic architecture, which is dominant in sections of the campus east of the Iowa River. The Old Capitol was once the home of the state legislature and the primary government building for the State of Iowa but is now the symbolic heart of the university with a restored ceremonial legislative chamber and a museum of Iowa history.
Also on the east side of the campus are six residence halls (Burge, Daum, Stanley, Currier, Mayflower, and Catlett), the Iowa Memorial Union, the Women's Resource & Action Center, the Pappajohn Business Building, Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, the Lindquist Center (home of the College of Education), Phillips Hall (the foreign language building), Van Allen Hall (home to physics and astronomy), Trowbridge Hall (home to Earth & Environmental Sciences, as well as the Iowa Geological Survey), the English-Philosophy Building, the Becker Communication Building, the Adler Journalism Building, Voxman Music Building, and the buildings for biology, chemistry, and psychology. The Main Library can also be found on the east side.
The Colleges of Law, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Public health are on the west side of the Iowa River, along with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Art Building West and Visual Arts Building, and the Theatre Building. Additionally, five residence halls (Hillcrest, Slater, Rienow, Parklawn, and Petersen), Kinnick Stadium, and Carver-Hawkeye Arena are located on the west campus.
The campus is home to several museums, including the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Old Capitol Museum, the Medical Museum, the Athletic Hall of Fame and Museum, and Project Art at the University Hospitals and Clinics.
A flood of the Iowa River in 2008 had a major impact on several campus buildings, forcing many to temporarily or permanently close. The upper levels of the Iowa Memorial Union remained open while its lower level was renovated. The arts campus, which included Art Building West, Old Art Building, Hancher Auditorium, Voxman Music Building, Clapp Recital Hall, and the Theatre Building, sustained significant damage. Art Building West reopened in 2012 after repairs were completed. Sections of Old Art Building were razed, leaving only the historic WPA-era building, which includes regionalist artist Grant Wood's former studio. Esteemed artists Elizabeth Catlett, Ana Mendieta, and Charles Ray were all trained in this building. The new Visual Arts Building was opened on a higher plot of land adjacent to Art Building West in 2016 after years when studio arts were housed in a temporary facility. Hancher Auditorium was rebuilt near its current site on the West bank of the Iowa River, and Voxman Music Hall was constructed adjacent to downtown Iowa City and the main campus on South Clinton Street. The new Hancher Auditorium and the new Voxman Music Building opened in 2016.
The Oakdale Campus, which is home to some of the university's research facilities and the driving simulator, is located north of Interstate 80 in adjacent Coralville.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the Big Ten Conference. Currently, the school's athletic director is Gary Barta.
Historically, Iowa has been very successful in wrestling, with 37 team Big Ten championships and 24 team national championships. The Hawkeyes have also won national championships in five other sports: men's gymnastics, football, field hockey, rifle and women's track and field. In basketball, Iowa has reached the NCAA Final Four on four occasions. The men's team has done this three times, most recently in 1980, while the women's team has done it once, in 1993. The baseball team has reached the College World Series once, in 1972. Iowa's softball team has played in the Women's College World Series on four occasions, most recently in 2001.
Football home games are played at Kinnick Stadium, while basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, and wrestling events are held at Carver–Hawkeye Arena. The school's baseball team plays at Duane Banks Field and the softball team plays at Bob Pearl Softball Field.
Among the thousands of graduates from the University of Iowa, especially notable alumni include George Gallup, founder of the Gallup Poll (BA, 1923); Tennessee Williams, author of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (BA 1938); Gene Wilder, comedic film and television actor (BA 1955, Communication and Theatre Arts); Andre Tippett, NFL Hall of Fame linebacker; James Van Allen, world-famous physicist and discoverer of two radiation belts (the Van Allen Belts) that surround the earth, Emeritus Carver Professor of Physics at the University of Iowa (MS 1936, PhD 1939, Physics); Mauricio Lasansky, Latin American artist known as the father of modern printmaking, founder of the University of Iowa’s ‘Iowa print group’; Albert Bandura, one of the most cited psychologists of all-time as originator of social cognitive theory (MA 1951, PhD 1952); (Mary) Flannery O'Connor, novelist and author of numerous short stories (MFA 1947, English); Sarai Sherman, a twentieth century modernist painter whose work is in major national and international collections; John Irving, novelist who wrote The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and several others (MFA 1967, English), Jenny Zhang (writer), and Luka Garza, a NBA Basketball Player. Jewel Prestage, the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science, graduated with a master's and a doctorate in 1954. Tom Brokaw, Mark Mattson, and Ashton Kutcher also attended the University of Iowa.
Academia
Michael J. Budds, Musicologist and professor at the University of Missouri School of Music, inducted into the Missouri Music Hall of Fame
Edwin Adams Davis – M.A. from Iowa; historian of Louisiana; father of Louisiana state archives; Louisiana State University professor
Sharde M. Davis – Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut .
James R. Dow – emeritus professor of German at Iowa State University
R. William Field – Associate Professor, College of Public Health, University of Iowa
Elnora M. Gilfoyle – occupational therapist; Dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences and Provost/Academic Vice President at Colorado State University
Michael P. Johnson – emeritus professor of sociology, Pennsylvania State University
James Kennedy – professor of the history of the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam
Otto Kraushaar – former president of Goucher College, long-time professor in philosophy at Smith College
Minnette Gersh Lenier – teacher who used stage magic to improve students' learning skills
Cindy Lovell – educator and writer; executive director of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum and Mark Twain House
Robert Moyers – Founder of Center of Growth and Development at University of Michigan
Tina Passman - classical scholar
Jewel Prestage – Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University. First African-American woman to earn Ph.D. in Political Science.
W. Ann Reynolds – chancellor of the California State University and City University of New York
Noliwe Rooks - associate director of the African-American program at Princeton University, W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature at Cornell University, chair of and professor in the Africana Studies Department at Brown University, founding director of the Segrenomics Lab at Brown University
Jim Rossi – law professor at Vanderbilt University
Clifford V. Smith, Jr. – 4th chancellor of University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
William A. Staples – president of the University of Houston–Clear Lake
John E. Visser – President of Emporia State University, 1967–1984
Business
Helen Brockman – fashion designer
John Bucksbaum – former chairman and chief executive officer of GGP Inc.
Jim Foster – founder Arena Football League
Paul P. Harris – lawyer and founder of the first Rotary Club
Scott Heiferman – founder and CEO, Meetup.com; founder, Fotolog.com
Howard R. Hughes, Sr. – father of aviation pioneer and film producer Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. and builder of his fortune that started his empire
Kerry Killinger – chairman and CEO of Washington Mutual
Bill Perkins – hedge fund manager, film producer
C. Maxwell Stanley – engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist; founder of Stanley Consultants and The Stanley Foundation; co-founder of HON Industries
Ted Waitt – co-founder of Gateway, Inc.
Frank R. Wallace (pen name of Wallace Ward), 1957, entrepreneur, publisher, writer, and developer of the Neo-Tech philosophy
Government and politics
Cindy Axne, United States Congresswoman
Theodore J. Bauer – former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention[2]
Fred H. Blume – Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court for 42 years[3]
David E. Bonior – formerly represented Michigan in the United States House of Representatives; Former member of President Barack Obama's Economic Advisory Board[4]
Terry E. Branstad – two-time Governor of Iowa, and longest-tenured Governor in the nation[5]
John Burke – tenth Governor of North Dakota[6]
James Cartwright – retired U.S. Marine Corps General and the 8th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff[7]
Norm Coleman – former Junior Republican U.S. Senator of Minnesota[8]
James Dooge – Irish senator and academic in the area of Hydrology; served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Irish Government, and instrumental in forming the framework of the modern European Union and beginning the debate on climate change[9]
Martha Angle Dorsett – first woman admitted to the Bar of Minnesota (in 1878)[citation needed]
James B. French – member of the Wisconsin State Assembly[10]
Greg Ganske – politician from Iowa
Paul C. Gartzke – Presiding Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals[11]
Mads Gilbert – Norwegian doctor in Gaza providing humanitarian care at Al-Shifa Hospital during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict[12]
Lea Gimenez, Master's Degree in Economics, Minister of Finance (Paraguay)
Silas B. Hays – Surgeon General of the United States Army[13]
Leo A. Hoegh – former Governor of Iowa and National Security Council member[14]
David W. Hopkins – former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri[15]
Chuck Horner – United States Air Force general; commanded Coalition Air Forces during the Gulf War[16]
Edward F. Howrey, chair of the Federal Trade Commission[17]
Cheryl L. Johnson, lawyer and 36th Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
Patty Judge, former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa and 2016 candidate for the US Senate
George Koval – Soviet intelligence officer and Hero of the Russian Federation[18]
Robert L. Larson – former member of the Iowa Supreme Court[19]
Donald P. Lay – judge of the Eighth Circuit[20]
Ronald H. Lingren – member of the Wisconsin State Assembly[21]
Marry Mascher – member of the Iowa House of Representatives
Andy McKean – politician in the state of Iowa
John Walter Grant MacEwan – MS 1928; Western Canadian Lieutenant Governor of Alberta; Canadian legislator; Mayor of Calgary
Jayaprakash Narayan – Indian freedom fighter, social reformer, politician[citation needed]
Kay A. Orr – first woman Governor of Nebraska; Republican[23]
John E. Osborn – former Commissioner, U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy; former executive vice president and general counsel, Cephalon, Inc.[citation needed]
Gregory A. Peterson – Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals[24]
John Pickler – member of the United States House of Representatives[25]
Coleen Rowley – shared 2002 Time "Person of the Year" award; the FBI whistleblower who helped bring in terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui[26]
Lawrence F. Scalise – Attorney General of Iowa (1965–1966)
Juanita Kidd Stout – first woman appointed as a federal judge; Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice[27]
Jim Summerville – Tennessee Senator
Wang Huning – member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese political theorist, former Dean of the School of Law and Chair of the Department of International Politics, Fudan University
Perry Warjiyo, (Ph.D, 1991), Central Bank Governors, The Republic of Indonesia
Hugh E. Wild – U.S. Air Force Brigadier General
Ann Williams – member of Illinois House of Representatives
Wu Jin – Minister of Education of Taiwan, 1996–1998
Art and architecture
Mildred Beltre – multi-disciplinary artist; co-founder of Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine
Ryan Bliss – 3D artist; founder of Digital Blasphemy
Shirley Briggs – artist and writer; studied under Grant Wood; provided artwork for a number of projects within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and worked on a number of dioramas for the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History
David Cantine – Canadian artist
Elizabeth Catlett – painter; studied under Grant Wood; first African American woman to earn an MFA from the University of Iowa
Robert D. Cocke – painter
Eve Drewelowe – painter
Joey Kirkpatrick – (born 1952) glass artist, sculptor, wire artist, and educator.
Baulu Kuan – artist and curator
Barbara Lekberg – metal sculptor
Evan Lindquist – Artist Laureate of the State of Arkansas
Charles Ray – contemporary artist
Joe Sharpnack – editorial cartoonist
Rudi Stern – multimedia artist
Kirsten Ulve – graphic artist
Literature and journalism
Melissa Albert – author of young adult fiction
Goodwin Tutum Anim – Ghanaian journalist
Mildred Benson – writer under pen name Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew books
T.C. Boyle – PEN/Faulkner award-winning writer (World's End, Drop City)
Tom Brokaw – broadcast journalist, former anchor (NBC Nightly News), author (The Greatest Generation); dropped out after 1 year
Elizabeth C. Bunce – author (A Curse Dark as Gold, Premeditated Myrtle, Cold-Blooded Myrtle)
Chelsea Cain – writer (Heartsick, Mockingbird)
Sandra Cisneros – author (The House on Mango Street)
Max Allan Collins – writer of comic strip Dick Tracy (Chester Gould was the creator and Collins took over in 1977 when Gould retired); also writes mystery novels
Justin Cronin – author (The Passage, The Twelve)
Rita Dove – 1993 Poet Laureate of the United States
David Drake – science-fiction writer (Hammer's Slammers series)
Andre Dubus – short story writer (Killings – adapted into 2001 film In the Bedroom)
Jeannette Eyerly – writer of young adult fiction
Joshua Ferris – novelist
Charles Gaines – author (Pumping Iron) and inventor of paintball
George Gallup – founder of the Gallup Poll
Ezzat Goushegir – playwright
Garth Greenwell – author (What Belongs to You)
Oscar Hahn – author
Joe Haldeman – science-fiction writer (The Forever War)
Kathryn Harrison – author (Thicker than Water)
A.M. Homes – author (The Safety of Objects)
L. D. Hotchkiss – editor-in-chief, Los Angeles Times
John Irving – writer (A Widow for One Year, The World According to Garp)
Amy Jacobson – Chicago broadcast journalist
Leslie Jamison – author (The Empathy Exams)
Denis Johnson – author (Jesus' Son)
W.P. Kinsella – author (Shoeless Joe, the book on which Field of Dreams was based)
William Lashner – author of Past Due
