University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Template:Infobox American Universities University of Louisiana at Lafayette is also known as UL Lafayette. The abbreviations University of Louisiana (UL) and ULL are not considered acceptable versions of the University name by the media, but are commonly used by students. It is located in Lafayette, Louisiana, and is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Louisiana System. UL Lafayette was founded in 1900 as the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (SLII). In 1960, the institution gained university status and became the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL); in 1999, the university became known by its present name.

Contents

1 Campus 2 Academics 3 Athletics 4 Notable Persons 5 History 6 External links

Campus

UL Lafayette's main campus consists of 137 acres (554,000 m²); the athletic complex and Cajundome sit on 243 acres (983,000 m²); University Research Park has 148 acres (599,000 m²); and the Center for Ecology and Environmental Technology has 51 acres (206,000 m²). The university has a 600-acre farm/renewable resources laboratory with a 30-acre pond for crawfish and catfish culture in Cade, Louisiana. It has a 48-acre New Iberia Research Center in New Iberia, Louisiana, which is one of the largest private non-human, primate breeding colonies in the world.

Academics

UL Lafayette has 11 colleges and schools, and it offers 61 undergraduate degree programs, 29 master's degree programs, and 8 Doctor of Philosophy programs, which are applied language and speech sciences, biology, cognitive science, English, Francophone studies, mathematics, computer science, and computer engineering. UL Lafayette graduates about 1,100 students each fall and spring. 100 percent of all undergraduate programs at UL Lafayette that are eligible for accreditation by professional agencies are accredited. UL Lafayette is a member of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, which is composed of members from more than a dozen southeastern states and the District of Columbia. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UL Lafayette is a selective admissions university. UL Lafayette will be featured in the 2006 edition of America's Best Value Colleges, a Princeton Review/Random House college guidebook. Fewer than 100 schools in the country will be included in the publication. The university's Master's of Business Administration program is included in the 2005 edition of The Princeton Review's Best 143 Business Schools. Some UL Lafayette students are building a small artificial satellite that will be launched into orbit next year from the Republic of Kazakhstan. It will be the first working satellite to be designed, built and maintained by students at a Louisiana university. The College of Education recently earned the highest possible ranking in the state Board of Regents’ third annual Teacher Preparation Accountability Report. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is included in the 2005 edition of The Best 357 Colleges guide published by the Princeton Review. The best-selling guidebook provides prospective college students and their parents with information about The Princeton Review's top picks. UL Lafayette students and faculty produced CajunBot, one of 25 autonomous vehicles that competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge for a U.S. Department of Defense prize of $1 million last year. CajunBot, which was featured on CNN, uses artificial intelligence and GPS positioning to navigate a designated route while detecting and avoiding obstacles.

Athletics

UL Lafayette's colors are vermilion and white and their sports teams are known as Louisiana's Ragin’ Cajuns. The sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (I-A for football) in the Sun Belt Conference.

• Softball - Sun Belt Champions 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. 14 NCAA Regionals, 33 All-Americans, 24 Straight Winning Seasons.

• Basketball - 2003-04 Sun Belt West Division Champions 2004 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Champions. 2005 Sun Belt Conference Tournamet Champions. NCAA Tournament participant 2000 and 2005.

• Baseball - First Year of Baseball: 1903. First Year of Division I: 1972. Years of Baseball: 91st season. All-Time Record (since 1960): 1,256-940-4 (.572). All-Time Division I Record: 1,074-748-3 (.589). All-Time Sun Belt Record: 206-123 (.626). NCAA Appearances/Last: Ten/2005. All-Time NCAA Tournament Record: 17-20. Regular Season Conference. Championships: 13; Gulf States Conference (1949-53, 1966); Southland Conference (1972-73); American South Conference (1988-91); Sun Belt Conference (1997, 2005). Conference Tournament Championships: 1 Sun Belt Conference (1998). Last Time in Postseason: 2005 SBC Tournament.

Notable Persons

• Writer-in-residence Ernest Gaines has been nominated for the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying.
• Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is the first UL Lafayette graduate to hold Louisiana’s highest elected office.
• President Ray Authement is the second longest serving University President in the Nation accodring to the Chronicle of Higher Education. As of 2005, Authement has been president for 32 years.
• National Football League veterans Jake Delhomme and Brandon Stokely played college football for UL Lafayette. They hold numerous school records, and have established themselves as premiere players in professional sports.
• Long time Dallas Cowboys kicker Rafael Septien played for the school as well.
• Exercise guru and Louisiana native Richard Simmons attended UL Lafayette.
• Former Miss USA Ali Landry was a student.

History

• 1898 - Louisiana legislature approved the creation of an "Industrial Institute and Academy" in the 13th Senatorial District.
• 1900 - Dr. Edwin L. Stephens was named the first president of Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, which was to be located on the outskirts of Lafayette on 25 acres (101,000 m²) of donated land. SLII opened its doors on Sept. 18, 1901, with 100 students and eight faculty members.
• 1903 - 18 students were the first to graduate from SLII.
• 1921 - SLII became Southwestern Louisiana Institute when it was designated as one of the state's institutions of higher learning. The year before, it had begun offering a four-year course that culminated with a bachelor of arts degree.
• 1954 Within months of the well known " separate but equal " decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, SLI admitted 70 African American students to become the first all white college in the Deep South to achieve racial desegregation. This was a court directed move, but was accomplished without the violence and turmoil that was often seen in later attempts to end the segregation of educational facilities in other parts of the South.
• 1960 - SLI became the University of Southwestern Louisiana when it achieved university status.
• 1984 - University changed its name to the University of Louisiana, before Louisiana politics forced the name changed back to USL a few days later.
• 1999 - USL was renamed the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The new name is believed to better reflect its status as the state's second largest university and an institution with statewide and national influence.

External links

• University of Louisiana at Lafayette website (http://www.louisiana.edu)
• Official Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns website (http://www.ragincajuns.com)