Wayne State University

Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan, is adjacent to the city's Cultural Center. WSU is a research university with 12 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to 33,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The WSU main campus encompasses 203 acres (822,000 m²) linking 100 education and research buildings in the heart of Detroit. The official student newspaper is The South End. The University also hosts the public radio station WDET. With more than 1,000 students, WSU's School of Medicine is the largest single-campus medical school, and the third-largest overall, in the United States. (University of Illinois at Chicago, with four campuses, has the nation's largest medical school.) [1] (http://www.med.wayne.edu/about_the_school)[2] (http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcam/aboutcom.html)

Fall 2004 enrollment for the University was 33,314 students, the 30th-largest enrollment among the United States' 265 national, public, four-year, doctoral-degree-granting institutions. WSU also has the second largest international enrollment in Michigan with 2,597 international students and 700 visiting scholars from almost 100 countries.

History

The first component of the modern Wayne State University was established in 1868 as the Detroit Medical College, now the School of Medicine. In 1881, the Detroit Normal Training School was established, now the College of Education. Old Main Hall was built in 1896 as Central Detroit High School, which later began adding college classes in 1917 as the Detroit Junior College, becoming the College of the City of Detroit and now the College of Liberal Arts. By 1934, the College of Pharmacy, The College of Engineering and the Graduate School had been established, and all of these schools were organized into Wayne University.

Wayne University continued to grow, adding the School of Social Work in 1935, the Law School in 1937, and the School of Business Administration in 1946. Wayne University was renamed Wayne State University in 1956, and the institution became a constitutionally established university by popularly adopted amendment to the Michigan Constitution in 1959.

As Wayne State University, the institution grew with the additions of the College of Lifelong Learning in 1973, the School of Fine and Performing Arts and the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs in 1985, and the College of Science in 1993.

The University Libraries have grown to include five libraries, the Library and Information Science Program and the Office for University General Education.

Over the last few years, WSU has been aggressive in constructing new green glass buildings, including a new "Welcome Center", which was controversial because of its cost and the displacement of several local businesses. New residence halls have been built, and The Towers, an 11-story residence hall, is currently being built.

Student government

The student body government is headed by a Student Council. Some colleges of the university have a Student Senate which reports to the Student Council. The School of Law has its own Student Board of Governors that is in many ways independent of the Student Council.

Athletics

The school's sports teams were traditionally known as the Tartars, but a need to be politically correct combined with a desire to alliterate changed their name to "Warriors". WSU competes in men's baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, ice hockey, swimming and tennis, and women's basketball, cross country, fencing, ice hockey, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball. WSU is Division II in GLIAC.

Campus

Wayne State University is a Pepsi campus. Pepsi is sold in all soft drink vending machines on campus, and in the restaurants on campus, which include McDonald's, Little Caesars and Subway. Blimpie is technically not on campus, but it sells Pepsi rather than Coca-Cola.

The campus bookstore is a Barnes & Noble affiliate, with its competition being the small business Marwil. The Barnes & Noble has textbooks for most subjects, with a few notable exceptions, such as nursing texts.

The David Adamany Undergraduate Library boasts one of the largest computer labs in the nation, with over 700 computer terminals for students and a couple dozen for "community" persons. For books, however, the Purdy/Kresge Library is a better resource.

Wayne State University is near many Detroit institutions, including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the New Detroit Science Center, the Detroit Film Theatre, the Fox Theatre, the Fisher Theatre, the Gem Theatre, the Detroit Opera House, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Orchestra Hall, Comerica Park, Ford Field and Joe Louis Arena.

The proximity to the main branch of the Detroit Public Library causes the occasional mix-up of books between the two institutions when students forget which library they got the book out of.

Notable graduates

• S. Epatha Merkerson Law & Order
• Tom Sizemore Saving Private Ryan, Blackhawk Down
• Thorsten Kaye Port Charles, One Life to Live, All My Children
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson Michael Hayes, Tony Award for Seven Guitars
• Lily Tomlin The West Wing, Murphy Brown.
• Casey Kasem, radio host
• Helen Thomas, first lady of the Washington press corps
• Mark Fritz, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter
• Joseph LoDuca, Emmy Award-nominated composer
• George Shirley, opera singer
• Kenny Burrell, jazz guitarist
• Garth Fagan choreographer, Tony Award for The Lion King
• David M. Overton, founder and CEO, The Cheesecake Factory, Inc.
• Larry Joe Campbell According to Jim
• Ernie Hudson, "Oz", "Ghostbusters"

Honorary graduates

• Carl Levin, U.S. Senator
• Jessye Norman, soprano

External links

• The Official Web Site (http://www.wayne.edu)
• The South End, Official Student Newspaper (http://www.southend.wayne.edu)
• Official WSU Athletics Web Site (http://www.wsuathletics.com)
• The Law School (http://www.law.wayne.edu)
• The School of Medicine (http://www.med.wayne.edu)
• WDET FM (http://www.wdetfm.org)
• Wayne State University information and statistics (http://wayne.stateuniversity.com)

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