Iowa State University (ISU) is a public land-grant university and space-grant university located in Ames, Iowa. The full official name is Iowa State University of Science and Technology. It was previously Iowa State College, a school created through the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act.
The Iowa General Assembly in 1858, prior to the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862, enacted legislation to establish a agriculture college and model farm. This college was named the State Agricultural College & Model Farm. The location of Story County was chosen on June 21, 1859 after the state selection board received proposals from Johnson, Kossuth, Marshall, Polk, and Story counties.
Landmarks
Nearing its sesquicentennial in 2008, ISU now has a number of landmarks on campus.
Please visit the ISU notables page for many of the beautiful landmarks.
Academics
ISU is best known for its degree programs in engineering and agriculture. The Family and Consumer Sciences and Education colleges are in the process of merging, and a new name has not yet been decided. ISU is also home of one of the first computers, the Atanasoff Berry Computer.
It consists of the following colleges:
In addition to these eight colleges, the Graduate College oversees graduate study in all fields.
Athletics
The sports teams are nicknamed the Cyclones, a name which dates back to 1895. That year, there were many occurances of cyclones, or tornados. Also that year was when the Iowa State football team went to Northwestern University and defeated its team 36-0. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed "Iowa cyclone devastates Evanstontown."
The school colors are cardinal and gold. The mascot is Cy the Cardinal, who was introduced in 1954. This is likely a reference to the original nickname, the Cardinals. The Iowa State Cyclones play in the NCAA's Division I-A as part of the Big Twelve Conference.
VEISHEA celebration
Iowa State is also noted for VEISHEA, an education and entertainment festival held on campus every spring. The name is an acronym of the original colleges of the institution when VEISHEA was established in 1922: Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture. Its organizers claim it to be among the largest student-organized cultural festivals in the world.
In recent years the festival has been marred by problems. Unruly students created a disturbance ("rioted") on Welch Avenue in 1988 at 1992, prompting school officials to take away the traditional Thursday afternoon and Friday holidays before the celebration. Problems continued. In 1997, an underage non-student was fatally stabbed by another non-student outside a fraternity party. In response, alcohol was banned during VEISHEA.
In 2004, a riot took place during VEISHEA when police confronted people during an off-campus party. Because of the riot, officials announced that there would be no VEISHEA festival during 2005 and a task force would consider the future of the celebration. In March 2005, President Geoffroy announced that the festival will return in 2006, with events being moved from riot-prone Welch Avenue to central campus.
Iowa State presidents
- Adonijah S. Welch (1868 – 1883)
- Seaman A. Knapp (1883 – 1884)
- Leigh S.J. Hunt (1885 – 1886)
- William I. Chamberlain (1886 – 1890)
- William M. Beardshear (1891 – 1902)
- Albert B. Storms (1903 – 1910)
- Raymond A. Pearson (1912 – 1926)
- Raymond M. Hughes (1927 – 1936)
- Charles E. Friley (1936 – 1953)
- James H. Hilton (1953 – 1965)
- W. Robert Parks (1965 – 1986)
- Gordon P. Eaton (1986 – 1990)
- Martin C. Jischke (June 1, 1991 – August 14, 2000)
- Gregory L. Geoffroy (July 1, 2001 – present)
Notable people
See ISU notables for a complete list.
Alumni or faculty members
- John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry (see also Atanasoff Berry Computer), developers of the first digital computer
- George Washington Carver, first African-American student and faculty member; musician, artist, orator, athletic trainer and student leader
- Carrie Chapman Catt, was a women's rights activist
- John Garang, Commander of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
- Henry Gilman, the "Father of Organometallic Chemistry"
- Christian Petersen, sculptor, whose works appear around campus.
- Jane Smiley, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for fiction
- George W. Snedecor, statistician
- James Wilson, professor who later became U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Athletics
Iowa State chronology
Events occurring in the same year did not necessarily happen in the order presented here.
See also
External links
