Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The university was founded in 1860 near Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926 and consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, occupying a 650-acre (260 ha) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

LSU is the flagship university of the state of Louisiana, as well as the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System. In 2021, the university enrolled over 28,000 undergraduate and more than 4,500 graduate students in 14 schools and colleges. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".

LSU's athletics department fields teams in 21 varsity sports (9 men's, 12 women's), and is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The university is represented by its mascot, Mike the Tiger.

History

19th century

Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College had its origin in several land grants made by the United States government in 1806, 1811, and 1827 for use as a seminary of learning. It was founded as a military academy and is still today steeped in military tradition, giving rise to the school's nickname "The Ole War Skule". In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly established the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana near Pineville in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana. Modeled initially after Virginia Military Institute, the institution opened with five professors and nineteen cadets on January 2, 1860, with Major, later Colonel, William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.

The Old LSU Site, the school's original location, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On January 26, 1861, when Louisiana became the fifth state to secede from the Union, Sherman resigned his position after only a year as Superintendent to return north and eventually resume his service in the Union Army. The school closed on June 30, 1861, after the start of the American Civil War.

During the war, the university reopened briefly in April 1863 but was closed once again during the Union Army's Red River Campaign. The losses sustained by the institution during the Union occupation were heavy, and after 1863 the seminary remained closed for the remainder of the Civil War. Following the surrender of the Confederates at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, General Sherman donated two cannons to the institution. These cannons had been captured from Confederate forces after the close of the war and had been used during the initial firing upon Fort Sumter in April 1861. The cannons are still displayed in front of LSU's Military Science/Aerospace Studies Building.

The seminary officially reopened its doors on October 2, 1865, only to be burned October 15, 1869. On November 1, 1869, the institution resumed its exercises in Baton Rouge, where it has since remained. In 1870, the name of the institution was officially changed to Louisiana State University.

Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College was established by an act of the legislature, approved April 7, 1874, to carry out the United States Morrill Act of 1862, granting lands for this purpose. It temporarily opened in New Orleans, June 1, 1874, where it remained until it merged with Louisiana State University in 1877. This prompted the final name change for the university to the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Campus

The LSU campus sits on 1,000 acres (8.1 km2) just south of downtown Baton Rouge. Most of the university's 250 buildings, most of which were built between 1925 and 1940, occupy a 650-acre (2.6 km2) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River. Campus buildings adhere to an overall design emphasizing use of stucco on walls beneath roofs of Ludowici tile.

Theodore C. Link collaborated with Wilbur Trueblood on the project but remained faithful to the campus the Olmsted firm had designed. Unfortunately, Link died in 1923 before the plan was completed. New Orleans architects Wogan and Bernard completed Link's work and the campus was dedicated on April 30, 1926.

Under Huey Long, the governor from 1928 to 1932, LSU "more than doubled its enrollment despite the Great Depression; its standing had risen to Grade A; dormitories and buildings for departments of music, dramatic arts, and physical education had been completed; other buildings were soon to start, and costs of attendance had been lowered within the reach of many."

Nine LSU buildings, including the library and the academic buildings for dairying and physics, were constructed by George A. Caldwell, a native of Abbeville. Caldwell designed twenty-six public buildings in Louisiana.

The campus is known for the 1,200 live oak trees that shade the ground of the university.

Historic district

Fifty-seven resources on the LSU campus were listed in the 95 acres (38 ha) Louisiana State University Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 1988. Forty-six of the enlisted resources were considered contributing buildings and structures. The campus is protected by the State Capital Historic District Legislation.

The LSU Campus Mounds, which are part of a larger mound group spread throughout the state, are near the northwestern corner of the campus and were built an estimated 5,000 years ago. They were individually enlisted in the National Register of Historic Places on March 1, 1999.

Campus housing

On-campus housing options include on-campus apartments (East Campus Apartments, West Campus Apartments, and Nicholson Gateway Apartments), Annie Boyd Hall, Evangeline Hall, the Agricultural Residence College, the Engineering Residential College, the Business Residential College, Broussard, Acadian, Beauregard, Blake, Cypress, Herget, Highland, Jackson, LeJeune, McVoy, Miller, Taylor, East Laville, and West Laville.

Museums

The LSU Museum of Art shares the Shaw Center for the Arts with many cultural partners including the LSU School of Art Gallery, LSU's Laboratory for Creative Arts and Technology, the Manship Theatre, and the Community School for the Arts of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. There is also the LSU Museum of Natural Science, LSU Rural Life Museum, and the Louisiana Museum of Natural History. The LSU Textile & Costume Museum, located in the Human Ecology Building, houses more than 7,000 examples of historic dress and textiles dating from the eighteenth century to the present day.

Academics

Undergraduate admissions

The 2022 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes LSU-Baton Rouge as "more selective". For the Class of 2025 (enrolled fall 2021), LSU received 36,561 applications and accepted 25,907 (70.9%). Of those accepted, 7,045 enrolled, a yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) of 27.2%. LSU's freshman retention rate is 82.9%, with 69% going on to graduate within six years.

The enrolled first-year class of 2025 had the following standardized test scores: the middle 50% range (25th percentile-75th percentile) of SAT scores was 1130–1300, while the middle 50% range of ACT scores was 23–29.

Laboratory school

The university operates the Louisiana State University Laboratory School, a kindergarten through 12 public school.

Farm

Hill Farm established in 1927 by the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station in order to carry out research horticultural crops as part of Louisiana State University's mission as a land-grant university.

During the 1960s a large part of the Farm's land was reallocated for the construction of sorority houses, as a result, many of the fruit breeding programs had to be moved to other parts of the state. In the 1990s a new student recreation center and playing fields were created on the site of most of the remaining land, the remaining research programs were moved to the Burden Research Plantation. Today five acres of the original Hill Farm remain and used primarily as an agriculture teaching facility and community garden. Individual garden plots are nine by five feet (9' × 5') and may be rented by students, faculty, and the community at large. The price per lot has been deliberately kept low to support the Farm's mission to "provide access to gardening space, education, and resources necessary for the community to grow food in environmentally sustainable ways as a means of creating a food system where locally produced, affordable and nutritious food is available to all, and where the community can come together to share, play, and inspire one another." Although the gardeners are not required to plant certified organic seeds and plants, the Farm requires gardeners to use organic farming methods.

Reputation and rankings

Louisiana State University is ranked 185th in the national universities category and 101st among public universities by the 2023 U.S. News & World Report ranking of U.S. colleges. LSU is also ranked as the 192nd best overall university in the nation by Forbes magazine in 2019. In 2009, U.S. News & World Report ranked LSU as the 16th most popular university in the nation among high school students.

Student life

Organizations

There are over 350 student organizations currently active at LSU, including a student government and a total of 36 fraternities and sororities. The LSU Corps of Cadets is one of the oldest student organizations on campus. LSU also has an active Society of American Archivists student chapter.

Much like the United States Government, the LSU Student Government is divided into three major branches; Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. LSU SG is headed by the student body president and the student body vice president, elected to office during the spring semester of each academic year. A College Council system is also established to designate members of SG to the duties of representing specific academic colleges. Additionally, a Student Union Board representative is elected each spring to represent student interests and oversee programs, events, and regulations of the LSU Student Union.

Media

The Reveille, the university's student newspaper, has operated since 1887. Princeton Review named the Daily Reveille as the 12th best college newspaper in the nation in its 2008 edition of The Best 361 Colleges. The Daily Reveille won the Editor & Publisher award, or EPpy, in 2008 for best college newspaper Web site. The Society of Professional Journalists named the Reveille "Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper" in its 2012 Mark of Excellence awards.

KLSU is an FCC-licensed non-commercial educational (NCE) college radio station run by LSU students.

Broadcasting on campus cable channel 75, Tiger TV is a student-run television show, sharing its production equipment and facilities with the Manship School of Mass Communication.

Greek life

In 2019, 16% of undergraduate men and 27% of undergraduate women were active in LSU's Greek system.

Athletics

LSU fields teams in 21 varsity sports (9 men's, 12 women's), and is a member of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the Southeastern Conference.

The nine men's teams compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. The 12 women's teams compete in basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and volleyball.

The athletics department official nickname is Fighting Tigers, Tigers, or Lady Tigers.

National championships

LSU has won 53 team national championships (most in the SEC), 48 of which were bestowed by the NCAA, tying for ninth all-time in total NCAA team national championships. The four football titles were not conferred by the NCAA, as it does not award college football national championships at the Division I-FBS level.

• Baseball (8): 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2023, 2025
• Women's basketball (1): 2023
• Men's basketball (1): 1935 (pre-NCAA; defeated Pittsburgh in an arranged game)
• Boxing (1): 1949
• Football (4): 1958, 2003, 2007, 2019
• Men's golf (5): 1940, 1942, 1947, 1955, 2015
• Men's indoor track and field (2): 2001, 2004
• Women's indoor track and field (11): 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004
• Men's outdoor track and field (5): 1933, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2021
• Women's outdoor track and field (14): 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2012 (vacated)
• Women's gymnastics (1): 2024

Facilities

LSU's stadiums, arenas and courses include Tiger Stadium ("Death Valley") (football), Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field (baseball), Bernie Moore Track Stadium (outdoor track), Carl Maddox Field House (indoor track), Highland Road Park (cross country), LSU Natatorium (swimming and diving), LSU Soccer Stadium (soccer), LSU Tennis Complex (tennis), Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC) (basketball, gymnastics, volleyball), Tiger Park (softball) and University Club of Baton Rouge (golf).

LSU's academic center and practice facilities include the LSU Academic Center for Student-Athletes, Charles McClendon Practice Facility (football), LSU Football Operations Center (football), LSU Indoor Practice Facility (football), LSU Basketball Practice Facility (basketball) and LSU Gymnastics Training Facility

(gymnastics).

Tiger Stadium

Although originally nicknamed "Deaf Valley" for its excruciating levels of sound, the nickname "Death Valley" caught on instead. It is legendary for the crowd noise generated by fans. It is the sixth-largest college football stadium in the nation and third-largest stadium in the SEC, holding 102,321 fans after its latest expansion in 2014. The Tiger Stadium atmosphere is generally considered one of the loudest and most electrifying college football experiences in the country. During a nationally televised game against Auburn in 2003, ESPN recorded a noise level of 117 decibels at certain points in the game. In 2007 when the No. 1 ranked Tigers played the No. 9 ranked Florida Gators, the noise level registered at 122 decibels when the Tigers made a come-from-behind win in the final minutes of the game.

Traditions

Mascot

LSU Athletics is represented by its mascot, a live Bengal tiger named "Mike the Tiger". LSU is only one of two institutions of higher education in the United States to have a live tiger as their mascot; the other is the University of Memphis. The tiger was named after Mike Chambers, LSU's athletic trainer in 1936, and was bought for $750 from the Little Rock Arkansas Zoo. Mike V reigned from 1990 to 2007 and remained housed in his on-campus habitat until his death due to kidney failure on May 18, 2007, at age 17. Mike VI was an 11-year-old, 500-pound (230 kg) tiger acquired from an Indiana big cat sanctuary. Previously known as Roscoe, "Mike VI" is a Bengal-Siberian mix and was officially named Mike on September 8, 2007. He was introduced to fans at the home game against Florida on October 6, 2007. In 2017, LSU officially introduced Mike VII, formerly named "Harvey".

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)