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The University of Miami (informally referred to as UM, U Miami, Miami, or The U) is a private, nonsectarian university located in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. As of 2012, the university currently enrolls 15,613 student in 12 separate colleges, including a medical school located in Miami's Civic Center neighborhood, a law school on the main campus, and a school focused on the study of oceanography and atmospheric sciences on Virginia Key. These colleges offer approximately 115 undergraduate, 114 master's, 51 doctoral, and two professional areas of study. Over the years, the University's students have represented all 50 states and close to 150 foreign countries. With more than 13,000 full and part-time faculty and staff, UM is the sixth largest employer in Miami-Dade County.
Research is a component of each academic division, with UM attracting $346.6 million per year in sponsored research grants. UM offers a large library system with over 3.1 million volumes and exceptional holdings in Cuban heritage and music. UM also offers a wide range of student activities, including fraternities and sororities, a student newspaper and radio station. UM's intercollegiate athletic teams, collectively known as the Miami Hurricanes, compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and its football team has won five national championships since 1983
A group of citizens chartered the University of Miami (UM) in 1925 with the intent to offer "unique opportunities to develop inter-American studies, to further creative work in the arts and letters, and to conduct teaching and research programs in tropical studies." They believed that a local university would benefit their community. They were overly optimistic about future financial support for UM because the South Florida land boom was at its peak. During the Jim Crow era, there were three large state-funded universities in Florida for white males, white females, and black coeds (UF, FSU, and FAMU, respectively); in this accord, UM was founded as a white, coeducational institution.
The University began in earnest in 1925 when George E. Merrick, the founder of Coral Gables, gave 160 acres and nearly $5 million, ($67.2 million, adjusted for current inflation) to the effort. These contributions were land contracts and mortgages on real estate that had been sold in the city. The University was chartered on April 18, 1925 by the Circuit Court for Dade County. By the fall of 1926, when the first class of 372 students enrolled at UM, the land boom had collapsed, and hopes for a speedy recovery were dashed by a major hurricane. For the next 15 years the University barely remained solvent. The construction of the first building on campus, now known as the Merrick Building, was left half built for over two decades due to economic difficulties. In the meantime, classes were held at the nearby Anastasia Hotel, with partitions separating classrooms, giving the University the early nickname of "Cardboard College."
In 1929, Walsh and the other members of the Board of Regents resigned in the wake of the collapse of the Florida economy. UM's plight was so severe that students went door to door in Coral Gables collecting funds to keep it open. A reconstituted ten-member Board was chaired by UM's first president Bowman Foster Ashe (1926–1952). The new board included Merrick, Theodore Dickinson, E.B. Douglas, David Fairchild, James H. Gilman, Richardson Saunders, Frank B. Shutts, Joseph H. Adams, and J. C. Penney. In 1930, several faculty members and more than 60 students came to UM when the University of Havana closed due to political unrest. UM filed for bankruptcy in 1932. In July 1934, the University of Miami was reincorporated and a Board of Trustees replaced the Board of Regents. By 1940, community leaders were replacing faculty and administration as trustees. The University survived this early turmoil. During Ashe's presidency, the University added the School of Law (1928), the School of Business Administration (1929), the School of Education (1929), the Graduate School (1941), the Marine Laboratory (1943, renamed in 1969 as the Rosenstiel School), the School of Engineering (1947), and the School of Medicine (1952).
Walkway leading to the Otto G. Richter Library on the campus of the University of Miami During World War II, UM was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
One of Ashe's longtime assistants, Jay F. W. Pearson, assumed the presidency in 1952. A charter faculty member and a marine biologist by trade, Pearson retained the position until 1962. During his presidency, UM awarded its first doctorate degrees and saw an increase in enrollment of more than 4,000.
The social changes of the 1960s and 1970s were reflected at UM. In 1961, UM dropped its policy of racial segregation and began to admit black students. African Americans were also allowed full participation in student activities and sports teams. After President Stanford pressed for minority athletes, in December 1966, UM signed Ray Bellamy, an African American football player. With Bellamy, UM became the first major college in the Deep South with a Black football player on scholarship. UM established an Office of Minority Affairs to promote diversity in both undergraduate and professional school admissions. With the start of the 1968 football season, President Henry Stanford barred the playing of "Dixie" by the University's band.
Historically, UM regulated female student conduct more than men's conduct with a staff under the Dean of Women watching over the women. UM combined the separate Dean of Men and Dean of Women positions in 1971