UK Celebrates 150 Years
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Video by Amy Jones-Timoney and Kody Kiser/UK Public Relations and Marketing.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 26, 2015) — How better to celebrate 150 years of improving lives through excellence in education, research, creative work, service and health care than a week of festivities commemorating the University of Kentucky? The university will do just that as it hosts its Founders Week Feb. 19-27 in honor of its sesquicentennial.
In February 1865, just before the end of the Civil War, farmer and lawyer John Bryan Bowman challenged the Kentucky state legislature to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 and build a public university in Lexington. Though located in the Bluegrass, the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Kentucky University would go on to serve the better interests of the entire Commonwealth.
From its beginnings with only 190 students and 10 professors, A&M College was committed to the state of Kentucky. The institution's work (and name, eventually becoming University of Kentucky in 1916) evolved and expanded with the passage of the Hatch Act of 1887 and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, which added UK's experiment station and cooperative extension network.
Today, UK’s campus is experiencing great growth in classrooms and campus facilities. It covers more than 918 acres; is home to more than 30,000 students, 14,500 employees and 2,300 full-time faculty; more than 90 nationally ranked academic programs; and boosts an annual budget of more than $3 billion. UK is one of only eight universities in the U.S. that has well-established programs in agriculture, engineering, medicine and pharmacy on a single campus.
To commemorate the students, faculty and staff who came before and solidify a blueprint for 150 more years of success, UK will present several events recognizing and celebrating those who make the university the exemplary land-grant, flagship institution it is culminating in the Blue Tie Bash Feb. 27. Festivities scheduled for Founders Week are as follows:
· 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, game recognition at UK Hoops vs Texas A&M basketball game, at Memorial Coliseum;
· 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, game recognition at UK vs Auburn basketball game, at Rupp Arena;
· sunset Sunday, Feb. 22, start of week of blue lights on various campus buildings and residence halls;
· 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 23, convocation featuring University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. "Brit" Kirwan at Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall;
· 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23, student celebration, at the Student Center;
· 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, faculty and staff reception, M.I. King Library Building;
· 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, Fellows Founders Week Luncheon (invitation only), at Alumni Gymnasium;
· 3 p.m. Thursday, University Address by University of California President Emeritus Mark Yudof, at Singletary Center Recital Hall; and
· 7-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, Blue Tie Bash, at Rupp Arena.
All events are free and open to the public except the Fellows Founders Week Luncheon, which is by invitation only, and the Blue Tie Bash, which is open to the public, but is ticketed.
If your blood bleeds blue, you are invited to the Blue Tie Bash. The party will include a live band, food and a cash bar on the floor of Rupp Arena, home to much of the university's storied basketball history. Tickets for the bash are $20 for students with a valid UK student ID card and $50 for general admission. People attending are asked to dress in festive business attire. To purchase tickets for the Blue Tie Bash, visit the UK Alumni Association website at www.ukalumni.net/BlueTieBash.
For more information on UK's 150th anniversary and Founders Week, visit UK's sesquicentennial page at www.uky.edu/uk150.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu
