University of Vermont

The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1791, UVM is the oldest university in Vermont and the fifth-oldest in New England. Roughly coinciding with Vermont's statehood, the plans for and development of the university date back to the days of the Vermont Republic, making it unique among public universities in the US to be at least planned and organized outside of an admitted state in the nation.

UVM comprises ten colleges and schools, including the Robert Larner College of Medicine, and offers more than 100 undergraduate majors along with various graduate and professional programs. The University of Vermont Medical Center, has its primary facility on the UVM campus. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities—Very high research activity".

In athletics, UVM's teams, known as the Catamounts, compete in NCAA Division I, primarily in the America East Conference and Hockey East Association.

The University of Vermont was founded as a private university in 1791, the same year Vermont became the fourteenth U.S. state. The university enrolled its first students ten years later. Its first president, Daniel C. Sanders, was hired in 1800, and served as the sole faculty member for seven years. Instruction began in 1801, and the first class graduated in 1804. In 1865, the university merged with Vermont Agricultural College (chartered November 22, 1864, after the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862), emerging as the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College. The university was granted 150,000 acres, which it sold for $122,626. Much of the initial funding and planning for the university was undertaken by Ira Allen, who is honored as UVM's founder. Allen donated a 50-acre (20 ha) parcel of land for establishment of the university. Most of this land has been maintained as the university's main green, where stands a statue of Allen. The citizens of Burlington helped fund the university's first edifice. When it was destroyed by fire in 1824, they also paid for its replacement. This building came to be known as "Old Mill" for its resemblance to New England mills of the time. The Marquis de Lafayette, a French general who became a commander in the American Revolution, while in Vermont laid the cornerstone of Old Mill, which stands on University Row along with Ira Allen Chapel, Billings Library, Williams Hall, Royall Tyler Theatre, and Morrill Hall. A statue of Lafayette stands at the north end of the main green.

UVM was the first American institution of higher education with a charter declaring that the "rules, regulations, and by-laws shall not tend to give preference to any religious sect or denomination whatsoever".

In 1871, UVM defied custom and admitted two women as students. It was the first American university to admit women (1875) and African Americans (1877) into Phi Beta Kappa, the country's oldest collegiate academic honor society.

Justin Smith Morrill, a U.S. Representative (1855–1867), and Senator (1867–1898) from Vermont, author of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act that created federal funding for establishing the U.S. land-grant colleges and universities, served as a trustee of the university from 1865 to 1898.

In 1924, UVM's WCAX, now called WVMT, sent out the first radio broadcast in Vermont. It was run by UVM students and faculty before being sold in 1931. WCAX is now the call sign of a commercial television station. A new radio station was set up in 1955, dubbed WRUV. It currently runs a FM broadcast at 90.1 MHz and an internet stream at wruv.org. The station, run by students, faculty, and local community members, dubs itself Burlington's Better Alternative. It is known for playing a wide range of music, boasting "the largest catalog in the State of Vermont" at over 50,000 albums.