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Florida State University, a graduate research institution, stands among the nation's elite in both academics and athletics. Located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in Florida, the university is situated in the heart of the state's capital city. The university's main campus blends Jacobean Revival and modern styles of architecture with the oaks, pines, dogwoods and azaleas of North Florida.

As the university has progressed and grown - from its pre-Civil War beginnings as the Seminary West of the Suwannee, to the Florida State College for Women and, finally, returning to coeducational status as a university in 1947 - it has developed into an ac claimed re search institution, a top-ranked competitor in inter collegiate athletics and a standard setter in the basic sciences and the performing arts.

The university has entered the 21st century with excellence in all areas of its mission - teaching, research and public service, including many noteworthy milestones over the past year.

• In May 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney became the first U.S. vice president and the highest ranking government official ever to deliver a commencement address at FSU.
• In the 2005 edition of the U.S. News & World Report guidebook "America's Best Graduate Schools," published in April 2004, the university's master's programs in public affairs were ranked 26th overall, and the specialty of public management administration ranked even higher at 15th. Also, public affairs master's programs in city management and urban policy ranked 24th, and public finance and budgeting ranked 26th.
• In March 2004, Hispanic Magazine ranked FSU 22nd among its "Top 25 Colleges for Latinos." Among only public schools, FSU ranked 11th.
• FSU's art therapy program has received national approval, similar to accreditation, for its master's level program from the American Art Therapy Association. FSU is only the 31st school nationally to achieve this recognition.
• In the spring of 2004, FSU made available its public service video "Avoiding the Credit Card Monster,"10 minutes of basic financial advice to youthful credit novices, to every high school and K-12 institution in the nation.
• In March 2004, FSU celebrated the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's 10th anniversary of scientific research and educational outreach. FSU operates the lab, unique to the Western Hemisphere, in conjunction with the University of Florida and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• The FSU department of psychology was recognized by the American Psychological Association for its clinic that provides mental health services to the community and training and research opportunities for students.
• Faculty members in the FSU School of Information Studies began editing Library Quarterly, the pre-eminent scholarly journal of research in the library and information studies community, with its October 2003 issue.
• The FSU College of Medicine added a doctoral program in biomedical sciences in the fall of 2003, with the first seven students recruited to begin this fall.
• President T.K. Wetherell and his wife, Virginia B. Wetherell, made the largest personal donation to a public university in the United States by a sitting president. Through their estate, the Wetherells will leave to FSU their 1,000-acre Oak Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, worth $7.5 million.
• In October 2003, the FSU athletic training/sports medicine major received national accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. The major is offered in the department of nutrition, food and exercise sciences in the College of Human Sciences.
• In October 2003, the Chinese Ministry of Education gave 1,000 new Chinese books to FSU in recognition of the university's growing Chinese studies program.
• The FSU Museum of Fine Arts achieved the highest honor for a museum - accreditation by the American Association of Museums.
• On Aug. 29, 2003, FSU launched its "everythingFSU" gateway on the World Wide Web at fsu.com. The gate way showcases the best of the university each day, including news and features, and offers users a unique electronic postcard service.

Under the leadership of FSU's 13th president, T.K. Wetherell, who took office in January 2003, and its 13-member Board of Trustees, the university continues to build on the foundation of its history of excellence in scholarship, research and service.

The trustees are: Chairman John Thrasher of Orange Park; Harold Knowles, J. Stanley Marshall and Jim Smith, all of Tallahassee; Emily "June" Duda of Oveido; David Ford of Rosemont, Pa.; Dr. Jessie Furlow of Quincy; Manuel "Manny" Garcia III of Winter Springs; William "Andy" Haggard of Coral Gables; E. Ann McGee of Winter Springs; Derrick Brooks of Tampa; FSU Faculty Senate President Valliere Richard Auzenne and Student Government Association President Jarrett Eady.

A senior member of the State University System, FSU was founded as an institution of higher learning in 1851 by legislative act. It began in Tallahassee with its first class of male students in 1857 and added women in 1858. FSU's operating budget is $857 million. Faculty and administrators generate more than $160 million annually in external funding to supplement state-sponsored research. Three direct-support organizations serve to bolster the university: the Seminole Boosters, the FSU Alumni Association and the FSU Foundation.

The main campus is spread over 448.3 acres in Tallahassee; FSU, which has one of the smallest campuses in the SUS, has been actively acquiring land in the 1990s. FSU encompasses 1,445.2 acres in Leon, Bay, Franklin, Gadsden and Sarasota counties.

Within the state, the university maintains facilities at its 25-acre campus in Panama City, its Marine Laboratory at Turkey Point on the Gulf of Mexico and the Asolo Performing Arts Center in Sarasota. The Center for Professional Development and Public Service, housed in the Augustus B. Turnbull III Florida Conference Center on the edge of the campus, provides extensive credit and non-credit continuing education programs statewide.

For years, FSU has reached far beyond Florida through international programs in Switzerland, France, Panama, Costa Rica, Spain, Russia, Vietnam, the Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Ireland, South Africa, Ghana and the Caribbean. FSU's student centers in Florence, Italy, and London, England, are considered by many to be the nation's best in Europe.

Florida State offers 300 graduate and undergraduate degree programs through its nine colleges - Arts and Sciences; Business; Communication; Education; Engineering (operated jointly with Florida A&M University); Human Sciences; Law; Medicine; and Social Sciences (which also incorporates the Reubin O'D Askew School of Public Administration and Policy) - and eight schools - Criminology and Criminal Justice; Information Studies; Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts; Music; Nursing; Social Work; Theatre; and Visual Arts and Dance.

With 2,119 members, the FSU faculty has included 10 National Academy of Sciences elected members, four American Academy of Arts and Sciences members and five Nobel laureates. It is backed by 3,682 administrative and support staff members.

Library holdings at Florida State include 2.6 million book titles and 9 million micro forms. The main library facility, the Robert M. Strozier Library, is linked by computer to other state university and national research libraries. The Paul A.M. Dirac Science Library is located at the heart of the university's science research complex. FSU also maintains music, library science and law libraries, and the Mildred and Claude Pepper Library.

FSU's 6,851 graduate students pursue advanced degrees in fields as diverse as business administration and theoretical particle physics. A majority of research done at FSU is the direct result of student effort, culminating in numerous books, monographs and journal articles relating to the whole spectrum of intellectual interests and the practical needs of society.

Of FSU's 37,328-student population, 56.3 percent are female, 43.7 percent are male, 27.6 percent are minorities, and 3.8 percent are foreign students.