West Virginia University
West Virginia University is an institute of higher learning based in Morgantown, West Virginia, with off-site campuses in Parkersburg, Montgomery, Keyser and Charleston, West Virginia. WVU was founded in 1867 as a land-grant university with the help of the Morrill Act, and was originally called the "Agricultural College of West Virginia." The university gained its current name in 1868. Enrollment for Fall semester of 2002 was 23,492.
The university offers 170 different majors in 13 different colleges. These colleges are the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, & Consumer Sciences; the College of Business & Economics, the College of Creative Arts; the School of Dentistry; the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences; the School of Social Work & Public Administration; the College of Engineering & Mineral Resources, the Office of Academic Affairs; the College of Law; the College of Human Resources & Education; the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism; the School of Physical Education; the School of Medicine; the School of Nursing; and the School of Pharmacy. Some of these programs, especially Nursing, Pharmacy, Engineering and Education, have almost 100% job placement rates after graduation. WVU also has one of the most respected forensic science programs in the United States.
Since the school's formation, 25 Rhodes Scholars, including current WVU president David Hardesty, have been chosen from WVU. There are only 6 other public universities with more. The university has also produced 24 Goldwater Scholars, 15 Truman Scholars, 5 members of USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team, and 2 Udall Scholarship winners.
PRT System
Because WVU's main Morgantown campus is actually split into two campuses (Downtown and Evansdale) one of the major icons at the school is a Personal rapid transit system to link its disjointed campus.
In 1974, Boeing began construction of the first major PRT project in Morgantown, West Virginia, designed to shuttle students between WVU's two campuses. The original WVU campus, located in the valley of the Monongahela River was already fully developed. Because it proved impossible to develop any more valley land, WVU expanded to a separate parcel a couple of miles away on the other side of a ridge.
The WVU PRT has been in continuous operation since 1975, with about 15,000 riders per day (as of 2003). The system uses about 70 vehicles, with an advertised capacity of 20 people each (although the real number is more like 15). The system connects the university's disjointed campus using 5 stations (Walnut, Beechurst, Engineering, Towers, and Medical) and a 4 mile (6 km) track. The vehicles are rubber-tired and powered by electrified rails. Steam heating keeps the elevated guideway free of snow and ice. Most students habitually use it. This system was not sold to other sites because the heated track has proven too expensive.
Athletics
The school's sports teams are called the Mountaineers and compete in the Big East Conference, a member of the NCAA's Division I.
WVU students staged a riot against the National Guard in the spring of 1970, shortly after the shootings at Kent State.
