University of Louisville history

Eight years later, in 1837, the Louisville City council established the Louisville Medical Institute at the urging of renowned physician and medical author Charles Caldwell.

The Louisville Collegiate Institute, in 1844, occupied the land of the seminary.

In 1846, the Kentucky legislature combined the Louisville Medical Institute, the Louisville Collegiate Institution, and a newly created law school into the University of Louisville, on a campus just east of Downtown Louisville.

Commemorating the sacrifices of Confederate veterans who died in the American Civil War, it was erected by the Muldoon Monument Company in 1895 with funds raised by the Kentucky Woman's Confederate Monument Association.

The school had attempted to purchase a campus donated by the Belknap family in The Highlands area in 1917 (where Bellarmine University is currently located), but a citywide tax increase to pay for it was voted down.

In 1923, the school purchased what is today the Belknap Campus, where it moved its liberal arts programs and law school, with the medical school remaining downtown.

In 1926, the building that would later be dedicated as Grawemeyer Hall, was built.

In 1931, the university established the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes on the former campus of Simmons University (now Simmons College of Kentucky), as a compromise plan to desegregation.

The School of Business was established in 1953.

Presently one of Kentucky's most regarded history specialists, John Kleber was an individual from the third graduating class of Trinity Highin 1959.

He joined the Peace Corps after graduating from Providence College in Rhode Island in 1966 and spent two years working in the Dominican Republic.

In 1972 Dodd received a law degree from the University of Louisville in Kentucky; the following year he was admitted to the Connecticut bar and opened a private practice in New London.

Dodd was elected to the first of three terms as a United States representative in 1974, the midterm election bringing a large influx of Democrats to Congress during ongoing investigation into the Watergate scandal.

Following his father’s career path, Dodd ran for and was elected to the Senate in 1980.

Another major development occurred in 1994, when the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education designated University of Louisville as a research university, assigning it a statewide mission in medicine, dentistry, law and urban affairs.

In 1996 the functions of the College of Health and Social Services were realigned resulting in a separate Kent School of Social Work and a School of Allied Health Sciences.

In 1997, he hired athletics director Tom Jurich, who restored the athletics program and raised over $100 million to raze abandoned factories and old parking lots next to campus and replace them with on-campus athletic facilities, which vastly improved the aesthetics of the Belknap Campus.

By 1998 Allied Health had given way to the School of Public Health and Information Sciences.

By 1999 Allied Health had given way to the School of Public Health and Information Sciences.

For more information, see Dwayne D. Cox and William J. Morison, The University of Louisville (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000).

The university is the state and national leader in producing Fulbright scholars, with over 120 UofL student-winners since 2003.

In 2005 Coach Rick Pitino's ball Cardinals achieved the Final Four of the NCAA titles.

In 2007, the university reaffirmed that mission through implementation of its Signature Partnership initiative, which formalizes its commitment to improving the lives of residents of some of Louisville’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Later in 2008 it was alleged that Dodd had received special discounted loans from Countrywide Financial, a mortgage lender; he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate ethics committee.

Facing a difficult reelection campaign, Dodd announced in January 2010 that he would not seek a sixth term in the Senate.

He later served as chairman (2011–17) of the Motion Picture Association of America.

On June 17, 2016, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin announced that the entire Board of Trustees of the university would be immediately disbanded and replaced and that Ramsey would be stepping down, and this was confirmed in a statement issued by Ramsey on the same day.

The governor's actions were initially blocked by a judge but supported by new legislation passed by the Kentucky legislature in early 2017.

In 2019, the university's presence in West Louisville was expanded to include a newly remodeled building in the Portland neighborhood, dedicated to additional space for the College of Arts & Sciences' Fine Art and Anthropology programs.

In spring 2020, students in Doctor Ehrick's History of Radio course produced podcasts that aired on local community radio station WXOX, and students in Doctor Massoth's History of Women course produced a series of online exhibits documenting the history of women's activism in Louisville.