University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. Over a century old, it is renowned for its contributions to teaching and research, and recognized as one of the world's leading research institutions. Known as the "teacher of teachers", scholars and researchers affiliated with the University of Chicago have earned more Nobel Prizes than any other institution besides Cambridge University. The academic home of leading intellectuals like Allan Bloom, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Ronald Coase, Milton Friedman, Richard Posner, and Leo Strauss, the University of Chicago is often considered the most intellectual and rigorous of American universities.

Sports and traditions

The school's sports teams are called the Maroons and their athletic colors are maroon and white. http://athletics.uchicago.edu/faq-nickname.htm They participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the University Athletic Association. At one time the University of Chicago's football teams, the original Monsters of the Midway, were among the best in the country, winning seven Big Ten titles from 1895 to 1939. The University is also the only school ever to be undefeated in football against Notre Dame. In 1935, Chicago's Jay Berwanger was the winner of (and the model for) the first-ever Heisman Trophy. However, the school, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference, de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939 when it dropped football and withdrew from the league in 1946. It is erroneously claimed that Robert Maynard Hutchins, president at the time, said, "Whenever I feel like exercising, I lie down until the feeling passes." http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0410/issue/letters-sailing.shtml Chicago maintains an affiliation with the Big Ten schools in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which is a consortium of the twelve http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/CICUniversities.shtml Midwestern research universities.http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/about.shtml

Related Topics:
NCAA - Division III - University Athletic Association - Football - 1895 - 1939 - 1935 - Jay Berwanger - Heisman Trophy - Big Ten Conference - 1946 - Committee on Institutional Cooperation

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The school's mascot is the Phoenix, so chosen for two reasons: in honor of Chicago's rebirth after the great fire and also in honor of the previous University of Chicago (whose origins were unrelated to the current), which folded due to financial reasons (thus making this a second and far more glorious incarnation of the University).

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One notorious tradition is the annual Scavenger Hunt, a multi-day event in which large teams compete to obtain all the items on a very long list. A resident of the Snell-Hitchcock dormitory created the event in 1987 and Snell-Hitchcock's team has been consistently competitive. So far, each year has also involved a lengthy road trip to find many of these items in obscure parts of the United States, involving treks as far as New Jersey, or as mind-bogglingly obtuse as Zion, Illinois (where students had to "flip the switch at the last city of man," a reference to the city of Zion in The Matrix). While items such as Michael Jordan have not appeared, in 1999 two students actually did build a working nuclear reactor, a device that irradiated thorium with thermal neutrons, thereby producing trace amounts of both uranium and plutonium. A recurring joke in early Hunts was an item signed by "Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune". Rumor has it that Royko always arranged to be on vacation during the Scavenger Hunt weekend.

Related Topics:
Scavenger Hunt - The Matrix - Michael Jordan - Thermal neutrons - Uranium - Plutonium - Mike Royko

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A famous former campus tradition was Sleepout, which took place each spring on the weekend before the opening of registration for the next year's classes. The tradition began when students wishing to get into the most popular courses would sleep out on the quads in order to be first in line. Eventually, the queueing was organized with a lottery for places in line taking place 24 hours in advance of registration. Under the presidency of Hugo Sonnenschein, Sleepout was ended in 1993. In 1997 course registration was changed to use an Internet-based system.

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The campus paper is the Chicago Maroon, founded in 1892, the same year as the university. It is published every Tuesday and Friday. Notable extracurricular groups include: The University of Chicago College Bowl Team, which has garnered 118 tournament wins and 15 national championships - leading both categories internationally, Model United Nations, which is an often a favorite at national conferences and hosts a large simulation annually, and the Chess Club, who likewise is a national powerhouse and whose ranks have included Masters of varying degrees. The Mock Trial and Parliamentary Debate teams have also fared well at the national level in recent years. WHPK is the student-run community radio station of the university.

Related Topics:
Chicago Maroon - College Bowl - Model United Nations - WHPK

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Popular among students are University of Chicago t-shirts with various self-deprecatory sayings on them, including: "U of C: Where fun comes to die"; "U of C: Where the end of the world began! (with appropriate mushroom cloud picture)"; "U of C: Where the squirrels are more aggressive than the guys"; "U of C: Where the squirrels are cuter than the girls"; and "U of C: Where the only thing that goes down on you is your GPA."

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