National Science Foundation

Kasey Urquidez, University of Arizona

In its earliest days, University of Arizona had a bit of a Wild West aura. Students rode their horses to school, hitching them outside Old Main, the first building on campus. And a year after the first undergraduates arrived, the dean of students asked the Board of Regents to prohibit the use of firearms on campus.

In fact, Arizona was still a territory when the University of Arizona broke ground in 1885 on 40 acres of land with a $25,000 grant from the legislature.  The first students arrived in 1891 – 32 strong – along with six teachers. But only six were admitted to the freshmen class. The remaining 26 went to a specially established prep school since there were no high schools in the territory. Seventeen years later, the university students finally outnumbered those in the prep classes and more than 20 years later -- in 1912 -- Arizona became a state.

Keith Todd, Admission Dean, Reed College, Answers 8 Questions

Founded in 1908, Reed College is a liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, known for its rich intellectual life.  Dean of Admission Keith Todd joins us this month to answer not five -- but eight questions -- in the generous spirit of inquiry that exemplifies Reed College.

Located on 116 acres in a residential neighborhood, the Reed campus is just five miles from downtown Portland, and about 90 minutes from the Pacific coast.  Featuring a lake and Reed Canyon, a wooded wetland with abundant wildlife and native plants, the campus is home to 1400 students.

The quirky intellectualism Reed is known for is on full display even on their website, which reads like a series of droll literary vignettes -- with comic overtones. (Not to go too Reedie on you.) In fact, Reed has produced 31 Rhodes Scholars, as well as numerous winners of the Fulbright, Watson, and National Science Foundation fellowships. Classes average 15 students with a 10-to-1 student-faculty ratio. Reed offers 22 department-based majors (from Anthropology to Theater), 12 interdisciplinary majors (including History-literature or Mathematics-economics) and 6 dual degree programs (such as applied physics and electronic science).  And students can also work with their adviser to design alternate interdisciplinary majors.