University of Minnesota Duluth Informations

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 15 bachelor's degrees in 84 majors, graduate programs in 26 different fields, and a two-year program at the School of Medicine and a four-year College of Pharmacy program.

Although the University of Minnesota Duluth didn’t officially make its appearance until 1947, plans for a college in the Duluth area were first made in the 1890s. The state legislature planned for a teaching school for women (then referred to as a normal school) and in 1895 they announced the formation of the Duluth Normal School. In 1896, the City of Duluth donated 6 acres (2.4 ha) of land to serve as a foundation for the Duluth Normal School, and the state legislature donated additional funds for the construction costs for the main building, which was built in 1900. In February 1901, a fire caused extensive damage to the school and the following year, the school was rebuilt.

In April 1901, Eugene W. Bohannon was appointed president of the Duluth Normal School. In 1902 the school first opened for enrollment. The first students, all women, came to the school to be trained for a degree in education. By 1903, the first seven women received their diplomas from Duluth Normal School. In 1906, the first dormitories were opened, costing the school around $35,000 to build. Room and board were offered at cost, between fourteen and fifteen dollars a month. Throughout the next few years, more dormitories, two new wings, and an auditorium were added to the school. Requirements, such as having a high school diploma, were instituted. Students who signed a pledge to teach after graduation attended for free; others were required to pay $30 per year.

The 1906 Bulletin of the State Normal School describes the school at that time:

Enrollment for 1903 was 127 and by 1906 it had increased to 202. A Model School with kindergarten through grade eight was maintained for "practice teaching". The 1906 bulletin reports, "At the opening of the school four years ago it was somewhat doubtful whether the number of children to attend would be sufficient to constitute a model school in any proper sense. Only three teachers were needed to take charge of the pupils at that time, while five are required now and the number of children seeking admission is greatly in excess of the limit fixed for the several grades.

In 1921, the Duluth Normal School was renamed Duluth State Teachers College or DSTC. The change in status allowed bachelor's degrees and four-year degree programs to be added to the school. In 1929 the school became co-ed, and the first sports teams were instituted, including hockey, football, and basketball. By 1937, the community supported elevating DSTC to a branch campus of the University of Minnesota.

In 1985 the four surviving buildings of the Duluth Normal School, consisting of the Main Building, Washburn Hall, Torrance Hall, and the Model School, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Duluth State Normal School Historic District was listed for its state-level significance in the themes of architecture and education. It was nominated as Minnesota's most intact state normal school campus, and for the Beaux-Arts architecture of the Main Building. However a fire in 1993 reduced the Main Building to freestanding remnants.

As enrollment increased on the University of Minnesota campus in the Twin Cities in the 1940s, higher education leaders began to debate how to address overcrowding on the state's land grant university campus. During this time City leaders and area state legislators formed a plan to advocate for establishing a branch campus of the University of Minnesota in the City of Duluth. After significant lobbying efforts a bill was drafted and submitted to the legislature that would instead take the Duluth State Teachers College, remove it from the Minnesota State Teachers College system and establish a branch of the University of Minnesota in 1947. The Legislature narrowly passed the bill and the marriage of the University of Minnesota to Duluth State Teachers College began. It is at this time that the University of Minnesota Duluth was established.

These events were significant statewide as the Duluth State Teachers College was given preference above all of the other state teachers college in 6 other regions of the state to be upgraded to "university" status. These events later led to discord, with Southern Minnesota organizing to request its own university in 1963-1967 as part of efforts to make Mankato State Teachers College into a research university called the University of Southern Minnesota or Minnesota State University. It wouldn't be until 1975-1976 that the others would be allowed to develop comprehensive curriculum and expand as full universities. During these initial years the University of Minnesota Duluth was considered directly a part of the University of Minnesota, not an independent institution.

The University of Minnesota Duluth has established itself in a number of research areas including ocean, sea and freshwater sciences. It is the primary sea-grant university for the state of Minnesota and operates the Minnesota Sea Grant Program offices on campus. In addition, in 1972 a two year school of medicine was founded at the university to provide the first two years of medical education in a small urban and rural setting. The medical school was reorganized in 2000 to be a direct component of the University of Minnesota Medical School from the Twin Cities campus and now operates semi-independently from the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Today, the university now educates a medium sized student body of over 11,000 students each year and draws students primarily from the Twin Ports and Twin Cities areas.

The UMD campus consists of more than 50 buildings on 244 acres (99 ha) overlooking Lake Superior. Most UMD buildings are connected by concourses or hallways. UMD is also home to the Tweed Museum of Art, the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium, Weber Music Hall, and the Marshall Performing Arts Center. Other UMD facilities include Glensheen Historic Estate, Chester Park School which houses Minnesota Sea Grant and the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, the Natural Resources Research Institute, the Research and Field Studies Center, and the Lower Campus which houses the Large Lakes Observatory.

UMD has substantially expanded its facilities beginning in 2000 with the completion of the Kathryn A. Martin library. Additional recent buildings include the Weber Music Hall (2002), Kirby Plaza (2004), James I. Swenson Science Building (2005), Sports and Health Center addition (2006), Life Science Renovation (2006), Labovitz School of Business and Economics (2008), Bagley Environmental Classroom (2009), the Civil Engineering Building (2010) and the Heikkila Chemistry and Advanced Materials Science (HCAMS) building (2019).

New art on campus came along with the construction of the new buildings. All new public building projects in Minnesota must comply with the state's “One Percent for Art” law, passed by the State Legislature in 1984, which mandates that all such projects in Minnesota costing over $500,000 must devote at least 1% of their total construction budget towards incorporating public art into these building's public spaces. A little over 1% of the library's $28 million construction costs went toward the purchase and installation of a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly that hangs from the ceiling of the two-story library lobby. An 89-foot (27 m) outdoor sculpture adjacent to the Swenson Science Building makes reference to elements of Duluth's surrounding Native American Ojibwe culture. The sculpture, "Wild Ricing Moon," was designed by John David Mooney and represents the traditional wild rice harvest.

The colleges and schools at the University of Minnesota Duluth are:

The three story, 56,000 sq. ft. Heikkila Chemistry and Advanced Materials Science (HCAMS) building opened in 2019. It is named for benefactors Kurt and Beth Heikkila. The HCAMS building is the home of the Advanced Materials Center.

Completed in 2010, the 35,300 square foot, $12,100,000 building was designed by Ross Barney Architects of Chicago, Illinois. The new building for the Civil Engineering program is designed to teach students about materials, how they go together, how they age, and how they express the forces inherent in any structure. The exterior expresses the traits of a place where students design, construct, and test structures to withstand stresses and strains. The facade is distinguished by cor-ten steel, precast and poured in place concrete, concrete block, and scuppers clad in reclaimed wood. On a rainy day, the building is a demonstration of hydraulics and kinetic energy, as water pours from the scuppers and splashes into the cor-ten steel catch basins. The design has received many accolades, including the 2013 American Institute of Architects Cote Top Ten Green Project Award.

The jury stated "This is an example of wedding together buildings that perform well but also are aesthetically rich, and culturally useful, beneficial, and beautiful in their own way. The project has a very honest expression of the materials—it's very clear what this building is made of. It's creative in its architectural expression in a way that's sculptural and sort of bold and solid like the sciences that are studied within. Seventy-seven percent energy reduction below the baseline in Duluth’s severe climate also is impressive."

Marshall Performing Arts Center was built in the 1970s and is a 715-seat flexible thrust/proscenium theatre presenting an array of theatre and dance events. It was named after the parents of Julia and Caroline Marshall and Jessica Marshall Spencer (Albert and Julia N. Marshall) who were donors to the university. The Dudley Experimental Theatre (a black-box theatre within MPAC) was named for another donor, Marjorie Congdon Dudley.

The construction of the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium was supported by Marshall W. Alworth. Alworth grew up in Duluth and attended Duluth Central High School and later Dartmouth College. He also donated funds towards scholarships which today are valued at over $35 million.

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