Home to more than 40,000 students, Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington) is the largest university in the Indiana University system and is also widely considered to be the flagship institution.
IU Bloomington was established in 1820, with the first class graduating in 1830. In 1867 it became the fourth public university to admit woman on the same basis as men, with Sarah Parke Morrison becoming the first female IU student. The university continued to expand and extension campuses in Kokomo and Fort Wayne were opened in the 1940s, which are now part of the Indiana University system.
The 1,933-acre campus is located in Bloomington in central southern Indiana and many of the university buildings were built in the 1950s and 1960s to accommodate the influx of students from America’s post-World War II baby boom.
Some of the notable university buildings include the 17,000-seat Assembly Hall, the enormous Indiana Memorial Union, and the Herman B Wells Library, which holds more than 4.6 million volumes.
The university sports teams, known as the Hoosiers, participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and have won 24 NCAA national championships in a variety of sports including basketball, swimming and soccer.
There are more than 550 academic programs available to students, including over 200 undergraduate majors. IU Bloomington has 16 degree-granting schools and colleges as well as the University Graduate School, which has almost 200 academic programs at master’s and doctoral level.
More than 640,000 people have graduated from IU Bloomington over the years and many have gone on to become leaders in their respective fields.
Among notable alumni are co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, composer Hoagy Carmichael, owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ernie Pyle, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Tesich, whose film Breaking Away was shot on the IU Bloomington campus.
