American University Fact Sheet

AmericanFacts

Spring 2007

Historical Origins American University was incorporated by the government of the District of Columbia in 1891 and chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893 as a United Methodist Church–related institution. The university’s first building was completed in 1898; its first class graduated in 1916. more...

Character American University is a leader in global education, enrolling a diverse student body from throughout the U.S. and nearly 150 countries and providing opportunities for academic excellence, public service, and internships in the nation’s capital and around the world. Web site: http://www.american.edu

Location - Residential area of upper northwest Washington, D.C.

Operating Budget - (Fiscal Year 07) $381 million

Calendar - Two semesters, summer sessions

Enrollment (Fall 2006)*
Of the university’s 11,883 students, 5,866 (192 part time) are enrolled in undergraduate degree programs, and 3,263 are enrolled in graduate degree programs. 1,688 are law students. Nondegree programs, certificate programs, Washington Semester, and AU Abroad enroll the remaining 1,066 students.

Enrollment in nonlaw degree programs by academic division:

Undergraduate

Graduate

College of Arts and Sciences

1,591

1,099

Kogod School of Business

825

413

School of Communication

791

337

School of International Service

1,485

896

School of Public Affairs

1,174

518

Washington College of Law has 1,688 students enrolled, with 1,483 in the JD program, 159 in the LLM program, 15 in the SJD program, 18 in certificate programs, and 13 in nondegree programs.

Student/Faculty Ratio - (Academic Year 06-07) 14:1

Number of Faculty - (Fall 2006) 596 full-time faculty with 518 in full-time teaching positions (95% of these faculty hold a doctoral degree or the highest degree in their field); 426 adjunct faculty

Freshman Profile (Fall 2006)
Average unweighted high school GPA: 3.54
Male/female ratio: 34/66
Middle 50% SAT I: 1180-1360
Middle 50% ACT: 25-30

Financial Aid - Approximately 67 percent of students receive some form of financial aid.

Degree Programs (Excluding tracks, concentrations, and specializations)
AU offers 55 bachelor’s programs; 46 master’s programs; 8 doctoral programs; and the JD, LLM and SJD programs. Certificate programs and an associate degree program are offered as well.

Special Programs

Career Center Advising support and specialized programs for internships, co-ops, off campus federal work study, career preparation, nationally competitive merit awards, graduate school, pre-med and pre-law advising, and comprehensive career services at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students and employers use an on-line system - AU CareerWeb - to access internships and jobs as well as job fairs and campus interviews.
Washington Semester Program One semester undergraduate programs focusing on American politics, economic policy, foreign policy, international business and trade, international environment and development, journalism, justice, law enforcement; public law, peace and conflict resolution, and transforming communities. Summer internships in Washington.
AU Abroad More than 850 AU students annually study abroad on programs offered by AU Abroad and other areas within the University. Undergraduates select from more than 100 study abroad programs which span diverse cultures and languages on all continents. Students may study in any subject area, for a year, semester or summer. Intensive language study and/or internships are offered at many sites.
Abroad at AU International students have the unique opportunity to attend American University for a year or a semester and become fully integrated into the academic, social and cultural life of the university and to participate in internships at businesses, NGOs, government agencies and multilateral institutions in the Washington DC area

Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area - American University participates in a program through which students at member institutions may take courses not offered by their home institution at any of the other consortium member schools.

Campus Life
The Office of Campus Life integrates students into a diverse university community; promotes their intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual development; and, in collaboration with the faculty, prepares them for lifelong learning and global citizenship.

Cocurricular Activities
Students may participate in student government, residence hall government, student media (print, radio, and TV), any of more than 160 clubs and organizations, 10 fraternities and 11 sororities, and varsity, recreational, and intramural sports.

Residence Halls
Six residence halls on the main campus accommodate 2,800 students. The Park Bethesda apartment building, two miles from campus is available to graduate, law, and undergraduate students. Three residence halls on the Tenley Campus provide housing for 496 students in the Washington Semester and Washington Mentorship programs.

Facilities
The 76-acre main campus and 8-acre Tenley satellite campus are within one mile of each other. The Washington College of Law is on Massachusetts Avenue, a half mile from the main campus. University facilities include administrative and academic buildings; residence hall housing for about 3,300 students; an interdenominational religious center; specialized natural science facilities; a computing center open 24 hours a day, plus 13 computer laboratories around campus; two electronic auditoriums (one includes video conferencing capabilities); numerous classrooms with the latest in multimedia presentation capability; radio and TV studios; recital halls; and a comprehensive, multipurpose sports and convocation center.

Arts
American University’s Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen, brings all the visual and performing arts programs at AU into one 130,000-square-foot space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, the Katzen includes the three-story American University Museum, the Abramson Family Recital Hall, the Studio Theatre and Dance Studio, an electronics studio, practice rooms, rehearsal space and classrooms.

The American University Museum is a three-story, 30,000 square-foot public museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s permanent collection highlights the donors’ holdings and AU’s Watkins collection of mostly postwar American art. Rotating exhibitions emphasize regional, national and international contemporary art.

American University’s Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre is a showcase to the university’s commitment to performing arts. It is a state-of-the art 300 seat-theatre allowing students the opportunity to perform in a top-quality setting, thereby enriching the program, the university and the Washington, DC community.

University Library
The University Library includes the main facility housed in the Jack I. and Dorothy G. Bender Library and Learning Resources Center, Music Library in the Katzen Arts Center, and the Anderson Computing Complex. The library has a collection of over one million volumes in print and electronic formats. The library subscribes to more than 180 online databases, which provide subject and in many cases full-text access to information. The library’s journals number 17,250 titles in all formats. Media collections comprise 11,000 films and videos, 37,000 sound recordings, and 13,000 musical scores.

Primary access to the collections is through ALADIN, the Web site for the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC). American University students and faculty may borrow materials from all eight members of WRLC. Additional library resources may be accessed through the AU Library Web site.

The library makes available 100 public access computers, 30 circulating laptops, and offers 116 dataports and wireless connectivity for those who bring their own laptops. The library's circulating laptops may be borrowed from the Copy Center desk for use in the Bender building. The Anderson computing complex located on the lower level of Anderson residence hall offers 155 computers and five classrooms. From the Copy Center desk, users may borrow laptop computers for use in the Bender building.

The library’s Special Collections houses rare materials, such as books, manuscripts, and personal papers. Among the more important holdings are the Artemas Martin collection of mathematical texts, the Charles Nelson Spinks collection of artistic and historical works of Japan, the Irwin M. Heine collection of literary works, and Christopher Johnson collection of William Faulkner books. Playbills form a significant set of the collections, with the James Carroll and Iris Lipkowitz collections most notable among them. Other significant collections include the John R. Hickman collection, the records of the National Peace Corps Association, the Friends of Colombia Archives, the records of the National Commission on the Public Service, and the records of Women Strike for Peace. The University Archives reside in the library.

Pence Law Library
The Pence Law Library holds more than 550,000 volumes, including more than 6,700 serial subscriptions. There is access to databases through Lexis-Nexis,Westlaw, Hein On-Line, World Cat, and many Internet database resources. All these holdings and databases can be searched through the Law Library’s catalog, LEAGLE. The library has recently added access to their Electronic titles through TD Net and offers services to faculty including SSRN and ExpressO. The Web site and catalog also provide links to the Web sites and catalogs of thousands of other libraries worldwide, including the Library of Congress, the libraries of all members of the Washington Research Library Consortium and the libraries of all other area law schools.

The Law Library’s special collections include depositories of U.S. and European Union documents; the Goodman Collection of Rare Law Books; the Richard Baxter Collection in International Law; a collection of litigation documents, including transcripts from the Iran Contra Controversy of the late 1980s; the archives of the former National Bankruptcy Review Commission; and the only existing complete archive of the former Administrative Conference of the United States.

A new special collection of legal fiction containing over 1400 titles was also recently added. The Pence Law Library is partnering with the American University archivist to scan significant Washington College of Law documents. This collection will be fully searchable and internet accessible.

Accreditation
American University is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-662-5606. The Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). American University is recognized as church-related by the University Senate of the United Methodist Church. A number of programs are individually accredited by, or are members of, professional organizations:

The Department of Chemistry at American University is accredited by the American Chemical Society (ACS), a specialized accrediting agency recognized by U.S. Department of Education.

The School of Education at American University is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The School of Education is also accredited by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC), a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (both elementary and secondary).

The music program of the Department of Performing Arts at American University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

The doctoral program in clinical psychology of the Department of Psychology at American University is accredited by the American Psychological Association, a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

The School of Communication at American University is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

The Kogod School of Business at American University is accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

The School of International Service at American University is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Relations.

The School of Public Affairs at American University is accredited by the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, and authorized to accredit master/masters degrees in public affairs and administration. American University's School of Public Affairs is a member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

The Washington College of Law at American University is approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) through ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. American University's Washington College of Law is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

Enrollment in nonlaw degree programs by academic division:
	Undergraduate	Graduate
College of Arts and Sciences	1,591	1,099
Kogod School of Business	825	413
School of Communication	791	337
School of International Service	1,485	896
School of Public Affairs	1,174	518
Washington College of Law has 1,688 students enrolled, with 1,483 in the JD program, 159 in the LLM program, 15 in the SJD program, 18 in certificate programs, and 13 in nondegree programs.