The University of Florida (UF) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) campus in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906. The University is classified as a Research I university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is reported that 68 percent of its undergraduates leave UF with either professional or graduate degrees, which ranks 4th among all public universities in the United States.
As one of seventeen state universities established under the Morrill Act signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, the mission of UF was outlined in the Act:
“To promote liberal and practical education in useful arts and sciences…and shall especially provide for teaching agricultural and mechanic arts.” These lands are now part of 41 counties across Florida; while most are used as working farms producing cattle, timber and crops such as cotton, soybeans and sugar cane, some have been set aside for conservation or other uses.