page_title: University of Kentucky
section_title: Contemporary history
hierarchical_section_title: University of Kentucky / History / Contemporary history
caption_attribution_description: English: A section of the Engineering Quadrangle, located near the Anderson Tower at the University of Kentucky.
context_page_description: The University of Kentucky is a public research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's two land-grant universities and the institution with the highest enrollment in the state, with 30,545 students as of fall 2019.
  The institution comprises 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and four professional programs. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, Kentucky spent $393 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 63rd in the nation.
  The University of Kentucky has fifteen libraries on campus. The largest is the William T. Young Library, a federal depository, hosting subjects related to social sciences, humanities, and life sciences collections. In recent years, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1997.
context_section_description: In 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly reorganized the community college system, withdrawing the university's jurisdiction from all but the Lexington Community College. The other colleges were merged with the Kentucky Technical College system and were placed under a separate board of control.
  On April 3, 1998, work began on the William T. Young Library, which was the largest university project at the time of completion. The six-level William T. Young Library was constructed on south campus and the largest book endowment among all public university libraries in the country. William T. Young got his fortune from selling his peanut butter company to Procter & Gamble in 1955. Nine years after the completion of the William T. Young Library, on April 13, 2007, an entire city block of neighborhood homes were demolished and ground was broken for the Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building, the largest academic building in the state of Kentucky, and one of the largest in the United States.
  The Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building complements the adjacent Biomedical Biological Science Research Building, and is expected to be part of the new university research campus. Other recent announcements include the construction of the new $450 million Albert B. Chandler Hospital, which will was one of the largest projects in the state's history in terms of size and economic impact.
  In 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly formed a compact with the university. The Top 20 Plan mandates that the University of Kentucky becomes a Top 20 public research university by 2020. According to the compact, states with "Top 20" universities feature higher average household incomes, higher education attainments, healthier lives and more financial security. As a result, fewer citizens live in poverty and as a result, fewer public dollars are spent on health care. The plan would also spur technological advancements due to university-based research and increase the marketability of the state to investors.
  As part of the "Top 20" plan, the university stated that it plans to,
  Increase enrollment by 7,000 students to 34,000;
  Increase the state's highest graduation rate by 12% to 72%;
  Increase the number of faculty by 625 to total 2,500;
  Increase research expenditures by $470 million to total $768 million per year; and
  Increase the university's role in Kentucky's "schools, farms, businesses and communities."
  The "Top 20" plan has produced some results,
  Total enrollment increased from 24,061 in 1996 to 26,440 in 2004, an increase of 2,379.
  The six-year graduation rate increased from 59.5 percent in 1998 to 61.2 percent in 2007.
  Research expenditures increased from $124.8 million in 1996 to $297.6 million in 2003. It dipped slightly to $274 million for 2005. It is currently ranked 28th among public universities in sponsored research.
  Endowment increased from $195.1 million in 1997 to $538.4 million in 2005.
  In 2000, to help finance the "Top 20" plan, the university launched "The Campaign for the University of Kentucky", a $600 million fundraising effort that was used to "enhance facilities, academic programs, public service, and scholarships." It passed that goal and the effort was raised to $1 billion. In March 2007, $1.022 billion was raised, months before the fundraising effort was set to end.
  According to the Statewide Facilities Condition Assessment Report released on April 4, 2007, the university needs $12.5 billion to complete the 1997 mandate to become a "Top 20" institution.
  As of 2019, The University of Kentucky has an endowment of 1.407 billion. Prior endowments were 831.8 in 2007, $538.4 million in 2005, and $195.1 million in 1997, the rapid increases partially attributed to the "Top 20" Plan. Currently, the William T. Young Library book endowment is the largest among public universities in the United States.
  In 2018, the new Gatton Student Center was opened on North Campus. The $200 million, 378,000-square-foot facility contains a cinema, a dining facility, several chain restaurants, ballrooms, the UK Bookstore, the renovated UK Federal Credit 
caption: The engineering plaza.
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