page_title: University of Montana
section_title: Campus
hierarchical_section_title: University of Montana / Campus
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a high quality image of the grizzly statue, University (Main) Hall, and the letter M geoglyph and trail with students between classes near the beginning of the fall 2011 semester.
context_page_description: The University of Montana is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fall of 2018.
  The University of Montana ranks 17th in the nation and fifth among public universities in producing Rhodes Scholars; it has 11 Truman Scholars, 14 Goldwater Scholars, and 40 Udall Scholars to its name.
context_section_description: The original plan of the campus was designed by one of its first professors, Frederich Scheuch, who called for the central oval to be surrounded by immediate and future university buildings. Although Scheuch's plan called for all building entrances to face the center of the Oval, forming a radiating building pattern, buildings were later constructed with three-story in the Renaissance Revival style, with hipped roofs and Spanish green roof tiles.
  The first set of buildings were set up around the oval in 1895. Since that time, various campus plans and architectural styles have been used. Today the campus consists of 220 acres (89 ha) and is bordered to the east by Mount Sentinel and the north by the Clark Fork River. The main campus comprises 64 buildings, including nine residence halls and various athletic venues, including Washington–Grizzly Stadium, a 26,500-seat football stadium and the Adams Center (formerly, Dahlberg Arena), a 7,500-seat multi-purpose arena where the university's basketball teams play.
  Landmarks include:
  The Oval
  A  three-acre (1.2 ha) swath of grass running east to west, marking the traditional center of the university.  Today it is divided into quadrants by two intersecting brick-laid paths, though originally the oval was solid grass and forbidden to be crossed by students. A double row of trees was planted around the oval on Arbor Day 1896, but many of the trees have since died and are in the process of being replanted.  The original gravel driveway that once surrounded the Oval has also been replaced by sidewalk. The original master plan of the university called for all buildings to face the center of the oval, but this plan proved difficult and a new plan was created in 1935.
  On the western extreme of the Oval is a life-sized grizzly bear statue created by ceramic artist and sculptor Rudy Autio in 1969. The bronze statue is 7 feet (2.1 m) in height, weighs 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg), and took a year to create.  Many photographs of the university picture the bear with the Oval, University (Main) Hall, and Mount Sentinel's 'M' in the background.
  The "M" trail
  A ³⁄₄-mile (1.2 km) trail with 13 switchbacks, it ascends 620 vertical feet (190 m), from 3,200 to 3,820 feet (975 to 1,165 m) above sea level, from the university at the base of Mount Sentinel. The trail offers sweeping views of the city below.
  There is debate of when "The 'M'" was first placed on Mount Sentinel. Around 1908, members of the Forestry Club forged a zigzag trail up the mountain and students carried up stones to shape the symbol of the University of Montana. Originally made of whitewashed rocks and only measuring 25 feet (7.6 m) by 25 feet, the very first "M" was poorly constructed and ultimately replaced by a wooden "M" in 1912, which cost $18. That "M," unlike today's "M," stood upright on the face of Mount Sentinel. A larger wooden version of the "M" was built in 1913 and upkeep of the structure was formally charged to each year's freshman class.
  When the large wooden "M" was destroyed by a blizzard in 1915, an even larger version was constructed of whitewashed granite. Once again the freshman class was tasked with annual renovation of the symbol, beginning a new tradition. Each year from then on, University of Montana freshmen made the hike up to the "M" to apply a fresh coat of whitewash and remove any weeds and grass that had grown in and around the structure.
  The annual tradition ended in 1968 when a 125-by-100-foot (38 by 30 m) concrete "M" was built at a cost of $4,328. Behind the decision to replace rock with concrete were maintenance issues; with the coming of the 1960s, UM students exhibited waning enthusiasm for the annual trek up the hill and for annual upkeep of the "M."  Although the annual whitewashing went by the wayside, one tradition that lives on today is the lighting of the "M" during the University's annual Homecoming celebration each fall. Originally lit by a group of students on October 9, 1919 following the fall whitewashing, the event was so popular that students have continued to light the "M" each year
caption: Symbols of the university
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