[16][2] Florida State University maintains 17 colleges, as well as 58 centers, facilities, labs, institutes, and professional training programs.

[26][27] FSU's intercollegiate sports teams, known by their "Florida State Seminoles" nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

In a supplementary act to the law granting admission, Congress authorized two townships to host seminaries, one east and one west of the Suwannee River.

It was the first state women's college in the South to be awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, as well as the first university in Florida so honored.

[67] The post-war years brought substantial growth and development to the university as many departments and colleges were added, including Business, Journalism (discontinued in 1959), Library Science, Nursing, and Social Welfare.

[77] During the 1960s and 1970s Florida State University became a center for student activism especially in the areas of racial integration, women's rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War.

[95] The shared goal of having top national universities in Florida is highly political, often centering on the use of the term "flagship," a poorly defined and frequently inflammatory informal title.

[101] The Westcott location is the oldest continuously used site of higher education in Florida and is the home of Ruby Diamond Concert Hall which serves as the university's primary performance venue.

[102][103][104] Historic student housing residence halls include Broward, Bryan, Cawthon, Gilchrist, Jennie Murphree, Landis, and Reynolds and are located on the older eastern half of campus.

[100] The College of Medicine, King Life Science buildings (biology) as well as the Department of Psychology are located on the west end of campus on Call Street and Stadium Drive.

[100] The FSU Research Foundation buildings, as well as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, are located on the Southwest Campus in Innovation Park.

[173] Fitch's Analytical Conclusion states: As a comprehensive flagship university, FSU has a statewide and even national draw for students and has considerable fundraising capabilities.

[208] Florida State is ranked the 16th best doctorate-granting university in the US for the highest amount of African American doctorate recipients by the National Science Foundation.

[218] In total, Florida State has fifteen libraries and millions of books and journals to choose from, including a strong statewide UBorrow system.

[220] The collection covers virtually all disciplines and includes a wide array of formats – from books and journals to manuscripts, maps, and recorded music.

[225] The Claude Pepper Center on campus is located in what was originally the Florida State College for Women Library, which served as studios for WFSU-TV in past years.

[260] The High Energy Physics program at Florida State was established in 1950 and collaborates with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (also known as Fermilab), near Chicago, IL, and with CERN, the European Center of Nuclear Research located near Geneva, Switzerland.

[265] The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University-FSU College of Engineering is a partnership between an HBCU, a public Research 1 University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

[272] Florida State University provides 6,387 undergraduate and graduate students with housing as well as living–Learning Communities (LLC) on the main campus.

Intramural sports include flag football, basketball, recreational soccer, volleyball, sand volleyball, softball, swimming, kickball, mini golf, team bowling, tennis, ultimate frisbee, wiffle ball, dodge ball, battleship, college pick em, innertube water polo, kan jam, spikeball, and wallyball.

[316] The campus newspaper, the FSView & Florida Flambeau, publishes weekly during the summer and semiweekly on Mondays and Thursdays during the school year following the academic calendar.

[317] The FSView & Florida Flambeau is owned by Gannett Co, Inc.[318] The English Department publishes a literary journal, The Southeast Review, founded in 1979 as Sundog.

[323] The men's program consists of baseball, basketball, cross country running, football, golf, swimming, tennis, and track & field.

The women's program consists of basketball, cross country running, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.

By presidential directive the complex was named in honor of Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott Speicher, a graduate of Florida State University and the first American casualty during Operation Desert Storm.

[332] The Florida State Seminoles football program has played in 49 bowl games, won three consensus national championships, sixteen Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championships, six ACC division titles, produced 218 All-Americans, 47 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices, and three Heisman Trophy winners.

Individual runners-up were Walter Dix in the 100 m, Ricardo Chambers in the 400 m, and Tom Lancashire in the 1500 m. Others scoring points in the National Championship were Michael Ray Garvin in the 200 m (8th), Andrew Lemoncello in the 3000 m steeplechase (4th), Raqeef Curry in the long jump (6th), and Garrett Johnson in the discus (5th).

[347] In 2007, FSU won its second straight men's Track & Field NCAA National Championship when Dix became the first person to hold the individual title in the 100 m and 200 m.[348][349] Florida State University currently employs 2,727 faculty members and over 3,920 staff.

[352][353] Robert A. Holton, a professor of chemistry at Florida State, developed the first total synthesis of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel, which had previously been obtainable only from the bark of the Pacific yew tree.

Senators and Representatives, state governors, Rhodes Scholars, scientists, medical doctors, inventors, philanthropists, musicians, athletes, artists, accountants, military members, activists, first responders and many others.