It ordered the sale of 6,000 acres (24 km2) of South Central Kentucky land to underwrite construction, joined on April 3, 1798, by eight community leaders who began local fundraising for what was then known as the Jefferson Seminary.

[16] Despite the Jefferson Seminary's early success, pressure from newly established public schools and media critiques of it as "elitist" would force its closure in 1829.

[18][20] The university experienced rapid growth in the 20th century, adding new schools in the liberal arts (1907), graduate studies (1915), dentistry (1918), engineering (1925), music (1932) and social work (1936).

The school had attempted to purchase a campus donated by the Belknap family in The Highlands area in 1917 (where Bellarmine University is currently located), but a citywide tax increase to pay for it was voted down.

After several years of heated debate, the university joined the state system in 1970, a move largely orchestrated by then Kentucky governor and UofL alumnus Louie Nunn.

Several programs were threatened with losing accreditation due to a lack of funding, although schools of nursing (1979) and urban & public affairs (1983) were added.

Academically, Louisville moved closer to parity with the state's flagship University of Kentucky as retention rates and research funding increased, and average GPAs and ACT scores were much higher for incoming freshmen.

[citation needed] On June 17, 2016, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin announced that the entire board of trustees of the university would be immediately disbanded and replaced, and that Ramsey would be stepping down.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) suspended the head coach of the men's basketball team, Rick Pitino, for five games after an investigation revealed that a university employee paid escorts to strip and have sex with players and recruits.

It houses seven of the 12 academic colleges and features one of the casts of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker in front of the main administrative building, Grawemeyer Hall.

[35] The Belknap Campus has expanded greatly in recent years, with land housing abandoned factories in the area being purchased and redeveloped.

[37] Other points of interest on the Belknap Campus include the Rauch Planetarium;[38] the Covi Gallery of the Hite Art Institute, named for the painter Marcia Hite and her husband Allen;[39] and the final resting place for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis and his wife Alice, under the portico in the Brandeis Law School.

It serves as the centerpiece of a Signature Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, designed to stimulate economic growth in an area around the university's Belknap campus.

Several important projects under construction or planned at that time included a new student recreation center, soccer stadium, new residence halls and academic buildings.

Furthermore, the reconstruction of the I-65 ramps to the Belknap Campus, converting the four lanes of Eastern Parkway into a two-lane road with bike lanes and a landscaped median to improve pedestrian access to the Speed School, the moving of several university offices to allow the existing facilities at Arthur Street and Brandeis Avenue to be converted to commercial property and restaurants.

The $37.5 million Student Recreation Center, located on the Fourth Street corridor along the western border of campus, opened in October 2013.

Several athletic facilities are being renovated, and the new $8 million academic center will be located beneath the Norton Terrace at the south end of Cardinal Stadium.

The project will add a 2,380 square foot fan terrace wrapping around the back of the stadium, as well as a new press box that will more than double its current size.

[41][needs update] An important project adjacent to the Downtown Health Sciences Campus was the conversion of the Clarksdale Housing Complex into a new mixed income development called Liberty Green.

It currently only has three buildings which are used for night classes and seminars, although construction of a $34.6-million Center for Predictive Medicine, a Level 3 biosafety facility, is in the works.

The roadway improvements began in August 2008, with work on a new four-lane boulevard through the campus, bordered by bike lanes and sidewalks, and heavily landscaped.

The LEED-certified, 125,000-square-foot office building is 80 percent leased and serves as corporate headquarters to Churchill Downs, NTS, Semonin Realtors and Stifel Nicolaus.

This program offers reimbursement for $65 of book costs for each class, and awards bonus checks to students in good standing at the end of each semester and upon reaching certain credit hour milestones.

The four-story building finished an expansion in March 2006, which increased its total size to 290,000 square feet (27,000 m2) and shelving capacity to over 1.3 million books.

[92] The university claims as alumni a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Theatre (Marsha Norman, BFA 1969), a 10-time NFL pro-bowler (Johnny Unitas), the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner (Lamar Jackson), a Majority Leader of the United States Senate (Mitch McConnell, BA 1964), the first female director of the CIA (Gina Haspel, BA 1978), the former Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (Chang-Lin Tien, MEng 1983) and many others including governors, senators, mayors, US Attorneys and CEOs.

The university is a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) since the 2014–15 academic year.

For the 2015–16 season, the men's basketball team held a self-imposed postseason ban due to a sex scandal involving recruits and former players.

In December 2008 the Cardinals broke the Big East paid attendance record when 17,000 fans filled Freedom Hall to watch the Cards defeat rival Kentucky, and later that season advanced to the NCAA championship game, losing to Connecticut.

Center with over 22,000 fans, including an estimated 1,500 Native Americans from 40 states, for the final scheduled home game of the graduating Schimmel.

Other Louisville teams with recent post season success includes track and field (two individual national championships), volleyball (consecutive Sweet 16 appearances and a three-peat as Big East Tournament Champions from 2008 to 2010, and Atlantic Coast Conference Champions in 2015) and baseball (two College World Series appearances and consecutive Big East conference titles).