ACADEMICS
 LSU was founded by the Louisiana General Assembly in 1853, with the first session beginning January 2, 1860.
 LSU is a land-grant and a sea-grant institution.
 LSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
 LSU includes 9 senior colleges and 3 schools, in addition to specialized centers, divisions, institutes, and offices.
 LSU's enrollment is more than 30,000 students, including more than 1,700 international students and about 5,000 graduate students.
 LSU has about 1,300 full-time faculty members and a staff of more than 3,000.
 LSU Libraries contain more than 2.9 million volumes.
 The School of the Coast and Environment (formerly CCEER) was designated as the first Coastal Marine Institute by the Minerals Management
 Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.



ATHLETICS
 LSU's mascot, Mike V, is a Royal Bengal Tiger.
 "Hey, Fightin' Tigers," which became an LSU song in the early 1960s, was originally the opener "Hey, Look Me Over" for Emmy & Tony award-winning composer Cy Coleman's musical Wildcat, starring Lucille Ball. LSU won exclusive rights to the music and changed the lyrics.



CAMPUS
 The University moved to its present location in 1926, the fourth move since its inception in 1860.
 Theodore C. Link was chosen to create the original campus master plan. Although he died before the plan was completed, his designs define the Italian Renaissance character of the campus, which is marked by red pantile roofs, overhanging eaves, and honey-colored stucco.
 New Orleans architects Wogan and Bernard completed Theodore Link's in-progress work and designed some of the buildings Link had proposed.
 The campus was dedicated on April 30, 1926.
 When Huey P. Long was elected governor in 1928, he launched a major building program that continued through the 1930s.
 During the 1930s, many of LSU's live oaks and magnolia trees were planted by landscape artist the late Steele Burden. The live oak trees on LSU's campus have been valued at $36 million. Through the LSU Foundation's "Endow an Oak" program, individuals or groups are able to endow live oaks across campus.
 In the 1970s, azaleas, crepe myrtles, ligustrum, and camelias were planted in the quadrangle, and sidewalks were added.
 Since the 1930s, more than 200 principal buildings have been constructed and others are currently under way.
 Forty-six buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the campus is protected by the State Capital Historic District legislation.
 LSU is located on more than 2,000 acres of land in the southern part of Baton Rouge, bordered on the west by the Mississippi River.
 The University's more than 250 principal buildings are grouped on a 650-acre plateau, which constitutes the main part of campus.
 LSU's landscaping was called "a botanical joy" in its listing among the 20 best campuses in America in Thomas Gaines's The Campus as a Work of Art.



LITERARY TRADITIONS
 LSU is the home of The Southern Review, one of the world's most prestigious literary journals, established in the 1930s by Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and Charles Pipkin.



ALUMNI
 Jimmy Andrews, M.D., founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute
 Elizabeth Ashley, actress
 John Ed Bradley, novelist
 Donna Brazil, an author, educator, and political activist and strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party
 John Breaux, former U.S. Senator
 Kenneth Brown, host of HGTV's show "ReDesign"
 Bill Conti, Academy Award-winning Hollywood composer
 Lodwrick M. Cook,co-chairman of the Board of Global Crossing Inc.
 Carlos Roberto Flores, former president of Honduras
 M.J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., former governor of the state of Louisiana
 Julie Giroux, Emmy Award-winning composer
 Reinosuke Hara, vice chairman of the Board of Seiko Instruments, Inc.
 Mary Landrieu, U.S. Senator
 Harry J. Longwell, Sr., vice-president of ExxonMobil U.S.A.
 Shaquille O'Neal, center for the Miami Heat
 Rex Reed, New York author and film critic
 Dolores Spikes, president of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore
 Joanne Woodward, Academy Award-winning actress
 Seven LSU petroleum engineering alumni are heads of major oil companies.