Alfred University

Alfred University

The Steinheim Building (“the castle”) houses the Career Development Center.
Motto	Fiat Lux (Latin)
Motto in English	"Let there be Light"
Type	Private, and statutory college
Established	1836
Endowment	$107.8 million
President	Mark Zupan
Academic staff	164
Students	2,300
Undergraduates	approx. 2,000
Postgraduates	approx. 300
Location	Alfred, NY, United States 42°15′20″N 77°47′15.1″W / 42.25556°N 77.787528°W / 42.25556; -77.787528Coordinates: 42°15′20″N 77°47′15.1″W / 42.25556°N 77.787528°W / 42.25556; -77.787528
Campus	Rural, 232 acres (0.9 km²), plus another 400 acres (1.6 km2) of nearby recreational land
Colors	Purple and Gold
Athletics	22 teams
Mascot	Saxon
Website	www.alfred.edu

Alfred University is a small, comprehensive university in the Village of Alfred, Allegany County in Western New York, USA, south of Rochester and southeast of Buffalo. Alfred has an undergraduate population of around 2,000, and approximately 300 graduate students. The institution has five schools and colleges.

Alfred was founded in 1836 as the Select School by Seventh Day Baptists as a non-sectarian institution. Unusual for the time, the school was co-educational. It was also racially integrated, and enrolled its first African-American student and two Native American students in the 1850s, becoming the second college in the nation after Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, to do so.

The origin of the name "Alfred" is uncertain. Residents of the town and students at the two schools believe that the town received its name in honor of Alfred the Great, king of the Saxons, although the first documented occurrence of this connection was in 1881, 73 years after the first record of the name being used to describe the geophysical area during assignments by the state legislature. State records which might have verified the connection between the Saxon king and the university were lost in a fire in 1911. Regardless of whether the connection is historically accurate, Alfred University has embraced King Alfred as a symbol of the school's values, and a statue of the king stands in the center of the campus quad.

Since its founding, Alfred University has hosted guest lecturers, artists and musicians from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Ghostface Killah. In April 2000, Alfred University received national attention when freshman, Eric Zuckerman, orchestrated a campus visit from then First Lady, Hillary Clinton, during her campaign for the United States Senate.