The University of Florida (commonly referred to as Florida or UF) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in North Central Florida. Howard and Matthew Greene recognized Florida as a Public Ivy in 2001, a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivies. In 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the fourteenth best public university in the United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906. The University of Florida is an elected member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the association of preeminent North American research universities. The University is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Florida Governor Rick Scott and the state Legislature designated the University of Florida as one of two “preeminent” state universities in the spring of 2013. It is the third largest Florida university by student population, and is the eighth largest single-campus university in the United States with 49,913 students enrolled for the fall 2012 semester. The University of Florida is home to sixteen academic colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. It offers multiple graduate professional programs—including business administration, engineering, law, dentistry, medicine, and veterinary medicine—on one contiguous campus, and administers 123 master’s degree programs and seventy-six doctoral degree programs in eighty-seven schools and departments. The University of Florida’s intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their “Florida Gators” nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In their 108-year history, the university’s varsity sports teams have won thirty-three national team championships, twenty-eight of which are NCAA titles, and Gator athletes have won 267 individual national championships.