Chartered in 1851, seven years ahead of Minnesota's statehood, the University of Minnesota is one of the oldest public universities west of the Mississippi. The Minneapolis campus straddles the Mississippi River — the main campus on the east bank, the West Bank campus housing the arts and social sciences on the other side. The university enrolls over 50,000 students and is one of the largest in the country by enrollment, a genuine research powerhouse in medicine, engineering, agriculture, and the natural sciences.
The Mayo Clinic was founded by U of M graduates. The electronic retailing, heart surgery, and the discovery of cortisone all have roots in University of Minnesota research. Northrop Auditorium, the building with the classical colonnade visible on the mall, has hosted everyone from Jascha Heifetz to Martin Luther King Jr. The campus itself is architecturally mixed — some beautiful collegiate Gothic buildings from the early twentieth century, some brutalist disasters from the 1960s, some genuinely excellent contemporary buildings.
The light rail runs through campus on Washington Avenue, making it actually accessible from downtown and the airport. On game day, when the Gophers play football at TCF Bank Stadium, this entire neighborhood transforms.