title: Lauren Jackson

text: A hamstring surgery forced Jackson out of the 2013 season, and she also missed the 2014 season after operating both her right knee and left Achilles in February. The final year of her Storm contract was suspended in 2013 and dissolved under the new collective-bargaining agreement signed in 2014, but Seattle still retained Jackson's rights. During her 2014 recovery, Jackson expressed interest in returning to Seattle in 2015, saying that despite so much time sidelined by injury, "I've just had too good of a career there to let that fall by the wayside." However, these hopes of returning to the WNBA and the Storm for the 2015 season were sidelined when Jackson had further surgery on her right knee in the spring of 2015. Her attentions turned to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, in November 2015, Jackson announced that her rehabilitation had suffered a setback that would keep her from practising until January 2016. Upon taking the court again, she stated she would decide in February 2016 if she would participate in what would be her fifth Olympic games or retire from the sport. Her retirement was announced one month later.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) was founded the year Jackson was born. Between 1998 and 2008, she played a total of 154 WNBL games, winning one championship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and four more with the Canberra Capitals.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was offered a scholarship with the AIS in 1996, when she was just 15, but her parents said no to this, as it required her to move from Albury to Canberra. The next year, she accepted a scholarship. The programme considers her one of its success stories. With Jackson leading a side composed of the best 16- to 17-year-old development players in the country, the Australian Institute of Sport WNBL team won the WNBL Championship.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson joined the Canberra Capitals for the 1999 season when she turned 18, and played with the team off and on until 2006. While with the team, she won four WNBL championships. In 1999/2000, the Canberra Capitals who won the league championship in a finals match against Adelaide where they had a final score of 67–50.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: She played for the Canberra Capitals for the 2002/2003 season. In a November game in Penrith with a temperature of against the Sydney Flames, 500 people largely showed up to watch her play. This season, she was coached by Carrie Graf. In the Penrith game, she scored 9 of the Capital's first 13 points. She finished the game with 29 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks, with her team winning 79–67. In a December 2002 against the Australian Institute of Sport, she scored 33 points. After home games in Canberra, Jackson would hang out with her teammates at Tilley's Devine Cafe.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: In a December 2002 game against the Townsville Fire in Townsville was moved to the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre, which seated 5,000 people instead of at the Fire's normal 800-seat stadium, because it was felt Jackson would draw that large a crowd. She did, with 4,110 people showing up to the game and setting a regular season attendance record for the Fire. Canberra lost the match, with Townsville figuring a way to contain Jackson, limiting her to 23 points, which was six below her average of 29 points per game so far in that the season. At the time, the attendance was the best ever for a regular season WNBL game, with only two Grand Finals games in the post season having more people in attendance.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: In the 2002/2003 season, she was one of only three players who were taller than . She played with the Capitals in the Women's World Cup 2003 where she averaged 30.6 points per game and 11.4 rebounds. She also won the WNBL Grand Final as a member of the Capitals, and was named the Most Valuable Player in the Grand Finals match. During the 2003/2004 season, she scored 48 points in a single October 2003 game. This was her highest individual game point total at the time and is her single highest WNBL point scoring game.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson returned to the Capitals for the last half of the 2009/2010 season. The Capitals started an effort to re-sign Jackson, and in March 2011, she signed a contract for a million dollars to play in the WNBL. This was the most an Australian woman had ever been offered to play for a domestic side in the country, with most of the top women earning only $50,000 a year. Despite returning to Australia and being present at every Capitals game, injuries prevented Jackson from playing in the 2012–13 NBDL season. For the 2013–14 season, the Capitals missed the deadline date to sign Jackson and led her to play in China instead. Jackson was signed for the Capitals' next two seasons, and expected to join the team in November 2014, after recovering from a hip surgery she went through in September. Jackson's return happened in 19 December against the Adelaide Lightning. Jackson managed to play five more games in the 2014–15 WNBL season, losing only one as she averaged 13 points and seven rebounds. Still her physical ailments prevented Jackson from training with her teammates, and requiring weekly drainings of synovial fluid out of her knee. During a double-header road trip in Victoria, Jackson's knee gave in. A subsequent MRI scan showed further damage to her knee that required new surgeries, forcing Jackson to sit out the rest of the season. The Capitals released Jackson from her contract in January 2016.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: After missing the 2013 WNBA season and with a deal with Canberra Capitals falling through, in September 2013 Jackson signed with the Heilongjiang Shenda of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association. She helped Heilongjiang qualify to the playoffs with an average of 22 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, but a heel injury made Jackson lose the post-season. Another injury during the season, where Jackson "pulled my meniscus out of the root of my bone" was not deemed too grave at the time, but the knee problems would escalate during the following years.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson made the Australian under-20 team when she was only 14 years old. She was first called up to the senior national team when she was 16 years old. Her national team coaches Tom Maher and Carrie Graf say positive things about Jackson to the press and others but they rarely have said those things to Jackson. This is a strategy designed to help motivate Jackson to play better. Tom Maher who was the coach her called her up said "She's so good she could be the greatest sportswoman in the world. She's that extraordinary." Graf has described Jackson as one of the superstars of the game.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was a member of the 1997 Australian Junior Women's Team that won a silver medal at the World Championships in Brazil. At the time, she was 16 years old. She averaged 14.3 points per game and 9.9 rebounds per game. She was also a member of the 1998 Australian Senior Women's Team that won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Germany. At the time, she was 16 years old and the youngest Australian woman ever to be named to the team. In the tournament, she averaged 10.9 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per game. She was a key part of the team's success. She was coached in the tournament by Tom Maher. She came off the bench to play.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: In the Olympic test tournament in the lead up to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Jackson scored 18 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. She was a member of the 2000 Summer Olympics team that won a silver medal. At the 2000 Games, she scored 127 total points, had 23 total blocked shots, 12 steals and 67 rebounds. She averaged 15.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. In the 76–54 loss in the gold medal game, she scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds. She led the team in points scored and total rebounds. Going into the Olympics, her team was ranked third in the world. At the Sydney Games, she was coached by Tom Maher. The gold medal final was against the United States.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was a member of the Australian Senior Women's Team that won a silver medal in the World Championships in China in 2002. She averaged 23.1 points a game in the competition and was named to the All-Star team for the tournament. She averaged 5.4 rebounds per game. In a semi-final match against the United States, Jackson fouled Lisa Leslie three times in the first six minutes of the game. The team lost while Jackson spent most of the time on the bench. By January 2003, Jackson had played over 100 games with Australia's senior side. She competed in the 2003 World Championships and was named the International Basketball Federation's Most Valuable Player. At the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament for Women 2004, she averaged 22.7 points and 14.0 rebounds per game.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was a member of the Australian senior team that won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she averaged 22.9 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. The gold medal final was against the United States. In 2006, she was a co-captain with Jenny Whittle of the Australian women's senior team that won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. She played in the preliminary final against the Mozambique women's national basketball team, and the gold deal match against New Zealand. Jackson was the captain of the Australian women's senior team that won a gold medal at the World Championships in Brazil in 2006 that beat Russia in the Gold Medal match. This was the first time Australia had ever earned gold in the event. Jackson averaged 21.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. While the national team is called The Opals, Jackson asked Basketball Australia if they were to make rings for team members in honour of their win, if they would use diamonds instead of opals.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: As captain of the 2008 Summer Olympics Australian women's team that won a silver medal at the Olympics, Jackson averaged 17.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. In the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament for Women 2008, Jackson averaged 20.3 points per game and 5.0 rebounds per game. In 2010, she was a member of the senior women's national team that competed at the World Championships in the Czech Republic. She averaged 13.4 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson missed the first training camp for the 2012 Summer Olympics squad in March, but was back by April to train with the team. In June, Jackson tore her adductor magnus muscle during the Australian training camp in the Czech Republic. She was one of the models for the 2012 Australian Olympic team uniforms, and chosen to carry the Australian Flag during the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games. The hamstring injury prevented Jackson from getting much play during the Olympic tournament, having only had significant court time in the matches against USA and the bronze medal play-off with Russia.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: After flying to Australia in February 2014 to operate on her heel and knee, Jackson committed to return to the Opals in time for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women. However, the delayed recovery of Jackson's knee led her to give up on the tournament to have her right hip operated on to fix a torn labrum in September 2014. She had gotten the tear while playing for Ros Casares Valencia in 2012 but went without surgery to not miss the then-upcoming Olympics. Jackson would later express interest in attending her fifth Olympic tournament during the 2016 Summer Olympics as a way to close her career, while also pursuing her long-standing dream of a gold medal. However, while attending the Opals training camp in Canberra, she announced her retirement saying her conditions were not improved enough and she needed an "absolute miracle" to get into shape.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: In April 2022, Jackson came out of retirement at the age of 40, to play for the Albury Wodonga Bandits in NBL1 East. That August, she was named to the Australia squad for the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, to be held from 22 September–1 October in Sydney. Australia went on to win the bronze medal, with Jackson recording 30 points and 7 rebounds in their victory over Canada.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: After retiring in 2014, Jackson had previously expressed interest in becoming a basketball administrator, saying that "Where I put my time and energy is now crucial. I want to get involved in the political side of sport rather than the media and I need to learn from the people who have been there before." She now heads the women's division of Australian Basketball Alliance, a new trade union for basketballers formed in 2015. A main pursuit of hers is getting tertiary education for all players. In May 2016, Jackson joined the new ownership group of the Melbourne Boomers, being named the team's commercial operations executive. Jackson also served as a colour commentator for Channel Seven's broadcast of the Olympic tournament.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson has a son, Harrison "Harry" Gray Jackson, who was born on 2 February 2017. She released an autobiography, "My Story: A Life in Basketball and Beyond", in October 2018, and while promoting it revealed she was pregnant with her second child.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson has had multiple injuries. In 2008, after the Olympics, she had surgery to fix her ankle. In 2009, she had two stress fractures in her back. In December 2010, she had an Achilles injury. She sustained the injury playing in Australia. Between January 2011 and February 2012, she had surgeries to assist with Achilles and hip injuries. She had surgery on her left hip acetabular labrum in June 2011 in Vail, Colorado at the Richard Steadman Clinic. She said of the surgery: "This is a really, really tough decision, but after talking with my doctors and my family, we felt that immediate surgery is the best course of action. With something painful like this hip injury, I want to be especially proactive. I plan to stay in Seattle to be here with my team and try my best to be back on the court as soon as possible. My goal is to be at full strength by the end of the season." She did rehabilitation twice a day in an attempt to speed her recovery. Afterwards, Jackson injured her right knee, requiring more surgery in 2012. Another knee injury while playing in China in 2014 degraded into arthritis, and her knee required much surgical intervention during the following years, including a long hospitalisation in January 2016 after her knee joint suffered a postsurgical infection. All the consequences of this knee problem led to Jackson's retirement from pro basketball in March 2016.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson has expressed interest in undergoing a knee reconstruction, as "I don't want to walk with a limp for the rest of my life."


title: Lauren Jackson

text: By 2003, Jackson was being recognised around the world from countries like Portugal and Japan. She said of her private life: "I don't really have a private life. I've found it difficult as an athlete, to maintain a relationship. It's not one of my best points but I've got family and friends who compensate for that. When I was younger I went out and had a lot of fun, and there were moments when people criticised me for that, and you know what, I'm young, I'm going to do that, and anyone who is going to get on me for that ... I really didn't care." She does not like to go out to clubs because she gets recognised by too many people, and everyone wants to comment on her height. She partied a fair amount in her early 20s. By 2010, she was not able to stay out at night clubs until 5:30 am any more because she lacked the stamina.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: In response to getting a hug from Yao Ming at the 2008 Summer Olympics during the closing ceremonies, internet rumours started that Jackson and the married Yao were romantically involved. These rumours were incorrect. Jackson said of them: "When we came across this Yao Ming thing it was like, 'Oh...My...God! When I tell you we were in hysterics...because anybody who knows me knows that would be the last thing on my mind. A 7-foot 6 Chinese man? That's just not my thing. I really respect him as a player. And people who know me know I can be wild and over-the-top. I'm affectionate and that night I guess I was affectionate with the wrong person. I guess the Chinese people don't do that stuff very often, so the cultural [differences] was a big thing. But I don't care. You have to laugh about things or you'll be crying, which I would probably have been doing anyway [because of the loss and surgery]. I made the most of my last night at the Olympics and had a great time."


title: Lauren Jackson

text: When people google Jackson, some of the first search results feature her in the nude. Jackson said of this: "Instead of being known for my basketball skills, all of these nudie shots are always the first thing you see." She posed nude in an Australian magazine, "Black+White", that featured Olympic athletes who were set to compete in Athens in the 2004 Summer Olympics. The expensively printed magazine/book has been produced for the last three Olympic Games and, by the 2004 edition, was considered uncontroversial in Australia with its "artistic" approach to nude photography, and its equal coverage of male and female athletes, although it did create a stir in the United States. She also posed for the 2005 edition of the "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue. Of posing nude, she said, "if offered the opportunity, I think that it's a personal decision. Whether you do it for the money or whatever, again, I think it's a personal decision. I don't know whether I would say yes or no. I guess you cross that bridge when you come to it. I don't think it's a bad thing, I'm not against it."


title: Lauren Jackson

text: As Jackson got older, she took on a more activist role, working for domestic violence charities and helping children from Australia's outback get involved in sport. In December 2002, she helped launch the Smith Family Toy Drive at the Canberra Centre with the help of Ainslie school children. She is the patron for the NSW Rape Crisis Centre. She is passionate about preventing domestic abuse. In 2010, she visited young basketball players at Batemans Bay's Moruya Basketball.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was named the Australian International Player of the year in 1999, 2000 and 2002. In 2005, she was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best'. In late 2011, the Albury Sports Stadium was renamed the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre. A thousand people showed up at the renaming ceremony, at which Jackson was the guest of honour.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: She was the flag bearer for Australia at the Summer 2012 London Olympic Games. On 8 June 2015, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours.


title: Lauren Jackson

text: Jackson was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020, the same year in which she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. The following year, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was named to The W25, the WNBA's 25th anniversary team.


title: East Carolina University

text: East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina.


title: East Carolina University

text: Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its original to almost today. The university's academic facilities are located on six properties: Main Campus, Health Sciences Campus, West Research Campus, the Field Station for Coastal Studies in New Holland, North Carolina, the Millennial Research Innovation Campus in Greenville's warehouse district and an overseas campus in Certaldo Alto, Italy. ECU also operates the Coastal Studies Institute. The nine undergraduate colleges, graduate school, and four professional schools are located on these four properties. All of the non-health sciences majors are located on the main campus. The College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences, The Brody School of Medicine, and School of Dental Medicine are located on the health science campus. ECU is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".


title: East Carolina University

text: There are eleven social sororities, 16 social fraternities, four historically black sororities, five historically black fraternities, one Native American fraternity, and one Native American sorority. There are over 400 registered clubs on campus including fraternities and sororities.


title: East Carolina University

text: Public Laws of North Carolina, 1907, Chapter 820 titled "An Act to Stimulate High School Instruction in the Public Schools of the State and Teacher Training" is the official law chartering East Carolina Teachers Training School (ECTTS) on March 8, 1907, by the North Carolina General Assembly. The chairman of its original Board of Trustees, Thomas Jordan Jarvis, a former Governor of North Carolina now known as the "Father of ECU", participated in groundbreaking ceremonies for the first buildings on July 2, 1908, in Greenville, North Carolina, and ECTTS opened its doors on October 5, 1909. Although its purpose was to train "young white men and women", there were no male graduates until 1932. In 1920, ECTTS became a four–year institution and renamed East Carolina Teachers College; its first bachelor's degrees were awarded the following year in education. A master's degree program was authorized in 1929; the first such degree granted by the college was in 1933. Progress toward full college status was made in 1948 with the designation of the Bachelor of Arts as a liberal arts degree, and the Bachelor of Science as a teaching degree. A change of name to East Carolina College in 1951 reflected this expanded mission. Over the objections of Governor Dan K. Moore, who opposed the creation of a university system separate from the Consolidated University of North Carolina, ECC was made a regional university effective July 1, 1967, and assumed its present name, East Carolina University. The university did not remain independent for long; on July 1, 1972, it was incorporated into the University of North Carolina System, the successor to the Consolidated University. Today, ECU is the fourth–largest university in North Carolina with 21,589 undergraduate and 5,797 graduate students, including the 308 medicine and 52 dental students.


title: East Carolina University

text: East Carolina is separated into three distinct campuses: Main Campus, Health Sciences Campus, and West Research Campus. It owns two sports complexes: Blount Recreational Sports Complex and North Recreational Complex. It owns a field station in New Holland, North Carolina.


title: East Carolina University

text: The main campus, also known as the east campus, is about in an urban residential area of downtown Greenville. The 158 buildings on main campus comprise more than 4.6 million square feet (325,000 m) of academic, research, and residential space. Many of the Main Campus buildings feature the Spanish–Mission style architecture; inspiration drawn from Thomas Jarvis' time as an ambassador to Brazil. He wanted to bring the unique architecture to eastern North Carolina. On the main campus, there are five districts: Campus Core, Downtown District, Warehouse District, Athletic fields and the South Academic District. On the Campus Core, there are 15 residence halls which are divided into three separate neighborhoods. The distinct feature of the main campus is the mall, which is a large tree–laden grassy area where many students go to relax. In the middle of the mall is the replica of the cupola on the original Austin building.


title: East Carolina University

text: The varsity athletics fields are located south of the College Hill residential neighborhood. Fourteenth Street divides College Hill to the north, with the athletic fields to the south. Charles Boulevard borders the fields to the west and Greenville Boulevard borders it to the south. A residential neighborhood and Elmhurst Elementary School are the eastern borders. The northern portion of the area sits Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium, Minges Coliseum, and Minges Natatorium, along with parking. The Murphy Center, which is the primary strength and conditioning, and banquet building, is located between Dowdy-Ficklen and Minges Coliseum. The Ward Sports Medicine Building, Scales Field House, and the Pirate Club Building also surround Dowdy-Ficklen. The Ward Sports Medicine Building houses offices for football, Pirate Club, and athletic administration. The Scales Field House provides locker rooms, additional athletic department offices for marketing and event operations, and classroom space for ECU's athletic training program. South of those facilities is the Cliff Moore Practice Facility which has a pair of natural grass fields and one FieldTurf field designed exclusively for the football team. On the southern border of the practice facility is Clark-LeClair Stadium, which is the men's baseball stadium. It opened in 2005 and seats 3,000 in permanent seating with another 2,000 located in the outfield. At the southern end of the fields is the Olympic Sports Complex, which include women's soccer stadium, softball stadium, track and field facility, and Olympic Sports Team building. The Olympic Sports Complex was completed in 2011 with a price of $23.4 million. The Smith-Williams Center is a $17 million basketball development and practice facility, opened in 2013. The football stadium is planning for a $40 million upgrade. The upgrades will include a new press, club, and suite areas, and upper deck, all located on the south side. This addition will increase the capacity from 50,000 to 60,000.


title: East Carolina University

text: East Carolina has spent $92 million on athletic projects from 1998 to 2011. Including the proposed projects, this is increased to $145 million.


title: East Carolina University

text: The Health Sciences campus prepares health care practitioners across a full range of professions, including nurses, dentists, physical therapists, speech therapists, physicians, and more. Many graduates of ECU health sciences remain in the underserved East Carolina region to provide care in the area. It is situated beside Vidant Medical Center (VMC). VMC was originally Pitt County Memorial Hospital. After becoming a private non-profit hospital, the renaming occurred. VMC, an 861–bed flagship Level I Trauma Center, serves as the academic medical center for The Brody School of Medicine. Vidant Health owns VMC, leases or owns six and manages one. The area is about west of Main Campus on with nearly of academic and research space in 62 buildings. Other buildings besides VMC include Brody Medicine Science Building, the East Carolina Heart Institute, Leo Jenkins Cancer Center, and the Allied Health building composed of the College of Nursing, Laupus Medical Library and College of Allied Health Sciences. The Family Medicine Center opened in the fall of 2011. Ross Hall, which houses the School of Dental Medicine, is just under 200,000 square feet.


title: East Carolina University

text: West Research Campus lies on approximately west of the Health Sciences Campus. It consists of four buildings with on the former Voice of America site. Approximately are designated wetlands and large areas of biology, botany and other sciences field study sites. It has an environmental health onsite wastewater demonstration facility which is open to the public and all educators. It is also the home of the North Carolina Institute for Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries with an administrative and several support buildings.


title: East Carolina University

text: The School of Dental Medicine built 8 community service learning centers located in rural and underserved areas throughout the state of North Carolina. The fourth-year students learn and provide care for the community for one year in these community centers. All 8 community centers are currently active. They are located in Ahoskie, Elizabeth City, Lillington, Spruce Pine, Bolivia, Thomasville, Lumberton, and Sylva.


title: East Carolina University

text: The field station is located in New Holland, North Carolina. The area serves as a field station for the coastal studies, coastal resource management, and biology programs. The main goal of the field station is economic development into the region through both environmental education and eco–tourism. It also serves as a facility for small retreats and as a base for research on coastal issues.


title: East Carolina University

text: It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It is adjacent to the Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuge.


title: East Carolina University

text: North Recreational Complex (NRC) is an athletic complex located on a parcel of land north of East Carolina University's main campus. The NRC is one of the Nation's largest recreational complexes. It will augment the Blount Intramural Sports Fields located behind the Carol Belk Building on Charles Boulevard. The first of three phases of the complex opened on September 2, 2008. Phase one includes eight lighted fields, a lake with a beach, walking trails/areas, and a field house. The complex is located near the intersection of the North Carolina Highway 33 and U.S. Route 264.


title: East Carolina University

text: Phase II opened in August 2011, with the grand opening occurring on September 15, 2011. This phase includes a lake on with a beach. A boat house is also located there. Canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards can be rented at the boathouse for use in the lake. Other amenities include sand volleyball courts, horseshoes, grills, fitness equipment, six walking/running trails, a disc golf course, and an Odyssey Course which includes a 300-foot zip line.


title: East Carolina University

text: ECU houses and manages the UNC Coastal Studies Institute (UNC-CSI) which is an inter-university, marine research institute located on Roanoke Island in Manteo along the Croatan Sound on the Outer Banks, established in 2003 focusing on Estuarine Ecology and Human Health, Coastal Processes and Engineering, Public Policy and Coastal Sustainability, and Maritime Heritage.


title: East Carolina University

text: ECU is home to nine undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, and four professional schools. The oldest school is the modern day College of Education. The university offers 16 doctoral degree programs, 4 first professional degree programs, 76 master's degree programs, and 102 bachelor's degree programs.


title: East Carolina University

text: ECU's liberal arts college is the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. It consists of 16 departments, making it the third largest College. The liberal arts college has its roots in the beginning of the university.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Business is a professional school consisting of six departments with undergraduate concentrations in each, plus the Miller School of Entrepreneurship and a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Accounting program. The college's beginnings came in 1936 when the Department of Commerce was organized. It later changed to the Department of Business Education, and then to the Department of Business. Finally, in 1960, the School of Business was formed. The college undergraduate program was accredited in 1967, and the graduate program was accredited in 1976 by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The college is a governing school of the Graduate Management Admission Council. The college runs a Small Business Institute to advise small business owners on how to succeed.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Education is the oldest and largest college at ECU. It houses and administers all of the education majors and an international open access journal, the Journal of Curriculum and Instruction. There are 17 undergraduate degree programs, 22 graduate degree programs, six advanced certifications, and the Doctor of Education program. The college prepares more professionals for North Carolina schools than any other university in the state. The college scored higher than other North Carolina universities when the state board evaluated teacher education programs in 2006. In addition, the Institution of Higher Education Performance Report showed ECU was first in the number of graduates who were employed in public schools across the state. The college is considered one of the exemplary professional preparation programs according to the North Carolina State Board of Education's Higher Education Performance Report.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Fine Arts and Communication comprises four schools that range from dance to design and broadcast journalism. The college officially opened on July 1, 2003, but can trace its roots to ECU founding; the school hired art and music professionals in 1907 to train teachers.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Health and Human Performance is made up of eight academic units and handles all of the recreational and exercise degrees at East Carolina University. It took on its name in 2003, but traces its legacy to the Department of Physical Education in 1930. It was the 1930 East Carolina Teachers College Planning Document number two priority. In 1938, the Department of Physical Education was established and Physical education became a specialty area for high school teachers.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Engineering and Technology comprises four departments. The college offers nine degrees including engineering, computer science, construction management, design, distribution and logistics, industrial engineering technology, information and computer technology, and industrial technology.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Allied Health Sciences offers 25 degree and certificate programs in health science disciplines primarily associated with health maintenance and rehabilitative services. The college comprises nine departments: Addictions and Rehabilitation Studies (addiction, clinical, and mental health counseling), Biostatistics, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders (Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology), Health Services and Information Management, Nutrition Science, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Studies. Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, Doctor of Audiology, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and PhD degrees are offered. Established in the 1967–68 school year as the School of Allied Health and Social Professions, the College of Allied Health Sciences is now located in the Allied Health Sciences building on the Health Sciences Campus and is the largest allied health college in the state.


title: East Carolina University

text: The College of Nursing is a professional school that offers one undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Science in Nursing. The school was created in 1959 and now offers Bachelor of Science, Masters, and Ph.D programs. The college has over 100 faculty teaching the students everything about the nursing field while practicing in the under-served Eastern North Carolina. There are three departments within this school: Department of Undergraduate Nursing Science Junior Division, Department of Undergraduate Nursing Science Senior Division, and the Department of Graduate Nursing Science. On October 12, 2007, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors permitted the re–designation of the School of Nursing to the College of Nursing. The National League for Nursing named the college a Center of Excellence. The college produces more nurses than any other school in the Mid-Atlantic region.


title: East Carolina University

text: The Graduate School consist of 85 master's degree, 21 doctoral programs and 62 certificates. It coordinates the graduate offerings of all departments in the nine colleges. The School also runs the non–professional degree programs of the professional School of Medicine. The school offers 17 master's degree in


title: East Carolina University

text: Construction Management, Education, Environmental Health, Fine Arts, Library Science, Music, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Public Administration, Public Health, School AdministrationScience, Social Work and Teaching. It also offers four doctoral degrees in Audiology, Education, Philosophy, and Physical Therapy.


title: East Carolina University

text: The Brody School of Medicine is a professional school at the university. It consists of seven graduate majors, plus the Doctor of Medicine, all located on the Health Sciences Campus. The first appropriations were approved in 1974, with the first medical students arriving in 1977. The medical school is one of five in North Carolina.


title: East Carolina University

text: The School of Dental Medicine is a professional school at the university. The school graduates one degree, Doctor of Dental Medicine. It also has three residencies in Advanced Education in General Dentistry and Dental General Practice. The school also offers a specialty program in Pedodontics. It was founded on February 24, 2006, at the East Carolina Board of Trustees meeting. The dental school was unanimously approved by the UNC System Board of Governors as well. The facilities are located on the Health Sciences Campus and will house the first three years of education. Dental students will complete their final year at ECU Community Service Learning Centers to be located throughout the state. The School of Dental Medicine is one of two dental schools in the state.


title: East Carolina University

text: Randolph Chitwood, a cardiothoracic surgeon with East Carolina, performed the first minimally invasive robotic-assisted mitral-valve heart surgery in the United States. East Carolina researchers also developed an electronic fluency device called SpeechEasy; the device is designed to improve the fluency of a person who stutters by changing the sound of the user's voice in his or her ear. Walter Pories, a faculty member at The Brody School of Medicine developed the standard procedure for gastric bypass surgery. Researchers here also first discovered that 80% of obese/type 2 diabetic patients who underwent this surgical procedure had a reversal of the disease. The Biofeedback Lab is currently developing techniques to help service members recover from posttraumatic stress disorders and traumatic brain injuries they received in Afghanistan and Iraq. The in vitro fertilization program is ranked first in North Carolina and fourth overall in the United States. Jason Bond, a former scientist in the Department of Biology, discovered many new species of spiders, including "Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi" and "Aptostichus stephencolberti".


title: East Carolina University

text: During an archaeological dig on Hatteras Island in 1998, archaeologists discovered a 10-carat gold English signet ring from the 16th century, among other artifacts. The discovered ring was the first material connection between The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island and the Algonquian peoples on Croatan Island. In 2011, underwater archaeologists raised the anchors of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship vessel of Blackbeard, near Beaufort.


title: East Carolina University

text: J.Y. Joyner Library is the main library located beside the Mall on the main campus. It holds nearly 1.9 million bound volumes, 2.1 million pieces of microform, 532,000 government documents, and more than 24,000 journal subscriptions. The library, which houses the East Carolina manuscript collection, is the largest library east of Raleigh. It is one of the leading repositories in the nation for modern naval and maritime history. It also holds materials related to North Carolina, the tobacco industry, worldwide missionary activities, and American military history. The library is the official repository of the records of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. The J. Edgar Hoover Collection on International Communism contains many items dealing with communism worldwide. The Rare Book Collections has items dating from 1589, including a 1733 Edward Moseley map, the first to comprehensively map the colony of North Carolina and the only original copy in the United States.


title: East Carolina University

text: The Music Library is a branch of Joyner Library located on the first floor of A.J. Fletcher Music Center. It houses approximately 93,000 items, including the entire audio recording collection. It is the largest music collection east of Raleigh. The primary users of the library are faculty and students within the School of Music and the School of Theatre and Dance, but anyone can use its resources. It began in the 1958–59 academic year when a small library was created. Today a staff of five oversee the library duties.


title: East Carolina University

text: The William E. Laupus Library is the medical and health library for East Carolina. It is the primary library for the Brody School of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Allied Health Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine. It holds approximately 160,000 volumes (print and non–print) and 10,000 current print, non–print, and electronic serial titles. In 2006, it moved to the Health Sciences Building on the Health Sciences campus. The library is named for Dr. Laupus, a former Dean of Brody School of Medicine.


title: East Carolina University

text: The Student Government Association at East Carolina University serves the student voice and represents student concerns to a variety of sources including campus administration and other departments.


title: East Carolina University

text: There are ten social sororities at the East Carolina Campus, most of which own a house located at or near 5th or 10th Street. There are currently 18 social fraternities at East Carolina. The majority are located off or near 5th Street or 10th Street. Of the 18 social fraternities, seven currently do own a house. Greek life started in 1958 with the introduction of four social fraternities: With the first being Kappa Alpha Order. Later came Beta Theta Pi, Pi Lambda Phi, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Theta Chi. Two years later, eight of the ten social sororities were founded.


title: East Carolina University

text: National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) has a presence on campus, as well. There are four historically African American sororities and five historically African American fraternities. There are over 18 honor and 13 service or religious fraternities or sororities at ECU.


title: East Carolina University

text: ECU's sports teams, nicknamed the Pirates, compete in NCAA Division FBS as a full–member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). The Pirates joined The American on July 1, 2014. Jon Gilbert is the current athletic director. The football team is supported by world-class spirit groups, such as the East Carolina University Marching Pirates, National Award-winning Cheerleading squads, and spirit teams. Facilities include the 50,000-seat Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium for football, the 8,000-seat Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum for men's and women's basketball, and Clark-LeClair Stadium, with a seating capacity of 3,000 (max capacity of 6,000+ when including outfield "Jungle" areas) for baseball. The Ward Sports Medicine building comprises and houses the athletic department, Pirate Club offices and the Human Performance Laboratory. Athletes train in the Murphy Center a edifice, housing the strength and conditioning facilities, along with banquet rooms, sport memorabilia, and an academic enhancement center. The Murphy Center was built for approximately $13 million and opened its doors to ECU student–athletes in June 2002.


title: East Carolina University

text: The EDC Mini-grant Project-The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Community Relations developed this project to improve East Carolina University's number of diversity studies, programs, and groups. This project intends to supply resources and funds towards diversity proposals offered by students, campus organizations, faculty, and staff. These programs include monitoring cultural awareness educational seminars, to improve departmental climate, to recruit diverse students, for research for curriculum improvement, among others. ECU is also home to many diversity initiatives, including Intercultural Affairs. Intercultural Affairs creates inclusive and equitable communities where all persons confidently know and are known. Under this umbrella is the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, the Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center, the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center, Student Veteran Services, and the Women and Gender Office.


title: East Carolina University

text: There have been six presidents and seven Chancellors in the university's history. Robert Herring Wright was inaugurated as the first president of ECTTS on November 13, 1909. The chief administrator changed names after ECU joined the UNC System in 1972. The chancellor is chosen by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors on the recommendation of the board's president, and he reports to the 12–member Board of Trustees at ECU. Four of the twelve trustees are picked by the Governor of North Carolina, while the other eight are picked by the Board of Governors. The ECU student body president is an "ex officio" member of the board of trustees.


title: East Carolina University

text: Cecil Staton became chancellor in 2016, replacing Steve Ballard. After Staton resigned in 2019, the UNC System named Dan Gerlach as the interim chancellor. In late September 2019, Gerlach was placed on administrative leave after photos and video emerged, showing his interaction with students at a popular bar in the downtown area. UNC System Interim President Bill Roper announced that ECU Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ronald Mitchelson will serve as the university's acting chancellor, and Philip Rogers was named the 12th Chancellor in December 2020.


title: East Carolina University

text: The University of North Carolina Board of Governors is the policy-making body legally charged with "the general determination, control, supervision, management, and governance of all affairs of the constituent institutions". It has 32 voting members who are elected by the General Assembly for four-year terms.


title: East Carolina University

text: In 2016, East Carolina was classified by "U.S. News & World Report" as a National University in its Top-tier rankings. In 2010, "Forbes" ranked the school 36th in its America's Best College Buys story.


title: East Carolina University

text: In the 2012 edition of "U.S. News & World Report", The Brody School of Medicine is ranked 10th in the country for primary care physician preparation, 13th in the rural medicine specialty and 14th in family medicine. In 2010, Brody was ranked seventh on the social mission scale.


title: East Carolina University

text: In 2009, the university was awarded the Patriot Award. The Patriot Award recognizes employers who go above and beyond what the law requires in supporting their employees who serve in the National Guard or reserves. In 2010, the university was awarded the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. It is the highest recognition given by the U.S. Government to employers for their outstanding support of their employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve.


title: East Carolina University

text: "Hail to Thy Name So Fair" is the alma mater at East Carolina University. It first appeared in the 1940–41 East Carolina Teachers College Student Handbook. It was written by Harold A. McDougle ('44) who became a part-time instructor in the Music Department from 1946 to 1947. The Marching Pirates perform the song during all home football and basketball games. At every home football game, after the National Anthem is played by the band, the Alma Mater is played followed by the E.C. Victory song. At the end of football games, the football team walks to the student section to sing the Alma Mater and E.C. Victory song in unison.


title: East Carolina University

text: Pirate graduates have been influential in teaching, business, and the arts. Nia Imani Franklin, American composer and beauty pageant titleholder, who graduated in 2015, was crowned Miss New York and Miss America 2019, the first without the swimsuit competition segment. Actress Emily Procter, Beth Grant, and screenwriter Kevin Williamson, creator of "Scream" and "Dawson's Creek", graduated from East Carolina. Acclaimed screen actress Sandra Bullock attended, but graduated later after leaving to pursue her acting career. Marcus Crandell (born June 1, 1974, in Charlotte, North Carolina) is a former quarterback and current coach in professional Canadian football; he played 11 seasons for the Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1997 to 2008 while also spending time in NFL Europe and the XFL. Crandell was named the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player after the Stampeders won the 89th Grey Cup in 2001. Class of 1974 Alumnus Rick Atkinson, wrote "An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943" followed by "The Day of Battle, The War in Sicily, 1943–1944" and Dan Neil wrote criticism on automobiles; both received Pulitzer Prizes. Ron Clark, a teacher, author, and founder of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: East Carolina University

text: James Maynard graduated with a degree in psychology and founded the Golden Corral restaurant chain. Kelly King is the current chief executive officer for BB&T and graduated with an undergraduate degree in business accounting and a master's of business administration. Former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard attended where he majored in Construction Management. Chris Johnson was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and his wife Linda McMahon both graduated with a degree in business administration as well. Scott Avett of the folk-rock band The Avett Brothers earned degrees in 1999 and 2000. Henry "Gizmo" Williams, Canadian Football League inductee, graduated from East Carolina University.


title: Antony Alda

text: Antony Alda (born Antonio Joseph D'Abruzzo; December 9, 1956 – July 3, 2009), sometimes called Tony, was an American actor who grew up in a popular acting family. The son of Robert Alda, he was born in France. His early studies were in Rome and he finished at The Juilliard School in New York City. A prolific actor, he appeared on stage, in film, and on television. His career culminated in writing, directing, and performing in "Role of a Lifetime".


title: Antony Alda

text: Alda was born Antonio Joseph D'Abruzzo in St. Julien, France, into what would later be called an acting dynasty. His father was well-known in the United States both in film and on Broadway, where he earned a Tony. Alda's mother, Flora Marino, was an Italian actress. His half-brother was Alan Alda.


title: Antony Alda

text: About growing up within the dynasty, Alda once explained, "The theater has always been a comfortable place for me. I spent all my summers on Broadway. Dad would be in one play and Alan would be in another. I used to hang out with the lighting guys." He found that being an Alda had its professional ups and downs. "People figure you know what you're doing because you grew up around acting. Other people think you got the part because of your name."


title: Antony Alda

text: Antony Alda finished his high school studies at Notre Dame International in Rome, and completed his academic career studying musical composition at The Juilliard School in New York City. Alda was married twice, first in 1975 to Leslie Clark at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City at Fifth Avenue. Their reception was held at the old Biltmore Hotel. The marriage lasted until 1977. His sons were born during his marriage to actress Lori Carrell, to whom he was married from 1981-1992. During this time his mother commented, "Marriage was good for Tony. It changed him and made him more mature."


title: Antony Alda

text: Throughout his career, Alda played in seven films including the Oscar-winning "Melvin and Howard", "Homeboy", "Hot Child in the City", and two TV "shorts" including "Bungle Abbey". He was cast in several television series and appeared in more than 200 episodes including two on "Knots Landing" as Rick Elliot. Alda later played Johnny Corelli during two years (1990–1991) on NBC's "Days of Our Lives".


title: Antony Alda

text: Like Johnny Corelli, Alda saw himself as something of a jokester. He said, "I always played practical jokes on people." One prank involved his donning a wig and passing himself off as one of his mother's church friends to a visiting aunt.


title: Antony Alda

text: His most notable accomplishment is the film "Role of a Lifetime" released in 2001. Alda wrote, directed, and acted in the film, which is about a formerly successful actor, Bobby. Bobby seems to be egotistical at first, but is soon rendered a sympathetic persona by the starring actor, Scott Bakula. Bobby has lost his wife in the Hollywood rat race and is on his way to becoming a "has-been." He has an accident that results in a disappearance long enough for Hollywood to assume he is dead and to begin to cast a movie based on his life. Bobby takes on a different identity, that of Texan Buck Steele, in order to audition for and, eventually, play himself in the movie. In the persona of Buck Steele, Bobby interacts with his ex-wife, his best friend and a mysterious old Hispanic gentleman. These experiences, while disturbing, enable Bobby to re-examine many aspects of his life. (Alda both credited and quoted Socrates in the film; he inconspicuously placed Socrates' quote "An unexamined life is not worth living" in several scenes.)


title: Bad (tour)

text: Bad was the first solo concert tour by American singer Michael Jackson, launched in support of his seventh studio album "Bad" (1987). Sponsored by Pepsi and spanning 16 months, the tour included 123 concerts for over 4 million fans across 15 countries. It grossed a total of $125 million, making it the second highest-grossing tour of the 1980s after Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, and earning two new entries in the "Guinness World Records" for the largest grossing tour in history and the tour with the largest attended audience. It was nominated for "Tour of the Year 1988" at the inaugural International Rock Awards.


title: Bad (tour)

text: At the end of the Bad tour, Jackson made a public statement that he intended for it to be his last as a touring artist, as he had plans to transition to filmmaking; however, it was followed by the Dangerous World Tour in 1992–1993 and the "HIS"tory World Tour in 1996–1997.


title: Bad (tour)

text: Following business negations (made by family friend and one time rival Jimmy Osmond of the Osmonds) a deal was made that allowed sponsorships from Nippon and Pepsi. It was then announced on June 29, 1987 by Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo that Jackson would embark on his first solo world concert tour. The tour began in large stadiums in Japan, marking Jackson's first performances in the country since 1973 as part of the Jackson 5. The first nine scheduled concerts that began on September 12 sold out within hours, and five more were added due to high demand. Over 600 journalists, cameramen and fans waited for Jackson's arrival to the country at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. His pet chimpanzee Bubbles, who took a separate flight, was greeted by more than 300 people. A chartered jumbo jet was used to carry 22 truckloads of equipment, along with Jackson's entourage of 132 for the tour. The stage set used 700 lights, 100 speakers, 40 lasers, three mirrors, and two 24-by-18 foot screens. Performers wore 70 costumes, four of which were attached with fiber optic lights.


title: Bad (tour)

text: While in Tokyo, Australian pop music critic Ian "Molly" Meldrum conducted an exclusive interview with Jackson and DiLeo that was featured on "60 Minutes" in the United States and Australia. On September 18, Jackson was handed the Key to the Osaka Castle by Yasushi Oshima, the mayor of Osaka. He was accompanied by Bubbles, who was the first animal allowed inside the city's town hall. Jackson dedicated his Japanese concerts to Yoshiaki Hagiwara, a five-year-old boy who was kidnapped and murdered, and gave ¥1,614,701 (around $15,017) to the parents of Hagiwara. Attendance figures for the first 14 dates in Japan totaled a record-breaking 450,000. Crowds of 200,000 were what past performers could manage to draw for a single tour.


title: Bad (tour)

text: Jackson performed five concerts in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane in Australia in November. While off stage, he spent time visiting sick children at their homes in the Sydney suburbs.


title: Bad (tour)

text: Rehearsals for the tour's 1988 leg took place at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida from January 22 to February 18, 1988. Vincent Paterson, who had worked with Jackson on several videos, was brought in to choreograph and co-direct the tour with Michael. On the last day of preparation, Jackson allowed 420 school pupils to watch him perform a full dress rehearsal after the children made him a rap music video in his honor. The first performances were to begin in Atlanta, yet Pepsi officials objected as the city was home to rival drinks company Coca-Cola. For both Atlanta shows, Jackson gave 100 tickets to the Children's Wish Foundation for terminally ill children. The first of three concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City in March served as a benefit to raise $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund. Jackson presented a check of $600,000 to the fund. On March 2, 1988, Jackson performed at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards, receiving an enormous standing ovation after performing "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror". Jackson's album, "Bad" was also nominated for Album of the Year at the ceremony. Jackson began his European tour in Rome at the Flaminio Stadium on May 23, 1988. Police and security guards rescued hundreds of fans from being crushed in the crowd of 35,000. Police reported 130 women fainted at the concert in Vienna on June 2. On June 17, Jackson travelled to the town of Vevey to meet Oona O'Neill, the widow of comic actor Charlie Chaplin. "I have fulfilled my biggest childhood dream", said Jackson after the visit. The most successful of the European dates were those in London at Wembley Stadium. Ticket demand for the five July dates exceeded 1.5 million, enough to fill the 72,000 capacity venue 20 times. Jackson performed seven sold-out shows, beating the previous record held by Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Genesis. More shows could have been added, but the venue had reached its quota for live performances. The third concert on July 16 was attended by Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles. On September 8, Jackson was entered into the "Guinness World Records", the first of three times from the tour alone. The Wembley shows were attended by a record 504,000 people. Management also presented him with a special award. On July 30, NBC aired "Michael Jackson Around the World", a 90-minute special documenting the singer on tour. On August 29, after a birthday performance in Leeds, Jackson donated $130,000 to Give For Life. The final European show was held in Liverpool on September 11, staged at Aintree Racecourse. 1,550 fans were reported injured among the crowd of 125,000.


title: Bad (tour)

text: Between September 1988 and January 1989, Jackson toured the United States for the second time. This would be the last time he toured his native country, aside from two shows in Hawaii during the HIStory Tour and a handful of one-off appearances in 2001 and 2002.


title: Bad (tour)

text: On October 23, 1988, he donated $125,000, the net proceeds of the first show in Auburn Hills, to the city's Motown Museum. The American tour alone grossed a total of , the sixth largest of the year. The tour was planned to end in Tokyo, but Jackson suffered from swollen vocal cords after the first of six concerts in Los Angeles in November. The remaining five were rescheduled for January 1989. Due to this rescheduling, Greg Phillinganes had to disembark from the tour in early January, having already made commitments to tour with Eric Clapton. Studio musician John Barnes would be hired to take Phillinganes' place during these shows.


title: Bad (tour)

text: During the December 9 or 11 show in Tokyo, nine-year-old Ayana Takada was selected to receive a certificate by Jackson to commemorate the four millionth person to attend the tour.


title: Bad (tour)

text: Five performances in Los Angeles were held to conclude the tour on January 27, 1989. In 16 months, Jackson performed 132 concerts in 15 countries to an audience of 4.5 million for a total gross of . The American tour alone grossed a total of , the sixth largest of the year. "Guinness World Records" recognized the tour as the largest grossing in history and the tour to play to the most people ever. In April 1989, the tour was nominated for "Tour of the Year 1988" at the inaugural International Rock Awards. It lost to Amnesty International.


title: Bad (tour)

text: A live album and DVD of the July 16, 1988 concert in London titled "Live at Wembley July 16, 1988" was released along with the special edition reissue of the "Bad" album titled "Bad 25" on September 18, 2012, as well as a stand-alone DVD. Video of the September 26, 1987 Concert in Yokohama, Japan, was broadcast on Nippon Television and is available on YouTube. A number of amateur-shot concerts and short snippets were leaked on YouTube a few years later. Half-show footage of Rome (May 23, 1988) and Brisbane (November 28, 1987), and a high-quality 30-minute segment of live footage of Tokyo (December 9, 1988), as well as full low-quality leaks of Tokyo (September 12 & 13, 1987) and Osaka (October 10, 1987) are also available online. Audio recordings of the final Los Angeles (January 27, 1989) concert have been crowdfunded and released on YouTube. Audio recordings from the rehearsal at Pensacola, Florida (February 18, 1988) have also been released as well. Atlanta (April 13, 1988), Auburn Hills (October 24, 1988) have been leaked.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Moroccan Arabic ( ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and as such is mutually intelligible to some extent with Algerian Arabic and to a lesser extent with Tunisian Arabic. It is spoken by 92% of the population of Morocco. While Modern Standard Arabic is used to varying degrees in formal situations such as religious sermons, books, newspapers, government communications, news broadcasts and political talk shows, Moroccan Arabic is the predominant spoken language of the country and has a strong presence in Moroccan television entertainment, cinema and commercial advertising. Moroccan Arabic has many regional dialects and accents as well. Its mainstream dialect is the one used in Casablanca, Rabat and Fez, and therefore it dominates the media, eclipsing the other regional accents, such as those spoken in Tangiers and Oujda.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: SIL International classifies Moroccan Arabic, Hassaniya Arabic and Judeo-Moroccan Arabic as different varieties of Arabic.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Moroccan Arabic was formed of several dialects of Arabic belonging to two genetically different groups: pre-Hilalian and Hilalian dialects.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Pre-Hilalian dialects are a result of early Arabization phases of the Maghreb, from the 7th to the 12th centuries, concerning the main urban settlements, the harbors, the religious centres ("zaouias") as well as the main trade routes. The dialects are generally classified in three types: (old) urban, "village" and "mountain" sedentary and Jewish dialects. In Morocco, several pre-Hilalian dialects are spoken:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Hilalian dialects (Bedouin dialects) were introduced following the migration of Arab nomadic tribes to Morocco in the 11th-century, particularly Banu Hilal which the Hilalian dialects are named after.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The Hilalian dialects spoken in Morocco belong to the Maqil subgroup, a family that includes three main dialectal areas:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: One of the most notable features of Moroccan Arabic is the collapse of short vowels. Initially, short and were merged into a phoneme (however, some speakers maintain a difference between and when adjacent to pharyngeal and ). This phoneme () was then deleted entirely in most positions; for the most part, it is maintained only in the position /...CəC#/ or /...CəCC#/ (where C represents any consonant and # indicates a word boundary), i.e. when appearing as the last vowel of a word. When is not deleted, it is pronounced as a very short vowel, tending towards in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, in the vicinity of pharyngeal and (for speakers who have merged /a/ and in this environment), and elsewhere. Original short usually merges with except in the vicinity of a labial or velar consonant. In positions where was deleted, /u/ was also deleted, and is maintained only as labialization of the adjacent labial or velar consonant; where is maintained, surfaces as . This deletion of short vowels can result in long strings of consonants (a feature shared with Amazigh and certainly derived from it). These clusters are never simplified; instead, consonants occurring between other consonants tend to syllabify, according to a sonorance hierarchy. Similarly, and unlike most other Arabic dialects, doubled consonants are never simplified to a single consonant, even when at the end of a word or preceding another consonant.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Some dialects are more conservative in their treatment of short vowels. For example, some dialects allow in more positions. Dialects of the Sahara, and eastern dialects near the border of Algeria, preserve a distinction between and and allow to appear at the beginning of a word, e.g. "shorter" (standard ), "go up!" (standard or ), "friends" (standard ).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Long , and are maintained as semi-long vowels, which are substituted for both short and long vowels in most borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Long and also have many more allophones than in most other dialects; in particular, appear as in the vicinity of emphatic consonants and , , , , but elsewhere. (Most other Arabic dialects only have a similar variation for the phoneme .) In some dialects, such as that of Marrakech, front-rounded and other allophones also exist. Allophones in vowels usually do not exist in loanwords.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Emphatic spreading (i.e. the extent to which emphatic consonants affect nearby vowels) occurs much less than in many other dialects. Emphasis spreads fairly rigorously towards the beginning of a word and into prefixes, but much less so towards the end of a word. Emphasis spreads consistently from a consonant to a directly following vowel, and less strongly when separated by an intervening consonant, but generally does not spread rightwards past a full vowel. For example, "eggs" ( and both affected), "sparks" (rightmost not affected), "stairs" ( usually not affected), "she hit him" (with variable but tending to be in between and ; no effect on ), "student" ( affected but not ). Contrast, for example, Egyptian Arabic, where emphasis tends to spread forward and backward to both ends of a word, even through several syllables.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Emphasis is audible mostly through its effects on neighboring vowels or syllabic consonants, and through the differing pronunciation of and . Actual pharyngealization of "emphatic" consonants is weak and may be absent entirely. In contrast with some dialects, vowels adjacent to emphatic consonants are pure; there is no diphthong-like transition between emphatic consonants and adjacent front vowels.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Through most of its history, Moroccan vernacular Arabic has usually not been written. Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, most literate Muslims in Morocco would write in Standard Arabic, even if they spoke Darija as a first language. However, since Standard Arabic was typically taught in Islamic religious contexts, Moroccan Jews usually would not learn Standard Arabic and would write instead in Darija, or more specifically a variety known as Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, using Hebrew script. A "risala" on Semitic languages written in Maghrebi Judeo-Arabic by Judah ibn Quraish to the Jews of Fes dates back to the ninth-century.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Al-Kafif az-Zarhuni's epic 14th century "zajal" "Mala'bat al-Kafif az-Zarhuni", about Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman al-Marini's campaign on Hafsid Ifriqiya, is considered the first literary work in Darija.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Most books and magazines are in Modern Standard Arabic; Qur'an books are written and read in Classical Arabic, and there is no universally standard written system for Darija. There is also a loosely standardized Latin system used for writing Moroccan Arabic in electronic media, such as texting and chat, often based on sound-letter correspondences from French, English or Spanish ('sh' or 'ch' for English 'sh', 'u' or 'ou' for English 'u', etc.) and using numbers to represent sounds not found in French or English (2-3-7-9 used for ق-ح-ع-ء, respectively.).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: In the last few years, there have been some publications in Moroccan Darija, such as Hicham Nostik's Notes of a Moroccan Infidel, as well as basic science books by Moroccan physics professor Farouk El Merrakchi. Newspapers in Moroccan Arabic also exist, such as Souq Al Akhbar, Al Usbuu Ad-Daahik, the regional newspaper Al Amal (formerly published by Latifa Akherbach), and Khbar Bladna (news of our country), which was published by Tangier-based American painter Elena Prentice between 2002 and 2006.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The later also published books written Moroccan Arabic, mostly novels and stories, written by authors such as Kenza El Ghali and Youssef Amine Alami.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Following the Arab conquest, Berber languages remained widely spoken. During their Arabisation, some Berber tribes became bilingual for generations before abandoning their language for Arabic; however, they kept a substantial Berber stratum that increases from the east to the west of the Maghreb, making Moroccan Arabic dialects the ones most influenced by Berber.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: More recently, the influx of Andalusi people and Spanish-speaking–Moriscos (between the 15th and the 17th centuries) influenced urban dialects with Spanish substrate (and loanwords).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Most vocabulary of Moroccan Arabic language is derived from Classical Arabic and Amazigh, supplemented by French and Spanish loanwords.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: There are noticeable lexical differences between Moroccan Arabic and most other Arabic languages. Some words are essentially unique to Moroccan Arabic: "daba" "now". Many others, however, are characteristic of Maghrebi Arabic as a whole including both innovations and unusual retentions of Classical vocabulary that disappeared elsewhere, such as "hbeṭ"' "go down" from Classical "habaṭ". Others are shared with Algerian Arabic such as "hḍeṛ" "talk", from Classical "hadhar" "babble", and "temma" "there", from Classical "thamma".


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Some loans might have come through Andalusi Arabic brought by Moriscos when they were expelled from Spain following the Christian Reconquest or, alternatively, they date from the time of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: They are used in several coastal cities across the Moroccan coast like Oualidia, El Jadida, and Tangier.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Note: All sentences are written according to the transcription used in Richard Harrell, "A Short Reference Grammar of Moroccan Arabic" (Examples with their pronunciation).:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The regular Moroccan Arabic verb conjugates with a series of prefixes and suffixes. The stem of the conjugated verb may change a bit, depending on the conjugation:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: You wrote: "kteb-ti" (some regions tend to differentiate between masculine and feminine, the masculine form is "kteb-t", the feminine "kteb-ti")


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The stem "kteb" turns into "ketb" before a vowel suffix because of the process of "inversion" described above.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The stem "kteb" turns into "ketb" before a vowel suffix because of the process of "inversion" described above. Between the prefix "ka-n-, ka-t-, ka-y-" and the stem "kteb", an "e" appears but not between the prefix and the transformed stem "ketb" because of the same restriction that produces inversion.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: This is also the case of "de" in "de-kteb" as northerners prefer to use "de" and southerners prefer "te".


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Instead of the prefix "ka", some speakers prefer the use of "ta" ("ta-ne-kteb" "I am writing"). The coexistence of these two prefixes is from historic differences. In general, "ka" is more used in the north and "ta" in the south, some other prefixes like "la", "a", "qa" are less used. In some regions like in the east (Oujda), most speakers use no preverb ("ne-kteb", "te-kteb", "y-kteb", etc.).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: To form the future tense, the prefix "ka-/ta-" is removed and replaced with the prefix "ġa-", "ġad-" or "ġadi" instead (e.g. "ġa-ne-kteb" "I will write", "ġad-ketb-u" (north) or "ġadi t-ketb-u" "You (plural) will write").


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: For the subjunctive and infinitive, the "ka-" is removed ("bġit ne-kteb" "I want to write", "bġit te-kteb" "I want 'you to write").


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The imperative is conjugated with the suffixes of the present tense but without any prefixes or preverbs:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: One characteristic of Moroccan Arabic syntax, which it shares with other North African varieties as well as some southern Levantine dialect areas, is in the two-part negative verbal circumfix . (In many regions, including Marrakech, the final vowel is not pronounced so it becomes .)


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: /ma-/ comes from the Classical Arabic negator /ma/. /-ʃi/ is a development of Classical /ʃajʔ/ "thing". The development of a circumfix is similar to the French circumfix "ne ... pas" in which "ne" comes from Latin "non" "not" and "pas" comes from Latin "passus" "step". (Originally, "pas" would have been used specifically with motion verbs, as in "I did not walk a step". It was generalised to other verbs.)


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The negative circumfix surrounds the entire verbal composite, including direct and indirect object pronouns:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Future and interrogative sentences use the same circumfix (unlike, for example, in Egyptian Arabic). Also, unlike in Egyptian Arabic, there are no phonological changes to the verbal cluster as a result of adding the circumfix. In Egyptian Arabic, adding the circumfix can trigger stress shifting, vowel lengthening and shortening, elision when /ma-/ comes into contact with a vowel, addition or deletion of a short vowel, etc. However, they do not occur in Moroccan Arabic (MA):


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Negative pronouns such as walu "nothing", ḥta ḥaja "nothing" and ḥta waḥed "nobody" can be added to the sentence without ši as a suffix:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Note that wellah ma-ne-kteb could be a response to a command to write kteb while wellah ma-ġa-ne-kteb could be an answer to a question like waš ġa-te-kteb? "Are you going to write?"


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: In the north, "'you are writing" is always "ka-de-kteb" regardless of who is addressed. It is also the case of de in "de-kteb", as northerners prefer to use "de" and southerners prefer "te".


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Instead of the prefix "ka", some speakers prefer the use of "ta" ("ta-ne-kteb" "I am writing"). The co-existence of these two prefixes is from historical differences. In general "ka" is more used in the north and "ta" in the south. In some regions like the east (Oujda), most speakers use no preverb:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Verbs in Moroccan Arabic are based on a consonantal root composed of three or four consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb. Changes to the vowels between the consonants, along with prefixes and/or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as causative, intensive, passive or reflexive.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Each particular lexical verb is specified by two stems, one used for the past tense and one used for non-past tenses, along with subjunctive and imperative moods. To the former stem, suffixes are added to mark the verb for person, number and gender. To the latter stem, a combination of prefixes and suffixes are added. (Very approximately, the prefixes specify the person and the suffixes indicate number and gender.) The third person masculine singular past tense form serves as the "dictionary form" used to identify a verb like the infinitive in English. (Arabic has no infinitive.) For example, the verb meaning "write" is often specified as "kteb", which actually means "he wrote". In the paradigms below, a verb will be specified as "kteb/ykteb" ("kteb" means "he wrote" and "ykteb" means "he writes"), indicating the past stem ("kteb-") and the non-past stem (also "-kteb-", obtained by removing the prefix "y-").


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The verb classes in Moroccan Arabic are formed along two axes. The first or "derivational" axis (described as "form I", "form II", etc.) is used to specify grammatical concepts such as causative, intensive, passive or reflexive and mostly involves varying the consonants of a stem form. For example, from the root K-T-B "write" are derived form I "kteb/ykteb" "write", form II "ketteb/yketteb" "cause to write", form III "kateb/ykateb" "correspond with (someone)" etc. The second or "weakness" axis (described as "strong", "weak", "hollow", "doubled" or "assimilated") is determined by the specific consonants making up the root, especially whether a particular consonant is a "w" or " y", and mostly involves varying the nature and location of the vowels of a stem form. For example, so-called "weak" verbs have one of those two letters as the last root consonant, which is reflected in the stem as a final vowel instead of a final consonant (ṛma/yṛmi "throw" from Ṛ-M-Y). Meanwhile, "hollow" verbs are usually caused by one of those two letters as the middle root consonant, and the stems of such verbs have a full vowel (/a/, /i/ or /u/) before the final consonant, often along with only two consonants ("žab/yžib" "bring" from Ž-Y-B).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: It is important to distinguish between strong, weak, etc. "stems" and strong, weak, etc. "roots". For example, X-W-F is a hollow "root", but the corresponding form II stem "xuwwef"/"yxuwwef" "frighten" is a strong "stem":


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: In this section, all verb classes and their corresponding stems are listed, excluding the small number of irregular verbs described above. Verb roots are indicated schematically using capital letters to stand for consonants in the root:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Hence, the root F-M-L stands for all three-consonant roots, and F-S-T-L stands for all four-consonant roots. (Traditional Arabic grammar uses F-ʕ-L and F-ʕ-L-L, respectively, but the system used here appears in a number of grammars of spoken Arabic dialects and is probably less confusing for English speakers since the forms are easier to pronounce than those involving /ʕ/.)


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The following table lists the prefixes and suffixes to be added to mark tense, person, number, gender and the stem form to which they are added. The forms involving a vowel-initial suffix and corresponding stem or are highlighted in silver. The forms involving a consonant-initial suffix and corresponding stem are highlighted in gold. The forms involving no suffix and corresponding stem or are not highlighted.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The following table lists the verb classes along with the form of the past and non-past stems, active and passive participles, and verbal noun, in addition to an example verb for each class.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Boldfaced forms indicate the primary differences from the corresponding forms of kteb, which apply to many classes of verbs in addition to form II strong:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Hollow have a W or Y as the middle root consonant. Note that for some forms (e.g. form II and form III), hollow verbs are conjugated as strong verbs (e.g. form II "ʕeyyen/yʕeyyen" "appoint" from ʕ-Y-N, form III "ʒaweb/yʒaweb" "answer" from ʒ-W-B).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: This verb works much like beddel/ybeddel "teach". Like all verbs whose stem begins with a single consonant, the prefixes differ in the following way from those of regular and weak form I verbs:


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: In addition, the past tense has two stems: beʕ- before consonant-initial suffixes (first and second person) and baʕ- elsewhere (third person).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: This verb class is identical to verbs such as baʕ/ybiʕ except in having stem vowel /u/ in place of /i/.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Doubled verbs have the same consonant as middle and last root consonant, e.g. ɣabb/yiħebb "love" from Ħ-B-B.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: This verb works much like baʕ/ybiʕ "sell". Like that class, it has two stems in the past, which are ħebbi- before consonant-initial suffixes (first and second person) and ħebb- elsewhere (third person). Note that /i-/ was borrowed from the weak verbs; the Classical Arabic equivalent form would be *ħabáb-, e.g. *ħabáb-t.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: "Doubly weak" verbs have more than one "weakness", typically a W or Y as both the second and third consonants. In Moroccan Arabic such verbs generally behave as normal weak verbs (e.g. ħya/yħya "live" from Ħ-Y-Y, quwwa/yquwwi "strengthen" from Q-W-Y, dawa/ydawi "treat, cure" from D-W-Y). This is not always the case in standard Arabic (cf. "walā/yalī" "follow" from W-L-Y).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: In general, Moroccan Arabic is one of the least conservative of all Arabic languages. Now, Moroccan Arabic continues to integrate new French words, even English ones due to its influence as the modern lingua franca, mainly technological and modern words. However, in recent years, constant exposure to Modern Standard Arabic on television and in print media and a certain desire among many Moroccans for a revitalization of an Arab identity has inspired many Moroccans to integrate words from Modern Standard Arabic, replacing their French, Spanish or otherwise non-Arabic counterparts, or even speaking in Modern Standard Arabic while keeping the Moroccan accent to sound less formal


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Though rarely written, Moroccan Arabic is currently undergoing an unexpected and pragmatic revival. It is now the preferred language in Moroccan chat rooms or for sending SMS, using Arabic Chat Alphabet composed of Latin letters supplemented with the numbers "2", "3", "5", "7" and "9" for coding specific Arabic sounds, as is the case with other Arabic speakers.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The language continues to evolve quickly as can be noted by consulting the Colin dictionary. Many words and idiomatic expressions recorded between 1921 and 1977 are now obsolete.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Some Moroccan Arabic speakers, in the parts of the country formerly ruled by France, practice code-switching with French. In parts of northern Morocco, such as in Tetouan & Tangier, it is common for code-switching to occur between Moroccan Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and Spanish, as Spain had previously controlled part of the region and continues to possess the territories of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa bordering only Morocco. On the other hand, some Arab nationalist Moroccans generally attempt to avoid French and Spanish in their speech; consequently, their speech tends to resemble old Andalusian Arabic.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Although most Moroccan literature has traditionally been written in the classical Standard Arabic, the first record of a work of literature composed in Moroccan Arabic was Al-Kafif az-Zarhuni's "al-Mala'ba", written in the Marinid period.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: There exists some poetry written in Moroccan Arabic like the Malhun. In the troubled and autocratic Morocco of the 1970s, Years of Lead, the Nass El Ghiwane band wrote lyrics in Moroccan Arabic that were very appealing to the youth even in other Maghreb countries.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Another interesting movement is the development of an original rap music scene, which explores new and innovative usages of the language.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: Zajal, or improvised poetry, is mostly written in Moroccan Darija, and there have been at least dozens of Moroccan Darija poetry collections and anthologies published by Moroccan poets, such as Ahmed Lemsyeh and Driss Amghar Mesnaoui. The later additionally wrote a novel trilogy in Moroccan Darija, a unique creation in this language, with the titles "Ta'arurut", (the Wind's Crutch), and (The Town's Luck).


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The first known scientific productions written in Moroccan Arabic were released on the Web in early 2010 by Moroccan teacher and physicist Farouk Taki El Merrakchi, three average-sized books dealing with physics and mathematics.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: There have been at least three newspapers in Moroccan Arabic; their aim was to bring information to people with a low level of education, or those simply interested in promoting the use of Moroccan Darija. From September 2006 to October 2010, "Telquel" Magazine had a Moroccan Arabic edition Nichane. From 2002 to 2006 there was also a free weekly newspaper that was entirely written in "standard" Moroccan Arabic: "Khbar Bladna" ('News of Our Country'). In Salé, the regional newspaper Al Amal, directed by Latifa Akharbach, started in 2005.


title: Moroccan Arabic

text: The Moroccan online newspaper "Goud" or "ݣود" has much of its content written in Moroccan Arabic rather than Modern Standard Arabic. Its name "Goud" and its slogan "dima nishan" (ديما نيشان) are Moroccan Arabic expressions that mean almost the same thing "straightforward".


The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers loans to middle-income developing countries. The IBRD is the first of five member institutions that compose the World Bank Group. The initial mission of the IBRD in 1944, was to finance the reconstruction of European nations devastated by World War II. The IBRD and its concessional lending arm, the International Development Association (IDA), are collectively known as the World Bank as they share the same leadership and staff.


title: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

text: Following the reconstruction of Europe, the Bank's mandate expanded to advancing worldwide economic development and eradicating poverty. The IBRD provides commercial-grade or concessional financing to sovereign states to fund projects that seek to improve transportation and infrastructure, education, domestic policy, environmental consciousness, energy investments, healthcare, access to food and potable water, and access to improved sanitation.


text: The IBRD is owned and governed by its 189 member states, with each country represented on the Board of Governors. The IBRD has its executive leadership and staff which conduct its normal business operations. The Bank's member governments are shareholders which contribute and have the right to vote on its matters. In addition to contributions from its member nations, the IBRD acquires most of its capital by borrowing on international capital markets through bond issues at a preferred rate because of its AAA credit rating.


text: In 2011, it raised US$29 billion in capital from bond issues made in 26 different currencies. The Bank offers several financial services and products, including flexible loans, grants, risk guarantees, financial derivatives, and catastrophic risk financing. It reported lending commitments of $26.7 billion made to 132 projects in 2011.


text: There are five "closely associated institutions" that each have a "distinct role" and together form the World Bank—the IBRD, the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), that "invests in private firms and promotes entrepreneurship", the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), that guarantees loans, and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Their mission is to "fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world." By 2018, the World Bank Group was "one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries." Of the five institutions, the IBRD and the IDA are the World Bank's two largest units. When a country reaches a GDP per person over US$1,145, they are no longer eligible for IDA financial support. For example, of the BRIC countries, China was no longer eligible in 1999 and by 2014, neither was India.


text: The IBRD is governed by the World Bank's Board of Governors which meets annually and consists of one governor per member country (most often the country's finance minister or treasury secretary). The Board of Governors delegates most of its authority over daily matters such as lending and operations to the board of directors. The Board of Directors consists of 25 executive directors and is chaired by the President of the World Bank Group. The executive directors collectively represent all 189 member states of the World Bank. The president oversees the IBRD's overall direction and daily operations.


text: On 9 April 2019, United States President Donald Trump nominated David Malpass as the World Bank Group's president. Malpass had served as one of President Trump's economic advisers and as a senior official in the United States Treasury Department. The IBRD member nations did not sponsor a "rival candidate" and Malpass became president, in spite of the fact that he is critical of the role of the IBRD.


text: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were established by delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and became operational in 1946. According to a March 2012 "Washington Post" article, IBRD was the "original 'world bank'".


text: IBRD field offices were opened in Paris, France, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Prague in the former Czechoslovakia.


text: The IBRD was established with the original mission of financing the reconstruction efforts of war-torn European nations following World War II, with goals shared by the later Marshall Plan. The Bank issued its inaugural loan of $250 million ($2.6 billion in 2 dollars) to France in 1947 to finance infrastructure projects.


text: In 1946, a few months after it became operational, Chile sought financial help from the IBRD—the first of the developing countries to do so.


text: Throughout the remainder of the 1940s and 1950s, the Bank-financed projects sought to dam rivers, generate electricity and improve access to water and sanitation. It also invested in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg's steel industry. Following the reconstruction of Europe, the Bank's mandate has transitioned to eradicating poverty around the world.


text: In 1960, the International Development Association (IDA) was established to serve as the Bank's concessional lending arm and provide low and no-cost finance and grants to the poorest of the developing countries as measured by gross national income per capita.


text: At the time of its creation, the IBRD was the only Multilateral Development Bank. During the period of decolonization—the mid‐1950s to the mid‐1970s—several MDBs were created—the International Finance Corporation, the International Development Association. They were both WBG members. During this period other MDBs that were similar to the IBRD in their governance and operations, were established by countries that were not member nations of the WBG. This included the Inter‐American Development Bank (IDB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Both the CAF and IsDB are "primarily owned and controlled by borrower countries."


text: In the early 1990s, European nations established the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and expanded European Investment Bank, to foster European integration and to assist post‐communist countries to transform their economies to become more market‐oriented.


text: By 2012, according to "The Post", IBRD was using "its AAA credit rating to sell bonds at interest rates close to those of U.S. Treasury bonds." It loaned money to developing nations, such as China and Brazil.


text: According to the "Global Policy", journal, While the IBRD and the IDA historically prioritized funding infrastructure projects, since the 1990s, the Bank has directed less lending to infrastructure projects in favour of other development projects such as fighting climate change, eradicating poverty and ensuring good governance.


text: The IBRD finances its activities from the shares its members hold, as well as borrowing on international capital markets by issuing World Bank bonds. The Bank raised US$54.0 billion worth of capital in fiscal 2019 from bonds issued in 27 different currencies.


text: Since 1959, the IBRD, which is backed by world governments has had a triple-A credit rating, which allows it to borrow capital at lower rates.


text: According to a 2015 article, commissioned by the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development—also known as the Group of 24 (G-24)—multilateral development banks (MDBs)—such as the IBRD—"represent one of the most successful types of international organization created in the post-World War II era." By October 2015, although the WBG—with its lending arms—was the only "global institution, there were more than twenty operational 20 MDBs in the world. In 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRICs New Development Bank began operations. Like other multilateral development banks, (MDBs), the IBRD has a preferred credit treatment (PCT), through which borrowers grant the MDBs a "privileged position to be first in line for repayment, should a country face financial restrictions."


text: The bank also generates income from the return on its equity and the small margins on the loans. As the IBRD does not seek profit, it transfers part of its excess income to the IDA ($259 million in fiscal 2019).


text: In 2011, the IBRD loaned about US$26 billion, which represented just a "fraction of the $72 billion the IMF approved as a credit line to a single nation, Mexico." In the early 2010s, the total of "capital investments in emerging markets from all sources have topped $1 trillion annually". According to the Institute of International Finance, in 2011, the "combined net investment of the World Bank and other international development banks and agencies" was about $20 billion in 2011.


text: According to a 2019 "The Economist" article, the IBRD is "more controversial" than the International Development Association (IDA) lending arm. With its AAA credit rating, the IBRD can "borrow money cheaply on the international financial markets". Middle-income countries, like Brazil and China, that currently borrow from the IBRD, could "borrow in abundance from foreign investors" on their own.


text: The IBRD provides financial services as well as strategic coordination and information services to its borrowing member countries. The Bank only finances sovereign governments directly, or projects backed by sovereign governments. The World Bank Treasury is the division of the IBRD that manages the Bank's debt portfolio of over $100 billion and financial derivatives transactions of $20 billion.


text: The Bank offers flexible loans with maturities as long as 30 years and custom-tailored repayment scheduling. The IBRD also offers loans in local currencies. Through a joint effort between the IBRD and the International Finance Corporation, the Bank offers financing to subnational entities either with or without sovereign guarantees. For borrowers needing quick financing for an unexpected change, the IBRD operates a Deferred Drawdown Option which serves as a line of credit with features similar to the Bank's flexible loan program. Among the World Bank Group's credit enhancement and guarantee products, the IBRD offers policy-based guarantees to cover countries' sovereign default risk, partial credit guarantees to cover the credit risk of a sovereign government or subnational entity, and partial risk guarantees to private projects to cover a government's failure to meet its contractual obligations. The IBRD's Enclave Partial Risk Guarantee covers private projects in member countries of the IDA against sovereign governments' failures to fulfil contractual obligations. The Bank provides an array of financial risk management products including foreign exchange swaps, currency conversions, interest rate swaps, interest rate caps and floors, and commodity swaps. To help borrowers protect against catastrophes and other special risks, the bank offers a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option to provide financing after a natural disaster or declared state of emergency. It also issues catastrophe bonds which transfer catastrophic risks from borrowers to investors. The IBRD reported $23.2 billion in lending commitments for 100 projects in fiscal year 2019. The top 10 borrowers were India, Indonesia, Jordan, Egypt, Argentina, China, Morocco, Turkey, Ukraine and Colombia. The most supported sector was Public Administration.