The University of Florida (commonly referred to as Florida or UF) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) campus in North Central Florida. Howard and Matthew Greene recognized Florida as a Public Ivy in 2001, a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivies. In 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the fourteenth best public university in the United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906.