Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, about 25 miles (40 km) east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) called "Nassau College - Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead, Long Island"; in 1937, the institution gained independence as Hofstra College, and in 1963, Hofstra College gained university status. The school is noted for a series of prominent Presidential conferences, at which the administrations of former U.S. Presidents—most recently, William Jefferson Clinton—are debated by leading political figures and intellectuals, and has also hosted conferences and symposia featuring dignitaries as diverse as Margaret Thatcher and Howard Dean. The university organizes a wide range of other international academic conferences (many under the aegis of the Hofstra Cultural Center), holds an annual Shakespeare festival in its own replica of the Globe Theatre, and has both an arboretum and bird sanctuary.