Everything about University Of Illinois totally explained
This article is about the main campus. For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation)
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I or simply Illinois) is a coeducational public research university in the state of Illinois, USA. It is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Illinois system.
The university comprises 18 Colleges that offer more than 150 programs of study. Additionally, the university operates an extension that serves 2.5 million registrants per year around the state of Illinois and beyond. The campus holds over 272 buildings on 1,458 acres (5.90 km²) in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, and boasts an annual budget of nearly $1.4 billion. As of 30 June 2007, the University of Illinois Foundation—a systemwide endowment—totals at $2.197 billion.
Enrollment in the summer of 2007 was 42,728, which included students from all 50 states and more than 100 nations. Of these, 31,472 were undergraduates and 11,256 were graduate students. Until 1998, Illinois was one of the 10 largest universities in the United States in terms of student enrollment.
The university is one of America's most highly selective state schools with several of its popular undergraduate(External Link
) and graduate(External Link) programs ranked first in the nation. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been consistently ranked as one of the top 10 public universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, and it's currently ranked the 8th best public university and the 38th best national university. It is also considered a "Public Ivy" and is comprehensively measured as one of the Top 20 major research universities in America by a Graham-Diamond Report(External Link).
History
History at a glance>
| The Illinois Industrial University |
Established |
1867 |
| Opened |
March 2, 1868 |
| University of Illinois |
Renamed |
1885 |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Renamed |
1982 |
Early years: 1867–1880
The
Morrill Act of 1862 granted each state in the United States a portion of land on which to establish a major public state university, one which could teach agriculture, mechanic arts, and military training, "without excluding other scientific and classical studies." This phrase would engender controversy over the University's initial academic philosophies, polarizing the relationship between the people of Illinois and the University's first president,
John Milton Gregory.
After a fierce bidding war between a number of Illinois cities,
Urbana was selected as the site for the new "Illinois Industrial University." in 1867. The University finally opened for classes on March 2, 1868 with only two faculty members and a small group of students. The debate between the liberal arts curriculum and industrial education continued in the University's inaugural address, as Dr. Newton Bateman outlined the various interpretations of the Morrill Act in his speech. Gregory's thirteen year tenure would be marred by this debate. Clashes between Gregory and legislators and lawmakers forced his resignation from his post as president in 1880, saying "[Iam] staggering under too heavy a load of cares, and irritated by what has sometimes seemed as needless opposition." Yet only five years later, in 1885, the Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the University of Illinois, reflecting its holistic agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curricula. Today, Gregory is largely credited with establishing the University and forming it into the major interdisciplinary university it's today. Gregory's grave is still located on the Urbana campus, situated between
Altgeld Hall and the
Henry Administration Building. His marker (mimicking
the epitaph of British architect
Christopher Wren) reads, "If you seek his monument, look about you."
Recent years: Since 1982
The name of the university was changed to The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982. This was a historic watermark for the campus not only because it clearly communicates the university's distinguished
flagship identity within the University of Illinois system, but also presents a separate identity from the system. It also marked the opening of a new era of hi-tech boom to which the campus community has much contributed and thrived with. The engineering and science departments have become the campus spotlight due to their rich innovative legacy
(External Link) and breakthrough scholastic studies
(External Link). At the turn of the new millennium, the university started making strides to keep its edge by expanding research programs and facilities for life sciences
(External Link).
The Urbana campus is noted for its position as the top destination of high school valedictorians in the State of Illinois.
Colleges and schools
Campus
The campus is famous for its beautiful landscape and coherent architecture as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university 'works of art' by T.A. Gaines in his book "The Campus as a Work of Art".
The campus's main research and academic facilities are divided almost exactly between the twin cities of
Urbana and
Champaign. The
College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences' research fields stretch south from Urbana and Champaign into
Savoy and
Champaign County. The university maintains formal gardens and a conference center in nearby
Monticello at
Allerton Park.
The U of I is one of the few educational institutions to own an airport. The university operates the
Willard Airport, named for former University of Illinois president Arthur Joffrey Willard and located in Savoy. The airport was completed in 1945 and began service in 1954. Willard Airport is home to many University research projects and the University's
Institute of Aviation, along with flights from American and Northwest Airlines.
The campus is based on the
quadrangle design popular at many universities. Four main quads compose the center of the university and are arranged from north to south. The Beckman Quadrangle and the
John Bardeen Quadrangle occupy the center of the Engineering Campus.
Boneyard Creek flows through the John Bardeen Quadrangle, paralleling Green Street. The Beckman Quadrangle is primarily composed of research units and laboratories, and features a large solar calendar consisting of an obelisk and several copper fountains. The Main Quadrangle and South Quadrangle follow immediately after the John Bardeen Quad. The former makes up a large part of the
Liberal Arts and Sciences portion of the campus, while the latter comprises many of the buildings of the
College of ACES spread across the campus map.
Research
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as a world-leading magnet for engineering and sciences (both applied and basic). Having been classified into the highest category, comprehensive doctoral with medical/veterinary and very high research activity
(External Link), by
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, UIUC offers a wide range of disciplines in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Urbana-Champaign is also quantified as one of the Top 25 American Research Universities by
The Center for Measuring University Performance(External Link). Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructures
(External Link).
The university campus hosts the site of the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which created
Mosaic, the first graphical
Web browser, the foundation upon which Microsoft Internet Explorer is based, the Apache HTTP server, and
NCSA Telnet. The university is currently partnering with
IBM and the
National Science Foundation to build the world's fastest supercomputer. This supercomputer, named "Blue Waters," will be capable of performing one quadrillion calculations per second. This will make Blue Waters three times faster than today's fastest supercomputer.
The University of Illinois also has the third largest academic library (after Harvard's and Yale's) and the largest public engineering library (Grainger Engineering Library) in the country. In 1952, the university built the
ILLIAC (Illinois Automatic Computer), the first computer built and owned entirely by an educational institution. U of I is also the site of the
Department of Energy's
Center for the Simulation of Advanced Rockets, an institute which has employed graduate and faculty researchers in the physical sciences and mathematics. It is at the forefront of
materials science and
condensed matter physics research, and home to
Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. There are two cutting-edge complexes for research and teaching recently opened,
Siebel Center for Computer Science in 2004 and the
Institute for Genomic Biology in 2006.
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, however, is still the largest interdisciplinary facility on campus with . Both the
Illinois Natural History Survey and
Illinois State Geological Survey are located on campus and affiliated with the university. The university is also recognized as a world-class center for
agricultural and
horticultural research.
In the 24 February 2004 talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and UIUC)
(External Link), titled "Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science,"
Bill Gates has mentioned that Microsoft hires more graduates from UIUC than from any other university in the world.
(External Link) Alumnus
William M. Holt, a Senior Vice-President of
Intel, also mentioned in a campus talk in 27 September 2007 entitled "R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law"
(External Link) that Intel hires more PhD graduates from UIUC than any other university in the country.
Student life
Competition
The university admission is highly selective. According to the statistics of the 2007 admitted freshmen, 50% of the incoming students had
ACT score of 27-31, 51% had
SAT score of 1200–1399, and 59% of the incoming students were top 10% of their class. Some of UIUC's colleges only admit students at the very top. For incoming freshmen in 2007, the
College of Engineering reported ACT average of 30-33 and the
College of Business reported an average ACT score of 28-32, somewhat higher than the campus average. Of graduates, UIUC ended up as one of the top 12 (percentage-wise) and top 6 (numerical-wise) feeder state colleges to elite professional schools
(External Link).
Residences
U of I requires all first-year undergraduate students (who don't commute) to stay in either the University Residence Halls or in University Private-Certified Housing. Both programs are administered by the University's housing division. University housing for undergraduates is provided through twenty-two
residence halls in both Urbana and Champaign.
All undergraduates within the University housing system are required to purchase some level of meal plan, although they're free to eat elsewhere if they choose. Graduate housing is usually offered through two graduate dormitories, restricted to those over twenty years of age, and through two university-owned apartment complexes. However, the recent record-sized freshman class has forced the housing division to convert one of the graduate dormitories into undergraduate housing. Students with disabilities are provided special housing options to accommodate their needs.
There are a number of private dormitories around campus, as well as a few houses that are outside of the Greek system and offer a more communal living experience. The private dorms tend to be more expensive to live in compared to other housing options. Private, certified residences maintain reciprocity agreements with the University, allowing students to move between the public and private housing systems if they're dissatisfied with their living conditions.
Some undergraduates choose to move into apartments or the Greek houses after their first or second year. The University Tenant Union offers advice on choosing apartments and the process of signing a lease.
Greek life
The university arguably has the largest Greek system in the world. and about 3100 are members of fraternities. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Student Government
The current university student government, created in 2004, is the Illinois Student Senate, a combined undergraduate and graduate student senate with 50 members. The student senators are elected by college and represent the students on a variety of faculty and administrative committees, and are led by an internally elected Student Body President.
Libraries
The campus library system is one of the largest public academic collections in the world
(External Link). In North America, only the private university collections of
Harvard and
Yale are larger
(External Link). Currently, the UIUC libraries hold more than 10
million in volumes, which help comprise 22 million items in the main library and the 40 other departmental libraries and divisions. As of 2006, it has also the largest "browsable" university library in the United States, with 7.5 million volumes directly accessible in stacks in a single location.
The online catalog is utilized by over one million people around the world every day. In addition to the main library building, which houses nearly 20 subject-oriented libraries, the Isaac Funk Family Library on the South Quad serves the
College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center serves the
College of Engineering on the John Bardeen Quad.
The University of Illinois Residence Hall Library System
(External Link) is one of three in the nation. The Residence Hall Libraries were created in 1948 to serve the educational, recreational, and cultural information needs of first and second year undergraduate students residing in the residence halls, and the living-learning communities within the residence halls. The collection also serves University Housing staff as well as the larger campus community, including undergraduate and graduate students, and university faculty and staff.
All together there are more than 40 departmental or school libraries on campus.
Recreation
The Urbana-Champaign campus has one of the most inclusive state-of-the-art recreation infrastructures for a university in the world
(External Link). Recently, along with additional expansion, the two main recreation facilities, CRCE and IMPE, were significantly upgraded
(External Link). The campus also has more than one thousand clubs and organizations for people to join, ranging from cultural and athletic to subject area to philanthropic. Students can create their own Registered Student Organization if the pursuing interest/concern isn't addressed by the current entities
(External Link).
Transportation
The University bus system is part of the local
Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The university, through an MTD fee garnered on top of students' tuition, provides a substantial amount of funding for the MTD, that in turn provides campus bus service and unlimited access to the entire system for university students, faculty, and staff. As part of this arrangement, the MTD also runs a bus line between Illinois Terminal and the
University of Illinois Willard Airport. In addition, the Illinois Terminal provides connection services to
Amtrak and
Greyhound, making it the focal point of
Champaign-Urbana's public transportation systems.
The university maintains an extensive system of
bike paths on campus. All students are expected to register their bicycles with the campus
public safety department, and to keep their bicycles in a safe operating condition.
Athletics and sports
U of I's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics fields teams for ten men's and eleven women's varsity sports. The university participates in the
NCAA's Division 1. The university's athletic teams are known as the
Fighting Illini. The university operates a number of athletic facilities, including
Memorial Stadium for
football, the
Assembly Hall for men's and women's
basketball, and the Atkins Tennis Center for men's and women's
tennis. The men's NCAA basketball team had a dream run in the
2005 season, with
Bruce Weber's Fighting Illini tying the record for most victories in a season. Their run ended 37-2 with a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the
national championship game.
UIUC is also a member of the
Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten is the only Division I conference to have all of its member institutions affiliated with the prestigious
Association of American Universities, a
consortium of 62 major research institutions, and leads all conferences in the total amount of research expenditures.
On
October 15,
1910, the Illinois football team defeated the
University of Chicago Maroons with a score of 3-0. The game is notable in that Illinois claims it to be the first
homecoming weekend, though several other schools claim to have held the first homecoming as well
The Ice Arena is home to the university's club
hockey team and is available for recreational use through the Division of Campus Recreation. It was built in 1931 and designed by Chicago architecture firm Holabird and Root, the same firm that designed the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field. It is located on Armory Drive across from the Armory. The structure features 4 rows of bleacher seating in an elevated balcony that runs the length of the ice rink on either side. These bleachers provide seating for roughly 1,200 fans, with standing room and bench seating available underneath. Because of this set-up the team benches are actually directly underneath the stands.
Chief Illiniwek, or 'The Chief', was the university's official symbol from 1926 until
February 21,
2007. Use of this symbol garnered criticism for the university starting in the mid-1970s from
Native Americans and others as a misappropriation and inaccurate portrayal of indigenous culture. However, the Chief remained popular among many students and alumni as the school's symbol. The university officials announced the end of the Chief Illiniwek era on
February 16,
2007.
Notable faculty and alumni
As of 2007, 21 faculty/alumni members are
Nobel laureates and 20 have won a
Pulitzer Prize.
Rankings
| Publication |
Rank |
Category |
U.S. News & World Report
(2008 ranking unless noted otherwise) |
# 8 |
Public Universities
(Out of 164 public institutions) |
| # 38 |
National Universities
(Out of 262 institutions) |
| # 1 |
Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences program |
| # 5 |
College of Engineering
(Both undergraduate and graduate programs) |
| # 12 |
College of Business undergraduate program |
| # 25 |
College of Education graduate program |
| # 25 |
College of Law professional program |
| # 7 |
Ph.D. Chemistry program |
| # 1 |
Graduate Civil and Environmental Engineering program |
| Top 25 |
Master of Fine Arts program (2004) |
| # 6 |
Master of Music program (1998) |
| # 8 |
Among all Physics Departments (2009) |
| # 1 |
Graduate Accounting Program (MSA & MAS) (US News, 2006) |
| # 1 |
Undergraduate Accounting Program (BS) (US News, 2006) |
The Washington Monthly
(2008 Ranking) |
# 11 |
College National Rankings |
| Entrepreneur Magazine |
#16 |
Undergraduate entrepreneurial program (2007) |
| #21 |
Graduate entrepreneurial program (2007) |
Business Week
(2008 Ranking) |
#18 |
Top undergraduate business programs |
| The Institute for Higher Education at Shanghai Jia Tong University |
#19 |
University in America (2007) |
| # 26 |
University in the world (2007) |
| PC Magazine |
# 6 |
"Most Connected, Plugged-in, and High-Tech Campus in the Country." (2006) |
| The Peace Corps |
# 17 |
Top Universities and Colleges (2007) |
| DesignIntelligence Magazine |
# 8 |
Industrial Design
(Undergraduate and graduate programs) |
| # 10 |
Graduate Architecture program |
| Gourman Report |
#2 |
HR and Labor Relations graduate program |
| # 17 |
Top National Universities |
International rankings by The Institute of Higher Education at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University suggest that UIUC is the 20th best university in North America, and 26th best university in the world. The Academic Ranking of World Universities by Broad Subject Fields from the same research center in 2007 positions UIUC as the 3rd best in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences, only after
MIT and
Stanford. It is 19th in Life and Agriculture Sciences, 20th in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and 51st (tied) in Social Sciences. Notably, the ranking is recognized for its ruthless objectiveness and emphasis on research productivity/scholastic achievement.
Illinois was ranked as the 77th best in the world, by
The Times Higher Education Supplement’s list of the top 200 universities in the world in the latest release. However, UIUC had ranked in the top 30s for a few years past. This ranking is often criticized due to its volatility: It stresses international popularity and ranks may change tens of places from one year to the next. The WSJ ranking of business schools also has this inherited anomaly, attributed to its survey method.
The Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations has been recognized consistently as one of the top three programs for HR and Labor Relations studies in the United States. The
Gourman Reports has ranked the program as #2 and #3 in various years.
In the 2008 release of
Webometrics Ranking of World Universities by Cybermetrics Lab, which is a research unit of National Research Council of Spain, the University was ranked 9th. In 2006,
G-Factor, another academic list trying to measure social network efficacy of universities, has ranked Illinois in the top 8.
Gourman Report also ranks Illinois as 17th best university in the nation.
In its 2008 listings,
US News and World Report ranked the undergraduate program 38th overall out of nationally accredited universities and 8th out of nationally accredited public universities
(External Link). The graduate program has 60 disciplines ranked in the top 30 nationwide, including 23 in the top 5 overall. US News and World Report ranked the Undergraduate and Graduate Accounting programs #2 and #4 respectively in the United States in their 2008 rankings; both programs had been ranked #1 at the same time in previous years. The College of Business as a whole was ranked 12th best nationally. The College of Engineering was ranked 4th, with 14 graduate disciplines ranked in the top 10. The College of Education has six programs ranked in the top 10. The Graduate School of Library and Information Science is top 1, with five programs ranked in the top 10. Chemistry and Physics are also in top 10. Of note is many arts programs are in the first quartile, such as Architecture and Fine Arts. However, Computer Science, Actuarial Science and Psychology are the university's most visibly distinguished departments among others. The Institute for Labor and Industrial relations is recognized consistently as top 2 or 3 in the nation, only behind
Cornell University.
As of 2007,
Washington Monthly ranks UIUC as the 11th best university in the nation, and ranks 9th among public universities.
The methodology of the ranking includes "how well it performs as an engine of social mobility," "how well it does in fostering scientific and humanistic research," and "how well it promotes an ethic of service to country."
Newsweek International listed UIUC as one of Top 100 Global Universities
(External Link), which "takes into account openness and diversity, as well as distinction in research."
Kiplinger's Personal Finance also listed UIUC in its 100 Best Values in Public Colleges
(External Link), which "measures academic quality, cost and financial aid."
The
Princeton Review has elected Urbana-Champaign campus as one of the 366 best colleges out of nearly 5,000 degree-granting institutions of higher education in the United States, according to the
National Center for Education Statistics(External Link). Nonetheless, the university has come under criticism for its use of graduate teaching assistants in teaching undergraduate courses, including upper-level undergraduate courses. For two consecutive years, the Urbana-Champaign campus topped this review's category of "teaching assistants teach too many upper level courses." Yet The Review's ranking itself is attacked with its category lists which are claimed to be lacking accountability, mainly from student random sampling. For instance, University of Wisconsin - Madison was dropped out of the top 20 party school list in 2007 while it was ranked number 1 in the last few years.
Points of interest
Images: Perspective views
Image:UIUC CRCE cropped.jpg|CRCE Recreation Center
Image:UIUC main quad.JPG|Main Quad
Image:UIUC chem annex.JPG|Chemistry Annex
Image:UIUC six pack.JPG|Peabody Residence Hall
Image:UIUC Arch Building.JPG|Architecture Building
Image:UIUC Observatory.JPG|University Observatory
Image:UIUC Foelinger detail.JPG|Foellinger Auditorium
Image:UIUC morrow plot.JPG|Morrow Plots and Institute for Genomic Biology
Image:UIUC linclon hall.JPG|Lincoln Hall
Image:Union detail.JPG|Illini Union
Image:UIUC engineering.JPG|Engineering Campus
Image:UIUC Psychology.JPG|Psychology Building
Image:UIUC Marching illini.JPG|The Marching Illini at Memorial Stadium
Image:UIUC Krannert Art.JPG|Krannert Art Museum
Image:UIUC Krannert Performing.JPG|Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Image:UIUC alumni center.JPG|Alice Campbell Alumni Center
Further Information
Get more info on 'University Of Illinois'.
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