University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Motto	Learning and Labor
Established	1867
Type	Flagship state university, Land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant
Academic term	Semester
Endowment	US $2.197 billion[2] (systemwide)
Chancellor	Richard Herman
President	B. Joseph White
Staff	2,978
Students	42,728
Undergraduates	31,472
Postgraduates	11,256
Location	Urbana, Illinois, USA Champaign, Illinois, USA
Campus	Urban, 1,458 acres (5.90 km²)
Sports	Fighting Illini
Colors	Orange and Blue
Website	http://www.illinois.edu/ [3]

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, or simply Illinois), is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious campus in the University of Illinois system. It is one of America's most highly selective state schools with several of its popular undergraduate[4]and graduate[5]programs ranked first in the nation.

The university is composed of 18 Colleges and Institutes that offer more than 150 programs of study. In addition, the university operates an extension[6]that serves 2.5 million registrants per year around the state of Illinois and beyond. The UIUC campus includes 272 major buildings on 1,458 acres (5.90 km²) in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, and has an annual budget of nearly $1.4 billion. As of 30th June 2007, the University of Illinois Foundation - a systemwide endowment - totals at $2.197 billion[7].

As of Summer 2007, 42,728 students from all 50 states and more than 100 nations were enrolled; 31,472 were undergraduate students and 11,256 were graduate students.^[1] Until 1998, UIUC was one of the 10 largest universities in the United States in terms of student enrollment.

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 and World Reports[8]. It is also included on the list of top state schools designated as a Public Ivy. The Public Ivies are America's flagship public universities. A "Public Ivy" institution is defined as one that "provides an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price". Eleven alumni and nine professors (two of whom are also alumni) from U of I have won the Nobel Prize.^[2]

The university is home to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which is an international leader in deploying high-performance computing resources, and is currently partnering with IBM and the National Science Foundation to build the world's fastest supercomputer.^[3] 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.

Alumni and faculty have created numerous products and companies including Mosaic and Netscape Communications, Advanced Micro Devices, PayPal, Playboy, the National Football League, Siebel Systems, Mortal Kombat, YouTube, Oracle Corporation, Lotus Software, Black Entertainment Television, the transistor, the integrated circuit, the light-emitting diode, magnetic resonance imaging, and the plasma screen display.^[4]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early years: 1867-1880 2 Colleges and Schools 3 Campus 4 Research 5 Student Life 5.1 Competition 5.2 Residences 5.3 Greek life 5.4 Libraries 5.5 Recreation 5.6 Transportation 6 Athletics and Sports 7 Notable Faculty and Alumni 8 Images: Perspective Views 9 Rankings 10 Points of Interest 11 See Also 12 References 13 External Links

[edit] 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

[edit] 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."^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[5] From the beginning, Gregory's desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around "industrial education."^[7] 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.^[8] 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 "[I am] staggering under too heavy a load of cares, and irritated by what has sometimes seemed as needless opposition."^[9] 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.^[7] Today, Gregory is largely credited with establishing the University and forming it into the major interdisciplinary university it is 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."

[edit] Colleges and Schools

• College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
• College of Applied Health Sciences
• Institute of Aviation
• College of Business
• College of Communications
• College of Education
• College of Engineering
• College of Fine and Applied Arts
• Graduate College
• Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations
• College of Law
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Graduate School of Library and Information Science
• College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign
• School of Social Work
• College of Veterinary Medicine

[edit] Campus

See also: UIUC Main Campus

The campus is famous for its beautiful landscape and coherent architecture as well as distinctive landmarks.^[10] 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".^[11]

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.^[12] The university owns and 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.^[13]

[edit] Research

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as one of the world-leading magnets 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 [9], by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, UIUC offers a wide range of disciplines in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructures.

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. U of I 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 research/study complexes 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 313,000 square feet. 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 24th February talk, titled "Software breakthroughs: Solving the toughest problems in computer science" at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bill Gates had mentioned that Microsoft hires more computer science graduates from the school than from any other university.^[14]

[edit] Student Life

[edit] 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^[15]. Some of UIUC's colleges only admit students at the most selective level.^[16] For example, the College of Engineering reported SAT average of 1310-1460, compared to the campus average of 1250-1430. UIUC ended up as one of the top 12 (percentage-wise) and top 6 (numerical-wise) feeder state colleges to elite professional schools [10].

[edit] Residences

The university requires all first-year undergraduate students (who do not 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.^[17] 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 are 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. Disabled students 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 are 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.

[edit] Greek life

The university arguably has the largest Greek system in the world.^[1] There are currently sixty fraternities and thirty-six sororities on the campus. Of the approximately 31,500 undergraduates, about 2900 are members of sororities ^[18] and about 3100 are members of fraternities ^[19]. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Libraries

The University has the largest public university library in the world. Only the private collections of Harvard and Yale are larger. ^[20]. The UIUC library has more than 10 million volumes, which help comprise 22 million items ^[21] 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 Issac 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. All together there are more than 40 departmental or school libraries on campus.

[edit] Recreation

Urbana-Champaign campus has one of the most inclusive state-up-the-art recreation infrastructures for a university in the world, which virtually fulfills all of the interests possible from a big and diverse student body. Recently, along with additional expansion the two main recreation facilities, CRCE and IMPE, were significantly upgraded. The campus also has more than one thousand clubs and organizations for people to join in, ranging from cultural to athletic to mechanic to philanthropic. Yet a student can create his or her own Registered Student Organization if the pursuing interest/concern is not addressed in the current entities.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 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^[22][23]

The Ice Arena, also known as the "Big Pond", 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.^[24]

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. University officials announced the end of the Chief Illiniwek era on February 16, 2007.

[edit] Notable Faculty and Alumni

As of 2007, 21 faculty/alumni members are Nobel laureates and 20 have won a Pulitzer Prize.^[1] Alumni have created companies and products such as Netscape Communications, AMD, PayPal, Playboy, the National Football League, Siebel Systems, Mortal Kombat, YouTube, Oracle, Lotus, Yelp, and BET. Alumni and faculty have invented the LED, integrated circuit, quantum-well laser, transistor, MRI, and Plasma screen.

Nathan C. Ricker attended U of I and was the first person to graduate in the United States with a degree in Architecture in 1873. Ricker would go on to design several buildings on the Urbana-Champaign campus, including Altgeld Hall and H. E. Kenny Gymnasium. Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, also graduated from U of I.^[25]

See also: List of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign people

[edit] Images: Perspective Views

CRCE Recreation Center	Main Quad	Chemistry Annex	Peabody Residence Hall
Architecture Building	University Observatory	Foellinger Auditorium	Morrow Plots and Institute for Genomic Biology
Lincoln Hall	Illini Union	Engineering Campus	Psychology Building
The Marching Illini at Memorial Stadium	Krannert Art Museum	Krannert Center for the Performing Arts	Alice Campbell Alumni Center
The EnterpriseWorks	English Building near Main Quad	Irwin Indoor Football Facility	Temple Hoyne Buell Hall
Assembly Hall at Night	Krannert Center's Main Theater	The University's Willard Airport	Foelinger after Sunset

[edit] Rankings

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.^[26] 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 51th (tied) in Social Sciences.[11] 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.[12] The WSJ ranking of business schools also has this inherited anomaly, attributed to its survey method.

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. 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 11th 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.

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." ^[27]

Newsweek International listed UIUC as the 48th institution in the Top 100 Global Universities Ranking[13], which "takes into account openness and diversity, as well as distinction in research."

The Princeton Review has elected Urbana-Champaign campus as one of the 366 best colleges out of more than 5,000 institutions in USA. Nonetheless, the university has come under steady 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^[28] category of "teaching assistants teach too many upper level courses." Yet The Review's ranking is attacked at its category lists which to be said lacking of 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 always number 1 in the last few years. This reasonably exemplifies the point of being unlikely realistic.

[edit] Points of Interest

Alma Mater Allerton Park Arboretum The Beckman Institute Boneyard Creek Conservatory and Plant Collection Engineering Quads Grainger Engineering Library

Illini Union Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Main Quad Morrow Plots- National Historic Landmark National Center for Supercomputing Applications Spurlock Museum Krannert Art Museum University of Illinois Observatory- National Historic Landmark

[edit] See Also

• Daily Illini - independent student newspaper
• WPGU - Student Run Commercial Radio Station
• Illinois Fighting Illini - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sports
• Illinois Loyalty - school song
• Marching Illini - marching band of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• The Illini Club of Will County - alumni support group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• The University's Official Website
• Office of Admissions & Records
• Official Athletics Website
• Campus Map
• Daily Illini Online
• Illinois Greek Community
• Unofficial Guide to U of I
• U of I Livejournal Community
• Ethnography of the University
• Always Illinois: An ILLINOIS inCircle Community
• Brilliant Futures: The Campaign for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• UIHistories Project: History of the University / UITours Project: Virtual Tour of UIUC Campus / UIPhotos Project: Photo Galleries of Campus
• Main Library Homepage
  • IDEALS - Electronic Research and Scholarship of U of I
• Maps and aerial photos for 40°06′38″N 88°13′42″W / 40.11054, -88.22841Coordinates: 40°06′38″N 88°13′42″W / 40.11054, -88.22841
  • Maps from WikiMapia, Google Maps, Live Search Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
  • Topographic maps from TopoZone or TerraServer-USA

v • d • e University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Academics	Undergraduate Colleges and Schools ACES• Business • Communications • Education • Engineering • Fine and Applied Arts • Liberal Arts & Sciences • Institute of Aviation Graduate Colleges and Schools Applied Health Sciences • Graduate College • Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations • Law • Library and Information Science • Medicine • Social Work • Veterinary Medicine
Athletics	Fighting Illini • Basketball • Football • Memorial Stadium • Assembly Hall • Braggin' Rights • Sweet Sioux Tomahawk • Huff Hall • IMPE • CRCE • Kenney Gym • Chief Illiniwek
Points of Interest	Allerton Park • Arboretum • The Beckman Institute • Boneyard Creek • Conservatory • CSL • Engineering Campus • Grainger • Illini Union • Krannert Center • Libraries • Lincoln Hall • Main Campus • Morrow Plots • NCSA • Spurlock Museum
Students	Alumni • Illini Media • Marching Illini • Orange Krush • Residence Halls • Oskee Wow-Wow • Illinois Loyalty • Star Course

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