University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. The university is composed of 18 Colleges and Institutes that offer more than 150 programs of study. Its 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 more than $1 billion. As of Fall 2005, 41,938 students were enrolled, of whom 30,909 were undergraduate students and 11,029 were graduate,^[1] and, until 1998, it was one of the 10 largest universities in the United States in terms of student enrollment. The student population includes students from all 50 states and 100 nations. Eleven alumni and nine professors (two of whom are also alumni) from U of I have won the Nobel Prize. Alumni and faculty have created numerous products and companies: Netscape Communications, AMD, PayPal, Playboy, the National Football League, Siebel Systems, Mortal Kombat, YouTube, Oracle, Lotus, Yelp, BET, LED, integrated circuit, transistor, MRI, and Plasma screen^{[citation needed]}. It is considered to be one of the top ten public universities in the country according to U.S. News and World Report.

[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

The Illini Union

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.

U of I is one of the few educational institutions to own an airport.^[2] 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.^[3]

[edit] Research

U of I is highly regarded as a center of engineering and physical sciences research. It is 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 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. The Siebel Center for Computer Science recently opened, and the Institute for Genomic Biology will open in 2006. 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 Bill Gates' February 24th talk, titled "Software breakthroughs: Solving the toughest problems in computer science" at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he mentioned that Microsoft hires more computer science graduates from the school than from any other university.^[4]

[edit] Student life

[edit] Residences

Main article: UIUC Residence Halls

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.^[5] 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 has the largest Greek system in the world.^[6] There are currently forty-five fraternities and twenty-three sororities on the campus. Of the approximately 30,000 undergraduates, about 2900 are members of sororities ^[7] and about 3100 are members of fraternities ^[8]. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Registry of Historic Places.

[edit] Libraries

A view of the Grainger Engineering Library from the Bardeen Quad

University Main Library

The University has the largest public university library in the world ^[9], with more than 10 million volumes, which help comprise 22 million items ^[10] in the main library and the 40 other departmental libraries and divisions.

As of 2006, it is 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] 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's 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

Main article: Illinois Fighting Illini

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-A and is a member of the Big Ten Conference. 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.

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 it was the focal point of the first ever organized homecoming weekend.^[11]

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.^[12]

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

[edit] Notable faculty and alumni

The Morrow Plots on the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is America's oldest experimental field for agriculture, established 1876.

As of 2005, 19 alumni are Nobel laureates and 16 have won a Pulitzer Prize. 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, 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 buldings on the Urbana-Champaign campus, including Altgeld Hall and the Information and Library Sciences building (formerly the home of the campus's Acacia fraternity chapter until 1991). Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, also graduated from U of I.^[13]

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

[edit] Rankings

International rankings suggest that UIUC is the 19th best university in the nation, and 25th best university in the world, by The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.^[14] Also, Illinois is ranked as the 22nd best university in the country, and 58th best in the world, by The Times Higher Education Supplement’s list of the top 200 universities in the world;^[15]

In its 2007 listings, US News and World Report ranked the undergraduate program 41st overall out of nationally accredited universities and 10th 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 both the Undergraduate and Graduate Accounting programs #1 in the United States in their 2006 rankings. Of note is the College of Engineering (ranked 4th nationwide) with 14 graduate disciplines ranked in the top 10, Computer Science ranked 4th in the nation, the College of Education with six programs ranked in the top 10, and library and information science with five programs ranked in the top 10.

The Urbana-Champaign campus 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 has topped the Princeton Review's^[16] category of "teaching assistants teach too many upper level courses."

[edit] Points of interest

[edit] See also

• Illinois Fighting Illini - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sports
• Daily Illini - independent student newspaper
• 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
• Illinois Loyalty - school song
• Star Course - Student Entertainment Organization
• Nobel Prize Ranking

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website
• Campus map
• Daily Illini online
• Illinois Greek community
• U of I Livejournal Community
• Ethnography of the University
• 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 Coordinates: 40.11054° -88.22841°
  • Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
  • Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA