Southern Illinois University Carbondale


Southern Illinois University is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 states as well as more than 100 countries. SIU offers 3 associate, 100 bachelor's, 73 master's, and 36 Ph.D programs in addition to professional degrees in architecture, law, and medicine.

History

An Act of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly of Illinois, approved March 9, 1869, created Southern Illinois Normal College, the second state-supported normal school in Illinois. Carbondale held the ceremony of cornerstone laying, May 17, 1870. The first historic session of Southern Illinois Normal University was a summer institute, with a first faculty of eight members and an enrollment of 53 students. It was renamed Southern Illinois University in 1947.
The university continued primarily as a teacher's college until Delyte W. Morris took office as president of the university in 1948. Morris was SIU's longest-serving president. During his presidency, Morris transformed SIU, adding Colleges of Law, Medicine and Dentistry. Southern Illinois University grew rapidly in size from 3,500 to over 24,800 students between 1950 and 1991.
In 1957, a second campus of SIU was established at Edwardsville. This school, now known as Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is an independent university within the SIU system.
SIU offered the first program to provide support to students with specific learning disabilities at a college level. "Project Achieve" was founded at SIU by Barbara Cordoni Kupiec in 1978. She pursued a career in the field initially to help her own children and has left behind a legacy that has assisted several thousand other students in earning their degrees. In 1983, Project Achieve became the Clinical Center Achieve program when SIUC decided to institutionalize the program, making it a permanent part of the university's structure.

Leadership

was the eighth president of the Southern Illinois University System. Dr. Dunn served as president at two other state institutions and was the state superintendent of education, appointed to that role by the Illinois State Board of Education. His career in education includes classroom teaching, serving as principal at two school districts, serving as superintendent for two Illinois school systems, and holding the rank of professor at two universities including SIUC. Dr. Dunn has served on a number of committees, councils and task forces, and he contributes to a variety of scholarly publications.
Dunn received his doctorate in educational administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991. He graduated from Illinois State University with a master's in administration and foundations in 1983, and the B.S. in education in 1980.
Before coming to Southern Illinois, he served as president at two other state institutions — Murray State University in Kentucky and Youngstown State University in Ohio. Before that, Dunn was the state superintendent of education, appointed to that role by the Illinois State Board of Education. He is not a stranger to the SIU System, having held the rank of professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education at SIUC. Dunn started at the Carbondale campus as an associate professor in 1995 and was named department chair in 2000, before leaving to assume the state superintendency. During his term as chair, he also taught in the joint doctoral program in educational leadership at SIU Edwardsville. Dunn began his academic career as an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership at The University of Memphis for two years before taking his faculty post at Southern Illinois University.
In July 2018, Randy Dunn stepped down as SIU system president after emails published in The Southern Illinoisan and The Daily Egyptian revealed he was attempting to divide the SIU system and help Southern Illinois University Edwardsville become the primary campus for the Southern Illinois University System by concealing over $5 million in funds transferred from Southern Illinois University Carbondale to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He was also implicated in several unethical hires and found at fault by the Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General for improperly hiring his former colleague, Brad Colwell.
Dunn was replaced by J. Kevin Dorsey, a retired dean from the SIU School of Medicine.
Carlo Montemagno, a professor of engineering, became chancellor of SIU Carbondale on August 15, 2017. His appointment was approved by the university's Board of Trustees July 13, 2017, at the recommendation of SIU System President Randy Dunn. Dr. Montemagno was an internationally recognized expert in nanotechnology and biomedical engineering, focusing his work on linking multiple disciplines to solve problems in areas of health, energy and the environment. Prior to his appointment at SIU, he founded the interdisciplinary Ingenuity Lab based at the University of Alberta in Canada. In addition to leading the lab, which connects organizations and researchers from across the Province of Alberta, he served as director of the biomaterials program for the Canadian Research Council's National Institute for Nanotechnology as well as research chair in intelligent nanosystems for the Canadian National Research Council. Dr. Montemagno died on October 11, 2018.

Academic programs and rankings

SIU offers more than 300 academic degree programs across all levels: bachelors, masters, PhD and doctoral. It also offers professional programs in architecture, business, law and medicine. Since 1989, SIU has offered an MD/JD dual degree program, leading to the concurrent award of both degrees after completion of six years of coursework.
The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity." In the academic year 2017-2018 the university was awarded over $178 million in research grants, the largest of which were to the School of Medicine and the College of Science.
SIU Carbondale ranked #254 overall as a "National University" in the 2020 edition of annual college rankings by US News. At SIU, 59% of the classes have 19 or fewer students; 82% of classes have less than 29 students, only 5% of classes include 50 or more students. The ratio of students to faculty is 15 to 1 and the percentage of full-time faculty is 83 percent. Additionally, the National Science Foundation ranks SIU No. 75 among public universities in the U.S. for total research and development expenditures, and No. 64 among earned doctorates.
The Princeton Review ranked SIU in its 2017 list of "Best Midwestern" and "Green Colleges" as well as ranking it #43 in the "Top 50 Game Design: Ugrad" list.

Departmental and program rankings

College of Agricultural Sciences

The College of Agricultural Sciences consists of four academic departments: Agribusiness Economics, Animal Science, Food & Nutrition, Forestry, and Plant, Soil & Agricultural Systems. There are eight majors and twenty-six specializations. The college's Ph.D. program was added in December 2007. The Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences is a research degree that prepares graduates for developing and funding their own research program, and for teaching graduate and undergraduate students.

College of Applied Sciences and Arts

Since its inception as the Vocational Technical Institute, CASA has undergone continuous change to address the workforce needs in the southern Illinois region, the state and the nation. The College presently includes four schools which house three master's degree programs, fourteen baccalaureate, and two associate degree programs. The masters of science in Medical Dosimetry and one baccalaureate program, Fire Service Management, are offered off-campus only.
CASA provides off-campus opportunities to receive baccalaureate degrees in the areas of Aviation Management, Electronic Systems Technologies, Fire Service Management, Health Care Management, and Medical Dosimetry.
The baccalaureate degree in Information Systems Technologies is offered online. Forty-nine hours of upper-level and selected elective courses are available to students at various locations throughout the country.

Campus

Libraries

Morris Library is the main library for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus. The library holds more than 4 million volumes, 53,000 current periodicals and serials, and over 3.6 million microform units. Morris Library also provides access to the statewide automated library system and to an array of electronic sources. These figures make Morris Library among the top 50 largest research libraries in the United States. Library users have access to I-Share and to a comprehensive array of databases and other electronic data files. As the campus center for access to academic information and collaborative academic technology projects, Morris Library provides a wide range of services, including reference assistance, instructional and technical support, distance learning, geographic information systems, and multimedia courseware development. Morris Library is a member of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, Association of Research Libraries, and the Greater Western Library Alliance. Delyte's, a new coffee shop named after former SIU President Delyte W. Morris operates near the entrance of the library.
The SIU Law Library provides legal research resources for lawyers, law students, SIU faculty and staff and members of the community. Located in the Lesar Law Building, the library has evolved to meet the changing nature of legal research and user expectations by providing wireless access to a wide array of electronic legal materials.

Student Center

With over of floor space, the SIU Student Center is one of the largest student unions in the nation. The programs and services offered provide SIU students, faculty, and staff a place to relax, gather a group to study or grab a bite to eat. The Student Center hosts multiple dining locations, the University Bookstore, ATM and Western Union stations, bowling & billiards facility, check cashing services, the ID Card office, and Debit Dawg activations and deposits all under one roof. The Student Center offers several ballrooms and smaller, expandable conference rooms for small or large gatherings. Student-run radio station WIDB 104.3 FM broadcasts from the Student Center, and the Black Affairs Office, International Student Council, Student Programming Council or "SPC," student governments and the Greek Council are among the organizations with their offices in the building.

Student Recreation Center

The Student Recreation Center, or "Rec," is the university's primary hub for intramural and fitness activities with more than 220,000 square feet, the SIU Recreation Center is also one of the largest among universities in the nation. Although SIU's Recreation Center doesn't receive state support, it operates on a $4.8 million budget, most of which is raised by a student recreation fee that is included in student fees. The rest of the money is revenue generated by instructional programs, camps and community citizens who pay for membership.
Indoor facilities include an Olympic-sized pool
Pool Features:
The 770,000 gallon natatorium is surrounded by a closed gutter filtration system which drastically reduces water turbulence helping to increase the swimmers' speed.
The facility also houses areas for basketball, volleyball, racquetball, handball, squash, weightlifting, martial arts, aerobics, and programs for the disabled. There are over 180 fitness stations distributed throughout the building. Other on campus outdoor recreation include tennis courts at three campus locations, a frisbee golf course, and 100 acres of playing fields. Picnic areas, and boat dock facilities are available at Campus lake.

Health Center

Connected to the Student Recreation Center on the east side of campus, the 57,000-square-foot health center offers students a continuum of care under one roof. Services include the medical clinic, pharmacy, wellness resources, psychiatry clinic, sports medicine and physical therapy and counseling and psychological services. Community partners Southern Illinois Dermatology and the Marion Eye Center also provide services in the new health center.

Athletics

The Southern Illinois Salukis are the athletic teams representing Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The university first sponsored athletic teams during the 1913–14 school year, when they were known as the "Maroons." Students and faculty began lobbying for a new mascot during the late 1940s. On March 19, 1951, the student body voted to change the official nickname to the Salukis. The saluki, the royal dog of ancient Egypt, was chosen as the mascot due to its reputation as a fast and tenacious hunter and because the southern Illinois region is known as "Little Egypt."
The Salukis sponsor 16 varsity teams. Most compete in the Missouri Valley Conference, specifically in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, softball, women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, and volleyball. The football program competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Men's swimming is part of the Mid-American Conference.

Athletic highlights

Southern Illinois University has a vibrant student culture and is home to more than 400 Registered Student Organizations. Organizations include honor societies, sports clubs and student activity groups, and 11 fraternities, 8 multicultural fraternities and 9 sororities. The largest RSO on campus is the Student Programming Council.

Student government

SIU has two primary bodies of student government responsible for distributing part of the Student Activity Fee to the RSO's:
Additionally, one student is elected as one of the "Student Trustees"; the other is elected at SIUE and appointed by the governor as a voting member of the SIU Board of Trustees.

The ''Daily Egyptian''

The Daily Egyptian or "DE" for short, is an award-winning student-run newspaper. The DE is published weekly on Wednesdays during the fall and spring semesters with a distribution of 78,000 copies, and an online edition on Friday. The Daily Egyptian has received more than 25 awards from the Illinois College Press Association. In 2002, the paper was the recipient of the National Newspaper Pacemaker Award for General Excellence.

Saluki Patrol

Founded in 1959, the Saluki Patrol is one of the oldest student security teams in the country. The student members assist the Department of Public Safety in their duties.

On-campus housing

On-campus housing at SIU is provided in residence halls and apartments and is offered for students who are undergraduates, graduates, parents, domestic partners, or married.
There are two main residence hall areas, each with a commons building containing a dining hall, known as East Campus and West Campus. The traditional residence hall contract includes a furnished room, wi-fi, cable, utilities and a dining plan. Residence hall rooms are fully furnished, and many have been modified to meet the needs of specific types of disability.
Apartment housing is available in Evergreen Terrace, Wall & Grand, and Elizabeth Apartments.
The SIU Housing Policy states: All single students under the age of 21, not residing with their parents or legal guardians, with fewer than 26 credit hours earned after high school are required to live in University-owned and operated residence halls. Students are considered to hold freshman status if they have earned fewer than 26 credit hours after high school.

Cardboard Boat Regatta

The Cardboard Boat Regatta is an event held every spring semester at Campus Lake. Participants include university students and community members both young and old. The goal is to complete three trips around a 200-yard course on the lake using makeshift cardboard boats. There are three different categories for entries: canoes or kayaks, experimental boats and instant boats.
The idea for a Cardboard Regatta first originated in 1974 at Southern Illinois University. Richard Archer, a professor of Art and Design, dreamed up a final examination for students in his freshman design class. Buckminster Fuller, then a Distinguished Professor at SIU, had espoused the principle of "doing the most with the least," and faculty members found it intriguing to apply these principles in their classes. Archer felt it would be a real test of students' creativity and three-dimensional design skills to build human-sized boats made only of cardboard, and more than 40 years later, it is still happening. Many communities, organizations and other universities around the country have joined in on the fun and now organize their own Cardboard Boat Regattas.

Competitive programs

There are currently over 220,000 graduates of Southern Illinois University Carbondale worldwide.
Notable SIU alumni include: