Southern Illinois University Carbondale


Southern Illinois University is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Chartered in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. SIU enrolls students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Originally founded as a normal college, the university today provides programs in a variety of disciplines. SIU was granted limited university status in 1943 and began offering graduate degrees in 1950. A separate campus was established in Edwardsville, Illinois in 1957, eventually becoming Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – very High research activity". It is also known for its research partnerships, including those with the Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NASA. The university is home to hundreds of student organizations, twenty-seven fraternity and sorority chapters, and a competitive flight team. SIU's intercollegiate athletic teams are collectively known as the Southern Illinois Salukis.

History

Southern Illinois Normal College was chartered by an act of the Twenty-Sixth Illinois General Assembly on March 9, 1869, the second state-supported normal school to be created in Illinois. Carbondale was selected to host the university and a cornerstone-laying ceremony was held on May 17, 1870. Alternate sites considered for the university included Centralia and DuQuoin, among others. The accidental death of a site contractor and other delays prevented the university's opening until 1874. The first session of the university was a summer institute with eight faculty members and an enrollment of 53 students.
In 1876 SIU admitted its first African-American student, Alexander Lane. In 1878 SIU established a program for the Douglas Corps Cadets, beginning a relationship with ROTC programs which lasts into the present day. The original "Old Main" building was destroyed by fire in 1883, and a new one was built in the same spot. The university's first student newspaper, The Normal Gazette, was published in 1888 and its first yearbook, The ''Sphinx, in 1899. SIU's first sports teams, known as "the Maroons", formed in the 1913-1914 school year.
The Shryock Auditorium was completed in 1918 and dedicated by former U.S. President Taft with a speech in support of the on-going war effort. Post-war prosperity aided the university's growth, and by 1922 it enrolled over 1,000 students. Stagnation occurred with the onset of the Great Depression and the sudden deaths of university presidents Henry Shryock and Roscoe Pulliam. In 1943 SIU was granted limited university status to offer graduate degrees, and in 1947 the Illinois General Assembly officially adopted the name Southern Illinois University. Budget concerns and leadership challenges dogged the presidency of Chester F. Lay, Pulliam's successor, until his resignation in 1948. In that same year, the first formal research conducted at SIU began with Lay's appointment of geneticist Carl C. Lindegren.
Delyte W. Morris was inaugurated as SIU's president in 1949. Morris was SIU's longest-serving president, his 22-year tenure seeing the expansion and transformation of the university. New educational programs, administrative positions, and physical facilities were added, financed by a growth in student population and state-supported bonds. Housing and other amenities for students received particular focus. In 1957 a second campus of SIU was established at Edwardsville, near St. Louis. This school would develop into Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, now a public university within the SIU system.
President Morris left office in 1970. Formal explanations focused on Morris' declining health, but campus unrest due to the Vietnam War, the burning of the Old Main Building in 1969, financial scandals, and distrust amongst SIU's Board of Trustees are speculated to have played a role. The university continued to grow with the creation of law, medical, and dental schools in the early 1970s. Other achievements included the opening of the long-awaited recreation center in 1977, the foundation of Project Achieve by Barbara Kupiec in 1978, and the Saluki men's football team NCAA I-AA national football championship title win in 1983.
SIU's enrollment reached a record enrollment of 24,869 students in 1991, a time when SIU became notorious for its party school reputation. Tensions with the surrounding community resulted in a ban on Halloween celebrations in the mid-1990s as students living in university dormitories were sent home for the holiday. Funding issues stemming from Illinois' state budget crises, including the 2015-2017 budget impasse, and declining student enrollment exacerbated a situation made worse by the unexpected deaths of university presidents Paul Sarvela and Carlo Montemagno. In recent years, a focus on research, building renovations and expansions, and stabilizing enrollment numbers have improved the university's position. Student celebrations like the ones seen in Saturday Night Live's Roadshow'' have now largely been replaced with the traditions of "Unofficial Halloween" and "Polar Bear". Despite this, SIU was still named ninth in a list of "The Top 10 Schools that Party All Day, Everyday" by College Magazine in 2015.

Campus

At the time of SIU's first class in 1874, the university consisted of one three-story building constructed between 1870 and 1874. Many of the university's first buildings were constructed as the university expanded throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. Major additions were built during the 1960-70s and the 2000-10s. The age of the university is reflected in the various architectural styles on display, including examples of Victorian and Brutalist designs. In addition to its physical facilities, the campus boasts several areas of natural beauty, including Thompson Woods and Campus Lake. Various memorials, monuments, artistic structures, and other sites of interest are also present throughout the campus.

Student amenities

The Student Services Building contains most of the university's student-related offices. Spread across four floors, students have easy access to help and consultation from advisors at the Undergraduate Admissions Office, Graduate School, Financial Aid Office, University Housing, Career Development Center, and numerous other offices.
The Student Center is a large building near the center of campus which serves as a hub for events held by students and community members. Containing over eight and a half acres of space, the building hosts food vendors, dining and study spaces, a bowling alley and pool room, Esports Arena, the University Bookstore, Sustainability Hub, the Craft Shop, and the Saluki Food Pantry. It is the former home of the WIDB 104.3 FM student-run radio station. It is also the main meeting space for most of SIU's RSOs, as well as the Black Affairs Office, International Student Council, Student Programming Council, and both student governments.
The Student Recreation Center, or "Rec," is the university's primary hub for intramural and fitness activities. Most of the Rec's budget is raised by a student recreation fee included in students' fees, meaning individual students do not need to pay for entrance or membership. Other revenue generated by instructional programs, camps, and community citizens who pay for membership. Indoor facilities include an Olympic-sized pool, areas for basketball, volleyball, racquetball, handball, and squash, a two-story running track, rooms for weightlifting, martial arts, and aerobics, and programs for the disabled.
The Student Health Center is connected to the Student Recreation Center on the east side of campus. The 57,000-square-foot health center offers a 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.

Instructional and research facilities

The majority of SIU's instructional and research facilities are enclosed on or within Lincoln Drive, which circles the university's main campus on three sides before connecting with South Illinois Avenue. As the university expanded, new buildings with similar academic purposes to existing buildings were often added in the same location. As such, most students of any of SIU's constituent colleges will only ever use a few of SIU's main buildings.
One of the more recognizable buildings on campus is Pulliam Hall, the home of the School of Education and the location of SIU's iconic clock tower. Pulliam was once known as Carbondale University High School, a functioning high school which served to train teachers. The College of Business occupies nearby Rehn Hall. The Neckers Building, Engineering Building, and Applied Sciences and Arts Building contain most of the university's physical and chemical laboratories as well as lecture halls. The Neckers Building hosts several large telescopes, facilitating regular viewings of astronomical events. The College of Liberal Arts primarily occupies Faner Hall, whose design and size have made it a controversial symbol of the campus. Allegations that Faner was built to be riot-proof are likely apocryphal; however it is true that Faner is almost thirty feet longer than the Titanic. Faner is also the home of the University Museum which holds over 70,000 unique artifacts ranging from local history to original renaissance tapestries. Students of the agricultural sciences will spend their time in the Agricultural Building, which boasts an award-winning flower display and living wall. Students in the media arts occupy the Communications Building, which hosts the annual McLeod Summer Playhouse. SIU's Law School is situated in the Lesar Law Building at the extreme west end of the campus.
All of the buildings on the main campus are connected by footpaths, interspersed with small parks and green areas. More heavily trafficked paths are lit up with brighter lighting at night as a safety feature. Students who choose to drive on campus will need to purchase a parking sticker from SIU's Parking Division or else park at the pay station lot in front of the Student Center. Walking or biking is the preferred method of transport on-campus, although Carbondale and SIU entered into an agreement with Veo Scooters in 2022 to bring electric scooters to the campus during warmer months.
Morris Library is the main library for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus. The library holds over five million volumes, 63,000 current periodicals and serials, and over 3.6 million microform units. It also provides access to the statewide automated library system and an array of online collections such as The Lancet, JSTOR, and The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The library is a member of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, Association of Research Libraries, and the Greater Western Library Alliance. SIU's Special Collections Research Center, which holds unique and rare historical artifacts, and the Geospatial Resources area, which holds over 255,000 maps and 93,000 aerial photographs, are maintained in the library. The library is a registered depository for Illinois, U.S. Federal, and United Nations documents. Delyte's, a coffee shop named after former SIU President Delyte W. Morris, operates near the entrance of the library.