Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States. Located within the Metro East of Greater St. Louis, SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major institutions of the Southern Illinois University system. SIUE has eight constituent undergraduate and graduate colleges, including those in arts and sciences, business, dentistry, education, engineering, graduate study, nursing, and pharmacy. In addition to its main campus it also hosts the East St. Louis Center.
While most of SIUE's students are from Illinois, out-of-state and international students account for 19% of enrollment. SIUE offers in-state tuition for undergraduate students from all 50 states. The university offers numerous extracurricular activities to its students, including athletics, honor societies, student clubs and organizations, as well as fraternities and sororities. The university has more than 115,000 alumni.
Fielding athletic teams known as the SIU Edwardsville Cougars, the university participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
History During the post–World War II economic expansion, a lack of public higher education was noticeable in the growing Metro-East area.Butler, David L. "Retrospect at a Tenth Anniversary: Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville". Southern Illinois University Press, 1976, pp. 3–4. Organizations from across the area took it upon themselves to relieve this lack. Southern Illinois University (SIU), over to the region's south, opened a residence center in Belleville in 1949.Butler 1976, p. 5. In 1955, the Edwardsville Chamber of Commerce founded the Southwestern Illinois Council for Higher Education (SWICHE), tasked with creating a more permanent solution to the problem.Butler 1976, p. 6. SWICHE and SIU's board of trustees met and stated their agreement in goals in 1956, and, that same year, an executive committee from the Board of Education in Alton invited Alonzo Myers, Chairman of the Department of Higher Education for Higher Education at New York University, to perform a study of the need for higher education in the Metro-East.
Myers's 1957 report, The Extent and the Nature of Needs for Higher Education in Madison and St. Clair Counties, outlined the precise need:Butler 1976, p. 9 the 1950 census showed that students in the region in question were only half as likely as those in other regions of the country to finish a four-year college degree program (owing specifically to the lack of a nearby university and the financial difficulties of going to school away from home at other state universities).Butler 1976, p. 10 Businesses in the area were in need of college-trained employees, but were forced to hire outside of the area,Butler 1976, p. 11 especially in the fields of business administration, nursing, education, and industrial technology.Butler 1976, pp. 11–13 Myers concluded that, rather than more residence centers, private schools, or junior colleges, a branch of a four-year public university would best serve the needs of the area.Butler 1976, pp. 13–15 He recommended SIU, the closest large public university, as the best candidate.Butler 1976, p. 16
Acting on the report, in 1957, SIU purchased both a former building of East St. Louis High School and the campus of Shurtleff College in Alton as temporary facilities. Even with all of the research and planning that had gone before, the true need had been underestimated. When the new campuses opened, officials planned on having about 800 students; 1776 enrolled, and enrollment doubled within two years.
The dual campus solution was temporary, mostly because both facilities were in urban areas with little room for expansion even at the time of purchase. Land for the permanent campus was purchased in 1960— of farmland. Money for the purchase came from A) contributions from individuals, businesses, industries, labor unions, civic organizations, and PTAs; B) loans from 14 Metro-East banks; and C) state funding.Butler 1976, p. 19. The location, west of Edwardsville, was chosen due to its accessibility via highways, its usability as an educational campus, and its proximity to the major urban areas of the Metro-East.Butler 1976, pp. 19–20.
In 1960, a bond issue was voted upon by the residents of Illinois; the measure passed by more than 100,000 votes, providing funds for the construction of the campuses of SIUE and the school now known as the University of Illinois Chicago.Butler 1976, p. 21 A conference entitled Environmental Planning-Edwardsville Campus (EPEC) took place in 1961, highlighting the architectural and spatial design of the future campus.Butler 1976, pp. 23–32 The campus was designed by architects Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. Ground was broken in 1963Butler 1976, p. 22 and, with the first two buildings (Peck Hall and Lovejoy Library) completed, classes were first held on the Edwardsville campus in fall 1965.Butler 1976, pp. 33–34 A series of dedication ceremonies from 1966 to 1969 highlighted the ongoing growth of the campus.Butler 1976, pp. 35–37
Prior to the development of the Edwardsville campus, six "Divisions of Academic Programs" were established for the SIU Residential Centers in Alton and East St. Louis on March 4, 1960. When the move was made to the new campus in 1965, the "Divisions" became the Schools of Business, Education, Fine Arts, Humanities, Science and Technology, and Social Sciences. The nursing program, which was to become the School of Nursing when the new campus opened, was established on March 29, 1964. On April 18, 1969, the board of trustees voted to establish the School of Dental Medicine, which opened in 1972. The School of Engineering originated as the Engineering Department of the School of Science and Technology and was elevated to School status in 1982. Between September 9, 1993, and July 1, 1995, the Schools of Fine Arts, Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences and the University College merged to become the College of Arts and Sciences. The newest of SIUE's schools, the School of Pharmacy, began classes in 2005. In 2014, the School of Education was renamed to School of Education, Health and Human Behavior to better represent the diversity and growth of its academic programs.
During its early days of rapid growth, the school became increasingly independent of its parent school in Carbondale. In 1971, SIU's board of trustees made official the campus's name of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.Butler 1976, p. 39
Mississippi River Festival From 1969 to 1980, the SIUE campus hosted the Mississippi River Festival (MRF), a summer outdoor concert series that featured performances by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (which was in-residence on campus during the MRF's early years) and high-profile classical, jazz, folk, pop, and rock artists including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Van Cliburn, Aaron Copland, Bob Hope, The Who, Yes, Chicago, Joan Baez, The Eagles, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and The Grateful Dead. The MRF stage was situated beneath a large tent, which also covered the reserved seating section, with lawn seating available outside on the grass of the expansive natural amphitheater. The MRF attracted crowds of up to 30,000.The Mississippi River Festival. Amanda Bahr-Evola and Stephen Kerber. Arcadia Publishing, Copyright 2006.
Campus
Main campus
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is located on of trees and lakes, making SIUE one of the largest college campuses in the US by land area. The campus is home to a wide variety of university programs and facilities—classroom and labs, arts and theatre spaces, research centers, student housing, and athletic and recreational venues.
The majority of SIUE's academic buildings are located in the Core Campus, inside Circle Drive on the south side of the Cougar Lake. Many of the academic buildings were constructed during the 1960s, shortly after the land for the campus was purchased, with major additions during the 1970s. Another building boom has occurred since the turn of the 21st century, as the university experienced enrollment growth and expanded programs.
The center of the Core Campus is the Stratton Quadrangle, named after William Stratton, who served as the governor of Illinois from 1953 to 1961 and was the university's first commencement speaker in June 1960. The quadrangle is designed with no direct pathway between two buildings, this provides students with exposure to nature during the commute between buildings. The quadrangle also contains The Rock, which is constantly changing color because student organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, compete to see who can keep it painted their colors the longest. The original Rock, a rose quartz boulder, was donated by the supplier of stone for the original Core Campus buildings. It was stolen during the night of October 7–8, 2003, and was found in pieces nine days later. A replacement Rock of limestone was donated by the Unimin Corporation in 2003, installed on March 14, and dedicated on April 7. The remnants of the original Rock were put on display in the Morris University Center.
The Lovejoy Library is named after Elijah Parish Lovejoy and sits on the north side of the Stratton Quadrangle. It opened in 1965 and now holds over 800,000 volumes of almost 600,000 titles in book form plus over 1.67 million titles on microfilm across its four floors. Three of the university's major academic buildings lie to the east of Lovejoy Library and northeast of the quadrangle. Peck Hall is named after John Mason Peck and opened in 1965. It houses the College of Arts & Sciences and the Departments of Anthropology, History, Sociology, Social Work, English, Foreign Languages, Political Science, and Philosophy. Alumni Hall opened in 1976 and was originally known as Classroom Building III. It houses classrooms and the offices of the School of Nursing and of the departments of Speech Communication, Art Education, Art Therapy, Geography, and Public Administration and Policy Analysis. Founders Hall was originally known as Classroom Building II and opened the same year as Alumni Hall. Founders contains various classroom spaces and is home to the schools of Business and Education and the Army ROTC program.
The Science Building Complex is located to the west of Lovejoy Library. The Science Lab Building East (originally the Science Building) opened in 1966. Construction of the new Science Lab Building West began in late 2009, as part of a $72 million project to build it and completely renovate the existing building. The new building opened for use in the Fall of 2013, with the renovation of the old building originally slated for completion in the Fall of 2016. Renovation work on Science Building East was halted in 2015 due to the Illinois budget crisis, but SIUE "forward funded" the work on the two large lecture halls, which were already back in use when work resumed. Science Lab Building East was rededicated in September 2018, the completion late but well under budget.
Dunham Hall opened in 1966 and underwent an expansion in 1995. The building is named after Katherine Dunham and houses the Departments of Music, Mass Communications, Theater and Dance, and the Information Technology Services. In addition to departmental offices, the building houses music studios, theater studios and workshops, the student television studio, a multimedia computer lab, video editing lab, photojournalism dark room, and WSIE-FM and web-radio radio stations. There is also a theater seating approximately 400, with a proscenium stage, orchestra pit, theatrical lighting, and special effect trap doors. The building is located south of the Science building and directly west of the quadrangle.