Southwestern Illinois College history

In 1955, the group began an advocacy campaign to establish a public university.

By 1956, they had formed the Southwestern Illinois Council for Higher Education.

In 1957, the See-Myers report was released and indicated that in Madison-St Clair Counties, with 600,000 residents, the largest population concentration in the state outside of metropolitan Chicago, only three percent of the adult population had completed four years of college.

In 1958, the Council began a highly-successful private fundraising campaign to purchase land for a new campus.

When Illinois legislators authorized a bond issue to fund public university facility improvements in 1960, area residents expressed their overwhelming approval at the ballot box.

Groundbreaking for SIU Edwardsville was held in 1963.

In 1965, SIUE opened the Peck Classroom Building and Lovejoy Library in the midst of 2,660 acres of rolling land and woods.

Belleville Junior College became Belleville Area College July 1, 1967.

Construction of the college’s Belleville Campus was completed in 1971.

The college’s Programs and Services for Older Persons (PSOP), funded largely through federal, state and local grants, has offered programs to promote independent, productive living for area seniors since 1973.

The Sam Wolf Granite City Campus was established in 1983 at the site of the former Granite City North High School.

The campus building and property were deeded officially to the college in 1997.

In 1999, a vote to change the name of Belleville Area College was passed.

Answer to Wednesday’s trivia: In 2005, Pocahontas native Gretchen Wilson set a mark for releasing the highest debuting single ever on the Hot Country Singles chart when “All Jacked Up” started out at No.

SIUE celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007.

That designation reflects our longstanding commitment to service and outreach; in 2013 alone, 237,000 residents of central and southern Illinois benefited from 578 initiatives with more than 3,000 community partners.