University of Illinois System history

In 1870, however, Regent Gregory established what may be the first student government in the country.

James Newton Matthews, first matriculant, 1872

As early as 1877, the seniors chose plug hats as their symbol while the juniors showed their class rank by attending a party decked out in academic caps and gowns.

The Illini, 1 December 1879.

Beginning in 1882, students were required to pledge that they would not join a fraternity.

Carlos Montezuma was the first Native American graduate, in 1884.

In 1886-7 only two students had been given demerits, but in the following year 48 students received a total of 1260 demerits.

In 1887 the metaphorical dam broke, and “a new era of disorder,” in Solberg’s words, rocked the University.

Beginning in 1889, enrollment, courses and departments began a rapid increase that has continued to the present.

In its first intercollegiate match, held on October 2, 1890, the Illini eleven lost to Illinois Wesleyan by a score of 16-0. “The Wesleyans do nothing else but play football in the way of outdoor sports so they had the advantage over the U. of I. boys,” the Illini explained.

Reminder to study from the Daily Illini March 7, 1891 Resignation of the Battalion, Daily Illini February 7, 1891

A successful disciplinarian and legislative lobbyist, Draper continued a building program begun in 1892, hired an able faculty and broadened the University's offerings by adding schools of law, library science and medicine.

In 1896 Illinois co-founded the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, later known as the Big Ten.

University of Illinois, Illini Women’s Number, March 11, 1898.

William Walter Smith to Andrew Draper (PDF) , January 1902, Andrew Draper General Correspondence (2/4/1), B: 17, F: Smith, University of Illinois Archives.

The University of Illinois Foundation, established in 1935, is dedicated to securing and administering private gifts for the University of Illinois System and its three universities.

Charles Jeffers Letter, 1937 July 23, Carl Stephens Papers (26/1/20), B: 8, F: Athletics, University of Illinois Archives.

Four years later, in 1939, the Foundation launched its first major fundraising effort—the construction and furnishing of the Illini Union on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The third major building project in this period were the first modern Men's Dormitories, which were built in 1941.

Charles Albert Kiler, On the Banks of the Boneyard (Urbana: Illini Union Bookstore, 1942), 23.

An undergraduate division of the university opened in Chicago in 1946.

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) is built at the University of Pennsylvania.1948 John von Neumann, a pioneer in computer design at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, suggests that the Illinois research group build a computer.

1952 ILLIAC, the first computer built and owned entirely by an educational institution, becomes operational.

A series of crises eventually resulted in Stoddard's dismissal by the Board of Trustees in 1953.

John Bardeen co-invents the transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories, for which he wins the Nobel Prize in 1956.

1964 The Digital Computer Laboratory is reorganized as the Department of Computer Science, and John Pasta becomes its head.

Named the University of Illinois Chicago Circle (UICC), the new campus opened in February 1965.

1967 Our first PhD is awarded (to Thomas Slivinski), and our first MS is awarded (to Dugald Henderson).

1969 Clarence Ellis becomes the first African-American to receive a PhD in computer science.

1973 C. L. Liu and J.W. Layland develop the rate-monotonic scheduling algorithm, the theoretical basis of modern methods and tools for predicting the timing behavior of multiprogrammed real-time systems.

Intel purchases Kuck & Associates, which had become a worldwide leader in developing parallel software tools and compiler technologies after it was founded by Professor David J. Kuck in 1979.

An operating system supplied by Wind River, a company co-founded by CS alumnus Jerry Fiddler in 1981, powers the Mars Pathfinder Lander.

A faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University since 1984, Rutenbar had also co-founded Neolinear Inc. and the Silicon Vox Corporation, commercializing his research.

1990 Duncan Lawrie, who designed and implemented the first high-level language for ILLIAC IV and who was a principal architect of Cedar, becomes head of the Department of Computer Science.

1997 NCSA and the Department of Computer Science anchor the NSF Partnership for an Advanced Computational Infrastructure, a five-year effort to create a high-performance computing and networking infrastructure for the next century.

In 2000, UIC expanded with the development of south campus, providing increased residential student living space and research facilities.

2008 With funding from Microsoft and Intel, Illinois launches a $18 million research center to bring parallel computing concepts to mainstream devices and applications.

For more detailed information about the Brilliant Futures Campaign, reference the August 2012 Campaign Report.

2016 The Master of Computer Science Data Science degree track is launched in partnership with Coursera.

The FY 2019 financial report was announced today at the Foundation’s 84th Annual Business Meeting held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.