University of Illinois Chicago
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Motto | Teach, research, serve, care. |
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Type | Public |
Established | 1858, 1946, 1965 |
Endowment | $152,263,953 |
Chancellor | Sylvia Manning |
President | B. Joseph White |
Provost | Michael Tanner |
Academic staff | 2,300 |
Undergraduates | 15,148 |
Postgraduates | 6,766 |
Location | , , |
Campus | Urban, 311 acres |
Colors | Blue and Red |
Nickname | Flames |
Mascot | Sparky D. Dragon |
Website | www.uic.edu |
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a public, state-supported research university. It is a member of the University of Illinois system and is the largest university in the Chicago area with 25,000 students and 15 colleges, including the nation’s largest medical school. Annual research expenditures exceed $290 million.
An estimated one in 10 Chicagoans with a college degree graduated from UIC.
History
The beginnings of the medical school component of UIC can be traced back to the founding of the private Chicago Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary [1] in 1858 and the private Chicago College of Pharmacy in 1859. These units, along with the private College of Physicians and Surgeons, which opened in 1882, were absorbed by the University of Illinois in the 1890s.
In 1946, the University of Illinois opened the Chicago Undergraduate Division at Navy Pier, as a two-year temporary campus. The G.I. Bill was the catalyst for creating undergraduate instruction in Chicago—the University of Illinois pledged to admit all qualified students and established the two-year branch campus at Navy Pier to handle the staggering number of students. The Navy Pier campus provided one of the settings for Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley answered the call for a four-year campus in the city by leading the drive for creation of the University of Illinois Circle Campus (UICC) in 1965, a cause he had championed from his earliest days in the Illinois General Assembly in the 1930s. Italian Americans who lived nearby were not pleased that the large stretch of vacant land they hoped would become commercial became a campus. The campus for years was officially "The University of Illinois at Chicago Circle," and known simply as the "Circle campus." The Circle referred to the nearby intersection of three major expressways. The modern UIC was formed in 1982 by the consolidation of the two U. of I. campuses: the Medical Center campus and the Chicago Circle campus. The university has phased out the use of "Circle" as a result of consolidation and expansion. "UIC" is the preferred shortened name today. The university's athletic teams are called the UIC Flames, a reference to the Great Chicago Fire, and their mascot is a dragon.
The original campus design, in the Brutalist style, from the 1960s was the work of Chicago architect Walter Netsch and the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), but was significantly altered in the 1990s. Netsch offered his services to redesign the campus for free but the offer was rejected by the University.(note)
Academics, Public Service, and Rankings
UIC offers 74 bachelor degrees, 77 master degrees and 60 doctoral degrees through its 15 colleges.
- College of Applied Health Sciences
- College of Architecture and the Arts
- College of Business Administration
- College of Dentistry
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- Graduate College
- Honors College
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- College of Medicine
- College of Nursing
- College of Pharmacy
- School of Public Health
- Jane Addams College of Social Work
- College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs
Medical Center
UIC operates the state’s major public medical center and serves as the principal educator of Illinois’ physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Approximately one in six Illinois doctors is a graduate of the UIC College of Medicine, one in three Illinois pharmacists is a graduate of the UIC College of Pharmacy, and more than 40 percent of the state’s dentists are graduates of UIC’s College of Dentistry.
Great Cities Commitment
Through the Great Cities Commitment, UIC faculty, staff and students engage in hundreds of programs with community, corporate, government and civic partners. The Great Cities Institute serves as the focal point of the Commitment and is devoted to interdisciplinary, high impact urban research. One of UIC's 15 colleges, the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, was formed in 1995 to support the Great Cities Commitment through innovative education and engaged research.
Rankings
UIC is one of 88 American universities recognized as Carnegie 1 Research Institutions by the Carnegie Foundation.
In 2004, National Science Foundation statistics ranked UIC 48th out of the more than 650 universities receiving federal research expenditures, surpassing several Big Ten universities, as well as the University of Chicago.
In 2006, UIC tied for 59th place in the best academic universities in North America and tied for 102nd place in the world by an annual listing of the Top 500 World Universities, published by the Institute of Higher Education in Shanghai, China.[2] The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine ranked UIC’s entrepreneurship program 9th in the nation for undergraduate studies and 12th for its graduate program in a survey of more than 700 schools. US News & World Report ranks UIC's part-time MBA at 24th out of over 300 programs nationally, the undergraduate accounting program at 28th, the undergraduate finance program at 22nd, and the graduate finance program at 19th. UIC's graduate accounting program was ranked #30 in 2003.
According to 2007 US News & World Report rankings, UIC's undergraduate business program is ranked #73 (top Chicago area undergraduate program) and the undergraduate engineering program is ranked #60 in the United States.
Additional 2007 rankings include:
- Biological Sciences: 90th
- Chemistry: 70th
- Clinical Psychology: 49th
- Computer Science: 58th
- Criminology: 20th
- Education: 42nd out of 276 programs
- Engineering: 58th overall out of 199 programs, with specialty rankings of 62nd in chemical engineering, 74th in civil engineering, 54th in computer engineering, 61st in electrical engineering, and 57th in mechanical engineering
- English: 39th
- Fine Arts: 54th
- History: 42nd overall with a specialty ranking of 19th in modern US History
- Mathematics: 38th overall with specialty rankings of 19th in geometry, 5th in logic, and 12th in topology
- Medical School: 62nd amongst research schools
- Nursing: 8th overall with specialty rankings of 7th in nursing service administration, 9th in nurse practitioner: family, 11th in nurse practitioner: pediatric, 6th in clinical nurse specialist: adult/medical - surgical, 5tg in clinical nurse specialist: community/public health, and 9th in clinical nurse specialist: psychiatric/mental health,
- Nursing - Midwifery: 3rd
- Occupational Therapy: 4th
- Pharmacy: 8th
- Physical Therapy: 16th
- Physics: 62nd
- Psychology: 99th
- Public Affairs: 46th overall with specialty rankings of 6th in city management & urban policy and 21st in public finance & budgeting
- Public Health: 16th
- Social Work: 24th
- Sociology: 46th
The UIC pharmacy, nursing, applied health sciences, public health, social work, and urban planning programs are consistently ranked among the top in the nation. The College of Dentistry is one of only two such programs offered in the State of Illinois.
In addition to high academic ratings, UIC has been publicly recognized as a diverse and welcoming community. US News & World Report repeatedly ranks UIC in the top 10 most diverse universities in the nation, and The Advocate Magazine designated the university one of the 100 most gay friendly campuses in America.
Student Body
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UIC’s student body is recognized as one of the nation’s most diverse; there is no racial or ethnic majority among UIC students. The undergraduate numbers in 2005 were:
Race | Number | Percentage |
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Caucasian | 6,561 | 43.3% |
Asian American | 3,849 | 24% |
Hispanic | 2,499 | 16.5% |
African American | 1,377 | 8.9% |
Native American | 37 | 0.2% |
International / Other | 1,013 | 6.7% |
The approximate average ACT score is 25, with an approximate average high school percentile rank of 78%. Acoording to the university, the following is the profile of the 2006 admitted freshman:
College | ACT Composite (Middle 50%) | HSPR (Middle 50%) |
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College of Applied Health Sciences | 22-26 | 60%-80% |
College of Architecture & the Arts | 22-27 | 67%-90% |
College of Business Administration | 23-27 | 68%-90% |
College of Engineering | 24-29 | 64%-92% |
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | 21-27 | 70%-91% |
Campus
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UIC's campus is located in the Little Italy/University Village neighborhood of Chicago, just west of the downtown financial district. The neighborhood is home to scores of shops, restaurants, bars, bookstores, cafés and museums. It is currently in a transitional stage with several large-scale developments creating thousands of new residences. While the majority of UIC's 25,000 students commute from the city and surrounding suburbs, University Village is home to nearly 5,000 students, 3,100 of which live in UIC's 9 residence halls.
The Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line, part of the Chicago 'L', runs through the median of the Eisenhower Expressway along the north side of the campus. Three stations are in close proximity to the university and its medical campus: Illinois Medical District, Racine, and UIC-Halsted. The Pink Line services UIC's west campus on Polk Street and runs directly to the Ogilvie Transportation Center.
The West Campus is home for UIC's health sciences program. The Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Dentistry, Applied Health Sciences and Public Health, as well as the Library of the Health Sciences are all located on the West Campus. The West Campus is in the heart of the Illinois Medical District, where the University of Illinois Medical Center is located.
Student Recreation Facility
The UIC Student Recreation Facility (SRF) is a state-of-the-art recreational complex for UIC students. Opened in spring 2006, the SRF features a three-story climbing wall; multipurpose courts for games such as basketball, indoor soccer, tennis and many others; and a pool with adjoining lazy river.
Other amenities include:
- 18,000 sq. ft. exercise room with equipment
- 1/8 mile, 3-lane jogging track
- Lap and leisure pools
- Racquetball and convertible squash courts
- 4 court wood floor gymnasium
- 11,000 sq. ft. Multi Activity Court
- Group fitness suites, including Spin Suite, Mind/Body Suite, Large Multipurpose Suite and the MAC Suite
- Human performance lab
- 42 ft. rock climbing wall
- Outdoor adventures office
- Juice and coffee bar
- Active and passive lounge areas
- Daily and annual use lockers
Athletics and traditions
UIC’s sports teams are called the Flames, and their colors are blue and red. The Flames participate in the NCAA’s Division I as part of the Horizon League. The team mascot is Sparky D. Dragon. The UIC Pavilion serves as home to the Flames basketball team.
Approximately 300 student athletes compete in 18 varsity sports. The men's basketball team competed in the NCAA tournament in 2004, 2002 and 1998, and appeared in the NIT tournament in 2003. UIC's women's tennis team has won the conference championship ten years in a row, and the women's softball team won the conference championship in six of seven years between 1999 and 2005. UIC also had a Men's Ice Hockey team before the program folded in spring 1996.
The Fury is the official student booster club of the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Athletics. Jenny McCarthy's two younger sisters played basketball for the UIC Flames. She was often seen cheering at their games.
Origins
UIC Athletics began with the College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) in the 1880s with their basketball and football teams whose team colors were red (blood) and iodofome (iodine). P&S eventually affiliates with and then becomes absorbed into the University of Illinois forming its College of Medicine. Meanwhile in 1946 the Chicago Illini represented the two-year University of Illinois undergraduate division located on Navy Pier. In 1965 the Chicago Illini moved to the Harrison and Halsted neighborhood to play for and represent the University of Illinois Chicago Circle campus, a newly built four year degree granting institution. Upon this move the team became known as the Chikas, based on the Chickasaw tribe of Native Americans. During the mid-1970s Chikas was dropped for a couple of reasons, one being that it was not politically correct but secondly because of the stigma of other teams knocking them...chicas in Spanish translates as "girls." During the late 1970s the program was simply known as “Circle.” Finally in 1982 with the University of Illinois Medical Center campus consolidating with Circle Campus to form the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) a contest was held for students to rename the Athletics program team name. The winning entry was The Flames based upon the Great Chicago Fire.
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UIC Basketball
External links
- Official website
- University of Illinois Alumni Association
- Campus maps
- Jane Addams Hull House
- Official athletics website
- UICHoops.com - Unofficial UIC Flames Message Board
- UIC University Library
- University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry
- University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago
- Office of the UIC Historian