About SIUE

Southern Illinois University is a multi-campus university comprising two institutions, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), with a School of Medicine at Springfield, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), with a School of Dental Medicine at Alton and a Higher Education Center in East St. Louis which includes a Head Start Program and a Charter High School.

The University, with an annual operating budget of $895 million in FY15, enrolls more than 31,000 students in programs from two-year technical curricula to the Ph.D. and professional programs in a variety of fields including law, medicine, and dental medicine. SIU was chartered in 1869 as Southern Illinois Normal University, a teachers college. In 1947, the name was changed to Southern Illinois University, reflecting the institution’s academic expansion. The University also expanded geographically. In 1949, SIU began offering off-campus academic courses in the metropolitan East St. Louis area, which led to the eventual development of a separate institution in Edwardsville.

A modern and comprehensive post-secondary educational institution, Southern Illinois University offers a broad range of academic programs that lead to Associate, Baccalaureate, Master’s, Specialist’s, Doctoral, and Professional degrees. The instructional, research, and service missions of the two constituent institutions reflect the needs of the geographic areas in which they are located. The University also is committed to serving statewide needs. This commitment is reflected in educational activities located off the main campuses in communities throughout the state, online programming, and the work of our alumni. It is realized also through research and training exchanges and through world-wide student exchange programs.

A nine-member Board of Trustees governs Southern Illinois University and sets policy that enables the University to carry out established missions and goals. The President of Southern llinois University is its chief executive officer and reports to the Board of Trustees. The University Chancellors report to the President and are responsible for the internal operations of SIUE and SIUC.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville traces its origin to a recommendation in 1956 by the Southwest Illinois Council for Higher Education. The Council was convinced that higher education facilities w ere needed in the Metro-East portion of the greater St. Louis area. Council members hired consultants, whose reports documented that need, and appealed to Southern Illinois University, 100 miles south, to establish satellite campuses.

In 1957, SIU opened residence centers in Alton and East St. Louis. The University expected to enroll 800 students, but actual enrollment reached 1,776. By 1959, the number of students had more than doubled to 3,800, greatly exceeding the physical facilities and demanding services faster than the University could develop and supply them.

A planning team investigated sites in the Metro-East counties and selected one just south of Edwardsville. In 1960, the Illinois legislature authorized a bond issue for construction of a new state university campus. Voter approval came in November 1960. After 2-1/2 years of planning, University officials and area residents attended groundbreaking ceremonies for the first permanent buildings.

In the fall of 1965, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville moved onto its new campus: 2,660 acres of rolling land and woods dotted with lakes. Much of the land still retains its natural shape. The academic center was designed by the internationally known architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum of St. Louis. The brick, slate, and granite of the modern buildings complement the terrain and are softened by a carefully designed garden landscape that attracts visitors by virtue of its physical beauty. The campus has received several awards in recognition of the successful blend of the aesthetic and the functional in a setting that enhances growth and development and is now featured among the top 150 Illinois Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois Council.

Today, SIUE is a major public university, offering a broad choice of degrees and programs ranging from career-oriented fields of study to the essential, more traditional, liberal arts. Here students have an opportunity to interact with outstanding teachers and scholars, as well as with other students from all parts of the United States and the world. They enjoy the excellent facilities of a young and growing campus, including extensive research laboratories, specialized equipment for professional preparation, and comfortable, spacious classrooms. In addition, academic services provide tutoring, testing, academic and career counseling, and other services designed to help students meet the demands of university life. At SIUE, students find comprehensive educational opportunities and a community in which individuals support each other in their search for knowledge and individual development.

In FY16, for the 12th-consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges lists SIUE among the top 15 public universities in the best Regional Master’s Universities Midwest. For the sixth-consecutive year, Washington Monthly ranks SIUE among the top 40 master’s universities in the nation for “contributions to the public good in… social mobility, research, and service.” Additionally, SIUE has been named for the fifth-consecutive year to the annual President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The University’s commitment to excellence and service continues to be recognized by leading authorities within higher education.

While attending the University, students may choose to live on campus for convenience and flexibility: this convenience extends to academic scheduling which is designed to accommodate individual student needs through weekday, evening, weekend and online classes. In every format, SIUE students are assured quality instruction.

At SIUE, education is more than classroom learning. Campus activities present students with an everchanging spectrum of cultural, social, service, and recreational experiences designed to complement the academic program. Theater and dance productions, musical presentations, art exhibits, renowned speakers and artists, and the fine swimming, biking, hiking and other recreation offered by the University’s 2,660 acres of rolling, wooded hills make SIUE an exciting place. In addition, the campus offers access to the resources of the metropolitan St. Louis area, located just 25 minutes away.

At SIUE, approximately 900 fulltime and part-time faculty members engage in instruction, scholarship, and public service. Though each of these activities enhances students’ academic opportunities, it is through instruction that students benefit most directly. Eighty percent of the full-time faculty possesses terminal degrees. SIUE’s faculty, staff, and research centers continue to excel in the area of research grants and scholarship. In FY15, SIUE faculty and staff submitted 217 new proposals to outside agencies and received more than $43 million in new externally sponsored research and public service awards.

The Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success

In Spring 2007, the General Assembly adopted House Joint Resolution 69 that directed the Board of Higher Education to develop a Public Agenda for higher education. Following a year of collaboration with hundreds of stakeholders in higher education and the state of Illinois, the Board unanimously endorsed the Public Agenda at its December 9, 2008, meeting. The Public Agenda is to serve as a planning blueprint to guide state education policy and resources.

The Public Agenda is comprised of the following goals and recommendations:

Goal 1: Increase educational attainment to match best-performing states.

Recommendation 1: Increase success of students at each stage of the P-20 education pipeline to eliminate achievement gaps by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and disability.

Recommendation 2: Increase the number of adults, including GED recipients, reentering education and completing a postsecondary credential.

Recommendation 3: Reduce geographic disparities in educational attainment.

Goal 2: Ensure college affordability for students, families, and taxpayers.

Recommendation 1: Make Illinois one of the five most affordable states in the country to get a college education.

Goal 3: Increase the number of high-quality postsecondary credentials to meet the demands of the economy and an increasingly global society.

Recommendation 1:  Increase the number of people with high-quality postsecondary credentials to ensure the state has an educated workforce and an engaged citizenry.

Recommendation 2: Improve transitions all along the education pipeline.

Recommendation 3: Increase the number of postsecondary degrees in fields of critical skills shortages.

Goal 4: Better integrate Illinois' educational, research, and innovation assets to meet economic needs of the state and its regions.

Recommendation 1: Boost Illinois into the ranks of the five states with the fastest growing economies.

In 1994, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) adopted a Focus Statement for each of the twelve public universities. These focus statements express the mission of each institution from the perspective of the Board of Higher Education, the state policy-making body for higher education. While developed prior to the Illinois Commitment, the Focus Statement remains the only IBHE statement specific to SIUE.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville serves traditional college-aged undergraduate students, with many commuting from the surrounding area, as well as older, part-time, and minority students. The campus offers a balance of instruction, research, and public service programs consonant with its role as the only public university in southwestern Illinois. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville also administers the School of Dental Medicine at Alton and operates a center in East St. Louis. In addition to pursuing statewide goals and priorities, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville:

• offers undergraduate programs and master's programs encompassing instruction in the arts and sciences, education, social services, business, engineering, and the health professions in order to improve the quality of life, economy, health care, and environment in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area;
• emphasizes graduate-level programs that prepare practitioners and professionals in those fields that are particularly relevant to addressing the social, economic, and health-care needs of the region;
• focuses off-campus programs in southwestern Illinois, except in fields such as nursing in which the University is distinctly positioned to offer off-campus completion programs for the central and southern Illinois areas; addresses the need for dentists in the central and southern regions of the state through its School of Dental Medicine and addresses the need for pharmacists in the central and southern regions of the state through its School of Pharmacy.