College of Arts and Sciences

The Illinois Capital Development Board (CDB) has selected HOK-St. Louis as the preferred architectural design firm for preliminary design of the Health Science Building (HSB) on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus.

The CDB released $10,537,000 in planning funds in Jan. 2020 to create preliminary designs for the HSB. The complex will include approximately 221,000 square feet. The project’s total cost is approximately $105 million. It would be the largest building on the SI...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville launched its re-entry COVID-19 testing initiative on Monday, Jan. 4. The mandatory testing runs through Thursday, Jan. 21.

By end of day Thursday, Jan. 7, more than 2,600 faculty, staff and students had been tested. The average turnaround time for results is approximately 65 hours. Of the first 1,668 re-entry test results received, the positivity rate is 0.11% with 15 positive, 1,652 negative and one inconclusive outcome.

“We are pleased with the...

SIUE alumnus and State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) is leaving the Illinois Senate, effective Jan. 17, and will become a senior advisor to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Manar earned a bachelor’s in history from the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences in 1997. He has served more than 22 years in public office.

 Details on his professional career were posted in the Edwardsville Intelligencer on Monday, Jan. 4. Read the article here.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook conferred degrees upon 1,103 graduates today at the 2020 virtual fall commencement exercises. Commencement can be viewed at siue.edu/virtual-commencement.

“You represent a wide array of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, and you’ve made SIUE a stronger institution,” Pembrook said. “Thanks for making SIUE a better learning environment based on your ideas and efforts.

“As you move from being...

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, educators worldwide have quickly adapted traditional in-person courses to virtual settings. This transition has presented ample challenges, including but not limited to, creative measures educators are taking to offer online courses that typically involve hands-on learning experiences.

An example is Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Foundations of Science course, which is required for elementary education students, all of whom aspire to teac...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook will oversee the 2020 virtual fall commencement exercises at 1 p.m. on Friday Dec. 18 for the 1,103 eligible graduates. Commencement will be available at siue.edu/virtual-commencement.

SIU System President Daniel Mahony, PhD, will address the graduates.

The student speakers include:

• College of Arts and Sciences, Paulina Fuhrmann, of Collinsville, bachelor’s of political science
• Graduate School, Caitlin Phelan, of Gle...

These stories are not from the pages of worn books, old audio tapes or reels of archived film. These accounts of struggle and triumph come directly from the mouths, minds and hearts of Black East St. Louisans who recall living during times that were simple but not easy, close-knit but segregated, and more courteous but racially hostile. 

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center is working on one of its initiative’s ...

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Center for STEM Research, Education and Outreach, in partnership with campus researchers and area students, have deployed an environmental monitoring network across the St. Louis Metropolitan and Metro East areas.

The network of sensors is collecting data that will guide research considering how levels of noise pollution and air quality affect various communities throughout the region, and how events and various regional activities contribute to var...

After evaluating Madison County’s recycling programs that were initiated about 30 years ago, ways to upgrade and expand efforts were determined. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville environmental science management graduate student Omasan Ayonronmi collaborated with the Madison County Planning and Development Department to study the recycling habits and knowledge of its residents. 

“It was an insightful experience involving data gathering and analysis of recycling data fro...

The SIUE community is mourning the loss of Francis Odemerho, PhD, of Edwardsville, who died Friday, Dec. 4 at his residence from heart failure. He was 68.

A native of Aragba-orugun, Nigeria, Odemerho joined the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Sciences. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1996 and awarded tenure in 1997. Prior to his arrival at SIUE, he taught at the University...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Arts & Issues will offer a special twist to the holiday season by presenting a live, world-premiere online event created for audiences of all ages, “Christmas Carol.” Manual Cinema, the interdisciplinary theater company, performs Charles Dickens’ holiday classic as a visually inventive adaptation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10. 

Manual Cinema’s “Christmas Carol,” which runs one hour in length, will be told with...

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded more than $31 million in funding through its National Defense Education Program (NDEP) to support 12 initiatives nationwide aimed at establishing or expanding STEM education, outreach and workforce initiatives for students and educators from early childhood through postsecondary.

Among the awards was $3 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for the three-year, multi-institutional collaborative: Expanding the Pipeline and Enh...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) has established a 2020-21 partnership with the City of Highland, where SIUE students will gain real-world experience when they are matched with two community-identified projects. 

“We are thrilled to begin another partnership with the City of Highland, as part of the SIUE Successful Community Collaborative program,” said Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Denise Cobb. &#8...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Michael Shaw, PhD, distinguished research professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, was among the featured speakers at the 2020 LGBTQ+ STEM Conference held virtually in October.

The five-day conference brought together “researchers in all fields of STEM to highlight and celebrate the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community, and to discuss a broad range of scientific topics and issues pertaining to equity, ...

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Graduate School has announced the winners of the 2020 Visualizing Research Impacts (VRI) competition, which encourages SIUE scholars to share the impacts of their research through images.

This year’s recipients are Abbey Hepner, assistant professor and head of photography and digital arts in the Department of Art and Design, and John Savoie, PhD, professor in the Department of English Language and Literature. Their works were selected from a p...

The expanded virtual world normalized by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is presenting new opportunities for participation in otherwise hard to access events. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Speech and Debate Team is among the organizations adapting to conditions and engaging in synchronous and asynchronous tournaments featuring nationwide competition.

In early November, the team competed in an event hosted by Casper College in Casper, Wyo., with other virtual competitions still...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Library and Information Services (LIS) will soon be home to the 10-CD set, Ruth Slenczynska: Complete American Decca Recordings. On Friday, Nov. 13, Eloquence released the CD set featuring the internationally renowned concert pianist and former SIUE faculty member.

SIUE will receive two sets of the Slenczynska recordings with one set to be added to the Ruth Slenczynska Collection at Lovejoy Library, and the other to circulate to the public once ...

“In a perfect world, what would you like to do?” It’s a question, after having served and sacrificed, to get veterans to better envision a world of opportunities for themselves. 

Asking the question is Amanda Depew, Air Force veteran and social work graduate assistant with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center’s Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) program. 

During the pandemic, VUB continues to hep veterans prepare for postsecondary education...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville alumnus and MindsEye President and CEO Jason Frazier has been named a 2020 Diverse Business Leader by the St. Louis Business Journal for his work with MindsEye, an organization that offers a variety of services to those with visual disabilities throughout the St. Louis region.

       Frazier earned a bachelor’s in mass communications from the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in 2011, and began working for Minds...

A foundation for the difficult but rewarding, volatile but freeing and defensive but uplifting work of fighting oppression through the creation of a new student group is being laid by a handful of graduate students at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and their faculty advisor. 

Cougars for Changing Campus Culture is the tentative name of the student group that its members hope will be a force in weakening, and eventually eliminating, oppression in all of its forms throughout the U...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) program encourages, supports and enables undergraduate students of all disciplines to participate in research and creative activities under faculty mentorship. Each semester, the URCA program recognizes outstanding faculty mentors and student researchers through four awards.

The fall 2020 Vaughn Vandegrift URCA Research Mentor of the Semester Award was presented to Myron Jones, PhD, associate...

Rolland, Inc., recently featured SIUE Creative Director Heather Kniffel of University Marketing and Communications in its  “Conversations with Green Champions” about SIUE’s campus and community sustainability. The discussion covered the campus’ old-growth forest, environmental jobs for graduates, and responsible printing at a University that runs on green power.

SIUE is committed to energy efficiency and is a leading university in the region with seven Leadership in...

Exhilarated, buoyant, empowered, valued, regarded and visible are some adjectives that rushed to mind when several Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) women reflected on the historic news of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris being the first Black and Indian-American woman in line to hold the second highest office in the land. 

President-elect Joe Biden emerged as the projected winner after the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential race, which netted...

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Graduate School has added a fully online option for a Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) degree starting fall 2021. This existing program will continue to offer a hybrid option along with the new fully online option.

The Department of Public Administration and Policy Analysis (PAPA) offers a graduate program leading to the MPA, a professional degree designed to prepare individuals for management careers in the public and nonprof...

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Graduate School has presented 28 graduate students with fall 2020 Research Grants for Graduate Students (RGGS) awards.

Valued at up to $500 each, the awards will support the research and creative activities of graduate students studying in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), and Schools of Engineering (SOE); Pharmacy (SOP); and Education, Health and Human Behavior (SEHHB). The RGGS program’s primary purpose is to support the graduate stude...