TBT: University of Illinois first opened its doors in 1868

On this day in 1868, University of Illinois first opened its doors for classes. Then called the Illinois Industrial College, it was the first publicly-funded institution of higher education and the only land grant college in the state. Initially , the school offered mainly agricultural courses. The college had only two faculty members and 77 students enrolled on its first day of classes, but quickly grew. Later that year, the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the College of Engineering were established.

In 1871, The Daily Illini printed its first campus newspaper.
Today it is the longest-running college paper in the country.

It wasn’t until 1885 that the state of Illinois began investing in the college and the school’s name was changed to University of Illinois. With state funding, the school began offering a wider range of courses. Since then, the University of Illinois has produced more than ten Nobel Prize winners and sixteen Pulitzer Prize winners.

Today, the University of Illinois has more than 40,000 students and 18 colleges. It boasts the second-largest college library in the country, after Harvard University, and the College of Engineering is consistently ranked among the top five in the world.

Happy 149th birthday, University of Illinois!

SIU stepping up for non-traditional students

Southern Illinois University Carbondale was recently recognized for the outstanding services it provides for non-traditional students. The NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education honored the college with the 2016 Annual Outstanding Undergraduate Adult Learner Program.

The university’s adult learner population is more than 30 percent of its total student population, and SIUC houses the Non-Traditional Student Services (NTSS) office. Deborah Barnett, who works with non-traditional student services, says that the award shows a longstanding commitment of the university.

“SIU has a longstanding history of support for adult learners,” Barnett said. “In addition, SIU’s history of supporting veteran and military-connected students is shown through numerous annual awards and being designated a Military-Friendly School.”

That office provides a variety of services to students who are financially independent, have delayed college enrollment rather than attending right after high school or are returning to college after interrupting their higher education.

One way in which the program has excelled is the way it attempts to communicate with adult learners. The NTSS office communicates through social media providing short videos like the “Monday Morning Minute.”

It also provides study spaces for students with children and an opportunity for family ID cards, which allow family members to receive necessary campus services.

“We have a lot to be proud of at SIU and in the state of Illinois,” Barnett said. “Even though we face challenges in Illinois, SIU is committed to serving students with excellence.”

Excellence in working with non-traditional students has become the norm at Southern Illinois University. It is just one reason it is a top-tier college in Illinois. Congratulations to Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Did You Know? The first blood bank in the U.S. was in Illinois

The first blood bank in the United States was in Chicago at Cook County Hospital (now Stroger Hospital). Hungarian-American doctor Bernard Fantus founded the blood bank in 1936.

World War I increased demand for blood transfusions. Prior to blood banks, whenever a patient needed blood doctors had to find a donor with a matching blood type immediately. To solve this problem, Dr. Fantus sought to find out if blood could be preserved for longer than a few hours and discovered that blood could be preserved for ten days. This led to key advances in modern medicine as doctors were now able to perform surgery and save lives more easily than they had in the past.

In its first year, 1,354 blood transfusions were performed at the Cook County Hospital Blood Bank. The creation and success of the first blood bank in the U.S. led to the opening of thousands more across the country. Each year, 6.8 million Americans donate blood, and more than 20 million blood components are transfused. Since 1936, countless lives have been saved because of Dr. Fantus' work.

Chicago tech scene strong, growing

The tech community is excited about a quickly growing startup scene outside of the industry’s traditional strongholds in the Bay Area and New York City. Chicago’s startup community has been generating higher returns on investments than anywhere else in the country. Technology entrepreneurs in Chicago continue to create and develop businesses, making Silicon Prairie an up-and-coming force in the national technology and innovation scene.

According to a report by investment research company PitchBook, Chicago is currently the most profitable city for startups in the United States. Of the 31 Chicago startups analyzed by PitchBook, 81 percent yielded between 3 and 10 percent return on an investment. With 31 startups that meet PitchBook’s profitability requirements compared to Silicon Valley’s 613, of which 72 percent yielded between 3 and 10 percent return. Chicago remains a relatively small hub for technology entrepreneurship. However, the fact that startups in Chicago are achieving such impressive return rates suggests that the technology industry in Chicago is growing at a steady rate.

Investors and entrepreneurs in Chicago have resources available to them including the tech incubator 1871, which has helped businesses grow and innovate during the past five years by providing them with space and connectivity, education, early-stage venture capital and customers. Located in downtown Chicago’s famous Merchandise Mart, 1871 is now the home of more than 400 startups.

Another good resource is the website Built in Chicago. It connects job seekers with startups and reports on news in the technology sector. The daily job listings on Built in Chicago illustrate the benefit of the city’s startup scene on an individual level.

Chicago’s prospects as a technology hub have been rising in recent years. Industry experts point to the city’s historically multifaceted business community, robust and innovative revenue streams and a steady stream of local tech talent to explain why Chicago is prospering. Its big-city location adjacent to transportation hubs and institutions of higher education is another reason why Chicago has attracted and retained talented people from around the world as the technology sector has steadily grown. The companies being founded and incubated in Chicago are steadily growing, creating good jobs as they expand and innovate.

The health and continued growth of Chicago’s technology sector is crucial to the state of Illinois and its economic well-being. The technology sector is becoming an increasingly important part of the global economy by creating good-paying jobs and valuable companies. It has revolutionized and revitalized local economies and it continues to benefit the locales in which it flourishes.

Chicago is uniquely positioned to become the next big tech hub. Expect to hear more about Chicago in the future as a diverse community of companies continues to expand, solve everyday problems, and create good jobs for a 21st century economy.