The University grew out of the Illinois Industrial College, chartered in 1867 and opened on March 2, 1868. Confused for many years over its proper function, the school did not begin to exert much influence in the State until the closing years of the century. One group stoutly insisted that the Morrill Act limited the scope of the school to agriculture and purely vocational subjects. Derisive pictures were painted of farmboys coming, muddied from their plowing lesson, to study Plato.
The school received little aid from the State until Governor Altgeld’s term ( 1892-1896), when expansion enabled it to compromise between plow and Plato, to the satisfaction of the supporters of each. Among the last of the State universities established in the Old Northwest Territory, Illinois grew rapidly in the early 1900’s and by 2008 ranked well in enrollment (42,728) among the Nation’s colleges and universities.
The university comprises 18 Colleges that offer more than 150 programs of study. Huge, versatile, and democratic, Illinois might well be studied as the prototype of Midwest universities. Particularly known for its efficient College of Agriculture, the university has also done notable work in the fields of chemical and physical research.
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