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Navy Pier to Here | 2005 UIC City & Corporate Award Recipient Profiles

FEATURE STORY (continued) — January/February 2005

From Navy Pier ...

Daley's Vision

His efforts made Circle Campus a reality

By Fred W. Beuttler

Without Richard J. Daley, Circle Campus would never have been built. It was a dream that took almost 30 years to accomplish. He considered it his greatest contribution to the city.

In 1936, Daley won his first elected office, state representative, and his first act was to introduce a resolution calling for a U of I campus in Chicago. As state senator in 1945, he introduced four bills calling for a university in Chicago, and his allies in Springfield succeeded in passing such a bill in 1951. Upon becoming mayor of Chicago in 1955, he pushed a reluctant university to accept a Chicago location for the new campus.

Daley's legacy was not just bricks and mortar. His consistent desire was for a comprehensive public research university in Chicago, not one with a limited mission.

In February, 1975, at UICC's 10th anniversary celebration, he called for uniting the East Campus with the Medical Center, a dream that was later fulfilled in the consolidation of the two campuses as UIC in 1982.

Upon laying the cornerstone for Circle Campus in 1963, he said "just as great universities make great cities, so too, great cities make great universities‹and the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle is destined to be one of the great universities of our nation."