FEATURE STORY — September/October 2007

When EAST Met WEST

Twenty five years ago, the University of Illinois Medical Center and University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Campus merged, creating the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since then, UIC has become the comprehensive research university that President Stanley Ikenberry envisioned.

By David Veenstra

In September 1979, on his first day as president of the University of Illinois, Stanley Ikenberry, 44, flew from Urbana to Chicago, arriving at the University of Illinois Medical Center. After making a short speech, he walked down Taylor Street with a handful of students to the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Campus (with a nervous security detail looking on), stopping briefly for Italian Ice. There he announced that he intended to consolidate UIMC and UICC into one university.

Ikenberry had already envisioned that his legacy would be to develop the U of I into a system of strong research universities, which required merging the two Chicago campuses. His predecessor, John Corbally, had floated the idea a few weeks earlier, saying that making UICC “a high-quality, research-oriented institution” would be a “service to the city.” But when Ikenberry asked David Dodds Henry, the University’s legendary former president (1955-1971), his opinion of the idea, he called it a “terrible mistake.”

For Ikenberry, Henry’s comments only confirmed that he was doing “exactly the right thing.” Henry still viewed UICC as a “much larger, much better” version of Navy Pier, the branch campus created after World War II that offered returning G.I.s and others the first two years of university instruction. (When Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley acquired the land for UICC, he hoped that one day the two campuses would combine.)

When UICC faculty pressed for advanced programs and graduate training, hoping to make the campus a comprehensive research university like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Henry insisted they instead focus on expanding educational opportunities for Chicago-area residents, invoking the campus’ so-called “urban mission.”

By the early 1970s, however, UICC found its mission as a “branch campus” being jeopardized by the dramatic expansion of the community college system in Illinois. Community colleges, such as Moraine Valley, Harper and DuPage, provided students who were seeking only the first two years of general studies a more affordable option than UICC.

In almost the same timeframe, UIMC was seeing its original mission being challenged by changing patient demands and political currents.

The passage of Medicare in 1965, which made treatment for common diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer available to more people, dramatically expanded the need for physicians. Residents in downstate Illinois argued that the concentration of medical students in the Chicago area was creating a shortage of medical professionals in the remaining state. This led the state legislature to mandate regionalization of medical education, which resulted in U of I establishing branch campuses in Rockford, Peoria and Urbana, and Southern Illinois University establishing a new medical school in Springfield.

The influx of new community colleges and regional medical schools (devoted primarily to clinical instruction) presented U of I with an opportunity to consolidate the two Chicago campuses and create a comprehensive research university, something Ikenberry was quick to realize. Such an entity would function in the realm long dominated by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Still, there was significant opposition to the idea.

For example, one UIMC student compared consolidation to “mixing apples and oranges”: UIMC used semester scheduling, UICC had quarters; UIMC students followed prescribed curricula, UICC students selected most of their courses; UIMC students had student housing, UICC students commuted. And each campus had its own faculty senate, student union, student government and registration procedures. Nevertheless, a joint campus committee appointed to evaluate the merger’s feasibility concluded, “The potential for greatness in a consolidated campus outweighs the risk.”

The merger took nearly three years to complete. Ikenberry spent considerable time in Chicago working out the details. On Sept. 1, 1982, the consolidation became a reality, resulting in the University of Illinois at Chicago. Donald Langenberg was named the first chancellor. Students from the East and West Campuses voted to name the school’s athletic teams (which had recently obtained NCAA Division I status) the “Flames,” with the logo spelling “UIC.”

Ultimately, Ikenberry served 16 years as president, matching Henry’s tenure as the University’s longest serving leader. During Ikenberry’s tenure, East Campus’ admissions standards continued to rise, highlighted by the creation of an Honors College in 1982. His goal of making the U of I into a system of strong research universities was recognized externally in 1987, with UIC’s elevation to Carnegie Research I status, making Illinois the only Midwestern state to have four such institutions (two public and two private).

Today, UIC is the largest university in the Chicago area, enrolling more than 24,000 students in 15 colleges. Nationally, it ranks among the top 50 universities in federal research funding, has one of the most ethnically diverse student bodies and boasts the country’s largest medical school. Equally significant, UIC has transformed itself into a new model of higher education: the comprehensive urban research university. In recent years, several institutions hoping to consolidate their urban campuses, such as the University of Denver, have sought out UIC for advice. Ikenberry should be very proud.