Nobel laureates, world-class scientists, renowned artists, classical architecture and forward-looking students and faculty members from all over the world.
There are a lot of things that make the U. of I. special, but none would have been possible without an emphatic embrace of the concept of shared governance throughout the institution's history.
So say a group of longtime Urbana campus faculty members who were contacted recently by Inside Illinois because of their years of faculty government experience.
All agree shared governance is both a cherished concept passed from generation to generation and, through the University Statutes, the codified representation of inclusive decision-making.
It is, they say, the academically rooted soul from which the university's greatness springs, and something they hope is alive and well long into the future.
"It's more than a cute phrase," said Orville Vernon Burton, who retired from the U. of I. faculty in 2008.
"It's important that people understand how critical it is to what we do, and what a critical stage it is at right now."
Before moving to Clemson University five years ago, where he became a professor of history and the director of the Clemson Cyberinstitute, Burton was an active participant in faculty government during 34 years on the Urbana campus, where he was a professor of history and of sociology and the director of the Center for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. He served as senate president during a time that included the decision to drop the Chief Illiniwek symbol.
"It doesn't mean that we get to do whatever we want," he said of shared governance. "But it gets you a seat at the table and a voice in the dialogue. It's being included in an open forum and discussion in the spirit of what is best for the university."
Burton said the two biggest impediments to successful shared governance are when money threatens academic pursuit and when participation in faculty government is low.
He said part of the responsibility of those involved in faculty government is to challenge moneyed interests and defend academic integrity.
"It's all about your work and honesty as a scholar," he said. "Faculty (members) have to be involved, and there must be people who are willing to stand up for what they think is right."
Like any form of participatory government, shared governance doesn't work without participation.
"It's the responsibility of the faculty to work at it seriously and to bring forth these issues," he said.
Burton said the U. of I. historically has been known as a leader in faculty governance, which he credits for the open and creative academic environment that exists today.
For example, the most recent presidential search at the U. of I. included search committee representation from faculty and staff members, and students. He said, that breadth of representation is not always at other institutions.
"There's a long history of shared governance at the U. of I. - there are rules that we have that gives everyone a voice," he said.
Despite the protections of tenure, he said there are faculty members on campus who haven't become involved in local government because they are worried their comments could bring retribution. He challenges anyone who hasn't been involved to do so, and to do it fearlessly.
"You get more respect when you stand up. It's not an easy process, but an appropriate one," he said.
Michael Grossman, a professor emeritus of genetics in the department of animal sciences, had been with the U. of I. for 36 years when he retired in 2005. He has been involved at almost every level of campus government, from his department to Senate Executive Committee member.
He found shared governance so important to the quality of the institution that he's taught the concept to others in workshops.
For shared governance to work, everyone has to participate, he said, with faculty leading the way.
"The faculty is the university," he said. "According to the University Statutes, they have an interest and right to participate. I believe that faculty members, if they want to be a part of a great university, have a responsibility to participate."
He said they also have the responsibility to be good academic citizens and to maintain high professional standards that foster academic excellence.
He said adversarial forms of government don't promote collaboration and can, in fact, be detrimental to an academically centered mission.
"Faculty and administrators should have a collegial, not adversarial, relationship, with shared goals," he said. "To accomplish its goals, the administration must get the buy-in of the faculty. Faculty (members), therefore, must have a substantial role in decision-making processes so that they have an investment in those decisions.
"And while faculty and administration have a shared goal, the administration may not take all advice that the faculty offers," he said.
As for alternate forms of academic government, he said he'd rather not take the risk and try something new.
"Before I would adopt adversarial governance, I would require evidence that it performs significantly better than shared governance," he said. "I would not adopt it if it were merely 'as good as,' and certainly not if it had the potential to be worse."
H. George Friedman, a professor emeritus of computer science and the senate's parliamentarian, retired in 1999 after being on campus for 34 years.
He said it takes time and commitment to serve in campus government, but the reward is in knowing you've helped lay a foundation of excellence from which future generations of scholars will benefit.
"Who should decide academic questions such as what to teach and how to teach it?" he said. "The answer has to be, those who know most about it, as in, the faculty."
He said there are occasional threats to academic freedom, usually in the form of an administrator who "doesn't get it" or from legislators trying to exert pressure from outside.
"At Illinois, those administrators don't tend to stay long," he said. "These pressures are rarely serious problems, but that's why when the problems do come up, they get a lot of publicity. It only works when both groups work at it."
"Shared governance means different things to different people," said Richard Schacht, a professor emeritus of philosophy who first stepped on campus in 1967 and has served in various faculty government roles since the 1970s, including as chair of the Senate Executive Committee and as the chair or a member of various departmental and senate committees.
"To many faculty, it means faculty and campus administration sharing the decision-making," he said. "But to the senate, it means the senate and campus administration sharing the decision-making, which is not the same thing at all.
"And there's more: To the department heads, it means them and the deans sharing the decision-making; to the deans, it's them and the campus administration; to the president, it sometimes means the central administration and the campus administrations; to the senates conference, it means the senates and senate conference sharing the decision-making with the president and central administration; and to the trustees, it means the trustees and the president, along with central administration and the Senates Conference, sharing it," he said.
Schacht said the fact that so many people view shared governance differently is proof of its effectiveness in shepherding vast constituencies to a single, supportive conclusion with one ultimate benefit in mind: the good of the university.
"This is all a part of the big tangle of shared governance," he said. "And what that really means to me is that there is real give-and-take between all of these levels and centers of power and functioning, rather than any one of them doing all of the decision-making, with the power to do as it wishes to the rest. There needs to be a large array of relations of all sorts, with a good many intelligent and savvy people involved who have the interests of the institution at heart."
That's why Schacht became involved in faculty government in the first place.
"In some cases, it went with being the chair of my department," he said, "but mostly because those were important roles in the life of the institution, and I'm a good citizen as well as someone who does not like to see those things done poorly."
He said he thinks campus shared governance has been successful as far as playing a role in many of the critical issues the university has faced over the years. He said shared governance might be stronger at the U. of I. than at other institutions because it seems all sides embrace and respect the concept - which creates a collegial atmosphere that leads to cooperation and success.
"I think our faculty side of shared governance is taken more seriously than it often is elsewhere," he said. "I think that is one of our achievements over the last 20 years or so."
Shared governance will not succeed without active faculty member involvement, said Matthew B. Wheeler, a professor of animal sciences and of bioengineering, and the current chair of the University Senates Conference.
"The elected faculty senators, in particular, have a responsibility to be engaged and participate in senate discussions, senate committees and especially senate meetings," he said. "Their constituents sent them to the senate to be their representatives."
Participation at senate meetings comes and goes. One recent senate meeting had a standing-room-only crowd, another meeting ended after a quorum challenge.
Senators last year attempted to reduce quorum requirements, in a measure that eventually died after the board of trustees declined to consider it.
Wheeler said having 90 percent of senators at meetings would be the ideal.
"I know faculty members are busy, but being a senator is an important part of being a faculty member on our campus," he said. "If we could get that level of participation, it would truly represent shared governance at its finest."
Harry H. Hilton, a professor emeritus of aerospace engineering, has been on the U. of I. campus since 1945, and has been involved at almost every level of campus government. He retired in 1990, but still serves on committees when asked and attends most SEC and senate meetings.
"I became interested because it is the responsibility of the faculty to be involved," he said. "It is the necessary participation of faculty in making policy decisions."
He said the administration from time to time tries to overstep its bounds - but a strong faculty government has to be there to remind them when they stray from the university's ideals or academic mission.