News Bureau

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is now performing its new rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 test on all students, faculty members and staff.

The new freshman class at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the largest, most academically talented and most diverse in the history of the university.

Through a combination of institutional, federal and state aid, including Pell Grants and Monetary Award Program grants, Illinois Commitment will provide financial awards to cover the tuition and campus fees for in-state students whose family income is less than $61,000, the current median family income in Illinois.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign communicated Wednesday evening with students, faculty members and staff on measures the university is taking to protect the campus community in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. The message discusses course delivery, travel, and university-sponsored events and meetings.

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign will employ detailed plans to address the expected initial increase in COVID-19 positive cases through the next several weeks. Modified in-person instruction begins Monday. Data models developed by Illinois faculty members forecast that new cases will decline after the first few weeks of the semester and the daily positivity rate will remain low throughout.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign freshman enrollment of 8,303 for the 2021-22 academic year is a record. The new class brings total student enrollment to 56,299, the largest in university history.

Among the Top 10 in numbers in the U.S., the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s freshman class sets new high marks for students from underrepresented backgrounds and first-generation college students, as well as a 10-year high of Illinois residents.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced Dean’s List honorees and graduates for the fall semester 2022, as well as those who graduated in August 2022. 

The Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering-based medical school, welcomed its first class of 32 students July 2.

A partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Carle Health System, the college aims to create a cohort of physician-innovators who exemplify the qualities of compassion, competence, curiosity and creativity. The students will receive full four-year tuition scholarships, privately funded, valued at more than $200,000 each.

Greater demand for online graduate programs pushed the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s 2020 enrollment to a record 52,331. In addition to delivering fall semester instruction as a mixture of face-to-face, hybrid and online courses, the university developed unique safety measures including a saliva-based COVID-19 test.

Students applying for fall 2021 freshman admission to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will not be required to submit SAT or ACT test results due to the COVID-19 pandemic limiting students’ opportunities to take the exams.

Eight faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list, a global listing of scientists who produced the past decade’s most influential papers.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is adjusting its 2021 spring calendar to help maintain instruction during the pandemic. Classes will start a week later than scheduled and while there will be no spring break, three days without classes will be added. Students planning to attend classes in person will be required to return early for COVID-19 on-campus testing.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will open the fall semester with as much in-person instruction and residential occupancy as COVID-19 precautions allow.

The 60,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility will cultivate interdisciplinary design thinking and will foster innovation in undergraduate and graduate curricula in multiple colleges.

Illinois alumnus and actor, humorist, author and woodworker Nick Offerman, best known for his role as Ron Swanson on the NBC hit comedy series "Parks and Recreation," will be the U. of I.’s commencement speaker Saturday, May 13.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's incoming class of 8,325 includes the largest number of in-state residents in nearly two decades.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign today updated its faculty members, staff and students on the university's policies related to the coronavirus situation, including the immediate return of all people in Italy and the Daegu region of South Korea; restrictions of travel to those and other countries; and the offer to all study abroad participants to end their program early.

Illinois alumnus and philanthropist Larry Gies will serve as the May 11 campuswide commencement speaker. Gies is the founder and CEO of Madison Industries, an international manufacturing company that is one of the largest privately held companies in the world.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's incoming class of 7,957 first-year students brings greater representation by gender, nationality and students who are the first in their family to go to college, while a change in the application process resulted in greater academic competition.

Mats Selen, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The U. of I. selected Sean Garrick to the new senior-level position of vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.

The eighth annual Illini Success report shows that recent University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduates experienced exceptional success in finding jobs, enrolling in graduate school or beginning volunteer programs. The report found that 95% of graduates secured a “first destination” within six months of graduation.

Dr. King Li, a renowned researcher, educator, inventor and clinician in molecular imaging and radiology, will become the inaugural dean and chief academic officer of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine effective Oct. 1. 

The Campus Instructional Facility Project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an example of a new public-private partnership model that allows for tax-exempt financing. The $75 million project also incorporates design elements that will conserve energy and reduce costs in the long term.

As part of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s COVID-19 precautions for the fall semester, all faculty members, staff and students who participate in on-campus activities will be required to be tested at on-campus sites twice a week.

The Campus Honors Program announces the names of 159 freshmen and sophomores at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who have been designated Chancellor’s Scholars.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is planning an in-person individual, private stage-crossing experience for 2020 and 2021 graduates May 10–17. Graduates may register for a time slot to cross a stage at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts while their name is announced. COVID-19 safety protocols will apply.

News media interested in learning more about the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s COVID-19 testing are invited to a one-time media availability Tuesday, July 7 at 10 a.m. near the Alice Campbell Alumni Center 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.

Nine U. of I. researchers have been named to the 2022 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence – reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. This year’s list includes 6,938 individuals from around the world whose papers rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science.

A new version of the U. of I. license plate is available starting today. The updated version, with the "block I" logo, will be mailed to current plate-holders at no charge to them. A portion of the license plate fee goes toward scholarships for in-state students with demonstrated need.

The annual Illini Success report shows 93% of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s recent graduates found jobs, enrolled in graduate school or began a volunteer program. The average salary for a full-time-employed recent graduate was $63,515, up from last year’s $60,885.

University of Illinois aerospace engineering professor Scott R. White, an innovator of self-healing and self-regulating materials, died Monday of cancer at age 55.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reached record levels of undergraduate and total enrollment this semester, and also set high marks for diversity and first-generation representation in the freshman class.

Illinois students in a Hittite class learn to write the ancient language in clay using cuneiform symbols.

Max Levchin, a U. of I. alumnus, co-founder of PayPal, former chairman of Yelp and currently the CEO and founder of the consumer-financing platform Affirm, will serve as the commencement speaker Saturday, May 12.  

Jill Ellis, the head coach of the first women’s soccer team at Illinois who later won back-to-back FIFA Women’s World Cups as coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, will be the 2020 commencement speaker at Illinois.

A Rare Book and Manuscript Library exhibit will showcase typewriters used by Hugh Hefner, Roger Ebert, Carl Sandburg and James Jones.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign names 161 freshmen and sophomores Chancellor’s Scholars in the Campus Honors Program this fall, chosen for their academic excellence and leadership potential.

The Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center is the centerpiece of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s $15 million investment in the emerging area of quantum information science and engineering.

Message from Chancellor Robert Jones discusses additional steps to follow current guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health officials to enact social distancing as a means to slow the spread of COVID-19 disease.

Six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee will serve as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s commencement speaker May 13 in Memorial Stadium.

Illinois alumnus Jeff Huber, whose company is developing a revolutionary blood test to detect early stage cancer, will be the U. of I.'s commencement speaker on Saturday, May 14. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. in Memorial Stadium.

The Carle Illinois College of Medicine has announced nearly 100 inaugural faculty members.

The University of Illinois broke ground for the Siebel Center for Design, a multidisciplinary hub of student-focused design thinking and learning. 

Thirteen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and young alumni accepted Fulbright grants for the upcoming academic year, providing opportunities for international educational, research and teaching experiences.

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Andreas C. Cangellaris will leave the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in August to become the Founding President of NEOM University in Saudi Arabia, Chancellor Robert J. Jones announced today.

Five faculty members have been named to the 2017 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list (previously known as the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list). The list recognizes “leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences from around the world."

The Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the first engineering-based medical school, has received preliminary acreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and is recruiting students for its first class.

A U. of I. journalism alumnus who is now the newsroom attorney for The New York Times got some unexpected online attention last week. The focus of that attention was his response to an open letter from Donald Trump’s attorney, demanding the paper retract and apologize for a story. McCraw’s brief letter to the attorney, published on the Times site, went viral on social media and shot to the top of the paper's most-read content. In an interview, he talks about the letter, his job and what he learned at Illinois.