Company Profile
University of Illinois at Chicago-College of Nursing
Company Overview
The College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago is one of the premier nursing schools in the nation, with graduate programs ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report and a research enterprise ranked in the top 10 for NIH funding among nursing schools. Our mission is to transform health, healthcare and policy through knowledge generation and translation, and also through education of future nurse leaders from diverse backgrounds. Nearly 1,500 students are enrolled in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs at our six Illinois campuses: Chicago, Peoria, Rockford, Quad Cities, Springfield and Urbana. We count among our outstanding faculty: four members of the Sigma Theta Tau International. Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame; 27 fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN); and six former deans and professors named “Living Legends” of the AAN. All this at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which received the 2018 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
Company History
The University of Illinois at Chicago traces its origins to several private health colleges that were founded in Chicago during the 19th century.
In the 20th century, new campuses were built in Chicago and later joined together to form a comprehensive learning community. In the last three decades, UIC has transformed itself into one of the top 65 research universities in the United States.
Following World War II, the University of Illinois increased its presence in Chicago by creating a temporary, two-year branch campus on Navy Pier. The Chicago Undergraduate Division primarily accommodated student veterans on the G.I. Bill. The program allowed all students to complete their first two years of study in Chicago before going downstate to finish their undergraduate degrees at Urbana-Champaign.
The lakeside location earned the Navy Pier campus the name “Harvard on the rocks.” The university shared the 3,000-foot pier with other tenants that included the Chicago Police Department Traffic Division and several military detachments. At that time Navy Pier was not the bright, attractive venue it is today as Chicago’s leading tourist attraction. The pier was a dreary, functioning port facility. But because the pier had only a single corridor along its half-mile length, students were able to see their peers each day.
After the war, and after the wave of returning veterans seeking education benefits under the G.I. Bill had passed through, demand for a public university in Chicago remained high. The university made plans to create a permanent, degree-granting campus in the Chicago area.
The site was a 100-acre parcel at the junction of Greektown and Little Italy. To accommodate a planned student body of 32,000 in such a small area, famed Chicago architect Walter Netsch arrayed the campus buildings in concentric rings, like a droplet of water.
The University of Illinois at Chicago Circle – named for the nearby ultra-modern freeway interchange – opened in February 1965. “Circle,” as it was called, was a degree-granting institution, with ambitions to become a great university. A member of the faculty proudly noted it was the first university to be named for a transportation feature since Oxford and Cambridge.
Within five years of the campus’s opening – a period during which it was the fastest growing campus in the country – enrollment grew from 5,000 to 18,000 and almost every department offered graduate degrees. Befitting the location of the campus at a crossroads of immigration, many of Circle’s students were first in their families to attend college – as are many of UIC’s students today.
UIC was born in 1982, when the Circle and Medical Center campuses consolidated to form a comprehensive university campus with six health science colleges and an academic medical center. Consolidation helped UIC reach elite Carnegie “Research I” status.
In 1993, then-UIC Chancellor (and later UI President) James Stukel launched the Great Cities Initiative to join UIC teaching and research with community, corporate and government partners in tackling urban challenges. Renamed the Great Cities Commitment at it’s ten-year mark, the signature program integrates research with genuine community engagement.
In the 2000s, UIC’s South Campus development brought student housing, retail stores, restaurants and private residences to the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood. The influx of faculty and staff families and the expansion of student housing helped UIC change from a daytime commuter campus into a vibrant, 24-hour academic community. Today, one-third of UIC freshmen and about one-fifth of undergraduates live on campus.
New campus construction projects are underway to support scholarship and research and improve the student experience.
In summer 2019, UIC will open its newest campus living facility. The 10-story residential and academic complex, which is part of a public-private partnership, will hold 550 beds in a mix of traditional dorm rooms and suite-style units. Three large lecture halls, four classrooms, several small group study rooms, a tutoring center, computer stations and collaboration spaces highlight the facility’s academic areas.
The Engineering Innovation Building will be the first new academic building on the east side of campus since 1991. The 50,000-square-foot facility will house instructional space, research labs and faculty and staff offices. The building will also include the university’s first high-bay structural research lab, where researchers can carry out a wide range of tests on large-scale structural components. The building is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
Benefits
The University of Illinois at Chicago and the State of Illinois offer competitive wages, benefit programs and resources for employees. UIC is strongly committed to providing equitable benefit options throughout each stage of employment. Many benefits become effective on the first day of employment. Benefits offered by UIC include health care options, wellness programs, educational opportunities, tuition assistance, vacations, holidays and other leave benefits, and University retirement plans.