ILLINOIS, UNIVERSITY OF

state system of higher education consisting of two campuses, the main campus in the twin cities Champaign and Urbana, Ill., and a second campus in Chicago. Both campuses are teaching and research institutions with land-grant standing and a full range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The main campus operates colleges of agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, fine arts, and law. It also operates the Institute of Aviation, which awards pilot certificates and ratings on behalf of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and operates the Aviation Research Laboratory. Other campus facilities include the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Krannert Center for Performing Arts and Art Museum. The Chicago campus is home to the Jane Addams School of Social Work and colleges of nursing, pharmacy, and medicine. The College of Medicine also has sites in Champaign, Peoria, and Rockford. The Software Technologies Research Facility and the Institute for Juvenile Research are on the Chicago campus. Total enrollment for the university system is approximately 62,000. One of the land-grant universities created by the Morrill Act of 1862, the University of Illinois was chartered in 1867, and instruction began in Urbana-Champaign in 1868. It was then known as the Illinois Industrial College. The university's presence in Chicago began with the founding of the school of pharmacy and the department of medicine in 1894 and 1897, respectively. An undergraduate division of the university opened in Chicago in 1946. Almost 20 years later the university had a new campus constructed west of downtown Chicago. This campus was known as the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. In 1982 Chicago Circle merged with the University of Illinois at the Medical Center to form the University of IllinoisChicago. The university library in Urbana-Champaign is the third largest academic collection in the United States.