Student body As of spring 2018, the university had 45,813 students. , over 10,000 students were international students, and of them 5,295 were
Mainland Chinese. The university also recruits students from over 100 countries among its 32,878 undergraduate students and 10,245
Student organizations The university has over 1,000 active registered student organizations, showcased at the start of each academic year during Illinois's "Quad Day." Registration and support is provided by the Student Programs & Activities Office, an administrative arm established in pursuit of the larger social, intellectual, and educative goals of the Illini Student Union. The office's mission is to "enhance ... classroom education," "meet the needs and desires of the campus community," and "prepare students to be contributing and humane citizens." The
Daily Illini is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of since 1871. The paper is published by
Illini Media Company, a not-for-profit which also prints other publications, and operates
WPGU 107.1 FM, a student-run commercial radio station. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is an all-male choir at Illinois that was founded in 1886. It is one of the
oldest glee clubs in the United States, as well as the oldest registered student organization at the U of I. As of 2018, the university also had the largest chapter of
Alpha Phi Omega, with over 340 active members.
Greek life There are 59 fraternities and 38 sororities on campus. Of the approximately 30,366 undergraduates, 3,463 are members of sororities and 3,674 are members of fraternities. The Greek system at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a system of self-government. While staff advisors and directors manage certain aspects of the Greek community, most of the day-to-day operations of the Greek community are governed by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council. A smaller minority of fraternities and sororities fall under the jurisdiction of the Black Greek Council and United Greek Council; the Black Greek Council serves historically black Greek organizations while the United Greek council comprises other multicultural organizations. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Student government U of I has an extensive history of past student governments. Two years after the university opened in 1868, John Milton Gregory and a group of students created a constitution for a student government. Their governance expanded to the entire university in 1873, having a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. For a period of time, this government had the ability to discipline students. In 1883, however, due to a combination of events from Gregory's resignation to student-faculty infighting, the government formally dissolved itself via
plebiscite. It was not until 1934, when the Student Senate, the next university-wide student government, was created. A year before, future Illinois Dean of Students, Fred H. Turner and the university's Senate Committee on Student Affairs gave increased power to the Student Council, an organization primarily known for organizing dances. A year after, the Student Council created a constitution and became the Student Senate, under the oversight of the Committee on Student Affairs. This Student Senate would last for 35 years. The Student Senate changed its purpose and name in 1969, when it became the Undergraduate Student Association (UGSA). It ceased being a representational government, becoming a
collective bargaining agency instead. It often worked with the Graduate Student Association to work on various projects In 1967,
Bruce A. Morrison and other U of I graduate founded the Graduate Student Association (GSA). GSA would last until 1978, when it merged with the UGSA to form the Champaign-Urbana Student Association (CUSA). CUSA lasted for only two years when it was replaced by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 1980. SGA lasted for 15 years until it became the Illinois Student Government (ISG) in 1995. ISG lasted until 2004.
Residence halls is one of many buildings on the
NRHP. The university provides housing for undergraduates through
24 residence halls in Urbana and Champaign. Incoming freshmen are required to live in student housing (campus or certified) their first year on campus. The university also maintains two graduate residence halls, which are restricted to students who are sophomores or above, and three university-owned apartment complexes. Some undergraduates choose to move into apartments or the Greek houses after their first year. There are a number of private dormitories around campus, as well as 15 private, certified residences that partner with the university to offer a variety of different housing options, including ones that are cooperatives, single-gender or religiously affiliated. U of I is known for being one of the first universities to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. In 2015, the University of Illinois announced that they would be naming its newest residence hall after
Carlos Montezuma, also known as Wassaja. He is the first
Native American graduate, and is believed to be one of the first Native Americans to receive a medical degree.
Libraries and museums Among universities in North America, only the collections of Harvard are larger. Currently, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's 20+ departmental libraries and divisions hold more than 24
million items, including more than 12 million print volumes. The university also has the largest public engineering library (
Grainger Engineering Library) in the country. In addition to the main library building, which houses numerous subject-oriented libraries, the Isaac Funk Family Library on the South Quad serves the
College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center serves the
College of Engineering on the
John Bardeen Quad. , which includes the
Rare Book & Manuscript Library Residence Hall Library System is one of three in the nation. The Residence Hall Libraries were created in 1948 to serve the educational, recreational, and cultural information needs of first- and second-year undergraduate students residing in the residence halls, and the living-learning communities within the residence halls. The collection also serves University Housing staff as well as the larger campus community.
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) is one of the
Special collections units within the University Library. The RBML is one of the largest special collections repositories in the United States. The university has several museums, galleries, and archives which include
Krannert Art Museum,
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and
Spurlock Museum. Gallery and exhibit locations include
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at
the School of Art and Design. The Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN) is hosted and coordinated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, offering publishing services to members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community, to disseminate
open access scholarly publications.
Recreation The campus has two main recreation facilities, the
Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and the Campus Recreation Center – East (CRCE). Originally known as the Intramural Physical Education Building (IMPE) and opened in 1971, IMPE was renovated in 2006 and reopened in August 2008 as the ARC. The renovations expanded the facility, adding 103,433 square feet to the existing structure and costing $54.9 million. This facility is touted by the university as "one of the country's largest on-campus recreation centers." CRCE was originally known as the Satellite Recreation Center and was opened in 1989. The facility was renovated in 2005 to expand the space and update equipment, officially reopening in March 2005 as CRCE.
Transportation (MTD) bus The bus system that operates throughout the campus and community is operated by the
Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The MTD receives a student-approved transportation fee from the university, which provides
unlimited access for university students, faculty, and staff. Daily
Amtrak trains through
Illinois Terminal connect Champaign-Urbana with Chicago and
Carbondale, Illinois. This includes the corridor service
Illini and Saluki and the long-distance
City of New Orleans, which provides a direct route to
Memphis, Tennessee;
Jackson, Mississippi; and
New Orleans, Louisiana southbound, in addition to Chicago northbound.
Willard Airport, opened in 1954 and is named for former University of Illinois president Arthur Cutts Willard. The airport is located in Savoy. Willard Airport is home to university research projects, along with flights from
American Airlines. In 2013, the university's
Institute of Aviation was closed at the University of Illinois and the program was transferred to
Parkland College.
Security The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a dedicated police department, UIPD, which operates independently from CPD, the department that serves the surrounding Champaign area. On June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a Chinese international student, was
abducted and murdered in a case that made national headlines at the time. The university subsequently announced plans to install additional, high-definition, security cameras across the campus. In July 2022, the university announced that it was partnering with local businesses to invest $300,000 to combat violent crime in Champaign County. In September 2022, the City of Champaign transferred responsibility for a large swath of Campustown from CPD (Champaign Police Department) to UIPD, claiming that doing so would reduce response times and improve the quality of service. As part of the jurisdictional reforms, the city agreed to pay a substantial portion of the cost to hire seven new officers to patrol the new coverage area. Violent crime fell sharply in 2022 compared to the year prior, with shootings and homicides declining by 50 and 47 percent, respectively. The city attributed the decrease in crime to improved staffing levels and the installation of
automatic license plate readers. ==Athletics==