UIC's campus development over the years......

UIC’s campus has gone through an interesting and quite amazing transformation since its beginning in the 19^th century. While reading about the Chronology of the University of Illinois at Chicago on UIC’s website and the south campus redevelopment, I saw how the university started out as being a place primarily focused on research and private institutions and not anything like how it is today. I did not like the idea of UIC’s original campus planning because it gave no type of excitement and college life to its students. Other factors that I disliked about the original campus is that there were no residence halls or recreational centers which would force students to remain at home and ultimately making UIC a bottom pick in colleges for those who wanted to be away from home. Although more of the negatives outweighed the positives with this campus layout, there is a benefit that comes from students staying focused on their schoolwork because there were hardly any distractions that surrounded them.

The redevelopment of UIC was a big accomplishment in more ways than one. After all of the main institutions were put into place for educational purposes, developers realized that more had to be done in order to bring diversity and college life to the campus. Once the original residence halls were established, I believe that was the starting point for UIC to become a real campus. Soon after that, developers also realized that students who lived on campus needed to stay interested and also participate in activities that would bring life to the campus. Sports teams were put together and also many new buildings that were designed to enhance students’ learning and make them feel more at home in their environment. I love that UIC is constantly expanding its campus because it is pushing away from being primarily a commuter university which subtracted from the excitement of campus life. I believe the next big step would be to add a football team so that basketball games wouldn’t have to be our primary sport!