Students move about the entryway of Lincoln Hall
A decade of progress

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is a special place on the University of Illinois campus. It's large and diverse, offering an incredible depth across the physical and mathematical sciences, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences.

All together, LAS students, faculty members, and alumni made the 2010s a decade worth celebrating. From renovations of historic landmarks to world-renowned research to the launch of several innovative student development programs, the last 10 years will be remembered for generations to come!

Campus life in LAS: 2010-2019

Note: The handful of stories selected below aren’t meant to be an exhaustive list of LAS events from the past decade. With more than 174,000 alumni, 600 faculty members, and 14,000 students in the College of LAS, we wouldn’t have space to capture all of the great things that happened in the 2010s! Rather, what you’ll find are some of the most read and discussed stories from the past 10 years.

Is there a campus story from the last decade that you think deserves to be on the list? Let us know!

The sun sets on Lincon Hall during a winter day in 2019.

 

Historic campus landmarks are renovated

Beginning with Lincoln Hall (renovated from 2010-2012) and ending with plans in place for Altgeld Hall and a new building to replace Illini Hall (expected completion dates of 2025 and 2023 respectively), the decade has been full of restoration and upgrades of historic buildings. The Natural History Building (renovated 2014-2017) and Chemistry Annex (2014-2017) were also restored, along with the iconic Alma Mater stature (2012-2014).

 

College of LAS celebrates its 100th birthday

The College of LAS turned 100 years old in 2013. In celebration of its centennial, LAS recognized 10 faculty as Centennial Scholars and established a Centennial Gallery of Excellence to commemorate the people and events in LAS history.

LAS welcomes its largest freshman class in over a decade


Illinois Commitment is announced in 2018

In fall of 2018, U of I announced the Illinois Commitment program, which offers free tuition to students in Illinois whose family makes below the median income. A year later, LAS welcomed its largest incoming freshman class in more than a decade.

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LAS student greets employer at ACES + LAS Career Fair


New initiatives launched in LAS to support students’ careers

In the latter half of the decade, LAS launched several innovative initiatives to help support students’ transition to life after college. The Life + Career Design Initiative launched in 2017, LAS hosted its first career fair in 2018, and the Humanities Professional Resource Center launched in 2019.

 

Lincoln Scholars program begins in 2012

Coinciding with the re-opening of Lincoln Hall, LAS welcomed its first cohort of Lincoln Scholars to campus in 2012. The scholarships provide $5,000 per year and are intended for academically strong admitted Illinois residents with financial need.

 

CS + X interdisciplinary degree program is expanded

The innovative “CS + X” degree program is expanded to include four LAS disciplines in 2014. The initial offerings are CS + Anthropology, CS + Astronomy, CS + Chemistry, and CS + Linguistics (in addition to the already established computer science and mathematics and computer science and statistics degrees). Later on in the decade, CS + Philosophy, CS + Geography and Geographic Information Science, and CS + Economics are added as additional degree programs.

 

Students, alumni, and faculty made the 2010s a decade worth celebrating in the College of LAS! Check out the major research and alumni stories from the last decade.