Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale is located in Carbondale, Illinois.

It was founded as Illinois Normal University in 1869 with twelve academic departments. It had 143 students in its first class. Southern Illinois University Carbondale now ranks among Illinois? most comprehensive public universities.

Each year, some 21,500 students enroll in the 175 academic programs seeking associate, bachelor?s, master?s, and doctoral and professional degrees in law and medicine.

Academic programs include agriculture, art, aviation, automotive technology, anthropology, business, cinema-photography, computer science, education, engineering, foreign language study, forestry, history, journalism, music, political science, radio-television, social work, recreation, rehabilitation.

SIUC was the first major university in the United States to be handicap accessible in the early 1960s. It also has the premier CESL (Center for English as a Second Language) program in the nation.

SIUC Trivia

The Saluki is the school mascot. The school colors are maroon and white.

Buckminster Fuller taught at SIUC for many years. Several of the original geodesic domes can be found around the campus and city.

John Belushi made the sweater labeled "College" at SIUC. Jim Belushi graduated from SIUC.

Dennis Franz graduated from SIUC in 1970 after transferring from a junior college by Chicago.

Basketball Hall of Famer Walt Frazier led the Salukis to the 1967 National Invitational Tournament title in 1967. His number is one of two retired by the men's basketball team.

The Saluki men's basketball team garnered national attention for the school by advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2002. The next two years, the team was eliminated in the NCAA Tournament first round by a point each game. In the aftermath of each loss, the incumbent basketball coach left for a Big Ten School (Bruce Weber left for the University of Illinois in 2003, Matt Painter left for Purdue University the following year.)