On behalf of all our faculty and staff, welcome to Illinois! 

I know looking around today how hard it is to believe that this is a place that began with a single building and 77 students back in 1867. Today your campus is home to more than 42,000 students who come to us from more than 120 nations. This is literally and figuratively, a global crossroads of cultures, languages and ideas. From art to science and from faith to food, I hope your experiences are engaging and exciting, with the occasional discovery of something you never expected.

This is a place where conversations in a coffee shop several years ago have taken us to human trials of a promising cancer agent this fall. This is a place where our supercomputing center and our performing arts center come together to create new definitions of art. The same university that drew national headlines celebrating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the LED by one of our own faculty last year is in the national spotlight each spring with the film festival founded by Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert. This same university that revolutionized the world of information with the creation of the graphical internet browser is the one that revolutionized the American educational system with the premise that every child has a right to an education. A premise that led to what we today know as the field of Special Education.

There is history around every corner and a story behind every brick you’ll touch. 

This is your university and we all look forward to the stories you will add to the Illinois legacy.

Phyllis M. Wise,

University chancellor