HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black
public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universi ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative
teachers college A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...
. Eventually the
Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...
assumed control of the school from the county and it became Chicago Teachers College (CTC).
Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois. NEIU serves approximately 9,000 students in the region and is a Hispanic-serving institution. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park ...
began as a branch campus of CTC in 1949. In 1951, the State of Illinois began funding the college, and assumed control in 1965, transforming it into a comprehensive state college. In 1967, it became Chicago State University. CSU is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and accredited by the
Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...
.


History


Early history: 19th century

Cook County Normal School was founded in 1867 largely through the initiative of John F. Eberhart, the Commissioner of Schools for
Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...
. Eberhart noted that Cook County schools lagged far behind their counterparts in the City of
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, especially in terms of the quality and competence of instructors. He convinced the County Commissioners to hold a teacher training institute in April 1860; its success convinced the commissioners of the need for a permanent school to educate teachers. In March 1867, the Cook County Board of Supervisors created a Normal school at
Blue Island Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,55 ...
on a two-year experimental basis; Daniel S. Wentworth was the first principal. The school opened in 1869 as a permanent institution in Englewood, which was a village far beyond the outskirts of Chicago at that time. After Wentworth died in 1883, he was replaced by Colonel
Francis Wayland Parker Francis Wayland Parker (October 9, 1837March 2, 1902) was a pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States. He believed that education should include the complete development of an individual — mental, physical, and moral. J ...
, a towering figure in the history of American education. Parker was an educational innovator who helped construct the philosophy of
progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''p ...
, which has decisively shaped American schooling over the past century. Dedicated to the proposition that the nature and interests of the child should determine curricular decisions, not vice versa, progressive reformers from the 1890s forward tried to banish what they saw as oppressive and authoritarian standards of instruction. Parker urged teachers to grant pupils the freedom to learn from their environment, to let curiosity rather than rewards or punishments provide their motivation, and to advance American democracy by democratizing their classrooms.
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
wrote in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' in 1930 that Parker, "more nearly than any other one person, was the father of the progressive educational movement." Parker believed that education was the cornerstone of a democracy, and that to achieve this end rote memorization should be replaced with exploration of the environment. Parker's Talks on Pedagogics preceded Dewey's own School and Society by five years, and it is one of the foundational texts in the progressive movement. By the 1890s, Cook County was unable to provide the requisite support for its Normal School. Since many graduates found employment in the Chicago Public Schools system, it was natural that the city would take over, though initially it was very resistant to the idea. In 1897, the
Chicago Board of Education The Chicago Board of Education serves as the board of education (school board) for the Chicago Public Schools. The board traces its origins to the Board of School Inspectors, created in 1837. The board is currently appointed solely by the mayo ...
assumed responsibility for what was now the Chicago Normal School. Shortly thereafter, Francis W. Parker, the school's renowned principal, resigned after the Board failed to implement the recommendations of a school system commission headed by
William Rainey Harper William Rainey Harper (July 24, 1856 – January 10, 1906) was an American academic leader, an accomplished semiticist, and Baptist clergyman. Harper helped to establish both the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the ...
of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. Harper suggested raising the standards for admission to the Normal School, increasing the total number of teachers trained, and strengthening oversight of graduates once they were working in the public schools. Parker was replaced by
Arnold Tompkins Arnold Tompkins (1849–1905) was an American educator and university president in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most known for his work at Illinois State Normal University and Chicago Normal School. Early life Tompkins w ...
. Tompkins was an Indiana Hegelian who introduced key reforms that helped mold the institution's philosophy. Tompkins declared his dissatisfaction with the practice school then used as a laboratory for student-teachers. He wanted instructors to gain real world experience in Chicago's public schools, and he encouraged their placement in poor, immigrant communities. From that point forward, the school would be characterized not just by its innovative pedagogical practices, but also by its commitment to expanding opportunity to underserved sectors of society.


Early 20th century

Tompkins was succeeded as president by
Ella Flagg Young Ella Flagg Young (January 15, 1845 – October 26, 1918) was an American educator who served as superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. She was the first female head of a large United States city school system. She also served as the first fema ...
, a pioneering educator in her own right. Young received a PhD under
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, and after leaving Chicago Normal School served as Superintendent of the
Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...
system. She attempted to expand the curriculum to three years, but was stymied by the Board of Education. After Young left to become Superintendent in 1909, William Bishop Owen became Principal of CNS. In 1913, the school was renamed Chicago Normal College, with higher admissions standards and several new buildings gradually added to the campus. In 1926, the college moved to a three-year curriculum, with heavier emphasis placed on traditional academic subjects as opposed to pedagogy. The school was an increasingly attractive educational avenue for Chicago's immigrant communities, who could get inexpensive preliminary schooling before transferring to a university. However, when the Great Depression began in 1929, severe budget shortages forced the college to curtail its operations, and almost eventuated in its closing. In 1932, the Board of Education budget shrank by $12 million. To many, an obvious strategy for economizing was to close the Normal College, since there were no positions in the school system for trained teachers anyway. The faculty and students campaigned vigorously to keep the college open. Pep rallies, publications, and the efforts of immigrant communities were all part of the mobilization in favor of continued operations. As the economy stabilized, the threat to dissolve the college receded, though it did not disappear. Meanwhile, interest in the school rose, as financial destitution forced many Chicago-area students to forgo residential institutions elsewhere for a commuter campus closer to home. In 1938, the school again changed its name, this time to Chicago Teachers College to reflect the recent adoption of a four-year curriculum. President John A. Bartky had ambitious plans for invigorating instruction through a new commitment to the liberal arts and a doubling of the time devoted to practice teaching. In addition, a Master of Education degree was offered for the first time. However, Bartky's reforms were interrupted by the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, which depleted the faculty and student body alike. Bartky himself enlisted in the Navy in 1942, and never returned to the college. In his absence, the Chicago Board of Education reversed most of his curricular innovations. After the war ended, Raymond Mack Cook was hired as Dean. Cook's primary achievement was to convince the state of
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
to take over funding of the college. The city was no longer able to fund the institution adequately, and in 1951 Governor Adlai Stevenson signed legislation that reimbursed the Board of Education for its operating expenses on a permanent basis. In 1965, Cook succeeded in convincing the state take responsibility for the college entirely.


1950–1979: Name changes, new location

As the demographic composition of the south side of Chicago changed, increasing numbers of African-American students began to attend the college. By the 1950s, nearly 30% of the student body was black. At the same time, three branches of Chicago Teachers College opened elsewhere in the city; these eventually became
Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois. NEIU serves approximately 9,000 students in the region and is a Hispanic-serving institution. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park ...
. During these years Chicago Teachers College and its branches educated a preponderance of the students who became Chicago Public School system teachers. Once the state of Illinois took over control of the institution, the student body and programs offered rapidly expanded. The college experienced two more name changes, becoming Chicago State College in 1967 and Chicago State University in 1971, a year before moving to a new campus. By the mid-1960s the college's infrastructure was deteriorating and tensions between the majority white student body and the mostly black surrounding neighborhood were on the rise. Like many campuses, Chicago State College experienced a burst of student activism in 1968 and 1969 as black students and faculty demanded greater attention to their needs and interests and closer relations with the neighborhood. The administration responded by creating an African-American Studies program and cultural center. In 1972, the university moved to its new location at 9501 S. King Dr., between Burnside and Roseland. The state purchased the site of the
Old Burnside Yard The Burnside Shops were a major shop for maintenance of locomotives and railroad cars in Chicago, Illinois. The shops were owned and operated by the Illinois Central Railroad. The Illinois Central maintained a presence in Burnside since at least ...
from the
Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line al ...
. Classes were suspended for 2 weeks in November to complete the move. In January 1975, 5,000 students signed a petition on a scroll requesting that President
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
give the commencement address at graduation that summer. On July 12, 1975, President Ford gave the commencement address at the ceremony held in the Arie Crown Theatre at
McCormick Place McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America. It consists of four interconnected buildings and one indoor arena sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. McCorm ...
and received an honorary doctor of laws degree.


Late 20th century

Shortly thereafter, President Milton Byrd announced his resignation. His replacement, Benjamin Alexander, was the institution's first African-American leader. Under Alexander's command the school received full 10-year accreditation for the first time in its history. Alexander pushed hard to foster multiculturalism, as the African-American portion of the student body swelled from 60% at the outset of the 1970s to over 80% by 1980. These shifting demographics encouraged a debate over whether CSU should be considered a predominantly African-American institution, akin to the HBCUs (
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
) or whether it should retain a multicultural and multiracial identity. That debate has continued in some form ever since. President Benjamin Alexander hired Dorothy L. Richey, a
Tuskegee University Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...
graduate to become the first woman appointed head of athletics at a co-educational college or university in the United States. Her teams excelled during her first year as athletic director in 1975. The school struggled in the 1980s with flat enrollments, declining state budgets, and falling graduation rates. However, in the early 1990s President
Dolores Cross Dolores Cross is an educator and university administrator who became the first female president of Chicago State University (1990) and Morris Brown College (MBC) (1998–2002). In 2006, she pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement in connection ...
helped introduce a sharp increase in enrollment and retention. She urged faculty to personally call advisees and students who might be having problems. Enrollment rose 40%, nearing 10,000. The Chicago Tribune dubbed Chicago State "Success U." In 1990,
Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poet ...
, the well-known poet, was hired as a Distinguished Professor; she taught classes at CSU up until her death. Brooks protégé and English professor Haki R. Madhubuti established a writing center, now called the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, which hosts a yearly conference and offers the only MFA degree in the country to focus on African American literature.


21st century

Elnora Daniel became president in 1998, and she worked to increase federal and state funding and to create new programs. An Honors College was established in 2003 and a College of Pharmacy in 2007. Daniel also oversaw the first doctoral program at CSU in Educational Leadership. The program produced its first graduates in 2009. Special funds were procured to finance a textbook buying program for African schools and two new buildings: the University Library and the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center. In 2008, Daniel resigned under allegations of unjustified spending; a state audit found that Daniel spent $15,000 that was expensed as a "leadership conference" on a family cruise instead. When the
board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit org ...
began a search for her replacement, all but two of the faculty members who served on the search committee resigned in protest feeling their concerns were not addressed. Part of their concerns included a graduation rate of only 16.2 percent (as of 2007) and inadequate infrastructure. On April 29, 2009, the board of trustees appointed retiring City Colleges of Chicago chancellor Wayne Watson as Chicago State's new president. The decision was protested by several students and faculty, who openly booed the announcement, claiming that Watson's appointment was motivated by political considerations rather than the good of the students and faculty. These issues prompted the
Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...
, the school's accrediting agency, to express "grave" concerns regarding Chicago State's future and indicate that its accreditation might be in jeopardy. However, under Watson's leadership, the school retained and extended its accreditation after the commission's review. In January 2014, the ''Chicago Tribune'' reported that the school's interim provost, Angela Henderson, was under investigation by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for possible plagiarism of her dissertation. Eventually, UIC cleared Henderson of plagiarism, and Henderson reached a $700,000 settlement with UIC in 2019. During Watson's tenure, Chicago State University was named as a defendant in several high-profile lawsuits in which
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
employees have alleged that they were subjected to retaliatory firings for exposing ethical misconduct on the part of the Watson administration. In one case, a jury awarded a substantial verdict, which totaled over $3 million. A similar 2014 suit charged that Watson improperly hired and promoted administrators and engaged in an inappropriate romantic relationship with an employee. In October 2015 the university board unanimously voted to select Thomas J. Calhoun, formerly of the University of North Alabama, to succeed Watson as president. Calhoun entered with a promise to stabilize the school's finances and improve enrollment and graduation rates. On February 26, 2016, all 900 employees of Chicago State University received layoff notices in anticipation of inadequate funding. Since the
Illinois Budget Impasse The Illinois Budget Impasse was a 793-day-long budget crisis in the state of Illinois. From July 1, 2015, to August 31, 2017, Illinois was without a complete state budget for fiscal years 2016, 2017, and part of 2018. As a result, many state agen ...
began in July 2015, Chicago State had zero state funding. In May 2016, CSU's graduation rate had dropped to only 11 percent. The university has historically been the subject of criticism from legislators and accreditors for low graduation rates hovering between 13 and 21 percent. In fall 2016, the freshman class had just 86 students as overall enrollment dropped 25 percent, and in the $84 million university budget for the 2016–17 academic year, the state of Illinois provided only emergency funding to the university. In September 2016, the university board voted to accept President Calhoun's resignation only nine months after he assumed office, and named Cecil Lucy, the university's vice president for administration and finance, as interim president. The agreement included a $600,000 severance package for the outgoing president and a commitment not to disclose the reasons for the separation. The board's decision received harsh criticism for its lack of transparency and the high cost it imposed on the institution already in the midst of a budget crisis. On February 4, 2017, the ''Chicago Tribune'' revealed that Chicago State spent over $370,000 in tax money on planning activities for a second campus in the West Side of Chicago, including a
feasibility study A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a project or system. A feasibility study aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats pr ...
, purchasing property in
Homan Square North Lawndale is one of the 77 community areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois, located on its West Side. The area contains the K-Town Historic District, the Foundation for Homan Square, the Homan Square interrogation facility, and the great ...
, and hiring an architect. ''The New York Times'' reported four days later that Chicago State was considering adding a non-scholarship football team and marching band in order to attract more students from the Chicago public schools. Then in March 2017, Chicago State settled a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former school attorney James Crowley for $4.3 million. Crowley alleged that Chicago State fired him in 2010 in retaliation for reporting misconduct by top administrators. Zaldwaynaka Scott was unanimously voted by the board of trustees to serve as the 12th permanent president of Chicago State University and assumed the role on July 1, 2018. For 2020, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Chicago State #117-#153 in Regional Universities Midwest.


Colleges

In addition to the Honors College and School of Graduate and Professional Studies, Chicago State has the following five, degree-granting colleges: * College of Arts and Sciences * College of Business * College of Education * College of Health Sciences * College of Pharmacy


Buildings


Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center

The Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center is a 7,000-seat multi-purpose on-campus arena started on October 4, 2004, and completed in 2007. The arena hosts the Chicago State University Cougars basketball teams and replaces the Jacoby D. Dickens Athletic Center, which only had capacity to seat 2,500 persons. Among sporting events, the convocation center houses concerts, conferences, and special citywide events. The convocation center is unique among Illinois university athletic projects because Chicago State University did not have to raise any money for the project.


Jacoby Dickens Center

The Jacoby D. Dickens Center (JDC) is home of the Chicago State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. The building was built in 1971 and was formerly known as the CSU Athletics Building until 1995, when it was dedicated to renowned Chicago businessman Jacoby D. Dickens. It contains a 2,500-seat gymnasium, three swimming pools, a fitness center, eight locker rooms, three classrooms, a dance studio, an auxiliary and a multipurpose gymnasium. In addition, the building is home to CSU's athletic department and the university's Health and Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) department.


Library

The university's library, dedicated in October 2006, features a state of the art
automated storage and retrieval system An automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS or AS/RS) consists of a variety of computer-controlled systems for automatically placing and retrieving loads from defined storage locations. Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are ty ...
called ROVER (Retrieval Online Via Electronic Robot), which currently holds most of the library's material that was produced before 1991. It can retrieve five books in 2.5 minutes, on average; the average time for a student to retrieve five books is 2 hours. The system has a capacity of 800,000 volumes and its database is backed up in at least two offsite locations. On October 18, 2018, the library was officially named the
Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poet ...
Library.


Student life


Athletics

Chicago State University sponsors seven men's and eight women's teams in
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
sanctioned sports. Men's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The school's sports teams are called the
Cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...
s, and the team colors are green and white. CSU participates in the
Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of t ...
(WAC) of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
's Division I. From 1994 until June 2006, CSU was a member of the
Mid-Continent Conference The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...
, but withdrew and took independent status before joining the
Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followi ...
, in which it played from the 2008–09 through the 2012–13 seasons. Since the Great West Conference did not sponsor basketball during the 2008–09 season, the Cougars' men's and women's basketball teams played as independents that season. Prior to gaining NCAA Division I status, the university enjoyed memberships in the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
(NAIA) and NCAA Division II.


Fraternities and sororities

All nine of the
National Pan-Hellenic Council The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...
organizations currently have chapters at Chicago State University. These organizations are:


Notable people


References


External links

*
Chicago State University Athletics website
{{authority control Universities and colleges in Chicago State universities in Illinois Public universities and colleges in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1867 Pharmacy schools in Illinois 1867 establishments in Illinois