Rockford University is a private university in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

. It was founded in 1847 as Rockford Female Seminary and changed its name to Rockford College in 1892, and to Rockford University in 2013.

History

Sill Hall, Main Hall, Adams Hall (l-r) (Rockford College, 1904)

Rockford Female Seminary was founded in 1847 as the sister college of Beloit College, which had been founded the year before. The seminary's initial campus was on the east side of the

Rock River Rock River may refer to: Streams ;United States * Rock River (Mississippi River), a tributary of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin and Illinois * Rock River (Iowa), a tributary of the Big Sioux River in Minnesota and Iowa * Rock River (Lake Mich ...

, south of downtown Rockford. Anna Peck Sill served as principal for the first 35 years. In 1890, the seminary's trustees voted to offer a full college curriculum, which led to the name changing to Rockford College in 1892. Men were first granted admission to the university at the beginning of the 1955–1956 school year. At about this time, the school requested that the City of Rockford close parts of a street adjoining the campus. In January 2008, Dr. Robert L. Head was named the university's seventeenth president, effective July 2008. On October 2, 2012, the board of trustees voted unanimously to rename the college as a university. The trustees did so because the institution has many different academic departments. On July 1, 2013, the institution officially became Rockford University. In February 2016, Dr. Eric W. Fulcomer was named the university's eighteenth president, effective July 2016, and inaugurated on November 4, 2016.

Academics

The university offers approximately 80 majors, minors and concentrations, including the adult accelerated degree completion program for a B.S. in Management Studies. Through its Graduate Studies department, degree include the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), and a Master of Education (MEd). The university is organized into three colleges: * Arts and Humanities * Science, Math, and Nursing * Social Sciences, Commerce and Education The university offers an Honors Program in Liberal Arts & Sciences. Also housed within the university are the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and the Center for Learning Strategies.

Departments

* Anthropology & Sociology * Art & Art History * Biology * Chemical & Biological Sciences *

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

* Computer Science * Economics,

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

* Education * English * History *

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

* Modern & Classical Languages * Nursing *

Performing Arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

* Physical Education * Physics * Political Science * Psychology

Honor societies

* Phi Beta Kappa -

Scholastic Scholastic may refer to: * a philosopher or theologian in the tradition of scholasticism * ''Scholastic'' (Notre Dame publication) * Scholastic Corporation, an American publishing company of educational materials * Scholastic Building, in New Y ...

* Eta Sigma Phi -

* Omicron Delta Epsilon - Economics *

Phi Alpha Theta Phi Alpha Theta () is an American honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history. It has more than 400,000 members, with new members numbering about 9,000 a year through its 970 chapters. Founding Phi Alpha The ...

- History * Phi Sigma Iota - Foreign Language * Pi Lambda Theta - Education * Psi Chi - Psychology * Sigma Beta Delta -

Athletics

The Rockford University Regents are Division III members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Teams compete independently or as members of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The university fields men's teams in baseball, basketball, cross country,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, and track and field, and women's teams in basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, track and field, and volleyball. Their football team is the only team in

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

since 2000 to score 100 points in a single game, beating Trinity Bible, 105–0 in 2003. Recreational and intramural club sports (including basketball and dodgeball) are also available on campus.

Notable alumni

* Jane Addams, activist and social worker *

Ellen Gates Starr Ellen Gates Starr (March 19, 1859 – February 10, 1940) was an American social reformer and activist. With Jane Addams, she founded Chicago's Hull House, an adult education center, in 1889; the settlement house expanded to 13 buildings in ...

, activist and social reformer * Julia Lathrop, social reformer *

Ron Kowalke Ron Leory Kowalke (born 1936, died February 26, 2021) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, and art educator born in Chicago. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, but earned his BA from Rockford Univer ...

, American painter, printmaker, sculptor, and art educator *

Sandy Cole Sandy Cole (born 1953) is a former Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 62nd district for six years, from January 2007 until January 2013. Illinois House of Representatives Sandy Cole was elected to the ...

, state representative in Illinois *

Arthur A. Collins Arthur Andrews Collins (September 9, 1909 – February 25, 1987) was a radio engineer and entrepreneur. He first gained national recognition as a teenager for significant advances in radio communication. He later founded his own radio engineering ...

, radio engineer, researcher, entrepreneur * Roger Cooper, politician *

Hind Rassam Culhane Hind Rassam Culhane is an Iraqi-born American educator and former journalist. Early life and education Rassam Culhane was born in Mosul, Iraq, to an Iraqi-Assyrian father and a Lebanese mother. As a child, she and her family moved to the Unite ...

, professor * Yvonne D'Arle, opera singer * Jeannette Durno, pianist and music educator *

Jeannette Howard Foster Jeannette Howard Foster (November 3, 1895 – July 26, 1981) was an American librarian, professor, poet, and researcher in the field of lesbian literature. She pioneered the study of popular fiction and ephemera in order to excavate both over ...

, important lesbian theme writer/researcher *

Barbara Giolitto Barbara A. Giolitto (born September 1, 1946) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives. Born in Elgin, Illinois, Giolitto received her associate degree from Rock Valley College and her b ...

, politician *

Vivian Hickey Vivian Ellen (née Veach) Hickey (March 25, 1916 – April 28, 2016) was an American educator and politician. Born in Clayton, Illinois, Hickey received her bachelor's degree from Rockford University, in 1937 and her master's degree from the U ...

, educator/politician *

Joyce Holmberg Joyce Mina Lundeen Holmberg (née Lundeen; June 19, 1930 – March 20, 2017) was an American politician and educator. Born in Rockford, Illinois, Holmberg graduated from East High School in Rockford and was married to Eugene Holmberg. She rece ...

, educator/politician *

Betty Ann Keegan Betty Ann (née Southwick) Keegan (January 23, 1920 – April 16, 1974) was an American politician. Born in Springfield, Illinois, she received her bachelor's degree from Rockford College and did graduate work from University of Wisconsin. She was ...

, politician * Doris Lee, artist *

Helen Douglas Mankin Helen Douglas Mankin (September 11, 1896 – July 25, 1956) was an American politician. She was the second woman to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives. Life Mankin was born September 11, 1896, in Atlanta, Fulton ...

, politician * Catherine Waugh McCulloch, suffragist * Ellen Spencer Mussey, pioneer in field of women's rights to education *

Anna E. Nicholes Anna E. Nicholes (May 2, 1865 – July 20, 1917) was an American social reformer, civil servant, and clubwoman associated with Women's suffrage in the United States, women's suffrage and the settlement movement in Chicago. She devoted her life to c ...

, social reformer, civil servant, clubwoman * Deb Patterson, women's basketball coach * Mark Pedowitz, television executive * Belle L. Pettigrew, educator, missionary *

Roland Poska Roland Poska (1938 – February 2, 2017) was an American artist who was notable for pioneering papermaking in modern art, for printmaking, and for frequently combining the two into completed works of art. He was also a teacher at the Layton Sch ...

, artist *

Barbara Santucci Barbara Jean Santucci (born April 11, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American artist, poet and author of several children's books. Santucci is best known as a children's book author and traveling lecturer. Her stories and lectures deal wit ...

, children's author *

Robin Schone Robin Schone (born c. 1954) is a best-selling American author of erotic romance novels. Biography Schone read her first romance novel, ''These Old Shades'' by Georgette Heyer, at age twelve, and began reading erotic novels when she was fifteen. ...

, author * *

Harriet G. R. Wright Harriet Goodrich Rosenkrans Wright (October 11, 1845 – September 15, 1928) was an American politician and suffragist who served in the Colorado House of Representatives. Life Harriet G. R. Wright was born on October 11, 1845, to Cyrus E. Rose ...

, member of the Colorado House of Representatives

References

External links

*
Rockford University athletics website
{{authority control Education in Rockford, Illinois Educational institutions established in 1847 Buildings and structures in Rockford, Illinois Tourist attractions in Rockford, Illinois Female seminaries in the United States 1847 establishments in Illinois Private universities and colleges in Illinois Former women's universities and colleges in the United States