A Healing Presence
Soon after McKinley Hospital opened at the University of Illinois, it was featured in the January 1926 issue of Illinois Alumni News, under a headline that might have appeared, well, oddly promotional.
“Not a bad place to be sick,” it declared, as if a student with scarlet fever or a broken arm needed a decent review before seeking help. Anyone familiar with the Illinois campus before McKinley, however, knew that there were, in fact, some very bad places to be sick.
Previously, U of I student health-care options included a few cramped local hospitals, along with campus buildings that were converted into care centers when necessary. Students and locals with communicable diseases were sent to the so-called “city pest house,” which The Daily Illini described as “a nightmare of filth and discomfort, and unsanitary conditions embodied in a little shack out north of town.” Nobody shed a tear in 1903 when it suspiciously burned to the ground.
But with smallpox, mumps, influenza, typhoid, rubella, trench mouth and other diseases still a threat, it became increasingly clear that the University needed better health care. After particularly virulent outbreaks of scarlet fever in 1914 and 1915—which killed at least two students and a nurse and shut down social events—the dean of men, Thomas Arkle Clark, 1890 LAS, realized the campus needed help.
With that, he went to an old friend: William B. McKinley.
At the time, McKinley, who’d attended the U of I in the 1870s (when it was called the Illinois Industrial University), was a newly elected U.S. representative, a banker and chief executive of the Illinois Traction System. Indeed, he’d become known as the “interurban king” of the Mississippi Valley region, having founded scores of electric, gas and street railway systems in communities across the Midwest. He also was an ardent University supporter, having donated money for the University YMCA and YWCA, the McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church (then exclusively for students), a student loan fund and an endowed professorship.
McKinley’s “genius in making money is excelled only by his genius in giving it away,” stated the Illinois Alumni News. He was, in short, the right person for Clark to approach to build a new hospital.
With McKinley’s donation covering most of the initial $236,000 necessary for construction, the University broke ground for the hospital in 1924 at its current location on Lincoln Avenue in Urbana, in a quiet spot called the Old Forestry.
Designed by C.A. Platt of New York City and University supervising architect James McLaren White, 1890 ENG, the hospital was in the Georgian New Revival style, which was common to campus buildings of that time. It opened in 1925 with 85 beds, offering 28 days of free care to students who paid a health-care fee of $3 per semester.
McKinley died not long after the hospital opened, but his transformative gift set the U of I on a healthier track. It seemed there was always more need than space, however, so the University gradually increased the facility’s size and added new services. A 1962 addition allowed McKinley Memorial Hospital and McKinley Student Health Center—an assortment of health-care services located throughout the campus—to exist under the same roof. A quarter-century later, in 1988, the McKinley Health Center completed a $4.5 million renovation.

Renovated to meet today’s health-care needs, the century-old McKinley Health Center provided critical services during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Image courtesy of McKinley Health Center)
If they were alive today, Clark and McKinley would likely be surprised by what McKinley Health Center has become, as changes have occurred not only to its physical space and organizational structure but also to its services, which have grown and evolved with the health-care industry. The center is now one of the nation’s most active college health-care service providers, fielding 100,000 student visits per year.
Services include dial-a-nurse, a pharmacy, a laboratory and x-ray tests, immunizations, and programs for women’s health, mental health, health education and wellness.
In 2023, the center launched McKinley Self-Care Stations, a vending machine program in campus buildings that provides free over-the-counter, non-prescription medications and bandages to students.
This past semester, the facility added rehab and sports therapy services.
Awais Vaid, the 15th director of McKinley Health Center, says it will soon be opening a satellite location at the Illini Union to improve access to urgent care. McKinley also is exploring the expansion of its services in dentistry and optometry.
“As McKinley advances its mission,” Vaid says, “we will ensure that its services remain relevant and effective for the future needs of our campus.”