Memory Lane: Hash Wednesday
Today, there are more than half-a-dozen pot dispensaries within a short drive of campus. But until 2020, when recreational marijuana use was legalized in Illinois, U. of I. students were
Illini 411: How does the university keep ground water out of the steam tunnels?
A: A torrential downpour? Melting snow and ice? No sweat. All nine miles of the underground steam tunnels, which connect many of the campus’ buildings and have been used as
Quantum Solutions
Sitting in a high school classroom near the New York and Pennsylvania border in the early 1990s, Brian DeMarco became fascinated with questions that had once threatened to break the
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,
Bragging Right
To all those marketing skeptics out there: Yo! Illinois may not always have been a brand. But the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has always been a meme. From the mid-1860s
Memory Lane: The Streak
When 12,000 people showed up on the Quad one night in March 1974, you could have easily mistaken the gathering for an REO Speedwagon concert or a protest against President
Memory Lane: Film lover’s Delight
In our push-of-a-button, tap-it-and-stream-it world of today, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago, a movie night meant getting off your couch, going to the local video rental
Critical Thinker
The official title of the course Psych 598 is the Personality Journal Club. But its participants know it as PIGIE: Personality Interest Group, Including Espresso. Once a week, psychology professor
Illini 411: Did U of I students fight for women’s suffrage?
A: You betcha—and from way back, too. During the University’s early years—we’re talking 19th century, here—suffrage was one of the most popular debate topics between the women’s and men’s student
Flu Fighter
For about a decade now, Nicholas Wu has thought about ducks. He’d long known about avian influenza and other infectious diseases. Wu was in elementary school in Hong Kong in
