Great Sports Moments: A Perfect Season
Northern schools—Illinois fits that category—are not supposed to be good at tennis. Climate is the biggest issue: It’s hard to practice your serve and volley with a foot of snow
A Conversation with Chancellor Isbell
Recorded on June 11, 2026, this conversation with Chancellor Charles L. Isbell, Jr. explores the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of higher education and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The Impresario
What’s a tycoon of commercial realty doing atop the Olympus of improv comedy? We’ll find out shortly, but first let’s join Scott Gendell, ’79 MEDIA, on a tour of his
Ingenious: Body Rocks
When Bruce Fouke, Illinois professor of earth science and environmental change, first came to the Mayo Clinic to make a case for incorporating geology into medicine, its physicians had never
Sweet Virginia
In 1907, the 25-year-old Virginia Woolf, then an essayist and literary critic, wrote her first long work of fiction—a collection of stories—as a private amusement for friends. For decades, scholars
Pirates’ Toolmaker
Like millions of other kids, Charlie Young, ’20 LAS, dreamed of being a big-league baseball player—and never made it past high school ball. “Fortunately, I was better at computer science.”
Par Maker
Theola Starks Olion, ’73 AHS, combined online event registration with a dating app to create Senior Golf Dating Site (seniorgolfdatingsite.com). The portal enables mature golfers to “choose a golf date
Illini 411: How did the “Dairy Queen in Altgeld Hall” rumor start?
A: Ever since its construction in the 1890s, jokes have abounded about Altgeld’s labyrinthine design and the treasures that undoubtedly lie within. In the early 2010s, students on Reddit began
The Big Picture: Here’s Looking at You, Kids
Summer means movies on the Quad for Illinois film fans. Every week from May through August, the Illini Union Board sponsors free outdoor showings of Hollywood blockbusters, indie films, documentaries,
Fight the Power!
In 2013, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) suddenly and mysteriously banned Persepolis, the beloved graphic novel about author Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in authoritarian Iran. In Wake Now in the Fire
