Lincoln Hall Project
Coming of Age
The New Student Experience
Students Are Heard
Student protests may have defined the 1960s and early 1970s, but the student protest is not a lost art. In the 1980s, students erected shanty towns on the Quad to urge the U of I to withdraw investments from South Africa for its racial policies (the Board of Trustees eventually agreed). Many other social and environmental causes remain a reason for protest, including debates over what Abbott Power Plant should use as fuel. The Graduate Employees Organization—including many TAs for classes around campus—went on strike in 2009 over tuition waivers.
The Last Dance
After years of debate, Chief Illiniwek performed his last dance on February 21, 2007, at halftime of a sold-out men’s basketball game. Earlier, the Board of Trustees had ruled that for the first time in 81 years the Chief would no longer be a symbol of the University.
Changes in Student Life
It’s been an era of distinct change for students, starting right away in 1980, when the drinking age was raised from 19 to 21. The University loosened certified housing restrictions, and more entertainment came from the small screen, with MTV becoming a sensation when it launched in 1981. McKinley Health Center tested students during an AIDS scare in the mid-1980s, and in 1985 hundreds of students flocked to the Observatory to observe Halley’s Comet. The University’s first student computer fee was instituted in 1987, and credit card usage by students skyrocketed in the 1990s. The Daily Illini became a free paper in 1997, and the I-Clicker, an invention from the U of I, has changed student-instructor classroom interaction nationwide. Social media has exploded in popularity, with Facebook arriving in 2004.