The pandemic heightened food insecurity for families across Illinois.

Now, research is showing students on college campuses are also feeling the impact.

At the University of Illinois Springfield, they have a food pantry where students can come and get food at no cost.

Jill Hawkins-Wright, the director of the Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center at UIS, said students are tight on time and also paying for costs that come with schools like books and transportation.

The University of Illinois Springfield will honor the Class of 2020 during two special commencement ceremonies on Saturday afternoon.

Officials said this will be an opportunity for 2020 graduates to walk across the stage in their cap and gown and have their names read in front of up to eight guests. The ceremonies will be held at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the UIS Sangamon Auditorium, which is inside the Public Affairs Center Building on Ernest Hemingway Drive.

This story was published on WCIA on Sept. 16, 2021.

University of Illinois Springfield is waiving all application fees starting from now through the 2022-2023 academic year for all incoming students.

Officials said students can apply to the university through Common App. It is an online college application platform that serves more than three million applicants, teachers, counselors and advisors across the U.S. and around the world every year.

The University of Illinois Springfield is taking the top prize yet again on U.S. News & World Report list of top public regional universities in Illinois.

UIS was also ranked the fourth-best public university in the Midwest regional category.

By the numbers, University of Illinois Springfield has room for improvement.

The first ten days of class are in the books, and enrollment is down about two hundred – to 3,944. Interim chancellor Karen Whitney says UIS needs to continue to find ways to make itself an option for people considering college.

Fall enrollment numbers at the University of Illinois Springfield took a 5% plunge, school officials said Wednesday.

The total number of undergraduate and graduate school students enrolled in classes stands at 3,944 compared to 4,146 students in fall 2020.

Karen Whitney, UIS interim chancellor, said the COVID-19 pandemic was problematic in how the university's recruitment and admissions teams got out to high schools and community colleges.

Stair climbers commemorated 9/11 in a literal way Saturday. 

The climbers, among them those too young to remember first-hand the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, made their way up flights of stairs at the Crowne Plaza hotel to mark the revered day and to honor the first responders who climbed the steps of the World Trade Center that morning to rescue the injured.

The following is an excerpt from a column by University of Illinois Springfield Associate Professor of Astronomy-Physics John Martin. This column appeared in The State Journal-Register on September 12, 2021.

Everyone living in central Illinois is familiar with the beauty of a star-filled night sky split in half by the Milky Way. Even those of us living in towns and cities full of lights have just a short distance to travel to take in awe-inspiring views.

There's something strange growing at the University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery. Fittingly, the gallery is attached to the Health and Sciences Building, because the current exhibit looks as though some wild experiments made their way into the art space. Only, these plants dance and sing. They are robotic. In fact, one resembles some sort of animal, with a little tail that wags if you touch it just so.

The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) announced that the Reaching Stellar Campaign hit its $40 million goal on August 13.

University officials said the campaign is far from finished, as Reaching Stellar will continue into June 2022 to support its five priority areas, which include scholarships, academic excellence, the Center for Lincoln Studies, “the public good” and facilities & technology.

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 30, 2021.