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Programs of Study, 1997-1999
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research and Instructional Resources
within Disciplinary Colleges
Although the Graduate College has oversight responsibility for graduate programs and degrees as well as for a number of research and service facilities, each of ten disciplinary colleges at the UIUC campus serves as an educational and administrative group composed of departments and other units. These are the Colleges of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Applied Life Studies; Commerce and Business Administration; Communications; Education; Engineering; Fine and Applied Arts; Law; Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Veterinary Medicine. Other disciplinary units outside the colleges include the Institute of Aviation, the Environmental Council, the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and the School of Social Work. Graduate students are an integral part of the research activities conducted in all of these units.
AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Within the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, the Agricultural Experiment Station coordinates the college's research program. Approximately 10,000 acres of college-owned farmland in all parts of Illinois are used for research. Approximately 400 active projects in the Agricultural Experiment Station are being conducted on campus and at the fifteen research centers throughout the state.
Because agricultural research often involves more than one field of study, much of it is conducted in cooperation with other colleges on the Urbana-Champaign campus, with the state surveys on campus (Geological, Natural History, and Water), with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and with other agricultural colleges. Interdisciplinary research is encouraged in such special areas as crop and animal production and uses, environmental quality, pest management, the International Soybean Program (INTSOY), and food and nutrition.
Illinois education, agriculture, and agribusiness are in the forefront of world food production and development. In addition to course offerings with an international focus, research is conducted with the goal of assisting developing countries to expand their own food production and distribution. Faculty exchanges and cooperative research with foreign institutions and agencies offer opportunities for mutually beneficial programs. Examples of international interests include soybeans, maize, animal agriculture, and nutrition.
COMMERCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Several activities within the College of Commerce and Business Administration supplement the research efforts of the departments. The Office for Information Management is financed jointly by college and University funds as well as corporate donations. The major goals of the office are to promote and support incorporation of software and hardware information technologies in the delivery of the college's curriculum; to equip, maintain, and supervise computer laboratories used for student projects; and to support research dependent on information systems and technologies. The facilities and the activities of the Office for Information Management afford the college an opportunity to expose and train students in state-of-the-art software and information systems.
The Executive-in-Residence Program, Visiting Executives Programs, and Chief Financial Officer Lecture Series bring visiting business executives to the campus to present lectures and lead discussions with students and faculty on specific topics. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research provides and analyzes a variety of state and local economic data. The college has acquired several financial data files such as the Center for Research on Stock Prices (CRSP) and the Standard and Poor's Compustat Tapes. There are also economic data tapes, including those of the Data Resources and International Monetary Fund. The college is the depository for the Bureau of Economic Analysis tapes and diskettes.
The international orientation of many programs is another important aspect of the college's overall teaching and research program. Distinguished faculty members with international academic backgrounds have developed a number of special courses with an international focus. The Office of the Director of International Programs in the college provides overall assistance in the international field. The Center for International Education and Research in Accounting in the Department of Accountancy coordinates the research programs of distinguished visiting scholars and publishes an international accounting journal. The college has been involved in several overseas programs. Special international programs offered include the Policy Economics Program for people from developing countries, the fourteen-month Master of Science in Business Administration for International Managers, the Master of Science in International Accountancy with specializations in international accounting and auditing, and the Master of Science in Finance with a specialization in International Finance.
The Office of Real Estate Research, funded primarily by the State of Illinois Real Estate Research and Education Fund and the Real Estate Recovery Fund, undertakes and fosters research related to real estate in Illinois, communicates the results of such research to the real estate industry, and promotes the ongoing development of real estate education.
Additional research offices have been created in the college: the Office of Accounting Research; the Office for Banking Research; the Program for Health Economics, Management, and Policy; the Center for International Business Education and Research; and the Office of Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Each of these offices promotes and coordinates research of faculty members in the college in these specific areas. In addition, each office provides a focal point for the college and its various constituencies to discuss and disseminate research results. These offices are funded by a combination of government and private-industry support.
The Survey Research Laboratory is widely used by faculty and students interested in survey work. The Behavioral Laboratories are used to perform behavioral experiments, and the computer is a major tool for hypothesis testing and programming.
COMMUNICATIONS
In the College of Communications, the Institute of Communications Research, which administers the doctoral program in communications and the B.S. in media studies, is one of the oldest and most distinguished interdisciplinary research centers in the United States. Through its graduates, the institute has spawned many similar programs and institutes around the country. It conducts research and teaches in virtually all areas of communication but concentrates on cultural and media studies, the political economy of communications, information technology and policy, feminist and multicultural perspectives, media and politics, sociology of news, media ethics, international communications, the effects of mass communication, and the psychology and sociology of language. It provides students the opportunity to study and to conduct research with a faculty that combines such disciplines as political science, sociology, psychology, history, and linguistics with the professional fields of telecommunications, advertising, broadcasting, and journalism. Holdings in the Communications Library in Gregory Hall are widely regarded as among the best in the nation.
EDUCATION
In addition to research conducted principally within academic departments, the following units, with specialized research interests, are supported by the college: the Bureau of Educational Research, the National Center for Research in Vocational Education, and the Secondary Transitional Intervention Effectiveness Institute. Most of these units offer assistantships or fellowships to qualified doctoral students.
ENGINEERING
The College of Engineering was one of the original units of the University when it was founded in 1867. Recognized as a major international center of research and instructional excellence, the college has more than 400 faculty members and an academic support staff of 250 professionals. Twenty-six faculty members have been named to the National Academy of Engineering, eight to the National Academy of Sciences, and nine to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, about 200 distinguished faculty visitors from all over the world are in residence on campus at any one time, participating fully in the academic life of the college. The college's annual enrollment is 5,400 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students. Each year, the college awards approximately 1,100 B.S. degrees, 500 M.S. degrees, and 200 Ph.D. degrees.
The mission of the College of Engineering is to meet society's needs through excellence in education, research, and service to the public. The educational program strives to instill in students the values, vision, and training necessary to develop excellent technical, leadership, and communication skills. Through classwork and extracurricular activities, the college promotes a philosophy that emphasizes professionalism and embraces lifelong learning.
The college pioneered an interdisciplinary approach to engineering instruction and research that has proven beneficial for the graduates of the program and for society. At the undergraduate level, this approach is demonstrated by the senior design project, which demands that the student concurrently apply technical skills, practical thinking, and communications and human relations skills. At the graduate level, most degrees earned are awarded to students whose research is supported within an interdisciplinary team.
The college recognizes teaching excellence and rewards outstanding teachers. The coveted Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence is given annually to an outstanding faculty member. Many faculty members have also received awards for their instructional excellence from their departments, the campus, and industry.
Advising students is a responsibility shared by the entire faculty. Each year, the college recognizes the dedication of its top advisers by awarding them the prestigious Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising. Because the student body is large, the college has developed a strong, well-organized system for advising students. Upon entering a department, all undergraduate students are assigned to a senior staff member who serves as their faculty adviser. Each department also has a senior adviser, who is accessible to the students at any time and who acts as a liaison between the department and the college. At the college level, deans in the Office of Academic Programs help students make academic decisions, set career goals, resolve academic and personal concerns, and find suitable career opportunities upon graduation. Shortly after being accepted for graduate studies, graduate students select their faculty adviser. Graduate students are guided through their thesis research and teaching activities by faculty members who work closely with them.
The college's research areas support the fundamental and the practical aspects of engineering and science, addressing our society's need for solutions to today's problems and for new knowledge upon which tomorrow's achievements can be built. With separately budgeted research expenditures of more than $80 million, the college places among the top engineering research programs nationally.
Students at all levels receive practical benefits from the strong research environment created by the college's well-funded research activities and programs. Students have access to state-of-the-art equipment in classrooms and laboratories, and they are educated by faculty members who are investigating and working with some of today's most exciting technology. Many of the research groups offer undergraduate students the opportunity to actively participate in research projects.
The college's teaching and research laboratories are up-to-date and remain so through a program of continuous renewal. With the support and counsel of its industrial sponsors, the college is able to maintain many state-of-the-art undergraduate laboratories. Modern classroom facilities, many equipped with the latest computer and multimedia technology, create a learning environment that enhances the educational experience.
The college has three major interdisciplinary research laboratories: the Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL), the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), and the Microelectronics Laboratory.
The Coordinated Science Laboratory provides an interdisciplinary research environment for faculty members and students from engineering and other disciplines. Research concentrates on such areas as semiconductor physics, semiconductor materials and devices, computer systems, communications, VLSI circuits, artificial intelligence, signal processing, supercomputing, and robotics.
The Materials Research Laboratory pursues multidisciplinary research basic to an understanding of the solid state of matter and is one of the country's outstanding facilities for electron microscopy and microanalysis of materials. The laboratory's three highly interdisciplinary research programs are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. They are metals and ceramics (DOE), solid-state sciences (DOE), and the Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity (NSF).
The Microelectronics Laboratory is a multidisciplinary facility for the investigation of new concepts in optical and electronic materials, devices, and systems based on gallium arsenide and other compund semiconductors. The laboratory includes special facilities for the development of artificially structured materials, submicron device fabrication, ultrahigh-speed optical and electrical measurements, and characterization of ultrahigh-purity semiconductors.
The Coordinated Science Laboratory and the Materials Research Laboratory cooperate in the operation of a multisystem molecular beam epitaxy facility called the EpiCenter. All three laboratories provide opportunities for researchers in industry and the University to collaborate on research projects.
Some unique research centers are part of the college. These include the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center, Center for Computational Electronics, Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, Center for Supercomputing Research and Development, Institute for Competitive Manufacturing, Manufacturing Research Center, Mid-America Earthquake Center, Center for Optical Remote Sensing in Atmospheric and Environmental Applications, Center for Laser Applications to Micromaching and Joining, and Science and Technology Center for Cement-Based Composite Materials. These programs address special interdisciplinary needs in nationally important technological areas. They share the common goal of providing superior research capabilities in the fundamental engineering sciences in collaboration with industrial and governmental laboratories, supporting graduate student education, and enhancing rapid technology transfer from University laboratories to industry and the classroom.
A vast array of computing resources is available to students and faculty members. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications-developer of the powerful Internet browser, NCSA Mosiac-is a University-based supercomputing facility and interdisciplinary research center that makes available a range of supercomputer architectures. Vector multiprocessors include the four-processor CRAY Y-MP/464 and CRAY-2S/4-128 machines and the eight-processor CONVEX C3880. The CONVEX C3880 is the centerpiece of the Numerical Laboratory, where scientific visualizations can be performed interactively in real time. Massively parallel computers are two versions of Thinking Machines' Connection Machine, the CM-2 (32,768 processors) and the CM-5 (512 SPARC chip-based nodes). At the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, NCSA's Virtual Reality Laboratory allows users to enter a three-dimensional space, exploring data by being immersed in it. NCSA collaborates with other NSF supercomputer centers to form a National Computational Environment accessible anywhere on the national network.
The college is part of one of the most advanced campus networks in the nation. This network gives faculty members and students access to all central computing facilities and to regional and national networks. Shared by all undergraduate and graduate engineering students, the Engineering Workstations Laboratories are equipped with some of today's most advanced engineering workstations.
The state-of-the-art Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, completed in 1994, provides students, faculty, and the business community with an excellent environment for study, group collaborative projects, and casual reading. The Grainger Center houses 300,000 volumes of the University's 500,000-volume engineering collection; the collection is augmented by smaller collections in a number of departmental libraries. Its resources include a digital imaging laboratory, a computer and multimedia laboratory, instructional services laboratories, an information retrieval research laboratory, and high-tech classrooms. Using workstations located throughout the University's library system, patrons can access more than five million references to articles and journals.
FINE AND APPLIED ARTS
The schools and departments in the College of Fine and Applied Arts have excellent facilities. These include the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Krannert Art Museum, practice rooms, studios, laboratories, exhibition spaces, and specialized libraries.
The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts provides studio space for classes in theatre, dance, and music; students participate in many of the public performances in its four theatres as well as in other theatres on campus. Music students use the rehearsal rooms, studios, and auditoriums in Smith Music Hall and in the Music Building. The work of students receiving M.F.A. degrees in the School of Art and Design is exhibited in the Krannert Art Museum, which is connected to the Art and Design Building. Students in the School of Architecture exhibit their work in the Temple Buell Architecture Gallery. Design and performing arts students and faculty exhibit their work at the I-Space, a gallery in the heart of the Chicago gallery district.
Throughout the year, many visiting artists, performers, and speakers are brought to the campus by the college and its departments. Comprehensive libraries in art and architecture, city planning and landscape architecture, and music serve students and faculty.
LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
Among the major resources and facilities for graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are libraries, museums, laboratories, clinical and training facilities, quantitative services, and interdisciplinary research efforts. A number of schools and departments in the college have superb departmental libraries conveniently located near the units. In particular, the libraries in chemistry, life sciences, and mathematics are exceptional. Some collections for the humanities and social sciences are outstanding, for example, the Slavic collection, the Asian Library, and the Map and Geography Library.
Special Collections
The Herbarium, administered by the School of Life Sciences, is the tenth largest herbarium at an American university. It is both a research and a teaching facility, and its staff serves the public by assisting in the identification of plants.
The Museum of Natural History has served graduate students and faculty members since the 1870s. A number of special collections, including reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and shells from all parts of the world, are housed in the museum. Research specimens for advanced scientific study number more than 400,000.
The World Heritage Museum houses more than 25,000 artifacts that illustrate cultural achievements from prehistoric Europe; ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome; northern Europe; Africa; Asia; and America. The museum's collections are heavily used by University classes in history, art history, classics, and anthropology for general tours and individual research projects.
Two collections of special note in the humanities are the American Center of the International Photographic Archive of Papyri and the Cinema Studies Film Archive.
Special Training Facilities and Research Centers
All of the units in the life sciences, the physical sciences, psychology, and speech and hearing science have extensive laboratory facilities. The Department of Psychology operates the Psychological Services Center, which is the principal facility for training and research in clinical psychology. The Department of Speech and Hearing Science operates three clinics (speech, language, and hearing) to provide training for its students. The Department of Astronomy operates two observing facilities jointly with other institutions for research and training purposes: a one-meter optical telescope at Mt. Laguna in California (with San Diego State University), and a six-element millimeter-wavelength radio telescope array at Hat Creek in California (with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland). Observing time for students at other sites, including national observatories, may also be arranged through faculty supervisors.
The School of Life Sciences, in addition to the facilities of its six constituent departments, includes the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology and the Neuroscience Program. Also of particular note are the facilities of the School of Chemical Sciences, which include molecular spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, and laser spectroscopy laboratories; a radioisotope laboratory; a computer center; a microanalytical laboratory; hydrogenation and high- pressure facilities; and machine, electronic, electrical, and glassblowing shops.
The Language Learning Laboratory (LLL), in addition to providing teaching facilities, promotes research in language learning and teaching. Advanced technological resources, including international video reception, audio, microcomputers, and television production facilities are available for the LLL.
The Writers' Workshop is a tutorial facility dedicated to the improvement of writing on campus at all levels. Administered by the Center for Writing Studies, the workshop offers writing assistance and advice to students enrolled in any course offered at the University. The workshop is staffed entirely by graduate students with expertise in writing, and graduate students working on theses and dissertations are among its most regular clients. The Center's graduate student program offers specialized training in several humanities departments.
The Department of Geography houses three laboratories: the Geographic Modeling Systems Laboratory, the Regional Economic Applications Laboratory, and the Spatial Data Analysis Laboratory. The Department of Anthropology sponsors two cultural resource management programs, the Illinois Transportation Archaeology Research Program and the Public Service Archaeology Program. Additional facilities for the social sciences include the Office of Computing and Communications for the Social Sciences, the Computational Modeling Laboratory, and the Merriam Laboratory for Analytic Political Research.
The Department of Statistics, through the (ISO), provides a consulting service to faculty members and graduate students from all areas of the University. The service provides assistance in design and analysis of various statistical projects.
Interdisciplinary Programs
Units in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences participate in a number of campuswide interdisciplinary efforts, many of which are described elsewhere in this catalog. Some of the instructional units in the college are by nature interdisciplinary. The area studies centers (African Studies, East Asian and Pacific Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Russian and East European Studies) are examples of these; their degree programs are described in the Programs of Study section. Other groups of faculty and students working together on interdisciplinary studies include the Afro-American Academic and Research Program; the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security; the Latino/a Studies Program; the Southwest Asia Studies Program; and the Women's Studies Program.
The Unit for Cinema Studies promotes and coordinates the critical and historical study of the cinema. Its membership represents several departments and reflects various critical and scholarly interests. The unit is also a resource center that promotes cinema teaching and scholarship through its growing archive of film materials and its editorial and analytical equipment for film study.
The Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, an interdisciplinary program drawing upon fifteen humanities and social science departments, promotes a broad range of teaching, research, and related scholarly activities. For M.A. and Ph.D. degree students in participating departments, the unit offers a formal program leading to advanced certification in criticism and interpretive theory.
The Program for the Study of Cultural Values and Ethics is an interdisciplinary unit for the advancement of inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. The program serves to help faculty members support research, develop courses, and conduct conferences in areas that relate to the evolution, understanding, and implementation of cultural values and ethical systems. UIUC faculty members may apply to the institute and be appointed for terms of from one semester to three years for interdisciplinary activities relating to the study of cultural values and ethics. The program provides several research assistantships and fellowships to graduate students who wish to pursue research in these areas. Activities of the program also include seminars, short courses, and artistic projects.
VETERINARY MEDICINE
The graduate programs in the College of Veterinary Medicine
emphasize research training involving animal health, pharmacology, infectious and
metabolic diseases, pathology, toxicology, zoonotic diseases, reproductive physiology,
public health, neurobiology, biotechnology, comparative medicine, and bone/cartilage
studies. The college has new, modern clinical and basic sciences facilities for graduate
study and research ranging from basic biotechnology to applied clinical and field
studies under controlled confinement and natural environmental conditions. Major
emphasis is being placed on graduate training in biotechnology. Interdisciplinary
research is ongoing with other colleges on the Urbana-Champaign campus and at the
Dixon Springs Agricultural Center in southern Illinois. The college's association
with the Illinois State Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Health, and
Department of Conservation provides opportunities to use field facilities for appropriate
research projects.
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