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Alpha Tau Omega Celebrates 150 Years

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Bill Krahling in the ATO Archives Office, 1997
Bill Krahling in the ATO Archives Office, 1997

Written by Anna Trammell

The Alpha Tau Omega National Fraternity celebrated its sesquicentennial August 6th-8th in Indianapolis. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of ATO’s partnership with the Student Life and Culture Archives. Bill Krahling, former editor of the ATO Palm, played an integral role in obtaining and preserving the fraternity’s historical materials. This year, this unique collaboration was awarded the Laurel Wreath by the North-American Interfraternity Conference.

The Alpha Tau Omega Archives consists of over 600 cubic feet of  administrative and personal correspondence, minutes, reports, photographs, films, video, and publications detailing the 150 year history of the fraternity. These materials illustrate ATO’s impact on campuses by showing how the organization has contributed to student life through mentoring and leadership programs, housing opportunities, philanthropy, and alumni development. The Archives collects material relating to congresses, administrative staff and services, the ATO Foundation, and ATO founders.  Extensive chapter records and photograph files are preserved to demonstrate the rich history of the ATO brotherhood. Continue reading “Alpha Tau Omega Celebrates 150 Years” →

Registration Day

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Written by Caitlin Stamm

Now that we’re getting ready to go back to classes, it’s a good time to make sure your schedule is finalized and ready to go. We may think that using U of I’s Banner system is a bit of a hassle, but it’s much simpler than the system students of the past had to use!

Students registering in the library, 1938
Students registering in the library, 1938

Registering for classes used to be a lengthy process condensed into a few hectic days, with one main Registration Day. Registration was the kickoff to the semester and to the school year ahead. As the editors of the 1925 Illio put it, “Throughout the year, big days loom up ahead, come and are gone. Registration starts the year” [1]

Early in the University’s history, students would register in different places based on their standing in the University. Most students registered in the Chapel and surrounding rooms of University Hall, the old Illini Union.Students had to obtain permission from the dean beforehand and fill out semester study cards using a printed class catalog. Registering was a machine with many moving parts; there were many set guidelines and required classes, but also many exceptions to the many rules. Payment for the semester and all student fees were due at the time of registration and members of the University’s business office were helpfully on hand to collect fees, much to the students’ chagrin [2]. Continue reading “Registration Day” →

The Gizz Kids: Athletics for Students with Disabilities

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Written by Caitlin Stamm

The Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services (DRES) records have been made available due to the generous support of B. Joseph White and the President’s office. DRES records were processed and selectively digitized for online exhibition in 2008-2009.

Archer Sue Hagel
Archer Sue Hagel

The Gizz Kids program was created in 1948 by Timothy Nugent and was run by the service fraternity Delta Sigma Omicron as a program of sports available to student-athletes with disabilities. The intention of the program mirrors that of DRES: to offer students with disabilities the ability to fully experience college and all of its many opportunities, athletics included. The Gizz Kids program grew to include a number of sports, including football, basketball, baseball, track and field, fencing, archery, cheerleading, and square dancing for students in wheelchairs. The program also included bowling for the blind and adaptive swimming.

Timothy Nugent coaches players during a 1955 game
Timothy Nugent coaches players during a 1955 game

The Gizz Kids program was an important one for both students in the Rehabilitation-Education program and the general public. The fierce competition that one expects in college athletics was retained in each of the adapted Gizz Kids sports; the program became an important tool in educating the public. The program showed the general public the strength, skill, and abilities of athletes with disabilities and motivated other students and younger people with disabilities. To mirror traditional basketball, the wheelchair basketball organization followed NCAA regulations exactly, excepting three modifications [1]. Continue reading “The Gizz Kids: Athletics for Students with Disabilities” →

The Founding of Disability Resources at the U of I

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Written by Caitlin Stamm

This month commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which ensures and protects the civil rights of people with physical and mental disabilities. In honor of this important legislation, we are celebrating the work of Illinois’s Disabilities Rehabilition-Education Services (DRES). The records that the U of I Archives holds on DRES and its work was processed and selectively digitized in 2008-2009, thanks to funding from the University of Illinois President’s office and support from B. Joseph White.

Timothy Nugent with Robert Ebert in 1995. RS 16/6/20.
Timothy Nugent with Robert Ebert in 1995. RS 16/6/20.

DRES, a groundbreaking institution that provides resources, therapies, and advocacy for students with disabilities, was founded by Timothy Nugent, an internationally recognized professor, lecturer, and advocate for disability resources and scholarship.[1]

DRES transformed the community of Champaign-Urbana; the accommodations made and supported by DRES allowed students with disabilities to participate as full members of the University—in classes, student groups, and athletics—benefiting both the whole student body and the University. [2]

A student receiving physical therapy
A student receiving physical therapy

The journey to bring DRES to campus began in 1947, as many veterans with disabilities were returning from World War II. A deputy commander of the American Legion wrote to U of I President George Stoddard. DRES was founded at the University of Illinois Galesburg campus, which opened to support the influx of veterans coming to campus under the GI Bill. Previously a hospital, the facilities at Galesburg were suited to DRES’s needs. At the Galesburg campus, students’ therapies included bowling, swimming, and basketball. [3] Continue reading “The Founding of Disability Resources at the U of I” →

Students in Cars on Campus?: The Case of William O’Dell

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Cars along Wright Street, near Altgeld Hall, circa 1936
Cars along Wright Street, near Altgeld Hall, circa 1936

Written by Ellen Swain

July 16 marks the 80th anniversary of first installation of the parking meter (1935), brought to us by news reporter and inventor Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City. (1) (Thanks Carl.)

As someone who has paid many campus parking tickets over the years, I will not be marking the occasion; I’m sure I am not alone. Illinois students and staff are all too familiar with the appearance of that annoying white ticket wedged in their windshield wiper.

Before parking meters made their debut in Champaign-Urbana in the 1940s, (2) Illinois students negotiated other automotive-related restrictions. In September 1926, UI Council on Administration,  the campus decision-making body, instituted a regulation prohibiting undergraduate students to use cars on campus without permission.(3)

William O’Dell ’31 vividly recounts his encounter with this rule in a 2001 interview for the SLC Archives:

William O'Dell '31, March 18, 2001
William O’Dell ’31, March 18, 2001

“Oh I remember the [rule] that made me a 1931 graduate instead of a 1930 graduate. When I got kicked out of school!

There was a “no car” rule at the University at that time and undergraduates could not drive cars unless they were employed. I got my parents’ permission to take the family car from LaGrange down to Champaign for a big Spring dance weekend…this made travel with my girlfriend from one fraternity to another easier and to go to many different fraternity parties during on weekend.

I was driving down Green Street with three or four people, in route to Chicago or LaGrange, to return my car and then take the train back to Champaign on Monday.  There was a note in my mailbox from Dean [of Men] Thomas Arkle Clark asking me to come into his office at 11:30 the next morning. This would strike terror into anyone’s heart!

Continue reading “Students in Cars on Campus?: The Case of William O’Dell” →