"In 1970 Sangamon State University, the smallest of Illinois' 12 state universities, was a different kind of place. Many students were not graded, for example, but received individualized evaluations instead. There were no large classes. No deans or department chairs--in fact, no departments. Interdisciplinary courses were the norm. Faculty were hired for their interest in teaching--without teaching assistants--and had no publish-or-perish requirement. SSU was designated "the public affairs university of Illinois" at a time when public affairs, for many of the faculty at least, meant opposing the war in Vietnam and devising alternatives to mainstream institutions. It was an upper-division institution designed for older students transferring in from community colleges and traditional four-year institutions less suited to their needs; the average age of undergraduates was over 30. Faculty and students who were around at the time describe those days with obvious affection.

In the interests of truth in advertising, though, SSU might more accurately have been deemed a university with at best radical potential and at worst radical pretensions. In hindsight, its initial design was flawed. From the very beginning it was vulnerable both to the external pressures of the market and to reactionary local elites and political conservatives in the state legislature and the governor's office. The radical interpretation that some of the new faculty and students had given to the "public affairs mandate" they had authorized came as a surprise. Within two years of the school's founding, SSU's administrators began to purge policies and personnel that stood in the way of normalization, beginning more than two decades of struggle between competing visions of what kind of university Sangamon was to be. Inevitable faculty debate over educational policy has almost always allowed administrators to selectively claim they were merely responding to those faculty desires most in keeping with their agenda, such as the conversion to a four year university. With the recent transition from SSU to UIS putting the administration and its faculty supporters firmly in control, the initial radical potential has now been almost totally gutted.

While grading policy is not the only indicator of an educational institution's progressive nature, it is one example of the kind of internal structural flaw that led to the undoing of the original SSU model. While innovative, the grading system was unlike the more radical designs at either its sister public university, The Evergreen State College in Washington (TESC), or the private Hampshire College in Massachusetts, both of which were founded around the same time as SSU. Though Hampshire caters to a more affluent student body, TESC has seen its ungraded model thrive with a state-university student body that is much closer in class background to ours. SSU's founders, however, instead struck a fatal liberal compromise with the forces of the market: its students were given the "choice" of receiving grades along with their written evaluations. Like many liberal reform efforts, no matter how sincere, what appeared to offer a free choice really only involved the illusion of choice. The students were inadvertently set up."
Ref: From "Radical University" to Handmaiden of the Corporate State

"A few years ago, the Republican governor, Jim Edgar, put in motion a plan to revamp the four higher education boards in Illinois. Sangamon State and two other universities are under the Board of Regents. Southern Illinois University has two campuses. Five other universities are under the Board of Governors. The University of Illinois_the pinnacle of Illinois higher education in the research university mold_has its original university in Urbana-Champaign and a newer research university in Chicago.

Edgar's first effort to restructure the "system of systems" was stopped by the Democratic-controlled House. Last November, though, after the Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate, Edgar began all over again. A bill was introduced in January as part of Republican fast-track legislation, parallelling the frighteningly similar GOP push for the Contract With America. When the Higher Education bill passed in February, Edgar quickly signed it. There was minimal legislative debate, minimal media coverage, and minimal evaluation of what was at stake. Instead, we got deception, manipulation, and political pressure.

The new law dismantles the Board of Regents and Board of Governors, not necessarily a bad thing. Seven of the affected universities will have their own governing boards, which means somewhat greater autonomy but also means that each will have to fend for itself in the annual funding struggle against the larger U of I system. The eighth university is Sangamon State, which is "merging" with the University of Illinois ("merging" is the local euphemism for "hostile takeover"). As of January 1, 1996_or July 1, 1995, if a current bill passes in time_SSU will become UIS, the University of Illinois at Springfield, U of I's third, and most minuscule, campus.

Many students at SSU are thrilled, envisioning a more impressive resume. A lot of the faculty like the idea, too, for similar reasons as well as others, especially newer faculty who have little connection with SSU's past. The administration likes the idea, because SSU will become bigger and have higher status. And Springfield's business and political leaders just love the idea. They are already planning new construction projects to accompany the expected jump in enrollment .

I'm on the other side, for a lot of reasons. Sangamon State University was a failing experiment, but at least it was an experiment, an attempt to do something different. And despite promises that we will continue to be a teaching university with small classes and a lot of autonomy, contradictory signs from U of I make it pretty clear that changes for the worse are inevitable. They're already talking about hiring new faculty more interested in research than in teaching, for example, something they denied would happen_until the legislation passed."
Ref: "Radical University" Celebrates 25th Year and Dies