John A. Logan College ( 1967-2005)

***On December 2, 1967, the first Board of Trustees was elected and met on December 7 in the office of Williamson County Superintendent of School, Lee Booth.  The board immediately sought the help of two community leaders.  C. Leo Cox, a Marion Banker, was named temporary treasurer, and Jack D. Hill, assistant to the superintendent of Williamson County schools, was named temporary
board secretary.

***The search for a president was begun in January 1968 and resulted in the selection of Dr. Nathan A. Ivey on April 2.  Ivey was then president of Southwestern Michigan College, and his first staff was a mix of individuals from that area and southern Illinois: Harold R. O’Neil, assistant superintendent of Carbondale Community High School, was named dean of Student Services; Earl R. Milton, a Southern Illinois University accountant from Herrin, was named business manager; Edward West of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was picked to direct Vocational-Technical Education; and William Anderson, former assistant to Ivey at Southwestern Michigan, was named academic dean.

***It was Anderson who was chiefly responsible for naming the College.  Some of the school’s earliest proponents had thought of calling it “ Egyptian College ” and Egyptian Junior College ,” and it was know by both of these unofficial names from the fall of 1966 through the spring of 1968.  (An Egyptian Junior College Foundation existed for a brief time.)  Some other names suggested at various times included “Little Egypt,” “Heartland,” and “ South Central Junior College .”  But the Board of Trustees was lukewarm about all of these names and conducted an informal survey to solicit others.  Anderson (an historian then and later) felt he had a better name, and on June 4, 1968, the board adopted his proposal to name the College in honor of John Alexander Logan (1826-1886).

*** Logan was native southern Illinoisan who had distinguished himself as a Civil War general and United States senator before running as vice-presidential candidate with Republican James G. Blaine in 1884.

***The College did not yet have a real campus, however, and when classes began on September 25, 1968, the school’s 238 full-time student (and 92 part-time) found themselves in rooms rented from the Herrin High School and two Herrin churches.  (The College’s initial adult education enrollment of 1176 students was also scattered.)  The president’s office and offices for the College staff were located along with the school’s library in a former hardware store on one of Herrin’s side streets.  President Ivey himself was none too sure that the store looked like a college, however, and sent this message to the staff and community: “The store at 111 E. Cherry is no longer a store.  It has become a functional, though temporary, college headquarters.” 

***One of the new Board of Trustees’ first actions was to lower tuition:  because more students had enrolled than expected, the board voted to roll back the tuition rate from $2.50 per credit hour to $1.50---thus beginning a thirty-year history in which John A. Logan College maintained one of the lowest tuition rates in Illinois .  The College’s first budget was $943,800, with $215,000 allocated for a building fund.

***The board’s most pressing need was to find a permanent home for the College.  The towns of Carbondale , Carterville, Cambria, DeSoto, and Marion were the chief contenders, with the board favoring a 161-acre tract one-half mile west of Carterville on Illinois Route 13.

***The Carterville site was owned by a government agency (the U.S. Department of Interior) as part of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.  The desired land could not be bought, but it could be traded for property of equal value ($144,000)--and so the College began purchasing land in an area of Williamson County known as “Grassy Bottoms,” and then traded this land to the Department of Interior in order to secure the Carterville site.  Land transactions began in May 1969, and the College was able to move campus operations to the present location in September 1969.

***The school hastily constructed eight temporary frame buildings for offices and classroom space and also purchased two air-supported structures.  The frame buildings were commonly referred to as “the barracks” and were similar to temporary buildings on other community colleges.  The air-supported structures (known locally as “bubbles”) were another story.  Made of a white vinyl-like cloth, they were used to house physical education and vocational-technical classes and attracted national publicity for supposed “construction economies.”  Forced air from two blowers was used to help keep the bubbles erect—but they tended to inflate or deflate according to barometric pressure, and were so cold in the winter that basketballs went flat overnight.  The school needed permanent buildings.

***Voters had earlier approve a $2.8 million bond referendum in 1969 to help finance the local share of the site purchased, as well as new facilities, and equipment costs.  The Stat of Illinois had agreed to pay the remaining 75 percent of startup costs.

***The school’s first graduating class in June 1970 consisted on only sixty-two individuals—but student liked what they found at the new school, and by the fall of that year the College’s credit enrollment had surpassed 1,000.

***The College achieved a major milestone in March 1972 when it was accredited by the prestigious North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.  The process had taken slightly less than four years, the minimum amount of time in which it was possible to become accredited.  This was the College’s first objective assurance that it was offering its students educational programs of high quality.

***Student activities formed an important part of the Collge from the start.  By 1972, the College had numerous student clubs, an organized sports program, a College choir, a recreation center, student publications, a student government associations, and amateur theatricals.

***In 1973, Dr. Thomas Deem was chosen as successor to President Ivey and assumed his new duties in July.  Over 1.400 full-time and part-time students were in attendance when the College moved into its new permanent facilities in the fall of 1973; the number of students was higher than expected and resulted in a decision to continue using the barracks for instruction purposes.

***By 1973, the campus was beginning to assume its permanent profile but had developed an unexpected problem at its very center: a swamp.  The first campus architects had come from a part of the Southwest where water was scarce, and when they discovered a little ditch bisecting a campus meadow, they opted to highlight it as a “stream” in a grassy courtyard.  The permanent facility was constructed so that it bridged the stream, but the stream still looked like a ditch, and the area was neither successful as a waterway (because it didn’t drain) nor as a courtyard (because it looked like a swamp).  “The Swamp” would have to be dealt with later. Back to top

***With the 1974-75 academic year, Trico High School , located partially in Randolph County , joined the John A. Logan College District.  The College now employed thirty-six full-time administrative and support personnel, and the original charter faculty of eight full-time staff had grown to forty-two. Back to top

***Dr. Robert Tarvin became acting president in 1974 and was named president in 1975.  At age twenty-eight, he had the distinction of being the youngest college president in Illinois and on of the youngest in the United States .  During Tarvin’s administration, the College held its first Autumnfest, soon to be the area’s most popular arts and crafts show, with a two-day average attendance of 25,000 people.

***Enrollment reached a new high of 1,712 in 1977 when the school celebrated its Tenth Anniversary, and was reaccredited for ten years—the maximum time---by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.  Career education capabilities were expanded with the addition of a new Vocational-Technical Building on the north edge of campus.

***Pressed for space, the College turned to the electorate for passage of a $6 million 1981 bond referendum.  When the referendum passed by a margin of nearly three-to-one, school officials began a massive construction and renovation project.  Dr. Harold R. O’Neil was named as the College’s fourth president in 1982.  The fall enrollment stood at 2, 530, a new record, with a College operating budget of $5.2 million, also a record.

***The 1981 bond referendum yielded a new “North Addition” building used for offices and career instruction and a humanities wing with art galleries and offices as well as a 350-seat auditorium and a separate Administration Building .  Renovations included a new projecting balcony that became the second floor admissions area; a new second floor over the College cafeteria; and the transformation of “The Swamp” into a 300-foo-lomg reflecting pool and pond.  A new connecting first floor bridged the reflecting pool near its spillway area to created additional space.  The College named a meeting room in honor of one of its charter board members, Clifford Batteau.

***Illinois Governor James Thompson delivered the dedicatory address for the new facilities in September 1984.  The staff was now approaching the 300 mark, with 100 administrative and support personnel, 62 full-time faculty and 125 part-time instructors.  Seven of the eight barracks had been razed.

***The 1980s saw decreased reliance on manual equipment that previously dominated the American workplace, when students trained on equipment once common to machining, drafting, banking and business.  Changing times and new technologies would call for the purchase of far more sophisticated training equipment.

***In 1986, enrollment topped 3,000 for the first time, and the College received a $500,000 grant from the federal government, enabling it to enhance career training capabilities, and help bring the College into the computer age.  A 1986 Illinois Community College Board study indicated that students in the College’s Baccalaureate Transfer Program experienced grade-point increases of over 9 percent when they transferred to four-year schools.

***The Women’s basketball team also performed well in 1986, finishing third in the nation in post-season playoffs conducted by the National Junior College Athletic Association.  The school would hereafter be a perennial contender for a national championship in women’s basketball, including 1988, when the team placed second in the nation.

***Summer enrollment for 1987 saw over 1,500 students enrolled in Baccalaureate Transfer and Career Programs.  The occasion marked the seventh consecutive semester in which the enrollment for a given semester had eclipsed that of the year before, and College officials contemplated another building program.  The school was again reaccredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and again for ten years.

***An end-of-the-year sports roundup for 1987 indicted a 71 percent win rate and helped spark interest in the creation of a Volunteer Hall of Fame for athletes in late 1988.  The first inductees were David Kellum and Steve Toler (both for basketball) and Jan Jansco, Jr., (golf).

***In 1988, the Board of Trustees abandoned the school’s previous means of ranking faculty, (all as instructors) and approved a new system with five gradations: instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and professor emeritus.  The college’s president, Dr. Harold O’Neil, retired in 1989, and the school named a facility in his honor—the O’Neil Auditorium. Back to top

***Dr. Ray Hancock was named as the College’s fifth president in March 1989.  Fall enrollment topped the 4,000 mark for the first time, and plans accelerated for a multi-million dollar classroom and laboratory addition.  The school was coming to be known as “the fastest-growing community college in Illinois .” Back to top

***In 1990, the College awarded its first Distinguished Alumni Award to Dr. Colleen Durall Norman.  The school’s first Pacesetter Award, made to an outstanding recent graduate, was awarded to Thomas Oliboni in 1991.  In the same year, an $8.5 million building and renovation project funded largely by the Illinois Capital Development Board provided for the first development of the College’s eastern side of its campus.

***In 1990-91 the College’s operating budget broke into double figures for the first time ($10.8 million).  At the same time, the Office for Student Financial Assistance brought in a record $4.2 million in student grants and loans.  A 1991 Illinois Community College Board study indicated the College was among the top five in the state in terms of quality, accountability, and cost-effectiveness.

***The College’s building and renovation program was completed in November 1991 and brought a new classroom and laboratory building, a new multi-purpose room, and a new banquet and conference center.  One of the banquet rooms was named in honor of charter board member Harry L. Crisp II, a long-time friend of the College and chair of the Illinois Community College Board.  The 1990-91 construction program also brought building additions to the College’s library, cafeteria, and athletic and administrative facilities, as well as a new entrance road leading to 550 new parking spaces.

***Early computers soon gave away to sleeker models in a wide variety of disciplines campus wide, including the Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system.  Industrial robots, computer-assisted design, logic controllers, and materials handling are only a part of the sophisticated CIM system, which includes payroll assessments, production scheduling, record keeping, and inventory.

***The College’s emphasis on academic excellence was given intercollegiate recognition in February 1992 when the school’s College Bowl team won the stat title in competition open to all forty colleges of the Illinois community college system.  Known as “the varsity sport of the mind,” College Bowl competitions test quick recall of common and esoteric facts from a wide variety of classroom disciplines.  The College repeated as state champion in 1997.

***A long-term affirmation of the College’s academic programs came in mid-1992 when 1975 graduate Dr. Mark A. Pierce received the state’s Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, Springfield .  The founding director of Vanderbilt University ’s Infectious Disease Clinic, Dr. Pierce was an assistant professor of medicine in the university’s Medial Center , Nashville , before traveling overseas to serve as a medical doctor in Africa .

***The Anniversary Year of 1992 also set a record for extracurricular achievements: the baseball team finished third in the NJCAA World Series and set a school record for most wins in a season with 56; the women’s basketball team was fourth in the nation; and College competitors in golf and tennis advanced to national playoffs.  College athletes won All-American recognition in four sports (men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball), and two scholar-athletes were named Academic All-Americans.

***The College’s Performance Series continued to be immensely successful.  Developed over a number of years, this performing arts series has featured such international figures as pianist Yin Cheng-Zong and the Butch Thompson Trio, and popular groups such as Riders in the Sky.  The series sponsors ten to twelve productions per year, many of which have enjoyed sellout performances in O’Neil Auditorium.

***As the College closed its first twenty-five years, its fall 1992 Baccalaureate Transfer and Career Divisions enrollment stood at an all-time high of 4,971 students.  The occasion marked the twenty-second consecutive semester in which enrollment figures from a given semester exceeded those from the year before.

***Much of the College’s energy for the middle 1990s would be absorbed in seeking new space, in the course of which it built side-by-side office and classroom buildings yielding 10,000 square feet of new room.  When it was clear that the school could not by itself finance all its needed construction, the Board of Trustees authorized the administration to conduct a public referendum in April 1995.

***New student services established during the mid-90s included the Minority Transfer Center and an Office for Disabled Student Services.  The former helps students of all ethnicities transfer to four-year schools; the latter provides support services for a wide variety of disabled students.

*** The College also continued to work for the betterment of economic conditions in southern Illinois , through its new Center for Business and Industry.  At the end of only five years of operation, the Center for Business and industry was helping over 11,000 individuals per year with short-term training.  One of its components—the Procurement Technical Assistance Center —was leading the state in helping businesses secure government contracts.  (In one year alone, the latter center helped bring $122 million in contracts to the southern Illinois region.)

***The College’s focus on high-quality education was underscored in 1995 with the establishment of an educational guarantee program, The Logan Seal: A Certification of Competence.  The College warrants or guarantees that its graduates are competent to render the services for which they have been trained.

***Two graduates—Steve McLaughlin (1993) and Paul McKnight (1996)—were named Academic All-Americans by USA TODAY, the American Association of Community Colleges, and the academic honorary society Phi Theta Kappa.  The national recognition was the highest academic honor accorded John A. Logan College students during the school’s first thirty years.

***Efforts to reach more students resulted in off-campus extension centers in West Frankfort (1996) and DuQuoin (1997).  Distance learning facilities in area high schools and businesses served a similar purpose.  Distance learning mechanisms rely on two-way television facilities that allow students and teachers at separate locations to see and hear each other.

***More remote educational plans were begun when administrative personnel and staff journeyed to Jilin Teachers College in northeast China to investigate a possible educational exchange program.  Complementary student and faculty programs were already in existence for exchanges to Austria , Costa Rica , England , Mexico , and the Netherlands .

***Outreach efforts closer to home included the annual hosting of National Hunting and Fishing Day, which was attracting 30,000 visitors per year by the middle 90s.  On-campus natural area enhancements during the 1990s included the Mary Logan Fitness and Nature Trail, an all-weather walking and jogging path that passes through wooded and prairie areas near the campus’ Little Pin Oak Creek.

***Recognition of the College’s quality programs and services came in the form of three awards from the Illinois Community College Board during 1996.  The College received and Award for Excellence in Accountability, an Award for Outstanding Leadership in Promoting and Supporting Student Leadership, and an Award for Substance Abuse Prevention.  The awards were representative of the broad scope of the College’s various activities.

***Student Trustee Vickie Barnard became the College’s first Lincoln Laureate in 1996—representing nearly 700,000 community college students in the State of Illinois .  The College’s Career Division ranked first in the state in “student satisfaction.”  Low tuition of $33 per hour and small classes averaging just 21 students per College class contributed to the overall satisfaction of students.

***In recognition of these and other activities, the College was granted a ten-year 1997 accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.  The College was about to embark on its largest building program ever, a $16.4 million expansion brought about by the College’s 1995 referendum.  The school acquired an additional eight acres to accommodate further expansion.

***The College’s total funding from all sources exceeded $26 million, its operating budget was nearly $18 million, and the school’s bond rating from both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s was “A.”

***Existing campus facilities included more than 2,000 parking places and 314,000 square feet of building space.  The College had 663 full- and part-time employees in 1997, including 100 full-time faculty and 123 part-time faculty.  The College offered over 80 degree and certificate programs, and was recognizing over 700 students per year with degrees and certificates.

***As the College began its 30^th Anniversary in 1997-98, it was serving more people in more ways than at anytime in its history: over 5,100 students in Baccalaureate Transfer and Career Programs; over 4,100 per year in Continuing Education; approximately 800 per semester in Adult Education programs; and approximately 11,000 per year in the Center for Business and Industry. Back to top

***Since that time, the College has seen growth in two other phases of construction, as well as new programs and ever higher enrollment.  Extension services were established at West Frankfort, and in 1997, a new extension center was opened in DuQuoin.  These full service centers provide baccalaureate transfer, career education and continuing education courses, Kid’s Kollege in the summers, courses for business and industry, and financial aid and degree counseling.
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***In 1997, the College received high marks and North Central reaccredidation for the fourth time.  Residents of the Logan district approved the local share of a $16 million building project, funded principally by the state of Illinois, which added 108,000 additional square feet of classrooms, labs and office space for the Nursing and Sciences department, as well as athletic fields, a Vocational and Technical building addition, a Fine Arts Addition, and the Conference and classroom addition.

***During 1999, the College received a special appropriation from the Illinois General Assembly for an $8.4 million construction project to house continuing, adult, and business/industry training and education.

***The final building in the College’s $16 million building project was completed, and an Open House/Dedication Ceremony was held for the new facilities on April 30, as well and an Open House and Retirement Reception for President and Mrs. Hancock. Ray Hancock retired after 26 years at the college, and Dr. Robert L. Mees became the 6^th president on June 1^st.

***The college, through the Center for Business and Industry, received a contract with the Department of Central Management   Services to provide training for all state agency employees in the southern region.

***In 2001, an online bachelor completion degree became available at the college, through an alliance between the college and Franklin University at Columbus, Ohio.   The Bachelor of Science degree includes business administration, computer science, management information systems, technical management, public safety management and health care management.  An on-campus testing and training facility for online courses was opened in 2002, and the Center for Business and Industry added Teachers Professional Development Academy and Pharmacy Technician Certification, and launched a web site.

***Fall enrollment in 2003 reached 5314 students and fall 2004 enrollment reached 5,731.  The special construction project appropriated by the state was completed in 2004 with the addition of the new Community Health Complex and Workforce Development and Construction Management Facility.

***The college added more new programs in the fall of 2004, with a two-year degree in tourism management leading to an Associate in Applied Science degree, as well as a two-year Applied Science degree in graphics design and a one-year certificate in massage therapy.

*** Logan enrollment reached an all time high in the spring of 2005, with 5,869 students, up nearly 7% over spring 2004.  Work began on the self-study document for submission to the North Central Association by fall of 2006, for the accreditation site visit scheduled fro 2007, the 40^th anniversary of the college. Back to top